Media Tonic

Now there’s a headline that wouldn’t have made any sense ten years ago. The rest of this post covers off latest developments in Subscription TV as they relate to the West Australian market.

Subscription television numbers continue to grow nationally; current rate of growth is 5% (Dec 09 vs Dec 08). WA is a poster child for subscription growth; penetration here is now 32% of All People (OzTAM). That’s one percentage point behind Melbourne; remarkable given our late start…

MCN continues to show Free To Air stations a clean pair of heels technologically; the free iPhone ap lets IQ subscribers (55% of Foxtel households) check schedules two weeks in advance, remotely record programs and set reminders. They can also access Green Button advertising; click during a TVC to download content to the IQ hard drive. Gives rise to some cute interactive possibilities where you use a single ad to trigger a story, a competition or an information package.

XBOX Live users can now subscribe to Foxtel without the need for a set top box. This targets young people who move house often.

Mobile Foxtel already has 100,000 subscribers and ad packages are available separately for that medium.

MCN has a presentation which discusses the (extensive) cannibalisation of FTA by their new digital stations. Happy to send you a copy under cover of darkness.

Brian Walsh says Foxtel are “now Australia’s first choice in home entertainment”; probably a fair call. If you’d like to discuss a campaign or debate the stats, hit the green button on your iPhone now. 9388 7844.

I’m not going to visit Australia. It’s too much like the 1970s. And yes, the girls at the 1:00 mark are in a Left Hand Drive car. Can’t we contract out this stuff to New Zealand?

Kseniya Simonova won Ukraine’s Got Talent by telling the story of the Second World War with sand painting. Skeptical?

OzTAM research provided by MCN suggests Freeview stations are cannibalising the Free to Air audience while Subscription continues to grow.

Year on year, MCN was up 6% in the first 15 weeks of 2010, while the combined Commercial FTA’s audience, including the Freeview multi-channels was down 2%. When you remove the multi-channels, the 7-9-10 combined audience was 14% less than in 2010*.

Obviously this would be creating some audience delivery issues with advertisers.

If you’d like further stats or want to discuss advertising on Foxtel via MCN, reject cannibalism and call this number: 9388 7844. Dave or Mark.

Pic: Windell Oskay EvilMadScientist.com *S-S 0600-2400, All People 16-54

First, write a headline that is related to the video but makes it look as though you thought of something extra.

Second, a paragraph that links to another example of the same thing. Link to Wikipedia; link to the source. Nearly done.

The video goes about here:

Close with a witty aphorism that brings Dave and Mark from Media Tonic into the frame in a way that makes you want to do business with them. Call to action: 9388 7844.

Twenty20′s Big Bash rated its pants off in January (307,000 viewers, a best ever – 18.5% up on the 2009 final) and Subscription TV continued to rise at the expense of Free To Air stations.

Traditionally a strong period for STV, January was up 10% and FTA down 2%. In subscription homes, STV stations accounted for 64% of viewing. Overall, between 6AM and midnight, STV leads individual FTA networks with 26% of metro viewing. Source: OzTAM.

For a small price you can have the booty of your dreams… How can you argue with that?

I know we risk lowering the tone again, but this is simply to say you can keep your social media campaigns; here is some great old-fashioned direct marketing. Everything about this campaign is wonderful: the product concept, the name, the execution…

Now shipping in the tens of billions *punches own head*; why didn’t I think of this? Why? Why? Come to think of it, why didn’t Playtex think of this?

Winner of an Emmy Award for Interactivity, The Truth About Marika is perhaps an early example of where interactive TV is headed. The video below talks about ‘fiction without limits’ and where it gets interesting is the blurred line between story and real world. For example, part of the program mix was a TV debate about a fictional conspiracy. The debate was full of actors but seems to have been presented as an actual debate. I know what your thinking; Parliament.

In effect, they are not presenting a single program but different format programs which all carry a narrative.

Other interesting elements include the creation of web sites which offer clues to viewer/detectives who use their search engine skills to find them. Amateur detectives were also able to place markers in real locations, photograph them and upload them to the site, presumably adding to the clues.

So they started with a conspiracy drama, made it the subject of an interactive online game and added in a faux debate about the conspiracy. When I was a lad, you just stood on stage with a guitar. Source.

We’ll shortly be landing at Minneapolis Airport. Media Tonic would like to announce that they now represent the AirAsia network in Western Australia. It’s the largest low-cost air carrier in Asia; around 37,000 Australians fly AirAsia each month. Passengers skew towards medical professionals, government, military, education and self-employed. There are onground advertising opportunities such as boarding passes and booking tickets. You’ll be able to access the airline’s e-newsletters (over a million subscribers) and advertise on booking confirmation emails.

Onboard promotion can include decorated tray tables, overhead lockers, flyers, napkins, in-flight magazine and television advertising as well as product sampling. And the online opportunities are substantial. You’ll be able to run campaigns in the Air Asia portal which has more than twice the reach of the Qantas site – 20 million unique visitors in the last monthly figures we’ve sighted. Importantly, you can do geo-targeting and you can be language-specific.

Everything from decorating beverage cups to sign-writing an entire aircraft (example of the Oakland Raiders’ AirAsia plane above). Onground, onboard and online. One of the most flexible products we’ve seen. Worth discussing? Call David (Air) Fare or Mark Sydney (Stopover) Treasure on 9388 7844. They’ll be on their laptops.

Thought we’d start with the Kim Williams quote:

“Since the launch of digital in 2004, this is the most significant milestone in FOXTEL’s history. With FOXTEL Next Generation, a new phase of television will be created for Australian consumers. We are moving forward, adapting technology to give our subscribers the power to tailor viewing to their needs.”

Over 30 new channels, the launch of the download service and an improved interface. For example, iQ users just hit the green button during a promo to queue a program for later viewing.

As of Oct 1st, subscribers have three viewing options; Live, On Demand and Record to iQ. All subscribers will have free access to iQ but there are a range of iQ products. The download option (free to subscribers) allows viewing over the net – true viewing portability.

10 new HD channels, 16 dedicated movie channels, new sports channels and 8 timeshift channels. Net, new technology, new content and unprecedented flexibility. There’s good detail on the specifics at the Foxtel site.

Hoping this is a trigger for you to re-examine the balance of your FTA/subscription spend since further market share gains for subscription seem likely. Of course, Dave and Mark are keen to provide stats or brief you personally. 9388 7844.