Internet advertising revenue and the media: an attribution fallacy?

"Internet Advertising overtakes TV"... Ah? Yes? But maybe not! Such a catchy headline may hide an attribution fallacy.
To compare advertising online revenue with that from one offline media only (TV, print, etc.) could be seriously misleading. Let's see.

Revenue statistics include Internet revenue from legacy media in the global Internet revenue, whereas to make things clear and relevant, revenue from the media on the net should be included (added to) in the total revenue of the media itself.
Among Internet advertising revenues, how much comes from the legacy media which publish their content on the web, on varied social networks? With few exceptions, Internet by itself is barely a media, it is more of a distributor, like cable, telcos or satellite (cf. MVPD). And there is often even no real content, no curation, no journalists, no fact checking. Easy!
To build comparative statistics, shouldn't Internet revenues include only the so-called "pure players"? And if so, this would certainly change the picture...

For everything to make sense, shouldn't we be able to distinguish at least four separate aggregates for advertising revenues:

• Revenues from the Internet reduced to pure players
• Revenues from the legacy media distributed online
• Revenues from the legacy media distributed offline (newsstand, over-the-air...) 
• and, of course, finally, a total (off + online) for each media: total TV, total press, total outdoor, total radio

For the time being, as far as one knows, this data is not available. Meanwhile, let's note that to compare one media with the total Internet is an unfair fallacy for the media ; it adds to the usual celebration of the web and diminishes the image of TV. Since, in fact, what is the Internet without the media? Not much! Conversations, opinions, and moreover, sometimes fake information, clickbait...... L'empire des doxosophes ?

Source : European Audiovisual Observatory, November 21, 2016.

* On the same topic, in French: Im-pertinences de la terminologie média

A new President. What to expect for the media?

A new President, a new Congress. All Republican. What's in it for the media?

A new FCC? The new President will appoint new commissioners at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and, first of all, a new Chairman for the Commission (Tom Wheeler will probably exit the chair January 20, 2017). Will he choose a commissioner already in place or nominate a new one?
"Only three commissioners may be members of the same political party"; their term lasts 5 years.

FCC commissioners, November 2016

Which regulations could be changed by the new Commission? Which decisions could be made? Speculations go on, perhaps simply hot air. But Congress requests that the FCC refrain from “controversial” moves before Trump takes office and a new Congress meets.
First, the recent net neutrality rules (adopted in February 2015, in effect since June 2015). The rules were set "to keep the Internet fast, fair, and open. "Blocking, throttling, pay-for-priority fast lanes and other efforts to come between consumers and the Internet are now things of the past." said FCC chairman Tom Wheeler (June 2015). Could these rules be rolled back or weakened?

Then, the Time Warner and AT&T merger might be challenged. Will the FCC review the deal? During the campaign, Donald Trump said he would block the deal. The FCC would have to discuss this from a competition point of view : is the merger (vertical concentration) in the public interest?

What about the antiquated cross-ownership rules (1975)? These rules continue to prohibit media companies from owning newspapers and TV or radio stations within the same DMA. The FCC has reviewed these rules and upheld them. Will the new FCC abolish them?

La flexibilité du marché télévisuel américain (Cas N° 17)

Ce poste reprend et corrige celui consacré à la TV américaine et au marché de Boston (Cas N°16) : nouvelle station O&O à Boston en janvier 2017).

En 2017, NBC disposera, comme prévu, d'une nouvelle station "owned and operated" dans le DMA de Boston-Manchester (N°8) : NBC Boston. En revanche, la nouveauté est le recours par le network NBC à une station utilisant une fréquence terrestre dite de faible puissance (low-power), WTBS ; associée à WNEU, elle remplacera son ancienne station affiliée WHDH-TV (qu'elle a tenté, en vain, de racheter). NBC crée ainsi de la valeur, avec la promotion d'une petite station en O&O d'un grand network. La station WNEU, rachetée par NBC, ne couvre qu'une partie du DMA.
Diffusée over-the-air (OTA), NBC Boston sera également diffusée par les réseaux câblés du DMA et les bouquets satellite et accessible par TV Everywhere. NBC Boston disposera ainsi d'une couverture complète du DMA. On observera le paradoxe : la télévision terrestre gratuite est distribuée à tout le marché grâce aux MVPD auprès des abonnés payants. Il est vrai que Comcast (qui a racheté NBCU) est le câblo-opérateur majeur (MSO) du DMA ; avec sa régie Comcast Spotlight, il exploite d'ailleurs l'Interconnect publicitaire de la région.
Pour l'information, NBC Boston s'appuiera sur la chaîne régionale de Comcast, NECN (New England News Channel) lancée 1992 par un câblo-opérateur racheté plus tard par Comcast et Hearst. En décembre 2016, Craignant les plaintes des téléspectateurs du DMA, Comcast passe un accord avec WMFP-TV, ce qui accroîtra la couverture terrestre de NBC Boston.

Le DMA de Boston comprend des cantons appartenant aux Etats du Vermont, du New Hampshire et du Massashusetts. L'économie de la télévision n'épouse pas la géographie administrative.
Ce DMA compte 26 stations : 5 sont associées à PBS (network de télévision publique), 3 sont des stations hispanophones et 2 des stations indépendantes. Le DMA compte 2,4 millions de foyers TV (5,9 millions de personnes). CBS et Fox ont déjà leur station O&O dans le marché. ABC (Disney) est le seul network à y être retransmis par une station affiliée (WCVB-TV).
La pénétration du câble est de 84% des foyers, celle des moyens de diffusion alternatifs (satellite, télécoms) étant de 12%, seuls 4% des foyers ne reçoivent la télévision que via une antenne terrestre.
Les 4 grandes stations de Boston sont reprises par les opérateurs canadiens du câble ; ils ont remplacé WHDH par NBC Boston (janvier 2017).

La flexibilité du marché  télévisuel américain s'accompagne d'un inflexible localisme.