NATPE: Day 3
It’s the third and final day of the 2014 NATPE gathering from the Fountainbleu Hotel in Miami, which took place on January 29.
– Fresh off receiving the Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Award, Groupo Televisa president Emilo Azcarranga Jean gave a Global Keynote Wednesday morning (January 29) about his company’s success. In a conversation with Anna Carugati of World Screen, Azcarranga Jean talked about the change the industry went through, and pointed out its the production and distribution of content – and Televisa producers 90,000 hours of it a year – some he admitted was lacking in quality. But Azcarranga Jean points out product quality is important – especially when selling to the U.S., where Univision is a major client.
With a large amount of content, the Mexican TV giant is looking for new platforms to present it, making it available to those who want to view content on any device when they want to see it. Jean also talked Televisa’s International growth, especially in the U.S. and Brazil.
While Televisa programming is available on Unvision, the Televisa network is available to U.S. viewers in cities near the Mexican border – i.e. in San Diego, over XEWT/Channel 12, based in nearby Tijuana, and targets Hispanics on both sides of the border. Televisa also owns Tijuana’s XETV, also based in San Diego and is a CW affiliate run by Bay City Television. XETV was also a one-time ABC and Fox affiliate.
– So…after three days at NATPE, how did it go? According to NATPE CEO Rod Perth, attendance at the gathering increased from last year, with double-digit growth, although no exact figures were yet available. From Worldscreen.com, Perth notes: “We had enormous spin coming out of the word of mouth from last year”, he said at a press conference January 29, the last day of the gathering. The most important number that you should know about is double-digit growth in buyers.”, Perth noted. Digital played a key role in this year’s conference, with new media players Aereo, Roku, You Tube, and Twitter holding sessions. Many deals were made with international buyers were made either to bring concepts or existing programs to their market.
– While NATPE isn’t just about syndication anymore, there was some buzz on a few bubble shows, according to TVNewscheck:
* Even though it has a two-year deal, CBS Television Distribution’s The Arsenio Hall Show hasn’t shown any growth in its five months on the air – the show is averaging a 0.7 household rating, and a 0.4 ratings among 18-49 – behind all other talk shows and even The Daily Show and The Colbert Show on cable. A second season isn’t guaranteed – just ask Jeff Probst, whose daytime talker had a two-year deal last season and was cut after just one. A problem for Arsenio seems to be the lack of A-list guests (Andrew Dice Clay in 2014, are you kidding me?) Sorry, booking D-list celebrity guests and no-name rappers aren’t going to cut it.
* Turning to daytime, Bethenny Frankel is also on the bubble: despite recent growth in the key 25-54 demo, ratings are still not where they needed to be to get a second season renewal. To this effect, Warner Bros. started to run her show on Bravo at 5 p.m. weekdays for a few weeks, hoping for a boost. It appears Frankel’s popularity is fading (if you call it that) – her Skinnygirl cocktail line is down double-digits in sales from a year ago.
* Another show on its way to flunking out is CBS Television Distribution and Tribune’s hoary The Test, which has averaged a 0.4 rating in the key daytime demo of women 25-54. What’s more interesting is a recent three-week test of another talk show (Serch) did better, with a 0.5 rating. Serch was recently tested on Tribune stations in markets such as New York and Los Angeles – the same stations who carry The Test. If ratings don’t improve, Serch could get the green light to take over Test’s time periods. Serch is also produced by CBS/Tribune (as is Arsenio Hall.)
While sources say decision on these shows could take place in mid-February, look for the jury to be out longer than that- perhaps either during or after the May sweeps.