Thursday, May 7, 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/08/business/media/08cbs.html?ref=media

Due to the resession The CBS corp. reported a quarterly loss Thursday as its core business, broadcast television, becuase the advertising dollars have no been what they were. CBS reported a net loss of $55.3 million, in contrast to a profit of $244.3 million in the same quarter last year. This is equal to a loss of about 8 cents a share. CBS's revenue declined to $3.2 billion, compared with $3.7 billion in the same quarter last year. Becuase of this resession highly produced shows such as CSI are lacking the production they once had but CBS is still doing well in spite of this. CBS other shows have picked up the slack for this problem giving CBS the ratings it needs. The worst is said to be over according to Rupert Murdoch.
Its no suprise how much businesses are struggling from this economic decline but it amazing to see actually how much money some businesses (such as CBS) are actually losing. There is a possiblity that becuase of the resession that people are canceling their cable subscribtion also known as audence churn. This would give some reason as to why CBS has lost so much money becuase there are not as many people as there was with cable. Some ways CBS could try and increase revenue is by zoning. They could give the small businesses in a particular area the exposure they need and in return CBS would be having an income from those busniesses. Another way CBS could bring in money is by roadblocking. If they did this the adverisers may be more willing to put money into CBS as well as the other stations because they know that their ad will be aired at the same time all over the stations air time so more people will see their ad.

Friday, April 17, 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/17/business/media/17youtube.html?_r=1&ref=media

Youtube is now going to be not only a site for amature videos but it will now offer tv shows and moives. Because google is doing this they may end up making some of the material veiwable only by a payment or a subscription.This agreement with the studios, which include Sony, Lions Gate, MGM and others, is significant because YouTube dominates online video. Nearly two-thirds of all video views come from Youtube. Google is said to lose around $470 million in 2009, as the costs of bandwidth and storage to stream more than 5 billion clips a month exceed the revenue YouTube earns from its advertisers. Since Youtube is mainly amature videos Google is going to try and lure some new advertisment by having more produced movies where the advertisers could put their spot as a preview. Google will now be in compeition with competitors such as already existing free movie sites that also provide advertisment. Without the charge of priemum content and with Youtubes increasing popularity Google will lose money because of the price of streaming and the lack of income. Google plans on finding the best way to increase revenue while keeping Youtube user friendly.
I think this is a very good idea by Google. Everyone goes on Youtube that I know of. Some people are on Youtube all day long. This is a very lucrative website. The possiblities are endless. Google just has to find a happy medium to please the viewers and increase revenue. I did not realize the cost for streaming. I never really thought about it and took it for granted and never thought about the cost. It was shocking to see how much money Google is expecting to lose this year. It goes to show how much money Google is making off Youtube beacuse I feel that a company should be bankrupt or atleast border-line bankrupt because of such a great loss in money. It makes sense as to why Google lost so much money. If it cost so much to stream the videos on the site and the site is not being able to have an income to support the costs then the site obviously loses money. Google is going to have to find a way to fix this becuase there are new users everyday which means they are losing money everyday.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

blog 3-http://www.friends.ca/news-item/8024

Canada is also feeling the effects of a bad economy along with the US. 800 jobs at the start of summer through September to make its target of $171 million in budget cuts for 2009-2010. The plan calls for 393 job cuts at the CBC, 336 at Radio-Canada, and 70 corporate positions. Also, The CBC also plans the sale of $125 million in assets. The CBC receives $1.1 billion a year in federal funding but that money is still not enough to cover the cost to keep all of the CBC's employees.
Heritage Minister James Moore blames the current problem on lack of advertising dollars.

This article shows how everyone one in this hard economic time is struggling to keep their businesses afloat while trying to keep their employees. Also, this article shows how important advertising for a station can be. After doing our group station projects (as well as doing our individual one) I have seen how important and how much a station values its advertising. Advertising brings in the money need to keep a station running strong. Without this money it presents a hardship on the station as shown with CBC. I think CBC needs to re-think about who thier target audience is. Once they do this they can attract the advertisment need to appeal to that audience group. This would be a win-win for the station as well as the advertiser because both would benifit off of eachother.

Friday, March 6, 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/business/media/28network.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1

Major broadcast neworks are feeling the affects of the current ressesion. Networks will turn to low budget shows such as reality shows becuase they cost a lot less and are easily produced. Dramas now-a-days are costing as much as 3 million dollars to produce and the networks are not recieving the money they once were. Ratings for networks are also on the decline which means they can not demand high prices for advertisment.

This is important becuase if the economy does not pick up then the highly costly and well produced shows are going to start fading and shows like "Real World" and "Rock of Love"are going to start becoming more popular because they cost millions less and are easy to produce. Also, if networks are not getting the money they need to keep their station afloat they are going to sink. If they aren't able to bring in the money from the advertisments they are not going to be able to support the network.
Since all networks are in the same boat and are competing for the best ratings to attract the most advertisments the compition is great. Networks are going to have to come up with better reality shows and out do whatever the comptition is doing. This is going to lead to some networks going out of business. When a radio station needs to attract new listeners they need to have a strong marking and promotion team. This is going to apply for networks as well. They are going to have to find new ways to attract new viewers and keep them.

Friday, February 20, 2009

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200903/television

With things like Tivo and DVR we can watch shows at any given time whenever we want. Shows such as Heroes are losing ratings because people are watching it whenever they want to and not when it is airing. The shows that are doing well are the shows that people have to vote for (American Idol) and shows that take place live with judges and are generlly more exciting to watch becuase you want to see your favorite contest move on to the next level so you are more likely to watch it when it is airing so you do not miss it (Dancing with the Stars). A lot of these high quality produced shows are not getting as much money as they once were becuase of the failing economy so it is getting harder and harder to be able to get the money needed to keep these shows afloat. It is easier to produce a reality show or something along those lines than it is to produce something with explosions and effects.

I choose this article because there are going to be less and less of these well produced shows becuase there simply isn't bringing in the ratings like they used to. With all the different ways to watch these shows it makes it very for the networks to get the ratings they need. There are going to be more and more shows like American Idol becuase they bring in the most ratings and are easily produced. The networks are going to have to find a way to bring back the ratings like they were.
Networks need to build audience share, build cume, and raise the audience's expectaions in order for their ratings to go back up (pg.364). Granted this is used for radio viewers, but the same concept does apply to the televison networks. They need to find ways to keep their loyal viewers loyal and find ways to attract new ones.