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Tuesday, April 5, 2011

NBC News Pitch: Benchmark Us Against Prime Time

In the TV-news game, NBC's Brian Williams has handily trumped everyone from Katie Couric to Diane Sawyer. Can he do the same to "American Idol" or "The Closer"?

According to a story by Brian Steinberg at AdAge.com, as a new round of highly-scrutinized data confirms the continued erosion of traditional viewership for broadcast-TV news, NBC is pitching its "NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams" to advertisers with a new angle: TV-news audiences may be older than others, but their interest in and receptivity to advertising is slightly stronger. And, oh yes, advertising on the nightly newscast is significantly cheaper than, say, "CSI: New York" or "The Big Bang Theory."

"One could argue that, given the long-held perceptions" about evening newscasts, "we haven't gotten the full value that I think we perhaps should have for 'Nightly News,'" said John Kelly, senior VP-ad sales, NBC News/MSNBC. NBC has primarily been pitching marketers other than those in the pharmaceutical and personal-care categories, which make up almost two-thirds of "Nightly's" ad base, he said.

Would any advertiser really want to trade in the scores of viewers between 18 and 34 who tend to watch prime time for the pill-popping crowd marketers tend to believe tune in to the daily evening newscast? Since 30-second spots in the three broadcast network evening news shows run anywhere from $23,000 and $45,000, according to media buyers, that's less than a quarter of the about $200,000 it costs to run an ad on Fox's "House" and substantially less than the about $135,000 price tag to run an ad in NBC's own "30 Rock." Indeed, some news veterans think the NBC effort makes sense in an industry where technology is scrambling many preconceived notions.

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