David Poltrack

Making the same bullish case he and other network execs have been making for years even as headwinds have picked up speed, CBS research guru David Poltrack today added some new wrinkles to it, pointing to ad spending by tech giants and embrace of TV by millennials.

David Poltrack, president of CBS Vision and chief research officer of CBS, is the visionary who created the Campaign Performance Audit, an initiative on measuring return on ad spend. CPA was first presented at the 2014 ARF and focuses on five components.After three years in the field, Poltrack and his team have completed the fifth and final component, helping to understand creative in context. Here he offers an update on the initiative’s progress.

TVB chief Steve Lanzano says among this year’s strong local categories are automotive, home furnishings, DIY and health care. On the network side, CBS’s David Poltrack says sales “are up 10% in the first quarter so it’s looking good so far.” He also predicts high advertiser demand for network inventory during the upcoming upfronts.

In sharp contrast to other weak TV ad estimates for next year, CBS senior executive David Poltrack says broadcast TV network advertising business will soar to near double-digit percentage gains in 2016. Speaking at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference, Poltrack, chief research officer of CBS Corp., says broadcast networks will climb a big 9.5% in advertising next year.

At an induction ceremony on Nov. 9, veteran CBS executive David Poltrack, the dean of the television and media research industry, is being inducted into the International Radio & Television Society Foundation Hall of Mentorship.

CBS research chief David Poltrack has been around the measurement business since back when it was pretty simple educated guesswork. He came to the Advertising Week festivities on Wednesday and after talking about 40 or minutes or so about how advertisers are missing out on network TV, concluded with this observation: “Five years from now people will remember this period for having the greatest amount of advertising money wasted in history.”

CBS Research boss David Poltrack says within five years, more sophisticated measurements will prove that the audience for CBS program content is growing across all platforms.

There’s no shortage of chatter in the media realm about the growth of digital, and the myriad conversations span everything from platform usage to consumption trends to advertising. While digital is a fluid and evolving arena, David Poltrack, chief research officer at CBS, has a clear vision on where it fits into CBS’s strategy. Poltrack believes that when talking about digital and TV, the discussion really warrants the use of the word “and” instead of a “versus.”

Speaking at the Advertising Research Foundation’s Audience Measurement Conference in New York City today, David Poltrack, chief research officer, CBS, shared his network’s findings on the cross-platform dynamics of 315 brands’ TV and digital campaigns, based on Nielsen’s cross-platform ratings.

TVB President Steve Lanzano: “This will be the first presidential election where there isn’t an incumbent [running] for president since the Citizens United decision, and the Koch brothers are already talking about spending $1billion, which would be more than they spent for the last presidential election.” But outside of political, Lanzano said local TV will see just  2%-2.5% growth this year. Network, said CBS’s David Poltrack, looks to be flat in the first half of 2015.

Big data is a big deal right now in media. Everyone is looking for a way to leverage the overwhelming amount of information available about people’s personal habits and history to make their advertising stronger and better targeted. Of course, the broadcast networks are jumping into it, too, at a time when TV viewing patterns are undergoing a great deal of change. David Poltrack, chief research officer at CBS Corp. and president of CBS Vision, talks about TV and big data, how TV viewing habits have changed and whether TV audiences have actually declined.

Yes, Netflix is winning over a lot of television viewers — and digital media are taking dollars from broadcast and cable networks. But not to worry, CBS Chief Research Officer David Poltrack told the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference today in his annual business forecast.

“We actually make more money per viewer streaming than we do on television,” said the network’s research chief David Poltrack today. “If you stream our programming online, you’re seeing a full complement of advertising — you can’t bypass it.”

The rosy prediction reflects growing strength in the economy, and in the performance of the broadcast TV networks, CBS Chief Research Officer David Poltrack told investors Monday.

When a company is eager for FTC approval of a proposed acquisition, it’s a relief when a leading customer comes out in favor of it. Nielsen has to take heart from CBS’s top researcher David Poltrack supporting its proposed purchase of Arbitron.

Despite a season that’s been marked by vertiginous ratings declines, CBS research guru David Poltrack believes that broadcast’s slow start “is not indicative of how the season will progress.” Speaking Monday at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference, CBS’s chief research officer said that the fall ratings have been affected by a number of disruptive events, including numerous preemptions caused by the presidential debates and the late-October mega storm that caused major power outages in the New York and New Jersey.

CBS has seen a surge in recent video-on-demand viewing, according to the network’s chief research officer David Poltrack. He said CBS got 70 million VOD views this fall  — a 19% rise — versus the same period a year before. Because VOD is primarily a TV experience, and consumers accept advertising on VOD, Poltrack believes “VOD remains a advertising medium of great potential.”

David Poltrack, chief research officer of CBS Corp. and president of CBS Vision, announced at the Television Critics Association meeting that the network has developed a special new survey co-produced with The Nielsen Company that reveals more complex and valuable audience segments and their ratings performances.

Netflix’s online streaming service is rapidly emerging as an important gateway for accessing television programming, according to a tracking study revealed by CBS research chief David Poltrack. He used the term “phenomenon” several times to describe the rapid adoption of Netflix, especially among an important segment of the TV audience known as early adopters of next-generation media platforms. He estimated that the size of Netflix’s prime-time streaming audience is about the same as a “mid-size cable network,” and is growing fast.

Age and sex don’t matter when it comes to TV ad effectiveness, said CBS Corp. chief research officer David Poltrack, who has teamed with Nielsen to create what he called a historic move to replace demographics with a new model for TV planning and buying, based on viewer behavior and attitudes.

CBS senior research executive David Poltrack estimates the four broadcast networks will grow 5% in advertising revenue in 2011 — in part by some 20% or more higher scatter pricing. But not all networks will benefit.