Introducing MDI Direct

NEW! Instant digital access to our COMPLETE research library for one low price.

Introducing MDI Direct: one-stop, on-demand digital access to all of our research annuals, reports and white papers. Since 1982, Media Dynamics, Inc. has been the premier source for independent estimates and analysis of the media and advertising, and now our research is available to you when you need it, accessed instantly through our website, by report title or by topic. Subscribers simply click on the title to view it.

A one-year subscription to MDI Direct gives you access to TV Dimensions, Cross-Platform Dimensions, National TV ACES, CPMTrack, TV Reach Finder, TV Now & Then, and our weekly TVD Alert and bi-weekly CPD Alert reports. In addition, any new research will be posted to MDI Direct at no additional fee, and when new reports are published (e.g. TV Dimensions 2020) the prior edition will be archived to your account. 

To assist with your search experience, we have categorized all of our reports by genre, along with a brief synopsis. Click on the Explore Reports By Genre button to the left to browse the hundreds of pages of research and analysis available through this service.

MDI Direct is just $1650 for a one-year subscription. Bought individually, these reports cost over $3300, so this service isn’t just timely and comprehensive, it’s also a great deal.

(Please note that MDI Direct e-documents are read-only. For subscribers interested in print copies of any of our reports, these can be provided by request for a modest additional fee. Please contact Customer Service for details.)

National TV ACES 2018-19 TV Season: Upfront TV Network Cost Efficiency Estimates

National TV ACES 2018-19 provides newly updated estimates of cost-per-thousand (CPMs) and cost-per-rating points (CPPs) for the 2018-2019 upfront. It presents our proprietary CPM and CPP projections for all three forms of national TV—broadcast networks, syndication and cable—by daypart and demographics on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis.

Since reports of this nature require considerable explanation and interpretation, we invite interested parties to review the prospectus.

Published: August 2018; 36 pages

Subscribers to Cross Platform Dimensions 2019 or our new MDI Direct subscription service receive Alert reports of new developments and new research, delivered by email on an ongoing and timely basis. These are brief, single subject articles designed to keep you informed as events break or new information becomes available.

CPD 2019 ALERTS BY DATE

2/26/19: Is Social Media Activity Dominated by Young Adults?

3/12/19: Digital Gains in Branding Dollars, but TV is Still the Champ

3/26/19: Are We Media Watchers, Readers or Listeners?

4/09/19: Are Social Media Users TV Ad Receptive?

4/23/19: How Valid are Reach Estimates Across Media?

5/07/19: Are Podcasts & Online In-Car Listening a Threat to AM-FM Stations?

5/21/19: TV is Key to Reaching Those who Shun the Internet

6/04/19: When Comparing Media, it’s Sales Motivation that Really Counts

6/18/19: Which Works Best: Creative or Media/TV or Digital?

CPMTrack 2018

CPMTrack provides considerable detail for national TV (network types, dayparts and, from 1994-95 on, demographics). Significant changes in magazine publishing genres over the years preclude this degree of differentiation, but CPMs by demographics from 2002-present are included for a number of editorial categories, in addition to more general adult CPMs for the top 150 publications. For radio, national spot and network adult CPM estimates on an all-daypart basis are provided.

Published: September 2018; 56 pages

The industry's comprehensive source for evaluating the media as advertising platforms

Media Dynamics, Inc. is proud to introduce a new annual report designed to help make realistic evaluations of the audiences and advertising efficacy of TV, digital, radio, print and out-of-home on a comparative basis.

It’s impossible to understate the impact the new and emerging platforms have had on traditional media over the past two decades. Cross-Platform Dimensions is our attempt to quantify these changes and analyze how each of the media perform as advertising vehicles in this new environment. It also interprets what this all means from a media planner's standpoint, and delves into much-discussed areas like how to develop comparable audience metrics across media.

CPD19 comprises data previously covered in Intermedia Dimensions—audience, time spent, demographics, reach & frequency, CPMs, ad exposure and ad impact—but reassessed for the digital age.

Click here for key topics covered in Cross-Platform Dimensions 2019

All subscribers to Cross-Platform Dimensions 2019 will receive Alert reports of new developments and new research, delivered by email on an ongoing and timely basis. These are brief, single subject articles designed to keep you informed as events break or new information becomes available. A complete list of articles to date is available here.

Published: February 2019; 140 pages

Discounts do not apply to book buyers and third party companies; click for rate

Since 1982, the industry's premier resource on TV as an advertising medium

TV Dimensions provides the only independent and objective analysis of what's happening in television today. It covers all relevant aspects of the medium's performance, ranging from audience fragmentation, program type appeals, viewer attentiveness, and ad impact metrics to how the TV industry is adapting to ensure its continuing profitability, the competitive inroads made by subscription video on demand (SVOD) and how the upfront time buying process works and can be improved.

Many analyses are exclusive to TV Dimensions, including how many ads the consumer really sees, estimating ad awareness by GRP level, and upfront ad revenues, as well as our most requested dataset: our annual upfront CPM estimates and trending. 

Click here for what's new and revised in the 2019 edition.

All subscribers to TV Dimensions 2019 will receive Alert reports of new developments and new research, delivered by email on an ongoing and timely basis. These are brief, single subject articles designed to keep you informed as events break or new information becomes available. A complete listing of articles to date is available here.

Published: January 2019; 194 pages
Discounts do not apply to book buyers and third party companies; click for rates

By Ed Papazian

Ed Papazian brings his first-hand experience to bear on the history of television and its relationship to advertising.

Over the past six decades of my career, I have either witnessed or been a participant in all of television's many evolutions and transformations, all the while remaining a fan to this multi-faceted medium. My background is sufficiently varied, so as to enable me to appreciate the many nuances and tradeoffs that are involved in both the business of television and how audiences respond to both ads and programming.

This book focuses on two pivotal aspects: the first is the evolution of the medium's programming and how audiences respond ("How we use it"); and the second concerns the business side—how programs are created, how time is bought and sold, how ads are created and how they function ("How it uses us"). In both cases I have tried to tell it like it is, while still being as objective as possible, despite strong personal feelings I may have about some of the events and practices the book covers.

Published January 2016, 270 pp.

This report tackles a long-overdue need: revisiting and revising TV reach tables to accurately reflect today's TV viewing environment.

It has been evident for some time that long held assumptions about TV's reach capabilities need to be rethought in light of today's audience definitions, rating fragmentation and the constant increases in commercial loads that are causing people to avoid ad messages by skipping commercials and spending more time with ad-free TV. This report analyzes the situation, including comparisons with old TV reach tables, and presents our independent estimates of what TV reach tables should look like today.

Using a variety of sources, including our own estimates, the bulk of this report presents 4-week adult reach tables by GRP level, starting with 1 GRP and rising one point at a time to 500 GRPs, after which we extend the tables to 1000 GRPs in 100 GRP intervals. Tables are provided covering early AM, daytime, early fringe, primetime and late fringe, for 18 basic demos (adults/men/women aged 18+, 18-34, 18-49, 25-54, 55+ and H.H. income $150,000+).

We have also included a formula for combining reach estimates across dayparts, which will be of interest to users of this report.

Detailed information, including the introduction and table guide, is available by clicking on the button to the left.

Editorial Note:
Media Dynamics, Inc. is the source for TV Upfront Report, based on decades of experience and careful review of all of the available research on TV viewing habits, the growth of broadband-only users, and­ the increased penetration of subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services, such as Netflix and Hulu. We also have had the opportunity to review actual reach tabs made recently and compared them to what the often-outdated reach tables show—some of the contrasts have been shocking, especially for the 18-34s and the affluent segments. Ultimately, we synthesize all of this information into our independent estimates.

Published November 2015; 249 pages

Subscribers to TV Dimensions 2019 or our new MDI Direct subscription service receive Alert reports of new developments and new research, delivered by email on an ongoing and timely basis. These are brief, single subject articles designed to keep you informed as events break or new information becomes available.

TVD 2019 ALERTS BY DATE

2/05/19: Did TV Dramatically Trim its Ad Loads this Season?

2/13/19: Where do Out-of-Home TV Sports Viewers See their Teams in Action?

2/19/19: How People Get their TV Matters to TV Programmers

2/26/19: Another Study Using Eye Tracking Compares TV Commercial Lengths

3/04/19: Profiling TV’s Connected Audience by Age & Time of Day

3/12/19: Digital Gains in Branding Dollars, but TV is Still the Champ

3/19/19: Cord Cutting Continues, but Where is it Going?

3/26/19: The March of Time: Aging & Its Impact on TV Consumption

4/02/19: Second Screen Access While Watching TV Increasing Only Slightly?

4/09/19: Are Social Media Users TV Ad Receptive?

4/23/19: TV Commercial Effectiveness by Length

4/30/19: Local News Access is Strong

5/07/19: Examining TV’s Imbalance of Content Access & Usage

5/14/19: Is Co-viewing a Plus for Advertisers?

5/21/19: Millennials’ and Boomers’ Favorite TV/Video Shows  & Networks Aren’t as Different as You Might Expect

5/28/19: Pay TV “Nevers”…but not Forever?

6/04/19: Surprise, Surprise: Primetime TV Ad Clutter Remained the Same as Last Year

6/11/19: A Proposal to Change TV’s Upfront for the Better

6/18/19: TV's Rising Ad Clutter Problem and a Possible Solution

6/25/19: TV's Solitary Viewing on the Rise