TVBR's Daily Morning Epaper

Good Morning - Thanks for your loyal RBR readership.
TVBR EPAPER - Gaining a personal edge on today's business day. Are you reading this from a forwarded email?
New readers can receive our RBR Morning Epaper for the next 30 Business days! SIGN UP HERE

Volume 22, Issue 242, Jim Carnegie, Editor & Publisher

Tuesday Morning December 13th, 2005

TV News®

MSOs set to unveil family tiers
Reacting to pressure from Capitol Hill, National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA) CEO Kyle McSlarrow told a Senate hearing Monday that several cable MSOs are about to announce family-friendly channel tiers - - but he insisted no new law, such as a la carte, is needed. Although he had no information on pricing or just what channels would be included, McSlarrow said MSOs representing more than 50% of US cable households would be making announcements soon offering family tiers. He named Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Advance/Newhouse Communications, Insight Communications, Bresnan Communications and Midcontinent Media. Those companies are reviewing their contracts with cable channel providers to determine just what their options are for offering a new tier which would exclude any racy content. McSlarrow warned, however, against any attempt by Congress to impose its own solution, such as a la carte channel selection. "If the government intrudes in this space, it will get it wrong," he said.

Likewise, retired Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) chief Jack Valenti warned against government intrusion and cited polls which found that while many Americans object to some of the content on TV and cable, they also overwhelmingly oppose having government decide what they can watch. Valenti is working as the point man to make the TV ratings system line up more closely with the long-established movie ratings system, which he said most people understand. He's pushing for a free market solution to indecency concerns by giving parents more information about the TV ratings system and how to use v-chips. "We're trying to make American parents understand that today they have total control," he said. Afterward, Chairman Stevens was noncommittal on whether offering family tiers would be enough to head off new cable legislation. "We'll have to see how this new family tier concept is presented and how the American family, people, respond to it," he said. But he did say there's no need for legislation now. "We have to give it a chance to work and see if it works," Stevens said.

TVBR observation: Monday's hearing was overwhelmingly focused on cable TV, but Chairman Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) did bring up one subject near and dear to the hearts of terrestrial radio and TV broadcasters when he asked about pending bills to dramatically increase indecency fines. Valenti came to the defense of broadcasters, declaring that a three-strikes and you're out proposal, which would revoke the license of any radio or TV station for three indecency citations was unfair because it is so subjective for anyone to define what is or is not indecent. "It seems not only absurd, but fearful," Valenti said of such legislation.

Martin applauds family tiers
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin was quick to endorse the plans by major MSOs to begin offering family-friendly programming tiers. "For several years, I have been urging the cable and satellite industry to give parents additional tools to help them address the increasing amount of course programming on television. Offering a family-friendly package has always been one of the options I supported," Martin said in a statement.

TVBR observation: We hear that Martin has been doing some arm-twisting of his own in this regard - - putting the screws to Comcast and Time Warner Cable to offer family friendly tiers to win FCC approval of their pending deals to carve up Adelphia Communications.

November positive for Scripps TV
While some other TV operators have been reporting revenues down for November, due to the final days of the 2004 political campaigns, not so for Scripps. It's TV revenues were up 2.4% to 31.3 million. The gain came in local sales, which were up 9.8% to 19 million. National fell 1.9% to 10.1 million. Political was "down slightly" to 1.4 million. How could that be? Scripps has station in Detroit and Cleveland, both of which had hotly-contested mayoral elections this year. Meanwhile, the company's fast-growing cable operation, Scripps Networks, saw November revenues rise 21% to 82.2 million, with ad revenues up 23% and affiliate fees 16%. Newspaper revenues were up 3.9% to 65 million, with ad revenues up 5.4% to 53 million. Local rose 5% and classifieds 5.1%, while national was down 8.5%.

Satellite carrier wants to drop Paxson
Paxson Communications' nationwide network, now called "i" (formerly Pax), is carried on both EchoStar and DirecTV, but Paxson has told the SEC that one of the satellite companies is threatening to drop carriage, claiming that the present programming on i violates the content restrictions of its affiliation agreement. Paxson doesn't agree that the contract allows for termination. But if it does lose carriage on that satellite system, it will remove Paxson's programming from approximately 5.5% of US television households. Paxson President Dean Goodman refused to tell TVBR which satellite TV company is threatening to drop his company's programming. We'll find out, though, if one carries through on its threat to pull the plug effective February 28, 2006.

New Viacom announces stock buyback
Its stock isn't even trading yet (except "when-issued"), but New Viacom has announced a three billion bucks buyback. The move came just after the cable/movies side of Viacom confirmed a 1.6 billion deal to acquire the DreamWorks movie studio (12/12/05 TVBR #241). New Viacom said it will buy back shares of both its voting Class A and non-voting Class B shares from time to time under the buyback plan, beginning after Viacom splits in two on New Year's Eve - - the date now officially set. New Viacom will own MTV Networks (MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite, Comedy Central, CMT: Country Music Television, Spike TV, TV Land and many other networks around the world), BET, Paramount Pictures, Paramount Home Entertainment and Famous Music. CBS Corporation will own the CBS Television Network, UPN, Infinity Broadcasting, Viacom Outdoor, Viacom Television Stations Group, Paramount Television, King World, Simon & Schuster, Showtime and Paramount Parks.

Adbiz©

Jeep launches MobiTV channel
Jeep has launched its own mobile phone channel via MobiTV, with content available to about 500,000 subscribers using Cingular, Sprint, Alltel and other networks. Jeep (and now body spray company Axe as well) is also running 30-second spots once an hour per channel on 18 of the 24 available MobiTV cellphone channels, reported AdAge. This, in place of the two to three minutes of local advertising across MobiTV's channels that include networks like MSNBC, Discovery Channel and Fox Sports. The MobiTV channel continuously loops the existing four short films of "The Mudds," the outdoor-loving family that happen to drive a Jeep Commander.

What increases are being paid for the 2006 radio upfront?
Now that the 2006 network radio upfront is getting finished but is still hot, we thought we'd get a few opinions on how it's going - - up, down, flat, and why. What increases, if any, are being paid? (continued from Monday). Today, we asked Kim Vasey, Senior Partner/Director of Radio, mediaedge:cia: "So far flat for low-end syndication. Four to five percent on RADAR. Premiere is pushing for the highest increase, 12 to 15 percent. ABC and Westwood are pushing for 8 to 10 percent - we're not willing to pay those and are pushing back to try to keep things flat to 4 percent. We just got in to the upfront very late so we haven't finalized anything yet, but that is where I hope to end up."

Media Markets & MoneyTM

Fisher moves into Hispanic TV
New CEO Colleen Brown is taking Fisher Communications into a whole new field - - broadcasting in Spanish. The company announced a 20.3 million bucks deal to acquire Spanish stations from Equity Broadcasting in three markets where Fisher already has English stations - - Portland, OR, Boise, ID and Idaho Falls, ID. "These stations provide Fisher the opportunity to obtain duopoly economics in markets in which we currently operate as well as serve our fast growing Hispanic populations," said Brown. Included in the deal is one full-power Univision affiliate, KPOU-TV (Ch. 16) Portland (La Grande, OR), along with an LPTV in Salem, OR, LPTVs in Boise and Pocatello, ID, and CPs for LPTVs in Idaho Falls and Twin Falls, ID.

Low-power stations add up to real money
Una Vez Mas, the largest affiliate of the Azteca America network, is adding nine LPTV stations to its portfolio in a single purchase from Tiger Eye Broadcasting and related companies. The deal filed at the FCC is for a total of 4.2 million bucks. It will give Una Vez Mas stations in Amarillo, TX, New Orleans, Tampa, two in Prescott, AZ, plus CPs for two stations each in Abilene and Sweetwater, TX.

Washington Beat

Sex offender allowed to transfer licenses
Lane Broadcasting Corporation and two related companies have gotten the OK from the FCC to transfer the licenses of three radio stations in the Scranton, PA market, even though their 100% shareholder, Douglas Lane, is currently serving prison time after being convicted of several felony counts involving child molestation and child pornography. Lane, however, won't get a penny of the 1.9 million in proceeds. Under an unusual court settlement worked out by the local DA (6/10/05 RBR #114), all proceeds left after the stations' creditors are paid will go to Lackawanna County to be disbursed to Lane's victims and to local non-profit agencies which assist abused children. Because of that, the FCC says "it is appropriate to exercise our discretion not to pursue further the issue of Mr. Lane's qualifications and to approve the subject assignment applications." Thus, WYCK-AM, WICK-AM and WWRR-FM may now be transferred to Bold Gold Media Group, a partnership formed by area radio veteran Bob VanDerheyden and recording studio owner Vincent Benedetto.

Programming

NBC Universal clears Martha in 90% of US
NBC Universal Domestic Television Distribution has so far sold the hit new daytime show "Martha" in more than 90% of the country for the 2006-2007 TV season. "Martha" has been cleared for its second season, including the NBC O&O stations, Hearst-Argyle, Gannett, Scripps-Howard, Viacom, Belo, Freedom, Young, Clear Channel, Meredith and Journal Broadcast Group. "Martha" finished the November sweep as the #1 new daytime strip, averaging a 1.9 HH rating, according to Nielsen Media Research. Martha Stewart and Mark Burnett are executive producers and Rob Dauber serves as co-executive producer. The series is produced by Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.

Stock Talk

Dow down, broadcasters up
Broadcast stocks bucked a bad day for the Dow Industrials, as the Blue Chip index was pushed down by a mistrial in a liability case involving Dow component Merck. The Dow was off 11 points to 10, 768, while other broad indices were slightly higher.

Spanish Broadcasting System, which hasn't yet closed on its first TV acquisition, was the day's best performer. It gained 8.4% and pushed back out of penny stock territory.

Stocks

**Here's how stocks fared on Monday**
Company	Symbol	Close		Change	Company	Symbol	Close		Change
Acme	ACME		3.82	unch	Media General	MEG		50.59	+0.75
Belo	BLC		21.78	+0.16	Meredith	MDP		51.95	+0.72
Clear Channel	CCU		32.50	+0.25	News Corp.	NWS		16.67	+0.14
Disney	DIS		25.15	-0.04	Nexstar	NXST		4.25	-0.02
Emmis	EMMS		19.89	-0.11	NY Times	NYT		27.45	+0.16
Entravision	EVC		7.25	unch	Paxson	PAX		0.97	unch
Fisher	FSCI		45.26	+0.17	Saga Commun.	SGA		11.30	+0.17
Gannett	GCI		60.50	+0.21	SBS	SBSA		5.05	+0.39
Gen. Electric	GE		35.55	+0.02	Scripps	SSP		47.30	+0.01
Granite	GBTVK		0.24	+0.01	Sinclair	SBGI		9.98	+0.32
Gray	GTN		9.83	+0.12	Time Warner	TWX		17.69	+0.03
Gray, C1. A	GTNa		9.35	+0.09	Tribune	TRB		31.07	+0.38
Hearst-Argyle	HTV		24.22	+0.17	Univision	UVN		30.29	-0.06
Jeff-Pilot	JP		55.55	+0.14	Viacom, Cl. A	VIA		34.71	+0.29
Journal Comm.	JRN		13.85	unch	Viacom, Cl. B	VIAb		34.65	+0.24
Liberty Corp	LC		47.23	+0.01	Wash. Post	WPO		769.39	+11.39
LIN TV	TVL		13.22	+0.32	Young	YBTVA		2.51	+0.07
McGraw-Hill	MHP		52.66	-0.42	-	-	-	-	-

Bounceback

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

Further regarding Westwood One...

While some could arguably say that Ms. Greer (12/12/05 TVBR #241) may be a "disgruntled former employee" and we do not know that, or she is a gutsy sales person who has had her fill of the corporate invisibility of personnel with the weight of a company's success on their back. I prefer to err on the side of a hard-working seller who has the guts to speak out while it may cause her to get stiff armed in the pursuit of her career. Joel Hollander has a huge responsibility directing traffic for as many divisions and people. It does not release him or any corporate types to forget who makes that engine run. The sales departments. It takes much more than good or big incomes, incentives and big budget goals to hit. It also requires a good environment to work to these goals that makes a company often a winner against big odds. With the troubles these days in broadcasting, new FCC issues, sales-related issues, Internet sales taking budgets form TV and Radio, make sure your employees are product smart, competition aware and assisted in their goals with humor, work ethics and respect. You will achieve the goals.

Stan Elgart
Felsgart Communications

Below the Fold

Ad Biz
Jeep launches MobiTV channel
With content available to about 500,000 subscribers...

Washington Beat
Sex offender allowed
to transfer licenses
Lane Broadcasting Corporation OKed by FCC to transfer shareholder, Douglas Lane, currently serving prison time ...

Media Markets & Money
Fisher moves into Hispanic TV
20.3 million bucks deal to acquire Spanish Station's from Equity Broadcasting...

Programming
NBC Universal clears Martha
In 90% of US...

TVBR Radar 2005

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

Bidding battle for Nielsen parent
A second private equity group, including Bain Capital, Texas Pacific Group and Warburg Pincus, is working on a buyout bid for VNU, according to The Wall Street Journal. The new bid would challenge one which was being put together by another group including KKR, Blackstone, Carlyle and others, even before the resignation of VNU CEO Rob van den Bergh as the company abandoned a seven billion bucks acquisition of IMS Health. Although VNU has insisted that none of its assets are for sale and it intends to remain independent and seek a listing on the New York Stock Exchange (it currently trades only on the Amsterdam Exchange), the same big shareholders who derailed the IMS deal could force VNU to accept a buyout. The price tag is expected to be over eight billion and the winner, if there is a sale, is expected to divest VNU's publishing businesses (Billboard, Hollywood Reporter, etc.) to focus on ratings and research. TVBR observation: There may be more than just two bidders for VNU. We continue to hear rumors that IMS CEO Dave Carlucci is still gung-ho on the scrapped merger deal and is working to revive it - - this time with IMS as the acquirer, rather than VNU.
12/12/05 TVBR #241

Publisher observation
On VNU and the attention
Reality time, what is facing the Nielsen side of VNU is going to be difficult with forward motion of 'LPM' and making a decision during the first quarter next year on the Arbitron 'PPM' front as it takes commitment from the top of the company at VNU with technology and money. Not to say the toll it takes on the people inside of Nielsen. Remember this is research not a durable good like a TV station. Research is a fickle business especially when you are the leader as the business executives (the customer) loves you then hates you at any given time. Publishing side - To some extent the same can be said here but to a lesser degree as the money or the prize is Nielsen. Plus, whoever wins the potential battle better know something about the businesses of the titles that are being tossed around for headline attention like Billboard, Hollywood Reporter, Media Week. They look pretty on paper but you better know what the hell you are doing because this is not the old days with those brands. There is tremendous competition on the computer screen(s) today and to print those trade publications mentioned are not getting any healthier as trade publishing print consistently faces difficult time as I personally know from experience as the inevitable decision was faced and made in 2002 by us at RBR & TVBR. Remember expenses will go up for print trade publications just as US Postage prices are rising next year. Under any circumstances VNU bosses have to confront the inevitable and get on the record of attack now on this press coming from the WSJ instead of 'No comment.' TVBR was the first to forecast this show down now the problem is here as the other shoe has hit the floor. 12/12/05 TVBR #241

Four caught in public file dragnet
The FCC will be defraying the national debt to the tune of 40K if the latest quartet of notices of apparent liability on the public file rap stick. All four 10K fine proposals had a children's programming element. TVBR observation: Anyone else notice that if you have one file omission - - worth 10K - - you can have two or even three more at no extra charge. Publisher note: Look for TVBR's Special Report on what you need to know about your Public File and not cost your station a 10K fine. Written for TVBR by FCC leading lawyer Gregg Skall, it will be emailed in a PDF printable format as our Christmas present to you. Only daily members of TVBR will receive this special report. Have it or it could cost you 10K in a fine. To say the least, this report alone is worth the price of a 1 year gold subscription.
| Renew at TVBR subscriptions | 12/12/05 TVBR #241

Sales and Marketing
Executive sought by rapidly growing participatory Television Company. Experience selling innovative programming to cable operators and programming executives across the United States with all aspects of the launch and rollout of a new program offering. Building a sales team and managing with their peers in the company. Prior relevant experience is a requirement. Competitive salary, benefits and stock options.
See TV Careers

Other Links

State Associations

Contact Us

Publisher question:
Reading TVBR from a friend?
Receive your own morning copy at www.tvbr.com

Help Desk

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