Friday Morning December 2nd, 2011, Volume 28, Issue 235
In Saturday's issue of RBR-TVBR's Weekend Report, we look at:
1) Steps to consider before buying new ad sales/traffic software systems;
2) The demographics of Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street movements; and
3) Americans are skeptical of a quick recovery.
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 Incentive auction bill moves forward
The House Communications Subcommittee passed the incentive-auction-containing JOBS Act on a partisan 17-6 vote, and not without controversy. Democrats said the two parties were working steadily toward a strong bipartisan bill until talks were cut off 10/4/11, and the discussion draft of the bill that was introduced 11/29/11 contained some elements that the minority strongly disagreed with. However, the broadcast television protections contained in the bill were not prominent on this list, and an amendment passed that ordered resolution of issues concerning repacking television stations along the Canadian and Mexican borders. More...
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Possible petition fraud in Wisconsin involves radio talker
Vicki McKenna is a conservative talker who holds forth on Clear Channel outlets 1310 WIBA-AM in Madison and 1130 WISN-AM in Milwaukee. She is no fan of the drive to recall Republican Gov. Scott Walker, but her name has allegedly shown up on a petition to do just that.
RBR-TVBR observation: No serious person engaged in an important effort such as this would do something this imbecilic; and a prankster could be operating on either side of the issue - either a less-than-brilliant supporter of the recall effort, or an opponent of the recall effort hoping to make the supporters look less than brilliant. More...
KFBK Sacramento adding FM
And another music format bites the dust: Clear Channel has blown up its Hot AC KGBY-FM (12/1) to simulcast its sister station, News-Talk KFBK-AM. Station staff learned of the changes Wednesday morning and it was announced on KFBK Wednesday afternoon. There was no mention of the switch on KGBY. The new FM calls are KFBK-FM. KFBK-FM's HD2 signal keeps the LGBT-targeted Pride Radio format.
RBR-TVBR observation: Another in the trend of music stations being nixed on FM by spoken word formats, and not being added to an HD-2 or HD-3 channel. More...
Pandora goes truckin' with Ford
Pandora and various other Internet radio services are already available in the dash of several Ford automobile models, via the Sync AppLink, alongside AM, FM, HD Radio and Sirius XM channels. Now Pandora says Ford is expanding Sync to its F-Series trucks, making voice control of Pandora an available feature across the line.
RBR-TVBR observation: There's now lots of competition with traditional radio stations in the auto dash - but that was the case back to the days of 8-track tapes. More...
AURN's Tanya Hart to receive Diversity Award
The Caucus for Producers, Writers & Directors will present the award to the host of "Hollywood Live With Tanya Hart" on American Urban Radio Networks (along with her husband Philip Hart), at the Producers, Writers, & Directors' 29th Annual Awards Show on Sunday, 12/4 at the Beverly Hills Hotel. More...
Auditor switch for Westwood/Dial Global
For at least a few more days the company is officially Westwood One, so that's the name on the SEC filing announcing that the radio network company now called Dial Global has changed outside auditors.
RBR-TVBR observation: This is not unusual when a change of control takes place. More...
Review all Radio News at RBR.com
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Broadcast relocation compensation package debated
One of the things that took Democrats by surprise in the Republican's bill on spectrum and incentive auctions was the allocation of up to $3B to pay broadcaster for expenses incurred moving to a new channel in a repacking program. Democrats were not against fair treatment for broadcasters; but they expected the ceiling to be more like $1B and thought there were better fiscal choices. More...
NAB applauds House spectrum measure
It comes as no surprise that NAB President/CEO Gordon Smith had kind words for the spectrum bill that came out of the House Communications Subcommittee 12/1/11 - he had praised it earlier in the week. The good thing about the bill is that despite its lack of bipartisan support, the sticking points did not greatly involve the broadcast television elements. More...
Nielsen: TV ownership to be down for the first time
Nielsen's just-released 2012 edition of their Television Audience report shows the total number of U.S. households with TV sets declined year to year for the first time since Nielsen started counting TV ownership. The number of households with no TV at all is at its highest level since 1975. Three percent of homes are without televisions. So it's not just about cutting the Pay TV cord, it's also about losing the TV set as well.
RBR-TVBR observation: This is likely all about young demos just getting to the household age. They've been weaned on laptops and smartphones for their entertainment-why spend the money for a new TV when you can watch what you like online? More...
The Early Show to be dubbed "CBS This Morning"
"CBS This Morning," hosted by Charlie Rose, Gayle King and Erica Hill, will premiere on Monday, 1/ 9 (7:00-9:00AM, ET/PT) on CBS. Chris Licht, VP/Programming, CBS News, is the Executive Producer. Rose, King and Hill are part of a complete makeover of the ratings-challenged "The Early Show." More...
Barrington wants its bonds back
Barrington Broadcasting Group announced a cash tender for all $55 million of its outstanding 10.5% Senior Subordinated Notes due 2014. It's part of a refinancing totaling $195 million, which has gotten decent ratings from Moody's Investors Service. More...
Review all TV News at RBR.com
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Warren Buffett surprises with newspaper buy
Despite owning the Buffalo News, Warren Buffett has been critical of the newspaper business in recent years, once telling shareholders of his Berkshire Hathaway holding company that there were many newspapers he wouldn't buy "at any price." So it was quite a surprise when Buffett announced that Berkshire Hathaway was buying his hometown newspaper, the Omaha World-Herald, for $200 million.
RBR-TVBR observation: What is it about owning the local fish-wrapper that makes billionaires all weak in the knees? More...
Disney raises some cash
For most companies, raising $1.6 billion would be a big event. But for The Walt Disney Company it is just a routine visit to the Wall Street bond market. More...
Kanye West tops Grammy nominations
Nominees for the 54th Annual Grammy Awards to be broadcast in February on CBS were revealed Wednesday night on CBS in "The Grammy Nominations Concert Live! - Countdown to Music's Biggest Night. Kanye West led the field with seven nominations, while Adele, Foo Fighters and Bruno Mars each claimed six. More...
Review all Media News at RBR.com
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Deck the halls...not so much
Despite all of the good news about early shopping coming from retailers, RBR-TVBR readers say holiday season advertising so far isn't living up to expectations. More than half of our poll respondents say holiday advertising is below budget. More Poll Results...
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Nickelodeon to dole out makegoods
Viacom's Nickelodeon will have to give away some inventory to compensate advertisers for an unprecedented ratings shortfall. The network started to experience ratings declines in September, when kids' viewing fell by 11%. Since then it had dropped 17% in October and 19% during the first three weeks of November. Nielsen issued a statement on the matter. More...
Jaguar launches new TV ad (video)
The luxury automaker has a new ad, "Jaguar at Play" that spotlights its high performance cars and new design. The new 30-second spot is the first ad from Jaguar's new global ad AOR Spark44, and showcases the brand's highest performance models. It will air on: More...
Review all Ad Business News at RBR.com |
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Standard FEC deadlock leaves PAC rules in place
Political action committees gained a lot of power as a result of the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling, but are still prohibited from overtly coordinating their advertising with that of a political candidate. A request for clarification on coordination from Karl Rove's American Crossroads PAC - the request that was famously mocked by Stephen Colbert - elicited a 3-3 split vote from the FEC, which effectively means that the rules stay the same and coordination is still not allowed.
RBR-TVBR observation: We'll point this out one more time. Because of the strongly political nature of the FEC's work, it is the one and only federal agency we're aware of that has a board of commissioners evenly divided between the parties. And because of that, almost every issue of consequence that comes before it results in a tie. Perhaps we should just call it the FGC - the Federal Gridlock Commission. More...
Review all Washington News at RBR.com |
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Thursday was a cooling off day - 12/1/11
After the big run-up on Wednesday, stock traders caught their breath on Thursday. All eyes are now on the jobs report due out Friday morning. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended Thursday down 26 points, or 0.2%, at 12,020. But the market was mixed, with the S&P 500 also down, but the Nasdaq Composite up. Broadcasting stocks gave up some ground.
The RBR Radio Index was down 6.943, or 2.2%, to 307.911.
The TVBR Television Index was down 3.258, or 1.4%, to 226.820.
Review all Broadcast Stocks News at RBR.com
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Winners
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Losers
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| Belo |
+2.3%
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Entravision |
-9.6% |
| Radio One |
+1.8%
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CC Media |
-6.3% |
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Arbitron
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+0.5%
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Dial Global |
-5.2% |
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For additional reports, ideas, analysis, interviews, and
RBR/TVBR Observations...visit and bookmark www.RBR.com
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VP hire
Wowza Media Systems, which calls itself the "Any Screen Done Right" media server software company, has hired Microsoft veteran Chris Knowlton as vice president of product management.
Departure
Tim Ward exits Univision Radio as its SVP & CFO, after nearly 12 years at the company, to pursue other interests.
Board additions
Meredith Baker of NBCUniversal and John Orlando of CBS Corporation were elected to the Board of Trustees of The Media Institute.
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Ad Forecast: Marketers focusing Budgets / Gannett Furloughs again
12/01/11 RBR-TVBR #234
Ford goes Slacker Radio / Reverse Comp threats TV
11/30/11 RBR-TVBR #233
RIAA working Congress on Royalty / TV seeing Election Bucks
11/29/11 RBR-TVBR #232
Entercom completes Refi Bid / FCC grudgingly OKs Raycom Triple Play
11/28/11 RBR-TVBR #231
Pandora's Double-Edge Sword / RAB facing Red Ink
11/27/11 Sunday Edition
2012 advertising expected to grow 1%
Brian Wieser authored a key report at Pivotal Research Group says that during 2012, they expect advertising will grow by 1.0% on a normalized basis in the US. Most traditional media sectors will Not see the increases of 2011, but then again, the comps are now tougher than 2010. Digital, on the other hand, remains in rocketship mode. See the 2012 estimates, impressive.
12/01/11 RBR-TVBR #234
Q3 Internet ad revenues up 22%
That is $7.88 Billion in Q3, a 22% increase over the same period in 2010, according to the (IAB) and PwC US. Figures show a 2.7% uptick from the record-setting revenues of Q2. The Q3 results mark the eighth consecutive quarter of YOY growth.
RBR-TVBR observation: Growth is spurred by technology increases in smartphones and tablets. Internet ad growth includes all things mobile from a static banner ad to a video played on their iPhone. Technology Waits for No One!
12/01/11 RBR-TVBR #234
Failed station waiver enables Arkansas TV deal
There aren't enough stations in the Fort Smith-Fayetteville-Springdale-Roger AR DMA to enable a straight-up TV duopoly, but thanks to a failed station waiver from the FCC, Local TV will be allowed to get a little sister for its CBS KSFM. Second station is KPBI.
12/01/11 RBR-TVBR #234
FCC nominees move through Commerce Committee
RBR-TVBR observation: No signs that there is anything whatsoever standing between these nominees and the FCC except Sen. Grassley (R-IA), who has still promised a hold on their nominations over an unrelated FCC matter.
12/01/11 RBR-TVBR #234
Entravision objection to Phoenix-area CP rebuffed by FCC
Able Radio Corporation has been trying to get a new FM built to the northwest of Phoenix AZ since it first won the stick-to-hopefully-be back in 2007. Hispanic group Entravision has cited certain cause to have the CP shot down, but the FCC ruled in favor of Able.
12/01/11 RBR-TVBR #234
Emmis launching Dutch auction for preferred shares
RBR-TVBR observation: Anyone who wanted to sell their Emmis preferred shares could have done so on the open market Wednesday (11/30) for more than Emmis is offering.
12/01/11 RBR-TVBR #234
Light Media Holdings pays off debt
RBR-TVBR observation: The company says that will be reflected in its Q4 balance sheet. Light, which trades on the Pink Sheets, is tiny, but at least its stock is going in the right direction.
12/01/11 RBR-TVBR #234
Spectrum issue on the Hill building a head of steam
Subcommittee is marking up a bill concerning the repurposing of spectrum in the TV band for wireless broadband use, with a likely winner coming from Republican members and a competing plan from the Democrats. On the Senate side, Sen. Rockefeller (D-WV) is ready to maneuver. Not so fast, House Dems want more time.
12/01/11 RBR-TVBR #234
House Democrats want postponement of spectrum markup
Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Anna Eshoo (D-CA) say that the new spectrum bill from Greg Walden (R-OR) was dumped on them Tuesday 11/29/11, and they need more time to consider it.
12/01/11 RBR-TVBR #234
Netflix, Hulu viewing may inflate more cable bills
Cable operators are rethinking their Internet pricing strategy because Netflix and Hulu's subscription services have driven up usage at peak hours once reserved for watching TV.
RBR-TVBR observation: Many MSOs already have tiered pricing for varied internet speed. But this is different. It's how much bandwidth and data you as a customer are pulling from the pipe, so to speak.
12/01/11 RBR-TVBR #234
Moody's rates Sinclair's new and old debt
Moody's has studied the new balance sheet and issued its ratings for the new borrowing, as well as for some existing debt.
12/01/11 RBR-TVBR #234
Disney boosts its dividend payout
Disney pays an annual dividend, rather than a quarterly one. But that dividend payout is going to be substantially bigger in January.
12/01/11 RBR-TVBR #234
Another round of furloughs for Gannett newspaper employees
RBR-TVBR observation: Gannett Blog has long complained about the paychecks to top executives, as though the money was coming out of the pockets of lower-ranking employees. Business doesn't work that way.
12/01/11 RBR-TVBR #234
Nexstar signs new retrans deal with Dish
Here's a retransmission consent negotiation that won't get much attention inside the Beltway because it all came together peacefully, without any threats or attempt to elicit government intervention. Nexstar has signed a new multi-year retrans deal with Dish Network.
12/01/11 RBR-TVBR #234
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