BBDO taps David Lubars as Chairman, CCO
Omnicom has hired David Lubars, from Publicis' Fallon Worldwide, as chairman and chief creative officer of its BBDO North America. At the same time, BBDO announced that Ted Sann is leaving the agency. These are first big moves for BBDO under Andrew Robertson, who became CEO BBDO Worldwide on 6/1. BBDO is Omnicom's largest agency and serves such clients as Pepsi, FedEx, NYSE and Office Depot. Lubars, 45, had been President of Fallon Worldwide and Executive Creative Director of Fallon North America. He was head of BBDO West before joining Fallon in '98. Sann's career at BBDO stretched 34 years, with the last 11 with direct responsibility for the creative work at BBDO NY.

JWT scores with Jenny Craig
J. Walter Thompson has won creative on Jenny Craig Weight Loss Centers' $45M account after a review that reportedly included Gotham, Heil-Brice Retail Advertising and Bartle Bogle Hegarty. Incumbent Johnson + Ukropina Irvine, CA did not participate in the review.

TV stocks were mixed. Ever volatile Granite was the day's big loser, falling 10.7% to an even one dollar. ACME was off 3.5%. The day's best performers were Liberty Corporation, up 2.1%, Sinclair, up 1.7%, and Viacom Class B, up 1.5%.

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Network comp slowly slips away
It's been a fact of life in television for the past several years, but hardly anyone talks about it - - at least not in public. TV networks have been insisting on drastic cuts in network compensation payments to affiliates and eventual complete elimination of comp in affiliation contract renewals. Editor's note: TV affiliates got to learn to live without it. Got to see the chart to prove it. 06/10/04 TVBR #113

Indecency: Clear Channel
settles with FCC
Is set to make a $1.75M payment to the US Treasury in order to lay to rest its indecency fine vulnerability with the FCC. That would be in addition to $755K paid earlier to settle indecency tab run up by Bubba the Love Sponge, bringing total payment to over $2.5M. TVBR observation: Clear Channel once again is playing it safe. But we're waiting for the other Stern shoe to drop, and when it does, it's expected to land squarely on Infinity, now owned by Viacom. Even with Karmazin out of the picture, FCC vs. Viacom promises to be a much more spectacular fireworks show than this one, fiery though it is in its own right. 06/10/04 TVBR #113

Measuring the Media Moguls - Sinclair Broadcast Group: David Smith, Chairman, President & CEO
David Smith is paid a $1 million salary, but doesn't take a bonus. Since his perks declined slightly last year to $5,462 (from $7,063), his total pay was down 0.16%.
06/10/04 TVBR #113

Cross-platform the wave
of the future?
Consolidation was the name of the game, being a pure-play radio company made you a Wall Street darling. In fact, Emmis got hammered by investors for expanding into television. The future is cross-platform, words of wisdom of Radio One, CFO Scott Royster. Editor's note: Royster is right if you do it correctly! ? 06/09/04 TVBR #112

NBC pulls in 2.9B in the upfront
All but concluded its upfront sales efforts, pulling in a reported $2.9B for the new season, at 7% CPM increases. The big draws were "The Apprentice" and Friends spinoff "Joey." CBS is expected to be the only network to increase its share of the ad market, with its take expected to rise 9% to $2.4B. CBS, still asking for 10% CPM increases, is holding firm with the buying community with 60% inventory sold and dangling the CSI carrot. Editor's note: Who will blink first? 06/09/04 TVBR #112

Radio companies warn
Wall Street about Q2
No one is yet lowering their official guidance for the quarter, but radio companies are telling Wall Street investors that Q2 revenues aren't proving to be as robust as had been anticipated. Entercom CEO David Field: It's not as robust as we would perhaps like to see it. Radio One, CFO Scott Royster: Q2 isn't proving to be as strong as hoped in radio. Emmis CEO Jeff Smulyan: that radio has been "challenging" this quarter. Editor's note: Embrace technology, invest in local and be local.
06/09/04 RBR #112

Measuring the Media Moguls -
E.W. Scripps Company: Kenneth W. Lowe, President & CEO
His salary was $925k (up from $875k), his bonus $804,232 (down from $951k) and his perks were $30,145 (down from $30,418) for a 2003 total of $1,759,377, down 5.23% from $1,856,418 in '02. 06/09/04 TVBR #112

Broadcast TV upfront
looking like $9.15B
About 75% complete, with Fox, NBC and WB the closest to conclusion and CBS, ABC and UPN still holding firm to CPM rate increases. The final tally is looking to be down from last year's $9.3+B to about $9.15B. Editor's note: And we don't like to say RBR told ya so. Our media worlds are changing very fast.w More in the August RBR Solutions Magazine - for marketing space reservations contact JBarnes@rbr.com .

$1 billion Spanish upfront predicted
This year's upfront will see Spanish television break the $1 billion mark, with the biggest share going to Univision's networks. Now that primetime is nearly wrapped up for the English networks, the buyers are quickly turning their attention to other dayparts and to Spanish television. "It's earlier every year - - we are now part of the mainstream culture, Spanish language TV is vs. English language, in the upfront process, and that's a good thing. 06/08/04 TVBR #111

Decency bill stalled
This isn't news to regular readers of this space, but the New York Times has now taken note that the wind is out of the sails of the Broadcast Decency Act of 2004, a bill which for a time looked like the only sure winner on the 2004 legislative agenda. For one thing, issues like Abu Ghraib have shoved it out of the limelight. Editor's note: As TVBR has noted, it probably won't matter this year. If anything happens at all, look for an attempt to attach a rider with limited scope to another bill. 06/08/04 TVBR #111

FCC still on indecency attack
Even if Congress isn't likely to pass a tougher indecency law, LIN Television CEO Gary Chapman agrees with us that the indecency issue is far from dead. Even without congressional action, the FCC is "hot on the trail" of indecency complaints. Editor's note: June RBR Solutions Magazine takes on the indecency issue with radio's top Talk personalities. 06/08/04 TVBR #111

Digital systems vie for TV support
Which system will give cable and satellite a run for their money? The Broadcasters' Initiative which is signing up TV group or USDTV is already up and running in three markets. Editor's note: Other than their stage of development, some broadcasters have told us that there's little difference between the two, but the competing companies insist that's not true. Anyone remember the problem with AM Stereo?
06/07/04 TVBR #110

Measuring the Media Moguls - Paxson Communications: Bud Paxson, Chairman & CEO
Didn't get a bonus in 2002, nor did other top executives of the company. So his take home pay jumped last year with a bonus of $409,283. Combined with his salary of $181,565 and perks of $24,477, Paxson's cash pay was $1,252,325, up 61.04% from $777,663 in 2002. 06/07/04 TVBR #110

McCain, Leahy bill forwards LPFM
John McCain (R-AZ) Patrick Leahy (D-VT) are introducing a bill to expedite the implementation of low power FM stations.
RBR observation: Will the LPFM rules the FCC has proposed cause interference? The simple truth is that no one knows. The Commission didn't do the study that the US Congress mandated - - instead trying to get by on the cheap.
06/07/04 RBR #110

Tribune goes public against LPM
No secret in the industry that Tribune Company, with its WB affiliate in New York, was not happy with the preliminary ratings data being generated by Nielsen's Local People Meters (LPM) in New York. Meanwhile, the TV committee of the Media Rating Council met to consider a request from Nielsen to sanction News Corporation for its financial and logistical support of efforts by a coalition of minority groups, called Don't Count Us Out, which has been attacking LPMs in newspaper, radio and TV ads. Nielsen claims that News Corporation is participating in ratings distortion. Editor's note: Say it again, Arbitronand Nielsen do a lunch. 06/04/04 TVBR #109