A nifty ratings surge for Tuesday's 'Trial by Jury'
   NBC’s “Law & Order: Trial by Jury," by far the least successful of three “L&O” spinoffs, posted a series-low rating on Friday. So, this being sweeps, it made quite good sense for NBC to cook up a crossover airing with “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” complete with a shared storyline, with the idea of giving the show a boost.
  It turned out to be a smart move.
  According to Nielsen overnights, a special edition of “Trial by Jury,” which aired in “SVU’s” usual 10 p.m. timeslot while “SVU” aired at 9 Tuesday, averaged a 6.3 rating among viewers 18-49, a 152 percent increase over the disappointing 2.5 the show averaged in its regular Friday 10 p.m. slot last week.
   “American Idol” averaged a 9.7 rating among 18-49s, easily the night’s top show, and helped Fox to a first-place finish for the night with an 8.4 average rating and 22 share. NBC was second at 4.1/11, CBS third at 3.7/10, ABC fourth at 2.5/6, the WB fifth at 2.2/6 and UPN sixth at 1.0/3.
   Fox led easily at 8 p.m. with its 9.7 average for “Idol.” CBS finished second during the hour with a 3.0 for “NCIS,” while the WB finished third with a 2.3 for “Gilmore Girls.”
   Fox also led at 9 p.m. with a 7.0 rating for a new episode of the medical drama “House.” CBS was second with a 5.1 for “The Amazing Race” and NBC third with a 4.2 for “SVU,” the first part of its crossover.
   NBC then jumped into the lead at 10 p.m. with “Trial by Jury’s” 6.3 average. CBS was second with a 3.0 for “Judging Amy” and ABC third with a 2.4 for fading “Blind Justice.”
   Fox also led the night among households, averaging a 12.7 rating and a 19 share. NBC was second at 8.5/13, CBS third at 8.1/13, ABC fourth at 4.5/7, the WB fifth at 3.4/5 and UPN sixth at 1.6/2.  

NBC, CBS & Fox's unlikely joint jab at indecency
After nearly a year and a half of grief over the indecency debate, the broadcast networks are ready to whack back. And for once, they're doing it together. The parent companies of CBS, Fox and NBC have banded with several other media groups to form TV Watch, a coalition that advocates parental rather than governmental regulation of broadcast indecency. The group made its official debut yesterday, when it released a survey showing that 86 percent of respondents think parents, not the government, should regulate what kids are watching. News Corp., Viacom and NBC Universal have all joined the coalition and funded its seed money. Disney, parent of ABC, has not. Other members include the American Conservative Union, the Center for Creative Voices in Media, the Creative Coalition, the Media Freedom Project and the Media Institute. After Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl flash last year, the four broadcast networks came under intense criticism from Congress and the Federal Communications Commission. Fox and CBS stations both received huge fines from the FCC over indecency in the past year. Not surprisingly, the Parents Television Council, which generates many of those FCC complaints, immediately denounced the group. On his group’s web site, PTC president L. Brent Bozell wrote: “It’s a laughable proposition to think that this hired gun coalition will have any impact whatsoever on the ongoing debate over decency and the public airwaves.”

Study: Fewer radio ads = increased listenership
There’s new evidence that, at least on paper, Clear Channel’s Less Is More really does mean more, as in more radio listeners. In a study conducted by Arbitron and Edison Media Research, 47 percent say they would listen to radio “a lot more” if a station noticeably cut the number of commercial breaks, and 44 percent say they’d listen “a lot more” if those breaks were noticeably shorter. This year Clear Channel moved to more 30-second radio spots as opposed to traditional 60-second ads in an attempt to relieve clutter and increase listenership. It was initially a tough sell with some marketers and media buyers, but reception has warmed the past few months. In the study, 12 percent of respondents say they listen to radio less because of a perceived increase in ad time, down from 19 percent in a similar 1999 survey.

Daily News vs. Post, part 3,001: Online acrimony
It’s like putting a cookie in front of a 3-year-old and telling him not to eat it. The New York Post web site’s experiment with free online registration this week proved too tempting for the rival New York Daily News, which does not require registration, to pass up without comment. In Lloyd Grove’s Lowdown column today, he joyously details the Post’s technical problems with the experiment that began two days ago, stating that “Post management had been under heavy fire from inside and outside the paper for the Web-site malfunction.” He refers to “a mother lode of highly personal information” that readers had to submit, though it’s no different than requirements for other free registration sites like the New York Times or TV Guide. Grove joyously recounts how Post executives Lachlan Murdoch and Col Allan did not return his calls and the terse “no comment” issued by Post PR rep Howard Rubenstein. He then details Post registration bashing on Gawker.com and Romenesko. Grove says the Post removed the registration requirements around 5 yesterday. The latest Post-Daily News fight comes weeks after the two scrapped over a Post circulation-boosting plan and a glitch in a Daily News reader lotto.

Consolidation doesn't limit choices, study claims
Media consolidation: a diversity-hungry public’s best friend? Well, at least not its worst enemy, according to a new report from the New Millennium Research Council. The NMRC is a think tank funded by the Washington PR firm Issue Dynamics, which received lots of flack earlier this year for issuing reports questioning community broadband service while having the four Bell phone companies as clients. It’s not clear if an Issue Dynamics client is behind this latest report, released yesterday. In it, MIT consultant Benjamin M. Compaine says that there are in fact more programming choices for Americans now than there were 20 years ago and that there really isn't media consolidation. The report states that in the largest markets, there are about 15 separate radio station owners. And a look at 17 previous studies concludes that chain-owned newspapers have more control over their editorial policy than small family-owned papers, he finds. Compaine also says that the rise of the internet gives consumers more choice over where they get their news. The NMRC states that, “The largest television industry players control less of the market today than they did in the past.”