TVAS Products

TVAS offers a limited number of selectively targeted, high-value, low margin products, and concentrates on executing those products well.

We believe that, as a small company comprised of highly focused, experienced industry veterans, we are better suited to executing selective, high-value products effectively and profitably.

TVAS has identified four specific opportunities where significant national demand exists and which offer excellent values to advertisers.

Late News

This is TVAS' most innovative product even though it is one of the most enduringly popular programming types on television. No network produces a Late News program. Its content is driven by the needs of local viewers, and its popularity is highly dependent on satisfying viewers' thirst for local news and information. It is unique in the respect that there are a limited number of competing telecasts in each market, and virtually no prospect for additional new market entrants. Therefore, the risk of the kind of audience dilution that has occurred in entertainment programming is very low. For these reasons and others, TVAS positions this product as a replacement for network prime.

All Late News telecasts in the United States are produced locally, and they have some unique properties that make them particularly valuable to advertisers. First among these is local interest. People watch the Late News to find out about local sports, weather, and politics. These are issues that touch daily lives, and many Americans habitually watch the Late News every night. From an advertiser's point of view, these are attentive viewers, which makes them valuable. Many audience studies have shown that commercials that run in live programming with attentive audiences score significantly higher recall scores. Because News viewing is habitual, Late News delivers stable ratings, and consistent delivery. And because news is perishable, viewers are unlikely to use TiVO to defer viewing and skip commercials.

Ratings are large because, unlike entertainment, the content is always fresh and appealing, and there high barriers for new competitors seeking to enter a market. Few markets in the US have more than three stations offering a Late News. A station contemplating adding a Late News must make a significant upfront investment. In addition to building sets (which permanently sidelines a studio that could otherwise be used to produce client commercials), anchors, reporters, producers, editors, and cameramen must be hired. Mobile newsgathering trucks must be purchased and outfitted, and in many markets, a helicopter must be leased. It is prohibitively expensive.

Because of the high barriers to entry, and the habitual nature of News viewing, ratings are high compared to broadcast prime and unlikely to fall. TVAS leverages those attributes in the top 35 markets by including two Late News telecasts in each national unit. Since it is unlikely that there will be significant duplication in viewing to competing newscasts, this provides greater reach to advertisers.

Late News does not have the content issues faced by network prime. It doesn't contain gratuitous sex or violence, or bad language. Finally, Late News is largely free from being TiVO'd; it is unlikely a viewer will record a newscast to watch the next day when it's no longer current. They will, instead, watch the next day's live newscast.

Early News

ABC, CBS, and NBC each produce Early News telecasts that run for a half hour every weekday. These newscasts sell out early, and when they do there is no more national inventory. As a result, there is strong demand for this inventory, and it has driven pricing up.

As it turns out however, local stations that carry the network newscasts also carry their own local newscasts which typically run both before and after the network telecasts. In fact, most of the Early News inventory in the US is produced by local TV stations. On average, local stations produce twice as much early news as the networks.

Morning News

Early morning newscasts provide a live environment packed with information viewers need at the beginning of the day. As such, viewer attentiveness and advertising effectiveness is high. Additionally, early morning news viewers tend to be affluent, upscale, and decision-makers. This is a high-demand product that provides excellent advertiser value.

Golf

Although golf telecasts do not get very high ratings, they attract a hugely desirable audience. Viewers of golf telecasts boast the highest average incomes of any programming on television. Many golf viewers are otherwise light television viewers, and therefore difficult to reach using television. As a result, the networks are able to charge incredible premiums to golf advertisers and national inventory sells out quickly. In addition, because of exclusivity agreements, many would-be golf advertisers cannot buy national time at any price. The TVAS Golf network provides a valuable additional outlet for national golf advertisers.

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