Innovation is “Business-as-Usual” at TV Stations
1-23-12
A visit to TVB.org’s Station Innovation quickly reveals that business is anything but “usual” at today’s television stations.
Sure, stations remain committed to providing their communities with the staple of programming that viewers from Albany to Zanesville rely on – a robust line up of News, Sports, Drama, Comedy, Court, Reality, Animation and Talk. Viewers, age 2+, can watch to their hearts’ desire…and they do, with an average 32+ hours per week of live viewing on traditional TV (a mere 91% of video consumption across TV, Internet, and Mobile media).
But there is soooooo much more.
In June 2010, when television broadcasters’ long-anticipated transition to digital became the permanent state of digital, local TV broadcasters also became multi-channel broadcasters, web publishers and mobilecasters, and their top shows starting becoming the subject of ‘top-of-the chart’ social-media chatter.
A tidal wave of cross platform, digital subchannel, news collection, mobile advertising, Internet and second screen innovation by television broadcasters was launched. And as stations’ innovation across all these platforms has grown so has their number of viewers and users.
If you think the “traditional” digital guys have a lock on innovation…think again.
Here are just a few examples of how local broadcast television stations are using their on-air, online and on-the-go digital assets to create unique connections with viewers and effective advertising opportunities for marketers:
- Fisher Communications created 120 hyperlocal websites in its Northeast markets and in Bakersfield, CA, providing neighborhood news for the majority of people in each DMA - over 50 sites in the Seattle area alone.
- ABC Owned Television Stations Group’s OTRC: On The Red Carpet App is available for iPhone and iPad and offers content from OnTheRedCarpet.com and the TV series On The Red Carpet, both produced by KABC-TV in Los Angeles, CA.
- Journal broadcast group stations (WTMJ-Milwaukee, KTNV-Las Vegas, KGUN-Tucson, KMTV-Omaha and KIVI-Boise) have affiliated their digital subchannels with The Live Well Network for broadcast, online and wireless services.
- Belo’s 15 television stations have put social media apps inside their news apps, providing Twitter feeds and Facebook comments in real time. They use geotracking to deliver neighborhood weather via interactive radar maps.
- The 12 broadcast TV groups making up the Mobile Content Venture have announced a partnership with Samsung and MetroPCS to roll out free, over-the-air television to enabled smartphones, tablets and laptops in 2012.
Today, “business as usual” at local broadcast television stations is the business of innovation. Creating the most compelling connections with viewers to deliver news, entertainment and information…and offering marketers the most influential advertising connections where people live work and shop.
Visit TVB.org’s Station Innovation to learn about the myriad of available opportunities.