| Incredible News! |
Dear Loyal Readers,
 With all our recent upgrades the final chapter is here, the new sign up form. This is the last step in completing our migration to a more powerful, more functional and robust solution in the delivery of our Epapers.
The incredible news is we've also made the decision to take our Epapers in a new direction. We will no longer be a paid subscription service. We are offering all three of our Epapers FREE to anyone who wishes to receive them. That's right, you asked for it and we listened. No more hassle with subscriptions and trial periods. They are yours for the taking. All you have to do is take 30 seconds to complete our new sign up form.
The rest of this week will have reminders to do so. Next week we will start our 5 day countdown. On the following Monday, the 24th, we will migrate to the new delivery system.
If you have not signed up by Monday the 24th you will not receive your daily Epapers and importantly the Observations. So please do so now, hit the Sign Up button.
We apologize for not being able to transfer your information automatically to the new system, but the new database structure is just not compatible with the old one.
Thank you for your time and patience during this transitional period.
Sincerely, the RBR/TVBR Staff
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TV News ®
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 One celery stalk, a gallon of milk and a converter box
Not every town in the US can support a consumer electronics store, but you can bet that almost all of them have a grocery store of two. To make sure all consumers have easy access to digital-to-analog converter boxes, NAB is asking NTIA to put grocery stores on its list of approved converter box retail outlets. In a letter to NTIA head Meredith Attwell Baker, NAB's David K. Rehr wrote, "I believe that an accommodation should be made for grocery stores, and that at a minimum information on NTIA's program and its waiver criteria should be made available to stores, especially those in rural areas." A day earlier, Rehr made another appeal to Baker. Noting that over 20% of seniors are over-air only TV viewers, he asked that special arrangements be made to get coupons to assisted living facilities and nursing homes. "We understand that current NTIA policies and procedures could hinder the efforts of seniors in assisted living facilities and nursing homes to obtain coupons, by utilizing too narrow a definition of "household" for purposes of coupon eligibility. Surely, this is something that can be fixed, perhaps with a designation to identify seniors at an address that has multiple eligible recipients. These citizens deserve to be admitted to the government's program to ensure continued television reception. While we all value our favorite television programs and rely on television broadcasts for vital weather and emergency information, our senior population above all others cannot be cut off from receiving television programming."
TVBR observation: The time for common sense and flexibility is now -- there is no "next year" any longer. We encourage the FCC, NTIA and Congress to pay close attention when any stakeholder identifies a crack in the DTV transition system and do whatever is needed to plug it immediately.
Reporter attacked in South Carolina
Four people were arrested in Union, SC following an attack on WSPA-TV (Ch. 7, CBS) Spartanburg reporter Charmayne Brown, who was across the street from a murder scene. Brown, who is black, said people had shouted racial insults at her before the attack, which was videotaped by another station's news crew. Brown's own photographer, Ti Barnes, was busy trying to free her from the assailants and he was roughed up as well. Barnes is also black. Hearst-Argyle's WYFF-TV (Ch. 4, NBC) provided Media General's WSPA with its video from the attack and both have clips posted on their websites. Both stations had been at the site to report on the arrest of a young man charged with murdering his grandfather. The people arrested for the attack, believed to be relatives of the man charged with murder, are all white. They did not attack the white news crew from WYFF.
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One less news team in Reno
Pappas Telecasting ended news programming this week in Reno on its KREN-TV (Ch. 27, CW) and KAZR-CA (Ch. 46, Tu Visión). The final newscasts aired on Monday. The company said elimination of the news operation was partly the result of the impending sale of some Pappas Telecasting properties and partly because the stations didn't see adequate advertising revenues to justify the expense of the news division. "We have been proud at KREN and KAZR to be a part of several important milestones in Reno and in the broadcasting industry. KREN/KAZR is one of the first truly bilingual newsrooms in the United States. KREN was one of the first stations in the country to implement a community journalism website, Community Correspondent, a place where citizens can post their own video, pictures and community news." said Harry J. Pappas, Chairman and CEO of Pappas Telecasting. 19 employees were displaced by the newsroom shutdown. Pappas said where possible they are being relocated to the group's stations in other markets with news operations.
 Legal eagle-eye view
of FCC diversity initiatives
The FCC's plan to get more women and minorities into broadcast ownership is a multi-faceted thing. In order to slip it past the courts, it approaches the issue as a small business problem and ties SBA small business definitions to each of its proposals. Nevertheless, the day it was released, it was called "...an extraordinary day for minorities in broadcasting," by Minority Media & Telecommunications Council Executive Director David Honig. Now Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice Attorney Peter Gutmann takes a crack at the FCC Initiatives to Promote Diversification of Broadcast Ownership. As an aesthetic matter, readers are asked to refrain from using Mr. Gutmann's piece for wallpapering that spare bedroom, and as a legal matter, readers are asked to refrain from using the piece as a basis for any courtroom actions.
| Read more here |
Moonves rules out more station sales
Speaking at the McGraw-Hill Media summit in New York, CBS Corporation CEO Les Moonves said he has no plans to sell anymore of the company's radio or TV stations, at least not until prices go up. He is, however, on the prowl for acquisitions in content and new media. With the US economy rather soft, Moonves is enjoying the revenue help that CBS is getting from a prolonged primary election cycle. "We want this to be as long and as dirty as humanly possible," he said, adding that the extra political revenues coming to CBS are more than counteracting any general downturn.
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| Wall Street Business Report TM |
 Alarcon takes dissident in stride
Past quarterly conference calls at Spanish Broadcasting System have included some testy exchanges between CEO Raul Alarcon and investors who don't agree with some of his management decisions, but yesterday's call had none of that, despite the recent letter by an activist hedge fund, Discovery Group, demanding changes at the company (3/11/08 TVBR #49). Alarcon did make mention of the letter in his comments, but he was quite gracious. "I want to briefly comment on the letter addressed to the SBS board of directors from investor Discovery Group, which suggested strategic alternatives. As with all shareholder inquiries, recommendations and suggestions, the board will properly consider this matter in due course and it would be inappropriate for me to comment further at this time, except to thank the Discovery Group for their attention and interest in the future of SBS," Alarcon said.
Q4 revenues were up 4% to 46.2 million at SBS. That was mostly due to the rapid growth of Mega TV, which is still in a start-up phase, where revenues shot up 80% to just over three million. Radio revenues were up 1% to 43 million, with national and barter sales up, but local sales down for the quarter. The company said the local radio shortfall was primarily in the Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and San Francisco markets, offset by a gain in the Miami market. SBS is projecting that Q1 revenues will be down in the mid single digits, with radio doing worse than that, while TV is, according to Alarcon, "up significantly." Despite criticism, the CEO declared that launching the TV venture was the right thing to do and he said Mega TV will be profitable in well under five years.
TVBR observation: No, there was no reference to the mysterious media giant "XYZ" that Discovery Group says is interested in buying SBS for double the current stock price. Raul Alarcon has taken heat from investors before, particularly for launching Mega TV, so, while Discovery Group's tactics may have been a shock to company CEOs elsewhere, the hedge fund may not find Alarcon easily cowed.
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Ad Business Report TM
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Nielsen, Charter Comm. to
commercialize set top tuning data
The Nielsen Company and Charter Communications announced an agreement to commercialize the use of anonymous digital set top box (STB) data for analytical and potential audience measurement. Charter is providing Nielsen with anonymous STB viewing data from almost 330,000 households in the LA area, which Nielsen will develop into commercially available analyses and reports of digital television viewership. To protect customers' privacy and maintain the confidentiality of their viewing preferences, Charter will only provide data in an anonymous form to prevent Nielsen from identifying the personal info or identity of any individual Charter customer. Similarly, all Nielsen reports will contain only anonymous and aggregated data. This research will be the first time that census-level tuning data and panel-based LPM viewing data will be combined to produce expanded household and demographic reporting from a local television market. The Charter STB analyses will be available in Q2.
Weather Channel Interactive
debuts new products for upfront
The Weather Channel Interactive has revealed its 2008 upfront plans, announcing its first offering of video-based advertising on its mobile website. The company also announced the debut of new ad placements on the local forecast pages of weather.com which, based on research, should be a more impactful and effective placement for advertisers. The Weather Channel Mobile recently added video forecasts to its popular mobile Web site and will debut an ad product tied to this video offering in early Q2. The ad product will feature a banner ad on the video index pages, a five second pre-roll billboard and a 15 second post roll video ad. The product will be sold as a sponsorship at launch, enabling the advertiser to own the section. The Weather Channel Mobile began offering ads on the site in 2005 and has been offering advertisers a portfolio of options including banners, click-to-call, weather triggered and geo targeted ads and microsites. The 2008 Upfront will also mark the launch of a new ad product on the local forecast pages of weather.com. The new middle left 300 x 250 ad position was created based on the results of a research study conducted by TNS.
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| Media Business Report TM |
Elections hog the spotlight again
The election fired back over the 50% point during the 3/3/08-3/9/08, according to the lastest survey from the Project for Excellence in Journalism, finally resting at 52%, fueled by another 77% tunnel-vision performance from the cable sector. Radio was about at par with 54% coverage and network TV was just under at 48% The economy continued its run as the top also-ran, and the total media top ten coverage chart reverted to its 2008 pattern of having ample room for stories on the hit parade with a mere 1-share. Four of them qualified this time around. And here's something we can't ever remember happening since PEJ began producing these charts a little over a year ago: Although there are four foreign categories on the list, and domestic terrorism also qualified, there is not one mention of Iraq to be found.
 | Top ten lists here |
TiVo to provide YouTube
videos direct to TV
TiVo announced an agreement with YouTube that will offer access to YouTube videos directly from the TV via a TiVo DVR. The service will be available later this year to broadband-connected subscribers with TiVo Series3 DVRs, including the new TiVo HD. Upon launch of the TiVo-YouTube service, TiVo users will be able to search, browse and watch these videos directly on their television sets through their broadband connected TiVo DVRs.
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| Washington Business Report TM |
FCC opens LPFM proceeding
Both the FCC and Congress think that the time is ripe to open up third-adjacent FM channels to the new low power FM service. The FCC is looking in general into ways to facilitate new stations, and is now accepting comment on the topic. The item is MM Docket No. 99-25 Low Power FM Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. It is in fact a Third Report & Order and Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. It hit the Federal Register 3/6/08, and comments are due 4/7/08 with the deadline for reply comments set at 4/21/08. The FCC advises commenters to "follow the filing instructions provided in paragraphs 86 to 88 of the Second Further Notice," which is available on its website.
FCC waves through challenged NCE sale
The 20M sale of WKCP-FM Miami FL (formerly WMCU-FM) from Trinity International Foundation to American Public Media Group back in 2007 sparked a storm of protest from local listeners, and the listeners fired off formal and informal complaints to the FCC in an effort to prevent it. In the end, the effort fell flat.
| Read more here |
TVBR observation: Interested in when "non-FCC misconduct" becomes a matter in which the FCC will in fact intercede? There are three types: fraudulent statements to a government agency (the FCC often seems to detest lack of candor above all other acts); felony convictions; or anti-competitive/antitrust matters involving mass media companies. If you have a criminal or civil complaint against a broadcaster involving any other type of matter, you might just as well start looking for a judge.
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| Internet Business Report TM |
Hulu.com opens to the public
 Hulu, the new online video service from News Corp. and NBCU, announced the public launch of its website, Hulu.com. Beginning today, consumers in the U.S. can go to Hulu.com to watch a large selection of hit TV shows, movies, clips and more in high-quality for free. In addition, Hulu announced new content partnerships with the Warner Bros. Television Group, Lionsgate, NBA, NHL and more than 20 other content providers. New content additions to Hulu's library will include: feature films like The Usual Suspects and Ice Age, shows like Dirt, The Incredible Hulk, Babylon 5, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and The Dick Van Dyke Show, nightly highlights, top plays and full-length games from the NBA and the NHL, popular made for web programming such as Prom Queen and Onion News Network, and more. On Hulu.com, consumers get videos from more than 50 top broadcast and cable networks, movie studios and web-centric content providers. Hulu's library offers full-length episodes from more than 250 TV series and provides short clips from 150 more like Saturday Night Live and In Living Color as well as 50 additional films. Hulu is renewing many of its charter advertisers since the beta period. Currently, Hulu advertisers include: Best Buy, Chili's, DirecTV, GM, Intel, Nissan, State Farm, Unilever, Wal-Mart and others.
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| Ratings & Research |
Week 24: Broadcast 95, cable 5
Broadcast networks had 95 of the top 100 show in the 18-49 demo for the most recent week. The weekly number crunch of Nielsen data by the Television Bureau of Advertising (TVB) found that of the five cable/satellite shows in the top 100, the highest ranked was "WWE Entertainment" on USA at #55. The other four were way back at 95 through 99.
| View the top 100 list here |
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| Stock Talk |
What goes up...
Tuesday's big rally faded on Wednesday as traders returned to worrying about the economy and doubting that the Fed's big infusion into the credit markets would be enough to head off a recession. The Dow Industrials fell 47 points, or 0.4%, to 12,110.
TV stocks were lower. The TVBR Television Index declined 0.777, or 0.9%, to 84.566. ACME was down 4.6% and Belo 3.1%.
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| Stocks |
Here's how stocks fared on Wednesday
| Company |
Symbol |
Close |
Change |
Company |
Symbol |
Close |
Change |
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Acme*
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ACME
|
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2.70
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-0.13
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Journal Comm.
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JRN
|
 |
6.83
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+0.07
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Belo*
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BLC
|
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10.66
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-0.34
|
Lincoln Natl.
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LNC
|
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49.74
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-1.08
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| CBS CI. B* |
CBS |
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22.07
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-0.38
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LIN TV*
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TVL
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9.36
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-0.03
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| CBS CI. A |
CBSa |
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22.06
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-0.40
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McGraw-Hill
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MHP
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37.08
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-0.22
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Clear Channel
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CCU
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36.19
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+0.09
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Media General
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MEG
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15.35
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+0.44
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Disney
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DIS
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31.41
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+0.22
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Meredith
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MDP
|
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39.79
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+0.41
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Emmis
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EMMS
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3.16
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-0.32
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News Corp.
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NWS
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18.92
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+0.21
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Entravision*
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EVC
|
|
6.14
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+0.11
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Nexstar*
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NXST
|
|
6.50
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-0.04
|
| Equity Media* |
EMDA |
|
2.80 |
unch |
Saga Commun.
|
SGA
|
|
5.56
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-0.02
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|
Fisher*
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FSCI
|
|
30.09
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-0.06
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SBS
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SBSA
|
|
1.80
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+0.05
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Gannett
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GCI
|
|
29.82
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+0.17
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Scripps
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SSP
|
|
42.04
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+0.80
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Gen. Electric
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GE
|
|
33.96
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+0.56
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Sinclair*
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SBGI
|
|
9.16
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-0.11
|
| Google |
GOOG |
|
440.18
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+0.34
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Time Warner
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TWX
|
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14.76
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-0.08
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Gray*
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GTN
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4.94
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-0.02
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Wash. Post
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WPO
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686.71
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-15.19
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Gray, C1. A
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GTNa
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6.15
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+0.22
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Young*
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YBTVA
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0.78
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-0.01
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Hearst-Argyle*
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HTV
|
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21.40
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+0.13
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-
|
-
|
- |
-
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-
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*Component of the TVBR Television Index
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Bounceback
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 We want to
hear from you.
This is your column, so send your comments and
a photo to tvnews@rbr.com
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Below the Fold
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Ad Business Report
Nielsen, Charter Comm.
To commercialize set top tuning data...
Weather Channel Interactive
Debuts new products for upfront...
Internet Business Report
Hulu.com opens to the public
New online video service from News Corp. and NBCU for viewing content is live...
Ratings & Research
Week 24: Broadcast 95, cable 5
Nets 95 of the top 100 show in the 18-49 demo, cable/satellite in the top 100, the highest ranked was "WWE Entertainment"...
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Stations for Sale
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 Market your Stations For Sale
in our daily epapers.
Contact
Jim Carnegie
jcarnegie@rbr.com
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TV Media Moves
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Foss to CEO
VCI Solutions has appointed Sarah Foss as President/CEO, while founder W. Lowell Putnam will remain with the company, serving as the Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer. Foss joined VCI two years ago to grow the company. Within the first three months, she led the acquisition of Digital Transaction Group, the company's first acquisition. Since then, she has driven the strategic and operational planning efforts to expand the company's footprint with fully integrated solutions. Prior to joining VCI, Foss was at Harris Broadcast, as well as in management roles at local TV stations and at media-related Internet start-ups.
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More News Headlines
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Iger sees opportunities for Disney in both old and new media
Kids are increasingly oriented to looking at their computer screen more than a TV screen, Disney CEO Bob Iger told the McGraw-Hill Media Summit in New York, so he thinks broadband is going to become the primary entertainment source for the youngsters that his company has built its brand on. But while Disney is building its presence in new media, Iger said "TV is still a very powerful medium - we denigrate it by calling it old," so there are multiple opportunities for future growth. "You introduce something on something we'll call a mature platform, but you extend it through new media," he explained. The Disney boss is not worried about the just-completed acquisition of DoubleClick by Google. Iger said Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! all need content from companies like Disney, so they actually create value for his company. And, by the way, he said Disney has no interest in buying AOL.
Spitzer out the door
The scandal-plagued administration of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer is coming to an end. The former state attorney general, who badgered record labels and radio groups into multi-million dollar settlements on bogus payola charges, announced that he will resign, effective Monday, after being exposed for his involvement in a prostitution ring. Lieutenant Governor David Paterson will move up Monday, becoming New York's first black governor and the first legally-blind governor in US history. He's also a big sports fan and occasional caller to sports talk shows on WFAN-AM New York.
TVBR observation: The unfortunate thing is that the trumped-up charges and extortion-like settlements that Spitzer was responsible for while Attorney General of New York still stand, despite their lack of any real legal basis. The radio and record industries were not alone in being victims of Spitzer's abuse of his office and the law to advance his own political career. He left many victims in his wake, who are now celebrating his ignominious political demise.
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TVBR Radar 2008
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Television News you won't read any where else. TVBR--First, Accurate, and Independently Owned.
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T.H. Lee betting on broadcasting
Director Richard J. Bressler said that the way to read his company's proposed acquisition and privatization of Clear Channel was as a positive bet on the bright future of broadcasting in the digital era.
TVBR observation: Under questioning, Bressler testified that in no way is his company a "chop shop." More importantly, he explained that T.H. Lee sees opportunity at a time when most investment money is scurrying away from broadcasting. Read more here, including testimony summaries
03/12/08 TVBR #50
Digesting Nielsen's A2/M2 initiative
Janice Finkel-Greene, Initiative Media EVP/Local Broadcast and EVP/Director Futures and Technology, as issued an analysis of Nielsen's A2/M2 initiative (Anytime Anywhere Media Measurement), designed to track video wherever is appears. Nielsen's intention is to measure, aggregate and report video from all of the platforms that users are likely to see video ("the three screens"): television, internet and mobile devices-and possibly outdoor. This update tracks Nielsen's progress to date.
TVBR note: See the analysis here in this special report page of TVBR
03/12/08 TVBR #50
Broadcasters changing
views on PPM
Steve Morris told the Bear Stearns 21st Annual Media Conference that delaying Portable People Meter deployment was the right thing to do, not because there was any problem with the data, but because the company needed the "belief factor" to be there - for clients to have confidence in the ratings being generated. Morris noted the vocal support from CBS Radio CEO Dan Mason for moving ahead with PPM and said that Radio One, which had previously been negative about PPM, has "swung around" and is actively using PPM data in Houston "and are celebrating their success." Earlier in his prepared remarks, Morris had noted that Media Rating Council is not a prerequisite for moving ahead with the PPM roll-out. He noted that it took 10 years to get Scarborough accredited "and we kept on selling the product.
RBR observation: Morris taking the credit but remember who is the voice and has stated from the beginning the Technology Waits for No One and who first reported the stand by CBS CEO Dan Mason? RBR. Now Arbitron face your issues and begin to teach and get consumer friendly.
03/12/08 RBR #50
Dissident airs its grievances
Harbinger Capital has spelled out what it thinks is wrong with the way Media General is being run. In its pitch to have three candidates elected to the board of directors, Harbinger charges that the company has been too focused on building top-line revenues and investing in non-core ventures.
TVBR observation: Ouch, this is a hot one, read the entire report.
03/11/08 TVBR #49
Alarcon under attack
Spanish Broadcasting System is the latest public media company to have a disgruntled major shareholder issue a demand that the company sell itself or buy out the public shareholders. Discovery Group, a hedge fund known for actively pressuring company management to take action, charges the SBS CEO Raul Alarcon, whose super-voting stock gives him control of the company, is shortchanging other shareholders by refusing to talk with a potential buyer.
TVBR observation: Might the mysterious "XYZ" be CBS? We understood back when Mel Karmazin was running Viacom/CBS that he very nearly cut a deal to acquire a majority stake in SBS and give CBS a foothold in the growing US Hispanic media market. However, that deal reportedly blew up because Alarcon insisted on retaining control.
03/11/08 TVBR #49
Battle continues over
far-flung Arbitron metro
Manhattan Broadcasting is still pressing the FCC to disband the newly created Salina-Manhattan, KS metro, which it claims was created to exaggerate ratings for stations owned by Morris Communications and exclude much of the area around Manhattan, where Manhattan Broadcasting's stations have many listeners (12/28/07 RBR #250). The FCC has been gathering arguments from the parties, but has not issued any ruling. First, though, the Commission will have to resolve the key issue of whether it even has jurisdiction.
03/11/08 RBR #49
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TVBR Classifieds
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Account Executives
WDCW-TV, Washington's CW has two immediate openings. First, for entry-level AE and Second, need an experienced New Business local AE. Highly motivated self-starters who have the ambition to be successful apply. Winning attitude is important. Requirements include ability to develop long-term relationships and have strong closing skills. Must be well-organized and possess excellent presentation skills. EOE Where to apply see TV Careers
Hard finding that key person
to fill the important position at your organization? TVBR Classifieds, Results with Service. Contact April McLynn at classifieds@rbr.com
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