Why Discovery Premiere Could Be a Pervasive Way to Buy TV Advertising

Everyone at the newly combined DiscoveryScripps powerhouse knew they were going to have to have a lot of long conversations with clients about the value of such a new productamp160 But a little more than a year later Discovery Premiere amp8212 as those ad packages are called amp8212 has proven to be an unqualified success says John Dailey senior vice president of partnerships for Discovery IncPremiere was designed to challenge the broadcasters who have seen steady live ratings erosion over the past halfdecade even as the cost of reaching those viewers has increasedamp160 Itamp160works like this Discovery Inc whichamp160last yearamp160merged with Scripps Inc has more than 8000 hours of new television ie premiere episodes every yearamp160 Discovery39s ad sales reps take all the episodes on its top six networks that average more than 1 million viewers live and package all the quotA positionsquot amp8212 the first ad slot in a commercial break long known as the filet mignon of ad positionsquotIt39s the top fiveamp160percent of our inventoryquot Dailey explainsClients who buy Premiere are paying a little more for the privilege but what they39re getting Dailey says more than makes up for that premiumamp160 The ratings for these A positions are higher than in the rest of the breakamp160by 15 to 20 percent and Discovery has done research to show that viewer engagement for these spots is far higher than that for broadcast seriesThe logic from the Discovery point of view is that a 1 million buy in Premiere gets you far more bang for your buck amp8212 more eyeballs and more engaged eyeballs at that amp8212 than a 1 million buy on a broadcast networkBecause this was a new direction for Discovery the ad sales team softlaunched Premiere in midJuly 2018amp160 They attracted five clients and now have dozens moreamp160 quotAll of them came back for morequot Dailey saysOnce the scatter or nonUpfront market began heating up so too did the demand for Premiereamp160 By the time the teams were doing their annual preUpfrontamp160roadshow to clients across the country those lengthy conversations Dailey and his colleagues were having had become quite a bit shorterWhat helped the team sell Premiere was Discovery39samp160new organizational approachamp160to ad salesamp160 The company divvied up most of its 17 networks into three sales bundles with one big star of a channel like Discovery oramp160Food Networkamp160oramp160HGTV serving as a focal point around which other related networks revolvequotWe already had all these hits to talk about with the bundles and that dovetailed perfectly with Premierequot Dailey saysamp160 The hits include OWN39samp160Greenleaf which attracts a large African American audienceamp160Discovery39samp160Bering Sea Goldamp160HGTV39samp160Property Brothers and of courseamp160Dr Pimple Popperamp160TLC39s unexpected ratings monsterThough linear TV is still very much the focus with Premiere Dailey says there is a version of Premiere available to advertisers for the suite of Discovery Go viewing appsThe audience for the Go apps though is quite different than the linear audienceamp160 Premiere episodes on the linear channels are appointment TV Dailey says while Go is more of a destination for viewers looking to go deep on their favorite showsamp160 But the results are similar An ad buy for that A position in a hit show on the app is going to deliver a better business outcomeThe success of Premiere even has Dailey and his cohorts thinking about offering exclusivity for advertisers on the last position in commercial positions amp8212 the New York Strip to the A position39s filet mignon if you willquotIt took about six months in the market to really catch firequot Dailey says of Premiereamp160 quotNew ideas always take six to 12 months to begin to produce results because the business has so many traditions and protocolsamp160 Now we39re just waiting for everyone else to follow along and introduceamp160theiramp160version of PremierequotAnd in case it wasn39t absolutely clear that Discovery Inc views itself as a competitor to the broadcasters the network will be presenting during Upfront Week 2020Click the social buttons to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Why Discovery Premiere Could Be a Pervasive Way to Buy TV Advertising

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Oriana Schwindt

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Why Discovery Premiere Could Be a Pervasive Way to Buy TV Advertising

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