TV News ®

Hearst-Argyle investor demands higher price
Marathon Partners has sent a letter to Hearst-Argyle Television directors insisting that they not agree to “an embarrassingly low tender offer” from Hearst Corporation to buy out public shareholders. Although the stock had sunk recently, the letter notes that Hearst-Argyle was above the 23.50 per share offer for 83% of the past year. “It is absolutely clear that the current offer does not fairly compensate the shareholders of HTV for the unique and valuable assets the company controls. I strongly urge you to reject the 23.50 offer outright,” wrote Mario Cibelli, Managing Member of Marathon, which owns more than 90,000 shares of Hearst-Argyle. He quoted from past Wall Street conference calls where Hearst-Argyle CEO David Barrett said that the company’s stock was undervalued. And Cibelli noted how time and again over the years Hearst Corporation had purchased Hearst-Argyle stock on the open market for prices above the 23.50 per share it is now offering. The letter doesn’t state a price that would be fair to minority shareholders and Cibelli says he is not in any hurry to sell. “I have not found a sudden need for liquidity nor do I find the offer price attractive,” he noted.

Antitrust review finds no objection to News Corp. buying Dow Jones
News Corporation’s pending acquisition of Dow Jones & Company has easily cleared antitrust review by the Federal Trade Commission, winning early termination of the legal waiting period. A joint statement says the companies expect the deal to close in Q4, following shareholder approval. Some other routine regulatory approvals have to be obtained and the parties have to sign the editorial agreement, designed to protect the editorial integrity of the Wall Street Journal, which was the most contentious part of the sale negotiation.

TVBR observation: Despite the statement by FCC Commissioner Michael Copps that this is “no slam dunk,” no FCC approval is needed, so it pretty much is a slam dunk. There were clearly no antitrust issues – we can’t think of a single business where News Corporation and Dow Jones are direct competitors – so it sailed through the FTC review.

More opposition to “white spaces” devices
Major US sports organizations have filed their opposition to allowing unlicensed wireless devices to operate in the “white spaces” of the UHF and VHF TV bands. The members of the Sports Technology Alliance read like alphabet soup: MLB, NASCAR, NBA, NCAA, NFL, NHL, ESPN and The PGA Tour. What they have in common is a lot of money riding on public viewing of sports events on television. In their letter to all of the FCC members, the sports organization note that licensed wireless microphones and other audio equipment already use white spaces in the TV spectrum for sports event broadcasts. “any interference caused by new devices operating in the ‘white spaces’ spectrum will seriously impair US sports event programming and deny the American public full enjoyment of their passion for sports,” the letter said. The Sports Technology Alliance says the FCC should only allow fixed devices for rural broadband services in the TV band white spaces. Since those locations would be known, incumbent users such as the sports operations would be able to coordinate spectrum usage with them. In a separate letter, Learfield Communications, which manages multi-media rights for 35 college athletic programs, said it also opposes allowing unlicensed personal portable devices to operate in the broadcast spectrum.

News Corp., NBCU online venture dubbed “Hulu”
News Corp. and NBCU’s joint venture that aims to revolutionize the online video space has been named “Hulu.” They’ve announced an open beta site for invitation-only users, set to launch in October. From the site: “Welcome to Hulu! Our passionate and growing team here has been very hard at work on a service that we're quite excited about. We'll keep you updated with news as we go along. The first bit of news we'd like to share is that we have a name: Hulu. Why Hulu? Objectively, Hulu is short, easy to spell, easy to pronounce, and rhymes with itself. Subjectively, Hulu strikes us as an inherently fun name, one that captures the spirit of the service we're building. Our hope is that Hulu will embody our (admittedly ambitious) never-ending mission, which is to help you find and enjoy the world's premier content when, where and how you want it.
The second bit of news is that we are now accepting sign-ups at hulu.com for invitations to our web site's private beta. The Hulu private beta will be available in October. In the interest of delivering a great customer experience and making sure that we can address any feedback that comes along the way, we're going to start small and grow iteratively in terms of the volumes of people that we invite to participate in the beta. Within that same timeframe, we will also be offering great programming through our distribution partner sites: AOL, Comcast, MSN, MySpace, and Yahoo.”
Initial content touted on the site includes The Loop, 24, Back to You, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?, New Amsterdam, ‘til Death, American Dad!, K-Ville, Drive, Bones, The Riches, Late Night with Conan O’Brien and Friday Night Lights.

Ad Business Report TM

28 broadcast groups, all major rep firms commit to TVB ePort
Cox Television and Fox’s KTTV-TV LA and WNYW-TV NYC have signed on for TVB ePort, it was announced by the Television Bureau of Advertising, enlarging the list of committed broadcast groups to 28. Additionally, TVB announced that all of the major rep firms have now committed as well to the eBusiness platform that will enable a new wave of open-standard electronic transactions between advertisers, agencies, broadcasters and station reps. “Because of the outstanding support from the broadcast community, TVB ePort will soon be ready to roll,” said TVB President Chris Rohrs. The project was announced on 2/21 with an infusion of seed money from the NAB, with the remainder of funding to come from broadcast groups and rep firms.
The rep firms now onboard are ABC National Television Sales, Blair Television, CBS Station Sales, Fox Station Sales, HRP, Katz Media Group, MMT Sales, NBC Station Sales, Petry Television and Telerep.
The 28 committed station groups are Belo Corporation, CBS Television Stations, Citadel Communications, Cox Television, the Dispatch Broadcast Group, Duhamel Broadcasting Enterprises, E.W. Scripps Company, Emmis Communications, Fisher Broadcasting Inc., Fox Television Stations, Freedom Broadcasting, Gannett Broadcasting, Hearst-Argyle Television, Journal Broadcast Group, KAZT LLC, LIN Television Corp., Media General Broadcast Group, Meredith Broadcasting, NBC Universal Television Stations, News-Press & Gazette, Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Pappas Telecasting Companies, Post-Newsweek Stations, Quincy Newspapers, Raycom Media, Sagamore Hill Broadcasting, Sarkes Tarzian Inc., and Tribune Broadcasting.
TVB ePort’s first phase will launch in November, enabling Spot TV buyers to send 1Q 2008 orders electronically. The entire suite of open standard transactions--from avail through invoice for stations’ airtime, websites, digital subchannels and other multiplatform offerings--is expected to be available through TVB ePort by March.

TVBR observation: The great success of ePort is likely the reason companies like SWMX never really made it in the space for TV transactions. On the radio side, the industry never came together quite so well with a universal system, so there are more independent players—and successful ones—in that medium.

Wendy’s sells 25 million Baconator hamburgers
Wendy’s reported nearly 25 million Baconators have been sold in North America during the initial eight weeks it has promoted the sandwich. Wendy’s has been promoting its hamburgers through breakthrough national television, online and cinema advertising, featuring an enlightened consumer in a Red Wig, who encourages others to make a better burger choice. The new campaign is resonating with consumers, especially 18-34’s, according to company research. “Awareness levels for the campaign are very high and branding is exceptionally strong. More than 2/3 of consumers surveyed in our research can immediately connect the Red Wig to Wendy’s. Importantly, they are talking about our advertising and our brand again,” said Wendy’s Chief Marketing Officer Ian Rowden. According to TiVo research, Wendy’s “Kicking Trees” commercial was the most watched television ad in June. New York-based IAG Research says the spot was the second most-liked restaurant ad released in Q2.

ACLU blasts FCC censorship
The American Civil Liberties Union blames the FCC for making some public television stations fearful of running the Ken Burns documentary “The War” because of four expletives in the 14-hour series. The ACLU charges that is due to the Commission’s “vague and inconsistent” standard for broadcast indecency. "To impede the First Amendment rights of those who fought and died for those very rights is reprehensible. Our public broadcasters should not be afraid to air fourteen hours of an educational and fact-based documentary because of a handful of profanities. Images of the brutality of war are far more disturbing than any four letter word,” said Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office. "This clearly settles any question about the chilling effect of the FCC’s vague and contradictory indecency regime. Broadcasters should not have to guess whether or not a work is ‘indecent,’ and face substantial fines if they guess wrong. When it comes to what we allow our children to see on television, parents must be the first line of defense – not the government," she continued.

TVBR observation: Sounds like what we have been saying for years.

Can Mark Cuban dance?
We’ll find out soon. The guy who became a billionaire from selling Broadcast.com to Yahoo!, then bought the Dallas Mavericks NBA team, will be a contestant on this fall’s “Dancing With the Stars.” Marie Osmond, Wayne Newton and Jane Seymour are also among the celebrities who’ve signed up to exhibit their twinkle-toed abilities on ABC. For the first time, the competition will have 12 celebrities paired with professional dance partners, allowing ABC to stretch out the highly rated reality show a bit longer. Other dancing celebs announced yesterday include “Scary Spice” Melanie Brown, boxing champ Floyd Mayweather, “Sabrina Bryan of Disney Channel's "Cheetah Girls," Indianapolis 500 champion Helio Castroneves, actress Jennie Garth of "Beverly Hills 90210" fame, model and actress Josie Maran, actor Cameron Mathison of ABC’s "All My Children" and model Albert Reed. The show kicks off with a three-day special event September 24-26, with Dolly Parton as special guest on the first Wednesday “Results Show.”

msnbc.com and CondeNet strike content partnership
Msnbc.com and CondeNet announced a content partnership that will enable msnbc.com to feature a broad range of CondeNet's leading lifestyle content and reporting and extend the reach of its popular brands. The partnership includes features from its portfolio of online brands as well as from Conde Nast publications. The CondeNet brands that will share content with msnbc.com include Style.com, Men.Style.com, Epicurious.com, and Concierge.com. Content from Conde Nast's publications, such as Vogue, Glamour, Self, GQ, Details, Men's Vogue, Vanity Fair, Gourmet, Bon Appetit, Conde Nast Traveler, and Conde Nast Portfolio will also be available on msnbc.com. The content will be featured in msnbc.com's health, entertainment, business, travel, and TODAY sections.

Judy still on top
“Judge Judy” was the #1 show in syndication for the week of 8/13-19, according to the Syndicated Network Television Association, using data from Nielsen Media Research. “Wheel of Fortune” held onto the #2 spot, followed by “Everybody Loves Raymond,” “Jeopardy” and “CSI:Miami.”

CNBC scores best August in five years
CNBC's Business Day (M-F 5a-7p ET) had its best August in five years, and August ratings have more than tripled since August 2005. For August 2007, CNBC's Business Day (M-F 5a-7p) averaged 87,000 A25-54, hitting its best August since 2002 and up +50% versus August 2006. All 6a-7p CNBC programs had their highest August time period delivery since at least 2003.