Today at BIA/Kelsey’s Leading in Local conference, CBS Radio President and CEO Dan Mason underscored radio’s sustaining power as a megaphone and community connector, while also discussing its role in the fragmented digital audio ecosystem.
CBS has moved aggressively into digital with local sites that aggregate radio and TV content. It fields a national editorial staff, …

As I argued in a recent TV Technology article, “It’s inescapable that today’s video consumer expects cross-platform access to content. If that’s where the audience and advertisers are, then broadcasters need to be there, as well. What broadcasters need to do is create a positive experience for their audiences and advertisers as seamlessly as possible, …

Local media companies have increasingly zeroed in on smaller SMBs for growth. In many cases, however, they don’t have the resources to go after them. Enter DataSphere, which handles telemarketing, content and search optimization for its growing list of media company partners, while harnessing the media company’s local brand in each market.
The company was …

For traditional media companies with legacy businesses to harvest, mobile platforms offer a critical opportunity to forward-shift toward tangible growth. At MLM SF, digital media executives and vendor partners shared a variety of actionable mobile successes that indicate that, at long last, mobile’s time has arrived.
Media can deploy effective mobile solutions to clients big and …

Nielsen reported yesterday that ad spending on national cable networks has caught up to where their broadcast network brethren now stand.
That’s a big acknowledgement that the investments in programming and promotion that have been made by the content providers have shown an excellent return. Cable has always suffered the “little brother” syndrome in …

In the past 12 months, local radio and television stations have made significant strides to bolster their online activities, and it is generating noticeable revenues.
As will be detailed in BIA/Kelsey’s upcoming Investing In Television® and Investing In Radio® publications, in 2011 local television stations saw a 19.0 percent increase in their online revenues to …

Time Warner Cable’s ad division recently launched Enhanced iTV, which lets advertisers target interactive television ads to viewers in different local markets based on the time of day.
The idea behind interactive television is combining the power of Internet ads with television content. Advertisers are consistently looking for ways to transform advertising from a passive consumer …

Headlines in the media world have been full of analysis about Barry Diller’s eight-figure investment in Aereo. 
Aereo plans to offer MDU (multiple dwelling unit) residents in New York City the chance to view their local, over-the-air TV stations over the Internet and on their IP-connected TV sets, tablets and mobile devices.  Aereo follows along on …

We’ve long known that coupons provide real traction for SMB advertising. Nothing beats a customer walking through the door with a coupon in hand. But a lot of SMB website publishers haven’t really focused on them.
DataSphere, on the other hand, has had a coupons product for some time. But it only recently has really …

While this news has been out for a little while, we thought it was interesting that a company with powerful TV assets would initiate a deal with a company that provides high-quality, affordable video commercial content for local advertisers. After all, isn’t this what TV has been doing since the ’40s. What gives?
Anyone who’s ever …

NBC’s local websites for its 10 owned and operated stations have effectively lowered the average age of users from 44 to 33, boosted the average time spent on site to 12 minutes, and grown its user base to 10 million unique visitors, according to NBC San Diego Director of Integrated Media Sean Monzet, who was …

The session Spectrum: The Air We Breathe at the NAB Convention last week examined the issue of the proposed incentive auction for some of the spectrum now used by local TV stations. The question-and-answer format between the audience and my fellow panelists — Bill Lake (FCC), Alan Frank (Post-Newsweek), John Hane (Pillsbury Winthrop) and Jane …

As Social Local Media — BIA/Kelsey’s newest advisory service — marches toward its Feb. 23 launch and Feb. 24 free webinar, we’re using social media channels to present data to our audience and learn more about your challenges, successes and needs in social strategy.
Now, we thought we’d change it up by breaking out the social …

If the first two decades of the local Internet were primarily about on-boarding traffic, then CBS Local Digital Media President Ezra Kucharz foresees that the next decade will be about “opening doors to consumers, getting them the information they want, and getting them to transact.”
This philosophy drives CBS Local’s digital philosophy across its 28 owned-and-operated …

TBD.com, the Washington, D.C., hyperlocal news site branding the online operations of Allbritton Communication’ WJLA-TV and Newschannel 8 under the TBD umbrella, is tabling its local ad network, citing limited advertiser interest.
The site currently has agreements with more than 200 blogs and local sites (up from 120 at launch in August) to link to their work …

With cable subscriptions declining and a host of nonlinear, IP-connected devices emerging to offer new, incremental revenue possibilities, the time has come for local TV to get serious about an OTT strategy. To capitalize on this opportunity at a market level, local operators should be asking, “what does an effective OTT strategy entail?” and “what …

Local media brands continue to look for ways to populate their sites with local bloggers and Twitterers. In return, they provide them with a bigger platform.
The latest to jump into the game is NBC Universal, which paidContent reports has developed “The 20” to highlight selected Twitterers in all 10 of the markets where it has …

Group buying platform LivingSocial has taken another important step in differentiating itself as more than just another deal a day, building on its recent acquisition of social adventures company UrbanEscapes to unveil LivingSocial Espcapes. The new travel-focused offering segments getaways into three distinct categories: urban (in town), nearby and destination.
Escapes works much like LivingSocial’s standard daily deals, …

CityVoter, the provider of a “best of” platform for broadcasters, is now in 25 cities, working with key TV station groups such as Belo, McGraw-Hill and Tribune. The five-year-old, 12-person service, which is backed by Allen & Co., has gone through a few incarnations along the way. Most significant, while it has an ongoing …

In July, BIA/Kelsey projected that OTT homes — or those services providing linear and nonlinear video services over third-party bandwidth to the TV — will exceed cable homes by 2013. A February IMS Research report on “Internet Video to the TV” pegged 78 percent global growth in OTT devices, with 25 percent of American households …