TVBR's Daily Morning Epaper

Volume 22, Issue 84, Jim Carnegie, Editor & Publisher

Thursday Morning April 28th, 2005

TV News®

TVBR FIRST - Warning to broadcasters:
Politicians into your wallet again
The Senate Rules Committee yesterday passed to the full body Senate Resolution 271, which is intended to rein in 527 groups, which were able to indulge in unbridled political ad spending sprees during the 2004 election. But an amendment tacked on at the last minute by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) would also make broadcasters provide even cheaper ads to political campaigns. The main bill would redefine the 527s and put caps on the donations such groups may accept from any one individual for use in political speech. The bill was sponsored by John McCain (R-AZ) and enjoyed a bipartison roster of co-sponsors, including Susan Collins (R-ME), Jim Jeffords (I-VT), Trent Lott (R-MS), Ken Salazar (D-CO), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Russ Feingold (D-WI), Joe Lieberman (D-CT), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Charles Schumer (D-NY). Durbin's successful amendment would require broadcasters to charge the lowest unit rate to political candidates throughout the year leading up to Election Day, and make such ads non-preemptible. According to attorney Gregg Skall of law firm Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, the amendment is modeled on the Torricelli amendment which the full Senate accepted 3/21/01 by a vote of 69-31, but which nevertheless never made it into the lawbooks. Another amendment which Durbin was considering went unoffered. It might have been called "Fairness Doctrine Lite," and would have instructed the FCC "...to bring back accountability, balance and fairness to our nations airwaves."

TVBR observation: There will never be an end to the efforts of politicians to get themselves free or discounted airtime - - we all as a rule are willing to go to bat for our own wallets. However, of all the avenues available to voters to get information about elections, issues and candidates, political ads are the rock-bottom worst. If a proposal involves improving reporting, increasing the number of debates, encouraging town hall meetings, and other vehicles to provide critical information to voters, we're ready to talk. But if the proposal is simply to plunder the inventory of broadcasters so we can find out that Candidate X has a photogenic family, likes flags and is running against Attila the Hun, then forget it. Now we need the NAB at full force and all State Broadcaster Associations to kick in.

Fritts gives Congress a DTV counterweight
"[T]he corporate financial interests of a handful of technology companies should not trump the needs of American television viewers. Make no mistake: a premature end to analog television could leave millions of Americans without access to free local TV station signals. The harm to these consumers - - a disproportionate number of whom come from poor and minority households - - must be considered against the purely parochial interests of high-tech companies hoping to profit from new uses of this spectrum." So said NAB President/CEO to key members of Congress in response to a techie request for a hard-date DTV deadline. Eddie Fritts fired off the letter to top dogs at the House Commmittee on Energy and Commerce, including Joe Barton (R-TX), Fred Upton (R-MI), John Dingell (D-MI) and Ed Markey (D-MA). He was responding to the request by the Computer Systems Policy Project (CSPP) for legislation mandating a date certain for the DTV transition. Fritts pointed out that there is no benefit for broadcasters paying to run two stations with income from only one. That doesn't mitigate leaving millions of viewers suddenly without service. | Read the full text of the letter here |

McGraw-Hill splitting stock
A day after reporting an 11.9% increase in Q1 revenues, the directors of McGraw-Hill Companies announced approval of a two-for-one stock split. Yesterday also happened to be the company's annual shareholders' meeting and the split was contingent on shareholder approval of an increase in the number of authorized shares - - a slam dunk if there ever was on. "The board's action recognizes the substantial appreciation of our stock price, which increased more than 30% in 2004 and has risen significantly since our last stock split was announced in January 1999," said CEO Terry McGraw. The additional shares from the split will be distributed on May 17th to shareholders of record on May 6th.

Turner's got game
Time Warner's turner Broadcasting System is getting into video gaming in a big way - - or, at the very least, with a big assortment of games. TBS has unveiled GameTap - - billed as the "first-of-its-kind broadband entertainment network," GameTap will provide games on demand plus original programming, beginning this fall. "Turner's lifeblood is creating branded networks and we are excited about the opportunity to create an immersive environment for games following our success with other branded environments like CNN, TCM and Cartoon Network. With GameTap, we are bringing to games what we brought to cable television: compelling, branded environments where beloved properties live on," said Andrew Heller, President of Domestic Distribution for TBS Inc. Turner has licensed nearly 1,000 games from 17 publishers. The service will launch with 300, and then roll out new titles and programming each week.

TVBR observation: What did we say just three days ago? "Convergence is now" (4/25/05 TVBR #81). If you run a TV company and think that you will still be running a company doing nothing but TV a few years from now, you'd better think again - - or you may end up having no company at all.

Sponsorship Scorecard signs Minnesota Twins
Nielsen Sports and the Minnesota Twins have penned a license agreement for Sponsorship Scorecard, the measurement and verification service for all sponsored placed media in televised sporting events. "The Twins have moved their sponsorship marketing to the next level by offering advertisers the ability to more accurately determine the value of their sponsorship investment," said Ron Schneier, GM/Nielsen Ventures. "Advertisers and teams can now evaluate Sports sponsorships in comparison to other measured media including local television, radio and print."

Drilling further into the Pew report
Take a guess - - who's more concerned about harmful broadcast program content, college students or senior citizens? It will come as absolutely no surprise to anyone that the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found concerns about undue government restrictions trumped concern about harmful content in direct proportion to a respondent's youth. The 18-29 demo said restrictions were more dangerous than harmful content by a 56%-33% margin. The margin shrinks slightly in the 30-49 group, to 53%-40%. 50-64s almost call it a tie, 45%-43%. The only group going strong for harmful content is 65+, 33%-48%. Almost one in five of the seniors fell into the other/don't know category.

Conference Calls Q1 2005

Up quarter for Jeff-Pilot Communications
Q1 was a much improved quarter for Jefferson-Pilot Corporation and Jefferson-Pilot Communications was one of the strong contributors. Revenues for the broadcast unit were up 4% to 60.9 million. More importantly, broadcast cash flow rose 5.4% to 23 million. Total earnings for Jeff-Pilot Communications grew 5% to 11 million. For the entire company, which is dominated by its insurance operations, earnings per share shot up to a dollar-17 per share for the quarter, compared to 87 cents a year ago.

Broadcast revenues down slightly at Fisher
Q1 revenues for Fisher Communications were up slightly to 31 million from 30.9 million a year ago. But that includes the real estate side of the company, with higher revenues due to higher occupancy of Fisher Plaza in Seattle. For broadcast alone, Fisher said revenues were down 700,000, due to the lack of political advertising. Expenses increased over the same period a year ago, so the company recorded a net loss from operations of 5.5 million, compared to 3.9 million a year earlier. But due to the elimination of a loss from derivative instruments in 2004 - - which Fisher no longer owns any of - - the net loss per share decline to 59 cents from 1.14 a year ago.

Adbiz©

Ford signs Pablo Montero
to promote F-150 Lobo
Ford has signed a deal with Mexican singer/soap star Pablo Montero to help promote its new limited edition F-150 "Lobo" pickup to Texas Hispanics. The singer and actor appears in Spanish-language TV commercials that broke this week for the F-150 Lobo, the first vehicle Ford developed exclusively for the Latino market. The Mexican-born celeb will also do promotional events for the automaker, including a Ford-sponsored Cinco de Mayo concert in Dallas. JWT Dallas handled creative.

Albertsons installing in-store ad delivery system
Supermarket chain Albertsons is installing an in-store media system at each checkout lane and in other areas in its stores. The network in the checkout lanes will be installed and managed by Premier Retail Networks, which will provide programming and sell advertising on the network. Screens located in other selct areas of the store will be installed and managed by SignStorey. The net is rolling out in Albertsons in San Francisco, Jewel-Osco stores in Chicago and Shaw's and Star Market stores in Boston. Other markets will follow this year.

NYSE launches "Success Breeds Success"
The NYSE has launched a new multimillion-dollar effort that showcases many of companies it hosts on the exchange, such as McDonald's, P&G, General Motors, Aflac and others. The "Success Breeds Success" campaign broke with one print ad this month in the Wall Street Journal; the next is scheduled for today with two consecutive half-pagers. 20 print ads will appear in the Journal throughout the year. In one creative, the text reads: "The New York Stock Exchange is home to 2,774 world-class companies that redefine success everyday. Leaders from every industry choose to list on the Exchange that is five times larger than any other. They know the NYSE has helped more companies raise more capital than any place on earth. So the world's greatest companies can go on and do even greater things." BBDO NY handled.

Washington Beat

"Take control. It's easy"
That's the tagline for a 250M campaign produced by the National Cable & Telecommunications Association which will try to educate its subscribers about the tools available to parents who wish to protect their children from undesirable programming. Accompanied by a new ratings system, the campaign is expected to reach a sizable chunk of the industry's 70M subscriber base. The enhancement to the ratings system will be the use of a larger ratings icon, and prominent display of it after each commercial break - - currently seen only once, under the new system it would be displayed four times on a 30-minute program with three breaks, and six times on a 60-minute program with five breaks.

NCTA President/CEO Kyle McSlarrow said, "While many cable customers already have the tools to block unwanted TV content, many are not aware of how to use parental control features. By improving the TV ratings system and launching a major $250 million advertising campaign focused on using parental controls, the cable industry wants to help parents understand how easy it is for them to take control of their family's TV viewing." The effort got the attention of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), who has threatened an attempt to extend broadcast decency standards to cable and satellite. "I think it is a step in the right direction. It shows they're thinking about the issues we've raised. I agree with Commissioner Martin, though, I don't think it quite goes far enough. But, it is a reasonable reaction so far. I give Kyle McSlarrow a lot of credit for trying to bring the industry around to looking at the criticism and what he's done would have been unheard of a year ago. So, it's a very, very good step in the right direction."

Programming

Next reality: "The Daily News"
If you think watching sausage being made would turn people's stomachs, just wait until they see how news is made! We know about this, and it ain't pretty. Nevertheless, NBC Universal's Bravo network and Hearst Entertainment think it's going to be exciting reality television to show viewers the "real" world behind the making of a daily newspaper. They're producing six one-hour episodes of a reality series based upon the New York Daily News, following a handful of key editors and reporters "as they cope with deadlines and the competition and pressures associate with journalism at a big-city tabloid." Look for the series to air in 2006.

Sweeps begin today
The May Sweeps period beginning today could be the most hotly contested in many years. While CBS is well entrenched in first place for households - - with an average 8.5 Nielsen rating and 14 share - - it's in a neck-and-neck battle with Fox for the lucrative 18-49 demo. As of 4/25, the end of week 31 of the current season, both were at 4.0/11, with Fox holding a slim edge in total audience numbers. Can "American Idol" carry Fox to the 18-49 crown? Or will the finale of "Everybody Loves Raymond" help CBS win both the overall and the 18-49 demo?

A&E's Biography to examine
fathers & sons in Hollywood
AE's two-hour Father's Day special, Biography: Fathers & Sons in Hollywood, will explore the funny, fearsome and frustrating facets of celebrity fatherhood. Famous dads will divulge how they spend their quality time with the kids. And their equally successful sons will reveal how they rode a silver spoon to the silver screen. Original interviews include Jerry & Ben Stiller, Rance & Ron Howard, Paul & Mira Sorvino, George & George, George, George, George and George Foreman, Dom & David and Michael DeLuise, Alan Thicke, Al Roker, Tony Danza, Peter Boyle, Wayne Brady, Pat O'Brien, Tom Bosley and many more. The premiere is June 10 at 8pm/12am ET and PT.

TVBR Ratings

"Idol" much TiVoed, but still not tops
Fox's "American Idol" is strong, to be sure, but just as in the Nielsen ratings it can't quite get to the top of the TiVo ratings either. It was beaten in the most recent week by ABC's "Desperate Housewives." The next four places, including #2 and #3 for "Idol," went to reality shows, which have a history of being popular with TiVo owners.
| View the Tivo Top 25 |

Stock Talk

Stock gain as oil prices slip
Wall Street traders edged stock prices up a tad on Wednesday as oil prices moved down a bit - - but there was no bold advance as investors kept a wary eye on earnings reports. The Dow Industrials rose 48 points, or 0.5%, to 10,199.

TV stocks were also barely higher. The biggest mover was Young, up 2.9%. Sinclair gained 2%.

Stocks

**Here's how stocks fared on Wednesday**
Company	Symbol	Close		Change	Company	Symbol	Close		Change
Acme	ACME		4.14	+0.04	McGraw-Hill	MHP		87.15	+1.45
Belo	BLC		23.43	+0.14	Media General	MEG		61.69	+0.09
Clear Channel	CCU		32.37	-0.18	Meredith	MDP		47.08	+0.02
Disney	DIS		26.84	+0.04	News Corp.	NWS		16.03	-0.24
Emmis	EMMS		16.14	-0.08	Nexstar	NXST		5.86	+0.01
Entravision	EVC		8.01	+0.11	NY Times	NYT		33.08	+0.15
Fisher	FSCI		49.30	+0.04	Paxson	PAX		0.99	-0.02
Gannett	GCI		76.51	+0.20	Saga Commun.	SGA		14.75	+0.25
Gen. Electric	GE		36.33	+0.22	Scripps	SSP		51.00	+0.10
Granite	GBTVK		0.25	unch	Sinclair	SBGI		7.71	+0.15
Gray	GTN		13.12	-0.06	Time Warner	TWX		17.26	unch
Gray, C1. A	GTNa		12.38	-0.04	Tribune	TRB		38.43	+0.17
Hearst-Argyle	HTV		24.90	-0.15	Univision	UVN		26.55	+0.24
Jeff-Pilot	JP		48.14	+0.37	Viacom, Cl. A	VIA		35.47	+0.43
Journal Comm.	JRN		15.50	-0.18	Viacom, Cl. B	VIAb		35.28	+0.50
Liberty Corp	LC		36.75	-0.50	Wash. Post	WPO		860.13	+14.48
LIN TV	TVL		16.23	-0.04	Young	YBTVA		7.72	+0.22

Bounceback

Send Us Your Opinions We want to
hear from you.
This is your column, so send your comments to tvnews@rbr.com

Upped & Tapped

Solomon to
private sector
Washington, DC communications law firm Wilkinson Barker Knauer, LLP announces that David Solomon, outgoing Chief of the FCC's Enforcement Bureau, will join the firm as a partner. Before becoming enforcement boss, Solomon had been in the General Counsel's office at the FCC.

Belo adds an auditor
Former Electronic Data Systems audit director Anna Nicodemus has joined Belo Corp. in the newly created role of Vice President/Internal Audit. She will oversee independent reviews and evaluations of the company's operations, controls, records, compliance and reporting functions.

Seltzer upped at UPN
Rachel Seltzer has been named UPN Director, Media Relations, having joined the network in in October 2003 as Manager, Media Relations. She will continue to handle national publicity campaigns for UPN programming, including scripted and unscripted series.

Dolan lands at Viacom
Viacom has announced that Michael Dolan, formerly CEO of Young & Rubicam, is its new Chief Financial Officer. He succeeds Richard Bressler, who had announced earlier this year (2/2/05 TVBR #23) that he would be leaving to let new Co-Presidents Les Moonves and Tom Freston pick their own executive team.

RBR - Radio News

Air America investigated over Bush gunshots in Randi Rhodes show?
Yesterday Air America caught the attention of the Secret Service according to what was posted on The Drudge Report. The network, however says that's not the case, although it also says the bit should not have aired. Here's what Drudge reported: "Government officials are reviewing a skit which aired on the network Monday evening -- a skit featuring an apparent gunshot warning to the president! The announcer: 'A spoiled child is telling us our Social Security isn't safe anymore, so he is going to fix it for us. Well, here's your answer, you ungrateful whelp: [audio sound of 4 gunshots being fired.] Just try it, you little bastard. [audio of gun being cocked].' The audio production at the center of the controversy aired during opening minutes of The Randi Rhodes Show. 'What is with all the killing?' Rhodes said, laughing, after the clip aired. 'Even joking about shooting the president is a crime, let alone doing it on national radio...we are taking this very seriously,' a government source explained." Air America Co-COO Jon Sinton tells RBR: "We are not under investigation from the Secret Service. We regret that a produced comedy bit that was in bad taste slipped through our normal vetting process. We do acknowledge that it was an internal error and internal discipline will be enforced."

Competing Media

Journal Sentinel
sued over circulation
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, owned by Journal Communications, is the latest newspaper to face allegations of inflating circulation numbers. The newspaper itself reports that it has been sued by Shorewest Realtors, a local real estate company, claiming that the paper has been overstating circulation figures since 1996 and using the "artificially inflated rates to surreptitiously overcharge" for advertising. The suit seeks class action status to represent all advertisers allegedly defrauded. The Journal Sentinel recently announced that it was tightening its own standards on what counts as circulation, but publisher Betsy Brenner said in an interview several weeks ago that there were no practices such as those that led to massive circulation restatements at Newsday, the Chicago Sun-Times and the Dallas Morning News.

Radio & Television
Business Report
The First Real Monthly
Business Media Magazine

'05 Clock is Ticking -
Heading for Closure

June Magazine
National Sales:
EDI - Electronic Delivered Invoicing
Special Analysis:
Public now Go Private
Media, Markets & Money:
Shakers & Makers in the
Public Market

Reserve your Ad Marketing
Space today Advertising space
is limited, contact:
June Barnes jbarnes@rbr.com
Jim Carnegie jcarnegie@rbr.com

TVBR Radar 2005

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

Universal McCann's Coen:
2004 was better than thought
Tallying up the final numbers for 2004 ad spending - - and concluded that the year came in a bit better than he had projected in December. National advertisers was stronger, while local ad spending lagged. Local radio finished up 3%, rather than the 4% that Coen had projected. Likewise, local TV was up only 7.3%, not 8.5%. Network TV, however, rose 11.2%, not just 9.5%, and national spot TV gained 14.3%, rather than 10%. "Consolidations in many areas have reduced the number of local marketers and often redirected spending into nationally distributed media. The Wal-Mart effect has cut into the available co-op advertising funds.." 04/27/05 TVBR #83

Fox News issues legal threat
to ABC over "Idol" expose
ABC has been warned in writing it could face legal fallout for airing its scathing behind-the-scenes look at Fox's American Idol. Fox owner Rupert Murdoch has informed execs it appears ABC is attempting to maliciously "destroy" the nation's most-watched series as it heads into the final weeks. Fox believes ABC has interviewed a half a dozen losing contestants -- contestants who will claim Idol producers and judges somehow manipulate the show's outcome. TVBR observation: ABC if you have a confirmed story run it and don't get intimidated by Murdoch. Remember what Murdoch attempted with the Glover against Nielsen. ABC as for your programming - we advise you again you need quality content so talk with Jonathan Prince of American Dreams and pick up this program. Don't let the A in ABC stand for Almost and leverage your radio and all broadcast assets. You can make a big difference this fall. 04/27/05 TVBR #83

Raycom launching video channel
Has figure out what to do with one of its multicast digital channels. It's teamed with MTV co-founder Les Garland to launch a new video music channel. The new venture, Tube Music Network, will feature adult contemporary (AC) music and target adults 35+. It will be based in Miami and air on a digital channel of each of Raycom's 39 stations. And before you apply to be a video jock - - don't bother. There won't be any, just non-stop music videos. (At least in the beginning.) TVBR observation: One thing about Garland is he came from Radio first and was a great RKO program director. Always trust a great '70's Top 40 PD.
04/26/05 TVBR #82

When you need to find the executive to help you grow in any position. Media HeadHunters
Delivering results.

For Confidential Placement Contact: Cathy Carnegie, VP, cjcarnegie@mediaheadhunters.com

Other Links

State Associations
Contact Us

Publisher question:
Reading TVBR from a friend?
Receive your own morning copy at www.tvbr.tv

Help Desk

Having problems with our epapers?
Please send Questions/Concerns to:
Subscriptions@rbr.com

If you wish to remove your name completely from our database use this link __UNSUB__

If you wish to unsubscribe
to TVBR only use this link