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Cable Business Report
TWC won't share the Wealth
As in sharing the content of family owned cable program service...

Ad Business Report
NBC Agency East reorganizes
W/ integration of MSNBC Creative...

Media Business Report
CC Outdoor teams w/FBI
For "Most Wanted Messages''...

Washington Business Report
FOIA bill clears Congress
RTNDA thanked the legislators...

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USA's McCumber promoted
Chris McCumber, SVP/Marketing and Brand Strategy since 2004, has been promoted to EVP/Marketing, Digital and Brand Strategy, it was announced by Bonnie Hammer, president of USA Network and SCI FI Channel, to whom McCumber reports. McCumber will continue to be responsible for the overall strategic and creative vision for USA marketing, as well as overseeing all expressions of the network brand, including consumer marketing and media planning, on- and off-air creative advertising, interstitial programming and all digital efforts.

Think tank move
KVIE-TV (Ch. 6, PBS) Sacramento President and GM David Hosley is leaving the station the end of this month to become President of the Modesto-based think tank Great Valley Center at the University of California, Merced. KVIE Inc.'s board of directors now begins the search for a successor to Hosley, who had helmed the station for 10 years.

Televisa wins a round with Univision
Mexico's Televisa will get a chance to make its case to a US federal court jury that its contract giving Univision exclusive US rights to its programming through 2017 should be thrown out. US district Judge Philip Gutierrez last week denied a motion by Univision to dismiss allegations by Televisa that Univision had made material breaches of the contract, which has been in place since 1992. The judge's ruling doesn't mean that the contract will be voided, but it does mean that a jury will get to hear the case and decide whether Univision acted in bad faith and broke the terms of the contract. "In particular, Televisa has presented evidence raising fact issues on the materiality issue based on Univision's bad faith motivations underlying its failure to account to Televisa for royalty payments, the unauthorized editing of Televisa programming, and the obstruction of Televisa's attempts to obtain an independent audit. The Court finds such evidence sufficient to withstand summary judgment," Judge Gutierrez said in refusing to throw out the lawsuit. The jury trial is currently scheduled for March 2008. Televisa sued Univision in 2005 alleging underpayment and other contract violations. Televisa, which had owned more than 10% of Univision, was part of a bidding group which lost out to the winning private equity consortium when all of Univision was sold for 13.7 billion bucks in 2006. If it can get out of the long-term programming contract with Univision, Televisa has indicated that it wants to launch its own television service in the US. Televisa programs are major money-makers for Univision, amounting to about 40% of its TV ad revenues.

Best rumor of 2007
Don't tell anyone, but we hear that Sam Zell has had talks with Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital about the possibility of stepping in as a replacement buyer for Clear Channel. Will those talks go anywhere? We'll have to wait and see. But wouldn't it be amazing to see Randy Michaels back in charge of the radio empire he put together at CCU? Of course, Tribune Co. would have to do some divestitures, but there would be plenty of buying/swapping interest in the beachfront properties that would be involved.

Police looking into
WLS car crash
A vehicle crashed into a WLS-TV Chicago's street front studio, jarring the building and startling a weekend anchor as he delivered the 10 p.m. news. There were no injuries, but Gerald Richardson, 25, was jailed on charges of causing property damage and reckless driving with his Mazda MPV minivan. A loud noise was heard inside the studio and on the air, startling weekend anchor Ravi Baichwal. Police spokesman Officer David Banks said it was not immediately clear why the driver of a Mazda MPV with Indiana license plates plowed into the studio's reinforced glass wall. WLS ABC 7 President and GM Emily Barr told The AP the incident might have been deliberate, but she couldn't be sure.

Matchmaker, matchmaker,
make me a fund
The Federal Election Commission has provided matching funds to seven candidates for president, for a total of just under 19.3M. That compares to 15.4M doled out to six candidates at this point of the 2004 race. On the Democratic side, John Edwards (D-NC) is certified for 8.825M, Chris Dodd (D-CT) for 1.448M, Joe Biden (D-DE) for 857K and Dennis Kucinich for 100K. Republican recipients include John McCain (R-AZ) for 5.812M, Tom Tancredo (R-CO), who just announced he's exiting the race, for 2.145M, and Duncan Hunter (R-CA) for 100K.

TVBR observation: In this day and age, accepting FEC matching funds is almost an admission that you have abandoned hope of actually gaining your party's nomination since it puts a ceiling on total spending. However, this time around both Edwards and McCain could make things interesting if certain things go their way. In Iowa, Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Barack Obama (D-IL) are battling it out for first place, but we hear that Edwards is almost every Democrats' second choice. And McCain has been surging recently in New Hampshire.

Local Clear Channel exec cries foul on Minot myth
Calling the story an "urban myth," an Clear Channel Minot cluster manager bristled when Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) once again railed against the alleged lack of any on-duty personnel at a six-station radio cluster in Minot ND during an overnight train derailment involving hazardous materials. Market manager Rick Stensby says overnighter Jerry Michaels was on duty that night, and that there were other factors beyond Clear Channel's control that contributed to problems getting the word or the disaster out to local citizens. Prime among them was the failure of the local police to have their EAS equipment hooked up. Stensby said station personnel did react promptly to the emergency, and in the aftermath helped get the police department up to speed on EAS. Stensby has offered to meet Dorgan to discuss the incident. In a letter to Dorgan, he said he is not a stockholder in Clear Channel and plans to remain in Minot, not with the company, once it has completed its planned sale of the Minot stations. "There may be a lot of things wrong with all the corporate ownership in America but I can tell you that on the night in question, Clear Channel has gotten a bad rap," he wrote.

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. Complete update in TVBR
12/21/07 TVBR #248

The Zell era begins at Tribune
The electronic transfer of 4.2 billion bucks borrowed from a team of banks took place and Tribune Company became a private company, owned by Sam Zell and an ESOP. Tribune Broadcasting staffers, meet your new boss. This classic photo in TVBR 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.

TVBR note: Well get strapped in and hold on and hope we go for a ride of creative juices again to flow back in our media.
12/21/07 TVBR #248

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

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.
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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