Pelley, Boot and Neve weigh in on Rogers’ planned acquisition
In light of the news that Rogers Media is acquiring the Score Television Network and getting access to its digital technology, we wanted reaction from media veterans on how this will affect the companies involved and the media industry overall.
Here’s what Bruce Neve, CEO of Starcom MediaVest Group in Canada, and Sunni Boot, CEO of ZenithOptimedia in Canada, had to say about the deal:
On the value of the youth demo
Bruce Neve: The Score is a relatively small add-on, but it does infuse an alternative, youthful energy and will complement buying other stations that are more 25-54. How they rebrand to offer consistency will be interesting; you don’t want to alienate the core Score and Score Mobile heavy user.
I have always found the young, alternative voice, more male, high-energy, fresh, affordable—in efficiency and absolute price to participate—very attractive for any male under-34 brands… beer, spirits, fast food, movies.
Sunni Boot: The Score is an excellent environment to reach younger males efficiently. Its audience is quite small versus TSN and Sportsnet, but it was always able to steal share and was included in most of our buys and specifically those that wanted to reach young males in this program genre… The Score is a nice complement to Sportsnet; the younger audience is a definite complement.
As a buyer, we do not like to see any one owner control a target or a genre, but this is a very smart move on Rogers’ part, providing a more in-depth portfolio of sports related properties.
On getting access to The Score’s mobile tech
Neve: It will help leapfrog development time and cost and extend brand and content across more platforms.
Boot: It is in keeping with [Rogers’] positioning of offering highly developed technological products with strong content to consumers. Advertisers will follow consumer eyeballs and engagements.
On new channels, consolidation and crowding in sports media
Neve: I don’t know if there is any room for more, but I thought that before TSN 2 and Sportsnet 2. There is still a lot of filler content on current stations, but who knows? More cricket! How about field hockey? Water polo, anyone?
Boot: [New channels] would be our hope, but there are a number of digital sports stations available now. The issue, of course, is content: will there be enough programming to fill an ever-growing list? Will the demand and desire for content drive up program costs? For buyers, our challenge will be to contain costs; we do not want to pay more for the competitive content pricing that may likely arise from more channels.
Marketing also went straight to the source and ambushed Rogers Media president Keith Pelley to get his opinions on The Score’s value.
Disclosure: Marketing magazine is owned by Rogers Media
