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Volume 24, Issue 140, Jim Carnegie, Editor & Publisher
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Thursday Morning July 19th, 2007
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TV News ®
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 Wallace to head NBC O&Os
John Wallace has been named President of the NBC Owned-and-Operated Television Stations. Wallace, a 19-year NBC veteran, succeeds Jay Ireland, who recently was named President and CEO, GE Asset Management (6/22/07 TVBR #122). "John is a smart, energetic executive who knows how to plan, execute, and lead a team. He has been here for nearly 20 years, much of that in our television stations division. He knows this company inside and out," said NBC Universal President and CEO Jeff Zucker. Wallace began his NBC career as a page and has held a couple of other jobs since then. Most recently he served as Executive Vice President, Television Operations and Production Services. Prior to that, Wallace held several positions within the NBC TV Stations Group including Senior Vice President, Broadcast Operations; Vice President, Digitization and Information Technology; and Vice President, Broadcast Operations. Before that, he was local sales manager for WCAU-TV (Ch. 10), the NBC O&O in Philadelphia. Now he will oversee all 10 NBC O&O stations. He will not, however, oversee the Spanish-language Telemundo O&O group, as Ireland had.
Bancrofts hold the power
The board of directors at Dow Jones & Co. has given its OK to a five billion bucks buyout by News Corporation. Now the Bancroft family, with their 65% voting stake, will have their say. But if the family is split, Rupert Murdoch could still succeed in buying Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal. Unlike many companies where members of the founding family (OK, the Bancrofts aren't the founding family, but they have been in charge for 100 years) have a voting trust agreement, the various factions of the Bancroft family are free to vote their Class B shares, with 10 votes each, as they wish. So, there won't necessarily be a solid 65% block voting yea or nay via the super-voting Class B shares. According to the Wall Street Journal, Michael Elefante, who represents some of the Bancroft trusts, and Bancroft family member Lisa Steele, were among the Dow Jones directors who voted for the sale to News Corporation, as did company CEO Richard Zannino. Bancroft family member Leslie Hill and Dieter von Holtzbrinck abstained, while Christopher Bancroft left the meeting before the vote. That made the vote 13 yes, two abstentions and one absent. Christopher Bancroft has been actively seeking alternatives to the News Corporation bid.
TVBR observation: News Corporation and representatives of the Bancrofts have drawn up a voting agreement which would pledge all Bancroft-owned shares to be voted for the sale to News Corporation. If that isn't accepted by the family, it will then become a numbers game to get to 51%. If about half of the shares held by the various Bancroft factions are voted in favor of the deal, that's about a third of the total votes. It would then take overwhelming approval by the remaining shareholders - and a heavy vote turnout - to get to that 51%. That is possible, but it would be much easier for Rupert Murdoch to pull this off if he can get the backing of the entire Bancroft clan. The Bancrofts will assemble today for a presentation of the offer, but no decision is expected until next week.
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 Cone of silence for preteen junk food ads
Nine food manufacturers have joined with Kellogg's and early program adopter Kraft Foods in agreeing to change how they market to children younger than 12 years of age. The heat is on to combat childhood obesity, widely seen as a threat of epidemic proportions. This food manufacturer's initiative will possibly head off attempts to address the problem through regulation and/or legislation. FTC Chair Deborah Platt Majoras (pictured) said, "While changes in food marketing alone will not solve the nation's childhood obesity problem, these actions will help make a healthy choice the easy choice." As a general rule, companies will run ads on children's media for food meeting certain nutritional benchmarks, and will curtail the use of popular children's characters to do the selling, except for nutritious items. Some companies have already curtailed advertising aimed at preteens; others joining in the pledge are General Mills, McDonalds, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo., Campbells Soup, Cadbury Adams, The Hershey Co., Unilever and Masterfoods USA. Kraft Foods has already been following such a program since 2005, according to the Associated Press. Majoras said that these companies account for just about two-thirds of all food advertising aimed at children.
TVBR observation: Media companies do not appear to be sweating this development. The manufacturers still have marketing money to spend, and besides the option of pushing their nutritious products, they have a secondary option: according to the New York Times many are looking at reformulating some products to bring them up to nutritional snuff. Any voluntary initiative which can keep Washington out of the mix is a good thing, particularly if it can be done without impacting the bottom line.
CBS sets fall premiere sked
CBS announced early premieres for "Kid Nation" and "Survivor: China" during the week of September 17th, along with most of its Sunday lineup. The rest of the Eye network's schedule will launch the week of September 24th, which is the official beginning of the 2007-2008 TV season. Also, "Viva Laughlin," a new mystery drama, will have a special preview on Thursday, October 18th, after mega-hit "CSI," before moving to its regular Sunday time slot on October 21st.
| See the CBS fall premiere schedule |
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 FCC on the agenda next week
It may become cost-effective at some point to install a row of lockers in the green room of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet. The names above the lockers will read Martin, Copps, Adelstein, Tate and McDowell. They'll all likely be back there again next week. Ed Markey (D-MA) has plenty of seniority in the still-new House Democratic majority, and he had committee-assignment options at the beginning of the year, but could not resist getting this subcommittee back. And he has made the most of his tenure. "Oversight of the Federal Communications Commission - Part 2" is the name of next week's session. Markey has booked Room 2123 in the Rayburn House Office Building for 9:30 AM on Tuesday, 7/24/07 for the session. As a reminder, the Senate Commerce Committee will be examining progress made thus far on the DTV transition, on Thursday, 7/26/07 at 10AM.
TVBR observation: Although no details have been announced, Markey has recently expressed concern about several items. He and Energy & Commerce Committee chair John Dingell (D-MI) sent FCC Chair Kevin Martin numerous questions to ponder regarding the ins and outs of private equity ownership of communications companies; Markey has expressed concern about the childhood obesity epidemic and its juncture with FCC policy; and a little further back, Markey and Dingell have also expressed concern about the progress of the DTV transition. These topics may well come up, along with who knows what else.
News is for the old
Who is using news sources and how much? That's a question that the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press Politics and Public shed some light on in the course of trying to guage the news habits of young people. The Center is part of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. The suspicion is that young people nowadays pay less attention to the news than their counterparts in earlier decades. One of the tables included has information on media use by age group, which contains interesting facts. The medium which is hurting in general and has made but a small dent in teenage habits is newspaper; television holds its own with teens - almost a third check out TV news every day and about a fourth hear news on the radio every day. A fifth seek news in the Internet. Older adults lead all categories except the Internet.
| News exposure by age group here |
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| Wall Street Media Business Report TM |
 Newspaper and TV revenues down at Gannett
Adding two more TV stations offset an ad revenue decline at Gannett, but Q2 TV revenues were still down 0.4% to 205.4 million. On a same station basis, TV revenues were down 6.5%. Gannett CEO Craig Dubow noted in his conference call that online revenue growth has been strong across the company, up 33.5% in the quarter for websites associated with the TV group. He's also optimistic about the early start to the 2008 political campaign. As of now, though, TV pacings are down in the low single digits for Q3. Newspaper ad revenues - and Gannett is the world's largest newspaper chain - were down 5.3% in Q2 to 1.28 billion. Local declined 4%, national 2.8% and classified 7.5%. At flagship USA Today, ad revenues were down 1%. Gannett also reported its monthly statistics for June. TV revenues were down 5.8% to 61.4 million. Newspaper ad revenues declined 6.2% to 418.4 million.
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Ad Business Report TM
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Petry Media's McAuliff resigns
Tim McAuliff, Petry Media CEO, suddenly resigned earlier this week, with no reason offered to the press. McAuliff's resignation follows the exit earlier this month of Leo MacCourtney, President of Petry's Blair Television. MacCourtney is now EVP/Agency & Advertiser Relations for Katz Television Group.
TVBR observation: We hear the Petry Media Group has not been a very happy group of soldiers of commerce. The Petry/Blair lash up has never been smooth and this is the result. McAuliff and MacCourtney have been together for a number of years but apparently couldn't make peace with Petry Chairman (who now adds CEO title) Earl Jones. The biggest station group that could be in play would be Gannett.
Ruth's Chris announces new SVP/Marketing
Ruth's Chris Steak House announces the appointment of restaurant industry veteran Damon Liever as SVP Marketing. Liever will be responsible for conceptualizing and implementing market strategy, achieving marketing and sales targets, business and market development, market research and planning and leading strategic direction for promotion and advertising. He has held senior management positions at UNO Restaurant Corporation, Black Eyed Pea Restaurants, Yum! Brand's Taco Bell, and Pepsico's Frito-Lay. Most recently, he held the position of President of Retail Brand Group, LLC, a subsidiary of Sodexho.
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| Media Business Report TM |
 What about Ottaway?
Rupert Murdoch has made it clear to Wall Street that his bid for Dow Jones & Company is not a shift in strategy. He is not looking to expand News Corporation's holdings in the newspaper business in the United States. Rather, the Wall Street Journal is a unique brand which can be exploited in various ways. But if Murdoch does succeed in buying Dow Jones for five billion bucks, the deal brings with it Ottaway Newspapers, which owns a number of small market newspapers. One of those newspapers, the Times Herald-Record of Middletown, NY, had reporter Kristina Wells examine what might happen to the Ottaway chain. Retired Ottaway chairman James Ottaway Jr., who has opposed the News Corporation buyout, told her "There's some chance, because we would be such a small part of a large company, that Murdoch wouldn't have much time to worry about how we were covering the news in Middletown." Noting that Murdoch is not after the Ottaway papers anyway, Arizona State University professor Tim McGuire, an expert on the business side of journalism, told her that News Corporation is likely to sell off the newspapers after acquiring Dow Jones. The Times Herald-Record also polled its readers online. When we checked, 1,730 votes had been cast. 42.6% said they thought Murdoch would improve the paper, 31.2% said he would ruin it and 26.2% said there would be no change.
TVBR observation: It never actually made sense for Dow Jones to acquire Ottaway back in 1970. It makes even less sense for News Corporation to own the small town newspaper chain. Putting it up for sale seems like a no-brainer for Murdoch.
 Google expands print ads
to 225 newspapers
Google announced the expansion of the size and the scope of its Google Print Ads advertising initiative. The program started in November 2006 with a test that included 50 newspapers and a small group of advertisers. Since then the program has grown to more than 225 newspapers representing 32 of the top 35 DMAs and a combined circulation of almost 30 million. Participating newspaper publishers include E.W. Scripps, Freedom Communications, Hearst Newspapers, GateHouse Media, Gannett, MediaNews Group, The New York Times, The Seattle Times Company, Tribune Publishing, and Washington Post among others. In addition, Google Print Ads is now available to advertisers who currently have a Google AdWords account. Google Print Ads enables agencies and advertisers of all sizes to plan and buy traditional newspaper media in both national and local newspapers within a web-enabled interface.
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| Washington Media Business Report TM |
Good Karma dodges a pet peeve
Craig Karmazin, not Mel, found himself on the defensive in a recent FCC proceeding for a most unusual set of chargers. According to Harmony Pet Care, Good Karma Broadcasting's WAUK-AM Waukesha WI (in the Milwaukee market) was preventing little kitties and puppies from getting accurate ultrasounds and ECGs. The pet facility is located near WAUK's tower and was experiencing blanketing interference. Good Karma, to its credit, took the matter with utmost seriousness, and made its chief engineer available to try to diagnose and solve the problem. It turned out that the medical procedures were working just fine, but interference was affecting a "hard-wired telephone modem" used to send readings to a remote location. Good Karma made several suggestions to solve the problem, but nevertheless found itself on the defensive from the interference situation. The FCC noted that there was nothing wrong with WAUK's transmission, and anyone situated near a properly licensed and operated tower simply must put up with whatever interference may occur to short-range cordless radiofrequency devices. It said that although Good Karma had no legal obligation to work with Harmony Pet Care, it encouraged further cooperation and provided a trouble-shooting list to that end.
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| Entertainment Media Business Report TM |
 Roache gets call to L&O
With Sam Waterson's character, Jack McCoy, promoted to District Attorney for the next season (so Fred Thompson can run for President in real life), Linus Roache will join the ensemble cast of "Law & Order" as a new Assistant DA. "I've known Linus' work for several years. He is an actor who totally gets inside his roles. I think he and Sam are going to raise the bar and add intellect and passion in the back half of the show," said executive producer Dick Wolf. Being a native of Manchester, England, Roache hardly has a typical New York accent. But then, Thompson's southern drawl was part of the show for many seasons. Roache starred last season in NBC's "Kidnapped." He will now join the 18th season of L&O, the longest-running crime series and second-longest-running drama series in the history of television. "Law & Order" is a Wolf Films production in association with Universal Media Studios. Dick Wolf is creator and executive producer; Rene Balcer, Fred Berner and Peter Jankowski are the executive producers.
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| Ratings & Research |
Judge Judy back on top
"Judge Judy" is giving Pat Sajak a summer run for his ratings. Her Honor moved back to the top of the syndicated TV ratings for the most recent week, as reported by the Syndicated Network Television Association (SNTA), based on data from Nielsen Media Research. "Wheel of Fortune" was, however, a solid #2.
| View the chart |
 Broadband, household income
go hand-in-hand
New consumer research, Broadband Access and Service in the Home 2007, from Leichtman Research Group, finds that 53% of all US households now subscribe to a broadband high-speed Internet service at home. Broadband services now account for about 72% of all home Internet subscriptions, compared to 60% last year, according to The Center for Media Research. While broadband subscriptions continued to increase across the country in the past year, broadband penetration remains strongly correlated with household income. 68% of all households with annual incomes over 50,000 now get broadband vs. 59% last year. 39% of all households with annual incomes under 50,000 get broadband vs. 27% last year. While 81% of all US households have at least one computer, only 56% of those with annual household incomes under $30,000 have a computer at home. Just 45% of households with annual incomes below 30,000 subscribe to an Internet service at home - compared to 92% of households with annual incomes above 75,000. Overall, only 7% of all Internet subscribers say that broadband is not available in their area. Almost 75% of households in the US now subscribe to an Internet service, and broadband has grown to account for over 70% of all online subscribers at home. LRG forecasts the total number of broadband subscribers will increase by over 40 million over the next five years. 70% of all TV sets in cable households are not connected to a set-top box 42% of households that subscribe to cable TV do not have any cable set-top boxes. The mean number of TV sets in digital cable households is 3.1, compared to 2.7 in analog cable households; 2.9 in DBS households (where cable is available); and 2.1 in households that do not subscribe to a TV service Just 36% of all TV sets in the U.S. are currently connected to a cable or DBS set-top converter box.
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| Stock Talk |
Ben ends Dow rally
Musings about inflation worries on Capitol Hill by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke cooled Wall Street trading and keep the Dow Jones Industrial Average from its first close over 14K. Instead, the Dow fell 53 points, or 0.4%, to end the day at 13,918.
TV stocks were lower. Gannett fell 2.5% after reporting its quarterly results. Nexstar was down 3.1%.
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| Stocks |
Here's how stocks fared on Wednesday
| Company |
Symbol |
Close |
Change |
Company |
Symbol |
Close |
Change |
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Acme
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ACME
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4.39
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-0.05
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Lincoln Natl.
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LNC
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68.01
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-1.14
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Belo
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BLC
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20.60
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-0.35
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LIN TV
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TVL
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18.35
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-0.54
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| CBS CI. B |
CBS |
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34.83
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+0.40
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McGraw-Hill
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MHP
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63.48
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-0.73
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| CBS CI. A |
CBSa |
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34.80
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+0.41
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Media General
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MEG
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34.07
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-0.08
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Clear Channel
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CCU
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37.57
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-0.19
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Meredith
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MDP
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61.69
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-0.41
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Disney
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DIS
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34.60
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-0.08
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News Corp.
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NWS
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24.26
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+0.01
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Emmis
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EMMS
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8.91
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-0.09
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Nexstar
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NXST
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12.70
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-0.40
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Entravision
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EVC
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10.79
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-0.12
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Ion Media
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ION
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1.38
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unch
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| Equity Media |
EMDA |
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4.23 |
-0.07 |
Saga Commun.
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SGA
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8.94
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-0.06
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Fisher
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FSCI
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50.34
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-0.01
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SBS
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SBSA
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4.06
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-0.08
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Gannett
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GCI
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53.49
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-1.36
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Scripps
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SSP
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47.20
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+0.47
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Gen. Electric
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GE
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40.45
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-0.26
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Sinclair
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SBGI
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14.88
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-0.15
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| Google |
GOOG |
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549.50
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-5.50
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SWMX
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SWMX
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0.18
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+0.02
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Gray
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GTN
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9.18
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+0.07
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Time Warner
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TWX
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20.88
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-0.24
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Gray, C1. A
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GTNa
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9.13
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-0.02
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Tribune
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TRB
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29.83
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+0.10
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Hearst-Argyle
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HTV
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23.45
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-0.16
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Wash. Post
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WPO
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792.80
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+0.80
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Journal Comm.
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JRN
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12.90
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-0.20
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Young
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YBTVA
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3.44
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+0.09
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Bounceback
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 We want to
hear from you.
This is your column, so send your comments and
a photo to tvnews@rbr.com
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Below the Fold
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Ad Business Report
Petry Media's McAuliff resigns
CEO McAuliff, suddenly booked, with no reason offered. TVBR hears lots of Unhappy Campers at Petry...
Media Business Report
What about Ottaway?
Murdoch has made it clear to Wall Street his bid for DJ is not a shift in strategy...
Entertainment Media
Business Report
Roache gets call to L&O
McCoy, promoted to DA next season Linus Roache joins ensemble...
Ratings & Research
Judge Judy back on top
Giving Sajak a summer run for ratings...
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Stations for Sale
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 Market your Stations For Sale
in our daily epapers.
Contact
June Barnes
jbarnes@rbr.com
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TV Media Moves
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 Rose blooms in Seattle
David Rose has joined Tribune's KCPQ-TV (Ch. 13, Fox) Seattle as weekend anchor and weekday reporter. He was previously at Scripps' WCPO-TV (Ch. 9, ABC) Cincinnati.
Pimentel to Belo
Mark Pimentel has joined Belo Corp. as President/General Manager of WHAS-TV (Ch. 11, ABC) Louisville, KY. He had been VP/GM one market over at Media General's WTVQ-TV (Ch. 36, ABC) Lexington, KY.
 Upped at MTV
Viacom's MTV Networks (MTVN) announced the promotion of Reginald Williams to Senior Vice President of Music Strategy for MTVN. Prior to his promotion, Williams served as Vice President of the MTVN Music Strategy team.
Dramatic duo for CBS
Christina Davis and Robert Zotnowski have been have been promoted to Senior Vice Presidents, Drama Series Development, CBS Entertainment, jointly overseeing the network's drama department. Davis and Zotnowski have operated as a team since they were simultaneously named Vice Presidents, Drama Series in May 2005. Also, Yelena Chak has joined CBS from Jerry Bruckheimer Television as Director, Drama Development.
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More News Headlines
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Insider scandal
at Dow Jones
The SEC formally indicated yesterday that it plans to file civil charges for insider trading against Dow Jones & Company board member David Li. The Hong Kong businessman is suspected of passing information about the Rupert Murdoch bid for Dow Jones to a business associate before it became public knowledge. The daughter and son-in-law of that business associate have already been charged with buying Dow Jones stock based on inside information.
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SmartMedia Magazine
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Coming in September
FALL NAB ISSUE
SPECIAL DISTRIBUTION:
NAB RADIO SHOW
Radio Roundtable:
Radio execs find solutions.
Media Markets and Money:
What's attractive to equity capital these days?
Ad Biz:
Gennele Niblack, Katz Political President
Sales:
Dial Global's Eileen Decker on radio ad sales
News/Talk:
Valerie Geller: "Video streaming on your station's website"
Political Advertising:
Gregg Skall: "The FCC rules on political ads-Network exception issue"; Greg Pinello, GMMB.
Engineering & Technology:
Conditional Access for HD Radio
New Media:
Money-making opportunities for on-demand web video
For advertising
information, contact:
June Barnes
jbarnes@rbr.com 803-731-5951;
Jim Carnegie
jcarnegie@rbr.com 813-909-2916 or
Carl Marcucci
cmarcucci@rbr.com 703-492-8191.
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TVBR Radar 2007
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Television News you won't read any where else. TVBR--First, Accurate, and Independently Owned.
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Bill so FCC can fleece
a fleeting utterance
Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) is not going after violent content with S. 1780, the "Protecting Children from Indecent Programming Act." He and his co-sponsors, Ted Stevens (R-AK), Mark Pryor (D-AR) and Dan Inouye (D-HI), are merely trying to provide a legislative underpinning for the FCC to be able to drop the hammer on speakers of a fleeting expletive.
TVBR observation: Here's the scoop: This means the FCC would be able to bring out its heavy artillery, the full 325K punitive fine, if it so desires, assuming that this bill makes it through both houses of Congress and gets an autograph from the president. You never can tell on Capitol Hill, but this bill has the virtue of being extremely uncomplicated, and if Rockefeller can keep it free of excess amendment baggage.
07/18/07 TVBR #139
WCPO to lose its
newspaper twin sisters
Even with a grandfathered newspaper-TV crossownership situation, E.W. Scripps Co. says it can't keep its Cincinnati Post and Kentucky Post newspapers alive.
TVBR observation: Will this add to the weight of evidence in Washington for elimination of the crossownership rule? Perhaps not, since Scripps had a grandfathered crossownership and still couldn't keep the market's #2 daily newspaper alive. But it certainly shows again just how much trouble the newspaper business is facing. Daily and Weekly print is now in their final stage of heading to the elephant grave yard.
07/18/07 TVBR #139
Is private equity inconsistent
with public interest?
A pair of powerful US Reps are concerned about private equity companies, saying the term "suggests a financial management style focused on cutting costs, increasing revenues and the ultimate resale of the enterprise," which may conflict with the public interest obligations of FCC licensees. On the other hand, they note, such enterprises are somewhat insulated from Wall Street pressure to boost stock prices, which could be a plus. They want to know how the ins and outs of such companies when cutting deals on the FCC's turf.
07/17/07 TVBR #138
Indecency/violence bill
headed for markup
The attempt by Sam Brownback (R-KS) to attach measures to an FCC funding bill which would restore the FCC's right to punish fleeting expletives and open a new FCC line of attack against violent programming was defeated. But it was in large part a procedural matter, since Dan Inouye's (D-HI) Commerce Committee claims jurisdiction.
TVBR observation: Although we couldn't look at S. 1780, we dug up a copy of its abandoned big brother, S. 616, which also addressed the issue of violent programming. It directed the FCC to come up with rules of the road for curbing violence. Of course, a key to this would be defining the crime, something S. 616 makes no attempt to do. When the FCC turned in its less-than-landmark study this spring, it also ducked that particular issue and suggested that Congress come up with a definition. (There is more to read in TVBR)
07/16/07 TVBR #137
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