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Volume 22, Issue 213, Jim Carnegie, Editor & Publisher

Monday Morning October 31st, 2005

TV News®

Frank heading NAB TV Board
It appears that the TV Board at NAB has taken to heart the old adage that if you want to get something done, have a busy person do it. Alan Frank already had a pretty full plate with his regular job as President of Post-Newsweek Stations, plus serving as Chairman of the Television Bureau of Advertising (TVB). Now, he's also been elected Chairman of the NAB TV Board, succeeding Ben Tucker, who had to step down after leaving his post at Fisher Communications (10/5/05 TVBR #195). Frank then welcomed two new members to the board, Lynn Beall, President & GM of Gannett's KSDK-TV St. Louis, and Preston Padden, Executive VP of Government Relations, The Walt Disney company (ABC), who were named to the seats left vacant by Tucker and former Tribune Broadcasting President Pat Mullen (10/10/05 TVBR #198). As the members of both the TV and radio boards met the "new guy," incoming President & CEO David Rehr, and said their goodbyes to Eddie Fritts, much of the meeting agenda focused on ongoing issues, such as the digital transitions of both TV and radio, with Congress currently in the midst of action on legislation setting the analog cutoff date for TV and how much to spend on subsidies for people without digital receivers. NAB Sr. VP of Science and Technology Lynn Claudy reported that out of 12 submissions from manufacturers, NAB and MSTV had selected proposals from Thomson and Zenith/LG to develop a "prototype for a high performance, easy to use, low cost digital converter box."

TVBR observation: Smart move putting Preston Padden on the board. With Disney/ABC having recently become the first of the big four networks to rejoin the NAB after their falling out over the national TV cap, Padden will again bring the network view to the board. No doubt David Rehr will want to pick his brain to develop a strategy to entice Viacom/CBS/UPN, GE/NBC and News Corp./Fox to join NAB as well.

Study: HDTV sales ready to explode
Many are worried on Capitol Hill that consumers just aren't getting it: That soon their analog TV sets are going to be about as useful as a buggy whip in their daily lives. However, a study from Parks Associates finds that decision-makers in almost half of all TV households may invest in an HDTV set before 2006 is over. 47% is the number cited by Parks, which would represent a 30% increase in HDTV sales and a 38% increase in HD video services. By 2009, HDTV is expected to be a 65B category. Parks' Deepa Iyer said, "Consumers are beginning to see the true benefits of HDTV. Consumers who were once hesitant to spend huge dollars on an HDTV are now reconsidering this product category." However, he said increased in HD programming will be necessary to keep the momentum building. "It is a chain reaction," Iyer said. "An increase in HDTV sales will fuel the demand for other services including high-definition VOD, local content, primetime programming, and movies. However, this industry lacks a sense of urgency in its efforts to bring compelling HD services to consumers. It has to recognize that HDTV will become ubiquitous only if all collateral forces within come together to embrace the change."

TVBR observation: Legislation stipulating deadlines for the end of analog broadcast, pending in both houses of Congress, will go a long way toward fueling the drive to HDTV. If legislators are lucky, by the time the deadlines kick in, consumers may well have taken a big bite out of the stockpile of funds needed to subsidize set-top downconverters.

More indecent broadcast action imminent on the Hill?
Ted Stevens (R-AK) has long promised to put broadcast indecency back on the agenda of the Senate Commerce Committee, and committee members on both sides of the Committee's digs in the Senate Russell Office Building have proposals on the table. Could next week mark resumption of consideration? The House has already passed legislation which would drain up to 500K from a broadcaster's bank account if the broadcaster crosses the line into egregious violation territory. Sam Brownback (R-KS) is one of the Senators with a bill, back for a second go-around after introducing legislation back in 2004 which never made it to the desk of President George W. Bush. John D. Rockefeller (D-WV) is said to have a similar competing version of an anti-indecency bill.

TVBR observation: Sponsors of such legislation have tried to keep legislation read out of committee reasonably clean, but others have had a hard time resisting the urge to add baggage in the form of amendments. In the case of indecency, which brushes up uncomfortably close to First Amendment issues, the more baggage, the more jeopardy that a law will be reversed in the courts. For example, in the Senate Commerce Committee, it will be interesting to see if Stevens will use his influence as gavel-wielder to go after cable TV, an industry to which he would like to extend indecency liability. Such a move is widely believed to be a potent bill-killer in the courts, since it restricts speech which citizens have paid to receive. Stay tuned.

World Series strikes out
Viewership was down sharply for this year's World Series, hitting an all-time low of an average 17.2 million viewers. Luckily for Fox, the Chicago White Sox finished off the Houston Astros in a four-game sweep, so now Fox can get back to its regular fall programming. The net is going to have to run some make-goods because of the low draw, but some of that was burned off in Game Three, which dragged on to 14 innings, for a record five hours, 41 minutes. But although this year's series featured two teams without national followings, Fox officials indicate that they want to renew their contract with Major League Baseball when the current six-year, 2.5 billion bucks contract expires in a year. Even in weak years the World Series is still a major draw and a chance to promote Fox's new fall programs. Unlike a year ago, when Fox waited until after the World Series (and after all of the other networks had unveiled their new lineups) to debut its new shows, some were rolled out before the Series this year. "Prison Break," in particular, showed early promise and was promoted heavily during the World Series.

Young actress killed
in gang-related shooting
Police in Inglewood, CA tell the Los Angeles Times that Tara Correa-McMullen was apparently in the wrong place at the wrong time. The 16-year-old actress was shot and killed while hanging out with friends at an apartment complex. Two other people were wounded in the attack that police believe was related to gang activity in the area. Ironically, Correa-McMullen had appeared last season in a recurring role on CBS' "Judging Amy" as a former gang member who was trying to turn her life around. Just this past summer her first movie was released - - "Rebound," in which she co-starred with Martin Lawrence.

Clear Channel ups Outdoor IPO
Clear Channel Communications (CCU) has increased the expected take from its IPO of 10% of CC Outdoor to 885 million bucks from 350 million, which had been a placeholder in earlier SEC filings. Its latest SEC filing projects that the shares will sell for 20-22 bucks each. The company plans to sell 35 million shares of Class A stock to the public, with an additional 5.25 million in the green shoe for the underwriters if the issue is oversubscribed. Clear Channel Communications, meanwhile, will hold onto 315 million shares of super-voting Class B shares. At a mid-point pricing of 21 bucks, CCU expects to receive 700.1 million in proceeds from the IPO, after expenses, which will be used to pay down inter-company debt to the parent company, leaving CC Outdoor (which will take the ticker CCO) with approximately 2.7 billion in debt, 2.5 billion of it owed to CCU.

TVBR observation: Looks like the underwriters are expecting pretty good demand for this IPO. As seen in CCU's Q3 numbers (10/25/05 RBR #209), Outdoor is the best performing part of Clear Channel, with revenues up 11.3% and cash flow up 9.4%. In fact, it was the only unit of CCU to increase cash flow in Q3.

Conference Calls 2005

Radio beat TV at Jeff-Pilot
We now know a little bit more about Q3 performance at Jefferson-Pilot Communications, following Friday's quarterly conference call by officials of parent company Jefferson-Pilot Corporation. Jeff-Pilot Communications President Theresa Stone, who's also CFO of the parent company, told analysts that radio revenues were up in the low single digits, while TV was lower, although strong local sales filled some of the gap from the previous year's political revenues. As reported Friday (10/28/05 TVBR #212), total revenues for Jeff-Pilot Communications increased 1.8% to 59.2 million bucks, but broadcast cash flow decreased 1.3% to 27 million. During Friday's call, Jeff-Pilot Corp. President and CEO Dennis Glass extolled the benefits of the company's pending merger into Lincoln Financial (10/11/05 RBR #199). He expects cost savings to improve earnings right off the bat, with additional gains to come as the Jeff-Pilot folks show their new partners how they maintain one of the lowest cost structures in the insurance industry.

Adbiz©

Welch's chooses Maxus
as new media AOR
Welch's announced it has selected Maxus Communications as its new media agency, for both planning and buying. Its previous media agency was MPG. "In order to fulfill our vision of becoming everyone's favorite brand of fruit products, it's vitally important we communicate to consumers as effectively and creatively as possible," said Ross Elkin, Welch's VP/Marketing. "Based on their knowledge, commitment to our business, and extensive analytical and research resources, we're confident that Maxus Communications fills that role." Dave Lukiewski, SVP/Sales and Marketing, added that Welch's has been steadily evolving its media outreach efforts in recent years and said the company will continue to do so in the future. "We're excited about working with Maxus to expand those efforts and explore new opportunities that will help us extend the tremendous power and equity of the Welch's brand even further." Maxus is an independent GroupM Company and an agency of WPP.

Deutsch LA gets some Chevy work
Chevrolet is reportedly awarding creative duties on its motor sports/NASCAR and Major League Baseball properties to Deutsch LA. Campbell-Ewald Detroit continues to serve as lead AOR for Chevrolet, which spent 500 million in media during January-August 2005. Deutsch LA lost the 290-million Mitsubishi account earlier last Winter to BBDO.

Media Markets & MoneyTM

Another station liberated from Liberty
It turns out that Raycom will be getting one more Liberty television station as part of the blockbuster merger announced earlier this fall. The station, an unbuilt CP for a Channel 32 stick in Myrtle Beach SC, couldn't be included when the deal was announced because the FCC hadn't granted it yet. However, the fact that the application was pending was noted in the original contract, which further stipulated that the CP, of granted, would be included as a part without any further ado.

Is Clear Channel a "buy"?
After digesting last week's Q3 numbers and the company's outlook (10/25/05 TVBR #209), Wall Street analysts are divided on whether now is a good time to buy Clear Channel Communications stock. Declaring that "Less Down is Good," Bear Stearns analyst Victor Miller took the 4.3% decrease in radio revenues as good news. He'd been looking for a 6% decline due to the company's continuing Less is More initiative. The company's report that Q4 is pacing down 6% was right in line with his expectation. "we believe CCU is pacing better in December than November and November than October as the political comparisons ease through the quarter," he told clients. Without changing his Q4 estimate, Miller has slightly increased his 2006 EBITDA estimate by 26 million bucks to two billion, 336 million, keeping the same growth estimate, but factoring in the better-than expected numbers from Q3. "Applying peer multiples to CCU, we derive a 40 year-end '05 price target based on our 2006 estimates," said Miller, who maintained his "Outperform" rating. That would be a third better than CCU's Friday closing price. Also maintaining an "Outperform" rating is Mark Wienkes of Goldman Sachs. He also thinks the stock should be worth 38-40 bucks. "In short, Clear Channel's commercial reduction initiatives appear to be driving continued significantly better ratings across its portfolio for the third straight quarter since implementing its Less is More strategy," Wienkes told clients. Gordon Hodge at Thomas Weisel Partners is more cautious, maintaining a "Peer Perform" rating. "We expect flat 2005 revenue and an 11% decline in operating income," he said after factoring in his Q4 estimates. While Hodge thinks the "current fair value" of CCU should be around 35 bucks (in a range of 26-38), he sees more risk that the stock price won't actually reach that point soon.

TVBR observation: Analysts seemed to welcome assurances from Clear Channel Radio CEO John Hogan that local managers have "almost complete autonomy" over the mix of various length spots to meet their Less is More targets. RBR/TVBR soon heard from several of those managers who apparently never received that memo. Rather, they say, they are on a tight leash from San Antonio headquarters and closely monitored weekly. They tell us that if they aren't right in line with the national LIM limits, there is hell to pay.

Washington Beat

PAX O&Os skate on kidvid oversight
Part of the FCC's goal in administering the rules about the broadcast of children's educational programming is to arm parents with information as to what age group is likely to benefit from a given program. As such, television licensees are expected to provide this information to TV program guide publishers. Even though nobody, not even the FCC, can tell the publishers what to include in their publications, the FCC wants it provided in hopes that they'll use it. Execs at a number of Paxson stations weren't providing the age-group info since they didn't think anybody was using. The error was caught, however, and corrected, and the FCC let them off with an admonishment, and without a fine. License renewals were granted as well. The stations caught in the net were in Florida and North Carolina DMAs, and all were affiliates of the owner's PAX television network. The Florida group included WPXC-TV Jacksonville (Brunswick GA, Ch. 21), WOPX-TV Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbourne (Melbourne, Ch. 56), WPXM-TV Miami-Ft. Lauderdale (Miami, Ch. 35), WPXP-TV West Palm Beach-Ft. Pierce (Lake Worth, Ch. 67) and WXPX-TV Tampa-St. Petersburg-Sarasota (Bradenton, Ch. 66). The North Carolina stations included WRPX-TV (Rocky Mount, Ch. 47) and WFPX-TV (Fayetteville, Ch. 62) in Raleigh-Durham, WEPX-TV (Greenville, Ch. 38) and WPXU-TV (Jacksonville, Ch. 35) in Greenville-New Bern-Washington, and WGPX-TV Greensboro-High Point-Winston Salem (Burlington, Ch. 16).

Commissioners at loggerheads
With the FCC split 2-2 between Republicans and Democrats, Chairman Kevin Martin is having difficulties getting the Commission to take action on controversial issues. A meeting which had been set for 9:30 Friday morning was rescheduled to 11:00 am, then to 2:00 pm and then again to 5:00 pm - - a time when the building is usually all but empty as staffers head home for the weekend. But Martin was apparently still unable to persuade either Democrat, Michael Copps or Jonathan Adelstein, to join him and fellow Republican Kathleen Abernathy, in approving two huge telecom mergers (Verizon/MCI and SBC/AT&T), so the meeting was finally rescheduled for today at 11:00 am. Also on the agenda are two less controversial items with broadcast implications - - approval of a Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the Emergency Alert System, and implementation of new rules on what constitutes "significantly viewed" TV stations under the Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act of 2004.

FCC sets November meeting
After delaying, then delaying, then delaying again the start time of the 10/28 (now 10/31) FCC October Open Meeting, the FCC announced its November meeting agenda, which will now make for two meetings in one week. Three items are on the docket. One is on cable competition, and two others relate to technical aspects of the DTV transition. The meeting is scheduled for Thursday, 11/3/05, starting at 9:30 AM.
| Agenda items are here |

Programming

"Dancing" set to
step out in January
ABC's plan to bring back summer hit "Dancing with the Stars" in January has now been solidified. With "Alias" star Jennifer Garner in need of a maternity break, the series will go on hiatus and "Dancing," hosted by ABC workhorse Tom Bergeron, will take the Thursday night (8:00 pm) slot for an eight-week run. "We are so grateful viewers embraced this show. With a new cast of stars and the addition of the results show, we will be delivering to them a season that has even more drama, more dancing and more glitter!" said Andrea Wong, Executive Vice President, Alternative Programming, Specials and Late-Night, ABC Entertainment. In addition to the Thursday night dance competition, a second "results" show will also air each week. It's day and time will be announced later. With an average audience of 16.8 million viewers, ABC notes that "Dancing with the Stars" concluded its six-week summer run as the most-watched summer series on any network in the last five years - - since the inaugural season of CBS' "Survivor" during Summer 2000. "Dancing with the Stars" is the US version of the international smash hit series, "Strictly Come Dancing." This version is produced in America by BBC Worldwide. Richard Hopkins (UK) and Conrad Green (USA) are executive producers. Izzie Pick is supervising producer. Alex Rudzinski directs.

Ratings & Research

More eyes still on broadcast TV
In the fifth week of the broadcast season, which ended Sunday, October 23, the Television Bureau of Advertising reports that broadcast TV delivered 98 of the top 100 primetime programs in the key A18-49 demo. Broadcast delivered 97 of 100 in households and in A25-54. The top-rated subscription TV (cable) program for the 18-49 demo was "WWE Entertainment" on USA at #81. The other cable program making the top 100 was "NFL Prime Time Live" on ESPN at #84.
| Top 100 List |

TVBR Stats

Cable net programming costs on the rise
Consumers complain about their cable bills going up and MSOs complain about fee increases that the most popular networks demand each time their contracts come up for renewal. But Kagan Research says costs are also rising for the cable networks. While basic cable nets spent an average two bucks, 29 cents per subscriber per year in programming costs in 2004, the bill was much higher for the 10 most popular nets - - an average of 7.78. Far and away the most costly is ESPN, which spent 25.90 per sub in 2004. Kagan's just released "Economics of Basic Cable Networks 2006" projects that ESPN will continue to increase program spending by about 13% annually, reaching 47.46 per sub, per year in 2009.
| See what the top 10 spend |

Monday Morning Makers & Shakers

Transactions: 9/19/05-9/23/05
Television trading propelled another big weekly bottom line. This time is was a pair of Granite top-ten WB affiliates which put 180M there between them, and underneath that was a Viacom-to-New York Times agreement for an OK City station.

9/19/05-9/23/05	Total
Total Deals	11
AMs	2
FMs	6
TVs	4
Value	259M

| Complete Charts |

Radio Transactions of the Week
Borders heads into Arizona
| More... |

TV Transactions of the Week
Granite does big market double deal
| More... |

Transactions

259M KOIN-TV Portland OR; KHON-TV/KHAW-TV/KAII-TV Honolulu (Honolulu, Hilo, Wailuku HI); KSNW-TV/KSNC-TV/KSNG-TV/KSNK-TV Wichita KS (Wichita, Great Bend, Garden City KS & McCook NE); and KSNT-TV Topeka KS from Emmis Communications Corporation (Jeff Smulyan) to SJL Acquisition LLC, a subsidiary of The Blackstone Group (Peter G. Peterson, Stephen A. Schwartzman et al). 253M cash, 6M note. [File date 10/7/05.]

Stock Talk

GDP growth boosts stocks
The government reported growth in the gross national product that was better than expected and Wall Street reacted by pushing stock prices higher on Friday. The Dow Industrials rose 173 points, or 1.7%, to 10,403.

TV stocks went along for the ride. Saga was the star performer, up 5.7%. LIN rose 3.5% and Journal gained 3.3%.

Stocks

**Here's how stocks fared on Friday**
Company	Symbol	Close		Change	Company	Symbol	Close		Change
Acme	ACME		3.90	-0.18	Media General	MEG		51.79	+0.21
Belo	BLC		21.24	+0.47	Meredith	MDP		49.98	+0.25
Clear Channel	CCU		29.88	-0.26	News Corp.	NWS		14.97	-0.05
Disney	DIS		23.82	+0.40	Nexstar	NXST		4.44	-0.02
Emmis	EMMS		19.37	+0.26	NY Times	NYT		27.28	+0.63
Entravision	EVC		7.76	+0.32	Paxson	PAX		0.41	+0.01
Fisher	FSCI		47.87	+1.35	Saga Commun.	SGA		12.72	+0.68
Gannett	GCI		62.48	+0.38	SBS	SBSA		6.00	-0.12
Gen. Electric	GE		34.05	+0.47	Scripps	SSP		45.33	+0.41
Granite	GBTVK		0.25	-0.01	Sinclair	SBGI		8.28	+0.06
Gray	GTN		9.14	+0.19	Time Warner	TWX		17.75	+0.27
Gray, C1. A	GTNa		8.90	+0.11	Tribune	TRB		31.55	+0.35
Hearst-Argyle	HTV		23.56	+0.01	Univision	UVN		25.57	+0.63
Jeff-Pilot	JP		54.05	+0.77	Viacom, Cl. A	VIA		30.82	-0.10
Journal Comm.	JRN		14.15	+0.45	Viacom, Cl. B	VIAb		30.79	-0.13
Liberty Corp	LC		46.43	-0.03	Wash. Post	WPO		743.99	+4.55
LIN TV	TVL		12.60	+0.42	Young	YBTVA		2.97	+0.12
McGraw-Hill	MHP		48.73	+0.87	-	-	-	-	-

Bounceback

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TV Media Moves

Charles Jablonski
joins VCI board
Video Communications, Inc. (VCI), announced it has named Charles Jablonski to its Board of Directors. A four-time Emmy Award winner and former Vice President for NBC, Jablonski also serves as a member of the Advisory Board for Omneon Video Networks; Board of Directors and Advisory Board Chairperson for Visible World, Inc.; International Broadcasting Convention Council; and Board of Directors for Azcar.

More News Headlines

TV tower jumper
gets rescued
KCRA-TV Sacramento reports a man had to be rescued after attempting to parachute off a television transmission tower in southern Sacramento County last Thursday. The man, identified as John Agnos, of Hayward, CA, apparently staged the jump as a way to celebrate his 41st birthday. Firefighters had to be called out to rescue him after he became tangled in guy wires about 200 feet above the ground. Agnos called for help himself from a cell phone - - telling authorities he thought he had broken both his arms. Authorities said the rescue was complicated by the fact that the ladder on the fire truck only reached 100 feet. A Sacramento firefighter was forced to make his way up the wire to free Agnos. Crews then used ropes and a pulley system to lower him to the ground. "He's in a lot of pain. I was only up there for an hour ... he's been up there five hours ... and my legs are killing me. He barely could feel his feet and he had hurt his arms from hitting the wire," Sacramento City firefighter John Clark told the station. Authorities said he could face misdemeanor charges and may have to pay for the cost of the rescue.

Below the Fold

Ad Biz
Deutsch LA gets some work,
Chevy work that is

Media Markets & Money
Another station liberated from Liberty. It turns out that Raycom will be getting one more

Washington Beat
Commissioners at loggerheads again. With the FCC split 2-2
Chairman Kevin Martin is having difficulties

Rating & Research
More eyes still on broadcast TV
TV delivered 98 of the top 100 primetime programs

TVBR Stats
Cable net programming costs on the rise. All complaining about costs going up and TVBR Charts it all out

Makers & Shakers
Radio Transaction of the Week - Borders heads into Arizona
Television Transaction of the Week - Granite does big market double deal

RBR - Radio News

Radio stations
using web to get
closer to listeners
A new study shows how radio stations can fend off worldwide interlopers into their program territory by using the world wide web to make their local programming more accessible to their loyal listeners. A report from MediaSpan Network, which works with media companies on digital content management, shows that a large number of its radio website visitors make regular visits to stream programming and to download podcasts. It surveyed 35K site visitors, and found that half streamed the stations and 11% actually downloaded material. The activity is taking place across all formats, but the heaviest action on the podcast download side was for Sports stations (24%) and News-Talk stations (22%). "By providing these services in a local environment," says MediaSpan's Mark Zogorski, "stations can compete online with the large streaming portals that have been challenging them for listener mindshare."

TVBR Radar 2005

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

Barrett to Iger:
We're in this together
Says Disney's ABC was pretty smart to sign up first with Apple to provide programming for its new video iPods, but he has a bone to pick and feels the affiliates should be participants in that business. Barrett's beef - Affiliates are the ones who are airing the shows in 75% of the country that ABC does not own [the local stations] and doing the marketing and promotion.
Publisher observation: Barrett has a point but the word is business and ABC and iPod are doing business to move ABC content in a faster line on how the consumer if they want it get it and will to pay for it. IT will be in demand from now until IT freezes over so get used to IT. Financial details view.
10/28/05 TVBR #212

XM widens Q3 deficit
A wider loss in Q3 despite more than doubling revenue on subscriber growth. With the Christmas gift-giving season approaching, XM says it plans a comprehensive media campaign in Q4. RBR observation: Just like the new iPod satellite will be a big advertiser for Christmas and deals you will not believe as Christmas is the season to be greedy. Financial details in.
10/28/05 RBR #212

VNU sale Or get some Street Smarts
Bets on whether of not VNU (home of AC Nielsen and LPM) will carry through its 7 billion bucks deal to acquire IMS Health the smart money is on the deal being dropped even though it cleared US antitrust review. The unpopular move by VNU management has motivated the big investors to demand change at the company, so pressure is on - either buy back stock, sell off assets or sell the entire company to the highest bidder. TVBR observation: In either an asset sale or breakup scenario, it appears the piece of VNU most likely to be in play is its Business Information division includes names as Adweek, Billboard, and The Hollywood Reporter. Big investors don't see the division as a major growth vehicle and would be happy to see it sold off.
Publisher observation: Big investors do not see it because they only see the color of money and do not plan a business model that brings synergy to a gorilla size companies. It takes street smarts to fix and improve valuable brands not a calculator. If you did not improve in '02 for '05 then any company has only one last chance to do so for the balance of the decade but it must be done now, today. Or yep, VNU investors your best bet is to find the Greater Fool to buy but I say good luck because you will need it.
10/27/05 TVBR #211

Get it in the file or file 10K
You'll be filing up to 10K dollars with the US Treasury at the behest of the FCC, if your station's public file is found to be not up to snuff. Soon-to-be-sold Liberty Corp., just faced this problem. TVBR observation: Who is responsible for making sure the public file at your station is properly maintained? If you cannot instantly answer that question, you may want to put 10K in there right now so you'll have it when it's your turn to pay a fine. Publisher note: TVBR/RBR will be emailing a full eight page 'What you need to know in your public file' soon but only to for RBR / TVBR - Members only.
10/27/05 TVBR #211

Moonves will face Financial Challenges at Infinity
RBR observation: The 100 million in annual advertising that Infinity's stations book for Stern's show may not even tell the whole story. Some of those stations are so dependent on Stern that a considerable amount of their ad sales for other dayparts come from package deals that advertisers have to take to get their spots on the sold-out morning show. At least now sales staffs at those 27 stations know what it is they're supposed to be selling for January (and some even sooner). In today's environment no company has 12 to 24 months to turn around as the street demands faster results. 2006 will be the year of change an probably lots of heads rolling at the top down.
10/26/05 RBR #210

Report:
Nielsen parent a takeover target
Has the shareholder revolt over VNU's seven billion bucks deal to acquire IMS Health made VNU itself vulnerable to a takeover? The Wall Street Journal reports that a consortium of private equity firms, led by KKR and Blackstone Group, are weighing a buyout bid for VNU. That news sent VNU shares up 2.4% yesterday on the Amsterdam exchange. (VNU's shares do not trade in the US.) In addition to Nielsen Media Research and associated research operations, VNU also has a publication division in the US that includes Billboard, Media Week and The Hollywood Reporter.
TVBR observation: Can't say we didn't tell ya so of a heavy price tag of 7 billion to get a seat on the exchange. Now the hunter becomes the hunted. Maybe someone should call a time out and bring in a new play. KKR doesn't waste time as they are known as 'Barbarians knocking at your Gate.'
10/26/05 TVBR #210

Special Report: Cable is
yesterday's technology
Cable is past its prime as a dominant video delivery system. Telcos are on the horizon and with unlimited broadband capacity in an IP delivered world and this could provide a critical opportunity for broadcasters by combining their unique ability to create high interest, local content. TVBR observation: It only takes a few of these sessions and a stroll through the exhibit hall before it smacks you in the face: There is a robust business already in progress supplying mature technology for IPTV and VOD. When you consider the opportunities for "Google" like TV, and the ability broadcasters have to produce local programming for an open environment that is currently relatively fee of gatekeepers and regulatory barriers, you suddenly realize that it is 1950 all over again. That is; TV broadcasters can be producing a lot of local programming.
10/26/05 TVBR #210

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