This is a long article from HollywoodReporter.com from December, 2004. I don't think it has been posted here before. I thought it was timely with the Super Bowl coming up.
Commercial breakdown
Will the ad industry fumble its HD opportunity?
By Carolyn Giardina and Debra Kaufman
Pictured: Fox aired January's Super Bowl XXXVIII in HD to give audiences the sharpest image possible.
The NFL season reaches its peak Feb. 6 with Super Bowl XXXIX in Jacksonville, Fla., and Fox will offer a high-definition broadcast so that fans can catch the action in ultrasharp, high-resolution imagery.
But what about the commercials? The Super Bowl, with its massive audience, is the event for which advertising agencies produce their most high-profile work each year. Yet surprisingly, with nearly six weeks left till the big game and many of those widely anticipated commercials careening toward the finish line, leading postproduction houses that support agency clients report little discussion of high-definition.
That means that while HDTV-equipped viewers tuning in to the Super Bowl might marvel at every muscle ripple beneath the players' uniforms, they also might be jolted by grainy commercial breaks featuring letterbox spots that make advertisers look quaintly out of date.
To get hip to the times, agencies don't even have to shoot in HD, merely finish in it. And since most commercials are shot on film, and film being by virtue of its superior resolution to tape a "high-definition" medium, the HD finishing costs would be incremental, which makes it all the more puzzling that the ad sector is making a conscious decision to lag behind.
It's especially strange when one considers that the commercial industry has long been a vanguard for entertainment production, showcasing new techniques and breaking directorial talent.
The surprising truth is that a vast majority of ad agency executives and their clients simply are not familiar with HD, nor do they face pressure to adopt the format because the number of HD viewers in the United States remains infinitesimal. Production companies say they will make whatever clients request, but ad agencies -- usually early adopters of the glitziest toys -- have been uncharacteristically slow to embrace HD.
"There just aren't enough people getting HDTV to make it worth the cost," says consultant Damon Webster, a former agency executive. "You hear that the sets are selling, but it's more than just buying the TV -- you've then got to sign up for an HD service at extra cost."
The Consumer Electronics Assn. reports that as of the end of September (the period for which the most recently released figures are available), 13.3 million digital TV products had been sold in the United States (factory-to-dealer, not -end user).
The association estimates that 87% of those products were HD-integrated sets or displays and that 2 million HD receiver products -- including set-top boxes, integrated sets and satellites -- had been sold (the latter figure does not include cable boxes).
In his recently released study, analyst Josh Bernoff of Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research estimates actual HDTV penetration in more than 6 million U.S. households.
Of course, consumer electronics stakeholders hope the holiday gift-giving season will increase that number significantly.
The commercial world is grounded in film, "and they're not inclined to let go," says Robert Goldrich, editor of Shoot magazine, which focuses on TV commercial production. "But there's a whole new generation of young directors that are into digital cinematography, and a lot of them are trying to get their foot in the door at the agencies. As these people get established, things may change."
Sony knows that seeing is believing, so its ad agency, Young & Rubicam, has made a concerted effort to familiarize commercial directors with HD and get them excited about what can be accomplished creatively. The studio's "Dreams" project has given 24p HD cameras to a group of commercial directors during each of the past three years and allowed them to explore the format by making short films (a fourth year of the program is in the works).
But aside from a few spots that have captured headlines -- including David Fincher's 2004 DGA Award-winning Nike "Gamebreakers" piece for Wieden + Kennedy -- there is really not a lot of commercial momentum for HD.
Of course, even commercials that shoot on HD video must be downconverted for delivery to service the majority of homes. But the fact that those spots (including Fincher's Nike ad) don't bother throwing in a few HD copies for the outlets that are HD capable shows a curious indifference (and means that no viewers will be able to experience those spots in HD).
Most major post houses are now HD capable and are waiting for demand to pick up. Many charge the same price for HD as SD, a loss-leader approach aimed at generating interest. Others charge a premium in the 10%-15% range. They're optimistic that the demand for HD will ramp up quickly as set penetration increases and advertisers experience HD.
The 2004-05 primetime TV season has seen a majority of programming on the four major broadcast outlets shift to predominantly HD. In addition, a growing number of cable programming, televised movies, sports and special events -- including the 2004 Athens Olympics and last February's 76th Annual Academy Awards -- are being offered in HD.
Fox, which had lagged behind ABC, CBS and NBC in adopting HD, began a high-profile effort in the fall, offering Major League Baseball's League Championship Series and World Series and at least six NFL games a week in that format. Fox also will offer the upcoming National Football Conference playoffs in HD.
Cable and satellite services offer stations including HBO HD, Discovery HD, Showtime HD and ESPN HD, with the latter set to debut a second channel this month. Also available is Voom, a satellite TV service from Cablevision subsidiary Rainbow DBS that offers more than 35 HD channels to consumers throughout the continental United States. And HDNet, a national TV network that broadcasts all of its programming in that format, continues to expand.
Amid such activity and growth, post industry pundits hope that 2005 finally will be the year in which advertising embraces HD.
"With the growth of HD content, advertisers are in for a shock when they see their spots on air because their commercials don't look as good as the programming itself," says Richard Cormier, senior vp at commercial post house Nice Shoes. "Finally, that is starting to be an incentive for advertisers to do commercials in HD because it does reflect poorly on the brand. Any advertiser with any common sense will not allow their brand to not be at their best."
But others continue to proceed with caution, and Epoch Films executive producer Jerry Solomon believes the switch will occur only when agencies convince their clients that it's the way to go.
"We're not going to say, 'Let's switch all of our ways of doing business, switch all of our vendors (and) use a new tool of the trade,' and have our client who has been making TV commercials for 25 years look at it and say, 'I don't like how that looks,'" he says. "I'm not paid to take that chance."
Commercial breakdown
Will the ad industry fumble its HD opportunity?
By Carolyn Giardina and Debra Kaufman
Pictured: Fox aired January's Super Bowl XXXVIII in HD to give audiences the sharpest image possible.
The NFL season reaches its peak Feb. 6 with Super Bowl XXXIX in Jacksonville, Fla., and Fox will offer a high-definition broadcast so that fans can catch the action in ultrasharp, high-resolution imagery.
But what about the commercials? The Super Bowl, with its massive audience, is the event for which advertising agencies produce their most high-profile work each year. Yet surprisingly, with nearly six weeks left till the big game and many of those widely anticipated commercials careening toward the finish line, leading postproduction houses that support agency clients report little discussion of high-definition.
That means that while HDTV-equipped viewers tuning in to the Super Bowl might marvel at every muscle ripple beneath the players' uniforms, they also might be jolted by grainy commercial breaks featuring letterbox spots that make advertisers look quaintly out of date.
To get hip to the times, agencies don't even have to shoot in HD, merely finish in it. And since most commercials are shot on film, and film being by virtue of its superior resolution to tape a "high-definition" medium, the HD finishing costs would be incremental, which makes it all the more puzzling that the ad sector is making a conscious decision to lag behind.
It's especially strange when one considers that the commercial industry has long been a vanguard for entertainment production, showcasing new techniques and breaking directorial talent.
The surprising truth is that a vast majority of ad agency executives and their clients simply are not familiar with HD, nor do they face pressure to adopt the format because the number of HD viewers in the United States remains infinitesimal. Production companies say they will make whatever clients request, but ad agencies -- usually early adopters of the glitziest toys -- have been uncharacteristically slow to embrace HD.
"There just aren't enough people getting HDTV to make it worth the cost," says consultant Damon Webster, a former agency executive. "You hear that the sets are selling, but it's more than just buying the TV -- you've then got to sign up for an HD service at extra cost."
The Consumer Electronics Assn. reports that as of the end of September (the period for which the most recently released figures are available), 13.3 million digital TV products had been sold in the United States (factory-to-dealer, not -end user).
The association estimates that 87% of those products were HD-integrated sets or displays and that 2 million HD receiver products -- including set-top boxes, integrated sets and satellites -- had been sold (the latter figure does not include cable boxes).
In his recently released study, analyst Josh Bernoff of Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research estimates actual HDTV penetration in more than 6 million U.S. households.
Of course, consumer electronics stakeholders hope the holiday gift-giving season will increase that number significantly.
The commercial world is grounded in film, "and they're not inclined to let go," says Robert Goldrich, editor of Shoot magazine, which focuses on TV commercial production. "But there's a whole new generation of young directors that are into digital cinematography, and a lot of them are trying to get their foot in the door at the agencies. As these people get established, things may change."
Sony knows that seeing is believing, so its ad agency, Young & Rubicam, has made a concerted effort to familiarize commercial directors with HD and get them excited about what can be accomplished creatively. The studio's "Dreams" project has given 24p HD cameras to a group of commercial directors during each of the past three years and allowed them to explore the format by making short films (a fourth year of the program is in the works).
But aside from a few spots that have captured headlines -- including David Fincher's 2004 DGA Award-winning Nike "Gamebreakers" piece for Wieden + Kennedy -- there is really not a lot of commercial momentum for HD.
Of course, even commercials that shoot on HD video must be downconverted for delivery to service the majority of homes. But the fact that those spots (including Fincher's Nike ad) don't bother throwing in a few HD copies for the outlets that are HD capable shows a curious indifference (and means that no viewers will be able to experience those spots in HD).
Most major post houses are now HD capable and are waiting for demand to pick up. Many charge the same price for HD as SD, a loss-leader approach aimed at generating interest. Others charge a premium in the 10%-15% range. They're optimistic that the demand for HD will ramp up quickly as set penetration increases and advertisers experience HD.
The 2004-05 primetime TV season has seen a majority of programming on the four major broadcast outlets shift to predominantly HD. In addition, a growing number of cable programming, televised movies, sports and special events -- including the 2004 Athens Olympics and last February's 76th Annual Academy Awards -- are being offered in HD.
Fox, which had lagged behind ABC, CBS and NBC in adopting HD, began a high-profile effort in the fall, offering Major League Baseball's League Championship Series and World Series and at least six NFL games a week in that format. Fox also will offer the upcoming National Football Conference playoffs in HD.
Cable and satellite services offer stations including HBO HD, Discovery HD, Showtime HD and ESPN HD, with the latter set to debut a second channel this month. Also available is Voom, a satellite TV service from Cablevision subsidiary Rainbow DBS that offers more than 35 HD channels to consumers throughout the continental United States. And HDNet, a national TV network that broadcasts all of its programming in that format, continues to expand.
Amid such activity and growth, post industry pundits hope that 2005 finally will be the year in which advertising embraces HD.
"With the growth of HD content, advertisers are in for a shock when they see their spots on air because their commercials don't look as good as the programming itself," says Richard Cormier, senior vp at commercial post house Nice Shoes. "Finally, that is starting to be an incentive for advertisers to do commercials in HD because it does reflect poorly on the brand. Any advertiser with any common sense will not allow their brand to not be at their best."
But others continue to proceed with caution, and Epoch Films executive producer Jerry Solomon believes the switch will occur only when agencies convince their clients that it's the way to go.
"We're not going to say, 'Let's switch all of our ways of doing business, switch all of our vendors (and) use a new tool of the trade,' and have our client who has been making TV commercials for 25 years look at it and say, 'I don't like how that looks,'" he says. "I'm not paid to take that chance."
