‘Only CBS’ Touts Top Network as Ad-Sales Push Nears (Update2)
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By Andy Fixmer and Sarah Rabil
May 4 (Bloomberg) -- CBS is mounting a marketing campaign on its own TV and radio stations to burnish the network’s image ahead of sales meetings with television advertisers this month.
The first “Only CBS” spots aired yesterday on “Face the Nation With Bob Schieffer,” “CBS News Sunday Morning” and “60 Minutes.” The ads, also on billboards and Web sites, kick off CBS Corp.’s biggest effort to sell itself to advertisers.
The campaign, coming during a slide in advertising, reminds viewers, listeners and marketers that CBS is the only major TV network to attract more prime-time viewers this season. New York-based CBS is also the most dependent on the advance commitments advertisers will make ahead of the new TV season that starts in September, according to Anthony DiClemente, an analyst at Barclays Capital.
“Billions of dollars of ad time will be up for grabs at the end of May,” George Schweitzer, CBS’s marketing chief, said in an interview. “At a time when there is a lot of negative news about the economy and the marketplace, we have bona fide positives and we want to make sure that message gets out.”
Advance commitments to network TV advertising are expected to drop 15 percent this year to about $7.4 billion, DiClemente wrote in an April 24 report. Total broadcast TV ad spending will likely slump 19 percent to $35.4 billion, he estimated earlier.
Such “upfront” spending represented about 18 percent of CBS’s $14 billion in 2008 revenue, the most of the largest broadcast networks, according to DiClemente. NBC, owned by General Electric Co., was second at about 11 percent.
Market-Share Push
CBS hopes to grab a bigger piece of those ad shrinking budgets, partly by promoting its audience gains and return to the lead in total viewers, Jo Ann Ross, president of network sales, said in an interview.
“Dollars follow eyeballs in my world,” Ross said.
Top 10 prime-time dramas including “NCIS,” “CSI” and the new show “The Mentalist,” along with the news magazine “60 Minutes,” now in its 41st season, have helped CBS increase its nightly audience by 11 percent to 11.1 million viewers, according to Nielsen Co., whose ratings help set ad rates.
CBS has also posted a 4.6 percent increase in the 18-to-49 age group, the audience marketers covet. News Corp.’s Fox network, last year’s ratings leader, has lost 16 percent of its total viewers and 18 percent in 18-to-49 even with “American Idol” continuing to be the most-watched TV show.
CBS gained 1 cent to $7.20 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Shares of the company, controlled by Sumner Redstone, have declined 12 percent this year.
Hold the Line
When they meet with advertisers, the networks may hold back inventory in an effort to maintain prices, according to David Joyce, a New York-based analyst with Miller Tabak & Co. He estimates in an April 24 report that the networks will sell 10 percent fewer minutes in advance.
CBS Chief Executive Officer Leslie Moonves predicted higher prices at a Deutsche Bank conference in March.
To spread the message, “Only CBS” spots can run on the company’s 30 TV stations, 137 radio stations, Web sites and billboards in the 50 largest U.S. markets. Print ads will appear in the New York Times and USA Today. Schweitzer declined to put a price on the campaign.
With its audience gains and looming programming changes at NBC, CBS also may be the only major network that can promise higher ratings next season, DiClemente wrote.
NBC plans to air a new talk show featuring Jay Leno at 10 p.m. on weeknights, a slot now occupied by programs including “Law & Order.” With the change, NBC is cutting five hours of weekly scripted programming, leaving only CBS and Walt Disney Co.’s ABC with such shows at 10 p.m.
“We have traditionally had a strong 10 p.m. time period,” Ross said. “Now it will only be a two-network race. Not everyone will tune in to Leno five nights a week.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Andy Fixmer in Los Angeles at afixmer@bloomberg.net; Sarah Rabil in New York at srabil@bloomberg.net
