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Welcome to TVBR's Daily Epaper
Volume 24, Issue 130, Jim Carnegie, Editor & Publisher
Thursday Morning July 5th, 2007

TV News ®

MySpace founder
takes on Murdoch

Rupert Murdoch made Brad Greenspan a wealthy man when News Corporation bought EUniverse and its MySpace subsidiary. Now Greenspan wants to challenge Murdoch in bidding for Dow Jones & Company. Greenspan's offer is to buy about a quarter of Dow Jones' stock, so it would not be a complete buyout as Murdoch has proposed for five billion bucks. The Greenspan deal would pay current Dow Jones shareholders about 1.25 billion and the company would get a cash infusion of a quarter billion from selling him new shares. Greenspan told the Los Angeles Times his plan involves a new TV channel on cable or satellite and that Internet video would also be crucial for the future growth of Dow Jones. The Internet entrepreneur said he was willing to talk about joining forces with LA billionaire Ron Burkle in bidding for Dow Jones, but didn't say whether there had yet been such talks.

TVBR observation: It's hard to imagine why Dow Jones shareholders would be interested in selling a piece of the company and betting their future on Greenspan's not-yet-fully-developed plan for new offerings in TV and Internet video. At least, not while there is a full buyout offer at 60 bucks a share on the table from Murdoch. Maybe Burkle, Greenspan and perhaps others can team up to match or exceed that, but so far all they have done is talk.

Radio stocks improved in Q2
Television stocks have clearly outperformed their radio brethren so far this year. But radio did show some long-awaited improvement in Q2. Have radio stocks finally begun to recover after hitting bottom? Most radio stocks are now up year-to-date, improving over their Q1 performance. Still, TVBR's sister publication RBR notes that it's not much of a trend to get excited about - at least, not yet. Seven radio stocks are now up double digits for the year thus far, an improvement over only three at the end of Q1. The best performer is one of the newest and smallest companies. Debut Broadcasting closed on its first radio station acquisition and merged with a public shell to begin trading just last month. The penny stock was up over 58% by the end of the month, but since that was only 70 cents you would need to own a lot of shares to turn a big profit on the price boost. Of stocks listed on a major exchange, Entravision, which is in radio, TV and outdoor, was the star performer, up nearly 27% this year as the biggest player remaining in the fast-growing Hispanic media sector after Univision was taken private. Radio ratings company Arbitron moved into double-digit territory, up nearly 19% YTD, after signing Portable People Meter (PPM) contracts with several major radio groups.
| See the chart for complete results |


NC broadcasters oppose merger
"Allowing XM and Sirius to merge would create a monopoly in satellite radio that would only encourage unfair, anti-competitive commercial practices and a diminution of service to the public." Those words were signed by representatives of 83 radio and television stations in North Carolina, on behalf of about 250 stations, and went to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and his 8th Floor colleagues. The NCAB noted that its members compete with one another, which puts a check on rates and underpins quality programming. "Competition enhances our incentive to be more responsive to our listeners and our communities." NCAB points out that there is more at stake, in their opinion, than government blessings on a satellite audio monopoly. "If the Commission approves this merger," NCAB wrote, "it will only pave the way for the inevitable attempt at merger by the two major satellite television providers. We can think of no structural changes in the broadcast industry that would be more inimical to the public interest." Noting that the FCC itself created two DARS operators at the birth of the service purposely to guarantee competition, NCAB wrote, "Nothing has changed since 1997 to warrant a reversal by the Commission of that decision."

Audio royalty battle just getting started
The attempt to extend performance royalties for musicians to the AM and FM spectrum is just getting started. According to the Washington Post, John L. Simpson is taking point on the project as executive director of SoundExchange and overseer of the MusicFirst coalition. He's a former musician, and as a lawyer got into the music talent representation business before sliding over to SoundExchange. Simpson told the Post that it was unfair that songwriters get a small piece of change every time a tune gets a spin on the radio while the artists themselves get nothing. He's hoping to find sympathetic ears on Capitol Hill, and further hoping that high profile artists with a vested interest in the cause will help him get Capitol Hill's attention. He said he expects a long, hard-fought and potentially expensive battle, since the NAB has a vested interest in stopping the campaign on grounds that it would be a budget buster for most small operators. Border Media Partners honcho Tom Castro told the San Antonio Business Journal that such a plan could "...kill the radio industry." The Recording Industry Association of America is part of the push for performance royalties. SABJ noted that although they it is separate from SoundExchange, RIAA CEO Mitch Bainwol is one of SoundExchange's directors.

TVBR observation: As anybody who has been awake for the last 50 years knows, radio and music have a symbiotic relationship. They need one another. RIAA wants radio to pay to play music. What would it think if radio demanded that musicians pay to have their music put on the air?


Wall Street Media Business Report TM
Tribune vote set for August 21
There's no indication when action may come on required regulatory approvals, but Tribune Company has set a special shareholders meeting for August 21st to vote on the deal to have Sam Zell and a new Employee Stock Ownership Plan finish buying out the public shareholders and take the company private. Shareholders of record on July 12th will be eligible to vote. The proxy is to be mailed out later this month. There is no known organized opposition, so it appears the vote will be a mere formality.

TVBR observation: Tribune's stock price has dropped a couple of bucks in recent weeks, so it appears traders are becoming concerned about whether the company will get the needed waivers of the newspaper/broadcast crossownership rule from the FCC - or, if so, when. The buyout of remaining shares for 35 bucks each can't take place without those waivers, since it would constitute a change of control of the company and void the existing waivers.


Executive Comment
What came first?
By Joe Pilotta

In a January 2006 RBR&TVBR, I wrote an article on PPM, "What came first, the meter or the people?" | See it here-page 18 | Where starting with a big basic premise of all communication, "there are distinctions between seeing and watching, speaking to and speaking with, and listening versus hearing." My conclusion was "Even with technical perfectibility of the PPM or the best sampling technique imaginable is impossible for PPM to discriminate listening from noise because that requires a human differentiation. Therefore, at present, the PPM as an objective rating tool is impossibility."

Well, Arbitron heard or listened and offered Time Spent Exposed (TSE); is that time spent hearing, listening or is it an opportunity to be heard or listened to? TSE exposed replaced time spent listening. Since listening implies actual listeners and exposure means maybe heard, Radio is giving up listeners for exposures. In an ROI, accountability and engagement focused world to loose listeners and substitute exposures is a step backward and not forward...but at least they get this via electronic collection. The exposure model has been widely criticized by the ARF, ANA, and 4A's. Is that what the engagement measure was to remedy?
| Read More... |


Ad Business Report TM

Spengler on the upfront
Tim Spengler, Chief Activation Officer, Initiative North America, spoke to TVBR about the television upfront, as part of a feature for him in our August SmartMedia Magazine. Excerpts, regarding this year's upfront negotiations:

How about digital deals paired with the traditional upfront? How active this upfront and why?
"Not a lot more from my perspective. There is definitely some money--and there will definitely be more money--put into these extensions throughout the year. It's just very hard as you're getting that elephant through the door-moving multiple clients, multiple day parts into one deal. It's hard to get as intricate as a lot of the extensions require in a conglomerate deal. So there is definitely money put aside as a placeholder. A lot of the details are going to be worked out this summer, and that's what we're doing."

How could you sum up the lineup of new programs for the fall?
Any really getting your attention this time around?
"No great headlines for the new season. I didn't see necessarily any breakout hits. I guess my overall predictions would be the ratings falling a bit again next year in prime time. There seems to be a move towards more Sci-Fi/Fantasy, and another the premise of "pals traveling in packs." Whether they are female packs or male packs: The Cashmere Mafia, Lipstick Jungle shows, you've got a couple guy shows."


Media Business Report TM
Coverage pattern shot-gunned
Two out of five media agreed: Immigration was the #1 story for the week of 6/24-29/07, and that was enough to put it at the top of the overall Project for Excellence in Journalism coverage chart. Radio REALLY was homed in on immigration, giving it a huge 27% of its time, leading to a 12% overall rating. Newspapers gave it 14%, and in a major anomaly, it was the only topic on all five top ten lists. Online news sources gave events in Iraq a narrow win, network TV focused on the Supreme Court and cable was fascinated by the latest UK terror plot. Overall, after immigration, there was only a 3% difference between the other nine stories on the top ten list. In another anomaly, online news services managed to skip numbers two through five. The intramural Palestinian conflict was the biggest story to fall out of the top ten. The fire disaster in Charleston SC was replaced with one at Lake Tahoe, and the Texas flooding story was expanded to include other states in the Great Plains. Radio, besides its fascination with the immigration story, had another fascination which it shared with no other medium: The Fairness Doctrine. Hmmmmm, now why would that be?
| Top ten lists here |


Media Markets & Money TM
Univision expands in the Territories
The multimedia cluster operated by US Hispanic giant Univision on the Caribbean island territory of Puerto Rico figures to get a bit bigger. It has filed to acquire Channel 7 WSTE-TV in Ponce from Jerry B. Hartman's Siete Grande Television Inc. The price is 15.5M cash. It'll join television stations WLII-TV Caguas and its satellite, WSUR-TV Ponce, and will be cross-owned with WKAQ AM & FM San Juan, WYEL-AM/WUKQ-FM Mayaguez and WUKQ-AM Ponce.

TVBR observation: Although Puerto Rico is generally treated as one market for ratings purposes, it is basically a three-market island, with San Juan on the northeast shore, Mayaguez on the west and Ponce on the south central. With a sparsely populated, mountainous interior, broadcast clusters are traditionally given much wider latitude to grow past the ceiling than in a geographically-normal stateside market.


Washington Media Business Report TM
Teamsters try to leverage localism
A major part of Tribune will be owned by an employees under an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) if Sam Zell's plan to take the company private gets regulatory sign-offs. However, the Teamsters Union, which will represent many of the 21K new "owners," is not thrilled about the lack of say employees will have in the running of the company under Zell. It took advantage of last week's FCC forum on media ownership in Portland ME to press its case for more say in the company. The Teamster's argument: If Tribune wants to continue cross-ownership waivers, it should allow local employees who know their own market to have a say in corporate governance. "Although called an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, employees will have few real ownership rights," said the Teamsters' Jim Hoffa said. "If given a chance, Tribune employee-owners could play a crucial role in enhancing localism and diversity for the benefit of the public served by the Tribune. These 21K individuals - some of them Teamsters - spread across the country, live and work in the areas that Tribune's broadcast properties serve and could provide a meaningful and diverse perspective to Tribune's programming and operations that would be responsive to the concerns of the local communities. Such a perspective is particularly important, when the FCC is being asked to extend the Tribune's cross-media ownership waivers."


Entertainment Media Business Report TM
Henson joining "Boston Legal"
A new character is being added to ABC's "Boston Legal" next season. Taraji P. Henson will join the cast as a series regular later in the season. She will play a high powered corporate litigator out of the New York office whom Carl Sack, played by John Larroquette, brings in to help him wrestle for more political sovereignty within the firm. The series also announced plans for a number of guest stars to appear during the coming season. Gail O'Grady once again plays Judge Gloria Weldon, who is in a heated relationship with Alan Shore, played by James Spader. Saffron Burrows will appear in a multi-episode arc as a sexy, sophisticated commercial litigator who once had a passionate affair with Alan, the chemistry of which still lingers and distracts. Rene Auberjonois returns to Crane Poole & Schmidt, reprising his role as Paul Lewiston, a senior partner in the law firm. And Mark Valley returns as attorney Brad Chase, who goes up against one of the firm's lawyers in court. Boston Legal stars James Spader as Alan Shore, John Larroquette as Carl Sack, Christian Clemenson as Jerry Espenson, Gary Anthony Williams as Clarence/Clarice Bell, Tara Summers as Katie Lloyd, with Candice Bergen as Shirley Schmidt and William Shatner as Denny Crane. Boston Legal was created by David E. Kelley. Kelley and Bill D'Elia are executive producers. The series, which premiered October 3, 2004, is produced by David E. Kelley Productions in association with Twentieth Century Fox Television.


Ratings & Research
Peacock struts in summer
It hasn't actually won a week, but NBC is showing rare ratings strength in summer programming, repeating its performance as #2 in both Households and the key 18-49 demo. A good bit of that is due to "America's Got Talent," which was the #1 show for the most recent week. CBS won in HH, followed by NBC, Fox, ABC, Univision, CW, a tie by Telemundo and MyNetworkTV, another tie by Ion and TeleFutura, and finally Azteca America. In 18-49, Fox was on top, followed by NBC, Univision, CBS, ABC, CW, TeleFutura, Telemundo, MyNetworkTV, Ion and Azteca America.
| See the top 20 shows |


TVBR Stats
GM U.S. sales fall 21% in June; Ford and DaimlerChrysler sales down 8.1%, 1.8%
More bad news for the economy: General Motors on Tuesday posted a 21.3% decline in June U.S. light vehicle sales to 320,668 cars and trucks. Car sales fell 19.3% to 138,351 while light truck sales dropped 22.8%. DaimlerChrysler posted a decline in June U.S. sales. Ford Motor Co. posted a 8.1% drop in light-vehicle sales for month, and also pointed to its withdrawal from so-called fleet sales. Toyota saw its U.S. sales jump 10%, aided by strong results for its Prius hybrid car and Tundra pickup truck. Chrysler Group recorded a 1.4% fall despite a jump in car sales, as its larger vehicles continued to be a tough sell.
| Read More... |

Japanese automaker sales up, again
Toyota and Nissan bested U.S. manufacturers once again, with both boasting double-digit sales gains. Toyota said sales at its U.S. unit increased 10.2% in June to 245,739 vehicles from 223,018 a year earlier. Toyota brand sales grew 11% to 216,870 vehicles from 195,332, as passenger car sales grew to 145,696 vehicles from 133,611 vehicles. Lexus brand sales rose slightly to 28,869 vehicles from 27,686 a year earlier. Light truck sales in June climbed to 100,043 from 89,407, said a MarketWatch report. Nissan North America reported a June sales increase of 18.2% to 92,213 vehicles from 75,154 a year earlier. Total sales for the Nissan division rose 19.4% to 81,655 from 65,854, and sales for the Inifiniti division rose 9.3% to 10,558 from 9,300.


Stock Talk
Stocks up ahead of the holiday
US stock markets were closed yesterday in observance of Independence Day. On Tuesday, stocks rose on a government report of a less than expected dip in May factory orders and some more M&A activity. The Dow Industrials rose 42 points, or 0.3%, to 13,577.

TV stocks were mixed. The big gainer was Nexstar, up 5.8%. Saga had the worst day, down 1.6%.


Stocks

Here's how stocks fared on Tuesday

Company Symbol Close Change Company Symbol Close Change

Acme

ACME

4.70

-0.21

Lincoln Natl.

LNC

71.72

-0.23

Belo

BLC

20.73

unch

LIN TV

TVL

19.54

-0.01

CBS CI. B CBS

34.23

unch

McGraw-Hill

MHP

67.26

-0.73

CBS CI. A CBSa

34.22

+0.02

Media General

MEG

34.00

+0.29

Clear Channel

CCU

37.70

-0.10

Meredith

MDP

61.60

-0.34

Disney

DIS

34.54

+0.02

News Corp.

NWS

22.74

-0.28

Emmis

EMMS

9.18

-0.03

Nexstar

NXST

14.57

+0.80

Entravision

EVC

10.49

+0.04

Ion Media

ION

1.45

+0.01

Equity Media EMDA 4.27 -0.01

Saga Commun.

SGA

9.84

-0.16

Fisher

FSCI

51.61

+0.83

SBS

SBSA

4.40

+0.05

Gannett

GCI

54.91

-0.27

Scripps

SSP

45.61

-0.27

Gen. Electric

GE

38.70

+0.44

Sinclair

SBGI

14.82

-0.01

Google GOOG

534.34

+3.96

SWMX

SWMX

0.21

unch

Gray

GTN

9.30

-0.07

Time Warner

TWX

21.41

-0.10

Gray, C1. A

GTNa

9.33

unch

Tribune

TRB

30.14

+0.23

Hearst-Argyle

HTV

23.77

-0.26

Wash. Post

WPO

778.01

+0.33

Journal Comm.

JRN

13.17

+0.04

Young

YBTVA

3.67

-0.02


Bounceback

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Below the Fold

Executive Comment
What came first?
There are distinctions between seeing and watching, speaking...

Ad Business Report
Spengler on the upfront
There is definitely some money and there will definitely be more money put into these extensions...

Media Markets & Money
Univision expands
In the Territories of Puerto Rico figures to get a bit bigger...

Ratings & Research
Peacock struts in summer
It hasn't actually won a week, but NBC is showing rare ratings...


Stations for Sale

Market your Stations For Sale
in our daily epapers.

Contact
June Barnes
jbarnes@rbr.com


TV Media Moves

Musical chairs
at Local TV

In TV ownership only since May, when it acquired the former New York Times group, Local TV LLC is already shuffling some managers. Jim Boyer, who headed WHO-TV (Ch. 13, NBC) Des Moines for five years under NYT and Local TV, is now President and General Manager of the company's Oklahoma City duopoly, KFOR-TV (Ch. 4, NBC) and KAUT-TV (Ch. 44, MyNetworkTV). Transferring within Iowa is Dale R. Woods, now President and General Manager of WHO, succeeding Boyer. Woods will continue to oversee WQAD-TV (Ch. 8, ABC) Quad Cities, IA-IL until his successor is selected. Woods has only been at the station since Local TV acquired it in May, having previously been at KWWL-TV (Ch. 7, NBC) Waterloo, IA.

Two to TBS
Turner Broadcasting System's Business Development group has added Kris Nielsen-Refs and Harold Goings as directors to its staff. Both are based in Atlanta and charged with identifying and developing new business opportunities across wide-ranging consumer platforms. Nielsen-Refs joins TBS Inc. from his position as account manager for Turner Broadcasting System Europe Limited. Goings previously served as senior manager of business development for Yahoo! Media Group, where he led content acquisition efforts for the new Lifestyles initiative.

Mediaedge:cia names Mark Sanders CFO, NA
Mediaedge:cia (MEC) has named Mark Sanders Chief Financial Officer, North America, effective today. Sanders will assume CFO responsibilities from Tom Handy. Handy will now focus exclusively on his role as COO, North America. Sanders will report to Handy and Lee Doyle, CEO, North America, and will be supported by the MEC Finance department. Prior to joining MEC, Sanders was Chief Financial Officer at Initiative US, a position he held since 2004.




More News Headlines

ABC.com, CMA strike interactive content deal
ABC and CMA have partnered to present an online, interactive experience that gives fans a backstage pass to some of their favorite artists and events during the summer's biggest Country Music celebration hosted by former "Bachelor" participant Bob Guiney. The four-day festival, which was held June 7-10, in Nashville, was filmed for a two-hour, primetime network television special. "CMA Music Festival: Country's Night to Rock" airs 7/23 (9:00-11:00 p.m., ET), on ABC. The exclusive videos featured on ABC.com debut 7/ 9. The video vignettes will also be featured on the homepage of ABC.com.

Three added to board
The Broadcasters Foundation of America announced the election of three new members to its board of directors. The new members are Larry Dunn, publisher of Broadcasting & Cable and Multi Channel News, Thomas Kane, president and chief executive officer of the CBS Owned Television Stations, and George Stephanopoulos chief Washington correspondent for ABC News. Philip J. Lombardo, CEO of Citadel Communications Company LTD, was reelected chair, Stu Olds, president & CEO Katz Media Group, Vice Chair and Richard Buckley, president & CEO of Buckley Broadcasting, treasurer. Gordon Hastings was reelected Broadcasters Foundation of America president.




TVBR Radar 2007
Television News you won't read any where else. TVBR--First, Accurate, and Independently Owned.

Getting out while
the getting is good?
The way for a television company to impress Wall Street appears to be to put itself up for sale. Through the first half of 2007, the top performing TV stocks were Ion, Nexstar and LIN, none of which expect to be around as public companies by the end of this year. A dozen of the stocks tracked daily by TVBR are up double digits or better year-to-date.

TVBR note: See the chart for complete results in this special page Report in TVBR.
07/03/07 TVBR #129

Romney leading the way
into early spending season
There are 19 announced candidates for president, eight running for the Democratic nomination and 11 vying for the Republican nod. Six of them are already taking their messages to the airwaves, led easily by Mitt Romney (R-MA), according to a Nielsen Monitor Plus tally.

TVBR observation: The Democratic race is widely seen as a three-tier affair, with John Edwards (D-NC) at the nether end of the top tier with Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Barack Obama (D-IL). It's a different kind of race on the Republican side, where one of the people faring best in the polls - Fred Thompson - isn't even running yet. A big question is how much longer can the floundering John McCain (R-AZ) campaign afford to sit on the millions! in cash it's accumulated? Watch for candidates to increasingly enter into the air wars, particularly in selected states where they feel they can be competitive. We'd say early states normally, but this time around, they're almost all early states. See results here
07/03/07 TVBR #129

McCain takes swipe
at Fairness Doctrine
The House of Representative put a nail in the coffin of the Fairness Doctrine before it could even rise to the level of a bill. Now John McCain (R-AZ), with the help of John Thune (R-SD) and Norm Coleman (R-MN), has introduced the "Broadcaster Freedom Act" in the Senate.

TVBR observation: It doesn't matter where you sit on the political spectrum - the fact that the spectrum is not comprised of two and only two points is all you need to know to see that the concept of the Fairness Doctrine is unworkable. It's the rare issue which affords two and only two viewpoints. What's your favorite flavor of ice cream? Chocolate or vanilla? All it takes is for one person to say strawberry and the Doctrine collapses. The plus side, no matter where you sit on the political spectrum, is that freedom of speech is a double-edged sword. It is a good thing that the law of the land makes it almost impossible to disarm your opponent. Better to keep your own sword sharp and know how to wield it. Regardless of what you think of Edwards and his platform, you have to give him credit following the age-old, peculiarly-American dictum of not just getting mad, but also getting even.
07/02/07 TVBR #128

Tom Hicks back in business
He may have retired from Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst (now HM Capital Partners), but Tom Hicks just can't stay away from the big money investment game. Instead of building another private equity firm to go after lots of deals, he is out to raise 400 million bucks in a publicly traded (American Stock Exchange, no symbol yet selected) "blank check" company, Hicks Acquisition Company I Inc., which will go out and try to hit a home run with a single initial investment. It's the same sort of venture as the blank check company, formerly called Coconut Palm Acquisition Corp., which now is the primary investor in Equity Media Holdings.
07/02/07 TVBR #128


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