NATPE PANEL WANTS GOVT. TO GET OUT OF KIDS’ PROGRAMMING
LAS VEGAS -- Programming for children under FCC’s 3-hour mandate is “a terrible financial business for broadcasters… and we don’t think the government should tell us to run 3 hours of kids programming,” Madelyn Bonnot of Emmis Communications told NATPE panel here on “Kid-Friendly TV.” With exception of Tom Lynch of program company bearing his name, other panelists seemed to agree with Bonnot. “We have to be in there [kid programming],” Lynch said. “It’s a public service. They're public airwaves.” All that’s needed, he said, is a hit children’s show.
Bonnot said local spot advertising in children’s shows totaled $125 million 5 years ago but dropped to $25 million in 2000: “If you're a broadcaster and you don’t have the dual revenue stream that a cable network has, a 2.2 rating at best is a tough business to be in.” Panelists said there still was no clear definition off what was acceptable as “children friendly” show under FCC rule. “I could not define what their [FCC] ruling is and what is prokids and what isn’t,” Lynch said. Nickelodeon’s Douglas Grief said that network had yet to receive from Commission clear definition of what constitutes educational program.
Panelists said over-air children’s market no longer was vibrant because of inroads of cable channels such as Cartoon Network, Disney Channel, Nickelodeon. “The bottom line is we don’t reach kids anymore,” Bonnot said. “Many of us are pushing to get out of kids programming… because the economics do not work.” David Morgan of Litton Syndication said TV rating system for children’s shows, designed for parents to use with V-chip, hasn’t worked and “I think it’s kind of backfired… As kids are becoming more sophisticated, they are looking for more adult material” -- and ratings help them find such programming.
On panel on “The Women of TV,” Power of Attorney star Gloria Allred said thousands of women were losing millions of job opportunities in TV, and when that happened victims should go to court if private mediation didn’t work. Entertainer Whoopi Goldberg said she didn’t really like to work with women because they could become competitive and usually were afraid to agree with stronger woman -- such as herself. “Female taste in [programming] material sucks,” Goldberg said. TV host Christina Saralegui said many women lacked required financial assertiveness: “We don’t know how to ask for a raise like a man… We'll say we're having a baby.” Judy Sheindlin of Judge Judy said: “We work in a male-dominated business. Just walk the floor of NATPE” to confirm that.
Spring up-front ad buying on networks will be down from last year, predicted Jessica Cohen of Merrill Lynch at panel on ad outlook. “We're seeing signs of it getting pretty ugly,” she said. “The first and 2nd quarters [of 2001] are turning out pretty bad.” Kevin Carton of PricewaterhouseCoopers agreed that “the ad market is in a bit of a dip, but we don’t believe it’s a major trough. We think it will be coming back soon.” He said previous decade was “fantastic” for TV advertising, and he predicted “a very robust [ad] market” over next several years.
Blair Westlake of Universal TV predicted new media eventually would be hit with consumers, but later on horizon than most now predicted: “Consumer habits are hard to change and don’t evolve as fast as many might predict.” He said VCR sales in 2000 were double those of DVD players. Mary Halford of Fox International Entertainment said that company already was receiving good consumer response to interactive TV, citing experiences of BSkyB in U.K.
Traditional 30- and 60-sec. TV spots soon may become thing of past through product placements such as in Survivors and made-for- TV movies, said panel of leading TV advertisers and agencies. Program-interruptive TV commercials soon may become least efficient way to reach consumers, said TBWA’s Robert Kuperman: “In the future, you probably won’t know when the commercial stops and the program begins.”
Digital TV received prominent place throughout NATPE convention, with several workshops, exhibitor demonstrations and one major panel. At that, panelists suggested that recent tentative decision by FCC denying digital must-carry (CD Jan 24 p3) would cause broadcasters to move toward datacasting and other forms of nonbroadcast services. There was broad agreement that broadcasters spent too much time arguing over transmission standard before settling on 8-VSB last week (CD Jan 17 p3). Hearst-Argyle’s Tony Vincequera said his company was committed to rolling out HDTV as soon as possible, as well as ancillary services, as means to increase share of market.
John Abel of TV station consortium Geocast said broadcasters had relied on cable as “crutch” to reach consumers and as result spectrum was underutilized. By adding new services on former analog space, result could be that public would re-install outside antennas to receive off-air signals. But, he said, “consumers have to see a service that is desirable on that antenna.” Some ideas worth trying on multicast, said Kenneth Solomon of iBlast Networks (another station new-technology consortium) include music, games, movies and local public service programming. Lowell Paxson of Paxson Communications said: “We're going to make a lot of money on this beachfront property” -- unused spectrum.
Panelists agreed they still had no idea how to program their excess digital capacity because there was no indication what public wanted or would pay for. “It’s hard when we don’t know what the public wants,” Hearst-Argyle’s Vinciquerra said. “It’s hard enough to program one [over-air] channel,” and company is experimenting with datacasts in Chicago to get consumers’ response. Strong objections have been raised in Congress to proposals that TV stations lease unused spectrum to outsiders and House Commerce Chmn. Tauzin (R-La.) has said he plans hearing on issue. -- Tack Nail
NATPE Notebook…
In closed meeting at NATPE, ABC TV Network briefed its affiliates -- while admitting plans were very tentative -- on future use of digital spectrum. One idea thrown out was “Blockbuster in a Box” pay-movie channel as 2nd revenue stream for stations. Several other proposals in early stages of development also are being discussed, sources said, following meeting at which Eric Haseltine of Disney Imagineering briefed affiliates. Network and affiliates plan to form new committee to study and evaluate potential services through digitial spectrum, with Robert Hubbard of Hubbard Bcstg. as head of station contingent. Source said ABC’s effort was to present unified effort with affiliates on new technology when not broadcasting HDTV.