It must be Spring.
‘It’s All About Screens.’ This is the Daily Diary of Screens. Wednesday, February 17, 2016, the fourteenth day of the February Sweeps Period or what is the February CBSweeps.
NBC finished #1 broadcast network but the season premiere of CBS’ ‘Survivor‘ was the top program.
In the UK, ‘BBC One‘ finished #1 Sunday as ‘The Great Sport Relief Bake Off‘ was the top program outside of soaps.
Seven finished #1 in Australia as ‘Seven News‘ was #1 newscast and ‘My Kitchen Rules‘ was the top non-news program.
‘Deadpool‘ #1 box office in the U.S. weekend 12-15 Feb 2016.
‘Deadpool‘ #1 at the International box office weekend 12-14 Feb 2016.
There are 3.734 Billion Unique Mobile 68% Social Ad Clicks Are Now Mobile. Users as of this quarter, account for a 51% worldwide penetration. Direct uploads of user videos to Facebook now exceed YouTube. Facebook has 1.59 billion monthly users. Instagram has 77.6 million users. 88% of Twitter users are on mobile. An average of 500 million tweets are sent every day. The Google+1 button is hit 5 billion times per day. 80% of Internet users on Pinterest are female. Pinterest has 54.6 million users. LinkedIn has 347 million registered members. Weibo has 100 million daily users. 600 million users on Whatsapp. Facebook has 1.55 billion monthly active users. Netflix now has 75 million streaming subscribers. Cliptomize continues to grow as it has 54,211 users and 75,235 clipbooks. THURSDAY AUSTRALIAN OVERNIGHT TV RATINGS (*SEE BELOW)
Today, traditional TV still accounts for the lion’s share of video viewing, but online and mobile are where the growth is. When managed together, TV/digital/mobile hold the potential to drive real impact for advertisers—enabling them to maximize the customers they reach and/or reinforce key messaging across screens. After all, ‘It’s all about screens’.
The Home Of #dailydiaryofscreens
For Wednesday, February 17, 2016 (Posted on February 18, 2016)
NBC #1 Wednesday but the season premier of CBS’ ‘Survivor’ was the top program.
NBC
The Peacock Network had its ‘Women On Wednesday’ and it was strong.
8P ‘The Mysteries of Laura‘ finished with an average 6.291 million viewers and a 4.4/7. Must See TV ON DEMAND episode.
9P ‘Law & Order: SVU‘ finished with an average 7.678 million viewers and a 5.4/9.
10P ‘Chicago PD‘ finished #1 in its time slot and finished with an average 7.462 million viewers and a 5.0/9. Must See TV ON DEMAND episode.
CBS
The Tiffany Network brought out the first reality program on broadcast and it didn’t disappoint.
8P ‘Survivor’ (the 32nd season premiere of 90-minutes) finished with an average 8.314 million viewers and a 5.1/8.
930P ‘The Big Bang Theory’ rerun finished with an average 5.246 million viewers and a 3.2/5.
10P ‘Code Black’ finished with an average 6.398 million viewers and a 4.0/7. Must See TV ON DEMAND episode.
FOX
The Animal Network of Broadcast had the big program but Gordo took Murdoch’s Minions down. Besides, it was one of the poorest performance nights in the history of ‘Idol’.
8P ‘American Idol‘ finished #1 on Wednesday with an average 8.180 million viewers and a 6.0/9.
9P ‘Hell’s Kitchen‘ finished with an average 4.041 million viewers and a 2.9/4.
ABC
The Alphabet Network just didn’t have the power to win. This is a network that Disney forgot. But the head mouse fired the network’s chief programmer as it was quite a day in Disneyville on Wednesday. What a mess at the Mouse Factory.
8P ‘The Middle‘ finished with an average million viewers and a 4.8/4.
830P ‘The Goldbergs‘ finished with an average million viewers and a 4.2/7.
9P ‘Modern Family‘ was the top program on the network but finished wth an average million viewers and a 5.4/8.
930P ‘Black-ish‘ finished with an average million viewers and a 4.0/6.
10P ‘American Crime‘ finished with an average million viewers and a 2.5/4.
The CW
The Little Network That Couldn’t didn’t…again.
8P ‘Arrow‘ finished with an average million viewers and a 1.8/7.
9P ‘Supernatural‘ finished with an average million viewers and a 1.3/2.
For The Record
NBC finished #1 Wednesday with an average 7.144 million viewers and a 4.9 rating/8 share, UP +771,000 viewers vs SD 2015
CBS finished with an average 6.117 million viewers and a 4.4/7 DOWN -3.040 million viewers vs SD 2015
FOX finished with an average 6.106 million viewers and a 4.4/7 DOWN -5.587 million viewers vs SD 2015
ABC finished with an average 5.513 million viewers and a 3.9/6 DOWN -1.014 million viewers vs SD 2015
CNN finished as the #1 cable network and finished with an average 2.307 million viewers.
The CW finished with an average 2.229 million viewers and a 1.5/.2, UP + 49,000 viewers vs SD 2015
FOXNC finished with an average 2.116 million viewers.
UNI finished with an average 1.911 million viewers and a 1.0/2.
TEL finished with an average 1.300 million viewers and a 0.7/1.
Wednesday Television viewership finished with an average 53.430 million viewers.
Broadcast (English Speaking) Networks finished Wednesday with an average 27.109 million viewers, DOWN -8.821 million viewers vs SD 2015.
Cable (Top 150 programs) Networks finished Wednesday with an average 26.321 million viewers.
Today In Communication History
On this date in 1946, television signals are successfully transmitted from Washington to New York via AT&T coaxial cable.
On this date in 1953, Desilu signs a record $8 million three-season contract to continue producing ‘I Love Lucy’ for CBS. In today’s dollars, that is equal to: $70,868,913.85 or about $1,073,771.42 per episode. In the 1953-54 television season, it had an average of 58.8 million viewers.
On this date in 1957, UK television broadcasting hours are revised and the evening closedown period at 18:00-19:00 is abolished (the so-called ‘toddlers’ truce’, allowing parents time to get children off to bed with no televisual distraction), except on Sundays. Programmes may also continue after 23:00. On Sundays the 16:15-19:25 break remains, as does the rule about no programmes before 14:00.
NOTE: We have entered a new era in screen ratings. Nielsen is expanding its sample of TV viewers to include new
homes with meters that record the channel being watched — but not the demographics of the people watching. That will be estimated using data modeling and an algorithm Nielsen has developed, and added to the current sample that does include people meters that measure demos. The Panel Expansion (NPX), in which 12,900 households have been added to the national sample, is at the center of this change. The household ratings in these homes are measured by meters on each television in the home, while the demographic ratings in these homes will be assigned by Nielsen using a statistical algorithm. This is the first time since 1987 that homes in the national sample are not equipped with PeopleMeters, which measure both the program viewed and the people watching it.
February Sweeps Period runs from February 4, 2016 and ends March 2, 2016.
In The Moment
Quote of the Day
‘A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts.’
Richard Branson
No Other Network Has Done This In 10 Years
CBS Last Week had all of the Top Ten programs in total viewership. It has not happened by a network since December 2005.
#1 – NCIS (16.94m)
#2 – The Big Bang Theory (16.25m)
#3 – GOP Debate (13.44m)
#4 – NCIS: New Orleans (12.57m)
#5 – Scorpion (11.36m)
#6 – Blue Bloods (10.92m)
#7 – 60 Minutes (10.42m)
#8 – Madam Secretary (10.06m)
#9 – NCIS: Los Angeles (9.75m)
#10 – Life in Pieces (9.35m)
Cross Platform Research
Who are they…where are they…what are they watching…when are they…and why are they…
ComScore’s Big Play To Challenge Nielsen
New crossplatform ratings will bow in April
Crossplatform ratings are like the holy grail of the media world. Everyone wants them. Many companies have pledged to deliver them. But they’ve proven much more difficult to produce in a timely and useful manner. Now comScore says it’s going to start offering them, and soon, in a big challenge to Nielsen. The comScore announcement comes just weeks after its merger with Rentrak was approved. Rentrak provides set-top box data that, combined with comScore’s digital measurement, will be used in the new ratings.
During a conference call with investors on Wednesday, comScore laid out an ambitious schedule to roll out cross-platform measurement for early April. The ratings will include television, over-the-top services and digital viewing, and they’ll be released monthly. The rollout, media people will note, is just a month before the broadcast networks make their upfront presentations, though it seems doubtful there will be enough time to vet the ratings to use as currency for buys.
Data samples will include all cable, telco and satellite operators in the U.S.
During the conference call, comScore chief executive officer Serge Matta said clients and potential clients have been eager to see the new ratings. In fact, he said some had criticized the company for moving too slowly. Matta also said there will be a vast expansion of the total home panel used to collect data, from 4,000 devices currently to 60,000 by summer and 300,000 by the close of 2016.
Not surprisingly, Nielsen was quick to respond to comScore’s news. “Nielsen has the only total audience measurement, comparable across all screens, available to the market now. All of our data is fully representative of the U.S. population, and we deliver truly independent measurement,” the company said in a statement.
Media buyers and planners have been vocal over the years about their desire for cross-platform measurement and their belief that more competition could help improve the products being offered. One of their complaints has been how slowly new products have moved out, while viewers’ media habits are shifting more rapidly.
Television News
2016 Grammy Award Winners
58th Grammy Award Winners
Album Of The Year:
1989 — Taylor Swift (WINNER)
Record Of The Year:
“Uptown Funk” — Mark Ronson Featuring Bruno Mars (WINNER)
Best New Artist:
Meghan Trainor (WINNER)
Best Rock Performance:
“Don’t Wanna Fight” — Alabama Shakes (WINNER)
Song Of The Year:
“Thinking Out Loud” — Ed Sheeran & Amy Wadge, songwriters (Ed Sheeran) (WINNER)
Best Musical Theater Album:
Hamilton — Daveed Diggs, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Jonathan Groff, Christopher Jackson, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Leslie Odom, Jr., Okieriete Onaodowan, Anthony Ramos & Phillipa Soo, principal soloists; Alex Lacamoire, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Bill Sherman, Ahmir Thompson & Tarik Trotter, producers; Lin-Manuel Miranda, composer & lyricist (Original Broadway Cast) (WINNER)
Best Country Album:
Traveller — Chris Stapleton (WINNER)
Best Rap Album:
To Pimp A Butterfly — Kendrick Lamar (WINNER)
Best Pop Vocal Album:
1989 — Taylor Swift (WINNER)
Best Urban Contemporary Album:
Beauty Behind The Madness — The Weeknd (WINNER)
Best Dance/Electronic Album
Skrillex And Diplo Present Jack Ü — Skrillex And Diplo (WINNER)
Best R&B Album
Black Messiah — D’Angelo And The Vanguard (WINNER)
Best Rock Album:
Drones — Muse (WINNER)
Best Alternative Music Album:
Sound & Color — Alabama Shakes (WINNER)
Best Jazz Vocal Album
For One To Love — Cécile McLorin Salvant (WINNER)
Best Latin Pop Album:
A Quien Quiera Escuchar (Deluxe Edition) — Ricky Martin (WINNER)
Best Music Film:
Amy — Amy Winehouse (WINNER)
Best Country Solo Performance:
“Traveller” — Chris Stapleton (WINNER)
Best Dance Recording:
“Where Are Ü Now” — Skrillex And Diplo With Justin Bieber (WINNER)
Best Song Written For Visual Media:
“Glory” (Selma) — Lonnie Lynn, Che Smith & John Stephens, songwriters (Common & John Legend) (WINNER)
Best R&B Performance
“Earned It (Fifty Shades Of Grey)” — The Weeknd (WINNER)
Best Americana Album:
Something More Than Free — Jason Isbell (WINNER)
Best Blues Album:
Born To Play Guitar — Buddy Guy (WINNER)
Best Reggae Album:
Strictly Roots — Morgan Heritage (WINNER)
Best Contemporary Instrumental Album:
Sylva — Snarky Puppy & Metropole Orkest (WINNER)
Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media:
“Birdman” — Antonio Sanchez, composer (WINNER)
Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media:
“Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me” — (Various Artists) (WINNER)
Best Comedy Album:
Live At Madison Square Garden — Louis C.K. (WINNER)
Best Gospel Album:
Covered: Alive Is Asia [Live] (Deluxe) — Israel & Newbreed (WINNER)
Best Pop Solo Performance:
“Thinking Out Loud” — Ed Sheeran (WINNER)
Best R&B Song
“Really Love” — D’Angelo & Kendra Foster, songwriters (D’Angelo And The Vanguard) (WINNER)
Best Rock Song:
“Don’t Wanna Fight” — Alabama Shakes, songwriters (Alabama Shakes) (WINNER)
Best Rap Song:
“Alright” — Kendrick Duckworth, Mark Anthony Spears & Pharrell Williams, songwriters (Kendrick Lamar)
Track from: To Pimp A Butterfly (WINNER)
Best Rap Performance:
“Alright” — Kendrick Lamar (WINNER)
Best Rap/Sung Collaboration:
“These Walls” — Kendrick Lamar Featuring Bilal, Anna Wise & Thundercat (WINNER)
Best Pop Duo/Group Performance:
“Uptown Funk” — Mark Ronson Featuring Bruno Mars (WINNER)
Best Metal Performance:
“Cirice” — Ghost (WINNER)
Best Country Duo/Group Performance:
“Girl Crush” — Little Big Town (WINNER)
Best Country Song:
“Girl Crush” — Hillary Lindsey, Lori McKenna & Liz Rose, songwriters (Little Big Town) (WINNER)
Best Surround Sound Album:
Amused To Death — James Guthrie, surround mix engineer; James Guthrie & Joel Plante, surround mastering engineers; James Guthrie, surround producer (Roger Waters) (WINNER)
Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical:
“Uptown Funk (Dave Audé Remix)” — Dave Audé, remixer (Mark Ronson Featuring Bruno Mars) (WINNER)
Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical:
Sound & Color — Shawn Everett, engineer; Bob Ludwig, mastering engineer (Alabama Shakes) (WINNER)
Best Historical Album:
The Basement Tapes Complete: The Bootleg Series Vol. 11 — Steve Berkowitz, Jan Haust & Jeff Rosen, compilation producers; Peter J. Moore, mastering engineer (Bob Dylan And The Band) (WINNER)
Best Boxed Or Special Limited Edition Package
The Rise & Fall Of Paramount Records, Volume Two (1928-32) — Susan Archie, Dean Blackwood & Jack White, art directors (Various Artists) (WINNER)
Best Album Notes:
Love Has Many Faces: A Quartet, A Ballet, Waiting To Be Danced — Joni Mitchell, album notes writer (Joni Mitchell) (WINNER)
Best Recording Package
Still The King: Celebrating The Music Of Bob Wills And His Texas Playboys — Sarah Dodds, Shauna Dodds & Dick Reeves, art directors (Asleep At The Wheel) (WINNER)
Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals:
“Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime) — Maria Schneider, arranger (WINNER)
Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella:
“Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy — Ben Bram, Mitch Grassi, Scott Hoying, Avi Kaplan, Kirstin Maldonado & Kevin Olusola, arrangers (Pentatonix) (WINNER)
Best Instrumental Composition:
“The Afro Latin Jazz Suite — Arturo O’Farrill, composer (Arturo O’Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra Featuring Rudresh Mahanthappa) (WINNER)
Best Spoken Word Album (Includes Poetry, Audio Books & Storytelling):
A Full Life: Reflections At Ninety — Jimmy Carter (WINNER)
Best Children’s Album:
Home — Tim Kubart (WINNER)
Best World Music Album:
Sings — Angelique Kidjo (WINNER)
Best Latin Jazz Album:
Made In Brazil — Eliane Elias (WINNER)
Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album:
The Thompson Fields — Maria Schneider Orchestra (WINNER)
Best Jazz Instrumental Album:
Past Present — John Scofield (WINNER)
Best Improvised Jazz Solo:
“Cherokee” — Christian McBride, soloist (WINNER)
Best New Age Album:
Grace — Paul Avgerinos (WINNER)
Best Choral Performance:
Rachmaninoff: All-Night Vigil — Charles Bruffy, conductor (Paul Davidson, Frank Fleschner, Toby Vaughn Kidd, Bryan Pinkall, Julia Scozzafava, Bryan Taylor & Joseph Warner; Kansas City Chorale & Phoenix Chorale) (WINNER)
Best Opera Recording
Ravel: L’Enfant Et Les Sortilèges; Shéhérazade — Seiji Ozawa, conductor; Isabel Leonard; Dominic Fyfe, producer (Saito Kinen Orchestra; SKF Matsumoto Chorus & SKF Matsumoto Children’s Chorus) (WINNER)
Producer Of The Year, Classical:
Judith Sherman (WINNER)
Best Regional Roots Music Album:
Go Go Juice — Jon Cleary (WINNER)
Best Folk Album:
Béla Fleck And Abigail Washburn — Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn (WINNER)
Best Bluegrass Album:
The Muscle Shoals Recordings — The Steeldrivers (WINNER)
Best American Roots Song:
“24 Frames” — Jason Isbell (WINNER)
Best American Roots Performance:
“See That My Grave Is Kept Clean” — Mavis Staples (WINNER)
Best Tropical Latin Album:
Son De Panamá — Rubén Blades With Roberto Delgado & Orchestra (WINNER)
Best Regional Mexican Music Album (Including Tejano):
Realidades – Deluxe Edition — Los Tigres Del Norte (WINNER)
Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative Album:
Hasta La Raíz — Natalia Lafourcade (WINNER)
Best Classical Solo Vocal Album:
Joyce & Tony – Live From Wigmore Hall — Joyce DiDonato; Antonio Pappano, accompanist (WINNER)
Best Contemporary Classical Composition:
Paulus: Prayers & Remembrances — Stephen Paulus, composer (Eric Holtan, True Concord Voices & Orchestra) (WINNER)
Best Classical Instrumental Solo:
Dutilleux: Violin Concerto, L’Arbre Des Songes — Augustin Hadelich; Ludovic Morlot, conductor (Seattle Symphony) (WINNER)
Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance:
Filament — Eighth Blackbird (WINNER)
Best Traditional R&B Performance:
“Little Ghetto Boy” — Lalah Hathaway (WINNER)
Best Roots Gospel Album:
Still Rockin’ My Soul — The Fairfield Four (WINNER)
Best Contemporary Christian Music Album:
This Is Not A Test — Tobymac (WINNER)
Best Gospel Performance/Song:
“Wanna Be Happy?” — Kirk Franklin (WINNER)
Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical:
Jeff Bhasker (WINNER)
Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album:
The Silver Lining: The Songs Of Jerome Kern — Tony Bennett & Bill Charlap (WINNER)
Not Playing By The Rules? FIFA Scandal Unfolds
The world’s most powerful sporting organization is rife with corruption, say U.S. law enforcement authorities who have indicted FIFA officials
The following is a script from “FIFA” which aired on Feb. 14, 2016. Steve Kroft is the correspondent. Michael Gavshon, Maria Gavrilovic and David Levine, producers.
As everyone knows big-time sports have become big business, and most of the organizations that run them operate with little or no oversight from government or independent entities. Occasionally, issues arise like concussions in football, and doping in baseball that demand public scrutiny, but there has never been a scandal like the one enveloping FIFA — the most powerful sporting organization in the world.
Its purpose is to regulate and promote the most popular sport in the world: international football, or soccer as we call it in the United States. But according to the U.S. Justice Department it has been operating as an organized crime syndicate for the past 24 years. And some of those alleged crimes like bribery and money laundering were planned and carried out here in the United States. Dozens of top FIFA officials past and present are under indictment and the investigation is still in its early stages.
In a few weeks, hundreds of FIFA officials from around the world will descend on Zurich for a special meeting — one of the most important in its 112-year history, maybe even one of its last.
Its ranks have been thinned. Its president, Sepp Blatter, suspended, it’s general secretary fired and five current executive committee members facing criminal charges and some nervous delegates may decide to skip the event, given what happened the last time they got together in May. Authorities swooped in and made arrests here and on three different continents — acting at the behest of the U.S Justice Department and Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
Loretta Lynch: They were expected to uphold the rules that keep soccer honest, and protect the integrity of the game. Instead, they corrupted the business of worldwide soccer to serve their interests and to enrich themselves.
FIFA’s main job is to organize and run the biggest sporting event on Earth, the World Cup, a month-long tournament of national teams that generates billions and billions of dollars and crowns a world champion every four years. It’s like the Olympics — only bigger. The honor of hosting the games can alter a nation’s fortunes and the competition is intense. It’s FIFA’s executive committee that decides where the World Cup will be held and how the billions will be divided. According to the indictment, that’s where the corruption comes in.
Steve Kroft: How did the racketeering enterprise work?
John Buretta: The allegations are that it was all about selection. Choosing where events would be held. Choosing who got the rights to broadcast. It was those key choices which were very lucrative to the recipients that created the power here.
John Buretta used to run the organized crime section of the U.S. attorney’s office in the Eastern District of New York with a specialty in the Mafia.
He was used to names like Genovese and Gambino and had never heard of FIFA until the case ended up on his desk. But he knew how the game was played.
Steve Kroft: You pay me. You want this? You gotta pay me…
John Buretta: Those are definitely the allegations.
Steve Kroft: You gotta pay me $10 million in one case.
John Buretta: There were many millions in many instances alleged not just for low-level tournaments. But the World Cup itself.
Steve Kroft: So you’re talking about shakedowns?
John Buretta: Absolutely.
According to the indictment that $10 million bribe was paid by the government of South Africa to help secure the 2010 Word Cup. The money, originally disguised as a charitable contribution ended up in a bank account controlled by former FIFA vice President Jack Warner, a Trinidadian who then ran the North American, Central American and Caribbean Confederation of FIFA, which was headquartered in New York. He is currently fighting extradition to the U.S.
[Jack Warner: Keep the faith, man. You gotta keep the faith. The battle has long-started.]
Warner is one of 25 FIFA officials who have been named in the indictments — as for the bribes, well there are too many to go into here. The biggest was $150 million paid by a sports marketing firm for contracts to sell broadcasting rights.
Then, there were the smaller tips — a stack of envelopes each filled with $40,000 in cash from an executive committee member from Qatar who was buying votes in a FIFA election.
Qatar has a very high profile at FIFA right now and it’s a source of some embarrassment.
[Sepp Blatter: The 2022 FIFA World Cup is…Qatar.]
The Qataris were happy but most people thought it an odd choice…one that brought FIFA unwanted attention and made it the butt of unwanted jokes.
[John Oliver: There are now allegations that some FIFA executives took bribes to put the World Cup in Qatar, and I hope that’s true. Because otherwise it makes literally no sense…]
It’s not just that temperatures routinely top 120 degrees in the summer or that Qatar has a dismal human rights record, the tiny country has no soccer tradition and it would seem very few fans. Games there are often played in empty stadiums. FIFA also ignored its own internal security report which warned of a high risk for terrorism. Maybe the executive committee was impressed with this dazzling, multimedia virtual reality vision of what the Qatar World Cup would look like in 2022. Right now, this is all just a mirage.
Most people who follow international soccer aren’t surprised by all this. The chicanery at FIFA has been an open secret in Europe largely because of this man, Andrew Jennings, a grizzled freelance reporter who had been harping about it for more than a decade.
Andrew Jennings: All we know is, it’s the biggest scandal ever in world sport. There’s nothing like it.
Steve Kroft: How did you get into this? Were you a– were you a soccer fan?
Andrew Jennings: Definitely not. I mean, good luck to people who enjoy it, but I’m a crime reporter. I took one look at FIFA and, right, (clap) that’s it. It’s there. And I’d no doubts about it.
Jennings, who had broken some big stories exposing corruption at the International Olympic Committee, was asked by a sports editor to take a look at FIFA. He couldn’t believe his luck.
Andrew Jennings: I did start thinking, “There’s a few bad apples. Oh, goodness me, here’s a few more. My goodness, (laugh) who isn’t?
Steve Kroft: S– you’re– so, bribery was just standard operating procedures at all level of FIFA?
Andrew Jennings: Well, there does come a time that you don’t really get upset anymore, just another bribe. Because there’s so many. In fact, it’s– it’s a way of operating. It’s an MO. It’s how they’d run the business.
When he began asking rude questions at FIFA news conferences a dozen years ago, he was ostracized and exiled to the parking lot. For years, his colleagues in the sporting press considered him a gadfly but he turned out to be right, and eventually people started paying attention.
He landed a gig with the BBC launching kamikaze attacks on the likes of FIFA President Sepp Blatter.
[Andrew Jennings: Do you know which football officials took bribes from the ISL marketing company?
Sepp Blatter: I don’t speak about that.]
And the aforementioned FIFA Vice President Jack Warner.
[Jack Warner: If I could have spit on you, I would have spat on you.
Andrew Jennings: If you could spit on me you would spit on me]
Jennings finally received his vindication in 2009 when the FBI asked for his help and invited him to London to meet with their agents.
Andrew Jennings: So I shuttled down to London and went into the room. Three– immaculately dressed. Perfect manners. And business cards that says they did organized crime. And at that point, we were in.
Jenning gave the FBI his file on Chuck Blazer the only American on FIFA’s executive committee, who lived and worked out of Trump Tower in New York.
Blazer too was a colorful character, 400 pounds of fun. He kept a pet parrot, travelled on private jets with world leaders, dined at the finest restaurants and over a seven-year period, ran up a 29-million-dollar-in-charges on his black American Express card. He documented a lot of this on his personal blog and seemed to have been having such a good time he forgot to pay his taxes which turned out to be a big mistake for Blazer and FIFA.
Michael Hershman: In my judgment, this indictment would not have happened without Chuck Blazer.
Michael Hershman has spent most of his career doing government and corporate investigations and he knows Chuck Blazer. He says when the FBI arrested him it immediately offered a deal: go to jail for tax evasion or cooperate and wear a wire.
Steve Kroft: And he chose the latter?
Michael Hershman: He chose the latter.
Steve Kroft: He had a keychain of some kind.
Michael Hershman: He had a keychain that was a microphone, as well as a keychain.
Hershman spent two years working inside FIFA after being appointed to a governance committee charged with reforming the organization in the midst of all the scandals.
Michael Hershman: I assumed that we would be able to take this organization and help turn it around but I was dissuaded from that notion fairly early on.
Steve Kroft: By whom?
Michael Hershman: Well, there was a lot of push back from the president, Sepp Blatter, and the executive committee members, many of whom were dinosaurs and didn’t want to see the system change.
He says there was a culture of corruption at FIFA and its top officials weren’t interested in advice from outsiders. They saw themselves as diplomats entitled to financial gratuities and expensive gifts.
Steve Kroft: They wanted tribute?
Michael Hershman: They wanted tribute. They were treated like kings, if you will.
Steve Kroft: Did you get any sense of that there was any fear or concern about p– somebody prosecuting them?
Michael Hershman: None, whatsoever.
And with good reason…
It’s no accident that the world’s most powerful sports organization is headquartered here in Zurich. It’s the banking capital of Switzerland, a country whose economy is based on the principles of corporate privacy, and banking secrecy.
And no one took more advantage of that than FIFA. Roland Buchel, a member of the Swiss National Legislature, says, until very recently, FIFA received about as much government scrutiny as a yodeling club.
Steve Kroft: The corruption’s been no secret. People have been talking about it. And there have been allegations made for a decade or more. Why didn’t the Swiss government do something?
Roland Buchel: Well, there was a problem, a problem of laws. Corruption at this time it was– it was just not a crime. It was not a crime in this period.
Steve Kroft: You’re saying it was all right to bribe people.
Roland Buchel: Of course it wasn’t all right, but it was not a crime. This money was even tax deductible. The money they paid in bribes was tax deductible. That’s– that’s just– it’s not– it’s not good.
Steve Kroft: And you’re saying it was tax deductible? It was not only legal, it was tax deductible?
Roland Buchel: Yes.
Steve Kroft: Do you think it’s tarnished the reputation of Switzerland at all?
Roland Buchel: Yes, of course. Absolutely.
Buchel has since managed to push through legislation making all forms of bribery illegal and the Swiss attorney general has finally begun his own criminal investigation into President Sepp Blatter and the Qatar World Cup.
FIFA says it’s cooperating with the investigation and that it’s a victim in all this…that it’s a legitimate, law-abiding organization that’s been used by unscrupulous individuals on the executive committee, and that justice should be allowed to run its course.
Jerome Champagne: Let’s finish investigation and after that we go for trial. I have no problem with that.
Jerome Champagne, a FIFA defender, was one of Sepp Blatter’s closest advisors for a decade and is running in the upcoming elections to replace him as president.
Steve Kroft: I mean, it’s been said that you were his eyes and ears.
Jerome Champagne: Uh-huh (affirm).
Steve Kroft: Is that accurate?
Jerome Champagne: Sometime his mouth also.
Steve Kroft: Sometimes his mouth. Eyes, ears and mouth.
Steve Kroft: Not the nose? Did you–
Jerome Champagne: No.
Steve Kroft: –did you– didn’t sniff anything out? Mister Blatter–
Jerome Champagne: I was–
Steve Kroft: –didn’t sniff anything out that anything was wrong–
Jerome Champagne: — I tell you, I was not involved in financial aspects.
Steve Kroft: It– if Sepp Blatter were running for reelection would you support him?
Jerome Champagne: I tell you, he would be reelected.
Steve Kroft: He would be reelected?
Jerome Champagne: Yes.
Champagne’s opponents include a Jordanian prince, a sheikh from Bahrain, a wealthy South African businessman and a European soccer official. All of them are preaching reform to a FIFA membership that has long resisted it.
Steve Kroft: I mean, FIFA seems to be saying, “OK, we’ve got this under control. You know, we’re changing. We’re reforming”–
Andrew Jennings: You can’t be serious–
Steve Kroft: –“and Blatter’s gone”–
Andrew Jennings: You can’t be serious.
Steve Kroft: No, I’m– I’m– I’m jus– this is what they’re saying?
Andrew Jennings: They haven’t done anything. They’ve done nothing to reform themselves.
Steve Kroft: So, you think it’s going to be business as usual?
Andrew Jennings: Well, it’ll be an attempt, because they know nothing else.
For now, all the major decisions at the world’s most powerful sports organization are being handled by FIFA’s legal department in consultation with a big U.S. law firm and a PR outfit from Washington. All our requests for on-camera interviews were declined.
NOTE: This was © 2016 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
CBS News Wins Polk Award
CBS News’s Jim Axelrod and producer Emily Rand are being honored with the George Polk Award for Television Reporting for the investigative series on compounding pharmacy fraud. The stories, which aired on CBS This Morning and on the CBS Evening News, uncovered pharmacies peddling unproven pain creams and supplements, which they billed to Medicare and even private insurance for thousands of dollars each. CBS News’ reporting led to a Congressional investigation and legal action by federal law enforcement and the Department of Justice.
Cinema News
Box Office Weekend 12-15 February 2016 (Domestic) Thru Saturday
#1 ‘Deadpool’ $135.00 million in 3,558 locations
#2 ‘Kung Fu Panda 3’ $ 19.65 million
#3 ‘How To Be Single’ $ 18.75 million in 3,343 locations
#4 ‘Zoolander 2’ $ 15.65 million in 3,394 locations
#5 ‘The Revenant’ $ 6.90 million
#6 ‘Hail Ceasar’ $ 6.59 million
#7 ‘Star Wars’ $ 6.19 million
#8 ‘The Choice’ $ 5.25 million
#9 ‘Ride Along 2’ $ 4.13 million
#10 ‘The Boy’ $ 2.90 million
Box Office Weekend 12-14 February 2016 (International)
#1 ‘Deadpool’ $125.0 million
#2 ‘The Mermaid’ $109.0 million
#3 ‘The Monkey King 2’ $ 38.0 million
#4 ‘Macau III’ $ 36.0 million
#5 ‘Alvin-Chipmunks’ $ 15.3 million
#6 ‘Kung Fu Panda 3’ $ 14.6 million
#7 ‘The Revenant’ $ 14.2 million
#8 ‘Violent Prosecuter’$ 11.0 million
#9 ‘Zealander 2’ $ 8.5 million
#10 ‘How to Be Single’ $ 8.1 million
NOTE:’Deadpool’ was FOX’s biggest opening in roughly a dozen markets, including Australia where it made $10 million, Taiwan with $8.2 million, Brazil with $5.9 million, and Hong Kong with a $3.8 million debut. It opens in Italy, Spain, South Korea and the Middle East next weekend and will debut in Japan in June. The film’s hard R-rating did limit its rollout. Its violence got it banned in China, the world’s second largest film market.
Coming Soon
‘Jason Bourne’ starring Matt Damon, Alicia Vikander, Julia Stiles, Tommy Lee Jones and Vincent Cassel.
Welcome to new viewers in all 50 States of the U.S., all of the Provinces in Canada, all of the States in Mexico, the UK, Iceland, Ireland, Guernsey, Jersey, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, the Russian Federation, Belarus, Ukraine, Republic of Moldova, Georgia, Poland, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Portugal, Gibraltar, Spain, Monaco, Malta, Italy, Slovenia, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Macedonia the former Yugoslave Republic, Albania, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, State of Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, India, Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Japan, Republic of Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Mauritius, Zambia, United Republic of Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Egypt, Malta, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Gabon, Senegal, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Mozambique, Uganda, Namibia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvadore, Belize, Curaçao, Aruba, St. Lucia, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Martinique, U.S. Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, Bahamas and Puerto Rico (148). We are thankful to all of you with more than 38,500 views.
Across The Pond
BBC One #1 Wednesday in the UK as ‘The Great Sport Relief Bake-Off’ finished as the #1 non-soap program.
BBC One
The Big One
8P ‘The Great Sport Relief Bake Off‘ finished with an average 5.9 million viewers and a big 37% share.
9P ‘DIY SOS: The Big Build ‘ finished with an average 4.3 million viewers and a 20% share.
ITV
The Independent One
7P ‘Emmerdale‘ finished with an average 6.2 million viewers and a 31% share.
730P ‘Coronation Street‘ finished with an average 6.8 million viewers and a 32% share.
8P ‘Midsomer Murders‘ two hour episode finished with an average 4.6 million viewers and a 21% share.
BBC Two
The Little Two
8P ‘£100k House: Tricks of the Trade‘ finished with an average 1.5 million viewers and a 7% share.
9P ‘One Child‘ series premiere finished with an average 1.4 million viewers and a 6% share.
Down Under
Seven #1 in Australia Wednesday as ‘My Kitchen Rules’ & Seven News top programs.
SEVEN finished #1 Wednesday in Australia with a strong 36.4% share of the available audience.
Nine finished #2 with a 24.6% share.
Ten finished #3 with a 16.8% share of the available audience.
ABC finished #4 with a 16.0% share.
SBS finished #5 in Australia Wednesday with a 6.3% share of the available audience
Top Ten Non-News Program In Australia Wednesday
#1 MY KITCHEN RULES Seven 1,689,000 viewers #1 in all markets Wednesday
#2 FIRST DATES Seven 978,000 viewers Melbourne top market
#3 HOME AND AWAY Seven 885,000 viewers Melbourne top market
#4 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 854,000 viewers Melbourne top market
#5 THE BIG BANG THEORY Nine 789,000 viewers Melbourne top market
#6 I’M A CELEBRITY…
GET ME OUT OF HERE! WED TEN 688,000 viewers Melbourne top market
#7 7.30 ABC 599,000 viewers Sydney top market
#8 THE BIG BANG THEORY (R) Nine 579,000 viewers Melbourne top market
#9 THE CHASE AUSTRALIA Seven 568,000 viewers Melbourne top market
#10 THE PROJECT 7PM TEN 552,000 viewers Melbourne top market
Top Newscasts in Australia Wednesday
#1 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,046,000 viewers #1 in Sydney, Adelaide & Perth
#2 SEVEN News/TodayTonight Seven 996,000 viewers Melbourne top market
#3 NINE NEWS Nine 953,000 viewers #1 in Melbourne & Brisbane
#4 NINE NEWS 6:30 Nine 888,000 viewers Melbourne top market
#5 ABC NEWS ABC 806,000 viewers Melbourne top market
*THURSDAY AUSTRALIAN OVERNIGHT TV RATINGS
*THURSDAY AUSTRALIAN OVERNIGHT TV RATINGS
Seven #1 Thursday in Australia as Nine’s ‘A Current Affair’ & ‘Seven News’ top programs.
Seven finished #1 Thursday in Australia with a 28.0% share of the available audience.
Nine finished #2 with a 26.0% share.
Ten finished #3 with a 20.5% share of the available audience.
ABC finished #4 with a 18.5% share.
SBS finished #5 Thursday in Australia with a 6.9% share of the available audience.
Top Ten Non-News Programs In Australia Thursday.
#1 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 749,000 viewers #1 in Sydney & Melbourne
#2 HOME AND AWAY Seven 747,000 viewers #1 in Perth
#3 I’M A CELEBRITY…
GET ME OUT OF HERE! TEN 721,000 viewers #1 in Brisbane & Adelaide
#4 JACK IRISH ABC 682,000 viewers Melbourne top market
#5 7.30 ABC 661,000 viewers Sydney top market
#6 THE CHASE AUSTRALIA Seven 582,000 viewers Sydney & Melbourne top markets
#7 RBT Nine 518,000 viewers Sydney top market
#8 THE PROJECT 7PM TEN 510,000 viewers Melbourne top market
#9 KINGS CROSS ER Nine 505,000 viewers Sydney top market
#10 FAMILY FEUD TEN 501,000 viewers Sydney top market
Top Newscast In Australia Thursday
#1 SEVEN NEWS Seven 964,000 viewers #1 in Sydney, Adelaide & Perth
#2 SEVEN News/TodayTonight Seven 925,000 viewers Melbourne top market
#3 NINE NEWS Nine 902,000 viewers #1 in Melbourne & Brisbane
#4 NINE NEWS 6:30 Nine 822,000 viewers Melbourne top market
#5 ABC NEWS ABC 772,000 viewers Melbourne top market0
For updates throughout the day, FOLLOW us on Twitter @overtheshoulde2 and LIKE us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/overtheshouldermedia and on Google+ http://bit.ly/19JVk76. Thank you for allowing us to surpass 46,400+ views at Google+ Sophis1234.
For continual updates on all things ‘screens’, go to: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dailydiaryofscreens
In this week’s Media Notes Canonical, go to: http://bit.ly/1JnoNS6 🆕💭📝📎 It’s FREE.
Media Notes Briefs: ‘Do Consumers Always Know What They Want To Buy?’ Great Question. Here’s the answer @:http://eepurl.com/bQZhpr🆕💭🌎💬
New This Week: Mobile Optimized Sites A Must For Local Business 💬 – http://eepurl.com/btvkyn
Weekly Retail Media Notes. This week: ‘Do Your Customers Use Digital/Mobile?’ http://bit.ly/1U0M979💡.@cnasophis
Why Don’t You Use Mobile Now? http://goo.gl/wlnJ8o
Today’s featured ‘Music To Read overtheshouldermedia By’ down at the bottom of the page
Cécile McLorin Salvant – The Making of ‘For One To Love’
2016 Grammy Award Winner Best Jazz Vocal Album
OVERTHESHOULDERMEDIA 