FCC Eyes Mergers
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
MI MIII NM- 3 -DIGIT 078 VBXBBBHL S3DG 11071159037IP 19990621 edl ep _LAURA K JONES, ASSITANTMGR WALDENBOOKS 42 MOUNT PLEASANT AVE 'WHARTON NJ 07885-2120 Vol. 8 No. 33 THE NEWS MAGAZINE OF THE MEDIA Sept. 7, 1998 $3.25 MARKET INDICATORS National TV: Lulled FCC Eyes Mergers Buyers await networks' fall programming 'ater this month before mak- May seek to change market definitions to slow consolidation ing further decisions on fourth-quarter scat- MAGAZINES ter buys. TV SPORTS Net Cable: Heating Flynt Ignites Fourth quarter is light, even as some 20 per- 3 New Titles cent of networks' usaal Plans golf, men's budgets rema n unreg- istered. Web TV is bay- style and snow- ing deep on cable in boarding books fourth for a new S20 million campaign. PAGE 6 PepsiCne is also eye- SYNDICATION ing a big cable buy via BBDO.. Movie studies' Halloween money is SNTA Chief heating ap. Targets Cable Spot TV: Stirring Bodenmann wants NOT 111140-BUT-NE-T,_ With firee weeks left H buyers to take a the quarter and the political wndow open- new look at syndieS ing, spending has bigger numbers increased. West is tight with poiticals, fast PAGE 6 food, auto and movies. NETWORK TV Radio: Tightening Stations with yourg Hispanic Nets demcs are sellir g fast in top -10 mairke:s. Looking More Plenty of time availab e on news/talk. Political3 Like Big 4 begirning to escalate Broader fare and Magazines: Hot guarantees pay off \' Without pfayers-, this NBA season Broadcast and cable PAGE 9 is-stuffedt_ancLitteleaguels-T ads are hitting mass titles PCs and software partners are looking to baseball and are also active. Auto is hockey for fare. mu. beginning to heat up after a major lull. o 2 GTE'S SUPERPAGES PRINCIPLE GET PRODUCTS IN FRONT OF PEOPLE HIGHLY MOTIVATED TO BUY THEM. Online shopping isn't just E -transactions. Mostly, it's about doing your homework. "Kicking the tires." Comparing prices. Enter GTE's SuperPages' Internet Services - a "shopping engine" that offers product reviews, buyer's guides, directory listings and, not coincidentally, an ideal place to advertise. Looking for great demos? Meet motivated shoppers at the right place, at the right time. Contact us at 1-800-430-1834 OD or http://superpages.GTE.net/mediakit. We'll give you the straight poop.3upenkarms MEDIAWEEK September 7, 1998 http://www.mediaweek.com PAGE 3 Laura . Jones AT DEADLINE S5 row° Fox files Newsmag Ready for Prime -Time Revamp: 'Modern and Clean' Fox will replace Hollyweird with its newsmagazine Fox Files on its Miller Publishing is working on a redesign fall schedule. And if any of its new shows falter, Fox will bring back of its monthly Tennis, set to make its debut the successful summer replacement show, Guinness Book of World with the December issue. Sporting a new, Records. Fox Files premiered in July in the Thursday 9-10 p.m. time spare -looking cover layout, with its for- try period and will continue in that slot. Hollyweird had been sched- merly lower-case logo now capitalized and uled for that slot, but was shelved by Fox due to creative differences ce colored, the front of Tennis looks some- eM M is with the show's producers. Despite its low household ratings (3.4/6 thing like a mix of Life from the '50s and Mr clarm? for the week ending Aug. 30), Fox Files has the strong younger what editor Mark Woodruff calls "modern A prototype of the demos that Fox covets. The median age of Fox Files is 36, com- and clean." Woodruff said Tennis' new new cover design pared to 46 for NBC's Dateline, 48 for ABC's 20/20 and 61 for look will feature more photography, with CBS' 60 Minutes. Fox also wants to develop a fran- an emphasis on portraiture. The overhaul follows chise newsmag for its broadcast net. Fox execs are similar makeovers at Miller sports titles including also standing by Holding the Baby, despite a 2.8/10 INSIDE Cruising World and Mountain Sports and Living (for- household rating in each of its first two weeks. merly Snow Country), Detroit Papers Balk at NLRB Order USA's Open Telecasts Flat It doesn't look promising that hundreds of former Early ratings returns for this year's U.S. Open Detroit newspaper employees will regain their jobs in tennis tournament have been mixed for USA Net- the near future, despite a unanimous vote by the work, which is carrying 92 hours of coverage of National Labor Relations Board last week. The the two-week event. For the first three days of the shortest timetable will be "at least a year" for rehir- tournament (Aug. 31 -Sept. 2), USA delivered a ing to occur, said William Schaub, NLRB regional 0.9 rating, flat with its first days coverage last director. Schaub said he will send a letter to The year, though total household delivery inched up Detroit News (owned by Gannett) and the Detroit from 623,000 to 665,000. USA's prime -time rat- Free Press (Knight Ridder), which are in a joint oper- ings this year were down to a 1.1/834,000 homes ating agreement. The letter, he said, will ask the Flynt strikes: 3 new from a 1.3/939,000 homes at this point last year. papers to comply with the NLRB's ruling that they titles into mainstream A USA representative attributed the dip to a engaged in unfair labor practices. "Why not heal the 6 Whitney Houston appearance at the opening cere- wounds?" said Schaub, referring to the bitter 19 - monies last year and one rained -out prime -time month strike that ended last year. If the papers don't LOCAL MEDIA session this year. USAs daytime Open ratings agree, he said, he will take legal action. But the 14 were up slightly, from a 0.6/398,000 homes in 1997 papers don't plan to budge. Tim Kelleher, the News' to a 0.7/545,000 homes so far this year. senior vp for labor relations, said the papers plan to WASHINGTON appeal the NLRB ruling. To date, more than half of 17 Into Troubled Waters, Here's More the workers who lost their jobs -1,300 of 2,500- After two prototypes, the first regular issue of have not returned. MAGAZINES More, the magazine for women 40 -plus, launches 22 this week, and with it another great experiment into Cheatwood Leaves NBC for CBS whether a magazine can finally attract wealthy, Officials at CBS O&O KYW-TV in Philadelphia are IQ NEWS female baby boomers. With its carefully attenuated hoping to capitalize on Joel Cheatwood's track re- 33 look (no model is supposed to be younger than 40) cord for resurrecting flagging newscasts-despite his and smart editorial, More, published by Meredith recruitment last year of Jerry Springer for a short- Corp., hopes to spark a relationship where others lived stint as a commentator at Chicago's WMAQ-TV. Cheatwood like Mirabella and the defunct Lear's failed to make a profitable has been hired as KYW's new station manager. Most recently he connection. In addition to the requisite articles on health and was vp of daytime for the NBC Station Group. He has a history of fashion, More's first issue (circ 320,000) features an interview with building news operations at stations including Fox affiliate WSVN- middle-aged cover girl Cybill Shepherd, a tell -all by the divorced TV in Miami and NBC affil WHDH-TV in Boston. At KYVV, he wife of Bridges of Madison County author Robert James Waller will oversee news, broadcast operations and engineering. and a review of hormonal treatments for menopause. MEDIAWEEK (ISSN 0155-176X) is published 47 times a year. Regular issues are published weekly except the brat, thud and titth weeks 01 August and thelast two weeks of December by ASM Communications, Inc., a subsidiary of BPI Communications Inc., 1515 Broadway, New York, NY, 10036. Subscriptionsare $130 one year; $220 two years. Canadian subscriptions $290 per year. All other foreign subscriptions are $290 (using air mail). Registered as a newspaper at the British Post Office. Periodicalspostage paid at New York, N.Y. and additional mailing offices. Subscriber Service (1-800) 722-6658. MEDIAWEEK, 1515 Broadway, New York, NY, 10036. Editorial: New York, (212)536-5336; Los Angeles, (323) 525-2270; Chicago, (312) 464-8525. Sales (212) 536-6528. Classified (1-800-7-ADWEEK). POSTMASTER: Send address changes to MEDIAWEEK, P.O. Box 1976,Danbury, CT 06813-1976. Copyright, 1998 ASM Communications, Inc., a subsidiary of BPI Communications Inc. No part of this publicationmay be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher PAGE 4 http://www.mediaweek.com September 7, 1998 MEDIAWEEK MEDIA WIRE Fox Expected to See Boost From Homer, Playoff Chases FCC Reviews Fox Sports' broadcast and cable networks may be big winners in Major League Baseball's dispute with ESPN. Fox will likely translate expected ratings momen- tum into more dollars from advertisers, with Fox's cable sports nets picking up games that likely will figure into playoff - Radio Rules spot races for the last three Sundays of the season, media buyers said. If either St. Louis Cardinal slugger May use DMAs to determine ownership limits Mark McGwire or Sammy Sosa of the By Alicia Mundy and Mira Schwirtz Chicago Cubs are still shy of hitting the Congress passed the Telecom Act in 1996, it record -setting 62nd homer, Fox broadcast The Federal Communications Com- effectively gutted the Federal Communica- is set to preempt its prime -time lineup on mission, stripped of much of its pur- tion Commission's role in overseeing mergers Tuesday (including the season premiere of view over consolidation in the radio in the radio industry.