RTÉ to Abolish Share Deals

RTÉ has agreed to abolish its practice of pricing television airtime based on the share it receives of an advertiser’s television budget. Their trading policy was based on the rule that the higher the share of television budget an advertiser gave to RTÉ, the less expensive the airtime. The reason for RTÉ changing their trading practice follows a review by the Competition Authority arising from a complaint  by TV3 that RTÉ was abusing its dominant position in the market.

In consultation with the Competition Authority, RTÉ committed to change their trading system in July 2012 but they plan to continue their current trading practice for the January-June period next year.  Our view is that by only releasing policy and prices for a Jan-June 2012 six-month period planning television next year will be made very difficult and will create increased uncertainty. We are expecting RTÉ to review this and create a more stable planning environment for 2012.

The review from the Competition Authority also brings into sharp focus the debate on how RTÉ is funded and what this may look like in the future. With the appointment of Willie O’Reilly as Commercial Director, RTÉ have signaled they are looking at a major restructure of its commercial division which should see a more centralised commercial approach across all their media channels

TV3 unveils new Player

TV3 launched their new online catch up player ‘3player’ this month. The player combines HTML5 tags which enables it to play pre-roll advertising on a multitude of devices, including iPhones, iPads and Android devices. They have integrated social media throughout the site with Twitter and Facebook plug-ins allowing online viewers to comment on programmes as they happen.

The move follows the rapid growth of

Video-On-Demand (VOD) with the Irish VOD market expected to be worth over €10m by 2015. The launch of the ‘3Player’ is the latest in a number of innovative steps the broadcaster has taken to harness the internet, including a TV app deal with Sony, various live election survey tools and apps for the iPad and iPhone.

October Impacts / Revenue update

RTÉ revenue is estimated to be down 7% in September.  Impacts varied on both terrestrial and satellite stations across the main trading audiences.  All stations, with the exception of E4, were up with MC Housewives with Children.  RTÉ’s increase was mainly due the success of MasterChef Ireland which started at the beginning of September.  TV3 continued to increase impacts across main trading audiences driven by the kick off of XFactor USA and the continued strength of XFactor UK.  They did, however, see a slight drop in MC Adults 15-34 who were down 2%.  Sky also saw their MC A15-34 audience drop by 8%, however impacts for MC A25-44 were up 2%. The coverage of the 9/11 ten year anniversary and the interest in the Michael Jackson and Amanda Knox trials on Sky News impacted positively on viewing figures.  E4 continued to see viewing decline with MC Adults down 18%, MC A15-34 down 25% and MC HW+CH down 17%.

October Programme update

MasterChef Ireland

The final episode of MasterChef Ireland aired this month on RTÉ 2. Judges Dylan McGrath and Nick Munier selected 28 year old Waterford native Mary Carney as the first winner of Masterchef Ireland. 

Ratings for the 6 week show have varied by audience  but have done well specifically for Multi-channel Housewives with Children and MC Housewives.

Xfactor 2011

Figures show a significant decrease in ratings year-on-year across all audiences for the Saturday night X Factor Live show.  We also see this trend continuing across all audiences for the Sunday night Results Show.  The most notable declines were against  MC Housewives with Children (down 31%) and the MC Adults 15-24  audience  (down 37%) vs 2010.

Latest JNLR paints a generally positive picture

The latest JNLR survey, covering the October 2010- September 2011 period, shows a slight decline in the tune-in or reach figure for adults, falling back from 85% to 84%.  In terms of station performance, the top-line trend shows a general swing in favour of national news stations, helped by coverage of the General Election, the Presidential Election and coverage of Ireland’s economic situation.

Overall, RTÉ will be pleased with the performance of Radio 1 and Lyric, but will be disappointed with the performance of 2fm which saw their audience decline and a drop in market share to 7%. Today FM maintained overall reach and share, but saw a drop off in some of its key drive-time shows. Newstalk broke the 300,000 daily reach benchmark for the first time.

Looking at key shows, ‘Morning Ireland’ remains incredibly solid between 7-9am, with 454,000 adults, an increase of 28,000 on the same period last year. The Newstalk Breakfast Show is also up on last year, with 115,000 listeners.  Mid-morning performances were mixed with John Murray starting to gain a more solid following (1t 330,000), Pat Kenny remaining relatively unchanged at 327,000. The Ryan Tubridy show continues to decline and now trails Ray Darcy’s show which now has 228,000 listeners.

In Dublin, FM104 consolidated its position as market leader with 20% reach and 13% market share across the whole day.  98fm lost  8,000 on last year but seems to have recovered some ground during the April-September ’11 period with its ‘Knock Knock’ promotion.  Q102 maintained its market share lead on 98. Phantom and Sunshine both showed small but encouraging increases thanks to scheduling changes.

In Cork, both Red FM and 96fm lost 13,000  per day between them, but C103 did manage to gain 9,000. Elsewhere, on WLR, Galway Bay and Live 95fm in Limerick all came under pressure.  However, each of these stations maintained primary listening position in each of their broadcast areas.

There were also some successes amongst the newer stations with Classic Hits 4fm increasing by 19,000 on a weekly basis on the back of a brand repositioning in June 2011. Dublin’s rock station, Nova, continues to thrive taking a 3.3% market share in prime-time across the Dublin commuter belt.  Its reach is growing and now stands at 6% in the six month period.

RTÉ launches Radio Player web service and mobile player app

RTÉ has launched the RTÉ Radio Player which will offer all eleven RTÉ Radio stations as a flash-based live service available online and as a mobile app.  The Radio Player will act as a sister service to RTÉ Player and allows users either listen live or catch up with shows they’ve missed.

It will also let users search radio content by item, date, presenter and programme and will let them share shows through Facebook, Twitter or email.

 “The RTÉ Player is among RTÉ’s most successful recent products and the RTÉ Radio Player is a natural progression in the development of RTÉ’s on-demand services for audiences,” said  MD of Radio, Clare Duignan. The RTÉ Radio Player is available on the RTÉ radio website or through RTÉ Player.  Users can also download the app for iOS or Android devices.

Expanded Premium Ads

The new expanded Premium Ads offer a more engaging way to reach both fans and non-fans. When people have friends who are fans of your Page, your ad will expand to show what people are saying about your brand alongside your brand's message, all in one. The expanded Premium Ad creates a seamless experience between interactions on your Page, in your ad, and in the News Feeds of people and their friends.  

YouTube adds ecommerce capabilities, such as downloads and ticket sales

YouTube, which now has 800 million visitors per month, has added new capabilities that will enable its partners to sell concert tickets, digital downloads and other services via what it calls its new Merch Store.  The move adds a new e-commerce dimension and the prospect of new revenue streams other than advertising.  In recent weeks ,YouTube added movie rental capabilities in the UK.

YouTube’s senior technical account manager, Christian Weitenberner explains that “fans will be able to buy artists’ merchandise, digital downloads, concert tickets and even unique experiences like meet-ups…  These features are made possible through affiliates like Topspin for merchandise, concert tickets and experiences;  Songkick for concerts; and iTunes and Amazon for music downloads.”  This is expected to be rolled out globally in the coming weeks.

IAPI Energiser: Augmented Advertising

Carat attended IAPI’s 4th Energiser presentation on the 19th October. Delivered by Dr Gerry Lacey from Trinity College Dublin, it explored all things Augmented Reality and particularly how “gamification” is increasingly being used by advertisers to drive consumer engagement.  With the holy grail of marketing being advocacy by consumers, Dr Lacey showed examples of how Augmented Reality games can really engage consumers and, when executed well, are more likely be shared around.

With more and more advertisers now developing web and mobile apps, and as AR technology rapidly develops, it is likely to be a big feature of this kind of communication in the future.

Some examples of AR done well

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PbJCRAgVqYY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FlME__oeKg&feature=player_embedded

Arthur’s Day 2011

Arthur’s Day took place on September 22nd and out of home had a major role to play both before and after the event.  The flexibility of the medium was exhibited by way of a mid-cycle re-post whereby the

message changed from a pre-Arthur’s Day information type message to a post-Arthur’s Day ‘Thanks’ message.  This highlights the ability of OOH to adapt to the individual nature of campaigns and clients.