TVBR's Daily Morning Epaper

Volume 24, Issue 248, Jim Carnegie, Editor & Publisher

Friday Morning December 21st, 2007

TVBR returns Thursday, December 27

The offices of RBR/TVBR will be closed Saturday, December 22 through Wednesday, December 26 so that our employees may enjoy the Christmas holiday with their families.

WGA Strike Central: Day 47

Latest programming
updates for midseason
Carat Programming's Broadcast and Video Beat reports in the spirit of its corporate "green" initiative, NBC will be recycling used programming content from cable sibling, USA. Encore telecasts of drama series Monk (Sundays, 8 p.m.) and Psych (Sundays, 9 p.m.) will launch on NBC on 3/2. They'll join the previously announced slate of Law and Order Criminal Intent repeats. Speaking of USA, Carat has just learned that dramas, The 4400 and Dead Zone have been canceled. ABC's Lost will vacate its Wednesday night location and will move to Thursdays at 9 p.m., where Grey's Anatomy normally airs. The truncated eight-episode season of the drama will premiere on Thursday, 1/31, the first night of the February sweeps measurement period. The reason for relocating Lost is to ensure that original programming continues to air in this highly important timeslot.

The network will also be launching four new series during midseason. The new competition series Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann will have a special two-hour premiere on Monday, 1/7; subsequent episodes will air for 90 minutes. Cashmere Mafia will get a sneak peek on Thursday, 1/3 will move to its regular timeslot, Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on 1/9. New drama Eli Stone will air in the post-Lost timeslot (Thursdays, 10 p.m.). The show will also launch on 1/31. Finally, reality series Oprah's Big Give will air on Sunday nights at 9 p.m. (in Desperate Housewives' timeslot) as of Sunday 3/2. By the way, the sole remaining original episode of Grey's Anatomy airs on 1/3. The medical drama, which gets forced into strike-induced repeats, will move to Fridays at 8 p.m. The post-tornado and sole remaining original episode of Desperate Housewives will air on Sunday, 1/6.

| Latest primetime status report and the latest tentative January/February sched. |

LA City Council holds hearing on strike
The Los Angeles City Council's Housing, Community, and Economic Development Committee held a hearing on the economic impact of the WGA strike on the local and regional economy. AMPTP declined to attend, but on their behalf, the Motion Picture Association of America inserted a statement into the record: "The economic consequences of the strike cannot be measured solely by wages. In addition to lost wages are the costs from the lack of sales of goods and services that go into production, which is an estimated additional 300 million. It also means that scores of other businesses from prop houses to caterers that serve production daily in Los Angeles have also had to lay off numerous employees." The WGA members, which showed up in force, issued a statement that the AMPTP's "refusal shows a callous disregard for the people of Los Angeles. First these companies walked away from the bargaining table, and today they chose to ignore the economic hardship their actions have caused. The WGA would like to solve this problem and get everyone back to work, but that can't be done until the other side comes back to the table."

The City Council approved a resolution urging the two sides to return to the bargaining table. On the subject of the strike's financial impact, the government panel was told by one economist that the LA County economy could take a 380 million hit if the writers' strike continues as long as the 1988 labor action, which last 22 weeks, according to the LA Weekly story. John Bowman, chairman of the WGA's negotiating committee, testified that the strike is about "fighting to maintain the livelihoods of Los Angeles' middle-class writers working in the entertainment industry. The typical WGA member makes about 62,000 a year. It's a strike we believe we were forced into and one that is now being prolonged by the AMPTP."

TV News ®

The Zell era begins at Tribune
The electronic transfer of 4.2 billion bucks borrowed from a team of banks took place yesterday and Tribune Company became a private company, owned by Sam Zell and an ESOP. Zell immediately became both Chairman of the Board and CEO - and yes, Randy Michaels is now Executive Vice President and CEO of Interactive and Broadcasting. Another name familiar to many of our readers, Frank Wood, is one of the new directors of Tribune Co. Wood, who now heads Secret Communications, a venture capital company with the same name as his last radio company, was President of Jacor prior to the Zell era, when Michaels was VP of Programming. "The transaction from hell is done," Zell declared in a Chicago press conference shortly after the closing. Saying he was not interested in the past, only the future, the real estate billionaire explained why he decided to take the CEO post himself. "I became the CEO today because I felt that I needed to be a direct agent of change - and I promise you, you will not be disappointed." Noting that Tribune had already done a lot of cost cutting, Zell said he will be focused on growing revenues and profits. Zell said he was sick of hearing about the end of newspapers - "they ain't ended" - and there were some hints about where he sees Tribune's media businesses going, integrating content across multiple platforms. "In the end, what you'd love, in a perfect world, is if there's a media package called WGN-Tribune-RedEye and people go back and forth to all of those sources to get complete information. That's Valhalla," Zell said.

In a move not previously announced, the Greenspun Family has become an investor in Tribune and Brian Greenspun, President and Editor of the Las Vegas Sun, is one of the new Tribune directors. The Sun no longer publishes as a standalone afternoon newspaper, although it has a daily insert distributed with the Las Vegas Review-Journal. But the Sun has an extensive online edition covering local news in Las Vegas and Zell pointed to that Internet experience as the reason he wanted Greenspun on the Tribune board. There was little mention of the company's broadcast operations during the press conference, but don't look for any changes in either the print or broadcast portfolios. Zell said that no assets are for sale, other than the previously announced plans to sell the Chicago Cubs and Tribune's studio complex in LA.
| See what Tribune announced about its new board members and executives |

Tribune Broadcasting staffers, meet your new boss

This classic photo of Randy Michaels was taken during the Jacor era, when Randy sought to enliven an NAB Radio Show panel discussion by hosing down the audience and showing off his patriotic red, white and blue boxer shorts. When Randy was the subject of a Bayliss Foundation roast, his Jacor managers lined up, dropped tuxedo trou and gave him a 21-bun salute. No, he is not the buttoned-down corporate type. For that matter, neither is Sam Zell, judging by the rather racy chicken story he told as part of a keynote speech during another NAB gathering. The whole country, indeed the whole world, is now watching to see what these two non-traditional entrepreneurs have in mind to reinvigorate and reform the old media assets at Tribune Company. We don't know what is coming, but we do expect it to be interesting.

Local TV ties up with Tribune
Although yesterday's announcement from Tribune Company refers to Randy Michaels as "formerly CEO of Local TV LLC," he really isn't separating from the company which owns the nine former New York Times TV stations. Tribune and Local TV announced a letter of intent to create a new third-party broadcast management company, headed by Michaels, which will provide shared services to the 23 Tribune stations, the nine Local TV stations and, potentially, other TV groups. It will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tribune Company and provide back-office services, administration and other functions. Meanwhile, as Michaels formally moves over to Tribune, Bobby Lawrence has been promoted to CEO of Local TV LLC, which is backed by Oak Hill Capital Management. Lawrence had been President and COO. Lawrence and Michaels have been partners in several broadcasting ventures over the years.

More reaction to the FCC's moves
Almost nobody was completely satisfied with FCC Chairman Kevin Martin's agenda, which he pushed through at Tuesday's Open Meeting. Even those that agreed with one action disagreed with another. A single action was seen as going too far, or not far enough. Here are some more observations, from NCTA's Kyle McSlarrow, Massachusetts Democrats John Kerry and Ed Markey, PTC's Tim Winter and AFTRA's Tom Carpenter.
| Comments here |

Senators threaten interference in football/cable dispute
John Kerry (D-MA) is making repeated offers to help broker a deal between the National Football League's NFL Network and certain large cable companies, including Comcast and Time Warner, to make sure fans nationwide (or at least region-wide) can have access to key match-ups. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Arlen Specter (R-PA) have joined the Capitol Hill chorus, and are threatening an investigation into the NFL's antitrust exemption. The problem is getting the NFL and the cable companies to agree on a carriage arrangement satisfactory to all parties. The losers are fans who missed a Thursday game between Green Bay and Dallas with widespread national interest, as well as last night's match-up between New England and Pittsburgh. Such contests are shown over the air in local markets, but not in extended regional markets nor in other more distant ones. "It will be a dark day for professional sports if the powers that be fail to make this game available to football fans across the country, let alone the local fan base which extends beyond the teams' home cities," said Kerry. "The Patriots have the potential to make history later this month, but today only 40 percent of homes will be able to watch it happen. Today, money threatens to keep fans in the dark, and that's a damn shame for a league that built an empire and a fan base on free access to games."

"It will be a dark day for professional sports if the powers that be fail to make this game available to football fans across the country, let alone the local fan base which extends beyond the teams' home cities," said Kerry. "The Patriots have the potential to make history later this month, but today only 40 percent of homes will be able to watch it happen. Today, money threatens to keep fans in the dark, and that's a damn shame for a league that built an empire and a fan base on free access to games." Leahy and Specter have said they'll consider revoking the NFL's antitrust exemption via legislation they could originate in their Senate Judiciary Committee, according to the Associated Press. AP notes that talks in Wisconsin are being held involving not only the NFL Network but the Big Ten Network as well.

TVBR observation: Is there a plank on the Bill of Rights that we missed? Does it say, "No person or entity shall abridge, interfere with, inhibit or otherwise prohibit the right of the citizens to see football games on TV" somewhere? What will we get next, "The Ashlee Simpson Truth-in-Performance Anti-Lip-Synching Act?" How about the "Alex Trebek We Have Free Speech in This Country and I Don't Feel Like Putting It in the Form of a Question Act?" We'd like to be able to watch some of these games, too, sometimes, and if Kerry can broker a deal, fine. But is it really an appropriate topic for a Congressional investigation?

Wall Street Business Report TM

Sinclair goes shopping
In yet another investment outside broadcasting, Sinclair Broadcast Group announced that it had purchased, through an 80% owned subsidiary LLC of Sinclair Investment Group LLC, a 75% interest in the Market Center shopping center in Roswell, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta. Sinclair's investment is approximately 1.9 million in cash. Market Center is described as a single-story, 82,225 square foot, retail shopping center with a strong line-up of national and regional shop tenants.

Ad Business Report TM

Nielsen: US ad spend dropped
.1% in first three quarters
The Nielsen Company today reported that advertising spending for the first three quarters of 2007 decreased -0.1% over the same period last year, with Internet continuing to demonstrate the strongest performance (+15.9%) of any category. According to preliminary figures from Nielsen Monitor-Plus, in addition to Internet advertising, other categories that showed an increase during the first three quarters of this year were: National Magazines (7.7%), National Sunday Supplements (6.0%), Outdoor (5.7%) and National Cable TV (1.2%). Ad spend across monitored media for the top 10 companies in the first half of 2007 reached 30.5 billion, down an average of 6.3% from the same time period in 2006. Eight out of the 10 advertisers decreased budgets. GM continues to show the largest decline. Spending for the 10 largest categories reached 20.8 billion in the first three quarters, 2.3% less than the same period last year. Most product categories have decreased their ad spending, with the exception of Pharmaceuticals, Wireless Telephone Services, and DR products. The top category in terms of increased ad spend was Wireless Telephone Services at 7.3%--Verizon Wireless was the top brand in terms of total ad spending for this time period in the wireless product category at 449.2 million, and AT&T Wireless second at 402.5 million in ad spend.
| See the charts here |

Aegis Media reups with Pernod Ricard
Aegis Media has been re-appointed by Pernod Ricard as its global partner for communications planning, media planning and buying. Carat will handle the US portion of the account. This announcement follows a review. Global billings are estimated at 200 million. The account will include work for Pernod Ricard brands including Chivas, Jameson, The Glenlivet, Wild Turkey, Stolichnaya, Malibu, Kahlua, Beefeater Gin, Seagram's Gin, Jacob's Creek Wines and Perrier Jouet, among others. "This Summer, Carat reinvented the agency model in the US, with the merger of its Carat USA and Carat Fusion units. This win reflects yet another vote of confidence in our integrated structure and vision. The spirits sector requires media innovation, and we will continue to draw on all of our areas of specialization to create impact and increased brand equity for Pernod Ricard," said Sarah Fay, CEO of Carat and Isobar US. Outside of the US, Aegis Media will handle the account in five major European markets (the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Ireland) in addition to China, Philippines, Canada, Belgium and Scandinavia. Pernod Ricard has been a client of Aegis for some 30 years.

Network TV "CashBacks" to doom the Upfront?
According to Gene DeWitt, President of DeWitt Media Strategies, the recent decisions by NBC and the CW network to give advertisers cash back in lieu of purchased ad time (12/11/07 TVBR #240), deals a lethal blow to confidences that future ad buys will air. The reason for these returns of previously contracted ad budgets is a fall-off in TV audiences and a resulting shortfall of the ratings available for ad scheduling. "However, the fact is that this practice also enables a network in the future to recapture media buys bought in a soft marketplace at reduced rates and resell them to other advertisers at a later date and higher price," says DeWitt. "This shakes the foundation of trust that underlies an advertiser's commitment to buy audience at a future date when marketing plans require ad support."
| Read the full statement from his blog, The Media Age |

Washington Business Report TM

Handicapping the royalties battle
Analysts at two key Wall Street firms are not expecting the imposition of performance fees on broadcasters anytime soon. Both Victor Miller, pictured, at Bear Stearns and Jonathan Jacoby at Bank of America suspect that support for such legislation is too small; opposition is already entrenched, particularly in the House where at least 127 members have signed on to support a bill which is would have the equal and opposite effect of a performance fee bill; and while both broadcasters and the music industry have effective lobbyists and natural support on the Hill, squeezing this issue into the shortened workday schedule typical of an election year is deemed unlikely. Miller notes a statistic that will not likely help the recording industry: reports that only about 40% of the cash generated by a performance royalty scheme would likely filter down to talent; the lion's share would remain in corporate bank accounts.

TVBR observation: And there you have it. Legislators worried about the difficulties artists have making multiple income streams add up to a living wage should first look into their relationships with the labels before allowing the labels to vampire cash from broadcasters even while broadcasters give their product hour upon hour of free promotion.

Entertainment Business Report TM

More show shuffling
NBC has moved the debut of "The Celebrity Apprentice" from January 3 to the following Thursday, January 10. No reason was given, but there are two good reasons to make the move. First, the debut was slated to be up against the last new episode of "Grey's Anatomy" that ABC has in the can from before the writer's strike shut down production. Additionally, January 3rd is the night of the Iowa Caucuses, the first real contest of the 2008 presidential race. Programs on all of the networks could face interruptions for breaking news that evening. To that end, there is some buzz about that ABC could decide to move that precious last original episode of "Grey's Anatomy" to another night, most likely January 10th. If so, we'll wait to see if NBC has to counter that move on the chess board as well.

Ratings & Research

Judy pushes ahead
For the first time since the fall season began, "Judge Judy" has pushed back into 1st place in syndicated television. According to the weekly report from the Syndicated Network Television Association (SNTA), based on data from Nielsen Media Research, "Wheel of Fortune" slipped to the #2 spot, although the two leaders still remain well ahead of the rest of the pack.

Syndication: 12/03/07-12/09/07
# Live	PROGRAMS	ORIG	Rtg.
1	JUDGE JUDY	CTD	8.1
2	WHEEL OF FORTUNE	CTD	7.9
3	JEOPARDY	CTD	6.5
4	TWO AND A HALF MEN	WB	6.3
5	EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND	CTD	5.8
6	OPRAH WINFREY SHOW	CTD	5.6
7	ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT	CTD	5.2
7t	FAMILY GUY-M-F	2/T	5.2
9	DR. PHIL SHOW	CTD	4.9
10	SEINFELD	SPT	4.7

Source: SNTA; Nielsen Media Research data

Nielsen sees shifts
in political contributions
Eight of the 10 demographic segments most likely to contribute to a Presidential campaign which include the most affluent, influential and well-educated voters, made a majority of their contributions to Democratic candidates during the first half of 2007, according to a recent analysis by the Nielsen Company using data from its lifestyle segmentation system and FEC reports. This is up from four of the top 10 segments during the same period in 2003. Also, of the two segments that donated a majority of their money to Republican candidates - Country Squires and Second City Elite - both are trending Democratic. Data for this Nielsen analysis was obtained from the FEC.gov website and includes all individual donations to Presidential Primary candidates prior to June 2007. The data was coded using Nielsen's PRIZM NE segmentation system at the ZIP code level. The study showed that 64% of the donors in the top 10 donor segments gave to Democratic candidates compared to 36% for Republican candidates. The numbers were also similar for donations, with Democratic candidates receiving 62% of the donated dollars and Republicans receiving 38%.

Nationally, Democrats are out-raising Republicans, capturing nearly 60% of all donated dollars. This capture rate is even more acute in urban segments where Democrats average closer to 70% across most segments. Suburbia is more varied, from a high near 70% to a low of 38%, but an overall average capture rate of 55% for Democrats. In addition, the rural heartland and small town America has lost its strong tilt towards Republican contributions of years past with Democratic and Republican candidates now obtaining about a 50/50 split across the group's segments. The upper and middle-class of rural America still lean more Republican-in terms of donors and dollars given-while the lower income segments favor Democratic candidates. Although the percentage split between the number of Republican and Democratic donors has remained relatively flat since the last election, dollar donations for 2008 has tilted towards the Democratic side. In key segments like Movers & Shakers, Urban Achievers, and Upper Crust, there are double digit increases in funding from the Republicans in 2004 to the Democrats in 2008.
| View the charts |

Stock Talk

Techs drive stock gains
Strong profits at Oracle Corp. made traders bullish on tech stocks, which spilled over into the broader market. The Dow Industrials were up 38 points, or 0.3%, to 13,246. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was up 1.5%.

TV stocks were higher. Washington Post Company moved up 3.6% as Standard & Poors added it to the S&P 500, up from the S&P MidCap 400. Stocks generally gain when they are added to the S&P 500 because index funds tied to it have to buy shares of the stock. Gaining even more were Gray Television (common), up 6.4%, and Media General, up 5.1%.

Stocks

**Here's how stocks fared on** **Thursday**
Company	Symbol	Close		Change	Company	Symbol	Close		Change
Acme	ACME		2.54	+0.14	Lincoln Natl.	LNC		57.46	-0.31
Belo	BLC		17.00	+0.36	LIN TV	TVL		12.80	+0.39
CBS CI. B	CBS		25.92	+0.08	McGraw-Hill	MHP		44.17	-0.55
CBS CI. A	CBSa		25.97	+0.19	Media General	MEG		22.04	+1.06
Clear Channel	CCU		35.40	+0.54	Meredith	MDP		55.47	+0.03
Disney	DIS		32.33	+0.07	News Corp.	NWS		21.07	+0.20
Emmis	EMMS		3.89	-0.33	Nexstar	NXST		9.02	+0.02
Entravision	EVC		7.83	+0.09	Ion Media	ION		1.34	+0.08
Equity Media	EMDA		2.84	-0.05	Saga Commun.	SGA		6.17	-0.15
Fisher	FSCI		35.78	+0.67	SBS	SBSA		1.99	+0.05
Gannett	GCI		38.62	+1.07	Scripps	SSP		43.41	+0.21
Gen. Electric	GE		36.52	+0.26	Sinclair	SBGI		9.03	+0.04
Google	GOOG		689.69	+12.32	SWMX	SWMX		0.01	unch
Gray	GTN		9.27	+0.56	Time Warner	TWX		16.36	unch
Gray, C1. A	GTNa		9.00	unch	Tribune	TRB		33.98	+0.91
Hearst-Argyle	HTV		21.91	+0.18	Wash. Post	WPO		797.83	+27.61
Journal Comm.	JRN		9.26	+0.31	Young	YBTVA		1.02	+0.02

Bounceback

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Below the Fold

Ad Business Report
US ad spend dropped
Nielsen reported that advertising spending for the first three qtrs of 07 decreased -0.1%...

Network TV "CashBacks"
To doom the Upfront?...

Entertianment Business Report
More show shuffling
NBC has moved the debut of "The Celebrity Apprentice"...

Ratings & Research
Judy pushes ahead
First time since the fall season began...

Shifts in political contributions
8 of the 10 demographic segments most likely to contribute...

Stations for Sale

Market your Stations For Sale
in our daily epapers.

Contact
Jim Carnegie
jcarnegie@rbr.com

TV Station Auction

WTVE-TV 51 / DTV25
Philadelphia DMA
Full-Power Commercial Independent. Licensed to Reading, PA. Carried on nearly 2 million households

The auction of WTVE will take place at 9:30 AM EST on January 3, 2008 in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, 900 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103.

Qualified bids are due on December 21, 2007. The minimum bid price is $12 million and a refundable deposit of $200,000 is due on that date. A copy of the Sale Motion, Bidding Procedures and/or Bidding Procedures Order may be obtained by written request:

J. Scott Victor
Senior Managing Director
(610) 940-5802
jscott.victor@nationalcity.com

Michael J. Gorman, Associate
(610) 940-3615
michael.gorman@nationalcity.com

Ryan C. Cole, Analyst
(610) 940-2619
ryan.cole@nationalcity.com

TV Media Moves

Chief investigator
WISH-TV (Ch. 8, CBS) Indianapolis has named Dawn Clapperton as executive producer of investigations and special projects. Clapperton will manage WISH-TV's award winning I-Team 8 and oversee special projects for 24-Hour News 8. Clapperton began her career as a reporter for WSBT-TV in South Bend. She went on to produce for Bill Kurtis' Chicago-based production company, where she worked on the A&E shows "Cold Case Files" and "Investigative Reports." She then worked at KLAS-TV Las Vegas as the executive producer of their morning news before coming to WISH-TV, where she has been special projects manager.

More News Headlines

Azteca and Telemundo call a truce
TV Azteca and NBC Universal's Telemundo announced that they have reached an accord and settled multiple lawsuits which had been filed in Mexican and US courts. The dispute had primarily centered around attempts by Telemundo to produce programming in Mexico with a company partly owned by a former Azteca employee. "Intellectual property is the cornerstone of the television business in any part of the world, and we see this agreement as a step forward in the development of Spanish- language television in the United States and Mexico," said Mario San Roman, CEO of TV Azteca, which owns Azteca America in the US. In the event that a dispute does arise, both sides have pledged to attempt to resolve issues privately before filing any formal legal action.

RBR - Radio News

FCC puts faith in trusts
Cumulus Broadcasting agreed to a swap with Clear Channel late last year in which it received eight stations in Ann Arbor and Battle Creek MI in exchange for an FM in Canton OH. Midwest Communications objected to the subsequent spin-off on one of the Battle Creek AMs into a trust. The FCC has ruled that the second transaction is perfectly legal. Stratus Radio LLC is the trust company, headed by Scott Knoblauch -- he's looking after a number of Cumulus radio properties as it prepares for portfolio adjustments necessitated by the plans to take Cumulus private. Knoblauch's Stratus is tasked with running the stations and shopping them to prospective buyers. Midwestern charged that the transaction with Clear Channel was illegal because it went over local caps, that it is a sham transaction due to Cumulus's past dealings with Knoblauch and that it fails to address the "insulation of non-party investors." The FCC noted that the cap problem was addressed by using the acceptable practice of making the Clear Channel-to-Cumulus and the Cumulus-to-Stratus transactions occur simultaneously. Knoblauch has had business dealings with many companies and is not an employee of Cumulus, so that's not a problem. Finally, the sum total of interested parties in Stratus is one: Knoblauch. There are no insulated of non-party investors to list. Case closed.

RBR observation: As companies have retreated from Wall Street and high-tailed it back to private status, grandfathered clusters built under the old contour overlap market cap definition have had to shrink down a bit. Generally that has meant building a trust as a holding company, usually with a veteran broker at the helm who can both run and market the stations. The loss of grandfather privileges has occurred despite the fact the essential transaction being contemplated is Cumulus to Cumulus, or Clear Channel to Clear Channel. This even happened in Disney/ABC to Citadel since Disney remained on the ownership roster as part of the deal structure. We would note that we haven't seen any complaint about compliance with this. The companies involved have simply formed their trusts and tried to spin the stations. The biggest problem they've faced is finding buyers.

TVBR Radar 2007

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

WGA Strike Central, Day 46
Networks looking at other
options for new series
With WGA-AMPTP negotiations at a standstill, the impact is now extending to the 2008-09 season, beginning with the Q1 pilot season where networks fund single episode ideas for potential series. According to an AP story, it's a process that may have had its day, say two execs at a major network, speaking off-record. Pilots are more expensive than ever to produce, reaching 6 million or more for complex action dramas. This year's results were unimpressive, with a number of anticipated new series.

TVBR note: When this strike ends the way business was conducted is over and the content will change to cheaper programming. Businesses do not recoup a loss like this. So local TV best get your acts together and start thinking local, programming content and not depending on the networks.
12/20/07 TVBR #247

TV in the tank
TV's Q3 station revenues down 8.7%; total TV off 4.1% Reflecting the absence of political and Olympic revenues, local broadcast television ad revenues were down 8.7% in Q3 of 2007. Network TV was flat in the quarter and syndicated TV was down 3.3%. Combined with local, that translates into a 4.1% decline for total broadcast television in Q3. 17 of the Top 25 advertising categories in local broadcast TV were down in Q3. Government & Organizations, which includes political spending, was down 67.5%. The biggest category, Automotive, was down 7.5%, and #2 Telecommunications was up 11.0%.
12/20/07 TVBR #247

FCC vote cussed and discussed
"We're not done with this, not by a long shot," said Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) in comments about the FCC vote relaxing cross-ownership rules in the top 20 markets. Dorgan has a bipartisan posse representing over a quarter of the Senate ready to take action to nullify the FCC's 3-2 party-line vote.

TVBR note: Complete comments in this report page of TVBR.
12/20/07 TVBR #247

WGA Strike Central, Day 45
Writers in talks to
launch web start-ups
A group of striking writers are working on plans to produce programming for the Internet independent of Hollywood studios/AMPTP. They're turning to venture capitalists, looking to circumvent Hollywood and reach viewers directly online. Also Directors to share negotiation data with WGA - WGA rejects waiver requests for Golden Globes, Oscars.

TVBR observation: Complete details in this report of TVBR
12/19/07 TVBR #246

FCC and Martin
rumble in the Jungle
Everything hit the fan and the mediums are in a spin. FCC approves top-20 crossownership as FCC Chairman Kevin Martin got his 3-2 party-line vote to eliminate the crossownership ban in the top 20 Nielsen DMAs. A newspaper owner will be allowed to own a television station outside the market's top four, or a radio station, as long as eight independent voices remain and as long as the cross-owned entities maintain separate news operations. Plus, the Commission moved to impose localism requirements on television stations, requiring submission of a standardized form quarterly detailing various elements of local programming. It is now looking at extending these requirements to radio. Also they FCC moved to increase minority/female ownership.
12/19/07 TVBR #246

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