tBXBBBHL 3 -DIGIT 078 Cc *071159037*P 19980622 edl ep S3DG LAURA K JONES, ASSITANT MGR 0 WALDENBOOKS 42 MT PLEASANT AVE 128 WHARTON NJ07885-2120 Vol. 7 No. 47 THE NEWS MAGAZINE OF THE MEDIA December 15, 1997 $3.00 MAGAZINES MARKET Sports Titles INDICATORS National TV: Slow In Rhubarb Money is still trickling in 'Sports Illustrated' for first-quarter scatter. With CBS having sold design change has most of its inventory in ESPN Magazine' the upfront, buyers expect release of make - claiming a heist good inventory. of its prototype Net Cable: Heating PAGE 6 First quarter is picking MAGAZINES up, with CPM increases hovering at 5-8 percent above upfront. Niche Taking Teens nets are moving fast; entertainment services Beyond seeing business too. Beauty and Spot TV: Busy First-quarter has ignit- Fashion ed, but it broke three nine Inc. counts weeks later than usual, buyers said. Fast-food, down to January beer and mutual fund launch of 'Teen spots are raining down. People, general- Radio: Stirring interest bimonthly Late Dec. -early Jan. is open, as buyers begin PAGE 6 THERE HE to see activity; tele- com's the leader. L.A in NEWSPAPERS particular is wide open; A New Look flurry expected soon. GOES AGAIN Buyers say spot's on For NI track with last year. John Malone plans to order as many Magazines: Upbeat 'Daily News' as 10 million digital set -top boxes MPA says drugs Er 'U.S.News' design remedies continued to by 1999. Five years after he predicted see the most dynamic chief to refresh a 500 -channel universe, the TCI growth in ad spending tabloid with bolder through November. chairman is betting that cable's Automotive and pub- presentation digital future has finally arrived. lishing Er media are also PAGE 8 strong. Overall, it's the PAGE 4 most dramatic spend- ing surge since 1984. IIN FOR BESTTO BRIGHT RESULTS, ,111111111111111IDEAS. EXPOSE TAKE www.kodak.comPICTURES. FURTHER7 MEDIAWEEK December 15, 1997 http://www.mediaweek.com PAGE 3 L aura r;, AT DEADLINE Fox Sports To Add Shows With News Edge Movie Trailers Part of South Park Concept Fox Sports Net will launch two sports news shows early next year, Comedy Central is beginning to test new media -buying programs sources said. Goin' Deep, a weekly sports newsmagazine series to for its animated hit South Park. Movie studios will be able to buy air Sundays from 9-10 p.m., will examine current sports issues. The two -minute trailers, equal to an entire commercial break, within show is scheduled to begin in February. The Last Word, which will the network's highest -rated show. The concept is being shopped begin early next month, will debate the day's top sports stories. now. The net also will start selling "super packages" of category - It will air Mondays through Saturdays at midnight. exclusive advertising for a week, during which the show airs five times and would be tagged with the sponsorship. Court Refuses to Hear UPN on Sinclair Raid UPN's attempt to halt Sinclair Broadcasting's five-tation defec- Addenda:John Nuzzi has become vp, affiliate marketing tion to the WB network failed last week, with a Baltimore judge and promotion, ABC Television Network, New York, from vp, throwing out the case. The stations-WNUV in affiliate promotion, Fox Broadcasting Network, Baltimore, WPTT in Pittsburgh, WSTR in Cincin- Los Angeles...In an effort to be more readily nati, KOCB in Oklahoma City and KRRT in San associated with its parent company, Premier Antonio-will all switch to the WB from UPN next Advertiser Sales has been renamed Paramount year. A network spokesperson declined to comment Advertiser Services...The 22 -station Fox on whether UPN will appeal the decision. Television Stations group has bought VLP., a fall 1998 action -adventure series starring Pamela Lee CBS First Down for NFL Rights and syndicated by Columbia TriStar Television The National Football League's television -rights Distribution...General Motors is close to signing negotiations are heating up. Meetings between the what would be the biggest corporate sponsorship NFL and the incumbent network rightsholders are deal in NCAA history. The five-year, $20 million scheduled for this week, sources close to the talks pact would give NCAA rights to GM across all said. In addition, CBS, which covets a return divisions and brands...Essence Communications' NFL broadcasting, was scheduled to meet with the Essence, the lifestyle monthly for black women, league last Friday, the sources said. has switched to perfect binding with its January ESPN's Walsh calls issue, on stands now. The book's February issue Springer Leapfrogs Oprah Si a design copycat will feature a major redesign and beefed-up The Jeny Springer Show has become the first talk 6 fashion and new -products content...Jack Findley, show to beat The Oprah Winfrey Show in the gross 46, has been named publisher of MediaNews aggregate average national ratings compiled by the TV SPORTS Group's Press -Telegram of Long Beach, Calif. Nielsen Syndication Service. Syndicated by Univer- 10 sal Television Enterprises, Springer for the week of Corrections:An At Deadline item in last Nov. 24-30 scored a 6.3 rating nationally, while LOCAL MEDIA week's issue should have said that Nielsen Media King World Productions' Oprah slipped to a season - 12 Research does not include "bystanders" (people low 6.3 rating in the gross aggregate category. By who are in the room, but not watching television) using a gross -aggregate average, Universal and IQ NEWS in its measurement system. In the same issue, an some other syndicators claim the ratings reflect 17 item in the Media Elite section identified The duplicated viewing of original and rerun episodes Macallan incorrectly. The company is an which may be broadcast in multiple runs each day. MEDIA PERSON international producer of single -malt scotch. And On an unduplicated basis, Oprah's 6.2 rating aver- 30 an item in the Nov. 10 issue incorrectly noted the age was just ahead of Springer's 6.0. position held by Mary Beth Wright prior to her joining FamilyFun as associate publisher. She was Small Business Computing to Curtco associate publisher of Wenner Media's Us. The Malibu, Calif.-based Curtco Freedom Group has agreed to acquire New York-based Scholastic Corp.'s Soho Group, includ- Mediaweek Takes a Holiday ing Home Office Computing and Small Business Computing The next edition of Mediuweek will be published on Jan. 5. The magazines, a small-business Web site and a custom -publishing staff would like to wish our readers the happiest of holidays and operation. Terms were not disclosed. a most prosperous 1998. MEDIAWEEK (ISSN 0155-176X) is published 47 times a year. Regular issues are published weekly except the last week of July and the second and fourthweeks of August and the last two weeks of December by ASM Communications, Inc., a subsidiary of BPI Communications Inc., 1515 Broadway, New York, NY, 10036. Subscriptions are $125 oneyear; $215 two years. Canadian subscriptions $280 per year. All other foreign subscriptions are $280 (using air mail). Registered as a newspaper at the British PostOffice. Periodicals postage 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, (213) 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, 1997 ASM Communications, Inc. PAGE 4 http://www.mediaweek.com December 15, 1997 MEDIAWEEK ME,D IA WIRE Spanish All -News Radio Launches in Los Angeles Maloneatthe Executives at Los Angeles' first all -news Spanish -language radio station, the refor- TCI chief pushes ops to buy boxes, but how matted KKHJ-AM, say they are off to a good start after their first three weeks on CABLE TV / ByMichael Freeman the air. Although no official ratings are The cable business just can't seem to boxes. At the Western Show, held in Anaheim, out to prove them right just yet, station help but make bold promises about the Calif., Malone hinted that TCI might also order executive Andy Mars cited "amazing brave new world of digital cable. Tele- Scientific Atlanta's Explorer 2(X)0 digital for a interest" from advertisers in the new for- Communications Inc. chairman John test in one unspecified market. mat for the station, owned by Los Ange- Malone-cable's highest -profile and "All I know is that we will probably be out of les' Liberman Broadcasting. L.A. adver- most powerful figure-delivered more [digital] boxes in March [1998], so my guess is tisers including the Chevrolet Dealers of of the same at last week's end -of -year industry that we will continue to make small orders from Southern California signed on when KKHJ confab, the Western Cable Show. Malone, con- Next Level and SA, then we should make one switched from Spanish variety to all -news. fident that the long-awaited digital revolution is big order to fill the gap" sometime in late 1998 Company president Jose Liberman finally at hand, exhorted his fellow cable opera- or early 1999, Malone said. The company's total had been interested in reformatting for tors to commit to ordering up to 25 million new - order could approach 10 million boxes, he said. months, but it took research studies by generation digital set -top box- two unnamed companies to persuade him es to roll out to their sub- to make the leap to the expensive all -news scribers in 1998, at a cost esti- approach.