THE NEWSWEEKLY OF TV, RADIO & INTERACTIVE MEDIA $4.95 MAY 13, 200 ? www.broadcastingca mm MEDIA COMPANIES B &C's annual listing "To be sure, we've shows how the new wave seen better days on of consolidation has changed things Wall Street....But » PAGE 42 the fundamentals of our business SWEEPING remain solid :' CONCLUSION -NCTA President Halfway through the May Robert Sachs ratings period, NBC is on sitting pretty coverage begins » PAGE 6 o n PAGE ia TAKING STOCK OF LOU DOBBS Just about a year after returning to CNN, he's still money in the bank » PAGE 30 HEARD ANY GOOD RADIO LATELY? The leader of Clear Channel denies his 1,200 stations stifle originality » PAGE 12 3-DIGIT lrl,l,bl t CO71S1O4 A0003 JOHN C JOHNSON REGE 173 KTV -TV $`J WATERTON WAY SILLINOS. MT '7103 -7733 arst-Ilrgyle, , Media General, ek, Lin, Emmis, ra, Through 2006 On These ABC 0 &0, H Belo, Cox, Scripps -Howard, CBS O& McGraw -Ní11, Dispatch, Post -Newsw Meredith, Raycom, Freedom, Cordill Granite and Liberty Stations! A WBNS Ft. Smith KH WYFF Charleston, SC .dom fi. DISTRIBUTION AND 02002 King World All Rlghtl Reivved. 01998 Narpo Productions, Inc. Photo credit: Timothy White All Rights Reserved. BROADCASTI NGCABLE {www.broadcastingcable.com} Volume 132 Number 20 NCTA President ben Sach Top of the Week May 13, 2002 SWEEPING UP Strong series and a Amanda Bynes 75th anniversary celebration drive NBC win stars in What I in the first half of the May sweeps. » 6 Like About You, a comedy series MYSTERY LINEUP On Friday, NBC on The WB's still hadn't decided on its fall prime time slate of hopefuls for the fall schedule, set for unveiling today. » 8 season. The WB will announce DELAYED, STILL FCC is expected to its schedule on postpone yet again an auction for spectrum Tuesday. being used for TV ch. 52 -69. » 10 PBS IN HD, 2 Insight pledges to COVER carry public stations' HDTV, multicasting and STORY data-services.-D-10 FIRE SALE Debt -laden Adelphia puts DEFENDING ITSELF Clear Channel CABLE'S LAMENT its best properties on the block, but who tells FCC it has no national playlist that Give us a break MSO execs are frustrated by will be able to buy? » 12 bars indie and hometown artists. » 12 falling stock prices when the cable industry is healthy as ever. » 18 Sports fees Cablevision's fight with YES may The continuing give ops ammo against ESPN rate hikes. strength » 22 of ER helped Feeding VOD Networks and studios will seed power NBC to trials in hopes of reaping revenue later. » 24 dominance in the first two Quality counts The NCTA show may have been weeks of the smaller than in recent years, but the cream of May sweeps. the industry turned out in support. » 26 NCTA Wrap -up Convention news in brief. » 28 SPECIAL REPORT TOP 25 MEDIA GROUPS Shuffled Thanks to media consolidation, 20 positions on B &C's ranking were occupied by Programming Technology different companies last year. » 42 It's back CNN celebrates the one -year Set -tops at NCTA HD features in new boxes anniversary of Lou Dobbs's return -and the are intended to help cable operators reduce B &C Eye 4 ratings surge it engendered. » 30 their digital -churn rates. » 38 Broadcast Ratings 32 Gospel according to Powell FCC chai-man First spec New standard for interactive Changing Hands 36 carries HDTV message NCTA to the show. » 31 television governs content production. » 39 Classifieds 54 Syndication Watch New host for Family NCTA briefs Tech offerings introduced in Editorials 58 Feud, Viera signs up, and other news. » 33 New Orleans last week. » 40 Facetime 50 Focus As elsewhere, Shreveport, La., is Fates & Fortunes 52 recovering from a rough 2001 ad market, but Fifth Estater 53 signs are good for a strong 2002. » 35 Station Break 34 The Week That Was 16 Broadcasting & Cable /5 -13 -02 3 Mister, we could use a man like Vladimir Zworykin again. EL PROGRAMMING Remembering Munich ESPN is planning an original movie on the 1972 Munich Olympics, where Israeli athletes were taken hostage and killed. According to ESPN SVP of Programming Mark Shapiro, the movie is being con- templated for summer 2004, in time for the Summer Olympics in TECHNOLOGY Athens. ESPN may try to time its originals to other big events. The channel's first original movie, A Season on the Brink, about basket- Lab lowdown ball coach Bobby Knight, debuted March 10, right after the NCAA No sale he'd like Now that crossownership rules The Association for Maximum men's basketball tournament selection show. Shapiro says Service Television (MSTV) hopes to air four originals per year.-A.R. are loosening, investors have to announce in the next two or been pumping up the stock of three weeks plans for a broad- Tribune. The bet was that, in the cast- technology laboratory, wake of a court decision allowing says Gary Chapman, cable companies to own systems president /CEO of LIN Television and member of the MSTV board. and TV stations in the same mar- "It's in the process of coming ket, AOL Time Warner would buy together," Chapman says. MSTV some stations for its WB will to NAB, some of pitch it network. Tribune owns 25% of whose board members have the net and some big- market WB been amenable to the idea. Funding a lab would require affiliates. But WB and TBS Chair- contributions from members of man Jamie Kellner (above) says each association, TV no. Investors at a meeting with manufacturers and the associa- During the hostage crisis, Kellner at the NCTA show last tions themselves, Chapman West German police worked to free the captured Israeli week said he privately told them said. So far, says an NAB athletes. source, it has heard no formal the company has ruled out proposal and has agreed to no buying stations.-J.M.H. funding. -P.A. D.C. LINE Crime free With former WRC -TV PENALTY PHASE r4 Washington GM Linda Sullivan USA Networks has scrapped i starting today at new NBC sta- At its meeting this week, the FCC will propose a plan for plans to launch a crime tion KNTV(TV) San Francisco, channel, executives confirmed sanctioning TV stations that can't justify missing the May 1 DTI NBC's station group has a big last week. That leaves the job to fill in D.C. Observers deadline. Those sanctions could include fines or even license Vivendi Universal unit with just note NBC has a that good revocation. More than two -thirds of the country's 1,300 commer- two digital channels, Trio and bench and even staying in- New World International. There house doesn't present a narrow cial stations failed to meet the target. Of those, 525 have been has been some talk that USA is Sources us field. tell strong granted a six -month waiver. Another 324 have been asked for now planning an action candidates are three well - channel, filled with off- network regarded NBC GMs: Michael more info, and most are expected to get waivers once they spell series and movies from the Uni- Jack, from WCMH -TV Columbus, out their efforts and provide timetables for service. The commis- versal library. USA dismisses Ohio; Lisa Churchville, from the talk. But everyone expects sion also is expected to extend waivers to the handful of WJAR(TV) Providence, R.I., it to roll out some new where Sullivan worked before stations in top -30 markets that haven't launched DTV due to channels soon. Last December, going to Washington; and Mike it paid EchoStar $1.5 billion for zoning disputes, interference and other problems. Those were Ward, WNCN(TV) Raleigh, a 10% stake and space for five N.C. -D. T. supposed to have gone digital Nov. 1, 1999. -B.M. new channels. -A.R. 4 Broadcasting & Cable /5 -13 -02 USA NETWORK CONTINUES TO BE THE #1 A16 -49 PRIMETIME CABLE NETWORK. N E T W O R K GET READY FO T B I G . B O L D . B L O C K B U S T E R . ©2002 USA Cable. All rights reser /ed. www.usanetwork.com ' Source: Nielsen Media Research. Galaxy Explorer 3/02 -4/02 M -Su 7P -11P A18-49 TOP OF THE WEEK This May, it's good old NBC Helped by its 75th Tuesday in the key anniversary special, strong demos with a pair of series, it's sweeping up specials: Laverne & Shirley: Together Again By Steve McClellan and Favorite Stars: Then BC's package of nostalgia TV (tied & Now. And NYPD to the network's 75th anniversary) Blue put up solid num- N and its regular program lineup got bers that night as well. the job done in the first half of the May My Wife and Kids and sweeps. Through the first two weeks, the According to Jim have network is winning in households, total also delivered solid viewers, adults 18 -49 and adults 25 -54. demo ratings. CBS is a solid No. 2 in all the aforemen- For ABC, the best tioned categories, an average 1 million It hasn't all been better be yet to come: NBC: Living With viewers per night behind NBC. the Dead (above), the highly promoted NBC is up 9% from last year's May starring Ted mega- miniseries Dino - Danson, put up sweeps in households and up 13% in some winning topia is the prehistoric among adults 18 to 49 -and holds a com- numbers for CBS, epic that ABC needs to and Laverne & manding 49% lead in that key demo.