Sirius sees bright financial future
- if it gets to merge with XM

Senators propose XM/Sirius conditions
How does providing leased access for 50% of the channel capacity of the merged XM/Sirius entity grab you? Three US senators think that would be an entirely reasonable condition to impose in exchange for allowing the merger to go forward. At a minimium, the trio expects 20% of capacity to go to minorities or non-profits - that would be anywhere from 60 to 150 channels for those of you keeping score at home, as opposed to the 12 for minorities and 12 for non-profits in the capacity budget proposed by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin.

RBR observation: Watching politicians and regulators, particularly of the Democratic persuasion weigh in on XM/Sirius is a lot like watching a child fill out a list for Santa Claus. If too much of this stuff is ratified into a binding contract, the satcasters have said they'll simply pull the plug on the merger. It looks like the fun isn't yet over on this one.

Florida needs funds
And they think the media may be a good place to find them. The overarching goal is to keep the education system comfortably afloat while providing property tax relief to citizens of the state. That figure to be a popular goal. However, replacing lost funds with sales tax exemptions "which are determined not to advance or serve a public purpose" is not as innocuous a proposal as it may sound, from a broadcaster's perspective.

RBR observation: This is an issue that crops up from time to time, is usually beaten back and then rises again. According to ANA, it's the third relatively recent go-around for the issue in Florida, following efforts in 1987 and 2002. Broadcasters will need to fight this aggressively between now and November.

CNET now part of CBS
CBS Corporation closed on its $1.8 billion acquisition of CNET networks and merged the company into an expanded CBS Interactive. Quincy Smith has moved up to CEO of CBS Interactive from President and Neil Ashe, from CNET, is now President of CBS Interactive. "This marks day one for the new CBS Interactive. From entertainment, news and sports to technology, games and business, the combination of CBS and CNET Networks gives us the content and scale to be leaders on a platform that is gaining audience share faster than any other. Our unparalleled collection of sites will be an extremely powerful vehicle for advertisers to reach highly attractive demographics. At the same time, CBS Interactive will extend and leverage the power of our traditional businesses, as well as serve as a platform to launch the next generation of leading interactive properties that will play a central role in CBS's future. I couldn't be happier to welcome all the people of CNET to the new CBS Interactive group. I know we'll all do great things together," said Les Moonves, CEO of CBS Corporation.

RBR observation: For now, the CNET website doesn't look much different. The only change we could find is at the bottom of the page, where the copyright notice is now for "CNET Networks, Inc., a CBS Company." Also, there's a new pull-down box at the very bottom right to "Visit other CBS Interactive Sites." That includes everything from CBS News and CBS Sports to Last.fm and UrbanBaby.com.

Anheuser-Busch cutting second half radio spend
One of the biggest users of radio advertising, Anheuser-Busch, is significantly cutting spend in the medium for the second half of this year. Some thought the move was to cost cuts to fend off a hostile takeover bid by Belgium-based, Brazilian-run InBev. Last week, A-B execs outlined a billion-dollar cost-cutting plan they said would create comparable value to InBev's $46 billion offer. However, A-B CEO August Busch IV said last week that those cuts did NOT involve media spend. So the reality is they're moving media dollars around, not cutting them--and radio takes the hit. According to AdAge, A-B has begun to inform major station groups that it is cutting and/or eliminating its spot radio buys for the remainder of this year in many markets. The cuts have already affected Clear Channel stations in multiple markets, according to the story. "They represent a significant blow to the radio industry, and not just because A-B is a big spender, shelling out $38 million on radio ads last year from its total measured media outlay of $475 million," said AdAge.

RBR observation: Yes, this is going to be a big hit for national. Local distributor dollars are likely not going to fill the gap. The big deal in all of this is a leading user of radio is slashing radio spend to move it elsewhere. What does that say to other big consumer goods advertisers in the medium? One has to wonder what caused the big shift-are we just not telling the right story about radio? Are the younger demo numbers just getting too shaky in the age of the iPod? If HD Radio numbers were a bit better with consumer adoption, we could offer up something unique-like a national HD-2 "Bud Radio" network or something. But we're not there yet. Hopefully the troops will rally and head out to St. Louis soon.

Pizza Hut debuts new Spanish language ad
Pizza Hut will begin a new Spanish language advertising campaign for Tuscani Pastas featuring real people captured on hidden camera who are surprised by the restaurant-quality of the new dishes. The new television spot, titled "Cooking Show," was shot in Mexico City, where people on the street were invited to a taping of the new cooking show "Cocina Tuscani." The effort was carried into Spanish language television and radio spots. The new spots were created by Dieste Harmel and Partners and will begin airing nationally on June 29. Among pasta consumers, Hispanic households eat pasta more often than the national average, according to data from Mintel research. Hispanic households enjoy a complete package pasta dinner 5.7 times over a 30-day period, compared to 5.0 times for all households and also eat canned/jarred spaghetti or macaroni 2.7 times per month versus 2.2 times for all households.

May Webcast Metrics audience ratings
Ando Media has released its monthly Internet Radio Top 20, a listing of the top-performing Internet radio stations and networks measured by the Webcast Metrics audience measurement platform. Webcast Metrics uses a proprietary platform to track exact data and convert it to standard broadcast audience metrics that can be easily understood by the broadcast and advertising industry. Comparable statistics for broadcast stations have had to use estimates based on small sample size. See the rankers at RBR.com

AOL's "The Black Voices Weekly Wire"
launches, sponsored by Toyota
Black Voices, BlackVoices.com, launched The Black Voices Weekly Wire, blackvoices.com/the-weekly-wire, a weekly three-minute video recap of top entertainment news. Toyota Motor Sales, USA is the official sponsor of the six-week program, with a new video available every Friday on Black Voices' Entertainment Newswire and Style Spotter blogs. The Black Voices Weekly Wire is hosted by Tatyana Ali, R&B artist and actress who is best known for her role as Ashley Banks on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Black Voices is the No. 1 online destination for African-American news, culture and community.

VSS acquires majority stake in Brand Connections 
Veronis Suhler Stevenson (VSS), a private equity firm focused on media, information and education industries, has acquired a majority stake in Brand Connections. The company operates in the alternative out-of-home sector, including airline tray-table advertising. Terms were not disclosed as VSS acquired its stake from private equity firm The Cypress Group. The existing top management group at Brand Connections, including founder/CEO Brian Martin and COO Geoffrey Kantor, will remain as significant investors in the company.

Local.com partners with White Directory Publishers
Local.com, a leading local search site and network, today announced a sales partnership with White Directory Publishers, a division of Hearst Holdings.
The partnership allows Local.com to leverage White Directory Publishers' national sales channel to market and sell Local.com's display ad inventory to national companies with local and regional business locations throughout the U.S. The display ads will appear on the Local.com site, in addition to White Directory Publisher's Talkingphonebook.com and Area-wide.com sites. White Directory Publishers will provide creative support for the display ad units, which will include leaderboard and skyscraper ads.

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Debating performance fees
I have to disagree with Gordon Hastings of the Broadcasters Foundation of America. Although it may sound like a great idea, it's a sell out for what we the broadcasters offer Artists and that is FREE exposure. Without free over the air RADIO, the artists have nothing. I have met dozens of famous artists and many more that wish they were, all have one thing in common they thank radio for what we did to promote their music, make them famous and make them money. If we have to pay artists to make them famous, then we need to charge them, just like we charge business clients who use radio to make money selling their products. Additionally since we already pay the composers, all we need to do is find a source of obtaining royalty free singers, namely cover artists to sing the songs. We don't need Toby Keith, when Bobby Keith can sing the same hit, just as good. Then when Bobby takes away Toby's ability to sell CDs and fill concert halls, Toby will know how good he had it when radio actually played his performances.
Radio needs to continue to fight this, but should lawmakers not see what we bring to the table, then we need to change our platform as well. We don't have to bow down to every extortion that comes our way. Radio WE NEED TO STICK TOGETHER!

Al Sergi - President
Summit Media
Sutton, WV

Media Business Report
Local.com partners
With White Directory Publishers

Internet Business Report
Triton Media Group
Buys Radio Companion

Ratings & Research
May Webcast Metrics
Monthly Internet Radio Top 20