TV stocks were also lower. Volatile Granite fell 14.6%, Paxson 4.1% and Nexstar 2.7%. The day's best gainer was Young, up 5.1%.

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Back into the
deep freeze!
We certainly saw this coming. As we predicted, the FCC's Media Bureau has ordered a temporary freeze on the filing of all radio station transactions, based on last week's federal appeals court ruling that cleared the way for the Commission to start using Arbitron markets to determine whether or not a deal complies with local radio ownership limits. The FCC says it will issue guidelines soon on filing new applications and amending those that are pending.

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GM of Cadillac, Mark LaNeve
tells it like it is on where he
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Jesse Jackson endorses
Local People Meters
Rev. Jesse Jackson has issued an open letter endorsing LPMs as "a step forward for inclusion and fairness." TVBR asked Nielsen spokesman Jack Loftus whether the ratings company had made a contribution to Jackson's Rainbow Push coalition. "No we have not," 09/08/04 TVBR #175

Radio improvement
ahead with A But
Analyst Jim Boyle at Wachovia Securities is telling investors that July should be the bottom, with improvement ahead. First the good news: Boyle believes that the radio recovery should accelerate in Q4. The election advertising should be dramatic, squeezing inventory for TV and causing a spillover effect into radio. The heavy political spending may also use secondary media, such as radio. Finally, the very easy Q4 comp of negative 1% should enable radio to ramp up via mathematical help. The Bad news: Why might radio not get that much better? Boyle again believes that the ongoing weakness in the radio sector is caused by the lack of pricing power, as the largest groups continue to offer discounted ad rates to grab whatever available ad dollars exist... 09/08/04 RBR #175

Two more DC licenses under attack
Paxson's WPXW-TV (Pax, Channel 66) and Fox's WDCA-TV (UPN, Channel 20), two Washington stations which have had their license renewals challenged, now have company, and it double the fun for Fox. GE/NBC's WRC-TV (NBC, Channel 4) and Fox's WTTG-TV (Fox, Channel 5) are facing challenges of their own. 09/07/04 TVBR #174

3rd Circuit Blockbuster:
New radio market defs good to go
The 3rd Circuit Court in Philadelphia, which remanded much of the FCC's historic 6/2/03 media ownership rulemaking back for modification or justification, is allowing the FCC to proceed with implementation with certain sections of it which the Court found to be acceptable. Key among them is the switch from contour to Arbitron-geographical radio market definitions. TVBR observation: When the stay was imposed in September 2003, the FCC put a brief hold on station trading in order to remodify transaction forms, which had in turn already been modified over the summer to reflect the 6/2/03 ruling. The first, or rulemaking freeze lasted a couple of months; the second, the stay freeze was very brief. We will not be surprised to see another brief freeze while the FCC gets its forms in order.
09/07/04 TVBR #174

Open the can of worms:
New rules meet the real world
Since the 3rd Circuit is allowing the FCC to go ahead with its new radio market definition, we looked at a few recently filed transactions. There are a few pending deals may be in trouble. RBR observation: Bottom line: As a tool to limit the size of radio station clusters, the switch from contour to Arbitron-definitions should have negligible impact. As a tool to greatly increase confusion in the world of station ownership and trading, the switch should be incredible. And we will suggest one more time - - it the FCC wants to eliminate some of the vast white space between those locations where Arbitron diaries are distributed, it should included Eastlan markets in its inventory of defined and rated areas.
09/07/04 RBR #174

DC TV licenses attacked
for kidvid shortfall
Rupert Murdoch and Bud Paxson have something in common - - their organizations are under a two-pronged assault for failing to provide the proscribed three-hours weekly of educational programming for children. 09/03/04 TVBR #173

Broadcasters firing back at Forbes
Publisher observation: It doesn't take the winds of Naples for me to agree with Cavagnaro in saying "Broadcasters who aren't serving their local communities are only inviting satellite to challenge their markets..." The ones that broke it better fix it fast because here comes da satellite with the likes of the cult following of Opie & Anthony. Certain people will pay just as certain people plug in their Ipods instead of listening to local. 09/03/04 RBR #173

XM, Sirius place banners
on Howard Stern's website
While Howard Stern has a counter on his website (www.howardstern.com) that goes from 16 months down to the seconds left in his current contract with Infinity, XM and Sirius Satellite Radio have decided to take advantage of his recent rants against the FCC. 09/03/04 RBR #173

Study sees digital growth
for flat cable universe
Cable MSOs have their best days of basic subscriber growth behind them, but a new report from JupiterResearch says the MSOs are heading into a growth spurt - - thanks to digital television. While basic cable growth is projected to stay about where it is, forecasts that digital penetration will grow at a compound rate of 11% from the current 23 million households to 43 million in 2009. TVBR observation: Not mentioned by JupiterResearch is that the most-watched programming being put on those digital tiers is coming from terrestrial broadcasters via their new DTV channels. Despite their opposition to digital must-carry, the truth is that the MSOs need the broadcasters and their DTV channels to have any chance of achieving the double digit growth.
09/02/04 TVBR #172

FCC bluster over a cluster
The last time we checked, Arbitron had Grand Junction CO pegged as its 258th-largest market. It is also the scene of the FCC's latest red-flag tossing, although the Commission no longer calls the act of subjecting an otherwise legal station transaction to further scrutiny red-flagging. The deal in question is the 900K dollar sale of KSTR-FM from Leggett Broadcasting to MBC Grand Broadcasting. RBR observation: The law is the law. Maybe there should always be at least three strong radio competitors in a market. But when Congress decided that a radio cluster could go as high as six stations in a market with as few as 15 total stations, it should have considered the obvious: A lot of small markets would wind up with two strong groups and, at best, weak competition from a third owner, or even more fragmented competition from several even weaker owners. And so it goes....Period!
09/02/04 RBR #172

Toyota and NBC cut commercial-free deal for Pride debut
"Father of the Pride" on NBC, you may have noticed a distinct lack of commercials. That wasn't because NBC couldn't sell the spots, but rather because Toyota agreed to buy sole sponsorship of the debut of the animated series and have it run commercial-free - - with Toyota spots only before the beginning and after the end. TVBR observation: We said it before so lets say it again - Content is King and clients will pay for it but the price is big. That is how network TV will compete against Cable. 09/01/04 TVBR #171

More outrage at Forbes
from broadcasters
Radio broadcasters who are boiling mad over the cover story in Forbes magazine that depicts broadcasters as "bullies" who've used their Capitol Hill clout to erect unfair barriers to hold back competition from satellite radio operators. Quite the contrary, says Bill O'Shaughnessy, who says it's XM Satellite Radio that has "run rings" around the NAB in Washington. RBR observation: First isn't just questionable, it's downright false. 09/01/04 RBR #171

Analyst applauds broad
core growth in TV revenues
It's not just political advertising that's fueling television's strong growth. After going over the Q2 figures reported by the TVBR, Wachovia Securities analyst Jim Boyle is telling investors that TV is enjoying growth over a broad core of its major advertisers. Hearst-Argyle and Gray Television because they have lots of leading news stations - - and news leaders get the lion's share of political spending. TVBR observation: Stick with news leaders."
08/31/04 RBR #170