‘It’s All About Screens.’ This is the Daily Diary of Screens. Thursday, February 18, 2016, the fifteenth day of the February Sweeps Period or what is the February CBSweeps.
CBS finished #1 broadcast network and ‘The Big Bang Theory‘ was the top program.
In the UK, ‘BBC One‘ finished #1 Sunday as ‘Death In Paradise‘ was the top program outside of soaps.
Seven finished #1 in Australia as ‘Seven News‘ was #1 newscast and Nine’s ‘A Current Affair‘ 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. FRIDAY 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 Thursday, February 18, 2016 (Posted on February 19, 2016)
CBS #1 Thursday as ‘The Big Bang Theory’ finished as the top program with nearly 15 million viewers.
CBS
The Tiffany Network had the biggest comedy in the world and finished #1 on Thursday.
8P ‘The Big Bang Theory‘ (‘The Positive Negative Reaction’) finished with an average 15.24 million viewers and a 10.2/16.
830P ‘Life In Pieces‘ finished with an average 9.34 million viewers and a 5.8/9.
9P ‘Mom‘ finished with an average 8.68 million viewers and a 5.6/9.
930P ‘2 Broke Girls‘ finished with an average 6.40 million viewers and a 4.1/6.
10P ‘Elementary‘ (‘A Study In Charlotte’) finished #1 in its time slot with an average 5.95 million viewers and a 3.9/7.
FOX
The Animal Network of Broadcast had ‘Idol’ and we now have the final 14.
8P ‘American Idol‘ finished with an average 8.19 million viewers and a 5.9/9.
ABC
The Alphabet Network brought out TGIF but it didn’t do what it used to do. The aging process has begun.
8P ‘Grey’s Anatomy‘ (‘All I Want Is You’) finished with an average 7.82 million viewers and a 5.8/9.
9P ‘Scandal‘ (‘The Candidate’) finished with an average 6.09 million viewers and a 4.9/7.
10P ‘How To Get Away With Murder‘ (‘She Hates Us’) finished with an average 4.88 million viewers and a 3.9/7.
NBC
The Peacock Network
8P ‘You, Me and the Apocalypse‘ finished wth an average 2.57 million viewers and a 1.8/3.
9P ‘The Blacklist‘ (‘Drexel’) finished with an average 6.02 million viewers and a 4.1/6. Must See TV ON DEMAND
10P ‘Shades of Blue‘ (‘Undiscovered Country’) finished with an average 5.29 million viewers and a 3.6/6.
The CW
The Little Network That Couldn’t tried but failed on Thursday.
8P ‘DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow‘ (‘Fail Safe’) finished with an average 2.255 million viewers and a 1.6/2.
9P ‘The 100‘ finished with an average 1.36 million viewers and a 0.9/1.
For The Record
CBS finished #1 Thursday with an average 8.59 million viewers and a 5.6/9, DOWN -4.084 million viewers vs SD 2015.
FOX finished #2 Thursday with an average 8.19 million viewers and a 5.8 rating/9 share, UP +1.931 million viewers vs SD 2015.
ABC finished #3 with an average 6.26 million viewers and a 4.8/8, DOWN -2.589 million viewers vs SD 2015.
NBC finished #4 with an average 4.63 million viewers and a 3.6/6, DOWN -343,000 viewers vs SD 2015.
CNN finished as the #1 cable network and #5 overall network Thursday with an average 3.080 million viewers.
FOXNC finished #6 with an average 2.229 million viewers.
FOXSN1 finished #7 with an average 1.990 million viewers.
USA finished #8 with an average 1.937 million viewers.
UNI finished #9 with an average 1.920 million viewers and a 1.0.2.
TNT finished #10 with an average 1.879 million viewers.
HGTV finished #11 with an average 1.827 million viewers.
The CW finished #12 with an average 1.80 million viewers and a 1.2/2, UP +596,000 viewers vs SD 2015.
History Channel finished #13 with an average 1.786 million viewers.
MSNBC finished #14 with an average 1.464 million viewers.
ADSM finished #15 with an average 1.415 million viewers.
TEL finished #16 with an average 1.300 million viewers and a 0.8/1.
TBS finished #17 with an average 1.210 million viewers.
ESPN finished #18 with an average 1.129 million viewers.
Total Television Viewing in the U.S. Thursday finished with an average 55.343 million viewers per half hour in prime time.
Broadcast (English Speaking) Networks on Thursday finished with an average 29.470 million viewers or 53.25% of the available audience. Broadcast networks were DOWN – 4.489 million viewers vs SD 2015 or DOWN -15.23%.
Cable (Top 150 Programs) Networks on Thursday finished with an average 25.873 million viewers or 46.75% of the available audience.
Today In Communication History
On this date in 1987, a controversial, anti-smoking ad aired for the first time on television. It featured Yul Brynner who died shortly after of lung cancer.
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)
Digital/Mobile Research
The Value of An Inactive eMail Subscriber
For retailers, inactive email subscribers “are still valuable customers,” reports MailChimp in an analysis of 6.6 billion sends through its platform that included 60 million e-commerce purchases and 40 million email addresses from retailers using its list segmentation and automation e-commerce features. Inactive subscribers were found to outperform non-subscribers across key metrics such as order frequency, retention rate and order value.
To arrive at its conclusions, MailChimp looked at purchases from the retailers it tracked and determined if those purchases had been made by active, inactive or non-subscribed customers. (The analysis appears to have been limited to e-commerce purchases as opposed to in-store also.) An email address was considered active if it had opened or clicked on an email in the prior 6 months, whereas an inactive address was one that had been sent a campaign but had not engaged with it.
Across the key retail metrics examined, subscribers (both active and inactive) proved to outperform non-subscribers. For example, they ordered 25-27% more frequently, spending 6-8% more than non-subscribers. (In each case, the higher figure actually applies to inactive subscribers.) The retention rate was considerably higher for active subscribers, who were 38% more likely than non-subscribers to make a follow-up purchase. Nevertheless, inactive subscribers were 26% more likely than non-subscribers to make another purchase, another indicator of their value. Subscribers accounted for about 45% of all the retailers’ revenue in the analysis, with 37% coming from active subscribers and another 7% from inactive subscribers. In other words, active subscribers accounted for 84% of subscriber revenue despite comprising a smaller share (61%) of recent recipients.
Overall, MailChimp says, in comparing revenues from active and inactive list segments across retailers, an inactive subscriber was worth almost one-third (32%) of an active subscriber. As such, MailChimp recommends re-engagement strategies as opposed to pruning inactive subscribers from lists.
Web browser, cursor selecting ‘Email’ (blue tone)
What Is the State of Email?
GetResponse looks at current trends in email marketing via a survey of 1,831 email marketers around the world across various industries. The report offers up a host of data, some of which is highlighted below.
◎ While 3 in 4 email marketers track opens and clicks for each send, a sizable share (15%) don’t track or review those metrics.
◎ A smaller majority (53%) use tools to build their list and boost lead generation, though a large share (24%) again don’t manage their list and have no-one responsible for it. Fewer than 1 in 10 use progressive profiling to build customer profiles.
◎ More than 4 in 10 (42% of) email marketers describe their targeting as “none – everyone receives the same message.” The next-largest share (37%) describe their targeting as basic – using 2-5 criteria, while only 4% use layered targeting that combines demographics with lifecycle position, activity level and lead scoring.
Respondents are more than twice as likely to be using 1-2 basic, mobile-optimized templates as they are to be using 1-2 basic, not mobile-optimized templates (66% vs. 26%).
◎ Close to half report sometimes testing alternate subject lines, though one-third don’t proactively optimize their email marketing.
On average, email marketers send 5 emails per month, with sending frequency highest in the finance, banking and insurance sector (12.2) and lowest in the online advertising network (1.4) and consumer goods (1.5) industries.
Almost 3 in 4 respondents are using email automation, and a majority (58%) also personalize their emails. Other techniques such as social media integration (33%) and basic profile-based targeting (17%) have lower adoption, though adoption rates vary significantly by industry.
A majority of respondents will be increasing their email marketing budgets this year (in line with other research on budget trends this year), with budget enthusiasm highest in the affiliate network (70% increasing) and online advertising network (67%) sectors and lowest in the vacations/hotels/leisure (25%) industry.
A majority of marketers surveyed believe their email marketing ROI is either excellent or good, with retail/e-commerce and travel/transportation respondents among the most confident.
Desktops Still Rule in Email-Driven Conversions
Looking at B2C email activity throughout 2015, a recent study from Movable Ink showed that while mobile device are driving a greater share of email opens, most conversions still occur on a desktop.
Specifically, more than two-thirds (68%) of emails were opened on mobile devices, with smartphones alone accounting for a majority (52%) of opens. However, some 53% of the 1.4 million conversions tracked in 2015 across Movable Ink’s customer base happened on a desktop.
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.
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Across The Pond
BBC One #1 Thursday in the UK as ‘Death In Paradise’ top program
BBC One
The Big One had the big one in the Islands.
9P ‘Death In Paradise‘ finished #1 with an average 6.2 million viewers and a 29.2% share.
BBC Two
The Little Two
8P ‘Big Dreams Small Spaces‘ finished with an average 1.9 million viewers and a 9.2% share.
Down Under
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
*FRIDAY AUSTRALIAN OVERNIGHT TV RATINGS
*FRIDAY AUSTRALIAN OVERNIGHT TV RATINGS
Seven #1 Friday in Australia as ‘The Doctor Blake Mysteries’ & ‘Seven News’ top programs
Seven finished #1 Friday in Australia with a 28.4% share of the available audience.
Nine finished #2 with a 27.8% share.
ABC finished #3 with a 20.1% share of the available audience.
Ten finished #4 with a 17.0% share.
SBS finished #5 with a 6.6% share of the available audience on Friday in Australia.
Top Non-News TV Ratings in Australia Friday
#1 DOCTOR BLAKE MYSTERIES ABC 886,000 viewers #1 in all markets except Melbourne
#2 BETTER HOMES & GARDENS Seven 749,000 viewers #1 in Melbourne
#3 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 606,000 viewers Sydney top market
#4 7.30 ABC 578,000 viewers Melbourne top market
#5 THE CHASE AUSTRALIA Seven 551,000 viewers Melbourne top market
#6 GRIFF’S GREAT BRITAIN ABC 545,000 viewers Melbourne top market
#7 FAMILY FEUD TEN 511,000 viewers Sydney top market
#8 HOT SEAT Nine 468,000 viewers Melbourne top market
#9 SAVING MR. BANKS Seven 467,000 viewers Melbourne top market
#10 THE LIVING ROOM Network TEN 456,000 viewers Melbourne top market
Top Newscast In Australia Friday
#1 SEVEN NEWS Seven 881,000 viewers #1 in Sydney, Adelaide & Perth
#2 NINE NEWS Nine 868,000 viewers #1 in Sydney, Melbourne & Brisbane
#3 NINE NEWS 6:30 Nine 825,000 viewers Melbourne top market
#4 SEVEN News/TodayTonight Seven 808,000 viewers Melbourne top market
#5 ABC NEWS ABC 664,000 viewers Melbourne top market
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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
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