We’re in the midst of upfront week, and more than ever before social TV is at the focus of the rhetoric being carved out for TV advertisers. Fox President of Digital David Wertheimer told us that there wouldn’t be any big product announcements about social TV at their upfront. Instead, confidence in leadership as the number one TV network was explained through the importance of social TV. Here’s how Peter Rice, Fox Broadcasting’s Chairman of Entertainment described how Fox is now longer just about TV.
Before some of the big announcements of the afternoon, including Brittany Spears and Demi Lovato joining X Factor as the new judges, Rice took the stage to both describe how fox leads in social TV and how none of the digital players (YouTube, Hulu, etc) come close to their scale in digital and linear.
“If you consider the social footprint of these shows, the gap grows even bigger,” Rice told the crowd describing Fox’s reach to all of their competitors. “Not Google, Netflix, Yahoo! or, YouTube, can compete with our… scale.” He then took a big jab at how these digital players are investing in original content. “They’re now buying shows, good for them,” he said slightly sarcastically. “In reality they’re going to find they’re in the NFL,” he warned. “It takes a lot to make a show that people want to watch across all media.”
He called out to the advertisers in the room about the importance of social with their brands. “They can live across platforms, with digital and social we can engage with your customers like never before,” Rice described. “We’re delivering both impressions and expressions that makes Fox the number one network on TV and social.” He announced that last year, “we talked about having 159 million fans” and that, “this year we grew to over 230 million fans,” that they’re “talking to all the time.”
Finally he announced that internally they have a team they call “bridge,” dedicated entirely to social. The team will, “track social activity of our shows 24/7 that will have us and you enable you to take your core messages and marry that with our content and leverage it across multiple platforms,” he told the media buyers.
Networked Insights advice on what to buy from Fox and what not to buy:
What to buy and why:
-It’s Messy – While Mindy Kaling plays one of the minor characters on The Office she has a significant Twitter presence and is considered very humorous
-The Following – Kevin Bacon may have been cast as this show’s lead, but it’s really the show’s creator Kevin Williamson (who’s known for creating The Vampire Diaries) that’s bringing home the viewers
-The Goodwin Games – The co-creators of How I Met Your Mother are going to find it difficult to recreate the same magic with viewers that they had with HIMYM but according to social data HIMYM viewers are ready for new content
What not to buy and why::
-Ben & Kate – While this show has been receiving considerable PR attention viewers appear to be more apprehensive towards it and its “stupid funny” style of comedy – this show is likely to go the route of NBC’s BFFs
-The Mob Doctor – Being positioned through PR as FOX’s medical drama to replace House is not resonating strongly with viewers, nor is Jordana Spiro creating a lot of interest
-Guilty (not officially picked up yet) – Viewers have mixed feelings about Cuba Gooding Jr. and the lawyer comedy style humor is kind of a miss with viewers as NBC recently experienced with Harry’s Law