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RBR daily email is my daily MUST READ for media business intelligence and analysis. The first thing I do when I get on the train, is click "more all" on my blackberry to get your entire email. I appreciate your interpretations and recommendations. You're one of the few radio people to attend the Four A's (American Association of Advertising Agencies conference) and the ANA (Association of National Advertisers event). Bravo!

Thanks to you and your staff for your impressive work.

Warmest regards,

Pierre Bouvard
President, Portable People Meter
Arbitron Inc.

As the NAB Executive committee met last week to discuss the successor for Mr. Fritts and other trades were reporting who that replacement was RBR/TVBR decided to ask the question where they would like the new leadership for the NAB to come from. Well, it appears that broadcasters are just as distrustful of Washington insiders as the rest of the population. With Eddie Fritts preparing to leave after heading the NAB for over two decades, we asked whether his successor should be from DC or elsewhere - - and the vote wasn't even close.

'Should the successor to Fritts come from Inside the Beltway with political clout or Outside the Beltway with fuller knowledge of today's total media business issues?'

1 - Inside the Beltway
- 22.03%

2 - Outside the Beltway
- 77.97%

JSA reporting: A legal eagle-eye view

TVB launches "EDI Toolbox"

Lehman sees satellite threat to radio stocks
Analyst Bill Meyers at Lehman Brothers has reduced his revenue estimates and price targets for most of the radio stocks he covers, saying the growing impact of satellite radio can no longer be ignored. He's expecting total radio revenues to be up only 2% this year - - less than the expected inflation rate. Meyers' near-term outlook adjustments in chart form for individual companies are inside this mornings report.

RBR observation: What no one on Wall Street seems to get is that the deals which Sirius and XM have cut with the automakers are going to turn around and bite them in the butt. That's where their dramatic escalation in churn rates is going to come from in a couple of years. Many people are out there now buying a new car equipped with a satellite radio, not because they have any interest in having a satellite radio, but because they want a particular model in blue - - and the only blue one on the dealer's lot happens to have a satellite radio in the dash. The cost of that receiver and the first year subscription is wrapped up in the price, likely with 0% financing, so it's virtually unnoticed. But once that one-year subscription expires, that car buyer who never really wanted a satellite radio in the first place isn't going to pay a monthly charge to keep it operating. Churn, churn, churn. | More... |

No more political money or more Olympics advertising. In '05 you're going to have to make money the old fashioned way - earn it. Keep up on trends and figuring new ways to earn ad dollars. The need is serious for a business-oriented publication. In radio or television, many of the challenges are the same -each industry can learn from the other.
No fluff. No hype. Just business.


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NAB's Lombardo fights for First Amendment rights
The Media Institute hosted NAB Joint Board Chairman Philip Lombardo, CEO of Citadel Communications Co., who gave a talk on the effect the current indecency climate is having on the broadcasting industry. And he had a big question - - why is it the broadcasting industry, and only the broadcasting industry - - that is so under the gun? Lombardo noted that nearly 8M in fines (and consent decrees) had been tossed at broadcasters, while cable and satellite operators weren't cited for so much as a penny. TVBR observation: If you don't have time to read Phil's speech right now, print it out he definitely hits the nail on the head. Now we need Phil to stand tall against the Cable MSO's. People this is Holly xyzT reading.
02/04/05 TVBR #25

Analyst says Less is More
is working
After evaluating spot load data for of 200 stations in the top 10 markets, Harris Nesbitt analyst Lee Westerfield says commercial loads were down 13% in January from a baseline of last October and a lot more advertisers are, indeed, using 30-second spots.. The clutter cutting isn't yet pushing rates up and the Spotload reductions by group chart worth a look see. 02/04/05 TVBR #25

Peter Chernin, Pres/COO sees Fox in battle for ratings crown
The first half of the TV season may have been dismal for Fox but Chernin is predicting a strong finish. After admitting that the network was a "blemish" on the company's fiscal Q2 results, Chernin said the big question had been whether Fox could rebound in the second half of the TV season. 02/03/05 TVBR #24

Steamed Sturm to storm Supremes
The Newspaper Association of America, like a number of prominent television station ownership groups, is keen on relaxing the rules on broadcast/newspaper cross-ownership. NAA is petitioning the Supreme Court for a review of the FCC 6/2/03 media ownership rulemaking and the Third Circuit decision. 02/03/05 TVBR #24

SALES: VNU Media and Marketing Guide for Super Bowl
Super Bowl XXXIX approaches, several VNU businesses released trends related to the big game. VNU has combined data from numerous sources, including television ratings, advertising expenditures, Internet measurement, album sales, box-office, consumer and lifestyle information, merchandise sales, consumer segmentation and targeting, comprehensive market research, and retail consumer sales for an in-depth analysis of the event. The Chart is worth a close-up look see. Highly recommended reading and print out. 02/03/05 TVBR #24

TVBR BounceBack -This reader has a nominee to run the NAB
It will be a sad day when Eddie Fritts steps down from his NAB throne! He's worked very hard over the years and has had an amazing ability to know when to use diplomacy and when to get into the mud. Who will replace him? I'd put my money on one of two candidates: NAB veteran John David would be an excellent choice and I submit a dark horse could emerge from potential candidates and that would be MAB (Michigan Association of Broadcasters) President Karole White. TVBR observation: Who do you want in the NAB Pres/ CEO chair? Send your comments to: tvnews@rbr.com 02/03/05 TVBR #24

Red Wolf tries to bring down Citadel
"If you will not sell me your station I will squash you like a bug." Those, according to Red Wolf Broadcasting Corporation owner John J. Fuller, are the words of Citadel Chairman/CEO Farid Suleman, upon being spurned as suitor for Fuller's New London CT-market station WBMW-FM. Since then, hostilities have gotten out of hand, according to Fuller's counsel, Arthur V. Belendiuk of Smithwick & Belendiuk, in a filing submitted to the FCC. RBR observation: This is by no means the first time we've heard big v. little stories such as this. The story begs the question, should the ownership rules be such that big national groups can't bully small local owners around? Or is the free market the only answer, no matter how ugly? Your thoughts, please.
02/03/05 RBR #24

Behind the NAB Supreme challenge
The National Association of Broadcasters is not challenging the Third Circuit remand of the FCC's 6/2/03 ownership rulemaking per se - - rather, it is going after two of the planks in the original rulemaking itself. NAB is saying that the Commission overstepped its bounds when it adopted Arbitron-based radio market definitions, and when it prohibited TV duopolies among any of the top four rated stations in a DMA. TVBR observation: Interesting that while NAB makes the re-regulation of radio a cornerstone of its claim that the FCC violated the 1996 Telecom Act, so far as we know not a single radio group has filed an appeal to the Supreme Court. Perhaps Clear Channel and Cumulus really are content to go forward with the entrenched advantage they have in so many markets. 02/02/05 TVBR #23

Another vacancy at TiVo
Hot on the heels of Mike Ramsay announcing that he's stepping down as CEO there's another vacancy to fill in the executive suite at TiVo Inc. President Marty Yudkovitz (pictured) has resigned, citing personal reasons. TVBR observation: TiVo faces some real challenges as it attempts to market itself as the elite brand name of digital video recorders (DVR) while many cable MSOs are passing out no-name competing brands to subscribers as part of digital TV packages. Just this week TiVo announced that it was opening its platform to other developers and providing them with early-access software development kits so they can create programs using TiVo's boxes. What remains to be seen is how many people are willing to pay for a jazzed-up DVR if they're already getting one for free (at least, it appears that way in a package deal) from their cable company. That's a big marketing problem to be addressed by TiVo's next CEO and President. 02/02/05 TVBR #23

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