TVBR's Daily Morning Epaper

Volume 21, Issue 240, Jim Carnegie, Editor & Publisher

Friday Morning December 10th, 2004

TV News®

At FCC: UCC v. NBC, CBS
In response to the rejection of a TV ad by Viacom/CBS and GE/NBC, the United Church of Christ (UCC) is going after a local broadcast license of each. Miami O&Os up for license renewals are the targets of petitions to deny on grounds that the nets fail to provide "...suitable access to a full array of social, political, esthetic, moral and other ideas and experiences." | More... |

Cox spools in its cable
Cox Communications (N:CCI) is now part of Cox Enterprises (N:CEI). The multi-faceted CEI has completed an 8.5B stock buyback of formerly outstanding minority interests "through a cash tender offer for 34.75 per share and a short-form merger..." The action takes CCI off the board. Wachovia Bank is handling any shares not converted in the tender offer at the same per share price. CCI is the cable/broadband wing of the company, and also offers local and long distance telephone services, Internet access and commercial voice and data services. It also has a stake in the basic cable programming service Discovery Channel. Cox Enterprises combines automotive and communications business. On the media side, in addition to its cable interests, it has divisions in newspaper, broadcast television and radio.

Point-counterpoint in Minnesota
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune has offered a sneak preview of the forum on media consolidation which took place in St. Paul last night as Democratic FCC Commissioners re-animated their road show first launched in early 2003. It gave OpEd ink to Commissioner Michael Copps and Minnesota Broadcasters Association President/CEO Jim du Bois. Copps said, "Last summer, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the FCC's media concentration plan was legally and procedurally flawed. So we have now heard from the court, the Congress and the American people that the FCC got it wrong when it tried to unleash even more consolidation. It is clear that we need to reassess our approach and start protecting the people's interest in the people's airwaves. It's time for the FCC to come up with a set of rules to encourage localism, diversity and competition in the broadcast media. This time, we must include the American people in the process instead of shutting them out. And we must protect and work to expand the multiplicity of voices and choices that support our marketplace of ideas and that sustain American democracy and creativity." du Bois compared the Minneapolis radio dial of the 70s to that of today, and said, "True, a few large companies own many broadcast stations. But has a consolidated ownership environment really limited choices for media consumers? There is evidence that ownership consolidation may actually increase diversity of radio formats because it makes little sense for a company to allow the stations it owns to compete against each other for the same audience. That is why we no longer have four top-40 stations in this market playing the same music. Consolidation of ownership also enables media companies to take more risks with niche formats since they are relying on multiple stations to generate revenue and can allow a new format time to gain audience acceptance." Both encouraged widespread participation in what they hope turns out to be a spirited and substantive discussion of the issue.

2005: CFOs put the bull in the barn
A survey of corporate chief financial officers conducted jointly by Duke University and CFO Business Magazine finds that they are "less bullish about the economy in 2005..." There is widespread concern about rising health care costs and the federal budget deficit. Other factors include rising energy costs and interest rates. There are also worries that the continued threat of domestic terrorism is having a dampening effect on overall business results. Another sign of increasing pessimism was a drop in hiring expectations. A quarter ago, CFOs were looking for a 3.1% increase in hiring for 2005. That number has dwindled into fractional territory, to 0.8%. Outsourcing is expected to increase. Cap-ex is also expected to be flat. The 3.8% growth rate is said to represent only replacement level spending. And on an ominous note for readers of TVBR, expectations for advertising expenditure have been more than halved, down to only a 2.3% increase for the year. CFOs also lowball economic gains compared to Wall Street. They are looking for a 2.8% increase in GDP, compared to a 3.3% consensus forecast on The Street. Despite all this, the CFOs are expecting their own companies to fare OK, with an expected earnings increase of 11%.

TVBR observation: Are these guys and gals wearing green colored glasses or what? They espouse a litany of minuses alongside positives which are faded and tattered. But it's all going to happen to the other guys and gals while their own team luxuriates in double-digit black ink. Hmmmmmmm...

Uh oh:
Look what's going under the tree this year
Michael Abt's Abt Electronics and Appliances is an independent dealer of a wide variety of toys for adults. He's put out a list of hot sellers as the 2004 holiday season moves ahead. Two of the cheapest, hence most affordable, do not constitute good news for radio and television broadcasters. The Delphi SKYFi XM Satellite Radio Receiver, SA50000, listed at only 79 dollars, is the first item on the list. Nobody needs to tell the radio industry what that's all about. Right behind that on Abt's list is the TiVo Series2 Digital Video Recorder. The commercial-zapper can be had for 99 bucks with rebate.

Cable penetration hits 10-year low;
satellite continue surge
More American TV households are receiving cable programming via an alternate delivery system (ADS/satellite) than ever before while wired cable lost 300,000 subscribers and saw its penetration percentage hit a 10-year low, according to a TVB analysis of Nielsen Media Research data for November 2004.

TVBR observation: If you track or pace the process then click and print the charts. We do to follow the trend. Worth tacking in your programming and sales department and put in your media kits. | More... |

Adbiz©

Scatter.TV to connect buyers
and TV stations
A dynamic media advancement using online Internet technology to directly connect television stations and local cable insert services with media buyers was launched today. "Scatter.TV is an additional selling and buying venue perfect for today's Internet driven marketplace, and it's a win-win for TV stations and media buyers," said Mike Harding, president/CEO, Scatter.TV. "For media buyers who are challenged to place numerous buys in multiple markets and be sure those buys post and for TV station management to sell unsold media inventory, Scatter.TV is a valuable tool." Developed by veteran television station management executive Mike Harding, Scatter.TV allows TV stations to improve orders and help increase sales by making it easy to post and sell fragmented inventory that would otherwise go unsold by traditional sales methods. "By reducing unsold inventory and increasing revenue, Scatter.TV helps stations make budget and enhance profit margins," said Harding. For buyers, the Scatter.TV platform improves a buy's efficiency and posting by allowing media buyers to purchase quality excess TV inventory at competitive prices. For television stations, Scatter.TV is designed to help generate revenue, make budget and sell inventory. Already, Scatter.TV is working well for TV stations around the country as an additional selling venue. The service helps stations increase sales by making it easy to post and sell fragmented inventory that would otherwise go unsold by traditional sales methods. All subscribers are protected by a confidential privacy policy that does not reveal their identity as a user on the Scatter.TV website or in any Scatter.TV marketing materials. A comprehensive advertising campaign is educating TV and cable managers and media buyers about the benefits and convenience of this new media tool. For more information: info@scatter.tv.

Research gets to heart of advertising gender bias
According to a study by the University of Toronto, women not very visible in ads for cardio drugs Gender bias in pharmaceutical advertisements for cardiovascular disease may affect treatment. After examining 919 cardiovascular drug ads displayed in American medical and cardiovascular journals published between January 1996 and June 1998, U of T's Dr. Angela Cheung and her colleagues concluded that 80% depicted male patients and the remaining 20% featured women. They are concerned that the gender inequity seen in the ads may contribute to known disparities in how physicians treat men and women with similar heart problems. "Studies have shown that women are referred later and less frequently for cardiac catheterization and for coronary artery bypass surgery," says Cheung, a professor in U of T's Department of Medicine and associate director of the Women's Health Program at the University Health Network's Toronto General Hospital. "There are also gender-based differences in the use of aspirin, beta-blockers and thrombolytic therapies. The gender bias in advertising is a cause for concern, since there is evidence from other research that physicians use pharmaceutical advertisements as an important source of medical information." The study also determined that the age and race of patients in ads differed according to gender. The women were portrayed as younger than the men, despite the fact that heart disease affects women later in life than men. There were also few non-whites shown in the ads - the typical patient depicted was a middle-aged white male. The authors note that physicians routinely underestimate the prevalence and severity of heart disease among women and express concern that their findings also mirror the medical literature. "While efforts to increase female representation in cardiovascular trials are ongoing, the vast majority of scientific evidence is based on men," says Cheung. This study appears in the November issue of the Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice.

Interspot launches mobile advertising opportunity
Interspot, a customized mobile applications developer, focused on creating emerging media solutions for the mobile/iTV market, announced the release of a new product named InterSMS-a mobile communications technology that allows users to create their own SMS Mobile Marketing Campaign or communicate via Text Messaging instantly. Within minutes users are able to send text messages to anyone with a wireless phone or device or from a PC. | More... |

Media Markets & MoneyTM

Tribune glad for off-year environment
Tribune Broadcasting is actually happy that the elections are over and that there will be no Olympic events in 2005. "A choppy ad environment, atypical political spending and the Olympics came together to make this a challenging year," Patrick Mullen told attendants at the UBS Warburg/CS Boston media conference in New York. "We're looking forward to 2005, a non-Olympics, non-election year, when our television stations typically gain market share." Mullen is also bullish on the group's switch-hitter, WGN-TV Chicago. In the past four years, the super station has gone from 52M to 65M homes, and has 75M in its sights. "This generates more sub fees, as well as higher ratings, which, in turn, drives advertising revenue," observed Mullen.

Washington Beat

Another break for broadcasters
at FCC meeting
The agenda for the 12/15/04 open meeting at The Portals, the official southwest Washington home of the FCC, is out, and there is not one item of direct interest to members of the broadcast community. The agenda includes six items in all. The Office of Engineering and Technology and the International Bureau each have a plank, and there are two each for the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau and the Wireline Competition Bureau. FCC Chairman Michael Powell expects take on the many thorny issues pertaining to the DTV transition sometime in the first quarter of 2005.

Programming

Reality sinking in for reality producers
It had to happen. The me-too mentality of television programming is taking its toll among the reality TV crowd, and the audience which for awhile was lapping up just about anything that made it onto the small screen is now much more difficult to capture. Hollywood Reporter notes several titles which tanked almost immediately, while covering a Hollywood Radio & Television Society confab on the topic. In fact, idea theft was one of the hot topics at the session. The problems, and the quick demise of some of the new offerings, were not seen as a death knell for reality TV. Rather, it was seen as a maturity factor. With the novelty factor spent, winners going forward will need both genuine creativity and solid execution to make their program work.

TVBR observation: We have long predicted the demise of reality TV, just like many other genres have risen and fallen before it. We still cannot claim that it's dead and gone - - the fact is it went much farther than we ever thought it would. But the fact remains: How many times will people sit through slight variations of the same old premise before they become desperate for something - - anything - - different? The most recent genre before this to rise and fall was the prime time game show. While the game shows were a molehill compared to the mountainous stature attained by the reality phenomenon, the eventual reality erosion was only a matter of time.

E! to debut "Gastineau Girls" reality series
Two new hotties are hitting the reality TV scene. The former wife of NFL player Mark Gastineau, Lisa and her daughter, Brittny have been signed by True Entertainment to appear in a 10 part reality series set to air on E! 2/1. The series will follow the pair as they sachet from their glitzy Manhattan apartment to parties in the Hampton and Aspen. Lisa and Brittny are billed as a sexy and ravishing mother/daughter team by True President Steven Weinstock.

Stock Talk

Steady as she goes on the broadcast boat
It was a relatively calm day for sailing on Wall Street. Good news from some companies was tempered by the continued rise in oil prices, a pair of counterbalances which kept most stocks right about where they started at the beginning of trading. On the radio side of broadcasting, two companies enjoyed a dollar-plus surge - - Arbitron and Westwood One, while over on the TV side, McGraw-Hill picked up a buck and a half.

Stocks

**Here's how stocks fared on Thursday**
Company	Symbol	Close		Change	Company	Symbol	Close		Change
Acme	ACME		6.00	+0.04	McGraw-Hill	MHP		89.97	+1.52
Belo	BLC		25.10	+0.20	Media General	MEG		62.96	+0.58
Clear Channel	CCU		33.78	+0.39	Meredith	MDP		53.49	+0.34
Disney	DIS		27.56	+0.36	News Corp.	NWS		17.63	+0.03
Emmis	EMMS		18.12	-0.12	Nexstar	NXST		7.90	-0.09
Entravision	EVC		7.82	+0.24	NY Times	NYT		39.65	+0.18
Fisher	FSCI		46.33	-0.06	Paxson	PAX		1.31	+0.11
Fox	FOX		30.61	+0.28	Saga Commun.	SGA		17.05	+0.11
Gannett	GCI		81.93	+0.54	Scripps	SSP		45.94	+0.24
Gen. Electric	GE		35.99	+0.28	Sinclair	SBGI		8.37	+0.18
Granite	GBTVK		0.41	-0.01	Time Warner	TWX		18.42	+0.27
Gray	GTN		15.22	+0.05	Tribune	TRB		42.40	-0.07
Gray, C1. A	GTNa		14.01	+0.23	Univision	UVN		28.15	+0.42
Hearst-Argyle	HTV		25.45	+0.10	Viacom, Cl. A	VIA		35.57	-0.35
Jeff-Pilot	JP		50.66	+0.21	Viacom, Cl. B	VIAb		34.98	-0.31
Journal Comm.	JRN		17.09	-0.23	Wash. Post	WPO		947.55	+7.55
Liberty Corp	LC		42.16	+0.06	Young	YBTVA		10.20	-0.03
LIN TV	TVL		18.38	+0.31	-	-	-	-	-

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Bounceback

Send Us Your Opinions We want to
hear from you.
This is your column, so send your comments to tvnews@rbr.com

Upped & Tapped

BE ups Richard Hinkle to VP/Engineering
Hinkle has served as Director of RF Engineering for the company since February of 2000. As VP, Hinkle will broaden his responsibilities as the company's lead engineer for developing and researching new products for the broadcast industry. "Richard's talent for innovation has advanced this company and the broadcast community. It goes without saying that he is well respected by broadcasters as an engineer's engineer," said BE President John Pedlow.

November Digital
Solutions Magazine

Cutting inventory and the effects--GM Talkback
Larry Wert,
Pres/Gm NBC's - WMAQ-TV,
Tom Bender,
GM Greater Media/Detroit,
Mike Mazursky,
GM 4M Communications
page 6

IF your were in Radio
When it Worked
page 8

Laying the Hits down -
Boom Boom Boom
Listen to past great air checks of
George Michael
WFIL-AM
Fred Winston's classic
NewYears Day Hangover Club &
Bob DeCarlo with Tommy Turntable
page 12

November Zinio Solutions Magazine
Read RBR in 2 simple steps:
1.Create a simple account with Zinio and download the Zinio Reader.
2. You can then download the November Issue of RBR

TVBR Radar 2004

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

Arbitron claims PPM recruiting success in Houston
Over 52% of the households targeted for the first wave of PPM recruitment agreed to participate. The company says fault rates are also low. Response levels had been a big concern during the initial PPM test in Philadelphia, but Arbitron thinks it's got the problem licked. Look for the test to start churning out data come July. TVBR observation: This is why you test. Another improvement in the Houston test will be a modification to the PPM device that will differentiate in-home and out-of-home media use, based on proximity to the docking/recharging unit. TV guys, who've never had out-of-home viewing measured by Nielsen, are salivating over that. But cost remains a big concern for many radio companies, along with how PPM affects morning drive ratings. You must read and print out these charts. We like this point - TV is salivating so Nielsen step-in with the Kleenex and wipe off the drool.
12/09/04 TVBR #239

Belo, More warnings on 2005
TV groups are setting the bar low with no Olympics or political revenues to speak of next year. Belo will have no Olympics revenue in 2005 versus almost $10 million in 2004. The Super Bowl will be on Fox, rather than one of the three networks where Belo's television station affiliations are concentrated.
TVBR observation: Look for Fox to improve next year with new upper chief in Jack Abernethy. TV must cross market with local Radio or lose. 12/09/04 TVBR #239

Sook thinks JSAs are safe
Despite the uncertainty over what will happen with the FCC's media ownership rules, Nexstar Broadcasting Group CEO Perry Sook points out that TV joint sales agreements (JSA) should still be allowed. hat's important for Nexstar, which has virtual duopolies in 16 markets through JSAs with stations owned by Mission Broadcasting. Sook noted that all of the comments filed with the FCC on the subject of TV JSAs were in favor of continuing to allow JSAs, rather than counting JSA'd stations against in-market ownership limits, as in radio.
12/09/04 TVBR #239

RAEL releases second study:
"The Benefits of Synergy:
Moving Money Into Radio"
released its second study revealing the impact on various measurement criteria when radio is added to the Media Mix. Findings are geared to help advertisers and agencies develop multi-media campaigns that reflect the way consumers absorb media. Specifically, the study charts what happens to several effectiveness measures when radio is used to replace a balanced portion of the investment in television or newspapers. TVBR observation: Matt Feinberg, SVP/Network Radio, Zenith Media sums it up the best, "The studies from RAEL reveal how to use Radio for consumer touch points. 12/09/04 TVBR #239

TV's - DTV vote moves
briefly to back burner
FCC Chairman Michael Powell has decided to postpone a vote on critical decisions pertaining to the transition to digital television, keeping it off of the agenda for the Commission's December open meeting. The reason: some equally important business on the telecommunications side. DTV will be on the agenda as early as January and almost certainly in Q1 2005. TVBR note: The January debut issue of Radio & Television Business Report - The Real Business Magazine- has a close up look at what DTV really means. The report filed by TVB President Chris Rohrs entitled: 'Taking a look at Digital TV' - states in part - "....This can't be. What's going on here? In a word: Disappointment." Contact April McLynn 703-492-8191, to get the DTV report. 12/08/04 TVBR #238

Abernethy heading Fox O&O group
If you work at a Fox O&O station, meet your new boss. Jack Abernethy, who was formerly Executive Vice President of Fox News, has been named CEO of Fox Stations Inc., overseeing all of the company's 35 television stations. Here's a guy that really rolls up his sleeves and gets into the trenches. For a One-On-One Close Up Look see RBR/TVBR Solutions Magazine Sept. '04 issue. Read the interview in PDF format here. 12/08/04 TVBR #238

TV's - DTV vote moves
briefly to back burner
FCC Chairman Michael Powell has decided to postpone a vote on critical decisions pertaining to the transition to digital television, keeping it off of the agenda for the Commission's December open meeting. The reason: some equally important business on the telecommunications side. DTV will be on the agenda as early as January and almost certainly in Q1 2005. 12/08/04 TVBR #238

Radio Professionals
Salem Communications seeking experienced candidates in Radio Sales, Programming, and Management for pending acquisitions in Miami and Omaha, EOE.

GM & Equity
New England radio group seeks self-starter to captain turnarounds. Community radio is still alive and well in this Central New England combo. Equity participation available Letter and Resume

See Radio Careers for more info.

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