|
|
|
|
|
Volume 24, Issue 172, Jim Carnegie, Editor & Publisher
|
Tuesday Morning September 4th, 2007
|
|
|
TV News ®
|
 Tony Snow heads back
to broadcasting
President George W. Bush announced Friday that Tony Snow is stepping down as White House press secretary on September 14th. The President said he was sad to see Snow go, added: "And I don't know what he's going to do - I'm not sure he does yet, either. But whatever it is, it's going to be - two things: One, he'll battle cancer and win. And secondly, he'll be a solid contributor to society." Snow made it clear in recent interviews that his decision to leave the administration was purely economic - he needs to earn more for his family. While 168,000 may sound like a pretty decent paycheck, he no doubt had an additional digit when hosting his talk show on Fox News Radio and doing on-camera work as well for Fox News Channel. Although Snow suffered a recurrence of colon cancer in March, four months of chemotherapy produced good results on CAT scans and MRIs, so Snow is now on "maintenance chemo" and living a normal life. President Bush promoted deputy press secretary Dana Perino, who got on-the-job experience during Snow's recent treatment, to the top job in the White House press office.
TVBR observation: The timing should be good for Tony Snow's return to the private sector. Presidential election years are audience gold mines for talk radio, so a new Tony Snow show should get off the ground just in time to cash in. No doubt he'll also do some TV as well. He may talk to others as well, but we see a return to Fox News Radio and Fox News Channel as most likely.
NBC won't renew with iTunes
NBC Universal, unable to come to an agreement with Apple on pricing, has decided not to renew its contract to sell digital downloads of television shows on iTunes. NBCU, the #1 supplier of digital video to Apple's online store, notified Apple of its decision last week. "We are disappointed to see NBC leave iTunes because we would not agree to their dramatic price increase. We hope they will change their minds and offer their TV shows to the tens of millions of iTunes customers," said a statement from iTunes VP Eddy Cue. The decision by NBCU highlights the escalating tension between Apple and media companies, which are unhappy that Apple will not give them more control over the pricing of songs and videos that are sold on iTunes, said the New York Times, which first reported the split between NBCU and iTunes. The action by NBCU CEO Jeff Zucker will not have an immediate impact on iTunes. The current two-year deal extends through December, so a vast video catalog - some 1,500 hours of NBC Universal's news, sports and entertainment programming - will remain available on iTunes at least until then. Among the most popular NBC Universal shows available for sale on iTunes are "Battlestar Galactica," "The Office" and "Heroes."
TVBR observation: The real reason is these shows will soon be available on NBCU-News Corp.'s upcoming Hulu.com, a video portal set to compete with YouTube. They own the content, why share in the revenues?
 How will credit problems
affect broadcasting?
Worries about the broader impact of the sub-prime mortgage crisis are top-of-mind on Wall Street. But just how widespread will the fallout be? We get this assessment from Lehman Brothers broadcasting analyst Anthony DiClemente: "In our view, the reality in the U.S. economy right now is that anyone that does business with mortgage brokers, banks big and small, real estate agents, home insurance companies, home builders, or home furnishings businesses is at a distinct risk of a tangible slowdown in their business. For Newspapers, Outdoor and Radio, we note that the real estate, insurance and financial services categories aggregated represent 15%, 16% and 11% of total ad spend, respectively. We believe the impact of the current economic concerns is exacerbated for local media platforms already facing fragmentation as more media platforms vie for consumer attention and advertising dollars, as well as the underlying secular shift in advertising towards more national campaigns driven by increasing nationalization of domestic brands.
Specifically, we examine: 1) the shift in advertising towards national and the impact of that trend on various media platforms; 2) the supply chain of local advertisers and how it may be impacted by the current climate; and 3) the exposure of our broadcasting universe to these trends. We conclude that the stocks most levered to these trends are those companies with significant local ad revenue, and little large market or large geographic presence, especially those with markets in the southeast and out west -- areas that have seen a significant contraction in the housing market. As a result, we remain on the sidelines with our radio broadcasters and outdoor advertising companies and instead would favor more diversified, defensible businesses that are levered to national advertising and recurring revenue."
|
|
|
 Sweeney gets Golden Mic
The Broadcasters Foundation of America will honor Anne Sweeney, co-chair Disney Media Networks and President, Disney-ABC Television Group with its 2008 Golden Mike Award. The presentation will be at a February 25th gala in New York. "Anne Sweeney is one of the most powerful media executives in the world. She has built her amazing career upon vision, innovation and a long- standing commitment to excellence. As an outstanding industry leader, Anne is a powerful role model for all men and women in broadcasting," said foundation Chair Phil Lombardo.
Hispanic market composed of several niche markets
Madison Avenue often homogenizes ethnic markets under tidy categories such as African American, Hispanic and Asian Americans. However, BIGresearch's latest Simultaneous Media Survey (SIMM 10) of 15,439 consumers indicates that the categorization into generic groups leaves marketers with an inaccurate picture of ethnic groups. This is particularly true with Hispanics as many of whom report being from multiple racial ethnic descents. In SIMM 10, Hispanics identified themselves racially as: as Caucasian (44.2%), Other Race / Heritage (34.6%) and Multi-Racial (16%). "The breakout of Hispanic/Caucasian, Hispanic/Other Race and Hispanic/Multi-Racial consumers reveals differing cultural identities within the categories which give a real insight into the complexity of marketing to Hispanics who have their own internal diversity," said Joe Pilotta, VP, Strategy of BIGresearch. Advertisers should also pay close attention to age and income as social and cultural markers of mobility within Hispanic groups. For example, those Hispanics who identify themselves as being Caucasian are generally older and report a higher income than other Hispanic races. "Still too often marketers and advertisers lump Hispanics into over-simplified categories. Through increased research we aim to help advertisers and marketers better understand how they can optimize their ad dollars by effecting targeting niche markets within the Hispanic market that often times have more affinity for a product or service," said David Taggart, GM/Televisa Publishing.
DVRs in one out of five households
New consumer research from Leichtman Research Group based on a survey of 1,300 households throughout the US, found that over one in every five households now have a DVR, up from about one in every 13 households just two years ago. Fueled by a continued push from cable and DBS providers offering combination HD/DVR set-top boxes, LRG forecasts that the number of US households with DVRs will grow to over 60 million by the end of 2011, reports The Center for Media Research.
Other key findings include:
The mean household income of DVR owners is 33% above average
53% of DVR owners say that they have an HDTV set
45% of DVR owners record five or fewer programs per week
84% of DVR owners rate the ability to skip commercials as very important
Only 8% of DVR owners say it is the greatest benefit of having a DVR
The mean household income of DVR owners is 33% above average
53% of DVR owners say that they have an HDTV set
45% of DVR owners record five or fewer programs per week
84% of DVR owners rate the ability to skip commercials as very important
|
|
|
|
|
Ad Business Report TM
|
 Moving traditional media forward
Phil Cowdell, CEO of Ford Media Services across WPP's media agencies (collectively referred to as GroupM), spoke to RBR/TVBR recently for an upcoming OneonOne interview in our SmartMedia Magazine. One of the questions we asked was, "What do traditional media like radio and television need to realize about new media and becoming part of multimedia pitches?"
Excerpts from his answer:
"A lot of agencies and clients still have a digital department and a traditional advertising department, but everything is digital. Now some of the key things that we're getting in the digital world-dialogue, interaction, extra types of format, the ability to capture data-leads into much more advanced analytics. And also behavioral triggers by consumer allows us to the start pre-selecting to copy that we ad serve up to the person depending on that their interests are-all of those things are fabulous from a marketer's point of view because I can start being more relevant to much more defined groups of people and serve up to them tailored messages. Then let the analytics work out right whether they're right and how do I improve on the fly? Versus I spend a million dollars making a lovely glossy TV ad which runs for 30-seconds and I'll have it on for the next two months running at 400 GRPs a month.
It just is a no contest to say how do you take the issues of flexibility or changing the copy, doing behavioral triggers to define the target and then building off real time analytics that we do online...how do you bring that back into traditional media? If traditional can't start embracing those things then they're going to struggle because the agencies are going to say, "But hang on I can get that on half my media mix. By you not having it on the other half, then you make it hard for me to make those choices."
| Cowdell One on One continues |
|
|
|
|
| Media Business Report TM |
 Newspaper advertising
down again in Q2
Total ad expenditures at newspaper companies were 11.3 billion for Q2, an 8.6% decrease from the same period a year earlier, according to preliminary estimates from the Newspaper Association of America (NAA). Spending for print ads in newspapers totaled 10.5 billion, down 10.2% versus the same period a year earlier. Among the major print components in Q2, classified advertising fell 16.4% to 3.4 billion; retail declined 6.4% to 5.2 billion; and national was down 7.9%, coming in at 1.8 billion. Within the classified print category in the second quarter, real estate advertising fell 20.7% to 966.8 million. Recruitment dropped 18.5% to $995.4 million. Automotive was down 19.3% to 756.3 million. All other classifieds were down 1.8% to $716.1 million. Ad expenditures for newspaper Web sites, however, increased by 19.3% to 796 million in the second quarter versus the same period a year ago. The increase reflects the 13th consecutive quarter of double digit growth for online newspaper advertising since NAA started reporting online ad spending in 2004. Newspaper website advertising now accounts for 7% of total newspaper ad spending, compared to 5.4% in last year's Q2.
TVBR observation: Newspaper ad revenues were down 8.6% in Q2, but the NAA headlined its release with ads for newspaper websites being up 19%. Online is the growth area, but still not able to overcome the sharp decline for the larger traditional business.
|
|
|
|
| Media Markets & Money TM |
Inland Empire indie sold
Independent KHIZ-TV (Ch. 64), serving the Inland Empire portion of the Los Angeles market from Barstow, CA, is changing hands in a complicated deal. Arthur Liu's TVPlus LLC, part of his Multicultural Television Group, will increase its stake in licensee Sunbelt Television Inc. from 7% to 100% by acquiring a 93% stock stake from Initial Broadcasting of California LLC (IBC), headed by Peter White, for approximately 7.9 million bucks. This transaction was anticipated by a 2004 agreement, whereby IBC settled litigation and exercised options to acquire an additional 73% from various other shareholders, adding to its previous stake of 20%, while TVPlus acquired its initial 7% stake and provided millions in financing to IBC and Sunbelt. According to the KHIZ website, the station's cable coverage includes over 1.4 million households in San Bernardino, Riverside, Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura and Kern counties.
|
|
|
|
| Washington Media Business Report TM |
Tribune fined for kidvid violations
 Yet another TV station is facing a fine from the FCC for exceeding commercial time limits in children's programming. Tribune Company's KHCW-TV (Ch. 39, CW) disclosed in its license renewal application that it had exceeded the limits four times between December 14, 2000 and October 18, 2003. One of those four was the fleeting image of a "Pokemon" game card during a commercial on the "Pokemon" show, which the FCC has said made it a program-length commercial - the same incident that has resulted in fines for several other affiliates of the former WB network. The FCC has ordered Tribune to pay a 12K fine for the violations at KHCW.
License renewed, but a fine to pay
Israel G. Ybanez, a sole proprietor, failed to file a license renewal for KYMI-FM Los Ybanez, TX and continued to operate the station for a year or so without a license. Ybanez blames the foul-up on a change of address, which the FCC says was not properly documented with the Commission, resulting in him not receiving notification that a license renewal was due. Ybanez did eventually file for renewal. The FCC has granted that application, but also fined him 3K for failing to file a required form and 4K for operating without a license, for a total of 7K. The FCC noted that operating KYMI without a license did not deserve the same 10K fine normally handed out to pirate stations, since KYMI had been previously licensed to operate on its assigned frequency.
TVBR observation: Did you notice the station owner's name being the same as the city of license? According to the Texas State Historical Society, Israel Ybanez bought the site, a former Civilian Conservation Corps camp, from the federal government in 1980, and established his own town, incorporated in 1983 as Los Ybanez.
|
|
|
|
| Internet Media Business Report TM |
 Texting to teens from e-mail
Web-based e-mail users will soon be sending text messages to mobile phones. Yahoo! has already announced the feature for Yahoo! Mail users, reports eMarketer. An Associated Press-AOL study conducted with Knowledge Networks in late 2006 confirmed that instant messaging trumped e-mail for most teens. The e-mail to text link is important for marketers who target teens. Teens preferred e-mail 3-to-1 over texting for exchanging information, according to a Harris Interactive survey conducted in December 2006. Now, e-mail will be connected to text, making texts a PC-to-mobile activity as well as mobile-to-mobile. Despite a preference for e-mail over texting, teens use a variety of tools to communicate. Making it easy to send texts through e-mail from any Internet connection increases the chances of getting through to them. Typing on a keyboard is easier than on a mobile keypad, so the change may also convert some former texting holdouts. Moreover, viral text campaigns may now be spread through the Web. Since mobile phones are personal, it is very easy to annoy users with unwanted or irrelevant offers. A text forwarded from a friend, perhaps straight from an e-mail account, stands a better chance of getting opened.
|
|
|
|
| Ratings & Research |
Top US websites enjoy high visitor retention rates
Nielsen//NetRatings announced the leaders in three key Web categories - search, career development and multi-category travel - enjoyed high month-over-month visitor retention rates from June to July, but also experienced significant audience overlap with the other top players in their categories. Among the categories, search providers had the highest visitor retention rates, with an average of 71% of June visitors at home returning in July among the three leading players. Google Search led with a retention rate of 79%, followed by Yahoo! Search at 69% and MSN/Windows Live Search with 65%. Visitor retention rates were slightly higher among the work audience, with an average of 76% among the three leading search providers. Notably though, a substantial portion of visitors went to more than one of these three search sites in July. MSN/Windows Live Search had the highest audience overlap, with 84% of its unique visitors also going to Google Search, Yahoo! Search, or both. Yahoo! Search had a 78% audience overlap with Google and/or MSN, while Google Search had a 63% audience overlap with one or both of its two primary competitors.
The top three sites in the career development category, CareerBuilder Network, Monster and Yahoo! HotJobs, experienced a similar phenomenon, although to a lesser degree. They had an average month-over-month audience retention rate of 38% at home; at work, it was 44%. Monster.com had the most audience overlap with the other two, at 50%. Yahoo! HotJobs had a 45% audience overlap, while CareerBuilder Network's was 34%.
Compared to the other two categories, the top sites in multi-category travel, Expedia, Orbitz Worldwide Network and Travelocity, had the lowest average month-over-month at home visitor retention rates, at 31%. At work it was slightly higher, at 35%. Audience overlap was fairly similar between the three properties, at 59, 58 and 51% for Orbitz, Travelocity and Expedia, respectively.
|
|
|
|
| Monday Morning Makers & Shakers |
|
Transactions: 7/16/07-7/20/07
Station trading top 44M this week, mainly on the strength of on agreement to sell a top-10 market FM between two companies that will both remain active in the market. Other than that, it was back into the doldrums, with a scant seven transactions involving only eight stations. Television was not part of the action.
|
|
Total
|
|
Total Deals
|
7
|
|
AMs
|
4
|
|
FMs
|
4
|
|
TVs
|
0
|
| Value |
44.718M
|
| Complete Charts |
|
Radio Transactions of the Week
Radio One scores a strategic FM
| More... |
|
TV Transactions of the Week
TV goes into time-out
|
|
|
|
|
| Transactions |
21.15M WGGB-TV Springfield MA (ABC/40) from WGGB Licesee LLC, a subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. (David Smith) to Gormally Broadcasting LLC (John Gormally). 1.5M escrow, balance in cash at closing. [File date 8/9/07.]
|
|
|
|
| Stock Talk |
Small gains before the holiday weekend
Stock prices were modestly higher on Friday after both President George W. Bush and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke gave reassuring signs that the government will take action to keep credit market problems from damaging the entire economy. The Dow Industrials rose 119 points, or 0.9%, to 13,368.
TV stocks also gained. Saga was the leader, up 2.9%. CBS also had a good day, with its Class B up 2.5% and Class A 2.3%.
|
|
|
|
| Stocks |
Here's how stocks fared on Friday
| Company |
Symbol |
Close |
Change |
Company |
Symbol |
Close |
Change |
|
Acme
|
ACME
|
|
4.20
|
+0.02
|
Lincoln Natl.
|
LNC
|
 |
60.88
|
+1.00
|
|
Belo
|
BLC
|
|
17.24
|
+0.18
|
LIN TV
|
TVL
|
|
13.33
|
-0.05
|
| CBS CI. B |
CBS |
|
31.51
|
+0.76
|
McGraw-Hill
|
MHP
|
|
50.46
|
+0.19
|
| CBS CI. A |
CBSa |
|
31.46
|
+0.71
|
Media General
|
MEG
|
|
27.92
|
+0.20
|
|
Clear Channel
|
CCU
|
|
37.26
|
+0.71
|
Meredith
|
MDP
|
|
55.90
|
+0.51
|
|
Disney
|
DIS
|
|
33.60
|
+0.13
|
News Corp.
|
NWS
|
|
21.74
|
+0.31
|
|
Emmis
|
EMMS
|
|
6.37
|
-0.04
|
Nexstar
|
NXST
|
|
9.77
|
+0.30
|
|
Entravision
|
EVC
|
|
9.01
|
+0.14
|
Ion Media
|
ION
|
|
1.33
|
unch
|
| Equity Media |
EMDA |
|
3.15 |
unch |
Saga Commun.
|
SGA
|
|
7.20
|
+0.20
|
|
Fisher
|
FSCI
|
|
48.89
|
+0.82
|
SBS
|
SBSA
|
|
2.84
|
+0.02
|
|
Gannett
|
GCI
|
|
47.00
|
-0.50
|
Scripps
|
SSP
|
|
41.10
|
+0.04
|
|
Gen. Electric
|
GE
|
|
38.87
|
+0.47
|
Sinclair
|
SBGI
|
|
12.46
|
+0.22
|
| Google |
GOOG |
|
515.25
|
+3.85
|
SWMX
|
SWMX
|
|
0.08
|
unch
|
|
Gray
|
GTN
|
|
8.95
|
+0.16
|
Time Warner
|
TWX
|
|
18.98
|
+0.37
|
|
Gray, C1. A
|
GTNa
|
|
8.83
|
+0.20
|
Tribune
|
TRB
|
|
27.55
|
+0.42
|
|
Hearst-Argyle
|
HTV
|
|
25.57
|
+0.02
|
Wash. Post
|
WPO
|
|
765.65
|
-5.60
|
|
Journal Comm.
|
JRN
|
|
10.37
|
+0.07
|
Young
|
YBTVA
|
|
1.95
|
-0.05
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bounceback
|
 We want to
hear from you.
This is your column, so send your comments and
a photo to tvnews@rbr.com
|
|
|
Below the Fold
|
Ad Business Report
Moving traditional media forward
Phil Cowdell, of Ford Media Services..key things that we're getting in the digital world-dialogue, interaction...
Media Business Report
Newspaper advertising
Down again in Q2 preliminary estimatesclassified advertising fell Web sites, however, increased...
Media Markets & Money
Inland Empire indie sold
Independent KHIZ-TV (Ch. 64) changing hands in a complicated deal...
Ratings & Research
Top US websites
Enjoy high visitor retention rates 3 key Categories; Search, Career & Tavel...
|
|
|
Stations for Sale
|
 Market your Stations For Sale
in our daily epapers.
Contact
June Barnes
jbarnes@rbr.com
|
|
|
More News Headlines
|
Condolences
on the passing
Joseph C. (Joe) Drilling was recognized by his peers as an innovator in the Broadcast Industry. He was one of the original 13 ABC affiliates and also one of the first chairman of the ABC affiliate board. In 1953, Joe was hired by J.E. O'Neill to help put KJEO-TV on the air. He served as General Manager until 1961 when he was hired by Storer Broadcasting to manage WJW-TV in Cleveland, Ohio. He was named President of Crowell Collier Broadcasting in Los Angeles from 1962-1968. Joe then started a new Broadcasting Company, Retlaw Broadcasting for the Walt Disney Family, and was named its President. The company's first acquisition was KJEO-TV Cannel 47, which happily returned Joe and his family to Fresno. The company grew to 6 television stations by the time Joe retired in 1990. Joe is survived by his wife of over 60 years, Joyce Drilling; daughter, Denise Tucker and husband Ben. He was 85.
Chrysler announces commercial competition for dealers
The New Chrysler is announcing a grassroots initiative to involve its dealer partners. The company is looking to draw from their creative energy and product knowledge of Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge vehicles, in order to highlight the company's recently announced Lifetime Powertrain Warranty. The competition is designed to identify the dealership that produces the most creative and informative Lifetime Powertrain Warranty-themed television commercial. The 30-second commercials will be judged by each dealer's local Business Center. In turn, each of the eight Business Centers from across the U.S. will review the dealers' commercials and select eight semi-finalists. One national dealer will then be chosen by a panel made up of Chrysler and BBDO Detroit representatives. Commercials will be critiqued for originality, creativity, style and positioning. Ads will also be judged on the ability to capture viewers' attention, emphasis of the Lifetime Powertrain Warranty and unique product presentation. Any Chrysler, Jeep or Dodge dealer in the US is eligible to enter, and the commercial entries must be submitted by 9/21. Both the winning dealer and seven semi-finalists will be awarded with media co-op advertising at a grassroots level. In addition, the national winner will be acknowledged at the Dealer Announcement show in October in Las Vegas.
|
|
|
TVBR Radar 2007
|
|
Television News you won't read any where else. TVBR--First, Accurate, and Independently Owned.
|
Morning shows
accused of liberal bias
The right-leaning Media Research Center (MRC) is out with a report complaining that the morning news shows on NBC, ABC and CBS devote far more coverage to Democratic candidates for President than to the Republicans. Is it bias, a "liberal agenda" or just following the news? MRC charged. "Our results show pure partisanship on the part of ABC, CBS and NBC. Not only are the network morning shows over whelmingly focused on Democrats, they are actively promoting the Democrats' liberal agenda." declared MRC President L. Brent Bozell III. The networks deny any bias.
TVBR observation: This is the first time since the introduction of television that we have had a US presidential election without either a sitting President or his Vice President in the running, creating a real horse race in both major parties. Let's face it, there is more drama in the Democratic race at this point. That will change once the nominees are selected and it becomes a two-person competition for the White House.
08/31/07 TVBR #171
Broadcast groups, All major
Rep Firms Commit to TVB ePort
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. 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. See Ad Business Report section.
08/30/07 TVBR #170
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. The letter doesn't state a price that would be fair to minority shareholders and Mario Cibelli says he is not in any hurry to sell.
08/30/07 TVBR #170
Clear Channel sues over
disintegrating deal
Clear Channel has now sued in a Texas state court to try to hold American Securities Capital Partners (ASCP) to its 452.1 million bucks deal to buy 187 radio stations. ASCP has fired back with its own lawsuit filed in a New York state court, so look for lots of legal wrangling ahead.
RBR observation: With this deal now in doubt Mark and Randall Mays could have avoided all of this divestiture drama, of course, if they had accepted a preemptive bid from former Clear Channel Radio CEO Randy Michaels for the entire block of stations. You may have read elsewhere that he and Oak Hill Capital Partners offered around 800 million. We have it on good authority, though, that the actual bid was over 900 million, but that the Mayses held out for 1.1 billion. When all is said and done, will Clear Channel now even come close to that mark?
08/29/07 RBR #169
Nielsen ends separate
Spanish ratings
The major Spanish TV networks transitioned to using the same National People Meter (NPM) panel as their English brethren as much as two years ago - and some, we might add, have been posting strong ratings - so the shutdown of the National Hispanic People Meter (NHPM), effective Monday 8/27, is pretty much a non-event.
TVBR observation: If you follow the weekly Nielsen ratings in TVBR, you know that Univision-TeleFutura, Telemundo and Azteca America have all made the transition to the NPM panel alongside ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CW, Ion and MyNetworkTV. In fact, the biggest of the Spanish nets, Univision, sometimes tops one or more of the Big 4 in some of the key demos.
08/28/07 TVBR #168
Martin defends a la carte
to minority critics
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin fired off a letter defending his concept of cable a la carte program menus to seven representatives of minority organizations. Although minority and other niche programmers, not to mention cable operators, are opposed, Martin believes it will be ultimately beneficial to programmers and consumers.
TVBR observation: These arguments for a la carte get stranger all the time. Let's look closer. It is about edgy programming on certain cable channels, and the desire of some in government and the watchdog community to turn the FCC into the national nanny. Parents have blocking technology which can prevent children from watching undesirable channels. The FCC should push that and take the small cable programmers' word that a la carte will be devastating to their business model.
08/24/07 TVBR #166
NAB focused on DTV transition
NAB's Jack Sander has fired off a letter the FCC Chairman Martin detailing the multipronged plans the NAB has to assure viewer awareness of the upcoming 2/17/09 conversion to digital television broadcasting. At risk are 19.6M over-air-only households, and another estimated 14.7M households with unconnected secondary over-air-only receivers.
TVBR observation: Viewer retention is a matter of simple survival for NAB members. Of course, the transition will not be perfect - there is a Murphy's Law that states that while you can make something foolproof, you can't make it damfoolproof. But fortunately, the ideal venue to reach analog television users is television, so this is one media campaign that should be perfectly targeted, and therefore, wildly successful.
08/23/07 TVBR #165
|
|
|
|
 |
Sales Associate
A fast growing network radio company seeks a Sales Assistant for its Chicago office. The ability to multi-task and prioritize are paramount in this position, as is the willingness and desire to learn in a fast paced environment. Please send resumes with cover letter to: tfleming233@gmail.com
See Radio Careers
Hard finding that key person
to fill the important position at your organization? Media HeadHunters is the place that key media firms use to get results. See Media HeadHunters and get results with service.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Help Desk
|
__EMAIL__ :
Having problems with our epapers?
Please send Questions/Concerns to:
Memberships@rbr.com
If you wish to remove your name completely from our database use this link __UNSUB__
TVBR Epaper -- 108 annual
or just 9 a month
|
|
|
|
©2007 Radio Business Report, Inc. All rights reserved.
Television Business Report -- 2050 Old Bridge Road, Suite B-01, Lake Ridge, VA 22192 -- Phone: 703-492-8191
|
|
