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Linda Hardesty
Bravo for Bravo!
After one year as a traditional advertiser supported network, Bravo's distribution has grown from 35 million homes to 44 million, with the network predicting 50 million subs by the end of this year's upfront.
"Ad sales has really helped," said Gregg Hill, EVP-affiliate sales and marketing, Bravo. "I think it's a big part of the value of Bravo to our affiliates that was missing before."
The arts and entertainment network converted from a mostly commercial-free network to a traditional ad-supported network last spring. After its initial rollout, Bravo signed up eight million local ad sales subscribers. That number has since grown to 15 million.
Recently, the San Francisco Interconnect, with 1.6 million subs, added Bravo to its lineup. Fred Yeries, VP/GM-AT&T Media Services, San Francisco Bay Area, said the interconnect added Bravo because the network ties CNBC for the wealthiest audience in television. Yeries also pointed out that San Francisco is a major market for arts-oriented programming, including ballet and theater. "A&E doesn't really cover that anymore," he said. "They're kind of more broad-based entertainment."
Hill said Bravo decided to offer advertising because affiliates were asking for it. "I think that really shows from going from zero insertable subs to 15 million," he said. "It really shows that there was a pent-up demand. Folks just wanted this real estate."
Bravo's draw from a local ad sales perspective is incremental revenue. Advertisers wanting to target high-brow consumers of opera and artsy films are drawn to Bravo's demographics.
"It's bringing in new business in local ad sales," said Hill, "and you're always looking for new customers, not just moving around the dollars you already have."
As an added incentive to affiliates, Bravo offers its two minutes per hour of local avails in the middle of programming at a quarter before and a quarter after the hour. Many other networks save those prime ad spots for themselves and relegate the local avails to on-the-hour spots before or after shows, when viewers are more likely to tune out.
Besides the increased distribution from adding local avails, Bravo is also bringing in new revenue from national advertising. Hanna Gryncwajg, VP-advertising sales, Bravo, said another reason the network switched to regular advertising was to continue to be competitive in terms of programming.
Before Bravo became fully ad-supported, it took sponsorship advertising similar to PBS's format with commercials at the start of programming and at the end of programming. Gryncwajg said, "Our advertisers wanted more. We also wanted to continue the growth of the programming and the quality of the programming and quite frankly, you need money for that."
When asked if the network has had to compromise any of its programming standards to satisfy advertisers' cravings for ratings, Gryncwajg said, "Bravo has been striving to achieve a really good balance between growing ratings and not losing the integrity of what the network is - a niche network dedicated to art and film."
Gryncwajg said Bravo's advertisers include the usual up-scale suspects: auto, financial, travel. Additionally, the network has just started to tap into technology categories, including dot.coms and cell phones. "Electronics is a new category that we're just starting to break," she said.
According to a recent report from Paul Kagan Associates, Bravo earned more than $2.6 million in national advertising its first year. Gryncwajg said the network predicts at least a 30% increase over last year's upfront.
RECORD BREAKER Adlink, the Southern California interconnect, ended 1999 with $103.3M in overall ad sales. The sales growth represented a 24% increase over the previous year's total of $83.1M. Adlink is the first interconnect to break the $100M mark in yearly sales.
SHUSHING IN THE ROCKIES CTAM of the Rockies announced that sponsorships for this spring's SkiTAM 2000 conference have sold out. SkiTAM 2000 is a cable and telecommunications initiative to benefit disabled skiers. This year's conference is in Vail, Colo., April 6-9. Platinum sponsors are Lucent, Outdoor Life Network and Time Warner Cable. SkiTAM hopes to raise $300,000 this year.
FORCED TO SELL VNU NV, a Dutch media conglomerate, has sold its ad tracking company Competitive Media Reporting. The buyer is London-based Taylor Nelson Sofres Plc, the market research industry's fourth-biggest company. TNS bought CMR for $88M. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission forced VNU to sell CMR as part of VNU's acquisition of Nielsen Media Research last year. Nielsen has a similar ad tracking company called Monitor-Plus. CMR is the largest ad monitor in the U.S., measuring more than $65B in ad spending across all media, including cable and the Internet.
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