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Welcome to TVBR's Daily Epaper
Volume 23, Issue 110, Jim Carnegie, Editor & Publisher
Tuesday Morning June 6th, 2006

TV News ®

WATL they think of next:
Gannett doubles in Atlanta
180M dollars will bring multimedia Gannett Company its second television station in the Atlanta market. Tribune's WATL-TV will be pairing up with Gannett's WXIA. The sale by Tribune is the first major action on its announced intention to spin 500M worth of assets (5/31/06 TVBR #106). Tribune Chairman Dennis FitzSimons, pictured, explained, "Our goal is to generate additional shareholder value through improved operating performance, asset sales and the disciplined repayment of debt over the next several years. The sale of WATL further demonstrates our commitment to delivering value for shareholders." WATL is a WB affiliate currently operating on Channel 36, and is headed to News Corp./Fox's new MyNetworkTV. Gannett's WXIA brings NBC into the market over Channel 11. It becomes the third duopoly market for Gannett, joining Denver and Jacksonville. "Atlanta is a terrific TV community that is a perfect location for a duopoly such as this. And WATL-TV is a fine property, with great potential to complement WXIA," said Roger Ogden, president and CEO of Gannett Broadcasting.

TVBR observation: Cross-ownership is not a consideration here. Although both companies are well-known for their operation of newspapers, in this market that business primarily goes to Cox and its Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Gannett, of course, is pretty much everywhere via its national newspaper offering, USA Today.

Will indecency gets its day today?
The buzz for the past couple of weeks has been that the House of Representatives will take the path of least resistance and give the rubber stamp to the Senate version of the Broadcast Decency Act. A quick vote will avoid the backroom machinations of a conference committee and quickly get something together that can be forwarded to the White House for the signature of George W. Bush. The Senate bill is the lesser of the two versions, raising maximum single-incident fines ten times to 325K rather than 500K, and minus numerous bells and whistles. Among other things, the House version would have mandated license revocation hearings for repeat offenders, would have extended punitive jeopardy beyond licensees to the actual perpetrators of the indecent act.

TVBR observation: If the FCC continues its policy of issuing multiple fines to affiliates when an indecent incident occurs over a network, it will not take long for the totals to go into the stratosphere. A three station hit will be a mere 25K south of 1M. It could cost 65M to say @#$% over a 200-station web.


Strike threat at NBC Universal
After working without a contract since March 31st, members of the NABET-CWA union have voted to authorize a strike if their union cannot come to terms with NBC Universal NABET-CWA President John S. Clark said critical issues for employees included job security and NBC's attempt to expand the circumstances under which non-bargaining unit persons could use digital cameras and related equipment. Management also was looking to reduce hours for night shift differential pay, eliminate retiree health care coverage for new hires, and make other changes in staffing and work hours that affect union-represented workers, according to the union chief. The NABET-CWA union agreement covers technicians and other employees at NBC Universal network operations and network O&O stations in New York, Washington, DC, Chicago and Burbank, CA.

Focus on the Family
calls for cable choice

"For too long, parents have been forced to accept, and pay for, disgusting cable programming. If the cable networks will not clean up their material, then cable operators should give families the option of not paying for channels they find offensive." These of the words of Focus on the Family Chairman James C. Dobson, essentially calling for a la carte cable channel menus. He said family-friendly tiers are a step in the right direction but ultimately fall short. "Cable executives, not parents, are currently deciding what constitutes 'family friendly' programming. Only families themselves are capable of making such personal, values-based decisions." Dobson also said that noncommercial and religious channels should be provided on a universal tier that goes into all homes regardless of whether it has been checked off on a given customer's a la carte choices. "Nonprofit and religious networks offer a valuable public service and often provide their programming to cable companies free of charge," Dobson said. "We believe their place should be preserved on any basic level of service above which programming choices would be offered."

TVBR observation: Let us say, for the sake of argument, that there is a noncommercial cable channel which never ever crosses the line into indecency, but frequently puts forth commentary espousing a particular view of politics which a cable customer a) does not agree with and b) does not want to subsidize with his cable fee. Where have we heard this argument before? Oh, yeah, we just heard Dobson make this argument. The fact is that a lot of channels which lack a profit motive and/or a high degree of viewer interest generally oppose a la carte. Better to earn you place on the dial and let customers block out those channels they do not want than to kill off noncommercial, religious, minority, foreign language and other fine specialty programming channels.


Wall Street Media Business Report TM
Revenues up 18% for Allbritton
Allbritton Communications doesn't have public stock, nor does it hold quarterly conference calls with analysts. It does, however, have public bonds and regularly reports its financial results to the SEC. For the company's fiscal Q2, January-March 2006, Allbritton reported that revenues were up 18% to 45 million. Operating expenses were up only slightly, so operating income jumped 73.8% to 10.7 million. The company reported that local/national ad revenues were up 17.3% for the quarter, with ad demand strongest for its Washington, DC, Birmingham, AL and Charleston, SC stations. "This increase in demand was partially attributable to established increases in ratings for certain ABC primetime programming over the past year, the strength of our local news franchises and our continued focus on new business development," the company said. Allbritton owns seven ABC affiliates, plus an all-news cable channel in the Washington, DC market.


Ad Business Report TM

Gas Station TV chooses ABC New Media Sales
Gas Station TV (GSTV), a new retail-based television network available to gas stations across the country (see More News Headlines), has chosen ABC New Media Sales, a division of ABC National Television Sales, as its exclusive national ad sales rep. The multi-year agreement, effective immediately, was announced by Adam Bleibtreu, president, GSTV, and John Watkins, president of ABC National Television Sales. In addition, GSTV will feature select ABC News content, including the "News You Can Use" segments from "Good Morning America"; local news, weather forecasts and traffic updates from ABC O&O stations; and promotional material from the ABC Television Network. GSTV programming, refreshed multiple times during the day, will air on 20" high-definition, daylight viewable LCD monitors embedded into gas pumps. The full-motion video and stereo sound of GSTV will be broadcast throughout gas stations. Signed GSTV advertisers to date include Allstate, Chevrolet, ditech.com, Goodyear, Pepsi and U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company.

Volkswagen names Lifestyle PR
as Agency of Record

Volkswagen of America has appointed MWW Group as its lifestyle and entertainment PR AOR. In this role, MWW Group will manage national lifestyle and entertainment media relations initiatives for the Volkswagen brand in the U.S. market. "It's time to expand our public relations outreach efforts in lifestyle and entertainment media," said Kerri Martin, director of brand innovation, Volkswagen of America. "MWW Group has a successful track record with other iconic brands and has a demonstrated ability to translate a brand's business goals and objectives into creative public relations strategies and programs."


Media Markets & Money TM
Univision deadline reportedly pushed back
Univision is giving would-be buyers an extra week and a half to put their bids together, according to wire service reports. Both Bloomberg and Reuters quote sources close to the bidding as saying that the previous deadline of Thursday, June 8th - which had never been publicly confirmed by the company - has now been extended to Tuesday, June 20th. At least two groups are known to be putting together bids for the US Spanish media giant - Televisa, with backing by one group of equity funds, and media mogul Haim Saban, as part of a competing group of equity funds. Univision Chairman Jerry Perenchio is believed to be seeking 13 billion or more for the company.


Washington Media Business Report TM
Look for slow kick-off
to FCC ownership review

According to reports, the initial FCC action on the Third Circuit remand of media ownership rules under Chairman Kevin Martin will be to decide to decide. A neutral proposal to begin study and solicit comments from stakeholders and the public is the likely first step. The two Democrats, Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein, can be expected to revive their road show of public hearings. What will be interesting will be just how much of this activity will be supported by Martin in the FCC budget and how many such sessions will be attended by Martin and the other Republicans, Debi Tate and newcomer Robert McDowell. It is also likely that Martin will not try to repeat the Michael Powell strategy of taking the various parts of the ownership rulemaking and crafting them into a whole, but to instead consider each piece separately so that one problem area does not carry down items that might well survive if considered on their own. Martin has indicated many times that in his view restrictions currently in place on cross-ownership of newspaper and broadcast properties are in need of loosening. It has been widely anticipated that Martin will make cross-ownership the first chunk of the 6/2/03 rulemaking to receive serious consideration.

TVBR observation: The road ahead will once again be long. It takes time to prepare studies. It takes time to collect public comments, and then reply comments, and in matters of high interest and importance, it seems more often than not the deadlines for both end up being extended. The activist groups whipped up by Copps last time are fully aware of what the FCC is doing, and they can be counted on to make a lot of noise again. In the Senate, Byron Dorgan (D-ND) can be counted on to pay strict attention to what the FCC is doing, and will be joined in equal measure by Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) in the House. So send in the clowns, ladies and gentlemen. Media ownership will no doubt once again be a media circus, in the trade press for sure and to a surprisingly high degree in the general press. Stay tuned...


Cable Business Report TM
End finally near for Adelphia?
The long, drawn-out bankruptcy break-up of Adelphia Communications may finally be near the finish line. A US bankruptcy judge in New York has refusing to let an antitrust lawsuit by a small cable channel interfere with the 17.6 billion sale of Adelphia's cable systems to Comcast and Time Warner Cable (4/22/05 TVBR #80). That sale is still on track to close by the end of this month. However, The America Channel, a small, independent company that is developing a new cable channel, is heading to a federal court today seeking an injunction against the sale to Comcast and Time Warner. Meanwhile, in a little noticed move, the bankruptcy judge allowed Adelphia to sell a radio asset that few people even realized it had: 374,632 shares of Jones Media Networks. The 2.7% stake in Jones was sold back to the company for about 1.9 million. Adelphia long ago sold its only radio station, then called WNSA-FM Buffalo, NY, to Entercom for nine million.


Entertainment Media Business Report TM
WWE sees new revenue streams
for 75,000 hours of content

World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) says it has been aggregating the best of professional wrestling television by strategically acquiring video libraries from a host of national and regional promoters. With a collection now totaling over 75,000 hours of content, the WWE is looking for new ways to monetize that video library. It has announced several initiatives to use that content over multiple platforms:
| Read More... |

Telefutura premiering "¿Qué Dice la Gente?"
TeleFutura's popular Spanish-language version of "Family Feud," formerly titled "100 Mexicanos Dijeron" (100 Mexicans Said), is back with a new name and features U.S. Hispanic families from all across the country. "¿Qué Dice la Gente?" (What Do People Say?) brings back Marco Antonio Regil as host for the weeknight primetime gameshow 6/12, that pits two families against each other in a battle to guess public opinion on a wide range of subjects.


Internet Media Business Report TM
Online newspaper ads jump 35% in Q1
Ad expenditures for newspaper websites increased by 34.9% to 613 million in Q1 versus the same period a year ago, according to preliminary estimates from the Newspaper Association of America. Print and online expenditures together totaled 11.1 billion for Q1, a 1.8% year-over-year increase. Spending for print ads in newspapers totaled 10.5 billion, up 0.3% versus the same period a year earlier led by strong gains in real estate advertising. Among the print categories, classified advertising was up 4.7% to 3.8 billion, retail ad spending was down slightly by 1.0% to 4.8 billion, and national advertising was down by 4.8%, coming in at 1.7 billion. Within the print classified category, real estate advertising climbed 26.3% to 1.1 billion; recruitment advertising increased 2.4% to 1.1 billion. Automotive was down 14.5% to 940 million. All other classifieds were up 11.9% to 702 million.

TVBR observation: We have heard this electronic media talk at the 4A's and TVB this year but understanding the world of electronic media is not complex. Its only complex if you are not there and still stuck in 2003. Newspaper has grabbed this quickly so TV groups this is your last year to get on board or other media will pass you by. Do not believe us then scroll back up and see how Wall Street is projecting radio's revenue growth as TV is not far behind.

SmartSMS to provide text messaging services to AD/MAX
Smart SMS Corp. CEO Gordon Lee announced the company has entered into an exclusive strategic alliance with AD/MAX, the media unit of Catalyst House, Inc. SmartSMS will provide premium mobile text-message marketing technology and services to AD/MAX's bundled merchant media campaigns. Once reserved only for big spenders like Coca-Cola, Nike, The Apprentice, and American Idol, the collaboration of SmartSMS and AD/MAX will provide premium text-message marketing with web-based control for small-to-medium sized Southern California businesses who can promote and brand their wares locally. AD/MAX bundled merchant media solutions combine quality exposure elements of both a local and worldwide Internet portal presence, along with local cable and radio spots, residential direct mailings, yellow pages, and barter-exchange commerce and economics. Strategic partners and media providers to AD/MAX and its LocalTender.com local search portal now include: Cox Media; ITEX Cashless Payment Systems; Matchbin, Creditz, XO Barter Software of New Zealand; Techspeed Software Solutions; XRAYMEDIA; Springboard Capital and TVA Capital.


Ratings & Research
Nielsen Sports offers a deeper look
into sports sponsorships

Nielsen Sports released a comparative analysis that lets sports franchises and sponsors evaluate the effectiveness of sponsor-placed media across multiple sports. The analysis, which is based on measurements from Nielsen's Sponsorship Scorecard service, compares the top three sponsors in four major sporting events during the past year, including the NASCAR Daytona 500, U.S. Open Men's Final, NFL Super Bowl and NCAA Rose Bowl. Sponsors were ranked by average number of televised impressions per hour among viewers ages 25-54. Sponsorship Scorecard enables clients to gauge their ROI by matching impressions across different sports. For example, the number one sponsor at the U.S. Open Men's Final, JPMorgan Chase, achieved 162 million impressions per hour compared to the Super Bowl's top sponsor, Motorola, which achieved nearly the same at 157 million impressions. Also of note are Lowe's Home Improvement and Citibank, the top sponsors in the NASCAR Daytona 500 and the NCAA Rose Bowl respectively, which achieved 110 million and 95 million impressions respectively. Sports franchises and sponsors can also determine which in-stadium locations provide the greatest number of impressions during events. In the case of the U.S. Open Men's Final, JPMorgan Chase's brand appeared on both end court and arena stadium ads. However, the end court ad location generated more impressions than the arena stadium ad (461 million vs. 7 million).
| See the charts here |

Editor's note: July RBR-TVBR Solutions Magazine - our Annual Sports Media and Marketing issue. This year, AND1 Brand Marketing Manager Taylor Duffy talks about marketing and branding his company's basketball shoes with radio, television and the internet; Emmis Sports Marketing's David Barnett on making money off of sports programming. Have an idea working and like to share in the voice contact Carl Marcucci CMarcucci@rbr.com For Ad Space reservations contact Jim Carnegie JCarnegie@rbr.com or June Barnes JBarnes@rbr.com Solutions Magazine 15,000 copies mailed to Radio and TV executives - share in the voice of RBR.

Mass transit consumers studied
Scarborough Research released an analysis of Mass Transit Users - those consumers who use subways and railway systems in cities that have these transit options as measured by Scarborough - and Power Pedestrians, or people who do a significant amount of walking in towns and cities. The analysis finds that this often overlooked consumer group has unique targeting value for marketers.
| Read More... |


Stock Talk
Fed chief sends stocks skidding
Comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke raised worries on Wall Street of yet another rate increase later this month. The Dow Industrials plunged 199 points, or 1.8%, to 11,049.

Virtually all TV stocks were lower. Among those hardest hit were Saga, down 6.6%, Sinclair, off 3.9%, and SBS, down 3.6%.


Stocks

Here's how stocks fared on Monday

Company Symbol Close Change Company Symbol Close Change

Acme

ACME

5.13

+0.05

LIN TV

TVL

8.76

-0.28

Belo

BLC

17.13

-0.09

McGraw-Hill

MHP

51.54

-0.38

CBS CI. B CBS

26.56

+0.13

Media General

MEG

37.20

-0.92

CBS CI. A CBSa

26.56

+0.08

Meredith

MDP

50.34

-0.63

Clear Channel

CCU

30.62

-0.54

News Corp.

NWS

20.19

-0.26

Disney

DIS

30.74

+0.12

Nexstar

NXST

5.11

-0.07

Emmis

EMMS

16.13

-0.44

NY Times

NYT

23.87

-0.33

Entravision

EVC

8.03

-0.18

Ion Media

ION

0.88

-0.02

Fisher

FSCI

42.78

-0.34

Saga Commun.

SGA

9.66

-0.68

Gannett

GCI

53.66

-0.65

SBS

SBSA

5.32

-0.20

Gen. Electric

GE

34.22

-0.44

Scripps

SSP

46.37

-0.02

Granite

GBTVK

0.20

-0.02

Sinclair

SBGI

8.16

-0.33

Gray

GTN

6.36

-0.14

Time Warner

TWX

17.50

-0.08

Gray, C1. A

GTNa

6.51

+0.01

Tribune

TRB

29.89

-0.05

Hearst-Argyle

HTV

22.00

-0.27

Univision

UVN

35.70

-0.66

Journal Comm.

JRN

11.45

-0.18

Wash. Post

WPO

794.25

-12.50

Lincoln Natl.

LNC

56.75

-0.60

Young

YBTVA

3.48

+0.16


Bounceback

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TV Media Moves

Openings in Austin
The Austin American-Statesman reports that two GMs in the Texas capital got their walking papers following the May sweeps. Out are Mike Reed at CBS O&O KEYE (Ch. 42) and Carlos Fernandez, formerly at LIN's KXAN (Ch. 36, NBC) and LMA'd KNVA (Ch. 54, WB).


Below the Fold

Ad Business Report
Gas Station TV
Chooses ABC New Media Sales...

Cable Business Report
End finally near for Adelphia?
Long, drawn-out bankruptcy break-up finally be near...

Entertainment Media
Business Report
WWE sees new revenue streams
75,000 hours of content and guess what - Content is King...

Internet Media Business Report
Online newspaper ads jump
Websites increased by 34.9% to 613 million in Q1...

Ratings & Research
Look into sports sponsorships
Nielsen Sports offers a deeper look...


More News Headlines

Pumping in the programming
It is just possible that you are not getting enough video content in your life. If you feel that way, you will be glad to know that one venue which traditionally has not been home to a television screen is about to get one, if Gas Station TV has anything to say about it. GSTV will place a 20-inch high-def screen right into a gas pump, reaching a hitherto unreachable and briefly captive audience. ABC is providing "News You Can Use" segments and local traffic reports, and AccuWeather forecasts will be featured. Murphy Oil USA has agreed to take on the service at its stations (often found in Wal-Mart parking lots), gas station equipment manufacturer Gilbarco has agreed to distribute them and Delphi Display Systems will be contributing some of the technology. The television stations will focus on entertainment and informational programming and will provide "unique advertising opportunities to the gas retailer marketplace."

TVBR observation: The only flaw we can see in this business model is that by the time consumers are done paying for gas, they will not have enough money left over to buy whatever it is that is being advertised. Also, we are beginning to wonder exactly where we will be able to go where there is not a television monitor as we plunge forward into the 21st Century. Are those guys who are selling their foreheads for logo tattooing eventually going to have flat-screen televisions surgically implanted? We cannot wait to see where TV turns up next.


RBR - Radio News

Analyst predicts 2006 decline for radio revenues
Yep, you read that correctly. Most Wall Street analysts have ratcheted down their radio revenue projections more than once already this year, but now Anthony DiClemente at Lehman Brothers has moved into negative territory. Rather than his previous expectation that radio would be flat in 2006, he is now projecting a 1% decline in ad revenues - and he is also extending that minus 1% forecast to 2007. "Our expectation for a 1% contraction in industry revenues is attributed to deteriorating industry fundamentals as industry pacings reflect a continued soft ad market in Q2 2006, a lack of pricing power, and continued migration of advertisers to other forms of media including the Internet. We point out that we are substantially lowering our Q2 2006 industry estimates to minus 2.6% year-over-year from minus 0.7% Y/Y as we believe April revenue results will come in lower than expected [the actual number, released after his revision on Friday, was -4%] and company guidance for Q2 2006 reflects little indication of improvement in recent trends," DiClemente said in a research note. The analyst says he expects the second half of this year to be a bit better than the first half, due to political advertising, but he sees only a "modest addition" from political and no meaningful catalysts to boost radio ad sales.

TVBR observation: Radio had been counting on inventory pressure from television to provide a big boost in the second half of this year. But with automotive so weak for TV as well, political advertising may not push too much other advertising off of TV this fall. While TV should do better than radio by comparison, the real worry now is that both are likely to be in the same boat in 2007 - with soft demand, no big events (Olympics or political) to soak up inventory and no catalyst (at least none that can yet be seen) to boost advertiser interest in broadcasting.


TVBR Radar 2006
Television News you won't read any where else. TVBR--First, Accurate, and Independently Owned.

Univision bidding war
begins this week
There is been No Official Announcement, nor do we expect one, but by all accounts first round bids for Univision.

TVBR observation: Univision shareholders have been rejoicing at the news that Emilio Azcarraga Jean does not want anything to do with the Haim Saban group. A consortium of consortia could have left Univision in the position that VNU was recently in - with only one bidder stepping up to the plate. The VNU deal finally got done, but the sellers didn't walk away with smiles on their faces. Details see
06/05/06 TVBR #109

Debt raters turn thumbs down
on Trib stock buyback
Two billion plus in stock buybacks may be good news for Tribune Company shareholders but the ratings agencies say that's not the case for its bank lenders and bondholders. Moody's, S&P and Fitch have all cut their ratings on Tribune since the stock buyback announcement. As it stands now, all three have given Tribune their lowest investment grade rating. Should the company fully execute the share repurchase plan, a non-investment grade rating is likely. The review will also focus on management's commitment to reducing leverage in the event that only a portion of the share repurchase program is executed."

TVBR observation: Much could be hinging on CEO Dennis FitzSimons' successful execution of the related plan to sell off a half billion bucks worth of non-core assets, including some smaller market TV stations (yet to be identified). That, along with some 200 million in overhead reductions, will improve the leverage situation and perhaps put Tribune back in the good graces of the ratings companies. But if the asset sales are slow to come together, Tribune could find itself with junk bond ratings - and have to pay more for what it borrows.
06/02/06 TVBR #108

Upfront update: buyers comment
The upfront marketplace is still stalled, thanks to the Live +7 controversy. Said one buyer: "When the marketplace gears up, it will likely be flat to down. It's not that the advertisers' budgets are down, it's just that the budgets for TV have been cut back and carved out by brand managers who want to experiment in environments that might be psychographically appropriate for the brands vs. putting all their money to television." More in Ad Business Report section in
06/02/06 TVBR #108

Martin to change
channels on multicast?
It looks like FCC Chairman Kevin Martin will make multicast must-carry one of the first issues to tackle once he has a third Republican vote in place in the form of Robert McDowell. The Michael Powell FCC already called this broadcast v. cable bout in favor of cable, so the fact that it appears to be up for reconsideration can only be good news for broadcasters. According to reports, the matter could hit the FCC agenda by mid-July or earlier.
06/01/06 TVBR #107


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