Fox to NBC: We'll take
Conan off your hands
Other shorts: TNS: Price of Super Bowl ad drops for CBS
By Louisa Ada Seltzer
Jan 12, 2010
Fox to NBC: We'll take Conan off your hands
When NBC dumped entertainment head Kevin Reilly shortly after signing him to a contract extension, Fox immediately scooped him up. The network may do the same for Conan O'Brien, the embattled "Tonight Show" host who has been asked to move his show back a half hour to make way for Jay Leno's return to late night. As of this morning, the status of that move was still uncertain, with O'Brien yet to give NBC his approval. But while O'Brien and NBC cogitated, Fox was, as usual, playing the role of agitator. Reilly, head of Fox Entertainment, told reporters at Fox's Television Critics Association tour yesterday about his desire to hire O'Brien away from NBC, where he assumed the "Tonight" hosting job only last June. Since that time, "Tonight's" viewership has fallen to roughly half of what it was under Leno, putting O'Brien well behind competitors David Letterman on CBS and "Nightline" on ABC. Many see NBC's proposed late-night shakeup as an effective demotion for O'Brien, but Reilly said the comedian and his offbeat act would be embraced at Fox. Whether the affiliates agree remains to be determined. Many have syndicated fare in place at 11, and a small handful, including the Harrisburg, Pa., station, have launched newscasts. Though Fox, which has attempted late-night shows with Chevy Chase and Joan Rivers in the past, could force the affiliates to carry Conan, that could lead to the same tangle that led NBC to dump Leno from the 10 p.m. spot a few days ago. With O'Brien's future at NBC in flux, Fox may just be tweaking its bitter rival while it is, once again, down.
TNS: Price of Super Bowl ad drops for CBS
CBS has been insisting for months that the economy hasn't stopped advertisers from making Super Bowl buys. Maybe that's because pricing for this year's game is down compared to last year for the first time in three years. According to a new report from TNS Media Intelligence, CBS is charging $2.5 million to $2.8 million for a 30-second spot in next month's big game, well off from the reported $3 million that NBC charged last year. Still, the price of a spot has quadrupled since 1990, when units sold for an average $700,000. The report also says that first-time Super Bowl advertisers account for roughly 20 to 25 percent of ad volume, and that could rise slightly this year with longtime advertisers such as PepsiCo and FedEx taking a pass. New advertisers are expected to include Electronic Arts and HomeAway. Last year's game had the highest volume of network commercial time ever, just over 45 minutes, up from 43 minutes and 30 seconds the prior year. That included just over 7 minutes of in-house promotions, mostly hyping Conan O'Brien's move to "The Tonight Show" and Jay Leno's new 10 p.m. weeknight talk show.
Programming notes: Swan song for 'Hannah Montana'
The end is near for Disney Channel’s “Hannah Montana.” The tween comedy, which stars Miley Cyrus as Miley Stewart, a high schooler who moonlights as pop star Hannah Montana, will begin shooting its fourth and final season on Jan. 18. New episodes of the series will premiere in spring and roll out over the course of a year. In fact, the next few months will be busy for Cyrus; the finale of the current season of “Hannah” airs in March, and her new movie “The Last Song” debuts in April. Last year “Hannah” was Disney Channel’s top series among total viewers and tweens 9-14. Meanwhile, in other programming, Lifetime has canceled the comedy “Rita Rocks” after two seasons. The show, which starred Nicole Sullivan as a mom who starts her own garage band, aired its final episode last November.
Pew: Newspapers are the bomb with local news
Newspapers as we know them are fading away, but they still report more new information than any other media outlet. That was one finding in a new report from the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, which studied local news in Baltimore last July 19-25. It found that traditional general interest newspapers produced 48 percent of stories that included new information compared to 28 percent for local TV, which was No. 2. Specialty newspapers such as those focused on business and law accounted for 13 percent of stories that included new news, with radio at 7 percent and new media at 4 percent. While newspapers are still the leader when it comes to breaking news, they do a lot less of it now than in the past, at least in Baltimore. According to the study, the Baltimore Sun produced 32 percent fewer stories on any subject than it did in 1999, and 73 percent fewer than in 1991, although that was when there was still a morning and evening edition of the paper. Overall PEJ identified 53 news outlets that regularly produced local news in Baltimore, although 12 of them didn’t produce any local content during the days studied.
Arbitron's Skarzynski resigns after brief tenure
After a brief tenure marked largely by controversy over the rollout of the portable people meter device, Arbitron president and chief executive officer Michael Skarzynski has been booted. Interestingly, though his dismissal came on the same day that the Media Rating Council denied accreditation to the PPM in 18 markets, the continuing PPM issues apparently did not lead to his dismissal. Instead, there appears to be an issue over Skarzynski's testimony at a congressional hearing. Yesterday Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.) accused Skarzynski of intentionally misleading the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform last month during a hearing on the PPM. Arbitron did not specify why Skarzynski was leaving, saying only that he "had violated a company policy in a matter entirely unrelated to the financial performance of the company." Skarzynski came on board last January. His tenure included a 10 percent cut in Arbitron staff and continued controversy over the numbers delivered by the PPM, which critics charge undercounts minority groups. The MRC denied accreditation for the device for 18 markets, though Minneapolis-St. Paul did receive the okay. Skarzynski will be replaced by William Kerr, chairman of Meredith and a member of Arbitron's board of directors.
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