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Carat's Charlie Rutman moves to MPG
MPG, the buying and planning unit of Havas, announced last week that Carat NA President Charlie Rutman is its new CEO for North America. He fills the post vacated by Jim Rose, who left MPG in November.

RBR Observation
RAB 2005 Atlanta presents must issues
to tackle
Released its second Radio Perceptual Study Update, focusing on a lot of the accountability issues that have been dealt with repeatedly in RBR/TVBR for the past two years. We heard, as you might expect, that the view of radio's accountability is not good, particularly in such areas as running schedules as ordered and the quality and timeliness of ratings information. The study of advertisers, agencies and buyers were asked how they view accountability by the various media. In a nutshell it is a mixed bag of nuts. Some good some not so good but we will pick out the results over the next few days. RAB CEO Gary Fries - At his state of the Industry speech to open RAB2005, did discuss the Advertiser Perception Study, noting that radio is still not perceived as the most accountable medium by advertisers. "Radio people think we are," he said, but went on to clarify that in today's environment, advertisers are obligated to show their stockholders or owners that they are getting what they purchased. "But the needle is moving," according to Fries, "and radio is in front on many issues. But we haven't had the ratings systems to tell the advertiser what is going on." Indicating that a three-book average consisting of data that could be as much as a year old is no longer acceptable. "We have to become more relevant. We have to deliver more information, real-time information, and accurate information. We are moving in that direction, but we're not there yet. We need to be the most accountable medium out there."

Editor's Note: 2005 update: Radio Industry Perceptual Study - This session should have been the opening session. Unfortunately only a handful showed up to view these vital results. Guess awards are more important. RBR will have a complete detailed report and we will go slowly over the next few days so all can get the full depth of issues facing the radio business. TV pay close attention as it also applies to you.

The TVB is predicting a flat year for TV station revenues and Universal McCann guru Bob Coen says revenues should rise about 2%. But our gurus on the frontline - - you, our TVBR readers - - are more pessimistic. With no federal election or Olympics this year, a majority of you who clicked on our poll think TV station revenues will be in negative territory when 2005 comes to an end.

How will TV station revenues finish 2005?

1 - Down 1-2%
- 51.11%
2 - Flat
- 13.33%
3 - Up 1-2%
- 24.44%
4 - Up 3% or more
- 11.11%

FCC nixes multicast must carry
The FCC took a big stand with the cable industry over broadcasters, reaffirming an earlier finding that CATV operators do not have to provide dual analog/digital carriage during the remainder of the DTV transition phase by a 5-0 vote, and reaffirming cable's responsibility to carry only one and only one broadcast programming stream, regardless of whether or not the broadcaster is multicasting.
02/11/05 TVBR #30

NAB responds
NAB President/CEO Eddie Fritts wasted no time reacting to the FCC's decision on multicast must carry. "In Washington, there are no final victories and no final defeats,"
TVBR observation: There is no way on this earth to call this a victory for broadcasters. However, Fritts does have a valid point. Members of both parties on Capitol Hill asked the FCC to support multicast must carry, or at a minimum, delay a vote on it. In their remarks, several of the Commissioners noted that ultimately, the FCC's job is to interpret and carry out the mandates of Congress. If the NAB can get legislators to put something in writing and vote affirmatively on it, broadcasters might yet get their way. 02/11/05 TVBR #30

Another broadcaster claims it was fouled by Citadel
Ed Levine's Galaxy Communications says Citadel Broadcasting Company went out of bounds in its effort to stop Galaxy from building an FM translator in Fulton NY, which Galaxy was seeking to bolster its coverage of the Syracuse market. Similar charges have come from Red Wolf Broadcasting in the New London CT market. 02/11/05 RBR #30

Congressional indecency
effort clears first hurdle
There was twice as much opposition to the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act in 2005 as there was in 2004. That brought the opposition all the way to two votes, as an essentially clean bill sailed through the House Energy and Commerce Committee as predicted. The vote was 46-2, compared to last year's 49-1 tally. The bill, if enacted into law, will raise the FCC's maximum indecency fine from 32.5K to 500K and put in a 3rd strike rule ordering the FCC to consider license revocations for thrice-cited owners.
TVBR observation: The bill sailed through the full House last year with only token opposition, but was done in by the Senate, which included amendments dealing with broadcast ownership consolidation and violent content, among other things. That will no doubt happen again, putting the ball squarely in Sen. Ted Steven's (R-AK) court. Will he be able to get an equally clean bill through his Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation? Stay tuned. 02/10/05 TVBR #29

Revise and shine?
The goal of keeping government activities transparent requires that when ever more than two commissioners meet, it must be in an open forum observable by the public, a provision of the Sunshine Act. Commissioners from both parties serving at the FCC want the rules revised, saying it hampers their ability to deal with the complex issues which are regularly brought before them. The Commissioners say they still communicate, via memos, staff members, round-robin one-on-one meetings etcetera.
TVBR observation: Neither Powell nor Copps has been at all shy about explaining themselves to the public. Where Powell has run into icebergs is his distaste for letting the public tell him what they think.
02/10/05 TVBR #29

LIN thinks it can replace
political revenues
LIN TV is telling Wall Street to expect Q1 revenues to be flat to slightly down from a year ago. But for the full year CEO Gary Chapman is determined to replace all of last year's 25 million in political advertising and the Olympics boost that LIN's NBC affiliates got, so he's not joining other groups in predicting a down year. 02/10/05 TVBR #29

Spectrum tax proposal back again
In what is becoming an annual event and traces back to the Clinton White House, the administration is attempting to slip a spectrum tax on broadcasters who are running parallel stations in the pending phase of the DTV transition. The tax would apply to unreturned analog spectrum beginning in 2006, and would shoot for a government payday of a half billion dollars. The congruent annual event is the successful effort by the National Association of Broadcasters to blow the spectrum tax out of the water. TVBR observation: NAB is alive and doing its job but the industry knows the leader is leaving. When can the radio and television business expect to see 'white smoke?' There are issues that need addressed and nobody in our business wants to get blind sided. NAB needs a leader that has knowledge but also has the youth to lead for the next ten years. 02/09/05 TVBR #28

Tribune in play? Get Real Crain
Don't bet on it, but Crain's Chicago Business is out with an article suggesting that Tribune Company could be a takeover target, due to its depressed stock price. The scenario offered would have Time Warner buy Tribune for its TV station group - - mostly big market affiliates of the WB network - - then sell off the unwanted parts of the company.
TVBR observation: With Time Warner current bidding many billions in partnership with Comcast to buy Adelphia Communications, we doubt that it would be in any position to make a play for Tribune as well. But if the Adelphia bid falls short, who knows? But we are of the observation that Crain Communications isn't in total touch with our media business just plain reporters with no broadcast experience writing words.
02/09/05 TVBR #28

Interest in satellite radio
already weakening
That's the key conclusion of JP Morgan media analyst Barton Crockett from the firm's second consumer survey on satellite radio. The survey of more than 1,600 people found that 35% of households were interested in satellite radio - - down from 43% in the first survey last May. Of course, with penetration at only 3.8%, there's still plenty of growth potential, but Crockett still sees the decline in consumer demand as "incrementally negative." As noted yesterday, when JP Morgan entertainment analyst Spencer Wang also issued a report on the survey's findings, commercial-free music is the main factor driving demand, not exclusive content. Nevertheless, Crockett believes that its content deals with the NFL and Howard Stern will help Sirius achieve retail share parity with XM. 12% of non-subscribers preferred the Sirius package, compared to 6% for XM. RBR observation: Wall Street survey yourselves to death but get real as satellite radio will and is fast growing as a part of the media mix. Crunching numbers is just a way to move paper. In programming here is the rule: Content is King and Presentation Queen. Once you have those two elements with proper marketing by establishing a Brand then the platforms are built for growth. Any good PD knows this and consumers, listeners, and people then come to the game. Somebody give a yank and pull their heads out.
02/09/05 RBR #28

FCC seeking over 300M for FY 2006
Telling President Bush that it will require 304.057M dollars to get its job done during fiscal year 2006. The figure represents an increase of over 11M from the 292.958M it wanted for FY 2005. The FCC says it needs the extra money for mandated salary and benefits increases and for inflationary trends in rent, supplies, printing and contractual services. It also wants to upgrade its Columbia MD facility and upgrade it electronic filing system, among other things.
02/08/05 TVBR #27

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