<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" media="screen" href="/~d/styles/atom10full.xsl"?><?xml-stylesheet type="text/css" media="screen" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~d/styles/itemcontent.css"?><feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
   <title>In Depth: Syndication</title>
   <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.tvweek.com/news/" />
   
   <id>tag:www.tvweek.com,2012:/news//1</id>
   <updated>2010-10-14T17:59:27Z</updated>
   <subtitle>Formerly News</subtitle>
   <generator uri="http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/">Movable Type Pro 4.31-en</generator>


<atom10:link xmlns:atom10="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/News-Syndication" /><feedburner:info xmlns:feedburner="http://rssnamespace.org/feedburner/ext/1.0" uri="news-syndication" /><atom10:link xmlns:atom10="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" rel="hub" href="http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/" /><entry>
   <title>Google, NBC Universal End TV Ad-Sales Pact Early; Agreement Allowed Google to Sell Cable Inventory</title>
   <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.tvweek.com/news/2010/10/google_nbc_universal_end_tv_ad.php" />
   <id>tag:www.tvweek.com,2010:/news//1.44245</id>
   
   <published>2010-10-14T17:53:46Z</published>
   <updated>2010-10-14T17:59:27Z</updated>
   
   <summary><![CDATA[By Brian SteinbergAdvertising AgeGoogle and NBC Universal have dissolved an intriguing ad pact they established in 2008 nearly a year before it was set to expire, dealing a setback to Google's ambition to become a big player in TV ad sales.Under terms of the pact, which was set to end in the fall of 2011, Google was allowed to sell advertising inventory on select NBC Universal-owned cable outlets -- such as Syfy, Oxygen, MSNBC, CNBC, Sleuth and Chiller -- with the potential to expand to other networks down the line. That was seen as an important step in Google's efforts to expand its reach beyond its main business, paid-search advertising on the internet, and get into TV in a significant way. For NBC, the agreement was described as a way to bring in new advertisers, particularly the local ones Google often deals with.Rather than expanding, however, the pact has ended early. &quot;We're not currently contributing inventory into the Google marketplace, but we continue to work with Google on multiple projects involving advanced advertising,&quot; NBC Universal said in a statement Wednesday.&quot;While we are no longer offering NBC Universal inventory through Google TV Ads, NBC Universal continues to be a great partner to Google,&quot; Mark Piesanen, director of strategic partner development for Google TV Ads, said in a statement. &quot;Both NBC and Google are committed to bringing more relevance to TV viewership and advertising. CNBC is an important partner in the launch of Google TV and we are working together on research studies.&quot; The two companies are also both investors in Invidi Technologies Corp., a company involved in developing the technology behind addressable TV advertising.The end of the arrangement, however, leaves Google without access to the broad inventory of a top-tier media company. It continues its TV-advertising efforts with satellite-providers DirecTV and EchoStar's Dish Network as well as some smaller cable outlets, including Hallmark Channel, Tennis Channel, Ovation and CBS College Sports.NBC and Google's ad-sales agreement was an unusual one. NBC Universal raised eyebrows by allowing Google to sell some of its cable channels' inventory. At the time of the deal's unveiling, ad-buying executives suggested Google wasn't getting its hands on prime ad inventory, but rather less desirable stuff.Under the terms of the pact, NBC was able to set a floor for pricing as well as quality standards. The company also maintained control over its inventory, so that if a Google TV ad were to pose a conflict with another advertiser on air, the Google ad would have to run in a different fashion.A person familiar with the situation said NBC Universal felt the Google ad system worked but that it added the most value to smaller, unrated TV networks. While Chiller and Sleuth were unrated when the pact was established, they are both rated now.]]></summary>
   <author>
      <name>Chuck Ross</name>
      
   </author>
   
      <category term="Advertising" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Broadcast" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Cable" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Digital" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Syndication" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
   
   <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.tvweek.com/news/">
      <![CDATA[By Brian SteinbergAdvertising AgeGoogle and NBC Universal have dissolved an intriguing ad pact they established in 2008 nearly a year before it was set to expire, dealing a setback to Google's ambition to become a big player in TV ad sales.Under terms of the pact, which was set to end in the fall of 2011, Google was allowed to sell advertising inventory on select NBC Universal-owned cable outlets -- such as Syfy, Oxygen, MSNBC, CNBC, Sleuth and Chiller -- with the potential to expand to other networks down the line. That was seen as an important step in Google's efforts to expand its reach beyond its main business, paid-search advertising on the internet, and get into TV in a significant way. For NBC, the agreement was described as a way to bring in new advertisers, particularly the local ones Google often deals with.Rather than expanding, however, the pact has ended early. &quot;We're not currently contributing inventory into the Google marketplace, but we continue to work with Google on multiple projects involving advanced advertising,&quot; NBC Universal said in a statement Wednesday.&quot;While we are no longer offering NBC Universal inventory through Google TV Ads, NBC Universal continues to be a great partner to Google,&quot; Mark Piesanen, director of strategic partner development for Google TV Ads, said in a statement. &quot;Both NBC and Google are committed to bringing more relevance to TV viewership and advertising. CNBC is an important partner in the launch of Google TV and we are working together on research studies.&quot; The two companies are also both investors in Invidi Technologies Corp., a company involved in developing the technology behind addressable TV advertising.The end of the arrangement, however, leaves Google without access to the broad inventory of a top-tier media company. It continues its TV-advertising efforts with satellite-providers DirecTV and EchoStar's Dish Network as well as some smaller cable outlets, including Hallmark Channel, Tennis Channel, Ovation and CBS College Sports.NBC and Google's ad-sales agreement was an unusual one. NBC Universal raised eyebrows by allowing Google to sell some of its cable channels' inventory. At the time of the deal's unveiling, ad-buying executives suggested Google wasn't getting its hands on prime ad inventory, but rather less desirable stuff.Under the terms of the pact, NBC was able to set a floor for pricing as well as quality standards. The company also maintained control over its inventory, so that if a Google TV ad were to pose a conflict with another advertiser on air, the Google ad would have to run in a different fashion.A person familiar with the situation said NBC Universal felt the Google ad system worked but that it added the most value to smaller, unrated TV networks. While Chiller and Sleuth were unrated when the pact was established, they are both rated now.]]>
   </content>
</entry>

<entry>
   <title>October NewsPro: Environmental Journalism</title>
   <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.tvweek.com/news/2010/10/october_newspro_environmental.php" />
   <id>tag:www.tvweek.com,2010:/news//1.44161</id>
   
   <published>2010-10-11T13:36:33Z</published>
   <updated>2010-10-11T13:44:42Z</updated>
   
   <summary><![CDATA[An astonishing number of breaking stories so far in 2010 have been about the environment. TV viewers and newspaper readers were bombarded by dramatic pictures and accounts of the environment run amok, from the coal ash spill in West Virginia; the plume of volcanic ash over Europe; mine disasters in West Virginia, Chile and China; floods in Pakistan; the natural gas explosion in northern California; and, of course, the oil refinery explosions in Texas and the Gulf of Mexico.Challenges facing the journalists who cover these topics will be explored at the 20th anniversary conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists, being held in Missoula, Mont., Oct. 13 to 17. To see the entire October issue NewsPro, which is devoted to Environmental Journalism and the SEJ event, click here.. &nbsp;]]></summary>
   <author>
      <name>Tom Gilbert</name>
      <uri>http://www.tvweek.com/</uri>
   </author>
   
      <category term="Broadcast" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Cable" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Digital" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Syndication" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
   
   <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.tvweek.com/news/">
      <![CDATA[An astonishing number of breaking stories so far in 2010 have been about the environment. TV viewers and newspaper readers were bombarded by dramatic pictures and accounts of the environment run amok, from the coal ash spill in West Virginia; the plume of volcanic ash over Europe; mine disasters in West Virginia, Chile and China; floods in Pakistan; the natural gas explosion in northern California; and, of course, the oil refinery explosions in Texas and the Gulf of Mexico.Challenges facing the journalists who cover these topics will be explored at the 20th anniversary conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists, being held in Missoula, Mont., Oct. 13 to 17. To see the entire October issue NewsPro, which is devoted to Environmental Journalism and the SEJ event, click here.. &nbsp;]]>
   </content>
</entry>

<entry>
   <title><![CDATA[CBS News Top Winner at News & Documentary Emmys; Full List of Winners Here]]></title>
   <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.tvweek.com/news/2010/09/cbs_news_top_winner_at_news_do.php" />
   <id>tag:www.tvweek.com,2010:/news//1.43969</id>
   
   <published>2010-09-28T04:03:21Z</published>
   <updated>2010-09-28T20:08:44Z</updated>
   
   <summary><![CDATA[CBS News led the winners of the National Academy of Television Arts &amp; Sciences' 31st annual News &amp; Documentary Emmy Awards Monday night, taking a total of seven awards.CBS was recognized for &quot;60 Minutes,&quot; which notched four wins, and &quot;CBS Evening News With Katie Couric,&quot; which took three honors.NBC News  and PBS closely followed CBS, winning six and five awards, respectively.ABC, HDNet, History Channel, National Geographic Channel, Planet Green and Sundance Channel each scored two wins, and CNBC, Discovery Channel, Globeandmail.com, HBO, NYTimes.com, TIME.com and VH1 were awarded one Emmy apiece.KPIX-TV, San Francisco, KSTP-TV, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and KHOU-TV, Houston, took the News &amp; Documentary Emmys for regional reporting.The News &amp; Documentary Emmys were presented at a ceremony at Frederick P. Rose Hall, Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, located in the Time Warner Center in New York City. The ceremony will be broadcast Oct. 9 at 8 p.m. ET on C-SPAN.A complete list of winners follows:OUTSTANDING COVERAGE OF A BREAKING NEWS STORY IN A REGULARLY SCHEDULED NEWSCASTNBC Nightly News with Brian Williams (NBC)Miracle on the HudsonAnchor and Managing Editor: Brian WilliamsExecutive Producer: Bob EpsteinSenior Broadcast Producer: Patrick Burkey, Aurelia GraysonDirector: Brett HoleySenior Producers: Subrata De, Mary Laurence Flynn, Tracey Lyons, Albert OetgenSupervising Producer: Jay BlackmanCorrespondents: Robert Bazell, Tom Costello, Rehema Ellis, Martin Fletcher, Mike Taibbi, Chuck ToddProducers: Donna Bass, Beverly Chase, Christine Colvin, Bob Croce, Tom Dawson, Clare Duffy, Carol Eggers, Lauren Fairbanks, Andy Franklin, Anthony Galloway, Mario Garcia, Hilary Guy, Jody Henenfeld, Robert Kaplan, Maggie Kassner, Susan Kroll, Victor Limjoco, Daniel Linden, Carla Marcus, Megan Marcus, Daniel Nagin, Samuel Singal, Robin Skolnick, Christina Vallice, Kelly VenardosOUTSTANDING CONTINUING COVERAGE OF A NEWS STORY IN A REGULARLY SCHEDULED NEWSCASTNBC Nightly News with Brian Williams (NBC)Unlikely RefugesAnchor and Managing Editor: Brian WilliamsExecutive Producer: Bob EpsteinSenior Broadcast Producer: Aurelia GraysonDirector: Brett HoleySenior Producer: Mary Laurence FlynnCorrespondents: Richard Engel, Adrienne MongProducers: Maria Alcon, Bredun Edwards, Madeleine Haeringer, Maggie Kassner, Paul Nassar,Matt Softley, Rachele WebbOUTSTANDING FEATURE STORY IN A REGULARLY SCHEDULED NEWSCASTToday (NBC)Fighting GrossmansProducer: Amanda Marshall, David EmanueleCorrespondent: Bob DotsonOUTSTANDING INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM IN A REGULARLY SCHEDULED NEWSCASTCBS Evening News with Katie Couric (CBS)Rape in America: Justice DeniedAnchor and Managing Editor: Katie CouricExecutive Producer: Rick KaplanSenior Producer: Keith SummaProducer: Laura StricklerChief Investigative Correspondent: Armen KeteyianOUTSTANDING BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC REPORTING IN A REGULARY SCHEDULED NEWSCASTCBS Evening News with Katie Couric (CBS)Financial Family TreeAnchor and Managing Editor: Katie CouricExecutive Producer: Rick KaplanSenior Producer: Kim GodwinProducers: Brandon Baur, Marsha Cooke, Erin George, Chris WeicherCorrespondents: John Blackstone, Cynthia Bowers, Kelly Cobiella, Barry PetersonOUTSTANDING COVERAGE OF A BREAKING NEWS STORY IN A NEWS MAGAZINEDateline NBC (NBC)Miracle on the HudsonExecutive Producer: David CorvoExecutive Editor: Liz ColeManaging Editor: Aretha MarshallDirectors: John Libretto, Judith FarinetSenior Producers: Ellen Mason, Jim GeretySenior Producers: Liz Cole, Ellen MasonSupervising Producer: Joe DelmonicoAnchor: Ann CurryCorrespondents: Peter Greenberg, Chris Hansen, Hoda Kotb, Dennis MurphyProducers: Tim Beacham, John Block, Katherine Chan, Bradley Davis, Cameo George, Bob Gilmartin, Marianne Haggerty, Meade Jorgensen, Sarah Longden, Marianne O'Donnell, Robin Oelkers, Mary Ann Rotondi, Susan Simpson, Dan Slepian, Justin Smith, Jane EStone, Tim Uehlinger, Esther ZuckerField Producers: Falguni Lakhani, Alex Waterfield, Katie YuCoordinating Producer: Biju MathewOUTSTANDING CONTINUING COVERAGE OF A NEWS STORY IN A NEWS MAGAZINE60 Minutes (CBS)War in PakistanExecutive Producer: Jeff FagerExecutive Editor: Bill OwensProducer: Draggan MihailovichCorrespondent: Steve KroftOUTSTANDING FEATURE STORY IN A NEWS MAGAZINEHDNet World Report (HDNet)South Africa's Shame: Modern‑Day Slavery and the World CupExecutive Producer: Dennis O'BrienSenior Producer: Kathy GettingsProducer: Gareth HarveyCorrespondent: Paul BebanOUTSTANDING INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM IN A NEWS MAGAZINEFRONTLINE/World (PBS)Ghana: Digital Dumping GroundExecutive Producer: David FanningSenior Producers: Ken DornsteinSeries Executive Director: Sharon TillerProducer/Correspondent: Peter KleinProducer: Sarah CarterCo-Producers: Shira Bick, Ian Bickis, Krysia Collyer, Allison Cross, Heba Elasaad, Dan Haves, Doerthe Keilholz, Jodie Martinson, Dan McKinney, Blake Sifton, Leslie YoungOUTSTANDING BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC REPORTING IN A NEWS MAGAZINEDan Rather Reports (HDNet)Iran's Manhattan ProjectCorrespondent and Managing Editor: Dan RatherExecutive Producer: Wayne NelsonSenior Producer: Elliot KirschnerProducer: Andrew GlazerOUTSTANDING LIVE COVERAGE OF A CURRENT NEWS STORY &ndash; LONG FORMABC News Special Events (ABC)Inauguration 2009 ‑ Barack ObamaExecutive Producer: Marc BursteinExecutive Director: Roger GoodmanAnchors: Charles Gibson, Diane Sawyer, George StephanopoulosAnchor/Correspondents: Robin Roberts, Ron Claiborne, Chris Cuomo, Sam Donaldson, JohnDonvan, Dan Harris, Jonathan Karl, Cynthia McFadden, Terry Moran, David Muir, Martha Raddatz, Cokie Roberts, Deborah Roberts, Brian Ross, Claire Shipman, Kate Snow, Betsy Stark, Lisa Stark, Jake Tapper, Pierre Thomas, Barbara Walters, Bill Weir, Bob WoodruffSenior Producers: Bob Wheelock, Paula Cohen, Richard Sergay, Laiea Smith, Joan Preztunik, Bob Roy, Nancy Gabriner, Ricki Goldberg, Kathy O&rsquo;Hearn, Andrew MorseProducers: Annie Allen, Perita Carpenter, Teddy Davis, Jonathan Greenberger, Farnaz Haghighi, Sally Hawkins, Akilah Joseph, Lourdes Leahy, Mary Wojcik, Sunlen Miller, Eric Noll, Andrea Owen, Lana Zak, Margaret Aro, Katie Munley, Susan Archer, Ben NewmanRemote Location Producers: Stephanie Smith, Avery Miller, Dena Norland, Clayton Sandell, Quiana Burns, Matt Hosford, Kirit Radia, Drew Millhon, Courtney Chapman, Jon Garcia, Brett Hovell, Richard Coolidge, Tom Giusto, Lisa Chinn, Jen Duck, Susan Kriskey, Matt Jaffee, Jack Date, Bruno Roeber, Margaret Conley, Nick Schifrin, Ann Marie Dorning, George Pilla, Lee Alexander, Glen DacyOUTSTANDING CONTINUING COVERAGE OF A NEWS STORY &ndash; LONG FORMFRONTLINE (PBS)A Death in TehranExecutive Producer: David Fanning, Angus MacQueenSenior Producers: Raney Aronson‑Rath, Ken DornsteinProducer: Monica Garnsey, Arash SahamiOUTSTANDING INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM &ndash; LONG FORMFRONTLINE (PBS)The WarningProducer/Director: Michael KirkProducer/Reporter: Jim GilmoreProducer: Mike WiserExecutive Producer: David FanningSenior Producer: Raney Aronson‑RathOUTSTANDING INFORMATIONAL PROGRAMMING &ndash; LONG FORMHBO Documentary Films (HBO)Which Way HomeDirector/Producer: Rebecca CammisaField Producers: Nina Alvarez, Eric Goethals, Lorenzo Hagerman, Alejandra Liceaga, Stephany Slaughter, Gabriela Sosa, Sascha WeissExecutive Producers: Bristol Baughan, Lianne Halfon, Bette Cerf Hill, John Malkovich, Sheila Nevins, Russell Smith, Jack TurnerSupervising Producer: Sara BernsteinOUTSTANDING HISTORICAL PROGRAMMING &ndash; LONG FORMBill Moyers Journal (PBS)The Good SoldierFor Out of the Blue Productions, Inc.Producer/Directors: Lexy Lovell, Michael UysFor Bill Moyers JournalExecutive Producers: Judy Doctoroff O'Neill, Sally RoyExecutive Editors: Bill Moyers, Judith Davidson MoyersProducer: Jessica WangOUTSTANDING BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC REPORTING &ndash; LONG FORMInside the Mind of Google (CNBC)Correspondent: Maria BartiromoSenior Executive Producer: Mitch WeitznerSenior Producer: Wally GriffithProducer: Morgan DownsContributing Producer: Lulu ChiangOUTSTANDING INTERVIEW60 Minutes (CBS)Saving Flight 1549Executive Producer: Jeff FagerExecutive Editor: Bill OwensCorrespondent: Katie CouricSenior Producer: Michael RadutzkyProducers: Lori Beecher, Tanya SimonCo‑Producers: Jenny Dubin, Andrew MetzOUTSTANDING ARTS &amp; CULTURE PROGRAMMINGAnvil! The Story of Anvil (VH1)Executive Producer/Director: Sacha GervasiProducer: Rebecca YeldhamExecutive Producers: Brad Abramson, Rick Krim, Christopher Soos, Shelly TatroSupervising Producer: Warren CohenOUTSTANDING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY PROGRAMMINGPOV (PBS)The English SurgeonDirector/Producer: Geoffrey SmithCo‑Producer: Rachel WexlerExecutive Producers: Simon Kilmurry, , Sally Jo Fifer, Nick Fraser, Greg SandersonOUTSTANDING NATURE PROGRAMMINGThe Last Beekeeper (Planet Green)Director: Jeremy SimmonsProducers: Fenton Bailey, Randy BarbatoBEST STORY IN A REGULARLY SCHEDULED NEWSCASTCBS Evening News with Katie Couric (CBS)The Battle of WanatAnchor and Managing Editor: Katie CouricNational Security Correspondent: David MartinExecutive Producer: Rick KaplanSenior Producer: Ward SloaneProducer: Mary WalshBEST REPORT IN A NEWS MAGAZINE60 Minutes (CBS)The Winter of Our Hardship and The Long RecessionExecutive Producer: Jeff FagerExecutive Editor: Bill OwensCorrespondent: Scott PelleyProducers: Solly Granatstein, Nicole YoungCo-Producers: Tom Honeysett, Matthew RichmanBEST DOCUMENTARYWar Dance (Sundance Channel)Directors: Sean Fine, Andrea Nix FineExecutive Producer: Susan MacLauryProducer: Albie HechtCo‑Producers: Kari Kim, Josie SwantekNEW APPROACHES TO NEWS &amp; DOCUMENTARY PROGRAMMING: CURRENT NEWS COVERAGEBehind the Veil (Globeandmail.com)Reporter: Jessica LeederPhotojournalist: Paula LernerMultimedia Producer: Jayson TaylorInteractive Designer: Chris ManzaNEW APPROACHES TO NEWS &amp; DOCUMENTARY PROGRAMMING: DOCUMENTARIESOne in 8 Million (NYTimes.com)Executive Producers: Juliet Gorman, Jodi Rudoren, Andrew De VigalSeries Producers: Sarah Kramer, Alexis Mainland, Meagan Looram, Todd HeislerInteractive Producer: Tom JacksonContributing Producers: Joshua Brustein, Jeffery DelViscio, Nancy Donaldson, Catrin Einhorn, Rogene Fisher, J. David Goodman, Lisa Iaboni, Miki Meek, Conrad Mulcahy, Emily S. Rueb, Tanzina Vega, Emily WeinsteinNEW APPROACHES TO NEWS &amp; DOCUMENTARY PROGRAMMING: ARTS, LIFESTYLE &amp; CULTUREThe Iconic Photo Series (TIME.com)Producer/Editor: Craig DuffPhotographer: Anthony SuauPhoto Editor: Mark RykoffOUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN A CRAFT: WRITINGNBC News Special (NBC)Inside the Obama White HouseWriters: Doug Adams, Marisa Buchanan, Robert Buchanan, Matt Carluccio, Katherine Chan, Bradley Davis, Subrata De, Joe Delmonico, Andrew Franklin, Annette Freeman, David Gelles, Meade Jorgensen, Mark Lukasiewicz, Amna Nawaz, Benita Noel, Meaghan Rady, Rayner Ramirez, Mary Ann Rotondi, Tim Uehlinger, Brian WilliamsOUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN A CRAFT: RESEARCHReel Impact Series (Planet Green)Split EstateResearchers: Debra Anderson, Mitchell Marti, Matt VestOUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN A CRAFT: CINEMATOGRAPHY - NATUREWild Pacific (Discovery Channel)SurvivorsCinematographers: Rod Clarke, Wade Fairley, Richard WollocombeOUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN A CRAFT: CINEMATOGRAPHY - NEWS COVERAGE / DOCUMENTARIESWar Dance (Sundance Channel)Director of Photography: Sean FineOUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN A CRAFT: EDITINGNational Geographic's Most Incredible Photos (National Geographic Channel)         Afghan WarriorEditor: Jeremy SieferOUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN A CRAFT: EDITING&ndash;QUICK TURNAROUNDNBC News Special (NBC)Inside the Obama White HouseEditors: Rob Allen, Chad Bergacs, Deb Brown, Bruce Burger, Saverio Camporeale, Sam Casalino, Justin Cece, Linda Diehl, David Emanuele, Victor Fabilli, Anthony Innarelli, Paul Nichols, Richard Platt, William Ray, Bob Spencer, Alvaro Trenchi, Irene Trullinger, David VargaOUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN A CRAFT: GRAPHIC DESIGN &amp; ART DIRECTIONStealing Lincoln's Body (History Channel)Graphic Designer: Ray DowningOUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN A CRAFT: MUSIC &amp; SOUNDWWII in HD (History Channel)Point of No ReturnSound Design and Mix: Joel RaabeAdditional Sound Design: Allison Casey, Brian Scibinico, Frank TurbeOUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN A CRAFT: LIGHTING DIRECTION &amp; SCENIC DESIGNCIA Confidential: Pakistan Undercover (National Geographic Channel)                                              Lighting Directors: Boujemaa Rassourance, Peter Schnall, Doug ShultzOUTSTANDING PROMOTIONAL ANNOUNCEMENT: INSTITUTIONAL60 Minutes (CBS)60 Minutes in 60 SecondsSenior Vice President and Creative Director: Dave McCoyDirector, Advertising &amp; Marketing: Julie HaalandDirector of Operations: Nicole FiftalProducer/Editor: Rich O'ConnellProducers: Joanne Stern, Charles HowlandSound Designers: Eric Casimiro, Daniel MaierEditor: Wes CarltonGraphic Designer: Adam SaulOUTSTANDING PROMOTIONAL ANNOUNCEMENT: EPISODICDiane Sawyer 20/20 Special (ABC)A Hidden America: Children of the MountainsExecutive Producer: Alan IvesSenior Producer: Rene Hallal-GonenProducer: Kevin SmallsArt Director: Rodrigo RedondoSound Designer/Editor: Leslie Mona-MathusOUTSTANDING REGIONAL NEWS STORY &ndash; SPOT NEWSKPIX Eyewitness News (KPIX‑TV, San Francisco)Oakland RiotReporters: Joe Vazquez, Linda YeeProducer: Brian NealPhotographers: Patrick Sedillo, Robert Moonan, Chris Mistrot, Don FordAssignment Editor: Leona WongOUTSTANDING REGIONAL NEWS STORY &ndash; INVESTIGATIVE REPORTINGKHOU News at 10 p.m. (KHOU‑TV, Houston)Soldiers at Risk: The Iraq Water InvestigationInvestigative Reporter: Jeremy RogalskiExecutive Producer for Investigations: David RaziqInvestigative Photojournalist: Keith TomsheKSTP 5 Eyewitness News (KSTP‑TV, Minneapolis)Prisoners Ride the BusInvestigative Reporter: Bob McNaneyProducer: Mike MaybayAssistant News Director: Sam ZeffBREAKDOWN BY PROGRAMCBS (7)60 Minutes (4)60 Minutes in 60 Seconds ...&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;..................&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;... 1Saving Flight 1549 &hellip;..&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;..........................&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;..&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;.... 1War in Pakistan &hellip;.&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;..&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;......................&hellip;.......... 1The Winter of Our Hardship and the Long Recession &hellip;.&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;....&hellip;........... 1CBS Evening News With Katie Couric (3)The Battle of Wanat &hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;.&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;.&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;.&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;................ 1Financial Family Tree &hellip;&hellip;.&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;..&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;.&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;.&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;.............. 1Rape in America &hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;..&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;..............&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;................ 1NBC (6)NBC News Special (2)Inside the Obama White House &hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;..........&hellip;...............&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;... 2NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams (2)Miracle on the Hudson &hellip;&hellip;.&hellip;&hellip;..........&hellip;...............&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;............... 1Unlikely Refugees &hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;................&hellip;...............&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;............. 1Dateline NBC (1)Miracle on the Hudson &hellip;&hellip;.&hellip;&hellip;..........&hellip;...............&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;.............. 1Today (1)Fighting Grossmans &hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;.............&hellip;...............&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;............ 1PBS (5)FRONTLINE (2)A Death in Tehran &hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;.....................................................................&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;.. 1The Warning &hellip;.&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;.............................................................................&hellip;..&hellip;&hellip; 1Bill Moyers Journal (1)The Good Soldier &hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;..&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;....&hellip; 1FRONTLINE/World (1)Ghana: Digital Dumping Ground &hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;...........................................&hellip;&hellip;&hellip; 1P.O.V. (1)The English Surgeon .&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;...............................................&hellip;&hellip;1ABC (2)ABC News Special Events (1)Inauguration 2009: Barack Obama &hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;.&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;.&hellip; 1Diane Sawyer 20/20 Special (1)A Hidden America: Children of the Mountains &hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;.&hellip;.&hellip;&hellip;. 1HDNet (2)HDNet World Report (1)South Africa&rsquo;s Shame: Modern-Day Slavery and the World Cup &hellip;&hellip;&hellip;... 1Dan Rather Reports (1)Iran&rsquo;s Manhattan Project &hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;.&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;.&hellip;&hellip; 1History Channel (2)Stealing Lincoln&rsquo;s Body (1)WWII in HD (1)Point of No Return &hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip; 1National Geographic Channel (2)CIA Confidential: Pakistan Undercover(1)National Geographic&rsquo;s Most Incredible Photos (1)Afghan Warrior &hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;.&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;...&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;....&hellip; 1Planet Green (2)The Last Beekeeper (1)Reel Impact Series (1)Split Estate &hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;.&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;.. 1Sundance Channel (2)War Dance (2)CNBC (1)Inside the Mind of Google (1)Discovery Channel (1)Wild Pacific (1)Survivors &hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;..&hellip;&hellip;............................................. 1Globeandmail.com (1)Behind the Veil (1)HBO (1)HBO Documentary Films (1)Which Way Home &hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;..&hellip;&hellip;............................ 1NYTimes.com (1)One in 8 Million (1)TIME.com (1)The Iconic Photo Series (1)VH1 (1)Anvil! The Story of Anvil (1)REGIONAL REPORTINGKHOU-TV (Houston, TX) (1)KHOU News at 10pm (1)Soldiers at Risk: The Iraq Water Investigation &hellip;&hellip;.&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;... 1KPIX-TV (San Francisco, CA) (1)KPIX Eyewitness News (1)Oakland Riot &hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;..&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip; 1KSTP-TV (Minneapolis, MN) (1)KSTP 5 Eyewitness News (1)Prisoners Ride the Bus &hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;.... 1]]></summary>
   <author>
      <name>Tom Gilbert</name>
      <uri>http://www.tvweek.com/</uri>
   </author>
   
      <category term="Broadcast" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Cable" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Digital" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Syndication" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
   <category term="9624" label="awards" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="11" label="CBS" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="5536" label="documentary" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="3200" label="Emmy" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="439" label="News" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   
   <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.tvweek.com/news/">
      <![CDATA[CBS News led the winners of the National Academy of Television Arts &amp; Sciences' 31st annual News &amp; Documentary Emmy Awards Monday night, taking a total of seven awards.CBS was recognized for &quot;60 Minutes,&quot; which notched four wins, and &quot;CBS Evening News With Katie Couric,&quot; which took three honors.NBC News  and PBS closely followed CBS, winning six and five awards, respectively.ABC, HDNet, History Channel, National Geographic Channel, Planet Green and Sundance Channel each scored two wins, and CNBC, Discovery Channel, Globeandmail.com, HBO, NYTimes.com, TIME.com and VH1 were awarded one Emmy apiece.KPIX-TV, San Francisco, KSTP-TV, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and KHOU-TV, Houston, took the News &amp; Documentary Emmys for regional reporting.The News &amp; Documentary Emmys were presented at a ceremony at Frederick P. Rose Hall, Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, located in the Time Warner Center in New York City. The ceremony will be broadcast Oct. 9 at 8 p.m. ET on C-SPAN.A complete list of winners follows:OUTSTANDING COVERAGE OF A BREAKING NEWS STORY IN A REGULARLY SCHEDULED NEWSCASTNBC Nightly News with Brian Williams (NBC)Miracle on the HudsonAnchor and Managing Editor: Brian WilliamsExecutive Producer: Bob EpsteinSenior Broadcast Producer: Patrick Burkey, Aurelia GraysonDirector: Brett HoleySenior Producers: Subrata De, Mary Laurence Flynn, Tracey Lyons, Albert OetgenSupervising Producer: Jay BlackmanCorrespondents: Robert Bazell, Tom Costello, Rehema Ellis, Martin Fletcher, Mike Taibbi, Chuck ToddProducers: Donna Bass, Beverly Chase, Christine Colvin, Bob Croce, Tom Dawson, Clare Duffy, Carol Eggers, Lauren Fairbanks, Andy Franklin, Anthony Galloway, Mario Garcia, Hilary Guy, Jody Henenfeld, Robert Kaplan, Maggie Kassner, Susan Kroll, Victor Limjoco, Daniel Linden, Carla Marcus, Megan Marcus, Daniel Nagin, Samuel Singal, Robin Skolnick, Christina Vallice, Kelly VenardosOUTSTANDING CONTINUING COVERAGE OF A NEWS STORY IN A REGULARLY SCHEDULED NEWSCASTNBC Nightly News with Brian Williams (NBC)Unlikely RefugesAnchor and Managing Editor: Brian WilliamsExecutive Producer: Bob EpsteinSenior Broadcast Producer: Aurelia GraysonDirector: Brett HoleySenior Producer: Mary Laurence FlynnCorrespondents: Richard Engel, Adrienne MongProducers: Maria Alcon, Bredun Edwards, Madeleine Haeringer, Maggie Kassner, Paul Nassar,Matt Softley, Rachele WebbOUTSTANDING FEATURE STORY IN A REGULARLY SCHEDULED NEWSCASTToday (NBC)Fighting GrossmansProducer: Amanda Marshall, David EmanueleCorrespondent: Bob DotsonOUTSTANDING INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM IN A REGULARLY SCHEDULED NEWSCASTCBS Evening News with Katie Couric (CBS)Rape in America: Justice DeniedAnchor and Managing Editor: Katie CouricExecutive Producer: Rick KaplanSenior Producer: Keith SummaProducer: Laura StricklerChief Investigative Correspondent: Armen KeteyianOUTSTANDING BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC REPORTING IN A REGULARY SCHEDULED NEWSCASTCBS Evening News with Katie Couric (CBS)Financial Family TreeAnchor and Managing Editor: Katie CouricExecutive Producer: Rick KaplanSenior Producer: Kim GodwinProducers: Brandon Baur, Marsha Cooke, Erin George, Chris WeicherCorrespondents: John Blackstone, Cynthia Bowers, Kelly Cobiella, Barry PetersonOUTSTANDING COVERAGE OF A BREAKING NEWS STORY IN A NEWS MAGAZINEDateline NBC (NBC)Miracle on the HudsonExecutive Producer: David CorvoExecutive Editor: Liz ColeManaging Editor: Aretha MarshallDirectors: John Libretto, Judith FarinetSenior Producers: Ellen Mason, Jim GeretySenior Producers: Liz Cole, Ellen MasonSupervising Producer: Joe DelmonicoAnchor: Ann CurryCorrespondents: Peter Greenberg, Chris Hansen, Hoda Kotb, Dennis MurphyProducers: Tim Beacham, John Block, Katherine Chan, Bradley Davis, Cameo George, Bob Gilmartin, Marianne Haggerty, Meade Jorgensen, Sarah Longden, Marianne O'Donnell, Robin Oelkers, Mary Ann Rotondi, Susan Simpson, Dan Slepian, Justin Smith, Jane EStone, Tim Uehlinger, Esther ZuckerField Producers: Falguni Lakhani, Alex Waterfield, Katie YuCoordinating Producer: Biju MathewOUTSTANDING CONTINUING COVERAGE OF A NEWS STORY IN A NEWS MAGAZINE60 Minutes (CBS)War in PakistanExecutive Producer: Jeff FagerExecutive Editor: Bill OwensProducer: Draggan MihailovichCorrespondent: Steve KroftOUTSTANDING FEATURE STORY IN A NEWS MAGAZINEHDNet World Report (HDNet)South Africa's Shame: Modern‑Day Slavery and the World CupExecutive Producer: Dennis O'BrienSenior Producer: Kathy GettingsProducer: Gareth HarveyCorrespondent: Paul BebanOUTSTANDING INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM IN A NEWS MAGAZINEFRONTLINE/World (PBS)Ghana: Digital Dumping GroundExecutive Producer: David FanningSenior Producers: Ken DornsteinSeries Executive Director: Sharon TillerProducer/Correspondent: Peter KleinProducer: Sarah CarterCo-Producers: Shira Bick, Ian Bickis, Krysia Collyer, Allison Cross, Heba Elasaad, Dan Haves, Doerthe Keilholz, Jodie Martinson, Dan McKinney, Blake Sifton, Leslie YoungOUTSTANDING BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC REPORTING IN A NEWS MAGAZINEDan Rather Reports (HDNet)Iran's Manhattan ProjectCorrespondent and Managing Editor: Dan RatherExecutive Producer: Wayne NelsonSenior Producer: Elliot KirschnerProducer: Andrew GlazerOUTSTANDING LIVE COVERAGE OF A CURRENT NEWS STORY &ndash; LONG FORMABC News Special Events (ABC)Inauguration 2009 ‑ Barack ObamaExecutive Producer: Marc BursteinExecutive Director: Roger GoodmanAnchors: Charles Gibson, Diane Sawyer, George StephanopoulosAnchor/Correspondents: Robin Roberts, Ron Claiborne, Chris Cuomo, Sam Donaldson, JohnDonvan, Dan Harris, Jonathan Karl, Cynthia McFadden, Terry Moran, David Muir, Martha Raddatz, Cokie Roberts, Deborah Roberts, Brian Ross, Claire Shipman, Kate Snow, Betsy Stark, Lisa Stark, Jake Tapper, Pierre Thomas, Barbara Walters, Bill Weir, Bob WoodruffSenior Producers: Bob Wheelock, Paula Cohen, Richard Sergay, Laiea Smith, Joan Preztunik, Bob Roy, Nancy Gabriner, Ricki Goldberg, Kathy O&rsquo;Hearn, Andrew MorseProducers: Annie Allen, Perita Carpenter, Teddy Davis, Jonathan Greenberger, Farnaz Haghighi, Sally Hawkins, Akilah Joseph, Lourdes Leahy, Mary Wojcik, Sunlen Miller, Eric Noll, Andrea Owen, Lana Zak, Margaret Aro, Katie Munley, Susan Archer, Ben NewmanRemote Location Producers: Stephanie Smith, Avery Miller, Dena Norland, Clayton Sandell, Quiana Burns, Matt Hosford, Kirit Radia, Drew Millhon, Courtney Chapman, Jon Garcia, Brett Hovell, Richard Coolidge, Tom Giusto, Lisa Chinn, Jen Duck, Susan Kriskey, Matt Jaffee, Jack Date, Bruno Roeber, Margaret Conley, Nick Schifrin, Ann Marie Dorning, George Pilla, Lee Alexander, Glen DacyOUTSTANDING CONTINUING COVERAGE OF A NEWS STORY &ndash; LONG FORMFRONTLINE (PBS)A Death in TehranExecutive Producer: David Fanning, Angus MacQueenSenior Producers: Raney Aronson‑Rath, Ken DornsteinProducer: Monica Garnsey, Arash SahamiOUTSTANDING INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM &ndash; LONG FORMFRONTLINE (PBS)The WarningProducer/Director: Michael KirkProducer/Reporter: Jim GilmoreProducer: Mike WiserExecutive Producer: David FanningSenior Producer: Raney Aronson‑RathOUTSTANDING INFORMATIONAL PROGRAMMING &ndash; LONG FORMHBO Documentary Films (HBO)Which Way HomeDirector/Producer: Rebecca CammisaField Producers: Nina Alvarez, Eric Goethals, Lorenzo Hagerman, Alejandra Liceaga, Stephany Slaughter, Gabriela Sosa, Sascha WeissExecutive Producers: Bristol Baughan, Lianne Halfon, Bette Cerf Hill, John Malkovich, Sheila Nevins, Russell Smith, Jack TurnerSupervising Producer: Sara BernsteinOUTSTANDING HISTORICAL PROGRAMMING &ndash; LONG FORMBill Moyers Journal (PBS)The Good SoldierFor Out of the Blue Productions, Inc.Producer/Directors: Lexy Lovell, Michael UysFor Bill Moyers JournalExecutive Producers: Judy Doctoroff O'Neill, Sally RoyExecutive Editors: Bill Moyers, Judith Davidson MoyersProducer: Jessica WangOUTSTANDING BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC REPORTING &ndash; LONG FORMInside the Mind of Google (CNBC)Correspondent: Maria BartiromoSenior Executive Producer: Mitch WeitznerSenior Producer: Wally GriffithProducer: Morgan DownsContributing Producer: Lulu ChiangOUTSTANDING INTERVIEW60 Minutes (CBS)Saving Flight 1549Executive Producer: Jeff FagerExecutive Editor: Bill OwensCorrespondent: Katie CouricSenior Producer: Michael RadutzkyProducers: Lori Beecher, Tanya SimonCo‑Producers: Jenny Dubin, Andrew MetzOUTSTANDING ARTS &amp; CULTURE PROGRAMMINGAnvil! The Story of Anvil (VH1)Executive Producer/Director: Sacha GervasiProducer: Rebecca YeldhamExecutive Producers: Brad Abramson, Rick Krim, Christopher Soos, Shelly TatroSupervising Producer: Warren CohenOUTSTANDING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY PROGRAMMINGPOV (PBS)The English SurgeonDirector/Producer: Geoffrey SmithCo‑Producer: Rachel WexlerExecutive Producers: Simon Kilmurry, , Sally Jo Fifer, Nick Fraser, Greg SandersonOUTSTANDING NATURE PROGRAMMINGThe Last Beekeeper (Planet Green)Director: Jeremy SimmonsProducers: Fenton Bailey, Randy BarbatoBEST STORY IN A REGULARLY SCHEDULED NEWSCASTCBS Evening News with Katie Couric (CBS)The Battle of WanatAnchor and Managing Editor: Katie CouricNational Security Correspondent: David MartinExecutive Producer: Rick KaplanSenior Producer: Ward SloaneProducer: Mary WalshBEST REPORT IN A NEWS MAGAZINE60 Minutes (CBS)The Winter of Our Hardship and The Long RecessionExecutive Producer: Jeff FagerExecutive Editor: Bill OwensCorrespondent: Scott PelleyProducers: Solly Granatstein, Nicole YoungCo-Producers: Tom Honeysett, Matthew RichmanBEST DOCUMENTARYWar Dance (Sundance Channel)Directors: Sean Fine, Andrea Nix FineExecutive Producer: Susan MacLauryProducer: Albie HechtCo‑Producers: Kari Kim, Josie SwantekNEW APPROACHES TO NEWS &amp; DOCUMENTARY PROGRAMMING: CURRENT NEWS COVERAGEBehind the Veil (Globeandmail.com)Reporter: Jessica LeederPhotojournalist: Paula LernerMultimedia Producer: Jayson TaylorInteractive Designer: Chris ManzaNEW APPROACHES TO NEWS &amp; DOCUMENTARY PROGRAMMING: DOCUMENTARIESOne in 8 Million (NYTimes.com)Executive Producers: Juliet Gorman, Jodi Rudoren, Andrew De VigalSeries Producers: Sarah Kramer, Alexis Mainland, Meagan Looram, Todd HeislerInteractive Producer: Tom JacksonContributing Producers: Joshua Brustein, Jeffery DelViscio, Nancy Donaldson, Catrin Einhorn, Rogene Fisher, J. David Goodman, Lisa Iaboni, Miki Meek, Conrad Mulcahy, Emily S. Rueb, Tanzina Vega, Emily WeinsteinNEW APPROACHES TO NEWS &amp; DOCUMENTARY PROGRAMMING: ARTS, LIFESTYLE &amp; CULTUREThe Iconic Photo Series (TIME.com)Producer/Editor: Craig DuffPhotographer: Anthony SuauPhoto Editor: Mark RykoffOUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN A CRAFT: WRITINGNBC News Special (NBC)Inside the Obama White HouseWriters: Doug Adams, Marisa Buchanan, Robert Buchanan, Matt Carluccio, Katherine Chan, Bradley Davis, Subrata De, Joe Delmonico, Andrew Franklin, Annette Freeman, David Gelles, Meade Jorgensen, Mark Lukasiewicz, Amna Nawaz, Benita Noel, Meaghan Rady, Rayner Ramirez, Mary Ann Rotondi, Tim Uehlinger, Brian WilliamsOUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN A CRAFT: RESEARCHReel Impact Series (Planet Green)Split EstateResearchers: Debra Anderson, Mitchell Marti, Matt VestOUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN A CRAFT: CINEMATOGRAPHY - NATUREWild Pacific (Discovery Channel)SurvivorsCinematographers: Rod Clarke, Wade Fairley, Richard WollocombeOUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN A CRAFT: CINEMATOGRAPHY - NEWS COVERAGE / DOCUMENTARIESWar Dance (Sundance Channel)Director of Photography: Sean FineOUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN A CRAFT: EDITINGNational Geographic's Most Incredible Photos (National Geographic Channel)         Afghan WarriorEditor: Jeremy SieferOUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN A CRAFT: EDITING&ndash;QUICK TURNAROUNDNBC News Special (NBC)Inside the Obama White HouseEditors: Rob Allen, Chad Bergacs, Deb Brown, Bruce Burger, Saverio Camporeale, Sam Casalino, Justin Cece, Linda Diehl, David Emanuele, Victor Fabilli, Anthony Innarelli, Paul Nichols, Richard Platt, William Ray, Bob Spencer, Alvaro Trenchi, Irene Trullinger, David VargaOUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN A CRAFT: GRAPHIC DESIGN &amp; ART DIRECTIONStealing Lincoln's Body (History Channel)Graphic Designer: Ray DowningOUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN A CRAFT: MUSIC &amp; SOUNDWWII in HD (History Channel)Point of No ReturnSound Design and Mix: Joel RaabeAdditional Sound Design: Allison Casey, Brian Scibinico, Frank TurbeOUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN A CRAFT: LIGHTING DIRECTION &amp; SCENIC DESIGNCIA Confidential: Pakistan Undercover (National Geographic Channel)                                              Lighting Directors: Boujemaa Rassourance, Peter Schnall, Doug ShultzOUTSTANDING PROMOTIONAL ANNOUNCEMENT: INSTITUTIONAL60 Minutes (CBS)60 Minutes in 60 SecondsSenior Vice President and Creative Director: Dave McCoyDirector, Advertising &amp; Marketing: Julie HaalandDirector of Operations: Nicole FiftalProducer/Editor: Rich O'ConnellProducers: Joanne Stern, Charles HowlandSound Designers: Eric Casimiro, Daniel MaierEditor: Wes CarltonGraphic Designer: Adam SaulOUTSTANDING PROMOTIONAL ANNOUNCEMENT: EPISODICDiane Sawyer 20/20 Special (ABC)A Hidden America: Children of the MountainsExecutive Producer: Alan IvesSenior Producer: Rene Hallal-GonenProducer: Kevin SmallsArt Director: Rodrigo RedondoSound Designer/Editor: Leslie Mona-MathusOUTSTANDING REGIONAL NEWS STORY &ndash; SPOT NEWSKPIX Eyewitness News (KPIX‑TV, San Francisco)Oakland RiotReporters: Joe Vazquez, Linda YeeProducer: Brian NealPhotographers: Patrick Sedillo, Robert Moonan, Chris Mistrot, Don FordAssignment Editor: Leona WongOUTSTANDING REGIONAL NEWS STORY &ndash; INVESTIGATIVE REPORTINGKHOU News at 10 p.m. (KHOU‑TV, Houston)Soldiers at Risk: The Iraq Water InvestigationInvestigative Reporter: Jeremy RogalskiExecutive Producer for Investigations: David RaziqInvestigative Photojournalist: Keith TomsheKSTP 5 Eyewitness News (KSTP‑TV, Minneapolis)Prisoners Ride the BusInvestigative Reporter: Bob McNaneyProducer: Mike MaybayAssistant News Director: Sam ZeffBREAKDOWN BY PROGRAMCBS (7)60 Minutes (4)60 Minutes in 60 Seconds ...&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;..................&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;... 1Saving Flight 1549 &hellip;..&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;..........................&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;..&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;.... 1War in Pakistan &hellip;.&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;..&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;......................&hellip;.......... 1The Winter of Our Hardship and the Long Recession &hellip;.&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;....&hellip;........... 1CBS Evening News With Katie Couric (3)The Battle of Wanat &hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;.&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;.&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;.&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;................ 1Financial Family Tree &hellip;&hellip;.&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;..&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;.&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;.&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;.............. 1Rape in America &hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;..&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;..............&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;................ 1NBC (6)NBC News Special (2)Inside the Obama White House &hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;..........&hellip;...............&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;... 2NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams (2)Miracle on the Hudson &hellip;&hellip;.&hellip;&hellip;..........&hellip;...............&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;............... 1Unlikely Refugees &hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;................&hellip;...............&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;............. 1Dateline NBC (1)Miracle on the Hudson &hellip;&hellip;.&hellip;&hellip;..........&hellip;...............&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;.............. 1Today (1)Fighting Grossmans &hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;.............&hellip;...............&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;............ 1PBS (5)FRONTLINE (2)A Death in Tehran &hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;.....................................................................&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;.. 1The Warning &hellip;.&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;.............................................................................&hellip;..&hellip;&hellip; 1Bill Moyers Journal (1)The Good Soldier &hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;..&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;....&hellip; 1FRONTLINE/World (1)Ghana: Digital Dumping Ground &hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;...........................................&hellip;&hellip;&hellip; 1P.O.V. (1)The English Surgeon .&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;...............................................&hellip;&hellip;1ABC (2)ABC News Special Events (1)Inauguration 2009: Barack Obama &hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;.&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;.&hellip; 1Diane Sawyer 20/20 Special (1)A Hidden America: Children of the Mountains &hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;.&hellip;.&hellip;&hellip;. 1HDNet (2)HDNet World Report (1)South Africa&rsquo;s Shame: Modern-Day Slavery and the World Cup &hellip;&hellip;&hellip;... 1Dan Rather Reports (1)Iran&rsquo;s Manhattan Project &hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;.&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;.&hellip;&hellip; 1History Channel (2)Stealing Lincoln&rsquo;s Body (1)WWII in HD (1)Point of No Return &hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip; 1National Geographic Channel (2)CIA Confidential: Pakistan Undercover(1)National Geographic&rsquo;s Most Incredible Photos (1)Afghan Warrior &hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;.&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;...&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;....&hellip; 1Planet Green (2)The Last Beekeeper (1)Reel Impact Series (1)Split Estate &hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;.&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;.. 1Sundance Channel (2)War Dance (2)CNBC (1)Inside the Mind of Google (1)Discovery Channel (1)Wild Pacific (1)Survivors &hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;..&hellip;&hellip;............................................. 1Globeandmail.com (1)Behind the Veil (1)HBO (1)HBO Documentary Films (1)Which Way Home &hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;..&hellip;&hellip;............................ 1NYTimes.com (1)One in 8 Million (1)TIME.com (1)The Iconic Photo Series (1)VH1 (1)Anvil! The Story of Anvil (1)REGIONAL REPORTINGKHOU-TV (Houston, TX) (1)KHOU News at 10pm (1)Soldiers at Risk: The Iraq Water Investigation &hellip;&hellip;.&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;... 1KPIX-TV (San Francisco, CA) (1)KPIX Eyewitness News (1)Oakland Riot &hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;..&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip; 1KSTP-TV (Minneapolis, MN) (1)KSTP 5 Eyewitness News (1)Prisoners Ride the Bus &hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;.... 1]]>
   </content>
</entry>

<entry>
   <title>Bill Abbott, President and CEO of the Hallmark Channels, Who Came Up on the Ad Side of the Business, On the Importance of Brand Strategy</title>
   <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.tvweek.com/news/2010/05/bill_abbott_president_and_ceo.php" />
   <id>tag:www.tvweek.com,2010:/news//1.41675</id>
   
   <published>2010-05-05T20:21:16Z</published>
   <updated>2010-05-05T21:14:01Z</updated>
   
   <summary><![CDATA[Clearly, over the past two decades, one of the smartest, yet unsung,&nbsp;ad sales executives in the TV business has been Bill Abbott, first at Fox Family and Fox Kids, and then at Hallmark. One of the hallmarks of his career, if you'll excuse the pun, has been his ability to mesh the brands he's been selling with the brands of his client in win-win situations that not not only make sense for those on both sides of the negotiating table, but for&nbsp;viewers and consumers as well.With Abbott's ascension to the top spot at Hallmark, as its President and CEO, TVWeek's Chuck Ross caught up with&nbsp;him to talk about brand stategy, particularly that of the Hallmark Channel, and its importance on the eve of the Upfront marketplace. An edited transcript follows.TVWEEK: Having covered the advertising and media and TV businesses for more than three decades, I&rsquo;ve always been struck that there are not more heads of networks who have come up on the ad sales side of the business. I was fairly close to Larry Divney, who came up from ad sales and eventually ran Comedy Central. Has the fact it doesn&rsquo;t happen more often struck you as well?BILL ABBOTT: You&rsquo;re right. It&rsquo;s odd to me why it doesn&rsquo;t happen more often. Ad sales provides such a great platform on how to learn the business. There&rsquo;s no business that ad sales really doesn&rsquo;t touch.TVWEEK: Absolutely.ABBOTT: You&rsquo;re intimately involved in the finances and economics. You&rsquo;re intimately involved in the ratings and the programming decisions that get made, and why certain things are scheduled and why they work. And certainly from a marketing point of view, there&rsquo;s no one better qualified to think about marketing than people who are out selling the product.So it&rsquo;s odd to me that more ad sales people aren&rsquo;t tapped to&nbsp;run networks.&nbsp;But then you look at history, and while there aren&rsquo;t that many&nbsp;out of ad sales, certainly some of the ones that have been the most successful in the business were out of ad sales. From Mark Lazarus, who used to be at Turner, to David Levy, who&rsquo;s there now, to Charlie Collier, who runs AMC, all remarkably successful in their own right.TVWEEK: Absolutely.ABBOTT: But that makes it all the more interesting why ad sales isn&rsquo;t a bigger breeding ground. I could not ask for a better area to have been trained within and have grown up within than ad sales and research, which is the better part of my background. The learning that you get from those areas is really critical to how you run the business.TVWEEK: Is running a network something in the back of your mind you&rsquo;d hope your career path would lead to at some point?ABBOTT: I think so. I think that I&rsquo;ve always felt like a research background certainly, along with the strategy and financial understanding of the business that ad sales provides, puts you in a position where you hope to gain more responsibility and take it to a new level. I&rsquo;ve been fortunate in that I&rsquo;ve been in management for a long part of my career, for almost 20 years.TVWEEK: How long exactly have you been at Hallmark now?ABBOTT: Just over 10 years, at this point, at Hallmark. I was at what was a combination of Family Channel, Fox Family and ABC Family over a 12-year period before being at Hallmark.TVWEEK: As you&rsquo;ve looked at how Hallmark has evolved, how did you decide where you wanted to take it and how are you going about taking it where you want it to go?ABBOTT: I think if you look at the channel we&rsquo;ve had remarkable success: a very highly-rated property that&rsquo;s grown distribution to be fully distributed over the years. We had a lot of product that was highly-rated, but wasn&rsquo;t necessarily tied as much to the brand as we would like.So, when I took over in May, we developed a new mission statement and vision around how we can celebrate life&rsquo;s special moments everyday, which we feel is very much is in line with what the essence of Hallmark really is.You look at the Hallmark television business and there&rsquo;s certainly their heritage and legacy and award-winning Hallmark Hall of Fame&mdash;the quality and the high ratings there, and that&rsquo;s a very important part of who we are that will ultimately be our Hallmark Movie Channel. It&rsquo;s in 35 million homes, on its way to 40 million pretty quickly here. It&rsquo;s becoming a strong service in its own right.And then we look at the Hallmark Channel, and we thought about what direction that might go. We came to the conclusion that, in terms of helping celebrate life&rsquo;s special moments everyday, we could really tap into that part of the Hallmark brand that up until now has not been reflected on TV.That would be holidays and events and cooking and decorating and different things people do everyday to celebrate life and that lifestyle category area. And so the direction we have gone in is really beginning to develop the channel towards more of that lifestyle celebration mood.TVWEEK: Can you tell me how that evolution led you to get Martha Stewart involved? I&rsquo;m assuming that as you were sitting there brainstorming about this lifestyle direction you wanted to move the channel towards that getting somehow involved with Stewart was high on your wish list.ABBOTT: We were fortunate that the stars were really aligned. If you sat for two weeks, you couldn&rsquo;t come up with a better name than Martha Stewart in terms of helping celebrate life&rsquo;s special moments everyday. She is the ultimate banner ad for that type of product.Fortunately, they also had been thinking about a little bit of a different business model in that syndication [which is the TV business Stewart was in] doesn&rsquo;t provide that consistent day and date opportunity that cable does. And as we developed our definition of who we wanted to be and we started having conversations with them, we started to make it a bigger proposition. And they started to see a bigger opportunity with Omnimedia and across the different talent that Martha has at Omnimedia and had really vested so well.So you begin to see that it&rsquo;s more than just &lsquo;The Martha Stewart Show&rsquo; and that you have the opportunity to develop a fully integrated lifestyle block on multiple platforms. And that lifestyle block speaks to the strengths of both Hallmark and Martha Stewart. That&rsquo;s really where the conversation went, actually very, very quickly once we got in the same room and we started to brainstorm about Martha.It wasn&rsquo;t &lsquo;Let&rsquo;s just take &lsquo;The Martha Stewart Show&rsquo; and move it from syndication to cable&rsquo; but, &lsquo;How can we make this a bigger, better partnership.&rsquo; And I give [Omnimedia Chairman] Charles Koppleman and Martha full credit for recognizing the opportunity and the value of what a 24/7 cable platform can do to help them develop their properties and products and how they can help us develop our channel.TVWEEK: Makes a lot of sense. As you look across the landscape, is something you pay attention to a lot the competition? Is it important to be real differentiated? Do you see Scripps as competition? Maybe the new Oprah channel with Discovery?ABBOTT: Certainly, Food Network and HGTV are the leaders in this category. They&rsquo;ve done a great job of branding themselves and really being consistent. That would be competition.Some of what Discovery has done would be competition. The Oprah channel is clearly undefined at this point, so it&rsquo;s really hard to view that as surely as competition.We can compete from day one with a personality and profile like Martha Stewart. We don&rsquo;t have to take a backseat to anyone in this lifestyle category. We feel that we will be competitive, if not better, quite frankly, right out of the gate than those channels who don&rsquo;t have a profile like Martha on their air. We still feel there&rsquo;s a lot of room in this area to navigate, and with our brand and our heritage and our ability to really represent so much of how people connect and people live day-to-day, we think we have a great opportunity to be highly, highly successful here.TVWEEK: Can you talk a little bit about how you&rsquo;d like to see advertising integrated in your vision?ABBOTT: There&rsquo;s no question as technology changes and changes the way viewers watch TV, we&rsquo;re all going to have to be a lot more responsive to the needs of advertisers. And I think you&rsquo;re seeing that on an evolutionary basis.I would say the death of the :30 has long since been overblown. But, the reality is we do need to be more responsive, we do need to look for unique ways in which we can embed an advertiser&rsquo;s message seamlessly into our product and into the development process. It&rsquo;ll make TV, I think, more valuable and certainly more appreciated. And it&rsquo;s creative, innovative ideas like that that we struggle with and work toward developing everyday.The lifestyle block is one that is particularly conducive to that type of activity. It&rsquo;s easier, I think, in lifestyle to place products seamlessly into the content. But certainly, we need to be true to our brand and we need to be carefully that we don&rsquo;t over do it and that we be sensitive to the value that we&rsquo;re creating for others when we do do it.TVWEEK: Can you talk a little bit about social media? That&rsquo;s obviously become a buzzword in the last year. Where you see Hallmark fitting with that phenomenon?ABBOTT: It&rsquo;s certainly real in terms of it being a phenomenon, but the real question is: What&rsquo;s the business model? We haven&rsquo;t certainly figured it out here, and that&rsquo;s one we&rsquo;re staying attuned to.Martha and Omnimedia have done a great job about being on the forefront of technology and having different applications around decorating and cooking and things that are really very, very relevant. As we develop our lifestyle area, we&rsquo;ll certainly play more in that space and whole digital arena as a rule. But, right now, it&rsquo;s not necessarily something we can point to as being a leader in.TVWEEK: Do you see the digital platforms as being more promotionally oriented and pointing viewers to the on-air products that you offer, or will they have a life of their own?ABBOTT: I see that as being a big change for us. That&rsquo;s one of the beauties as we move more towards this different side of the brand and are less focused and reliant on off-network acquisitions.When you&rsquo;re 100% reliant on scripted series that you acquire from a distributor, you have very little opportunity to play in the digital space. Here, we&rsquo;re going to have reasons to drive people to the Internet more than just information around what&rsquo;s on our air.We will have different opportunities to develop content that will speak to viewers&rsquo; interests in whatever we have on our network. And we&rsquo;ll make that a legitimate, vibrant business for us moving forward. It&rsquo;s something that we&rsquo;re thinking about everyday. It&rsquo;s something that we are very, very focused on.TVWEEK: As an independent channel, does it make sense in any way to do some sort of alliance?ABBOTT: We&rsquo;re open to forming relationships and partnerships, and you look at our partnership with Omnimedia, I would certainly put that in the alliance category, whether formal or informal.But, I think that the real issue there is that as our competitors get bigger and bigger and more complicated, ultimately some of what they have bought comes into question and they have to use their own leverage to leverage their own weaker sisters. You look at how big NBC is, and how big that whole organization will be with Comcast. There will be networks that they&rsquo;ll have to leverage to get favors in other cases. So there isn&rsquo;t an awful lot of room.You know, size cuts both ways. Too big, and you&rsquo;re in a position to have to protect your weaker properties. In a down market, being too big can be problematic, in that you&rsquo;ve got a lot of money to place on the agency side of the perspective, or you&rsquo;ve got a lot of different masters to satisfy.I&rsquo;m not so sure that that is necessarily, within the big companies, the way we want to go. With smaller organizations, certainly if we could develop some alliance that pullstogether some of those that aren&rsquo;t under big corporate umbrellas, that might be something smart to do. Overall, the big conglomerates probably are looking for alliances because they&rsquo;ve got an awful lot to leverage themselves. We wouldn&rsquo;t want to be part of anything where we would be the leveragee.TVWEEK: As we move closer toward the upfront, are there particular categories that you hope you&rsquo;ll do better in than you have in the past because of this new strategy?ABBOTT: We have already had an extremely high interest level from a number of categories, everything from automotives to financials to travel categories, that we have had a very difficult time playing in before.And there are many reasons for that. One is certainly the nature of the product is more geared toward potentially having different elements that could be incorporated within our actual content. And that our viewership will migrate much more towards a top 20 market, upper income level than we have been historically. So we are seeing a lot of activity from those clients that happen to target a more upscale adult 25-54 demographic than we have historically delivered. We are optimistic that we are going to have a robust upfront.TVWEEK: How important do you think measurement is going forward? How granular do we need to be?ABBOTT: It&rsquo;s critical. Speaking candidly, it&rsquo;s very frustrating to see so much fluctuation in the numbers and so much instability in the sample sizes where it&rsquo;s at.The question is what the right metric is. I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s second-by-second or anything that extreme. But, I do think there&rsquo;s got to be a better way given where technology is. And frankly to compete with the Internet, I think it&rsquo;s very important that television develop some type of system that is more scientific and is more reliable, quite frankly, that what we have.This is very, very important. We&rsquo;re lucky we have people who are as brilliant as Reno [Scanzoni at Group M and TVWeek&rsquo;s 2010 Media Buyer of the Year] in the process who are on it. I&rsquo;m sure everyday, when he sees the numbers, it drives him as crazy as it does the rest us in the business. To be competitive moving forward as a medium, television needs to step up and figure out ways to gain a better understanding of what actually is going on out there.TVWEEK: Anything you want to add?ABBOTT: I think at the end of the day, we are in a great position with not only our lifestyle content but with our original movies. We&rsquo;re producing 24 original movies in 2010 with two of those on our movie channel. It&rsquo;s a big commitment to the Hallmark Movie Channel, which became measured in the second quarter and that is a growing and vibrant and viable property. Our holiday effort will continue here moving forward. We had our highest rated holiday in our history recently, and our Countdown to Christmas and Countdown to Holidays have been remarkably successful. We have a lot going on here other than just that lifestyle, Martha Stewart area. That&rsquo;s all very, very exciting and we&rsquo;re all optimistic about our future. #]]></summary>
   <author>
      <name>Chuck Ross</name>
      
   </author>
   
      <category term="Advertising" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Broadcast" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Business" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Cable" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Digital" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Syndication" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
   <category term="16893" label="Abbott" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="2090" label="Ad Sales" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="410" label="advertising" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="16894" label="Branding" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="1049" label="Hallmark" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="16895" label="integration" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="9481" label="Martha Stewart" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="16896" label="re-branding" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   
   <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.tvweek.com/news/">
      <![CDATA[Clearly, over the past two decades, one of the smartest, yet unsung,&nbsp;ad sales executives in the TV business has been Bill Abbott, first at Fox Family and Fox Kids, and then at Hallmark. One of the hallmarks of his career, if you'll excuse the pun, has been his ability to mesh the brands he's been selling with the brands of his client in win-win situations that not not only make sense for those on both sides of the negotiating table, but for&nbsp;viewers and consumers as well.With Abbott's ascension to the top spot at Hallmark, as its President and CEO, TVWeek's Chuck Ross caught up with&nbsp;him to talk about brand stategy, particularly that of the Hallmark Channel, and its importance on the eve of the Upfront marketplace. An edited transcript follows.TVWEEK: Having covered the advertising and media and TV businesses for more than three decades, I&rsquo;ve always been struck that there are not more heads of networks who have come up on the ad sales side of the business. I was fairly close to Larry Divney, who came up from ad sales and eventually ran Comedy Central. Has the fact it doesn&rsquo;t happen more often struck you as well?BILL ABBOTT: You&rsquo;re right. It&rsquo;s odd to me why it doesn&rsquo;t happen more often. Ad sales provides such a great platform on how to learn the business. There&rsquo;s no business that ad sales really doesn&rsquo;t touch.TVWEEK: Absolutely.ABBOTT: You&rsquo;re intimately involved in the finances and economics. You&rsquo;re intimately involved in the ratings and the programming decisions that get made, and why certain things are scheduled and why they work. And certainly from a marketing point of view, there&rsquo;s no one better qualified to think about marketing than people who are out selling the product.So it&rsquo;s odd to me that more ad sales people aren&rsquo;t tapped to&nbsp;run networks.&nbsp;But then you look at history, and while there aren&rsquo;t that many&nbsp;out of ad sales, certainly some of the ones that have been the most successful in the business were out of ad sales. From Mark Lazarus, who used to be at Turner, to David Levy, who&rsquo;s there now, to Charlie Collier, who runs AMC, all remarkably successful in their own right.TVWEEK: Absolutely.ABBOTT: But that makes it all the more interesting why ad sales isn&rsquo;t a bigger breeding ground. I could not ask for a better area to have been trained within and have grown up within than ad sales and research, which is the better part of my background. The learning that you get from those areas is really critical to how you run the business.TVWEEK: Is running a network something in the back of your mind you&rsquo;d hope your career path would lead to at some point?ABBOTT: I think so. I think that I&rsquo;ve always felt like a research background certainly, along with the strategy and financial understanding of the business that ad sales provides, puts you in a position where you hope to gain more responsibility and take it to a new level. I&rsquo;ve been fortunate in that I&rsquo;ve been in management for a long part of my career, for almost 20 years.TVWEEK: How long exactly have you been at Hallmark now?ABBOTT: Just over 10 years, at this point, at Hallmark. I was at what was a combination of Family Channel, Fox Family and ABC Family over a 12-year period before being at Hallmark.TVWEEK: As you&rsquo;ve looked at how Hallmark has evolved, how did you decide where you wanted to take it and how are you going about taking it where you want it to go?ABBOTT: I think if you look at the channel we&rsquo;ve had remarkable success: a very highly-rated property that&rsquo;s grown distribution to be fully distributed over the years. We had a lot of product that was highly-rated, but wasn&rsquo;t necessarily tied as much to the brand as we would like.So, when I took over in May, we developed a new mission statement and vision around how we can celebrate life&rsquo;s special moments everyday, which we feel is very much is in line with what the essence of Hallmark really is.You look at the Hallmark television business and there&rsquo;s certainly their heritage and legacy and award-winning Hallmark Hall of Fame&mdash;the quality and the high ratings there, and that&rsquo;s a very important part of who we are that will ultimately be our Hallmark Movie Channel. It&rsquo;s in 35 million homes, on its way to 40 million pretty quickly here. It&rsquo;s becoming a strong service in its own right.And then we look at the Hallmark Channel, and we thought about what direction that might go. We came to the conclusion that, in terms of helping celebrate life&rsquo;s special moments everyday, we could really tap into that part of the Hallmark brand that up until now has not been reflected on TV.That would be holidays and events and cooking and decorating and different things people do everyday to celebrate life and that lifestyle category area. And so the direction we have gone in is really beginning to develop the channel towards more of that lifestyle celebration mood.TVWEEK: Can you tell me how that evolution led you to get Martha Stewart involved? I&rsquo;m assuming that as you were sitting there brainstorming about this lifestyle direction you wanted to move the channel towards that getting somehow involved with Stewart was high on your wish list.ABBOTT: We were fortunate that the stars were really aligned. If you sat for two weeks, you couldn&rsquo;t come up with a better name than Martha Stewart in terms of helping celebrate life&rsquo;s special moments everyday. She is the ultimate banner ad for that type of product.Fortunately, they also had been thinking about a little bit of a different business model in that syndication [which is the TV business Stewart was in] doesn&rsquo;t provide that consistent day and date opportunity that cable does. And as we developed our definition of who we wanted to be and we started having conversations with them, we started to make it a bigger proposition. And they started to see a bigger opportunity with Omnimedia and across the different talent that Martha has at Omnimedia and had really vested so well.So you begin to see that it&rsquo;s more than just &lsquo;The Martha Stewart Show&rsquo; and that you have the opportunity to develop a fully integrated lifestyle block on multiple platforms. And that lifestyle block speaks to the strengths of both Hallmark and Martha Stewart. That&rsquo;s really where the conversation went, actually very, very quickly once we got in the same room and we started to brainstorm about Martha.It wasn&rsquo;t &lsquo;Let&rsquo;s just take &lsquo;The Martha Stewart Show&rsquo; and move it from syndication to cable&rsquo; but, &lsquo;How can we make this a bigger, better partnership.&rsquo; And I give [Omnimedia Chairman] Charles Koppleman and Martha full credit for recognizing the opportunity and the value of what a 24/7 cable platform can do to help them develop their properties and products and how they can help us develop our channel.TVWEEK: Makes a lot of sense. As you look across the landscape, is something you pay attention to a lot the competition? Is it important to be real differentiated? Do you see Scripps as competition? Maybe the new Oprah channel with Discovery?ABBOTT: Certainly, Food Network and HGTV are the leaders in this category. They&rsquo;ve done a great job of branding themselves and really being consistent. That would be competition.Some of what Discovery has done would be competition. The Oprah channel is clearly undefined at this point, so it&rsquo;s really hard to view that as surely as competition.We can compete from day one with a personality and profile like Martha Stewart. We don&rsquo;t have to take a backseat to anyone in this lifestyle category. We feel that we will be competitive, if not better, quite frankly, right out of the gate than those channels who don&rsquo;t have a profile like Martha on their air. We still feel there&rsquo;s a lot of room in this area to navigate, and with our brand and our heritage and our ability to really represent so much of how people connect and people live day-to-day, we think we have a great opportunity to be highly, highly successful here.TVWEEK: Can you talk a little bit about how you&rsquo;d like to see advertising integrated in your vision?ABBOTT: There&rsquo;s no question as technology changes and changes the way viewers watch TV, we&rsquo;re all going to have to be a lot more responsive to the needs of advertisers. And I think you&rsquo;re seeing that on an evolutionary basis.I would say the death of the :30 has long since been overblown. But, the reality is we do need to be more responsive, we do need to look for unique ways in which we can embed an advertiser&rsquo;s message seamlessly into our product and into the development process. It&rsquo;ll make TV, I think, more valuable and certainly more appreciated. And it&rsquo;s creative, innovative ideas like that that we struggle with and work toward developing everyday.The lifestyle block is one that is particularly conducive to that type of activity. It&rsquo;s easier, I think, in lifestyle to place products seamlessly into the content. But certainly, we need to be true to our brand and we need to be carefully that we don&rsquo;t over do it and that we be sensitive to the value that we&rsquo;re creating for others when we do do it.TVWEEK: Can you talk a little bit about social media? That&rsquo;s obviously become a buzzword in the last year. Where you see Hallmark fitting with that phenomenon?ABBOTT: It&rsquo;s certainly real in terms of it being a phenomenon, but the real question is: What&rsquo;s the business model? We haven&rsquo;t certainly figured it out here, and that&rsquo;s one we&rsquo;re staying attuned to.Martha and Omnimedia have done a great job about being on the forefront of technology and having different applications around decorating and cooking and things that are really very, very relevant. As we develop our lifestyle area, we&rsquo;ll certainly play more in that space and whole digital arena as a rule. But, right now, it&rsquo;s not necessarily something we can point to as being a leader in.TVWEEK: Do you see the digital platforms as being more promotionally oriented and pointing viewers to the on-air products that you offer, or will they have a life of their own?ABBOTT: I see that as being a big change for us. That&rsquo;s one of the beauties as we move more towards this different side of the brand and are less focused and reliant on off-network acquisitions.When you&rsquo;re 100% reliant on scripted series that you acquire from a distributor, you have very little opportunity to play in the digital space. Here, we&rsquo;re going to have reasons to drive people to the Internet more than just information around what&rsquo;s on our air.We will have different opportunities to develop content that will speak to viewers&rsquo; interests in whatever we have on our network. And we&rsquo;ll make that a legitimate, vibrant business for us moving forward. It&rsquo;s something that we&rsquo;re thinking about everyday. It&rsquo;s something that we are very, very focused on.TVWEEK: As an independent channel, does it make sense in any way to do some sort of alliance?ABBOTT: We&rsquo;re open to forming relationships and partnerships, and you look at our partnership with Omnimedia, I would certainly put that in the alliance category, whether formal or informal.But, I think that the real issue there is that as our competitors get bigger and bigger and more complicated, ultimately some of what they have bought comes into question and they have to use their own leverage to leverage their own weaker sisters. You look at how big NBC is, and how big that whole organization will be with Comcast. There will be networks that they&rsquo;ll have to leverage to get favors in other cases. So there isn&rsquo;t an awful lot of room.You know, size cuts both ways. Too big, and you&rsquo;re in a position to have to protect your weaker properties. In a down market, being too big can be problematic, in that you&rsquo;ve got a lot of money to place on the agency side of the perspective, or you&rsquo;ve got a lot of different masters to satisfy.I&rsquo;m not so sure that that is necessarily, within the big companies, the way we want to go. With smaller organizations, certainly if we could develop some alliance that pullstogether some of those that aren&rsquo;t under big corporate umbrellas, that might be something smart to do. Overall, the big conglomerates probably are looking for alliances because they&rsquo;ve got an awful lot to leverage themselves. We wouldn&rsquo;t want to be part of anything where we would be the leveragee.TVWEEK: As we move closer toward the upfront, are there particular categories that you hope you&rsquo;ll do better in than you have in the past because of this new strategy?ABBOTT: We have already had an extremely high interest level from a number of categories, everything from automotives to financials to travel categories, that we have had a very difficult time playing in before.And there are many reasons for that. One is certainly the nature of the product is more geared toward potentially having different elements that could be incorporated within our actual content. And that our viewership will migrate much more towards a top 20 market, upper income level than we have been historically. So we are seeing a lot of activity from those clients that happen to target a more upscale adult 25-54 demographic than we have historically delivered. We are optimistic that we are going to have a robust upfront.TVWEEK: How important do you think measurement is going forward? How granular do we need to be?ABBOTT: It&rsquo;s critical. Speaking candidly, it&rsquo;s very frustrating to see so much fluctuation in the numbers and so much instability in the sample sizes where it&rsquo;s at.The question is what the right metric is. I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s second-by-second or anything that extreme. But, I do think there&rsquo;s got to be a better way given where technology is. And frankly to compete with the Internet, I think it&rsquo;s very important that television develop some type of system that is more scientific and is more reliable, quite frankly, that what we have.This is very, very important. We&rsquo;re lucky we have people who are as brilliant as Reno [Scanzoni at Group M and TVWeek&rsquo;s 2010 Media Buyer of the Year] in the process who are on it. I&rsquo;m sure everyday, when he sees the numbers, it drives him as crazy as it does the rest us in the business. To be competitive moving forward as a medium, television needs to step up and figure out ways to gain a better understanding of what actually is going on out there.TVWEEK: Anything you want to add?ABBOTT: I think at the end of the day, we are in a great position with not only our lifestyle content but with our original movies. We&rsquo;re producing 24 original movies in 2010 with two of those on our movie channel. It&rsquo;s a big commitment to the Hallmark Movie Channel, which became measured in the second quarter and that is a growing and vibrant and viable property. Our holiday effort will continue here moving forward. We had our highest rated holiday in our history recently, and our Countdown to Christmas and Countdown to Holidays have been remarkably successful. We have a lot going on here other than just that lifestyle, Martha Stewart area. That&rsquo;s all very, very exciting and we&rsquo;re all optimistic about our future. #]]>
   </content>
</entry>

<entry>
   <title>'Dr. Phil,' 'The Doctors':  Long-Distance Operators</title>
   <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.tvweek.com/news/2010/04/dr_phil_the_doctors_long-dista.php" />
   <id>tag:www.tvweek.com,2010:/news//1.41382</id>
   
   <published>2010-04-19T21:17:39Z</published>
   <updated>2010-04-19T21:34:23Z</updated>
   
   <summary><![CDATA[By Hillary AtkinIt&rsquo;s every television producer&rsquo;s headache waiting to happen: The audio or video going down right in the middle of a remote guest interview &mdash; or at any time.It was a scenario that occurred all too often on the syndicated &ldquo;Dr. Phil&rdquo; show, which gets much of its substance from Dr. Phil McGraw interviewing guests either on set or from remote locations, and on its spinoff program, &ldquo;The Doctors.&rdquo;Those fears of unreliable video connections dissipated recently when the shows instituted some new technology that has made remote interviews from far-flung locations virtually foolproof. They are now utilizing a standards-based visual communication infrastructure from Polycom, a Silicon Valley-headquartered company known for its telephone and video conferencing capabilities, that has provided the programs with dependable, high-definition video.In the process, not only are more such interviews being used, but the show is saving a bundle on travel costs by not having to transport guests to its studios on the Paramount lot in Hollywood.Production executives and engineers went down a long, frustrating road toward a workable solution, suffering through weak connections from remote locations over which they had no control.&ldquo;We used webcams, and sent cameras to people, but the quality of video was terrible,&rdquo; said Rich de Michelle, executive in charge of production for &ldquo;Dr. Phil&rdquo; and &ldquo;The Doctors.&rdquo; &ldquo;We went from there to OoVoo and they tried to make it work with every bell and whistle, but just couldn&rsquo;t. We tried Skype, because we&rsquo;d seen it on other shows, and thought it looked good and we could maybe make it work &mdash; it just didn&rsquo;t. The video and audio were not in sync. There were dropouts and hiss, and it was not a workable solution.&rdquo;Polycom sent reps to the Paramount lot to see what was needed for the productions, which was a more robust setup. Each show is now equipped with its own Polycom HDX 8000 and 9000 telepresence system, with an RMX 1000 conference platform and the company&rsquo;s converged management application to manage calls between both shows in a shared control room.&ldquo;Our goal was to talk to Betty in Idaho instead of flying her here,&rdquo; said de Michelle. &ldquo;If Dr. Phil wanted to have her on camera, the only other alternative was to send a satellite truck to her. That requires a two-way feed, which typically costs about $8,000 to $15,000 to set up. Or let&rsquo;s say Betty can&rsquo;t leave Idaho and we need to talk to her because her story is very important. We always want to have a two-way, and we used to do just a phoner with a still. But in today&rsquo;s world where everybody is used to webcasting, it looked old and dated, and we wanted to be more current and cutting-edge.&rdquo;In order to ensure a good quality connection at all times, there is a T3 line set up outside of the internal IT network at Paramount. At first, producers arranged for remote guests to be interviewed from Polycom offices throughout North America, located in cities including Atlanta, Boston and New York.Now, the guests are sent laptops preloaded with a webcam and software, with the equipment return facilitated. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s so simple that anybody, even your distant great aunt, could set it up,&rdquo; said de Michelle. &ldquo;You see yourself there. You can tell how you look, and if you need more makeup, or different lighting. We guide them from this end, with an engineer from the control booth, helping them position it so it works.&rdquo;The new system &mdash; only about 6 months old &mdash; is an application that lets anyone in the world connect. &ldquo;We had the ability to do this before with software, but not for anyone on the outside of your firewall to connect to inside the organization,&rdquo; said Bob Knauf, senior product marketing manager at Polycom. &ldquo;Every major organization has firewalls. We have hardware and software to securely traverse them, and then cancel the access as soon as the shot is over. The &lsquo;Dr. Phil&rsquo; show is one of the first implementations of this total solution.&rdquo;Another benefit is the system gives the guest and host true two-way communication. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s much more natural and open to have discussions when you can see the other person face to face, versus just hearing them in your ear,&rdquo; said Knauf. &ldquo;With Polycom, you have full-frame rate video, and audio is the most important part of any video call. Unless everyone is reading lips, you&rsquo;re not going to have a successful call.&rdquo;De Michelle estimated that his shows have used the system at least 250 times since October 2009, and the cost savings for both shows has amounted to more than $200,000. &ldquo;But more than savings, it gives us flexibility to do shows that are much broader in scope,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;This has been a tremendous success for us. Without it, we&rsquo;d still be stumbling along looking for a solution to solve our problems.&rdquo;]]></summary>
   <author>
      <name>Tom Gilbert</name>
      <uri>http://www.tvweek.com/</uri>
   </author>
   
      <category term="Syndication" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
   
   <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.tvweek.com/news/">
      <![CDATA[By Hillary AtkinIt&rsquo;s every television producer&rsquo;s headache waiting to happen: The audio or video going down right in the middle of a remote guest interview &mdash; or at any time.It was a scenario that occurred all too often on the syndicated &ldquo;Dr. Phil&rdquo; show, which gets much of its substance from Dr. Phil McGraw interviewing guests either on set or from remote locations, and on its spinoff program, &ldquo;The Doctors.&rdquo;Those fears of unreliable video connections dissipated recently when the shows instituted some new technology that has made remote interviews from far-flung locations virtually foolproof. They are now utilizing a standards-based visual communication infrastructure from Polycom, a Silicon Valley-headquartered company known for its telephone and video conferencing capabilities, that has provided the programs with dependable, high-definition video.In the process, not only are more such interviews being used, but the show is saving a bundle on travel costs by not having to transport guests to its studios on the Paramount lot in Hollywood.Production executives and engineers went down a long, frustrating road toward a workable solution, suffering through weak connections from remote locations over which they had no control.&ldquo;We used webcams, and sent cameras to people, but the quality of video was terrible,&rdquo; said Rich de Michelle, executive in charge of production for &ldquo;Dr. Phil&rdquo; and &ldquo;The Doctors.&rdquo; &ldquo;We went from there to OoVoo and they tried to make it work with every bell and whistle, but just couldn&rsquo;t. We tried Skype, because we&rsquo;d seen it on other shows, and thought it looked good and we could maybe make it work &mdash; it just didn&rsquo;t. The video and audio were not in sync. There were dropouts and hiss, and it was not a workable solution.&rdquo;Polycom sent reps to the Paramount lot to see what was needed for the productions, which was a more robust setup. Each show is now equipped with its own Polycom HDX 8000 and 9000 telepresence system, with an RMX 1000 conference platform and the company&rsquo;s converged management application to manage calls between both shows in a shared control room.&ldquo;Our goal was to talk to Betty in Idaho instead of flying her here,&rdquo; said de Michelle. &ldquo;If Dr. Phil wanted to have her on camera, the only other alternative was to send a satellite truck to her. That requires a two-way feed, which typically costs about $8,000 to $15,000 to set up. Or let&rsquo;s say Betty can&rsquo;t leave Idaho and we need to talk to her because her story is very important. We always want to have a two-way, and we used to do just a phoner with a still. But in today&rsquo;s world where everybody is used to webcasting, it looked old and dated, and we wanted to be more current and cutting-edge.&rdquo;In order to ensure a good quality connection at all times, there is a T3 line set up outside of the internal IT network at Paramount. At first, producers arranged for remote guests to be interviewed from Polycom offices throughout North America, located in cities including Atlanta, Boston and New York.Now, the guests are sent laptops preloaded with a webcam and software, with the equipment return facilitated. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s so simple that anybody, even your distant great aunt, could set it up,&rdquo; said de Michelle. &ldquo;You see yourself there. You can tell how you look, and if you need more makeup, or different lighting. We guide them from this end, with an engineer from the control booth, helping them position it so it works.&rdquo;The new system &mdash; only about 6 months old &mdash; is an application that lets anyone in the world connect. &ldquo;We had the ability to do this before with software, but not for anyone on the outside of your firewall to connect to inside the organization,&rdquo; said Bob Knauf, senior product marketing manager at Polycom. &ldquo;Every major organization has firewalls. We have hardware and software to securely traverse them, and then cancel the access as soon as the shot is over. The &lsquo;Dr. Phil&rsquo; show is one of the first implementations of this total solution.&rdquo;Another benefit is the system gives the guest and host true two-way communication. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s much more natural and open to have discussions when you can see the other person face to face, versus just hearing them in your ear,&rdquo; said Knauf. &ldquo;With Polycom, you have full-frame rate video, and audio is the most important part of any video call. Unless everyone is reading lips, you&rsquo;re not going to have a successful call.&rdquo;De Michelle estimated that his shows have used the system at least 250 times since October 2009, and the cost savings for both shows has amounted to more than $200,000. &ldquo;But more than savings, it gives us flexibility to do shows that are much broader in scope,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;This has been a tremendous success for us. Without it, we&rsquo;d still be stumbling along looking for a solution to solve our problems.&rdquo;]]>
   </content>
</entry>

<entry>
   <title>The 10 Most Powerful in TV News</title>
   <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.tvweek.com/news/2010/04/the_10_most_powerful_in_tv_new.php" />
   <id>tag:www.tvweek.com,2010:/news//1.41243</id>
   
   <published>2010-04-11T22:35:22Z</published>
   <updated>2010-04-12T15:07:07Z</updated>
   
   <summary><![CDATA[By Elizabeth Jensen It&rsquo;s time again to name NewsPro&rsquo;s 10 Most Powerful in TV News. This year there&rsquo;s an unseen puppeteer pulling the strings behind the scenes. Call him (or her) Moneybags. Or Wall-E Street. Or Quarterly Profit Mistress. By any name, the economy rightfully belongs at the top of the list as the most powerful force that has been reshaping the TV news business in the past year.Two of the Big 3 network news divisions have announced large layoffs in recent weeks, as corporate masters try to keep the profit margins up. The third is expected to soon find itself with a new owner, as a result of the Wall Street-driven push to media consolidation.Local newscasts have disappeared in some cases; in others, stations are adding newscasts but not personnel, and everyone is working longer hours for less pay, with fewer resources. Local television ad revenue fell 22 percent in 2009, triple the decline of the year before, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism.Local late news ratings also dropped, as did local stations&rsquo; early evening news and morning news ratings. Collectively, the network newscasts also continued to decline &mdash; down 2.5 percent in 2009 for the Big 3, PEJ reports, to an average 22.3 million viewers each night. Ditto for the network morning shows, down 2.4 percent to an average 12.8 million people.Both numbers dwarf cable news&rsquo; collective numbers, but the trend is in cable&rsquo;s favor. PEJ reports that median prime-time viewership for the three main cable news channels grew 7 percent in 2009 to 3.88 million, and daytime rose 16 percent, to 2.16 million. Add in the growth in online news usage, and it&rsquo;s clear where this business is headed.1. Roger Ailes, chairman and CEO, Fox News, and chairman of the Fox Television Stations GroupLast year, there were plenty of pundits willing to speculate that Fox News was going to have a hard time thriving in a world where Barack Obama was president and a new spirit of bipartisanship had arrived. But that feel-good moment was fleeting as partisanship is more intense than ever. And Fox? It just had a record year.The network ended 2009 with an average 2.2 million total viewers in prime time, up 7 percent year-to-year, and a total day average of 1.2 million, up 13 percent, which was the most total viewers in its 13 years on the air. Results were equally strong in the key demographics, which was good news for parent News Corp. Analysts estimate that the unit will bring in $700 million in operating profit this fiscal year, according to The New York Times.While opinion shows such as &ldquo;The O&rsquo;Reilly Factor,&rdquo; &ldquo;Hannity&rdquo; and &ldquo;Glenn Beck&rdquo; certainly topped the ratings, the network&rsquo;s straight news shows also performed, as Bret Baier settled into Brit Hume&rsquo;s old slot, and Shepard Smith kept chugging along.Meanwhile, Ailes and his team also seem to be making progress with the thorny Fox Business Network. The arrival of John Stossel from ABC&rsquo;s &ldquo;20/20&rdquo; is drawing viewers on Thursday nights. And there has been a string of big-name (for the business news world) hires, including CNBC&rsquo;s Charlie Gasparino and Gerri Willis, formerly CNN&rsquo;s personal finance editor. None of them likely came cheap, but the moves may help finally put the network on the ratings map.2. Steve Capus, president, NBC News Phil Griffin, president, MSNBCMark Hoffman, president, CNBCNBC News continues to roll along, its &ldquo;Today&rdquo; show and &ldquo;NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams&rdquo; easily maintaining first place in their respective time periods. At a time when the collective network evening newscasts continue to lose ground, &ldquo;Nightly News&rdquo; was the only one of the Big 3 to add viewers in 2009. Likewise, CNBC has remained steady.MSNBC, meanwhile, moved into second place in 2009. That wasn&rsquo;t because of its own gains &mdash; the prime-time lineup actually dropped 3 percent year-to-year in its key 25-54 demographic with an average viewership half that of Fox News &mdash; but because CNN dropped more. And the strength at the network is concentrated almost entirely in prime time. Its daytime lineup went through yet another shakeup at the beginning of year, away from opinion and back to straight news. Still, the network has NBC News as the financial cushion that ABC and CBS don&rsquo;t have.There are other chinks in the armor, including &ldquo;Meet the Press,&rdquo; which appears vulnerable under David Gregory after years of dominance with the late Tim Russert at the helm. And a major unknown remains just a regulatory-approval away, when Comcast gets the go-ahead from Washington to close on its deal to take control of NBC Universal.So the power at NBC News this year may lie with Comcast COO Steve Burke. Then again, with NBC&rsquo;s serious prime-time woes and a money-losing Winter Olympics behind it, NBC News &mdash; which had its major cutbacks two years ago unlike ABC and CBS &mdash; is one of the few areas of the company that he doesn&rsquo;t need to worry about for the moment.3. Jim Walton, president, CNN WorldwideJon Klein, president, CNN/U.S.Ken Jautz, executive vice president, CNN Worldwide, responsible for HLN CNN actually had more viewers in 2009 than in 2006 or 2007 (although not the election year of 2008). Sister network HLN&rsquo;s prime-time ratings jumped 9 percent for the year to its best numbers ever. The company&rsquo;s profits grew by double digits, to the highest level in its history, even as it added employees and made significant investments &mdash; in programming for CNNInternational and HLN, a redesigned CNN.com, a popular iPhone app, and on the main domestic network with the launch of Sunday&rsquo;s &ldquo;State of the Union.&rdquo; The investment has continued this year, with John King taking over the 7 p.m. slot kicking off prime time. CNN by far tops MSNBC and Fox News in digital usage.So why does it feel as though the place is falling apart? Perhaps because one of those major investments was for a new daily CNNInternational show for the brand&rsquo;s best-known worldwide on-air personality, Christiane Amanpour, who less than a year into her new show is bolting for ABC News&rsquo; &ldquo;This Week.&rdquo; Or because even in the first quarter, when Anderson Cooper, one of its highest profile stars, turned in what is sure to be award-winning work from the scene of the Haitian earthquake, his 10 p.m. show dropped 42 percent in viewers year to year, and often finished behind MSNBC repeats. CNN in 2009 finished in third place in the prime-time ratings. In the 25-54 demographic, it was down 9 percent from 2008. That leaves a lot riding on John King&rsquo;s new 7 p.m. show.4. Sean McManus, president, CBS News and CBS Sports CBS Sports pulled in the largest audience in television history with its Super Bowl XLIV coverage, its 106.5 million viewers dethroning the 1983 final episode of &ldquo;M*A*S*H.&rdquo; That accomplishment didn&rsquo;t distract McManus from keeping a firm hand on CBS News, however. The division continued to have another stable year; although its gains were few, it didn&rsquo;t lose much ground, either.&ldquo;CBS Evening News&rdquo; remains in third place, as does &ldquo;The Early Show.&rdquo; But &ldquo;60 Minutes&rdquo; remains the highest-ranking news broadcast; &ldquo;CBS Sunday Morning&rdquo; has been in first place for 63 consecutive weeks; and &ldquo;48 Hours&rdquo; is a very reliable contributor of revenue to the bottom line.There have only been a couple rounds of the once-regular rumors that &ldquo;Evening News&rdquo; anchor Katie Couric was ready to bolt when her contract expires next year. Layoffs of about 100 in the winter were dwarfed by those of ABC.Also on Sunday mornings, McManus&rsquo; success a few years back in convincing Bob Schieffer not to retire has paid off. &ldquo;Face the Nation&rdquo; on Sundays has moved solidly into second place in viewers and at times challenges or beats NBC&rsquo;s &ldquo;Meet the Press&rdquo; in key demographics.Outsiders are taking note, as well. CBS News was the only one of the three broadcast networks to take home a duPont Award this year, and in fact it took home two. One was for the already much-honored Couric interview of Sarah Palin. The other was for a pet project of McManus, the divisionwide &ldquo;Children of the Recession,&rdquo; which revived the prestigious &ldquo;CBS Reports&rdquo; mantle to examine the impact of the economic crisis on children.5. Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central&rsquo;s &ldquo;The Daily Show&rdquo;The real news/faux news divide keeps getting narrower as the years go on, and Jon Stewart continues to be the bridge-builder at &ldquo;The Daily Show.&rdquo; On every news story of significance, Stewart is right there with a video compilation or wry commentary, puncturing balloons. His decision in February to engage with his sometimes nemesis Bill O&rsquo;Reilly on the latter&rsquo;s Fox News Channel show was one of his occasional seemingly calculated ventures into the real-world realm. He&rsquo;s done it in the past &mdash; his 2004 appearance on CNN&rsquo;s &ldquo;Crossfire&rdquo; in which he attacked the hosts as &ldquo;partisan hacks&rdquo; comes to mind &mdash; but this foray felt different. O&rsquo;Reilly was on &ldquo;The Daily Show&rdquo; following President Obama&rsquo;s election, but Stewart last appeared on &ldquo;The O&rsquo;Reilly Factor&rdquo; in 2004. This two-parter &mdash; with an unedited version of the entire exchange posted on the Web &mdash; felt like a meeting of equals.Stewart&rsquo;s appeal to a younger audience means he finds much of his audience not on TV but on the Internet the next morning. Will the absence of &ldquo;The Daily Show&rdquo; from Hulu hurt it, following Viacom&rsquo;s decision to pull its programs from the platform? More likely it will be the other way around. Stewart&rsquo;s influence in the news universe seems only on the upswing.6. David Westin, president, ABC NewsWestin has done a yeoman&rsquo;s job trying to spin the recent massive cutbacks in his division &mdash; some 300 to 400 of the staff of 1,500 &mdash; into a bold voluntary move to a brighter digital future. Will there be a payoff down the road? We won&rsquo;t know for some time and he could very well be right. But for the near future, it&rsquo;s hard not to be unsettled by the sheer size of the cuts and the near certain shaking-out period to come, as the remaining staff attempts to recalibrate their working routines to reflect the absence of what could be nearly 25 percent of their colleagues.It&rsquo;s been a year of transition for ABC News, and not all of it successful. Diane Sawyer has settled in to &ldquo;World News Tonight&rdquo; after the retirement of Charlie Gibson, and Westin was able to persuade a reluctant George Stephanopoulos to take her &ldquo;Good Morning America&rdquo; role, where he appears to be settling in nicely. But ratings for both shows are down from a year earlier. Stephanopoulos&rsquo; old anchor chair at &ldquo;This Week&rdquo; remained empty for months, leaving the show, which was pulling in its highest numbers in years and challenging NBC for top place, adrift with a rotating cast of substitutes. That situation has been remedied now with the arrival of CNN&rsquo;s Christiane Amanpour, but she doesn&rsquo;t start until August.&nbsp;&nbsp;&ldquo;Nightline&rdquo; has proved durable at a time of flux in late night.&nbsp;Meanwhile, two seconds of misused video in a recent report about acceleration problems in Toyota cars &mdash; a story that ABC had been out front on &mdash; have been an embarrassing distraction for the division.7. Bill O&rsquo;Reilly, host of &ldquo;The O&rsquo;Reilly Factor,&rdquo; Fox News ChannelGlenn Beck, host of &ldquo;Glenn Beck,&rdquo; Fox News Channel The two Fox News hosts &mdash; cerebral Bill O&rsquo;Reilly and hotheaded Glenn Beck &mdash; are nothing alike, but the pair&rsquo;s &ldquo;Bold &amp; Fresh Tour,&rdquo; the two on stagedebating the issues, just sold out five shows across the country this winter (the Virginia one was postponed until May because of weather.)Together, along with Sean Hannity, they have powered Fox News to its record year. O&rsquo;Reilly remains on top, with an average 3.6 million viewers each night. Even at 5 p.m., Beck is in second with 2.8 million viewers, just ahead of Hannity at 9 p.m. Beck&rsquo;s quick rise &mdash; he only joined the network in January 2009 &mdash; hasn&rsquo;t been all good for Fox. When he called President Obama a &ldquo;racist&rdquo; with a &ldquo;deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture&rdquo; it cost him advertisers. His role outside the network, as a driving force in the building Tea Party movement, doesn&rsquo;t sit well with all of his colleagues, according to reports.At the same time, some think O&rsquo;Reilly has mellowed. He&rsquo;s never parroted the Republican talking points, but at a time when the right is ratcheting up the inflamed rhetoric he&rsquo;s been calling for more measured debate. Even Jon Stewart took note, telling the host when he appeared on &ldquo;The O&rsquo;Reilly Factor&rdquo; in February, &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve become in some ways the voice of sanity here, which, as I said, is like being the thinnest kid at fat camp.&rdquo;8. Barbara Walters and the women of &ldquo;The View&rdquo; ABC&rsquo;s daytime talk show &ldquo;The View&rdquo; represents a growing phenomenon in TV news. Like &ldquo;TMZ,&rdquo; another such hybrid, it bills itself as entertainment but increasingly has a news agenda that others are taking note of. &ldquo;The View&rdquo; hasn&rsquo;t had the news home run that &ldquo;TMZ&rdquo; did when it broke the story of Michael Jackson&rsquo;s death, but its roundtable talk is becoming increasingly political, a far cry from the fashion, celebrity and relationship issues that once dominated the show, now in its 13th year.To look at the listings, it would appear that nothing has changed. Justin Bieber! Paula Deen! Danielle Steel! But as the L.A. Times noted, the president&rsquo;s health care bill has been on the agenda all winter. The hosts &mdash; Barbara Walters, Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Sherri Shepherd &mdash; have debated gay marriage, the Sept. 11 terrorist trials and the president&rsquo;s State of the Union address. Evan Bayh skipped the traditional Sunday talk shows and went to &ldquo;The View&rdquo; to explain why he plans to leave the Senate &mdash; and got a grilling. Democratic strategist Kiki McLean told the L.A. Times that the show is a factor in campaign strategic planning.This year, the show is drawing nearly 4 million viewers on average. Next year, who knows? ABC is reportedly considering moving it to the afternoon&mdash;either on ABC stations or by converting it to a syndicated show &mdash; to take advantage of the void that will be created when Oprah Winfrey ends her popular talk show in September 2011.9. N.S. Bienstock AgencyRichard Leibner and his wife Carole Cooper, the powers behind Bienstock, are survivors, proving adept at redirecting some of their agent business into cable as network and local broadcasts cut back.Where once Dan Rather topped their roster, now it&rsquo;s the triumvirate of Bill O&rsquo;Reilly, Glenn Beck and Anderson Cooper. HLN&rsquo;s Jane Velez-Mitchell has proved able to run the distance. Paula Zahn at Discovery Investigation is bringing in encouraging numbers in her first months on the network-in-transition.In broadcast, they represent seven of the &ldquo;60 Minutes&rdquo; crowd: Executive Producer Jeff Fager; this year&rsquo;s RTDNA Paul White Award winner Steve Kroft; Bob Simon; Lara Logan; commentator Andy Rooney; one of the newest members of the team, Byron Pitts; and CNN&rsquo;s Cooper, an occasional contributor.At ABC News, they represent the newest member of the &ldquo;Good Morning America&rdquo; team, Juju Chang, as well as co-host Robin Roberts and Executive Producer Jim Murphy. And &ldquo;20/20&rdquo; Executive Producer David Sloan is with them, as well.This year, the firm has negotiated a high-profile deal at PBS, where Alison Stewart, who has a cult following from her days at MTV, MSNBC and NPR, will begin co-hosting a new Friday night prime-time show, &ldquo;Need to Know,&rdquo; in May.10.&nbsp;Christiane Amanpour, ABC NewsCandy Crowley, CNNLesley Stahl broke the gender barrier on the Sunday political talk shows when she moderated &ldquo;Face the Nation&rdquo; on CBS from 1983-91; Cokie Roberts served as co-anchor with Sam Donaldson of ABC&rsquo;s &ldquo;This Week&rdquo; from 1996-2002; and Gwen Ifill leads PBS&rsquo; Friday night &ldquo;Washington Week,&rdquo; but by and large, the weekend shows from Washington have been a white male bastion. Now, the gender balance is shifting radically.At CNN, long-toiling senior political correspondent Candy Crowley was a surprise pick to fill her network&rsquo;s &ldquo;State of the Union&rdquo; host chair, left vacant when John King decamped for a daily prime-time show. Crowley, who retains her reporting post and plans to hit the campaign trail when it&rsquo;s time, has said she wants to lighten up the genre, but otherwise the show is going to evolve as she goes.CNN&rsquo;s Christiane Amanpour, meanwhile, is leaving the network where she has worked for essentially her entire career for the host chair at ABC&rsquo;s &ldquo;This Week.&rdquo; Amanpour, perhaps the best-known foreign correspondent in the world, is expected to bring a new dynamic to the Sunday show: less domestic politics and more international news and reports from overseas on occasion. She&rsquo;s perhaps the biggest wild card in the new lineup. She&rsquo;s the opposite of previous host George Stephanopoulos, a Washington insider who once worked in President Bill Clinton&rsquo;s administration (as did Amanpour&rsquo;s husband Jamie Rubin.)Both Crowley and Amanpour are plunging into a wide-open field ratings-wise. NBC&rsquo;s long dominant &ldquo;Meet the Press&rdquo; has slipped, giving all the competitors a chance to shake things up.]]></summary>
   <author>
      <name>Tom Gilbert</name>
      <uri>http://www.tvweek.com/</uri>
   </author>
   
      <category term="Broadcast" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Cable" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Digital" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Syndication" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
   
   <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.tvweek.com/news/">
      <![CDATA[By Elizabeth Jensen It&rsquo;s time again to name NewsPro&rsquo;s 10 Most Powerful in TV News. This year there&rsquo;s an unseen puppeteer pulling the strings behind the scenes. Call him (or her) Moneybags. Or Wall-E Street. Or Quarterly Profit Mistress. By any name, the economy rightfully belongs at the top of the list as the most powerful force that has been reshaping the TV news business in the past year.Two of the Big 3 network news divisions have announced large layoffs in recent weeks, as corporate masters try to keep the profit margins up. The third is expected to soon find itself with a new owner, as a result of the Wall Street-driven push to media consolidation.Local newscasts have disappeared in some cases; in others, stations are adding newscasts but not personnel, and everyone is working longer hours for less pay, with fewer resources. Local television ad revenue fell 22 percent in 2009, triple the decline of the year before, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism.Local late news ratings also dropped, as did local stations&rsquo; early evening news and morning news ratings. Collectively, the network newscasts also continued to decline &mdash; down 2.5 percent in 2009 for the Big 3, PEJ reports, to an average 22.3 million viewers each night. Ditto for the network morning shows, down 2.4 percent to an average 12.8 million people.Both numbers dwarf cable news&rsquo; collective numbers, but the trend is in cable&rsquo;s favor. PEJ reports that median prime-time viewership for the three main cable news channels grew 7 percent in 2009 to 3.88 million, and daytime rose 16 percent, to 2.16 million. Add in the growth in online news usage, and it&rsquo;s clear where this business is headed.1. Roger Ailes, chairman and CEO, Fox News, and chairman of the Fox Television Stations GroupLast year, there were plenty of pundits willing to speculate that Fox News was going to have a hard time thriving in a world where Barack Obama was president and a new spirit of bipartisanship had arrived. But that feel-good moment was fleeting as partisanship is more intense than ever. And Fox? It just had a record year.The network ended 2009 with an average 2.2 million total viewers in prime time, up 7 percent year-to-year, and a total day average of 1.2 million, up 13 percent, which was the most total viewers in its 13 years on the air. Results were equally strong in the key demographics, which was good news for parent News Corp. Analysts estimate that the unit will bring in $700 million in operating profit this fiscal year, according to The New York Times.While opinion shows such as &ldquo;The O&rsquo;Reilly Factor,&rdquo; &ldquo;Hannity&rdquo; and &ldquo;Glenn Beck&rdquo; certainly topped the ratings, the network&rsquo;s straight news shows also performed, as Bret Baier settled into Brit Hume&rsquo;s old slot, and Shepard Smith kept chugging along.Meanwhile, Ailes and his team also seem to be making progress with the thorny Fox Business Network. The arrival of John Stossel from ABC&rsquo;s &ldquo;20/20&rdquo; is drawing viewers on Thursday nights. And there has been a string of big-name (for the business news world) hires, including CNBC&rsquo;s Charlie Gasparino and Gerri Willis, formerly CNN&rsquo;s personal finance editor. None of them likely came cheap, but the moves may help finally put the network on the ratings map.2. Steve Capus, president, NBC News Phil Griffin, president, MSNBCMark Hoffman, president, CNBCNBC News continues to roll along, its &ldquo;Today&rdquo; show and &ldquo;NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams&rdquo; easily maintaining first place in their respective time periods. At a time when the collective network evening newscasts continue to lose ground, &ldquo;Nightly News&rdquo; was the only one of the Big 3 to add viewers in 2009. Likewise, CNBC has remained steady.MSNBC, meanwhile, moved into second place in 2009. That wasn&rsquo;t because of its own gains &mdash; the prime-time lineup actually dropped 3 percent year-to-year in its key 25-54 demographic with an average viewership half that of Fox News &mdash; but because CNN dropped more. And the strength at the network is concentrated almost entirely in prime time. Its daytime lineup went through yet another shakeup at the beginning of year, away from opinion and back to straight news. Still, the network has NBC News as the financial cushion that ABC and CBS don&rsquo;t have.There are other chinks in the armor, including &ldquo;Meet the Press,&rdquo; which appears vulnerable under David Gregory after years of dominance with the late Tim Russert at the helm. And a major unknown remains just a regulatory-approval away, when Comcast gets the go-ahead from Washington to close on its deal to take control of NBC Universal.So the power at NBC News this year may lie with Comcast COO Steve Burke. Then again, with NBC&rsquo;s serious prime-time woes and a money-losing Winter Olympics behind it, NBC News &mdash; which had its major cutbacks two years ago unlike ABC and CBS &mdash; is one of the few areas of the company that he doesn&rsquo;t need to worry about for the moment.3. Jim Walton, president, CNN WorldwideJon Klein, president, CNN/U.S.Ken Jautz, executive vice president, CNN Worldwide, responsible for HLN CNN actually had more viewers in 2009 than in 2006 or 2007 (although not the election year of 2008). Sister network HLN&rsquo;s prime-time ratings jumped 9 percent for the year to its best numbers ever. The company&rsquo;s profits grew by double digits, to the highest level in its history, even as it added employees and made significant investments &mdash; in programming for CNNInternational and HLN, a redesigned CNN.com, a popular iPhone app, and on the main domestic network with the launch of Sunday&rsquo;s &ldquo;State of the Union.&rdquo; The investment has continued this year, with John King taking over the 7 p.m. slot kicking off prime time. CNN by far tops MSNBC and Fox News in digital usage.So why does it feel as though the place is falling apart? Perhaps because one of those major investments was for a new daily CNNInternational show for the brand&rsquo;s best-known worldwide on-air personality, Christiane Amanpour, who less than a year into her new show is bolting for ABC News&rsquo; &ldquo;This Week.&rdquo; Or because even in the first quarter, when Anderson Cooper, one of its highest profile stars, turned in what is sure to be award-winning work from the scene of the Haitian earthquake, his 10 p.m. show dropped 42 percent in viewers year to year, and often finished behind MSNBC repeats. CNN in 2009 finished in third place in the prime-time ratings. In the 25-54 demographic, it was down 9 percent from 2008. That leaves a lot riding on John King&rsquo;s new 7 p.m. show.4. Sean McManus, president, CBS News and CBS Sports CBS Sports pulled in the largest audience in television history with its Super Bowl XLIV coverage, its 106.5 million viewers dethroning the 1983 final episode of &ldquo;M*A*S*H.&rdquo; That accomplishment didn&rsquo;t distract McManus from keeping a firm hand on CBS News, however. The division continued to have another stable year; although its gains were few, it didn&rsquo;t lose much ground, either.&ldquo;CBS Evening News&rdquo; remains in third place, as does &ldquo;The Early Show.&rdquo; But &ldquo;60 Minutes&rdquo; remains the highest-ranking news broadcast; &ldquo;CBS Sunday Morning&rdquo; has been in first place for 63 consecutive weeks; and &ldquo;48 Hours&rdquo; is a very reliable contributor of revenue to the bottom line.There have only been a couple rounds of the once-regular rumors that &ldquo;Evening News&rdquo; anchor Katie Couric was ready to bolt when her contract expires next year. Layoffs of about 100 in the winter were dwarfed by those of ABC.Also on Sunday mornings, McManus&rsquo; success a few years back in convincing Bob Schieffer not to retire has paid off. &ldquo;Face the Nation&rdquo; on Sundays has moved solidly into second place in viewers and at times challenges or beats NBC&rsquo;s &ldquo;Meet the Press&rdquo; in key demographics.Outsiders are taking note, as well. CBS News was the only one of the three broadcast networks to take home a duPont Award this year, and in fact it took home two. One was for the already much-honored Couric interview of Sarah Palin. The other was for a pet project of McManus, the divisionwide &ldquo;Children of the Recession,&rdquo; which revived the prestigious &ldquo;CBS Reports&rdquo; mantle to examine the impact of the economic crisis on children.5. Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central&rsquo;s &ldquo;The Daily Show&rdquo;The real news/faux news divide keeps getting narrower as the years go on, and Jon Stewart continues to be the bridge-builder at &ldquo;The Daily Show.&rdquo; On every news story of significance, Stewart is right there with a video compilation or wry commentary, puncturing balloons. His decision in February to engage with his sometimes nemesis Bill O&rsquo;Reilly on the latter&rsquo;s Fox News Channel show was one of his occasional seemingly calculated ventures into the real-world realm. He&rsquo;s done it in the past &mdash; his 2004 appearance on CNN&rsquo;s &ldquo;Crossfire&rdquo; in which he attacked the hosts as &ldquo;partisan hacks&rdquo; comes to mind &mdash; but this foray felt different. O&rsquo;Reilly was on &ldquo;The Daily Show&rdquo; following President Obama&rsquo;s election, but Stewart last appeared on &ldquo;The O&rsquo;Reilly Factor&rdquo; in 2004. This two-parter &mdash; with an unedited version of the entire exchange posted on the Web &mdash; felt like a meeting of equals.Stewart&rsquo;s appeal to a younger audience means he finds much of his audience not on TV but on the Internet the next morning. Will the absence of &ldquo;The Daily Show&rdquo; from Hulu hurt it, following Viacom&rsquo;s decision to pull its programs from the platform? More likely it will be the other way around. Stewart&rsquo;s influence in the news universe seems only on the upswing.6. David Westin, president, ABC NewsWestin has done a yeoman&rsquo;s job trying to spin the recent massive cutbacks in his division &mdash; some 300 to 400 of the staff of 1,500 &mdash; into a bold voluntary move to a brighter digital future. Will there be a payoff down the road? We won&rsquo;t know for some time and he could very well be right. But for the near future, it&rsquo;s hard not to be unsettled by the sheer size of the cuts and the near certain shaking-out period to come, as the remaining staff attempts to recalibrate their working routines to reflect the absence of what could be nearly 25 percent of their colleagues.It&rsquo;s been a year of transition for ABC News, and not all of it successful. Diane Sawyer has settled in to &ldquo;World News Tonight&rdquo; after the retirement of Charlie Gibson, and Westin was able to persuade a reluctant George Stephanopoulos to take her &ldquo;Good Morning America&rdquo; role, where he appears to be settling in nicely. But ratings for both shows are down from a year earlier. Stephanopoulos&rsquo; old anchor chair at &ldquo;This Week&rdquo; remained empty for months, leaving the show, which was pulling in its highest numbers in years and challenging NBC for top place, adrift with a rotating cast of substitutes. That situation has been remedied now with the arrival of CNN&rsquo;s Christiane Amanpour, but she doesn&rsquo;t start until August.&nbsp;&nbsp;&ldquo;Nightline&rdquo; has proved durable at a time of flux in late night.&nbsp;Meanwhile, two seconds of misused video in a recent report about acceleration problems in Toyota cars &mdash; a story that ABC had been out front on &mdash; have been an embarrassing distraction for the division.7. Bill O&rsquo;Reilly, host of &ldquo;The O&rsquo;Reilly Factor,&rdquo; Fox News ChannelGlenn Beck, host of &ldquo;Glenn Beck,&rdquo; Fox News Channel The two Fox News hosts &mdash; cerebral Bill O&rsquo;Reilly and hotheaded Glenn Beck &mdash; are nothing alike, but the pair&rsquo;s &ldquo;Bold &amp; Fresh Tour,&rdquo; the two on stagedebating the issues, just sold out five shows across the country this winter (the Virginia one was postponed until May because of weather.)Together, along with Sean Hannity, they have powered Fox News to its record year. O&rsquo;Reilly remains on top, with an average 3.6 million viewers each night. Even at 5 p.m., Beck is in second with 2.8 million viewers, just ahead of Hannity at 9 p.m. Beck&rsquo;s quick rise &mdash; he only joined the network in January 2009 &mdash; hasn&rsquo;t been all good for Fox. When he called President Obama a &ldquo;racist&rdquo; with a &ldquo;deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture&rdquo; it cost him advertisers. His role outside the network, as a driving force in the building Tea Party movement, doesn&rsquo;t sit well with all of his colleagues, according to reports.At the same time, some think O&rsquo;Reilly has mellowed. He&rsquo;s never parroted the Republican talking points, but at a time when the right is ratcheting up the inflamed rhetoric he&rsquo;s been calling for more measured debate. Even Jon Stewart took note, telling the host when he appeared on &ldquo;The O&rsquo;Reilly Factor&rdquo; in February, &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve become in some ways the voice of sanity here, which, as I said, is like being the thinnest kid at fat camp.&rdquo;8. Barbara Walters and the women of &ldquo;The View&rdquo; ABC&rsquo;s daytime talk show &ldquo;The View&rdquo; represents a growing phenomenon in TV news. Like &ldquo;TMZ,&rdquo; another such hybrid, it bills itself as entertainment but increasingly has a news agenda that others are taking note of. &ldquo;The View&rdquo; hasn&rsquo;t had the news home run that &ldquo;TMZ&rdquo; did when it broke the story of Michael Jackson&rsquo;s death, but its roundtable talk is becoming increasingly political, a far cry from the fashion, celebrity and relationship issues that once dominated the show, now in its 13th year.To look at the listings, it would appear that nothing has changed. Justin Bieber! Paula Deen! Danielle Steel! But as the L.A. Times noted, the president&rsquo;s health care bill has been on the agenda all winter. The hosts &mdash; Barbara Walters, Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Sherri Shepherd &mdash; have debated gay marriage, the Sept. 11 terrorist trials and the president&rsquo;s State of the Union address. Evan Bayh skipped the traditional Sunday talk shows and went to &ldquo;The View&rdquo; to explain why he plans to leave the Senate &mdash; and got a grilling. Democratic strategist Kiki McLean told the L.A. Times that the show is a factor in campaign strategic planning.This year, the show is drawing nearly 4 million viewers on average. Next year, who knows? ABC is reportedly considering moving it to the afternoon&mdash;either on ABC stations or by converting it to a syndicated show &mdash; to take advantage of the void that will be created when Oprah Winfrey ends her popular talk show in September 2011.9. N.S. Bienstock AgencyRichard Leibner and his wife Carole Cooper, the powers behind Bienstock, are survivors, proving adept at redirecting some of their agent business into cable as network and local broadcasts cut back.Where once Dan Rather topped their roster, now it&rsquo;s the triumvirate of Bill O&rsquo;Reilly, Glenn Beck and Anderson Cooper. HLN&rsquo;s Jane Velez-Mitchell has proved able to run the distance. Paula Zahn at Discovery Investigation is bringing in encouraging numbers in her first months on the network-in-transition.In broadcast, they represent seven of the &ldquo;60 Minutes&rdquo; crowd: Executive Producer Jeff Fager; this year&rsquo;s RTDNA Paul White Award winner Steve Kroft; Bob Simon; Lara Logan; commentator Andy Rooney; one of the newest members of the team, Byron Pitts; and CNN&rsquo;s Cooper, an occasional contributor.At ABC News, they represent the newest member of the &ldquo;Good Morning America&rdquo; team, Juju Chang, as well as co-host Robin Roberts and Executive Producer Jim Murphy. And &ldquo;20/20&rdquo; Executive Producer David Sloan is with them, as well.This year, the firm has negotiated a high-profile deal at PBS, where Alison Stewart, who has a cult following from her days at MTV, MSNBC and NPR, will begin co-hosting a new Friday night prime-time show, &ldquo;Need to Know,&rdquo; in May.10.&nbsp;Christiane Amanpour, ABC NewsCandy Crowley, CNNLesley Stahl broke the gender barrier on the Sunday political talk shows when she moderated &ldquo;Face the Nation&rdquo; on CBS from 1983-91; Cokie Roberts served as co-anchor with Sam Donaldson of ABC&rsquo;s &ldquo;This Week&rdquo; from 1996-2002; and Gwen Ifill leads PBS&rsquo; Friday night &ldquo;Washington Week,&rdquo; but by and large, the weekend shows from Washington have been a white male bastion. Now, the gender balance is shifting radically.At CNN, long-toiling senior political correspondent Candy Crowley was a surprise pick to fill her network&rsquo;s &ldquo;State of the Union&rdquo; host chair, left vacant when John King decamped for a daily prime-time show. Crowley, who retains her reporting post and plans to hit the campaign trail when it&rsquo;s time, has said she wants to lighten up the genre, but otherwise the show is going to evolve as she goes.CNN&rsquo;s Christiane Amanpour, meanwhile, is leaving the network where she has worked for essentially her entire career for the host chair at ABC&rsquo;s &ldquo;This Week.&rdquo; Amanpour, perhaps the best-known foreign correspondent in the world, is expected to bring a new dynamic to the Sunday show: less domestic politics and more international news and reports from overseas on occasion. She&rsquo;s perhaps the biggest wild card in the new lineup. She&rsquo;s the opposite of previous host George Stephanopoulos, a Washington insider who once worked in President Bill Clinton&rsquo;s administration (as did Amanpour&rsquo;s husband Jamie Rubin.)Both Crowley and Amanpour are plunging into a wide-open field ratings-wise. NBC&rsquo;s long dominant &ldquo;Meet the Press&rdquo; has slipped, giving all the competitors a chance to shake things up.]]>
   </content>
</entry>

<entry>
   <title>Here's What Joe Abruzzese, Ad Sales Executive Extraordinaire, Did That Changed the Ad Game </title>
   <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.tvweek.com/news/2010/01/heres_what_joe_abruzzese_ad_sa.php" />
   <id>tag:www.tvweek.com,2010:/news//1.39978</id>
   
   <published>2010-01-22T19:25:09Z</published>
   <updated>2010-01-22T19:26:52Z</updated>
   
   <summary><![CDATA[In 2002, Joe Abruzzese, then the top ad sales executive at the Tiffany Network, CBS, did a most extraordinary thing. He jumped to cable, taking the helm for ad sales at Discovery Communications.As one top media agency person told TVWeek at the time, &quot;It's a watershed moment. The ad sales departments at the cable networks are filled with former broadcast network managers,&nbsp;but it's an incredible statement that Joey has made leaving CBS, where he was well ensconced as the sitting president of ad sales, his relationship with Mel aside.&quot; In the eyes of many, Abruzzese's move legitimitized cable as an ad vehicle in a way it hadn't been before.The&nbsp;reference to &quot;Mel&quot;&nbsp;is to Mel&nbsp;Karmazin, who was running CBS at the time, and is known as a pretty tough executive. At a 2006 press conference announcing his coming to Discovery, Abruzzese, when asked about Karmazin, said,&nbsp; &quot;Mel made me better at my job.&quot; Then he compared Mr. Karmazin to a football coach, adding, &quot;After practice you're beaten up, but at the end of the day you're a better football player.''&nbsp;Subsequently, over the years, when asked about working for Karmazin, Abruzzese has been oft-quoted as saying that it was like the brutal first 20 minutes of &quot;Saving Private Ryan.&quot; Every day.The reason this anecdote is still worth repeating is that it goes to the core of what Abruzzese is all about. Clearly one of the best and brightest, he's also big on relationships. Relationships with the buyers and media agency managers up and down Madison Ave., as well as the managers inside the company at which he works.Today we present our recent interview with Abruzzese that we did as part of our special report in which TVWeek&nbsp;recently named Discovery Communications our Cable TV Programmer of the Decade. (If you want to read any of our other interviews for this special report, click here.)In the interview Abruzzese begins by talking about his relationship with the man who runs Discovery these days, David Zaslav--and he even talks a little about Karmazin. Here's the edited interview:If a client wants to get involved with Deadliest Catch, they can probably have four different platforms with it. So that's the promise of digital. What we're finding is that kind of thing is only about half our digital business. The other half is people who want to buy the Internet for demographics.﻿TVWeek: It was huge news along Madison Avenue when you came to Discovery from CBS. In many ways, it was a watershed moment for cable: The top ad sales executive at CBS, one of the storied broadcast networks, moving to cable. How many years have you been here now?&nbsp;&nbsp;Joe Abruzzese: Six years.TVWeek: So awhile. And clearly you were well established here when David Zaslav joined the company in 2007. Did you know him before he got here?Abruzzese: I did not. Since David has been here, though, I&rsquo;ve learned that he&rsquo;s an incredibly hard charger. Very smart. Knows our business. Gets concepts as quick as I&rsquo;ve seen anybody get concepts, and can get what you&rsquo;re saying in a nanosecond. You don&rsquo;t have to explain it, you don&rsquo;t have to have a long meeting.Also, you can get to him very quickly. He&rsquo;s very accessible. And he has great management skills and very trusting about what people do. We have very little differences, but when we have differences we talk it out. He solicits dialogue, he wants your opinion. We don&rsquo;t then vote, but he&rsquo;d definitely find the right solution.The difference between David and a lot of executives is that David looks at the company and says, &ldquo;What can this company be when it&rsquo;s going at full bore?&rdquo; I think that is something that is really terrific. As opposed to saying, Discovery&rsquo;s brand is great. TLC&rsquo;s brand is great, it&rsquo;s really saying, &ldquo;Okay, how much greater can they be? What other parts of the company can we make greater?&rdquo;Hard to compare him to Mel Karmazin [my boss at CBS]. But I would say this: When I worked for Mel, Mel taught me one thing&mdash;try to find the value in everything you sell. Mel&rsquo;s style points were a little low, but I will tell you that he brought out the best in people because he said, &ldquo;Find the value in what you have to sell.&rdquo; Whether it&rsquo;s an older demographic, whatever you have. David&rsquo;s kind of the same way. Find what values you have in what you sell. Also, find the value in the networks that are there now.There&rsquo;s a few things that are self evident. Take Discovery Health. It&rsquo;s a a pretty good brand, but somewhat limited, so we&rsquo;re turning it into the Oprah network. That&rsquo;s really unleashing value.Take Discovery Kids, which was somewhat limited, and now we're going to partner with Hasbro, which is phenomenal.Those kind of moves are changing our company. We changed Discovery Times into ID. And we&rsquo;ve gotten some traction. We started putting &ldquo;48 Hours&rdquo; on and it got great response. Now we&rsquo;ve invested a little bit of money and it&rsquo;s started to grow leaps and bounds.But when David got here he said &ldquo;How do we make this thing really big?&rdquo; So he hires Henry [Schleiff], an established executive, and we put money behind it.Now, walk over to Planet Green. Honestly, nobody is really in on the Green space, besides us. So as successful as it is, we have an island there. This is all within the last couple of years. Think about taking all the networks that had been limited. Limited value. Now it&rsquo;s great value. Along with rebranding Discovery Channel, getting TLC back on it&rsquo;s feet, not to mention Animal Planet.Take Animal Planet. At one point we took the tact with Animal Planet saying, it fits the portfolio because it fits parents with kids. Which is really wrong. Now it&rsquo;s Animal Planet, be what it can be. And Marjorie [Kaplan], who runs it, is doing a wonderful job letting it be what it can be in its own space, and it really doesn&rsquo;t have a competitor.So we have all these cylinders running. So David has pushed everybody to get the value in what they have. And I think there&rsquo;s a lot more. For example, we don&rsquo;t really interact very much with international but there&rsquo;s great exposure in international. We have a few deals with clients. It&rsquo;s not revolutionary but it could be. We&rsquo;re wide open for working together.TVWeek: Where else do you see value potential?Abruzzese: Probably Science. Science, right now is a great network. But we&rsquo;re looking at that next to say, &quot;Is that the next big Discovery Channel?&quot; And where does it fit? And does Science feed into Discovery? So science programming now sometimes hits off, goes into Discovery. So we have this feeder team.HD is a great network. Now everybody is into HD so it&rsquo;s going to find its own value. And it will. So David, instead of saying, &ldquo;Oh, we&rsquo;re doing great,&rdquo; says, &ldquo;What more can we do with everything we own? And that&rsquo;s the biggest difference that we have now with his being here.TVWeek: You&rsquo;ve spoken about the changes at the networks, and how they are unleashing value, which I realize you hope will also translate into more sales. What about your department. Any changes you&rsquo;ve made lately?Abruzzese: Well, our latest incarnation is that we&rsquo;ve established two new sales teams. And they are the emerging net sales teams. This is literally in the last six months. We have a male sales team, that is emerging networks which have a male skewing audience: Science, Military and HD. And we have a female sales team which is ID, Fit and Planet Green.So we&rsquo;re really trying to sell value as opposed to leverage. Again, trying to sell the value proposition as apposed to the leverage proposition. We don&rsquo;t just sell ratings because HD is not rated. Planet Green&rsquo;s not rated. So it&rsquo;s really the concepts of these networks.TVWeek: Does that make it that much more difficult?Abruzzese: Yes and no. It&rsquo;s difficult yet it&rsquo;s easier. It&rsquo;s difficult because you&rsquo;ve got to convince clients when I can&rsquo;t tell them exactly what they&rsquo;re getting, but here&rsquo;s the environment. And it&rsquo;s a targeted environment.But if you do just meat and potatoes, calculate CPMs and so forth, it&rsquo;s harder. But it&rsquo;s interesting. And where we are going to be in a year from now, I have no idea. But it&rsquo;s going to be better. It&rsquo;s going to be bigger.TVWeek: And as you&rsquo;ve transitioned now and continue to do so with some of these networks, are you getting new advertisers to come aboard? Because Discovery as a company has been around for a while&mdash;and in that sense its very well known on Madison Ave.Abruzzese: We have new advertisers. We just wrapped a deal up with Coleman stoves. Big deal with Coleman. I think one of the first times they&rsquo;ve been on. And they&rsquo;re big with Discovery. So we get a lot of new advertisers coming in now. We&rsquo;ve done a good job with that.But it&rsquo;s about bigger shares for advertising. If you look at all the metrics now, we&rsquo;ve worked really hard and we&rsquo;ve added value and we&rsquo;ve outpaced other networks in sales these last three or four months. About three or four quarters. If you look at what&rsquo;s happened with the broadcast networks, you can see what&rsquo;s happening. They&rsquo;re still into selling their old platforms which are coming down. We&rsquo;re building it up, and we&rsquo;re still getting the money. It&rsquo;s still coming over. And those are the reasons.We&rsquo;re also a little more strategic. One of the ways we&rsquo;ve done it, not to get too far in the weeds, is we have an essential negotiation team who controls pricing, planning, proposals. And you can&rsquo;t write a deal without going through this team. The team controls everything including DR [Direcrt Response], paid programming, ADU [Audience Deficiency Units] and so forth. So we evaluate the deals coming through. Is it better to sell it for cash, give it as an ADU, distribute it for DR for getting a better price? So that really makes it more strategic and we constantly are looking at all our options for the time we sell. What does the next month look like? The next quarter look like? And it&rsquo;s not just selling time. It&rsquo;s being more strategic about selling time.TVWeek: Please tell us how the Internet has factored into this, and how do you think it&rsquo;ll factor into ad sales moving forward.Abruzzese: To be totally honest, I think for everyone the expectations were a lot higher than the reality has been. The way I see it, if clients want extensions of what they&rsquo;re doing, the Internet is a great place to get the extensions. The Internet, mobile, VOD[Video on Demand], you name it.And if a client wants to get involved with &ldquo;Deadliest Catch,&rdquo; they can probably have four different platforms with it. So that&rsquo;s the promise of digital. What we&rsquo;re finding is that kind of thing is only about half our digital business. The other half is people want to buy the Internet for demographics. So, you&rsquo;ve got kind of a horizontal integration with networks, clients and shows, or vertical integration with demographics across our networks.So we&rsquo;re still trying to figure it out, and we&rsquo;re actually thinking about restructuring our digital sales team to find the best way to do this, and it would probably be in that form: A vertical and horizontal integration. To find which would make the most money.And as a company, we&rsquo;ve invested a lot of money in digital. We&rsquo;ll see if it pays off. If it doesn&rsquo;t pay off in actual cash, it may be paying off in effectiveness in advertising. And that&rsquo;s the hope.TVWeek: I think you&rsquo;ve given us a great snapshot of the ad sales picture here. Anything you want to add?Abruzzese: We&rsquo;ve covered so much! Getting back to David for a minute, I think David is a good guy who cares much about everyone&rsquo;s success personally as it is. And he really wants everybody to work together. There are really no silos here.#]]></summary>
   <author>
      <name>Chuck Ross</name>
      
   </author>
   
      <category term="Advertising" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Broadcast" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Cable" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Digital" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Syndication" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
   <category term="2090" label="Ad Sales" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="108" label="Discovery" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="12222" label="Joe Abruzzese" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   
   <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.tvweek.com/news/">
      <![CDATA[In 2002, Joe Abruzzese, then the top ad sales executive at the Tiffany Network, CBS, did a most extraordinary thing. He jumped to cable, taking the helm for ad sales at Discovery Communications.As one top media agency person told TVWeek at the time, &quot;It's a watershed moment. The ad sales departments at the cable networks are filled with former broadcast network managers,&nbsp;but it's an incredible statement that Joey has made leaving CBS, where he was well ensconced as the sitting president of ad sales, his relationship with Mel aside.&quot; In the eyes of many, Abruzzese's move legitimitized cable as an ad vehicle in a way it hadn't been before.The&nbsp;reference to &quot;Mel&quot;&nbsp;is to Mel&nbsp;Karmazin, who was running CBS at the time, and is known as a pretty tough executive. At a 2006 press conference announcing his coming to Discovery, Abruzzese, when asked about Karmazin, said,&nbsp; &quot;Mel made me better at my job.&quot; Then he compared Mr. Karmazin to a football coach, adding, &quot;After practice you're beaten up, but at the end of the day you're a better football player.''&nbsp;Subsequently, over the years, when asked about working for Karmazin, Abruzzese has been oft-quoted as saying that it was like the brutal first 20 minutes of &quot;Saving Private Ryan.&quot; Every day.The reason this anecdote is still worth repeating is that it goes to the core of what Abruzzese is all about. Clearly one of the best and brightest, he's also big on relationships. Relationships with the buyers and media agency managers up and down Madison Ave., as well as the managers inside the company at which he works.Today we present our recent interview with Abruzzese that we did as part of our special report in which TVWeek&nbsp;recently named Discovery Communications our Cable TV Programmer of the Decade. (If you want to read any of our other interviews for this special report, click here.)In the interview Abruzzese begins by talking about his relationship with the man who runs Discovery these days, David Zaslav--and he even talks a little about Karmazin. Here's the edited interview:If a client wants to get involved with Deadliest Catch, they can probably have four different platforms with it. So that's the promise of digital. What we're finding is that kind of thing is only about half our digital business. The other half is people who want to buy the Internet for demographics.﻿TVWeek: It was huge news along Madison Avenue when you came to Discovery from CBS. In many ways, it was a watershed moment for cable: The top ad sales executive at CBS, one of the storied broadcast networks, moving to cable. How many years have you been here now?&nbsp;&nbsp;Joe Abruzzese: Six years.TVWeek: So awhile. And clearly you were well established here when David Zaslav joined the company in 2007. Did you know him before he got here?Abruzzese: I did not. Since David has been here, though, I&rsquo;ve learned that he&rsquo;s an incredibly hard charger. Very smart. Knows our business. Gets concepts as quick as I&rsquo;ve seen anybody get concepts, and can get what you&rsquo;re saying in a nanosecond. You don&rsquo;t have to explain it, you don&rsquo;t have to have a long meeting.Also, you can get to him very quickly. He&rsquo;s very accessible. And he has great management skills and very trusting about what people do. We have very little differences, but when we have differences we talk it out. He solicits dialogue, he wants your opinion. We don&rsquo;t then vote, but he&rsquo;d definitely find the right solution.The difference between David and a lot of executives is that David looks at the company and says, &ldquo;What can this company be when it&rsquo;s going at full bore?&rdquo; I think that is something that is really terrific. As opposed to saying, Discovery&rsquo;s brand is great. TLC&rsquo;s brand is great, it&rsquo;s really saying, &ldquo;Okay, how much greater can they be? What other parts of the company can we make greater?&rdquo;Hard to compare him to Mel Karmazin [my boss at CBS]. But I would say this: When I worked for Mel, Mel taught me one thing&mdash;try to find the value in everything you sell. Mel&rsquo;s style points were a little low, but I will tell you that he brought out the best in people because he said, &ldquo;Find the value in what you have to sell.&rdquo; Whether it&rsquo;s an older demographic, whatever you have. David&rsquo;s kind of the same way. Find what values you have in what you sell. Also, find the value in the networks that are there now.There&rsquo;s a few things that are self evident. Take Discovery Health. It&rsquo;s a a pretty good brand, but somewhat limited, so we&rsquo;re turning it into the Oprah network. That&rsquo;s really unleashing value.Take Discovery Kids, which was somewhat limited, and now we're going to partner with Hasbro, which is phenomenal.Those kind of moves are changing our company. We changed Discovery Times into ID. And we&rsquo;ve gotten some traction. We started putting &ldquo;48 Hours&rdquo; on and it got great response. Now we&rsquo;ve invested a little bit of money and it&rsquo;s started to grow leaps and bounds.But when David got here he said &ldquo;How do we make this thing really big?&rdquo; So he hires Henry [Schleiff], an established executive, and we put money behind it.Now, walk over to Planet Green. Honestly, nobody is really in on the Green space, besides us. So as successful as it is, we have an island there. This is all within the last couple of years. Think about taking all the networks that had been limited. Limited value. Now it&rsquo;s great value. Along with rebranding Discovery Channel, getting TLC back on it&rsquo;s feet, not to mention Animal Planet.Take Animal Planet. At one point we took the tact with Animal Planet saying, it fits the portfolio because it fits parents with kids. Which is really wrong. Now it&rsquo;s Animal Planet, be what it can be. And Marjorie [Kaplan], who runs it, is doing a wonderful job letting it be what it can be in its own space, and it really doesn&rsquo;t have a competitor.So we have all these cylinders running. So David has pushed everybody to get the value in what they have. And I think there&rsquo;s a lot more. For example, we don&rsquo;t really interact very much with international but there&rsquo;s great exposure in international. We have a few deals with clients. It&rsquo;s not revolutionary but it could be. We&rsquo;re wide open for working together.TVWeek: Where else do you see value potential?Abruzzese: Probably Science. Science, right now is a great network. But we&rsquo;re looking at that next to say, &quot;Is that the next big Discovery Channel?&quot; And where does it fit? And does Science feed into Discovery? So science programming now sometimes hits off, goes into Discovery. So we have this feeder team.HD is a great network. Now everybody is into HD so it&rsquo;s going to find its own value. And it will. So David, instead of saying, &ldquo;Oh, we&rsquo;re doing great,&rdquo; says, &ldquo;What more can we do with everything we own? And that&rsquo;s the biggest difference that we have now with his being here.TVWeek: You&rsquo;ve spoken about the changes at the networks, and how they are unleashing value, which I realize you hope will also translate into more sales. What about your department. Any changes you&rsquo;ve made lately?Abruzzese: Well, our latest incarnation is that we&rsquo;ve established two new sales teams. And they are the emerging net sales teams. This is literally in the last six months. We have a male sales team, that is emerging networks which have a male skewing audience: Science, Military and HD. And we have a female sales team which is ID, Fit and Planet Green.So we&rsquo;re really trying to sell value as opposed to leverage. Again, trying to sell the value proposition as apposed to the leverage proposition. We don&rsquo;t just sell ratings because HD is not rated. Planet Green&rsquo;s not rated. So it&rsquo;s really the concepts of these networks.TVWeek: Does that make it that much more difficult?Abruzzese: Yes and no. It&rsquo;s difficult yet it&rsquo;s easier. It&rsquo;s difficult because you&rsquo;ve got to convince clients when I can&rsquo;t tell them exactly what they&rsquo;re getting, but here&rsquo;s the environment. And it&rsquo;s a targeted environment.But if you do just meat and potatoes, calculate CPMs and so forth, it&rsquo;s harder. But it&rsquo;s interesting. And where we are going to be in a year from now, I have no idea. But it&rsquo;s going to be better. It&rsquo;s going to be bigger.TVWeek: And as you&rsquo;ve transitioned now and continue to do so with some of these networks, are you getting new advertisers to come aboard? Because Discovery as a company has been around for a while&mdash;and in that sense its very well known on Madison Ave.Abruzzese: We have new advertisers. We just wrapped a deal up with Coleman stoves. Big deal with Coleman. I think one of the first times they&rsquo;ve been on. And they&rsquo;re big with Discovery. So we get a lot of new advertisers coming in now. We&rsquo;ve done a good job with that.But it&rsquo;s about bigger shares for advertising. If you look at all the metrics now, we&rsquo;ve worked really hard and we&rsquo;ve added value and we&rsquo;ve outpaced other networks in sales these last three or four months. About three or four quarters. If you look at what&rsquo;s happened with the broadcast networks, you can see what&rsquo;s happening. They&rsquo;re still into selling their old platforms which are coming down. We&rsquo;re building it up, and we&rsquo;re still getting the money. It&rsquo;s still coming over. And those are the reasons.We&rsquo;re also a little more strategic. One of the ways we&rsquo;ve done it, not to get too far in the weeds, is we have an essential negotiation team who controls pricing, planning, proposals. And you can&rsquo;t write a deal without going through this team. The team controls everything including DR [Direcrt Response], paid programming, ADU [Audience Deficiency Units] and so forth. So we evaluate the deals coming through. Is it better to sell it for cash, give it as an ADU, distribute it for DR for getting a better price? So that really makes it more strategic and we constantly are looking at all our options for the time we sell. What does the next month look like? The next quarter look like? And it&rsquo;s not just selling time. It&rsquo;s being more strategic about selling time.TVWeek: Please tell us how the Internet has factored into this, and how do you think it&rsquo;ll factor into ad sales moving forward.Abruzzese: To be totally honest, I think for everyone the expectations were a lot higher than the reality has been. The way I see it, if clients want extensions of what they&rsquo;re doing, the Internet is a great place to get the extensions. The Internet, mobile, VOD[Video on Demand], you name it.And if a client wants to get involved with &ldquo;Deadliest Catch,&rdquo; they can probably have four different platforms with it. So that&rsquo;s the promise of digital. What we&rsquo;re finding is that kind of thing is only about half our digital business. The other half is people want to buy the Internet for demographics. So, you&rsquo;ve got kind of a horizontal integration with networks, clients and shows, or vertical integration with demographics across our networks.So we&rsquo;re still trying to figure it out, and we&rsquo;re actually thinking about restructuring our digital sales team to find the best way to do this, and it would probably be in that form: A vertical and horizontal integration. To find which would make the most money.And as a company, we&rsquo;ve invested a lot of money in digital. We&rsquo;ll see if it pays off. If it doesn&rsquo;t pay off in actual cash, it may be paying off in effectiveness in advertising. And that&rsquo;s the hope.TVWeek: I think you&rsquo;ve given us a great snapshot of the ad sales picture here. Anything you want to add?Abruzzese: We&rsquo;ve covered so much! Getting back to David for a minute, I think David is a good guy who cares much about everyone&rsquo;s success personally as it is. And he really wants everybody to work together. There are really no silos here.#]]>
   </content>
</entry>

<entry>
   <title>Henry Schleiff, President and General Manager, Investigation Discovery, Military Channel and HD Theater</title>
   <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.tvweek.com/news/2010/01/henry_schleiff_president_and_g.php" />
   <id>tag:www.tvweek.com,2010:/news//1.39831</id>
   
   <published>2010-01-15T15:13:52Z</published>
   <updated>2010-02-11T18:33:21Z</updated>
   
   <summary><![CDATA['The one thing that&nbsp;Investigation Discovery&nbsp;shares with TMZ is it's almost a sister network in terms of the passion of its audience. And this is a business of passion. The programming we play is about passion plays. Often with one side or the other out of kilter, for sure.&mdash;Henry Schleiff[Editor's Note: This interview with Henry Schleiff was conducted&nbsp;in November, 2009,&nbsp;a number of weeks before he got the added duties of overseeing the Miliary Channel and HD Theater in an end of year reorg at Discovery.]We began the interview with me asking Henry about his decision to join Discovery.--Chuck RossHenry Schleiff: I was very, if you will, circumspect and careful about what I wanted to do coming off what I thought was a reasonable success at Court TV and Hallmark, with some kind of narrow reputation of taking a team of people and a network and really taking a network to its next level.It&rsquo;s one thing to go to a small network. It&rsquo;s another thing to go to a small network with a small niche. This is a small network in terms of its current distribution&mdash;55 million homes&mdash;but an unbelievably wide, hugely embracing genre called storytelling. Great storytelling with a subgenre of crime, justice, mysteries, investigation.Let&rsquo;s talk about storytelling. Today, in very simple terms, you have a ton of great scripted product out there on broadcast and cable. Lots of great scripted stuff. You&rsquo;ve got a ton of unscripted stuff coming under this general name of reality.What you don&rsquo;t have is almost idiosyncratic to Investigation Discovery&mdash;ID&mdash;which I call almost a third variation. And that is semi-scripted reality. That is documentary footage&mdash;it&rsquo;s real footage, it&rsquo;s fact-based stories. We don&rsquo;t have actors. We don&rsquo;t have scripts. We&rsquo;re taking actual documentary footage and telling unbelievably compelling stories with high stakes, like mysteries.Give me one other network in this crowded universe of what, 130 or 140 ad-supported networks&mdash;that has that as its unique selling proposition. And so that was very attractive to me because I thought, boy here&rsquo;s something that&rsquo;s brawny. That&rsquo;s big.Obviously having run Court TV I had some experience in the world of crime and justice. So you could go out there and you could find something that was just a naturally appealing, broad genre. But there is no other crime, justice, investigation 24/7 network.Not to say there&rsquo;s not a lot of competition. I look around and A&amp;E does a fabulous job for a couple of hours on a specific night in our space. I look around at TruTV&mdash;which we called Court TV when I there. Does a great job on a couple of nights for a couple of hours.But there is no one place 24/7, 365 days. That&rsquo;s called a brand. That&rsquo;s called a destination. Whatever cutsie term you want to put on it. But I do think that&rsquo;s our calling card going forward. I think actually it is very easy&mdash;in the privacy of this interview on your website&mdash;to say that&rsquo;s an easy network to actually grow and make successful.People, as you know, are endlessly fascinated with this genre. I will give you a couple of quick statistics: One, we&rsquo;re number one in all of cable in length of tune. Viewers come to us and stay with this network longer than any other network, which by the way, is an advertiser&rsquo;s dream. Because at least you&rsquo;re saying to the advertiser&mdash;at the very least&mdash;viewers will see the spot at the commercial break. The reason for that, by the way, is the very act of telling the kind of stories we tell with a beginning, a middle and an end ,in a compelling way.We are the fastest growing ad-supported cable network in our demographic target, women 25 to 54. And we&rsquo;ve only been around for two years, Again, out of all cable, we are in the top five networks in C3 ratings.Let&rsquo;s go to from the general to the specific. We just finished October. We ranked number two out of all mid-size networks&mdash;that&rsquo;s networks 69 million subs and under. That&rsquo;s a lot of networks out there. So to be number two as quickly as we have achieved that is unbelievable.TVWeek: Who is No. 1?Schleiff: I think it&rsquo;s Lifetime Movie Network. Which has been around longer and is a terrific network. Roughly the same appeal in longform programming.October is the 21st consecutive month of year-over-year prime time gains in both households and women 25-54. 21 straight months. Now, I&rsquo;ve only been here for two months. I&rsquo;m trying to figure out how to take credit for the prior 19 months! And it&rsquo;s going to be arguable for me to even take credit on the two I&rsquo;ve been here for, so work with me on that one.Then you have the softer stuff, the beta testing, the most recent beta testing. ID is number one out of all emerging networks in importance to the enjoyment of cable in the latest beta study.I look at even the shows at the bottom of the page. We just introduced &quot;On the Case With Paula Zahn.&rdquo; Two weeks ago, huge numbers. We play 48 Hours. We play Dateline. Now we&rsquo;ve got our own magazine show. Paula&rsquo;s excellent. She&rsquo;s a good journalist. She asks the right questions.What I&rsquo;m saying is the mix and the breadth of this genre allows us to do a lot of creative and smart things going forward. So as our distribution grows, and we grow with it automatically, our numbers will go up part and parcel with that distribution.TVWeek: Henry, you mentioned right at the beginning about coming here and what you found here when you got here. You&rsquo;re a man with some repute and, I would imagine, you considered some other options. What made you decide to hang your shingle up here at Discovery?Schlieff: Two things. Thing one, aside from anything else, I&rsquo;ve spent enough time in this industry to know the industry. To know the players. To know what companies are on the move, on the increase. What companies frankly reflect the personality you should look for, which is very simple: A company that&rsquo;s lively, that&rsquo;s got people who are intelligent and people who are fun to be around.That starts at the top. I&rsquo;ve known David Zaslav for over 20 years: I&rsquo;ve competed with him, he&rsquo;s been a friend. We&rsquo;ve worked in lockstep, we&rsquo;ve been at loggerheads. Every way you can work in this businessThen you look at Discovery. On the rise. On the increase. Led by a guy with great enthusiasm and great energy.Then you think, what the heck role can I play in a company like that? And I looked around and I said, boy, there&rsquo;s a network over there that I think plays to my experience and to my strength. One, it&rsquo;s small and it&rsquo;s in a genre that I understand. As I said earlier, if I have any limited experience or skill, it is taking something that is small in making it reasonably bigger and more successful.But to do that, you&rsquo;ve got to be surrounded with resources, you&rsquo;ve got to be surrounded with people who &ldquo;get you,&rdquo; that are simpatico to what you want to do. I literally walked into David&rsquo;s office and I said, you know you&rsquo;ve got this thing called ID. Investigation Discovery. Did you ever think about expanding the investigation into areas not only in the world of crime and justice but really playing up investigation?Cut forward to our new tagline Investigate Life. I literally got about three sentences out of my mouth and David said, &lsquo;Well what about you? When can you start?I came back to my office. What was supposed to be an hour meeting had lasted about 25 minutes. Yvette, then with me for 30 years, said, &lsquo;My gosh, what happened? It didn&rsquo;t go well?&rsquo; I said, &lsquo;I think it went too well. He says he wants me to start like next week.&rsquo; That&rsquo;s typical David. I think he saw the marriage, if you will, between somebody with my experience, and again, the fabulous job, and I must underscore this, that had already been done at ID. The foundation had then been laid in place. It&rsquo;s really important to know people like a Clark Bunting, a Debbie Meyers, a Kevin Bennett, who really had laid the foundation for this.I don&rsquo;t know if I&rsquo;m a good writer, but I&rsquo;m a good editor. And by that, I mean it&rsquo;s great to walk in where the text already exists, thanks to those people, and those behind them. And to take that and say, let&rsquo;s edit it. Let&rsquo;s really push up this and minimize that. Let&rsquo;s go in that direction, or why this? Just ask the questions which somebody with a full-time view can do. Which they realty didn&rsquo;t have before me. Somebody who is passionate, over the top and focused on this one child. This one baby. I think that&rsquo;s what I brought to the table. But we&rsquo;ll build this network on, frankly, a very solid foundation that was in place before I got here.I really don&rsquo;t do startups. When I was leaving Hallmark, people said, &ldquo;Here&rsquo;s money, do you want to do this?&rdquo; And, &ldquo;Here&rsquo;s money, do you want to do that?&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;Give me the money part. But I don&rsquo;t want to do this and do that because it&rsquo;s not going to succeed.&rdquo; I know what succeeds and I know what&rsquo;s not going to. And I come back to the fact&mdash;in the privacy of this interview&mdash;that I think the level of difficulty of making this network successful is so low. The barrier is so easy simply because of the breadth of appeal of this programming and the depth of the resources that we have at Discovery Communications and most of all the support that we have from upon high starting with David and the people in the trenches across the board.TVWeek: We&rsquo;ve talked about the TV product. What about online? You look at something like TMZ, which is about celebrities, but could be considered related to ID since they focus a lot on celebrities who have run-ins with the law and so forth. And when they break a story such as Michael Jackson&rsquo;s death, they get millions of hits, but I don&rsquo;t know if that translates into significant monies on the ad side for them.Schleiff: When you say the Internet and the web, potential use of that has gone through the so many incarnations in the last several years. And I think the most current one, and quite correctly so, is the concern that we don&rsquo;t convert dollars into digital pennies. I think certainly that is absolutely true. I&rsquo;ve always been very cynical about the monetization of the Internet.Your TMZ example is a great one because it is very relevant to our audience in particular. I think for the moment the internet for us is the ultimate marketing tool. Especially to increasing an audience when you are a digital network, and often in a channel position that is akin to being in the witness protection program which is essentially where we are, with the exception of a couple of markets, such as New York, where we have a position on channel 23.So to the extent that the Internet&mdash;and through it our website and related websites&mdash;allows us to extend our reach to an audience that may not in fact know where we are or even what we even exist, it&rsquo;s a huge marketing opportunity for us.The one the thing that we share with TMZ is that I think it&rsquo;s almost a sister network in terms of the passion of its audience. And this is a business of passion. The programming we play is about passion plays. Often with one side or the other out of kilter, for sure.I will say that our audience is an audience that wants to know more about the facts of a particular incident, a case, a tragedy, a mystery. You only have so much air time and you only have a certain way of telling a story. You use your website to reach out to the audience and say, &ldquo;Here&rsquo;s the back story.&rdquo; &ldquo;Here&rsquo;s where they are now.&rdquo; &ldquo;Here&rsquo;s some other facts that you couldn&rsquo;t have imagined.&rdquo; That is a great opportunity for us and something we&rsquo;re exploring now very much. Huge marketing upside for our audience.TVWeek: Can you talk about any point of view you want to bring to the network?Schleiff: Stories of our justice system and a system of justice that is not always just. I think that is incredibly compelling. That also would allows us to shine a Klieg light, if you will, on those heroes of the justice system that get overlooked. And maybe there&rsquo;s public service initiatives that we can do.We can look at issues in our justice system that are not only important but lend themselves to great storytelling. I truly believe, in that context at this network, like a Court TV at its best, can inform, can entertain and truly on occasion, can inspire. We&rsquo;re not going to do that consistently. We&rsquo;re not going to do all three of those with any given show. But from time to time, one, two and maybe even all three.TVWeek: Is part of your passion for that come from your background as a lawyer?Schleiff: Yeah, I think some of it is. And some of it is just being around in this business for awhile and realizing the fact that these networks are incredibly powerful tools of communication. It&rsquo;s that desire to do good by doing well, which might be a little derivative of the belief that once in a while there&rsquo;s good karma when you tell a story that truly has resonance beyond just ratings.TVWeek: Outside of Discovery&rsquo;s partnership with Hasbro for HUB, the kids network, in the U.S. Discovery networks have always been nonfiction. But what would fit better on ID than one of the &ldquo;CSI:&rdquo; shows or a crime procedural like it? Your ratings would certainly go up.Schleiff: Tthere&rsquo;s certain things that your brand should shout to the viewer and I think what we&rsquo;re shouting is fact-based, real life, high stakes stories of investigation. That&rsquo;s not to say that you couldn&rsquo;t tell some variation of that in a scripted, fiction form.Again, there are a lot of networks out there that do that exceedingly well. I would rather be known for what we do and do it really, really well. Which is unscripted.That&rsquo;s not to say that we can&rsquo;t look at&mdash;down the line&mdash;maybe stories based on scripted stories, based on actual factual incidents. But I think for the moment I&rsquo;ll split the difference with your very good direction. One of the things that we truly want to add to the recipe here is delving a little more into those significant, important, cause-related documentaries.For example I have just come back from the Hamptons Film Festival and the Toronto Film Festival, and you see some documentaries in this area that would make your hair stand in terms of the compelling story behind them. And I think that&rsquo;s a good place for us. Again, we want to be distinctive in the world of those networks. And I think staying true to this reality fact way of storytelling as apposed to scripted is a great north star for us.#To read our introduction to this special report, &quot;Cable TV Programmer of the Decade,&quot; click here.To read our interview with Discovery President and CEO David Zaslav, click here.To read our interview with Bruce Campbell, President, Digital Media and Corporate Development for Discovery, click here.To read our interview with Bill Goodwyn, Discovery's President, Domestic Distribution and Enterprises, click here.To read our interview with Marjorie Kaplan, President and General Manager, Animal Planet Media Enterprises, click here.To read our interview with Laura Michalchyshyn, President and General Manager of Planet Green, Discovery Health and FitTV, click here.To read our interview with Joe Abruzzese, President of Advertising Sales for Doscovery COmmunications, click hereTo read our interview with Eileen O'Neill, President and General Manager of TLC, click hereTo read our interview with Clark Bunting, President and General Manager of the Discovery Channel, click hereTo read our interview with Carole Tomko, President and General Manager of Discovery Studios, click here.To read our interview with Mark Hollinger, President and CEO, Discovery&nbsp;Networks International, click here.]]></summary>
   <author>
      <name>Chuck Ross</name>
      
   </author>
   
      <category term="Advertising" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Broadcast" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Business" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Cable" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Digital" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Syndication" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
   
   <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.tvweek.com/news/">
      <![CDATA['The one thing that&nbsp;Investigation Discovery&nbsp;shares with TMZ is it's almost a sister network in terms of the passion of its audience. And this is a business of passion. The programming we play is about passion plays. Often with one side or the other out of kilter, for sure.&mdash;Henry Schleiff[Editor's Note: This interview with Henry Schleiff was conducted&nbsp;in November, 2009,&nbsp;a number of weeks before he got the added duties of overseeing the Miliary Channel and HD Theater in an end of year reorg at Discovery.]We began the interview with me asking Henry about his decision to join Discovery.--Chuck RossHenry Schleiff: I was very, if you will, circumspect and careful about what I wanted to do coming off what I thought was a reasonable success at Court TV and Hallmark, with some kind of narrow reputation of taking a team of people and a network and really taking a network to its next level.It&rsquo;s one thing to go to a small network. It&rsquo;s another thing to go to a small network with a small niche. This is a small network in terms of its current distribution&mdash;55 million homes&mdash;but an unbelievably wide, hugely embracing genre called storytelling. Great storytelling with a subgenre of crime, justice, mysteries, investigation.Let&rsquo;s talk about storytelling. Today, in very simple terms, you have a ton of great scripted product out there on broadcast and cable. Lots of great scripted stuff. You&rsquo;ve got a ton of unscripted stuff coming under this general name of reality.What you don&rsquo;t have is almost idiosyncratic to Investigation Discovery&mdash;ID&mdash;which I call almost a third variation. And that is semi-scripted reality. That is documentary footage&mdash;it&rsquo;s real footage, it&rsquo;s fact-based stories. We don&rsquo;t have actors. We don&rsquo;t have scripts. We&rsquo;re taking actual documentary footage and telling unbelievably compelling stories with high stakes, like mysteries.Give me one other network in this crowded universe of what, 130 or 140 ad-supported networks&mdash;that has that as its unique selling proposition. And so that was very attractive to me because I thought, boy here&rsquo;s something that&rsquo;s brawny. That&rsquo;s big.Obviously having run Court TV I had some experience in the world of crime and justice. So you could go out there and you could find something that was just a naturally appealing, broad genre. But there is no other crime, justice, investigation 24/7 network.Not to say there&rsquo;s not a lot of competition. I look around and A&amp;E does a fabulous job for a couple of hours on a specific night in our space. I look around at TruTV&mdash;which we called Court TV when I there. Does a great job on a couple of nights for a couple of hours.But there is no one place 24/7, 365 days. That&rsquo;s called a brand. That&rsquo;s called a destination. Whatever cutsie term you want to put on it. But I do think that&rsquo;s our calling card going forward. I think actually it is very easy&mdash;in the privacy of this interview on your website&mdash;to say that&rsquo;s an easy network to actually grow and make successful.People, as you know, are endlessly fascinated with this genre. I will give you a couple of quick statistics: One, we&rsquo;re number one in all of cable in length of tune. Viewers come to us and stay with this network longer than any other network, which by the way, is an advertiser&rsquo;s dream. Because at least you&rsquo;re saying to the advertiser&mdash;at the very least&mdash;viewers will see the spot at the commercial break. The reason for that, by the way, is the very act of telling the kind of stories we tell with a beginning, a middle and an end ,in a compelling way.We are the fastest growing ad-supported cable network in our demographic target, women 25 to 54. And we&rsquo;ve only been around for two years, Again, out of all cable, we are in the top five networks in C3 ratings.Let&rsquo;s go to from the general to the specific. We just finished October. We ranked number two out of all mid-size networks&mdash;that&rsquo;s networks 69 million subs and under. That&rsquo;s a lot of networks out there. So to be number two as quickly as we have achieved that is unbelievable.TVWeek: Who is No. 1?Schleiff: I think it&rsquo;s Lifetime Movie Network. Which has been around longer and is a terrific network. Roughly the same appeal in longform programming.October is the 21st consecutive month of year-over-year prime time gains in both households and women 25-54. 21 straight months. Now, I&rsquo;ve only been here for two months. I&rsquo;m trying to figure out how to take credit for the prior 19 months! And it&rsquo;s going to be arguable for me to even take credit on the two I&rsquo;ve been here for, so work with me on that one.Then you have the softer stuff, the beta testing, the most recent beta testing. ID is number one out of all emerging networks in importance to the enjoyment of cable in the latest beta study.I look at even the shows at the bottom of the page. We just introduced &quot;On the Case With Paula Zahn.&rdquo; Two weeks ago, huge numbers. We play 48 Hours. We play Dateline. Now we&rsquo;ve got our own magazine show. Paula&rsquo;s excellent. She&rsquo;s a good journalist. She asks the right questions.What I&rsquo;m saying is the mix and the breadth of this genre allows us to do a lot of creative and smart things going forward. So as our distribution grows, and we grow with it automatically, our numbers will go up part and parcel with that distribution.TVWeek: Henry, you mentioned right at the beginning about coming here and what you found here when you got here. You&rsquo;re a man with some repute and, I would imagine, you considered some other options. What made you decide to hang your shingle up here at Discovery?Schlieff: Two things. Thing one, aside from anything else, I&rsquo;ve spent enough time in this industry to know the industry. To know the players. To know what companies are on the move, on the increase. What companies frankly reflect the personality you should look for, which is very simple: A company that&rsquo;s lively, that&rsquo;s got people who are intelligent and people who are fun to be around.That starts at the top. I&rsquo;ve known David Zaslav for over 20 years: I&rsquo;ve competed with him, he&rsquo;s been a friend. We&rsquo;ve worked in lockstep, we&rsquo;ve been at loggerheads. Every way you can work in this businessThen you look at Discovery. On the rise. On the increase. Led by a guy with great enthusiasm and great energy.Then you think, what the heck role can I play in a company like that? And I looked around and I said, boy, there&rsquo;s a network over there that I think plays to my experience and to my strength. One, it&rsquo;s small and it&rsquo;s in a genre that I understand. As I said earlier, if I have any limited experience or skill, it is taking something that is small in making it reasonably bigger and more successful.But to do that, you&rsquo;ve got to be surrounded with resources, you&rsquo;ve got to be surrounded with people who &ldquo;get you,&rdquo; that are simpatico to what you want to do. I literally walked into David&rsquo;s office and I said, you know you&rsquo;ve got this thing called ID. Investigation Discovery. Did you ever think about expanding the investigation into areas not only in the world of crime and justice but really playing up investigation?Cut forward to our new tagline Investigate Life. I literally got about three sentences out of my mouth and David said, &lsquo;Well what about you? When can you start?I came back to my office. What was supposed to be an hour meeting had lasted about 25 minutes. Yvette, then with me for 30 years, said, &lsquo;My gosh, what happened? It didn&rsquo;t go well?&rsquo; I said, &lsquo;I think it went too well. He says he wants me to start like next week.&rsquo; That&rsquo;s typical David. I think he saw the marriage, if you will, between somebody with my experience, and again, the fabulous job, and I must underscore this, that had already been done at ID. The foundation had then been laid in place. It&rsquo;s really important to know people like a Clark Bunting, a Debbie Meyers, a Kevin Bennett, who really had laid the foundation for this.I don&rsquo;t know if I&rsquo;m a good writer, but I&rsquo;m a good editor. And by that, I mean it&rsquo;s great to walk in where the text already exists, thanks to those people, and those behind them. And to take that and say, let&rsquo;s edit it. Let&rsquo;s really push up this and minimize that. Let&rsquo;s go in that direction, or why this? Just ask the questions which somebody with a full-time view can do. Which they realty didn&rsquo;t have before me. Somebody who is passionate, over the top and focused on this one child. This one baby. I think that&rsquo;s what I brought to the table. But we&rsquo;ll build this network on, frankly, a very solid foundation that was in place before I got here.I really don&rsquo;t do startups. When I was leaving Hallmark, people said, &ldquo;Here&rsquo;s money, do you want to do this?&rdquo; And, &ldquo;Here&rsquo;s money, do you want to do that?&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;Give me the money part. But I don&rsquo;t want to do this and do that because it&rsquo;s not going to succeed.&rdquo; I know what succeeds and I know what&rsquo;s not going to. And I come back to the fact&mdash;in the privacy of this interview&mdash;that I think the level of difficulty of making this network successful is so low. The barrier is so easy simply because of the breadth of appeal of this programming and the depth of the resources that we have at Discovery Communications and most of all the support that we have from upon high starting with David and the people in the trenches across the board.TVWeek: We&rsquo;ve talked about the TV product. What about online? You look at something like TMZ, which is about celebrities, but could be considered related to ID since they focus a lot on celebrities who have run-ins with the law and so forth. And when they break a story such as Michael Jackson&rsquo;s death, they get millions of hits, but I don&rsquo;t know if that translates into significant monies on the ad side for them.Schleiff: When you say the Internet and the web, potential use of that has gone through the so many incarnations in the last several years. And I think the most current one, and quite correctly so, is the concern that we don&rsquo;t convert dollars into digital pennies. I think certainly that is absolutely true. I&rsquo;ve always been very cynical about the monetization of the Internet.Your TMZ example is a great one because it is very relevant to our audience in particular. I think for the moment the internet for us is the ultimate marketing tool. Especially to increasing an audience when you are a digital network, and often in a channel position that is akin to being in the witness protection program which is essentially where we are, with the exception of a couple of markets, such as New York, where we have a position on channel 23.So to the extent that the Internet&mdash;and through it our website and related websites&mdash;allows us to extend our reach to an audience that may not in fact know where we are or even what we even exist, it&rsquo;s a huge marketing opportunity for us.The one the thing that we share with TMZ is that I think it&rsquo;s almost a sister network in terms of the passion of its audience. And this is a business of passion. The programming we play is about passion plays. Often with one side or the other out of kilter, for sure.I will say that our audience is an audience that wants to know more about the facts of a particular incident, a case, a tragedy, a mystery. You only have so much air time and you only have a certain way of telling a story. You use your website to reach out to the audience and say, &ldquo;Here&rsquo;s the back story.&rdquo; &ldquo;Here&rsquo;s where they are now.&rdquo; &ldquo;Here&rsquo;s some other facts that you couldn&rsquo;t have imagined.&rdquo; That is a great opportunity for us and something we&rsquo;re exploring now very much. Huge marketing upside for our audience.TVWeek: Can you talk about any point of view you want to bring to the network?Schleiff: Stories of our justice system and a system of justice that is not always just. I think that is incredibly compelling. That also would allows us to shine a Klieg light, if you will, on those heroes of the justice system that get overlooked. And maybe there&rsquo;s public service initiatives that we can do.We can look at issues in our justice system that are not only important but lend themselves to great storytelling. I truly believe, in that context at this network, like a Court TV at its best, can inform, can entertain and truly on occasion, can inspire. We&rsquo;re not going to do that consistently. We&rsquo;re not going to do all three of those with any given show. But from time to time, one, two and maybe even all three.TVWeek: Is part of your passion for that come from your background as a lawyer?Schleiff: Yeah, I think some of it is. And some of it is just being around in this business for awhile and realizing the fact that these networks are incredibly powerful tools of communication. It&rsquo;s that desire to do good by doing well, which might be a little derivative of the belief that once in a while there&rsquo;s good karma when you tell a story that truly has resonance beyond just ratings.TVWeek: Outside of Discovery&rsquo;s partnership with Hasbro for HUB, the kids network, in the U.S. Discovery networks have always been nonfiction. But what would fit better on ID than one of the &ldquo;CSI:&rdquo; shows or a crime procedural like it? Your ratings would certainly go up.Schleiff: Tthere&rsquo;s certain things that your brand should shout to the viewer and I think what we&rsquo;re shouting is fact-based, real life, high stakes stories of investigation. That&rsquo;s not to say that you couldn&rsquo;t tell some variation of that in a scripted, fiction form.Again, there are a lot of networks out there that do that exceedingly well. I would rather be known for what we do and do it really, really well. Which is unscripted.That&rsquo;s not to say that we can&rsquo;t look at&mdash;down the line&mdash;maybe stories based on scripted stories, based on actual factual incidents. But I think for the moment I&rsquo;ll split the difference with your very good direction. One of the things that we truly want to add to the recipe here is delving a little more into those significant, important, cause-related documentaries.For example I have just come back from the Hamptons Film Festival and the Toronto Film Festival, and you see some documentaries in this area that would make your hair stand in terms of the compelling story behind them. And I think that&rsquo;s a good place for us. Again, we want to be distinctive in the world of those networks. And I think staying true to this reality fact way of storytelling as apposed to scripted is a great north star for us.#To read our introduction to this special report, &quot;Cable TV Programmer of the Decade,&quot; click here.To read our interview with Discovery President and CEO David Zaslav, click here.To read our interview with Bruce Campbell, President, Digital Media and Corporate Development for Discovery, click here.To read our interview with Bill Goodwyn, Discovery's President, Domestic Distribution and Enterprises, click here.To read our interview with Marjorie Kaplan, President and General Manager, Animal Planet Media Enterprises, click here.To read our interview with Laura Michalchyshyn, President and General Manager of Planet Green, Discovery Health and FitTV, click here.To read our interview with Joe Abruzzese, President of Advertising Sales for Doscovery COmmunications, click hereTo read our interview with Eileen O'Neill, President and General Manager of TLC, click hereTo read our interview with Clark Bunting, President and General Manager of the Discovery Channel, click hereTo read our interview with Carole Tomko, President and General Manager of Discovery Studios, click here.To read our interview with Mark Hollinger, President and CEO, Discovery&nbsp;Networks International, click here.]]>
   </content>
</entry>

<entry>
   <title>Gene Barry and Guest Star Annette Funicello on 'Burke's Law' from the Swingin' '60s</title>
   <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.tvweek.com/news/2009/12/gene_barry_and_guest_star_anne.php" />
   <id>tag:www.tvweek.com,2009:/news//1.39388</id>
   
   <published>2009-12-11T07:35:15Z</published>
   <updated>2009-12-11T07:42:52Z</updated>
   
   <summary />
   <author>
      <name>Chuck Ross</name>
      
   </author>
   
      <category term="Broadcast" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Cable" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Syndication" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
   <category term="10884" label="Burke's Law" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="10886" label="Gene Barry" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   
   <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.tvweek.com/news/">
      
   </content>
</entry>

<entry>
   <title>It's Official: Oprah to End Syndie Run in 2011</title>
   <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.tvweek.com/news/2009/11/its_official_oprah_to_end_synd.php" />
   <id>tag:www.tvweek.com,2009:/news//1.39067</id>
   
   <published>2009-11-20T00:24:06Z</published>
   <updated>2009-11-20T01:27:56Z</updated>
   
   <summary><![CDATA[Oprah Winfrey will end her syndicated talk show in September 2011, concluding a 25-year run, according to ABC News.Winfrey is scheduled to make the announcement tomorrow on &quot;The Oprah Winfrey Show,&quot; which is produced by her Harpo Productions and distributed by CBS Television Distribution.It is anticipated that Winfrey will announce her future plans on that show as well.In a statement, CBS Television Distribution said, &quot;We have the greatest respect for Oprah and wish her nothing but the best in her future endeavors. We know that anything she turns her hand to will be a great success. We look forward to working&nbsp;with her for the next several years, and hopefully afterwards as well.&quot;The ABC News site carries the full text of a statement Harpo President Tim Bennett sent to TV stations that carry the program. It follows below.-- Tom GilbertTIM BENNETT STATEMENT:Dear Friends:Over the past several weeks, my team and I have had conversations with many of you to help address your questions about the future of &quot;The Oprah Winfrey Show.&quot; Of course, the one question we couldn't answer was the one that only Oprah could. And tomorrow, she will do just that.But before she speaks to her loyal viewers, we wanted to share her decision first with you - our valued partners for more than two decades.Tomorrow, Oprah will announce live on &quot;The Oprah Winfrey Show&quot; that she has decided to end what is arguably one of the most popular, influential and enduring programs in television history. The sun will set on the &quot;Oprah&quot; show as its 25th season draws to a close on September 9, 2011.We welcome you to share this news this evening with your colleagues and viewers. As we all know, Oprah's personal comments about this on tomorrow's live show will mark an historic television moment that we will all be talking about for years to come.We want to thank you for the partnership and friendship we have shared over the years. Your invaluable support has helped us to create the phenomenon of the &quot;Oprah Show&quot; that we've all been so proud to be a part of for the last 24 years. My staff and I will be calling all of you directly tonight and tomorrow. We look forward to speaking with you.And, if you think the last quarter century has been something, then &quot;don't touch that dial&quot; as together we plan to make history in the next 20 months ... and beyond.Yours sincerely,Tim BennettPresident, Harpo, Inc.]]></summary>
   <author>
      <name>Tom Gilbert</name>
      <uri>http://www.tvweek.com/</uri>
   </author>
   
      <category term="Syndication" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
   <category term="167" label="Oprah Winfrey" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="3834" label="show" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="10183" label="syndicated" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   
   <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.tvweek.com/news/">
      <![CDATA[Oprah Winfrey will end her syndicated talk show in September 2011, concluding a 25-year run, according to ABC News.Winfrey is scheduled to make the announcement tomorrow on &quot;The Oprah Winfrey Show,&quot; which is produced by her Harpo Productions and distributed by CBS Television Distribution.It is anticipated that Winfrey will announce her future plans on that show as well.In a statement, CBS Television Distribution said, &quot;We have the greatest respect for Oprah and wish her nothing but the best in her future endeavors. We know that anything she turns her hand to will be a great success. We look forward to working&nbsp;with her for the next several years, and hopefully afterwards as well.&quot;The ABC News site carries the full text of a statement Harpo President Tim Bennett sent to TV stations that carry the program. It follows below.-- Tom GilbertTIM BENNETT STATEMENT:Dear Friends:Over the past several weeks, my team and I have had conversations with many of you to help address your questions about the future of &quot;The Oprah Winfrey Show.&quot; Of course, the one question we couldn't answer was the one that only Oprah could. And tomorrow, she will do just that.But before she speaks to her loyal viewers, we wanted to share her decision first with you - our valued partners for more than two decades.Tomorrow, Oprah will announce live on &quot;The Oprah Winfrey Show&quot; that she has decided to end what is arguably one of the most popular, influential and enduring programs in television history. The sun will set on the &quot;Oprah&quot; show as its 25th season draws to a close on September 9, 2011.We welcome you to share this news this evening with your colleagues and viewers. As we all know, Oprah's personal comments about this on tomorrow's live show will mark an historic television moment that we will all be talking about for years to come.We want to thank you for the partnership and friendship we have shared over the years. Your invaluable support has helped us to create the phenomenon of the &quot;Oprah Show&quot; that we've all been so proud to be a part of for the last 24 years. My staff and I will be calling all of you directly tonight and tomorrow. We look forward to speaking with you.And, if you think the last quarter century has been something, then &quot;don't touch that dial&quot; as together we plan to make history in the next 20 months ... and beyond.Yours sincerely,Tim BennettPresident, Harpo, Inc.]]>
   </content>
</entry>

<entry>
   <title>Jeff Bewkes, Chairman &amp; CEO, Time Warner, on Why The AOL Merger NEVER Made Sense, and the Lessons We should Learn from the Fiasco (from the TVWeek Innovation360 Conference in NY City, Oct. 13, 2009)</title>
   <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.tvweek.com/news/2009/10/jeff_bewkes_chairman_ceo_time.php" />
   <id>tag:www.tvweek.com,2009:/news//1.38647</id>
   
   <published>2009-10-24T20:51:21Z</published>
   <updated>2009-10-24T21:03:43Z</updated>
   
   <summary />
   <author>
      <name>Chuck Ross</name>
      
   </author>
   
      <category term="Advertising" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Broadcast" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Business" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Cable" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Digital" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Syndication" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
   <category term="399" label="AOL" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="8927" label="bad idea" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="1045" label="CEO" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="1370" label="chairman" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="8921" label="Chuck Ross" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="291" label="Comcast" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="4545" label="Jeff Bewkes" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="8923" label="Jeffrey Bewkes" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="8928" label="merger" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="55" label="NBC Universal" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="2358" label="Time Warner" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="8925" label="TVWeekNBCU" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   
   <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.tvweek.com/news/">
      
   </content>
</entry>

<entry>
   <title>NBCU Enlists All TV Units in Eco Agenda</title>
   <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.tvweek.com/news/2009/10/nbcu_enlists_all_tv_units_in_e.php" />
   <id>tag:www.tvweek.com,2009:/news//1.38268</id>
   
   <published>2009-10-02T17:08:38Z</published>
   <updated>2009-10-02T17:10:53Z</updated>
   
   <summary><![CDATA[By Allison J. Waldman In 2008, Lauren Zalaznick, president of NBC Universal Women and Lifestyle Entertainment Networks, undertook the leadership role in an environmental awareness initiative for NBC Universal called Green Is Universal. A year later, the commitment to green remains an integral part of the NBC Universal brand and corporate identity.&ldquo;I think the Green Is Universal initiative has really taken off both externally in how we&rsquo;re interfacing with our consumers, and internally as far as how we as a company are really embracing green and driving it through our own operation,&rdquo; said Beth Colleton, vice president of Green Is Universal.When the program began one of the goals was the creation of a handbook about how to enact green production. Today the handbook exists and is actively in use. &ldquo;Referencing the manual, what we did worked really well,&rdquo; said Colleton. &ldquo;We did some pilot work on film and TV shows to really learn how to create green production and worked that information into a play-by-play instruction manual &ndash; one for film and one for TV &ndash; that is now integrated into the business process of our Universal Pictures, Focus Features and Universal Media Studio operations.&rdquo;The green process isn&rsquo;t found only in production, but also all business offices and operations.&nbsp;&quot;Green is sometimes very visual, you know you can see it right there with recycling, but sometimes green is the absence of activity. You might be in an office or in a TV studio and not realize that some green changes have been put in place,&rdquo; said Colleton.For instance, a green message might be found in a copy room. &ldquo;We can communicate behavioral changes to our crews and employees, so there&rsquo;ll be a message that if they print less, what the effect will be on the environment. The physical branding approach not only communicates information about best practices that are taking place, but informs our work force about the ways they can participate in change,&rdquo; she said.One new project NBCU is enacting is called &ldquo;The Green Apprentice.&rdquo; &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve put additional dollars aside to spur innovation and really encourage our work force to look for cutting-edge innovative ways to implement energy waste and water savings throughout our operations. The proposals are out right now and they&rsquo;re starting to come in,&rdquo; said Colleton. &ldquo;Internally, we have just seen so much traction with green. People are looking for creative ways to implement green and are looking for more long-term solutions.&rdquo;Despite the recession NBCU hasn&rsquo;t abandoned this effort, and the public has come to identify NBC as the green network. &ldquo;We have some research that we did a few months ago that shows that. Consumers and the general public see the value of green not just in their belief system but in the way that they actually spend their dollars,&rdquo; said Colleton.The Green Is Universal message will be underscored during sweeps. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the same as last year. From November 15 to 22, all of the brands of NBC Universal will go green, so to speak, and be dedicated to delivering green information in entertainment and content those seven days,&rdquo; said Colleton.Whether on Bravo or USA or NBC, many of the performers have shown great support for Green is Universal. &ldquo;We are really lucky because our talent is so engaged in the cause of the environment that they often come to us looking for ways to get involved,&rdquo; she said.For the on-air, award-winning &ldquo;The More You Know&rdquo; PSA program, 23 different stars volunteered to participate in last year&rsquo;s campaign. &ldquo;We eventually had to tell folks beyond the 23 that we couldn&rsquo;t take anymore. They&rsquo;ve also participated in volunteer events and other public service initiatives to really drive the public to engage here,&rdquo; said Colleton.&ldquo;One of the key differences is that green isn&rsquo;t just a cause anymore, it&rsquo;s really a lifestyle that people are recognizing locally, so it&rsquo;s not a distant 100 years in the future what&rsquo;s the state of the environment going to be,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;People are seeing the effects of the environment in their everyday lives, so they are very much engaged in trying to change their own behavior for the betterment of themselves, their families and their communities, and most importantly their children.&rdquo;For NBCU, the initiative has proven to be a success. &ldquo;Just this spring, the Audubon Society gave us the Rachel Carson Award,&rdquo; said Colleton. &ldquo;Since we&rsquo;re not a manufacturing company or a building or textile company, they were appreciative of what we have in our arsenal to make a difference. We can communicate with 100 million people during a month and arm them with the right information so that they can make those changes in their daily lives. We do that in our entertainment shows, news properties and we deliver this information all year long.&rdquo;]]></summary>
   <author>
      <name>Tom Gilbert</name>
      <uri>http://www.tvweek.com/</uri>
   </author>
   
      <category term="Broadcast" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Cable" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Digital" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Syndication" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
   
   <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.tvweek.com/news/">
      <![CDATA[By Allison J. Waldman In 2008, Lauren Zalaznick, president of NBC Universal Women and Lifestyle Entertainment Networks, undertook the leadership role in an environmental awareness initiative for NBC Universal called Green Is Universal. A year later, the commitment to green remains an integral part of the NBC Universal brand and corporate identity.&ldquo;I think the Green Is Universal initiative has really taken off both externally in how we&rsquo;re interfacing with our consumers, and internally as far as how we as a company are really embracing green and driving it through our own operation,&rdquo; said Beth Colleton, vice president of Green Is Universal.When the program began one of the goals was the creation of a handbook about how to enact green production. Today the handbook exists and is actively in use. &ldquo;Referencing the manual, what we did worked really well,&rdquo; said Colleton. &ldquo;We did some pilot work on film and TV shows to really learn how to create green production and worked that information into a play-by-play instruction manual &ndash; one for film and one for TV &ndash; that is now integrated into the business process of our Universal Pictures, Focus Features and Universal Media Studio operations.&rdquo;The green process isn&rsquo;t found only in production, but also all business offices and operations.&nbsp;&quot;Green is sometimes very visual, you know you can see it right there with recycling, but sometimes green is the absence of activity. You might be in an office or in a TV studio and not realize that some green changes have been put in place,&rdquo; said Colleton.For instance, a green message might be found in a copy room. &ldquo;We can communicate behavioral changes to our crews and employees, so there&rsquo;ll be a message that if they print less, what the effect will be on the environment. The physical branding approach not only communicates information about best practices that are taking place, but informs our work force about the ways they can participate in change,&rdquo; she said.One new project NBCU is enacting is called &ldquo;The Green Apprentice.&rdquo; &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve put additional dollars aside to spur innovation and really encourage our work force to look for cutting-edge innovative ways to implement energy waste and water savings throughout our operations. The proposals are out right now and they&rsquo;re starting to come in,&rdquo; said Colleton. &ldquo;Internally, we have just seen so much traction with green. People are looking for creative ways to implement green and are looking for more long-term solutions.&rdquo;Despite the recession NBCU hasn&rsquo;t abandoned this effort, and the public has come to identify NBC as the green network. &ldquo;We have some research that we did a few months ago that shows that. Consumers and the general public see the value of green not just in their belief system but in the way that they actually spend their dollars,&rdquo; said Colleton.The Green Is Universal message will be underscored during sweeps. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the same as last year. From November 15 to 22, all of the brands of NBC Universal will go green, so to speak, and be dedicated to delivering green information in entertainment and content those seven days,&rdquo; said Colleton.Whether on Bravo or USA or NBC, many of the performers have shown great support for Green is Universal. &ldquo;We are really lucky because our talent is so engaged in the cause of the environment that they often come to us looking for ways to get involved,&rdquo; she said.For the on-air, award-winning &ldquo;The More You Know&rdquo; PSA program, 23 different stars volunteered to participate in last year&rsquo;s campaign. &ldquo;We eventually had to tell folks beyond the 23 that we couldn&rsquo;t take anymore. They&rsquo;ve also participated in volunteer events and other public service initiatives to really drive the public to engage here,&rdquo; said Colleton.&ldquo;One of the key differences is that green isn&rsquo;t just a cause anymore, it&rsquo;s really a lifestyle that people are recognizing locally, so it&rsquo;s not a distant 100 years in the future what&rsquo;s the state of the environment going to be,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;People are seeing the effects of the environment in their everyday lives, so they are very much engaged in trying to change their own behavior for the betterment of themselves, their families and their communities, and most importantly their children.&rdquo;For NBCU, the initiative has proven to be a success. &ldquo;Just this spring, the Audubon Society gave us the Rachel Carson Award,&rdquo; said Colleton. &ldquo;Since we&rsquo;re not a manufacturing company or a building or textile company, they were appreciative of what we have in our arsenal to make a difference. We can communicate with 100 million people during a month and arm them with the right information so that they can make those changes in their daily lives. We do that in our entertainment shows, news properties and we deliver this information all year long.&rdquo;]]>
   </content>
</entry>

<entry>
   <title>Official Roundup of Primetime Emmys by the Academy of TV Arts and Sciences</title>
   <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.tvweek.com/news/2009/09/official_roundup_of_primetime.php" />
   <id>tag:www.tvweek.com,2009:/news//1.38038</id>
   
   <published>2009-09-21T09:46:27Z</published>
   <updated>2009-09-21T09:48:39Z</updated>
   
   <summary><![CDATA[Faster. Funnier. That&rsquo;s what executive producer Don Mischer promised for the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards, and that&rsquo;s what he delivered.For their part, Television Academy voters were determined to share the wealth. A total of ten networks shared the 28 Emmys handed out during the live show at the NOKIA Theatre L.A. LIVE, with no network collecting more than five. Despite the expansion of several categories to six and even seven nominees, adding new faces and series to the mix, repeat winners dominated the night.NBC and HBO tied with five golden statuettes. For NBC, four were won by 30 Rock, including outstanding comedy series for the third year in a row, and lead actor Alec Baldwin, his second in a row. HBO&rsquo;s Emmys were won in the movies and miniseries categories, including Grey Gardens for outstanding movie, Jessica Lange for lead actress in that film and Brendan Gleeson for lead actor in Into the Storm, in which he played Winston ChurchillBasic cable networks dominated in drama. AMC&rsquo;s Mad Men won for outstanding drama. Glenn Close took the Emmy for lead actress for FX&rsquo;s Damages and Bryan Cranston was named lead actor in a drama series for AMC&rsquo;s Breaking Bad. All three were second-consecutive victories.Defying most prognosticators, Toni Collette took home the Emmy for lead comedy actress for her work in Showtime&rsquo;s United States of Tara.Other encore winners included The Daily Show with Jon Stewart for outstanding comedy series and The Amazing Race for reality-competition, both of which won for the seventh straight year.In all, broadcast networks claimed 13 Emmys and cable collected 11. Three went to PBS for the miniseries Little Dorrit.Onstage, one-liners replaced monologues. The entire show was neatly organized into five genres: comedy, reality, movies and miniseries, variety and drama. Presenters, meanwhile, were mostly introduced with references to their most obscure roles.Host Neil Patrick Harris kicked things off with a rousing rendition of &ldquo;Put Down the Remote,&rdquo; a ditty written by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, the team behind the Broadway hit Hairspray, that pleaded with viewers to ignore all the usual TV distractions and then ticked off some of the celebrities in the star-studded audience.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a big fan of television,&rdquo; said Harris, who gained public attention as kid doctor Doogie Howser. &ldquo;I grew up on television.Though not a standup, Harris nonetheless referenced some current events. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m here to make sure everything runs smoothly,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Here&rsquo;s hoping Kanye West likes 30 Rock.&rdquo;Harris gave a quick tour of the stage, including sections for the orchestra and the control room, before introducing a collage of comedy clips from the past season. More clips summarized the TV season before each of the other genres. Far more than the others, the clip summarizing the world of reality TV played like a symphony of bleeped language.Also breaking with tradition, Harrison introduced offstage announcer John Hodgman, best known as PC in the Apple Mac ads. Tongue firmly in cheek, Hodgman offered up arcane information as the Emmy winners made their way to the stage.Hodgman set the tone early when, in breathless &rsquo;50s style, he welcomed viewers to &ldquo;the capital of fun, fancy and let&rsquo;s pretend.&rdquo;Unspoken but on many minds was the new Jay Leno Show, which airs at 10 p.m. weekdays, eliminating space traditionally used for dramas. Presenter Julia Louis-Dreyfus, standing beside Amy Poehler, said, &ldquo;Amy and I are proud to be presenting on the last official year of network broadcast television.&rdquo; Billy Crystal, singing the writing credits for The Late Show with David Letterman, asked the CBS talk show host if he was moving to 10 p.m.Closing her acceptance speech for outstanding comedy series for 30 Rock, Tina Fey said &ldquo;We want to thank our friends at NBC, Jeff Zucker, Ben Silverman, Jeff Gaspin, for keeping us on the air even though we are so much more expensive than a talk show. So thank you.Earlier, Harris made light of the victory of Two and a Half Men star Jon Cryer for outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series, a category in which both had been nominated. &ldquo;This might have gone in two directions,&rdquo; he said.&ldquo;I used to think that awards were just shallow tokens of momentary popularity, but now I realize they are the only true measure of a person&rsquo;s real worth as a human being,&rdquo; Cryer said.Meanwhile, Kristin Chenoweth was so overwhelmed by her win as outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series for the now-canceled Pushing Daisies that she fought tears throughout her speech. But she still managed to get a laugh when, referencing Pushing Daisies' demise, she said, &quot;I'm unemployed now, so I'd like to be on Mad Men. I also like The Office and 24.&quot;Nominees for guest actor and actress, awards, given during the Creative Arts Emmys ceremony on Saturday, September 12, were named and the winners &mdash; Tina Fey and Justin Timberlake, both for Saturday Night Live &mdash; gave acceptance remarks in tandem. A similar scenario occurred for guest drama winners Ellen Burstyn and Michael J. Fox.Harris didn&rsquo;t have to wait long for the reviews to roll in. &ldquo;Neil Patrick Harris, this is how you host the Emmys,&rdquo; said Jeff Probst, picking up his Emmy for hosting Survivor. &ldquo;Nice job,&rdquo; he proclaimed.Added former host Jon Stewart, on stage to collect an Emmy for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart: &ldquo;Neil Patrick Harris, you&rsquo;re doing a wonderful job. These shows usually suck, but you&rsquo;ve been very good.&rdquo;Between the Creative Arts and Primetime Emmys ceremonies, HBO led all networks with 21 Emmys, followed by NBC with 16.#]]></summary>
   <author>
      <name>Chuck Ross</name>
      
   </author>
   
      <category term="Broadcast" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Cable" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Digital" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Syndication" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
   <category term="945" label="2009" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="1130" label="ATAS" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="199" label="Emmys" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="19" label="primetime" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="7279" label="Roundup" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   
   <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.tvweek.com/news/">
      <![CDATA[Faster. Funnier. That&rsquo;s what executive producer Don Mischer promised for the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards, and that&rsquo;s what he delivered.For their part, Television Academy voters were determined to share the wealth. A total of ten networks shared the 28 Emmys handed out during the live show at the NOKIA Theatre L.A. LIVE, with no network collecting more than five. Despite the expansion of several categories to six and even seven nominees, adding new faces and series to the mix, repeat winners dominated the night.NBC and HBO tied with five golden statuettes. For NBC, four were won by 30 Rock, including outstanding comedy series for the third year in a row, and lead actor Alec Baldwin, his second in a row. HBO&rsquo;s Emmys were won in the movies and miniseries categories, including Grey Gardens for outstanding movie, Jessica Lange for lead actress in that film and Brendan Gleeson for lead actor in Into the Storm, in which he played Winston ChurchillBasic cable networks dominated in drama. AMC&rsquo;s Mad Men won for outstanding drama. Glenn Close took the Emmy for lead actress for FX&rsquo;s Damages and Bryan Cranston was named lead actor in a drama series for AMC&rsquo;s Breaking Bad. All three were second-consecutive victories.Defying most prognosticators, Toni Collette took home the Emmy for lead comedy actress for her work in Showtime&rsquo;s United States of Tara.Other encore winners included The Daily Show with Jon Stewart for outstanding comedy series and The Amazing Race for reality-competition, both of which won for the seventh straight year.In all, broadcast networks claimed 13 Emmys and cable collected 11. Three went to PBS for the miniseries Little Dorrit.Onstage, one-liners replaced monologues. The entire show was neatly organized into five genres: comedy, reality, movies and miniseries, variety and drama. Presenters, meanwhile, were mostly introduced with references to their most obscure roles.Host Neil Patrick Harris kicked things off with a rousing rendition of &ldquo;Put Down the Remote,&rdquo; a ditty written by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, the team behind the Broadway hit Hairspray, that pleaded with viewers to ignore all the usual TV distractions and then ticked off some of the celebrities in the star-studded audience.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a big fan of television,&rdquo; said Harris, who gained public attention as kid doctor Doogie Howser. &ldquo;I grew up on television.Though not a standup, Harris nonetheless referenced some current events. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m here to make sure everything runs smoothly,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Here&rsquo;s hoping Kanye West likes 30 Rock.&rdquo;Harris gave a quick tour of the stage, including sections for the orchestra and the control room, before introducing a collage of comedy clips from the past season. More clips summarized the TV season before each of the other genres. Far more than the others, the clip summarizing the world of reality TV played like a symphony of bleeped language.Also breaking with tradition, Harrison introduced offstage announcer John Hodgman, best known as PC in the Apple Mac ads. Tongue firmly in cheek, Hodgman offered up arcane information as the Emmy winners made their way to the stage.Hodgman set the tone early when, in breathless &rsquo;50s style, he welcomed viewers to &ldquo;the capital of fun, fancy and let&rsquo;s pretend.&rdquo;Unspoken but on many minds was the new Jay Leno Show, which airs at 10 p.m. weekdays, eliminating space traditionally used for dramas. Presenter Julia Louis-Dreyfus, standing beside Amy Poehler, said, &ldquo;Amy and I are proud to be presenting on the last official year of network broadcast television.&rdquo; Billy Crystal, singing the writing credits for The Late Show with David Letterman, asked the CBS talk show host if he was moving to 10 p.m.Closing her acceptance speech for outstanding comedy series for 30 Rock, Tina Fey said &ldquo;We want to thank our friends at NBC, Jeff Zucker, Ben Silverman, Jeff Gaspin, for keeping us on the air even though we are so much more expensive than a talk show. So thank you.Earlier, Harris made light of the victory of Two and a Half Men star Jon Cryer for outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series, a category in which both had been nominated. &ldquo;This might have gone in two directions,&rdquo; he said.&ldquo;I used to think that awards were just shallow tokens of momentary popularity, but now I realize they are the only true measure of a person&rsquo;s real worth as a human being,&rdquo; Cryer said.Meanwhile, Kristin Chenoweth was so overwhelmed by her win as outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series for the now-canceled Pushing Daisies that she fought tears throughout her speech. But she still managed to get a laugh when, referencing Pushing Daisies' demise, she said, &quot;I'm unemployed now, so I'd like to be on Mad Men. I also like The Office and 24.&quot;Nominees for guest actor and actress, awards, given during the Creative Arts Emmys ceremony on Saturday, September 12, were named and the winners &mdash; Tina Fey and Justin Timberlake, both for Saturday Night Live &mdash; gave acceptance remarks in tandem. A similar scenario occurred for guest drama winners Ellen Burstyn and Michael J. Fox.Harris didn&rsquo;t have to wait long for the reviews to roll in. &ldquo;Neil Patrick Harris, this is how you host the Emmys,&rdquo; said Jeff Probst, picking up his Emmy for hosting Survivor. &ldquo;Nice job,&rdquo; he proclaimed.Added former host Jon Stewart, on stage to collect an Emmy for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart: &ldquo;Neil Patrick Harris, you&rsquo;re doing a wonderful job. These shows usually suck, but you&rsquo;ve been very good.&rdquo;Between the Creative Arts and Primetime Emmys ceremonies, HBO led all networks with 21 Emmys, followed by NBC with 16.#]]>
   </content>
</entry>

<entry>
   <title>What's Really Going on With the Latest Challenge to Nielsen?</title>
   <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.tvweek.com/news/2009/09/whats_really_going_on_with_the_2.php" />
   <id>tag:www.tvweek.com,2009:/news//1.37883</id>
   
   <published>2009-09-11T12:33:13Z</published>
   <updated>2009-09-11T18:57:07Z</updated>
   
   <summary><![CDATA[By Chuck RossThis week saw the official announcement of a group of media buyers and sellers who could possibly challenge Nielsen&rsquo;s dominance in media measurement.First, some stats:Name: Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM). At least that&rsquo;s what its logo says. Some news accounts&mdash;including the New York Times&mdash;say it&rsquo;s not Coalition, but Council. Whatever&mdash;not important.14 Charter Members: AT&amp;T, CBS, Discovery Communications, GroupM, Interpublic Group's Mediabrands, NBC Universal, News Corp., Omnicom Media Group, P&amp;G, Starcom MediaVest Group Worldwide, Time Warner, Unilever, Viacom and The Walt Disney Co.CIMM&rsquo;s self-described Mission Statement: To explore new worlds, to go where no&hellip;oops that&rsquo;s close but not quite it. It&rsquo;s mission is to &ldquo;Promote innovation and explore new, high quality ways to measure audiences across traditional and new media.&rdquo;How&rsquo;s it gonna do this? MediaPost&rsquo;s Joe Mandese, who is hands down the best reporter covering media measurement, wrote in his account of the CIMM announcement yesterday that someone had leaked to him a draft request for proposal (RFP) from CIMM. The draft carried the name of NBC Universal President of Research and Media Development, Alan Wurtzel. Wurtzel&rsquo;s been the driving force behind CIMM.According to Mandese&rsquo;s terrific piece, the RFP, prepared in February, was looking to fund two studies: &ldquo;One for a pilot study that would &lsquo;study producing real cross-platform data that reflects exposure of specific video sources on television, the Internet and mobile media;&rsquo; and a second for a digital set-top data project that would deliver &lsquo;three to six months of actual STB [set-top box] data, to be used for evaluation (not sales) purposes.&rsquo; &quot;Furthermore, Mandese writes, the RFP said, &quot;We are agnostic as to who will supply us with this data; the field is open, but we need these forward-looking metrics, adequate to the high standards of trading and post-evaluation, within the next 3-5 years.&quot;Finally, Mandese quotes from the RFP: &quot;As buyers and sellers of advertising-supported media, we are deeply concerned that, despite the efforts of some research suppliers, media measure is not keeping pace with urgent business needs.&quot;Hmm. &ldquo;Some research suppliers.&rdquo; Wonder who that could be.Back on August 13, the Financial Times, when it first broke this story, interviewed Sam Armando, SVP of audience analysis of Starcom, which is a member of CIMM.&ldquo;The most deficient thing is there&rsquo;s no single source measurement [for TV and digital video],&rdquo; Armando said. He added: It was not a case of &ldquo;let&rsquo;s go out to replace Nielsen&rdquo;, he said, but the consortium&rsquo;s plan did not require a &ldquo;leap of faith&rdquo;.Let&rsquo;s follow the money here. The major broadcast networks are probably paying Nielsen $40 million to $50 million annually. Media agencies pay a fraction of that, but $2 million to $4 million is still significant. And mostly gone are the days when they can pass along all of their Nielsen costs to their clients.&nbsp;Nielsen is a monopoly player. Its ratings are the currency of the business. Billions of dollars of ad revenue are based on Nielsen&rsquo;s rating measurements.So far CIMM is being funded by virtually peanuts. Sources have told TVWeek that CIMM members are ponying up $100,000 each. Claire Atkinson, B&amp;C&rsquo;s stellar ad reporter, also is reporting this number. So, in total, CIMM has less than $2 million with which to play.As has been reported everywhere, dissatisfaction with Nielsen is nothing new. And past efforts to fund a true challenger to Nielsen have failed.Is this time different? Maybe.&nbsp;First things first. There are myriad issues with set-top box data. First, it&rsquo;s interesting that the folks who have the data&mdash;the cable operators, satellite providers, and the telcos who provide video&mdash;are not members of the coalition. Secondly, there aren&rsquo;t any standards thus far for gathering data from the boxes. And what about the fact that the boxes are not in the homes of many minorities? There are issues of getting enough information on a national basis, issues about privacy, and issues about getting demographic data. So clearly, in its initial stages, CIMM is an attempt to stimulate research at the set top box level, to create a common platform for analyzing that kind of census level data and to find constructive ways to stimulate discussion.Moving forward, if the many challenges can be met, perhaps CIMM can develop a currency with which to base the buying of ad time across myriad platforms. And that&rsquo;s a prospect that should keep Nielsen executives up at night.#]]></summary>
   <author>
      <name>Chuck Ross</name>
      
   </author>
   
      <category term="Advertising" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Broadcast" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Business" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Cable" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Digital" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Syndication" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
   <category term="6738" label="CIMM" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="6739" label="Coalition For Innovative Media Measurement" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="905" label="Nielsen" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   
   <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.tvweek.com/news/">
      <![CDATA[By Chuck RossThis week saw the official announcement of a group of media buyers and sellers who could possibly challenge Nielsen&rsquo;s dominance in media measurement.First, some stats:Name: Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM). At least that&rsquo;s what its logo says. Some news accounts&mdash;including the New York Times&mdash;say it&rsquo;s not Coalition, but Council. Whatever&mdash;not important.14 Charter Members: AT&amp;T, CBS, Discovery Communications, GroupM, Interpublic Group's Mediabrands, NBC Universal, News Corp., Omnicom Media Group, P&amp;G, Starcom MediaVest Group Worldwide, Time Warner, Unilever, Viacom and The Walt Disney Co.CIMM&rsquo;s self-described Mission Statement: To explore new worlds, to go where no&hellip;oops that&rsquo;s close but not quite it. It&rsquo;s mission is to &ldquo;Promote innovation and explore new, high quality ways to measure audiences across traditional and new media.&rdquo;How&rsquo;s it gonna do this? MediaPost&rsquo;s Joe Mandese, who is hands down the best reporter covering media measurement, wrote in his account of the CIMM announcement yesterday that someone had leaked to him a draft request for proposal (RFP) from CIMM. The draft carried the name of NBC Universal President of Research and Media Development, Alan Wurtzel. Wurtzel&rsquo;s been the driving force behind CIMM.According to Mandese&rsquo;s terrific piece, the RFP, prepared in February, was looking to fund two studies: &ldquo;One for a pilot study that would &lsquo;study producing real cross-platform data that reflects exposure of specific video sources on television, the Internet and mobile media;&rsquo; and a second for a digital set-top data project that would deliver &lsquo;three to six months of actual STB [set-top box] data, to be used for evaluation (not sales) purposes.&rsquo; &quot;Furthermore, Mandese writes, the RFP said, &quot;We are agnostic as to who will supply us with this data; the field is open, but we need these forward-looking metrics, adequate to the high standards of trading and post-evaluation, within the next 3-5 years.&quot;Finally, Mandese quotes from the RFP: &quot;As buyers and sellers of advertising-supported media, we are deeply concerned that, despite the efforts of some research suppliers, media measure is not keeping pace with urgent business needs.&quot;Hmm. &ldquo;Some research suppliers.&rdquo; Wonder who that could be.Back on August 13, the Financial Times, when it first broke this story, interviewed Sam Armando, SVP of audience analysis of Starcom, which is a member of CIMM.&ldquo;The most deficient thing is there&rsquo;s no single source measurement [for TV and digital video],&rdquo; Armando said. He added: It was not a case of &ldquo;let&rsquo;s go out to replace Nielsen&rdquo;, he said, but the consortium&rsquo;s plan did not require a &ldquo;leap of faith&rdquo;.Let&rsquo;s follow the money here. The major broadcast networks are probably paying Nielsen $40 million to $50 million annually. Media agencies pay a fraction of that, but $2 million to $4 million is still significant. And mostly gone are the days when they can pass along all of their Nielsen costs to their clients.&nbsp;Nielsen is a monopoly player. Its ratings are the currency of the business. Billions of dollars of ad revenue are based on Nielsen&rsquo;s rating measurements.So far CIMM is being funded by virtually peanuts. Sources have told TVWeek that CIMM members are ponying up $100,000 each. Claire Atkinson, B&amp;C&rsquo;s stellar ad reporter, also is reporting this number. So, in total, CIMM has less than $2 million with which to play.As has been reported everywhere, dissatisfaction with Nielsen is nothing new. And past efforts to fund a true challenger to Nielsen have failed.Is this time different? Maybe.&nbsp;First things first. There are myriad issues with set-top box data. First, it&rsquo;s interesting that the folks who have the data&mdash;the cable operators, satellite providers, and the telcos who provide video&mdash;are not members of the coalition. Secondly, there aren&rsquo;t any standards thus far for gathering data from the boxes. And what about the fact that the boxes are not in the homes of many minorities? There are issues of getting enough information on a national basis, issues about privacy, and issues about getting demographic data. So clearly, in its initial stages, CIMM is an attempt to stimulate research at the set top box level, to create a common platform for analyzing that kind of census level data and to find constructive ways to stimulate discussion.Moving forward, if the many challenges can be met, perhaps CIMM can develop a currency with which to base the buying of ad time across myriad platforms. And that&rsquo;s a prospect that should keep Nielsen executives up at night.#]]>
   </content>
</entry>

<entry>
   <title>All About GM's New Auto Ad Campaign</title>
   <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.tvweek.com/news/2009/09/all_about_gms_new_auto_ad_camp.php" />
   <id>tag:www.tvweek.com,2009:/news//1.37890</id>
   
   <published>2009-09-11T12:30:00Z</published>
   <updated>2009-09-11T15:49:42Z</updated>
   
   <summary><![CDATA[By Michael BushAdvertising AgeGeneral Motors Corp. marketing chief Bob Lutz swears the automaker's new TV spots featuring GM Chairman Ed Whitacre are nothing like the Lee Iacocca ads Chrysler ran back in the 1980s.Mr. Whitacre, a white-haired former telecom exec, is the perfect choice to help re-introduce a damaged brand to a country of skeptical consumers, Mr. Lutz said, batting back what he said were rumors that Mr. Whitacre demanded he be the next Lee Iacocca and featured in these ads.&quot;What we were looking for was a highly credible spokesperson who would be a new fresh face,&quot; Mr. Lutz said, noting that Mr. Whitacre &quot;is the new guy in town. He's tall, good looking, has impeccable white hair and has this nice soft Texas drawl and limps a little bit when he walks, which sort of gives him this old cowboy look.&quot;&nbsp;Mr. Whitacre is the public face only of the first phase of GM's &quot;May the Best Car Win&quot; campaign, which is an aggressive effort directly pitting its models against rivals. The multimillion-dollar campaign breaking next week also encompasses print, viral marketing and social media. Not only does it represent a significant increase in ad spending for GM, it also required some guts for a company that was begging for billions of dollars from Congress less than a year ago.&nbsp;The campaign will pit the Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac and GMC brands against competitors and includes a 60-day money-back guarantee for consumers not satisfied with their purchase. Mr. Lutz said GM is &quot;supremely confident&quot; that consumers will be satisfied with its new models.&nbsp;&quot;We can look anybody in the eye and say we are as good as or better than anyone else,&quot; Mr. Lutz said. &quot;In almost every respect our current lineup can compare with any volume producers' lineup from anywhere on the globe. We believe feature by feature we more than stand up to the competition.&quot; The ads will feature GM cars from its four product lines pitted against Japanese and German luxury brands. The print ads will show the two automobiles facing one another separated by a big V (for &quot;versus&quot;) and list details of both cars' features, performance, fuel economy and warranties.One ad will feature the 2010 Chevy Equinox vs. 2010 Honda CRV; another will have the 2010 Buick LaCrosse stacked up against the 2010 Lexus ES 350. Mr. Lutz said in the rare cases when both cars match each other feature for feature and warranty for warranty, the difference will be illustrated in sticker price. Mr. Lutz said that outside of the automotive media and the Midwest most consumers don't realize GM's cars match up well against foreign competitors and this campaign is &quot;big bet&quot; on the power of communications and advertising's ability to help remedy that.&quot;We have to close this monumental chasm between the reality of today's GM product line up and the public's perception of that line up,&quot; Mr. Lutz said. &quot;We have to somehow get the word out and in the past I have always said that it's going to take time or unfortunately it's not my responsibility. It is now my responsibility. So we are going to try and take a big chunk of that huge gap and we have to earn consumer confidence and demonstrate why buying one of our cars is a wise choice. The time to get the word out is now. We are not going to dribble this out of a watering can we are going to use a fire hose.&quot;&nbsp;And while he called this a corporate campaign, nowhere will the words &quot;General Motors&quot; or a GM logo appear in any of the creative. That decision was based on what Mr. Lutz called a large degree of hostility and negative feeling toward GM since the government bailout.&nbsp;&quot;The interesting thing is GM is disliked but the brands aren't hated,&quot; he said. &quot;It's like the parents went bankrupt but the kids had nothing to do with it. So we decided using the GM symbol and name as an umbrella for product or corporate advertising was not a good thing to do. We have to concentrate everything on standalone brands and come out from this corporate umbrella, which in the very best of times was neutral, but recently has not helped the brands and in fact tarnished them somewhat. We are emancipating the brands and trotting them out in the open.&quot;&nbsp;Mr. Whitacre will only appear in spots until Sept. 20; the remaining ads and creative scheduled to run through 2010 will be focused all on product. GM's choice to use the chairman had created some negative buzz in Detroit circles, a fact Mr. Lutz acknowledged -- and beat down.&nbsp;He said that the very day of GM's news conference to announce the ads a retired ad executive told him that using Mr. Whitacre was the dumbest thing GM had ever done.&quot;The guy didn't know what he was talking about,&quot; Mr. Lutz said. &quot;[He] doesn't realize the only thing we are doing is using the independent guy who is a very successful and respected businessman in another industry who was asked by the federal government to assume this responsibility and who is now initially with a little bit of reluctance and a great deal of doubt has immersed himself in GM.&quot; #]]></summary>
   <author>
      <name>Chuck Ross</name>
      
   </author>
   
      <category term="Advertising" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Broadcast" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Business" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Cable" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Digital" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Syndication" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
   <category term="573" label="Advertising" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="249" label="General Motors" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="247" label="GM" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="191" label="TV" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   
   <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.tvweek.com/news/">
      <![CDATA[By Michael BushAdvertising AgeGeneral Motors Corp. marketing chief Bob Lutz swears the automaker's new TV spots featuring GM Chairman Ed Whitacre are nothing like the Lee Iacocca ads Chrysler ran back in the 1980s.Mr. Whitacre, a white-haired former telecom exec, is the perfect choice to help re-introduce a damaged brand to a country of skeptical consumers, Mr. Lutz said, batting back what he said were rumors that Mr. Whitacre demanded he be the next Lee Iacocca and featured in these ads.&quot;What we were looking for was a highly credible spokesperson who would be a new fresh face,&quot; Mr. Lutz said, noting that Mr. Whitacre &quot;is the new guy in town. He's tall, good looking, has impeccable white hair and has this nice soft Texas drawl and limps a little bit when he walks, which sort of gives him this old cowboy look.&quot;&nbsp;Mr. Whitacre is the public face only of the first phase of GM's &quot;May the Best Car Win&quot; campaign, which is an aggressive effort directly pitting its models against rivals. The multimillion-dollar campaign breaking next week also encompasses print, viral marketing and social media. Not only does it represent a significant increase in ad spending for GM, it also required some guts for a company that was begging for billions of dollars from Congress less than a year ago.&nbsp;The campaign will pit the Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac and GMC brands against competitors and includes a 60-day money-back guarantee for consumers not satisfied with their purchase. Mr. Lutz said GM is &quot;supremely confident&quot; that consumers will be satisfied with its new models.&nbsp;&quot;We can look anybody in the eye and say we are as good as or better than anyone else,&quot; Mr. Lutz said. &quot;In almost every respect our current lineup can compare with any volume producers' lineup from anywhere on the globe. We believe feature by feature we more than stand up to the competition.&quot; The ads will feature GM cars from its four product lines pitted against Japanese and German luxury brands. The print ads will show the two automobiles facing one another separated by a big V (for &quot;versus&quot;) and list details of both cars' features, performance, fuel economy and warranties.One ad will feature the 2010 Chevy Equinox vs. 2010 Honda CRV; another will have the 2010 Buick LaCrosse stacked up against the 2010 Lexus ES 350. Mr. Lutz said in the rare cases when both cars match each other feature for feature and warranty for warranty, the difference will be illustrated in sticker price. Mr. Lutz said that outside of the automotive media and the Midwest most consumers don't realize GM's cars match up well against foreign competitors and this campaign is &quot;big bet&quot; on the power of communications and advertising's ability to help remedy that.&quot;We have to close this monumental chasm between the reality of today's GM product line up and the public's perception of that line up,&quot; Mr. Lutz said. &quot;We have to somehow get the word out and in the past I have always said that it's going to take time or unfortunately it's not my responsibility. It is now my responsibility. So we are going to try and take a big chunk of that huge gap and we have to earn consumer confidence and demonstrate why buying one of our cars is a wise choice. The time to get the word out is now. We are not going to dribble this out of a watering can we are going to use a fire hose.&quot;&nbsp;And while he called this a corporate campaign, nowhere will the words &quot;General Motors&quot; or a GM logo appear in any of the creative. That decision was based on what Mr. Lutz called a large degree of hostility and negative feeling toward GM since the government bailout.&nbsp;&quot;The interesting thing is GM is disliked but the brands aren't hated,&quot; he said. &quot;It's like the parents went bankrupt but the kids had nothing to do with it. So we decided using the GM symbol and name as an umbrella for product or corporate advertising was not a good thing to do. We have to concentrate everything on standalone brands and come out from this corporate umbrella, which in the very best of times was neutral, but recently has not helped the brands and in fact tarnished them somewhat. We are emancipating the brands and trotting them out in the open.&quot;&nbsp;Mr. Whitacre will only appear in spots until Sept. 20; the remaining ads and creative scheduled to run through 2010 will be focused all on product. GM's choice to use the chairman had created some negative buzz in Detroit circles, a fact Mr. Lutz acknowledged -- and beat down.&nbsp;He said that the very day of GM's news conference to announce the ads a retired ad executive told him that using Mr. Whitacre was the dumbest thing GM had ever done.&quot;The guy didn't know what he was talking about,&quot; Mr. Lutz said. &quot;[He] doesn't realize the only thing we are doing is using the independent guy who is a very successful and respected businessman in another industry who was asked by the federal government to assume this responsibility and who is now initially with a little bit of reluctance and a great deal of doubt has immersed himself in GM.&quot; #]]>
   </content>
</entry>

</feed>

