April 2005 News

Taking another step away from its game show roots, GSN announced Thursday the "GSN Casino Awards," a showcase honoring casino players, entertainers and gaming-themed programming for television and movies. The awards will be telecast live in December from Las Vegas.

"As the world's No. 1 television network for games and the first network to launch a casino night featuring interactive blackjack and poker, GSN is the ideal home for a star-studded annual casino awards show," said Rich Cronin, president and CEO of GSN.

Mr. Cronin said the network plans more programming from Las Vegas, including poker and reality shows. GSN's shift toward more casino-based programming also may impact the efforts of start-up network Casino and Gaming Television (CGTV).

At next week's National Show in San Francisco, CGTV will host a launch party to coincide with its debut on a Canadian satellite provider Bell ExpressVU.

James Hibberd

Fox has renewed "Malcolm in the Middle" for a seventh season, the network announced Friday. The Sunday night comedy has slipped in the ratings during the past couple years, and creator/executive producer Linwood Boomer has said the next season could be the last. Mr. Boomer also signed a development deal with Regency Television, which produces the series.

"We couldn't be prouder and happier to have one more year to annoy people," Mr. Boomer said in a statement.

Court TV, still sore about A&E Network's plan to launch the Crime and Investigation Network, is planning a "Sopranos"-themed stunt Monday at the National Cable & Telecommunications Association's National Show in San Francisco.

Court TV, which bills itself as The Investigation Channel, will invite attendees to its booth Monday to meet a real family named Soprano, a move designed to tweak A&E, which in January bought the off-net rights to HBO's "The Sopranos" for a record $2.5 million.

Noting that Court TV recently unveiled new taglines (Court TV News for daytime and Seriously Entertaining for prime time), an A&E spokesman said "Clearly Court TV is suffering from a brand identity problem." The spokesman added that A&E is first on cable with crime and investigative shows and that the network runs the three top-rated shows in that genre. A Court TV spokesperson declined to comment.

The Supreme Court will be precluded until late May at the earliest from deciding whether to consider challenges to a federal appeals court decision overturning Federal Communications Commission media ownership deregulation. The high court has extended from April 1 until May 2 a filing deadline for arguments against the challenges.

Andrew Schwartzman, president of the Media Access Project, said the postponement -- along with a series of others in the case requested by the Department of Justice -- makes it unlikely that the high court would be able to rule on the case before early next year, assuming it decides to accept the challenges for review.

The National Cable & Telecommunications Association's National Show opened Sunday in San Francisco with a small number of protesters outside the Moscone Convention Center. The protesters were complaining about poor labor relations and high prices from Comcast, which operates the local system.

Steve Burke, chief operating officer of Comcast, downplayed the protests, saying that a small percentage of the MSO's labor force has voted to decertify the union. He added that Comcast has more than 20 million subscribers who choose to pay Comcast's rates, rather than turning to competitors.

At the National Show's opening session, panelists including Charter owner Paul Allen and Tom Rutledge, COO of Cablevision Systems, talked about the exciting services their broadband pipelines could offer consumers. But Bing Gordon, executive VP and chief creative officer of video game maker Electronic Arts, said that consumers would be demanding an ever-expanding amount of bandwidth. "If cable doesn't give it to us, it's going to be wireless or phone." Jerry Yang, co-founder and chief Yahoo at Yahoo!, added that "the more bandwidth out there, the bigger the opportunity."

Mr. Rutledge of Cablevision said a 2.0 version of cable wasn't necessary. "Our network capacity is so great, we're looking for applications that are fat enough to take advantage of them."

Terry Denson will be among those attending the National Show this week in San Francisco. He won't make speeches or appear on panels, but his presence, along with that of others on a similar mission, should stir concern among those with a vested interest in wired cable TV systems such as Comcast, Time Warner and Charter.

Mr. Denson is VP of programming and marketing for FiOS TV, the brand name for a video-content service being developed by Verizon, one of the two largest U.S. phone companies. According to spokeswoman Sharon Cohen-Hagar, customers in parts of 14 out of 29 states where Verizon operates will be offered FiOS TV by the end of this year, as a stand-alone service or as part of a bundle of services that includes voice, high-speed data and broadband.

FiOS TV will include all the latest bells and whistles, such as DVR service, high definition and hundreds of video-on-demand channels. "We expect to be a very potent competitor," Ms. Cohen-Hagar said. "No. 1, we will deploy in our [telephone] franchise territories so our customers know us already. They know our brand, and we think it's very strong. We also have a good history of customer service, unlike, frankly, the reputation of some cable companies."

Like boxers before a big bout, there is a lot of trash talk right now between the phone giants and the cable giants. Both think they have an edge. Each is quick to belittle the other. The stakes are high.

For the phone giants, it is literally a matter of life and death. While telco video efforts in the past failed, things are different this time. The technology has improved. More to the point, consumers have shown they prefer one provider and one bill, whether it is telco or cable. Once the computer and TV are wired to a system, the rate of churn drops significantly and the difficulty of luring that customer away grows exponentially.

"The competitive environment is such that we need to deliver these new services," said Denise Koenig, spokeswoman for SBC, which has launched Project Lightspeed to lay more fiber-optic lines at a cost of $4 billion and develop a proprietary video content service that will be launched at a cost of at least $1 billion more.

Along with Verizon and BellSouth, SBC is leading the assault against cable, and for that matter satellite, even though all three are also satellite TV resellers. The telcos will continue to sell satellite in areas where they have not yet laid high-capacity fiber-optic lines. And if you ask cable multiple system operators, the telcos will also offer satellite across their huge territories to hide the fact that they are delivering new bundled services only in upscale areas. Cable, by law, must offer service in its entire territory.

Consider BellSouth, which has had a video service called Americast since the late 1990s. It has rolled it out only to specific areas where it has fiber-optic, and it makes economic sense. Americast has only about 50,000 subscribers in 14 of its Southeastern markets. BellSouth also has signed up 200,000 customers for DirecTV service. "We are looking at a mosaic approach to video services," explained Brent Fowler, spokesman for BellSouth. We'll have choices for customers. We won't target one specific way to deliver video content."

BellSouth and the other telcos are testing a different way to deliver that video content in the future, over IPTV, or Internet protocol television. It means the signals are sent over a nonpublic part of the Internet.

The advantage is flexibility. Cable sends all the data one might need all the time. With IPTV, data is sent only as the customer needs it, so the telco can have a bank at the headend with huge amounts of capacity.

As a result, in demonstrations, IPTV not only offers quality video, but also allows the user to get multiple signals at once (such as watching several basketball games at the same time and also getting reams of statistics). With IPTV the viewer can get different camera angles of the same game or event. SBC's Ms. Koenig said bundled customers might use a Cingular cellphone to program their DVR while away from home. Cingular is 60 percent owned by SBC and 40 percent by BellSouth, and both plan to incorporate its wireless into their bundles.

According to SBC, video delivered over IP does not require local franchise agreements, which is an economic advantage over cable. "The FCC has ruled and said it is a hands-off approach to IP-based services," Ms. Koenig said. "They're not subject to the same legacy regulations that are meant for different technologies."

BellSouth and Verizon, however, along with cable MSOs, say franchise agreements are necessary, and they are going after them. SBC stands firm that it doesn't have to pay that estimated 3 percent tax.

"We will offer a service that is different from what is out there," Ms. Koenig said. "This platform offers a huge amount of new features, so I think customers are definitely going to be interested."

That is a key question for the telcos. This is not 1980, before cable, the VCR and satellite. "Consumers are not desperate for another delivery platform into the home," said analyst Jeffrey Logsdon, managing director of Harris Nesbitt. "Some may choose it. But it is much harder today to dislodge video business from cable. Cable can also bundle services. Cable also offers a voice product."

Mr. Logsdon is still skeptical that the telcos can really take large numbers of customers away from cable. He said they are entering the video market as a defensive strategy, not because it is an opportunistic moment; to succeed, he said, they will have to offer a lot of services and very competitive rates. He also wonders how long they will be able to stomach paying $500 and up to acquire each sub, which is what it is costing DirecTV at present. "I am highly skeptical," said Mr. Logsdon, "that [telcos] can get even a 10 percent market share in the next seven years."

Part of it will depend on cable's response, added Mr. Logsdon: "Cable has to continue to do a better job of providing added value to consumers to keep the churn low."

So the battle is set. It appears 2006 will be the crucial year. That is when all three telco giants will be in a position to offer the same triple threat of services (voice, data and video) that cable offers. "Only those who dare to fail greatly," said the late Robert F. Kennedy, "can ever achieve greatly."

Cablevision Systems managed to continue confounding the financial world last week, due to a series of decisions and developments that have left many Wall Street players without a clear sense of where the company might be heading.

A lot of the confusion rested with how Chairman Charles Dolan planned to keep his struggling satellite service Voom alive amid pleas from shareholders and some Cablevision board members that the operation be shuttered. Mr. Dolan indicated he has a plan in the works to keep Voom going and appeared to be preparing to block the planned sale of Voom's lone satellite to EchoStar Communications.

But there were other developments as well. Cablevision last Thursday was dealt a setback in its quest to block the New York Jets football team from building a stadium on Manhattan's West Side that would directly compete against Cablevision's own venue, Madison Square Garden.

In addition, Cablevision was reportedly close last week to joining two private-equity firms that have teamed up to make a play for bankrupt cable operator Adelphia Communications.

The many events taking place last week proved to be a drag on Cablevision's shares, which fell nearly 4 percent Monday through Thursday.

Perhaps the most pressing issue looming over Cablevision was Mr. Dolan's plan for Voom. Based on an agreement reached last month, Mr. Dolan had until March 31 to come up with a funding plan to keep Voom alive or Cablevision could shut down the service. As of last Thursday afternoon, it was unclear whether Mr. Dolan would meet the deadline.

However, in a filing with the Federal Communications Commission last week, Mr. Dolan expressed a willingness to tap his holdings in Cablevision to keep the service running.

Mr. Dolan said in the filing that Voom is in the process of obtaining $400 million in financial commitments from its controlling shareholders-including Mr. Dolan and his son Tom-to keep the service running. Most analysts have speculated that Charles Dolan would likely sell off pieces of his interest in Cablevision, which has added to speculation that Cablevision might be angling to sell off its cable assets in the not-so-distant future.

In the same filing, Charles Dolan also protested the planned sale of the Voom satellite to EchoStar, arguing that the sale of the satellite stifles competition. Cablevision in February struck an agreement to sell to EchoStar the satellite for $200 million. EchoStar officials have maintained they want to move forward with the sale, even as Charles Dolan tries to block the deal in an effort to save Voom.

Analysts generally are welcoming the news that Charles Dolan might sell off his Cablevision stake.

Meanwhile, Cablevision is said to be close to joining two private-equity firms in submitting an offer to purchase bankrupt cable operator Adelphia Communications, potentially unseating a joint bid from Comcast Corp. and Time Warner that has widely been seen as the offer to beat.



Potential Partnership

According to an article in last week's New York Times, Cablevision is in "advanced talks" to contribute its cable systems to a new public company that would be created by the private-equity firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Providence Equity Partners. The value of the bid could be higher than the nearly $18 billion offer submitted by the Comcast-Time Warner partnership.

The emergence of Cablevision as a potential partner with KKR and Providence throws a wrench in what largely had been regarded as an auction all but sewn up by the Comcast-Time Warner team.

However, a number of analysts were discounting the report, noting that Cablevision lacks the clustering and synergy opportunities that have motivated Comcast and Time Warner to go after Adelphia and its 5.3 million subscribers.

Craig Moffett, a cable analyst at Bernstein Research, pointed out that Comcast's and Time Warner's own systems in markets adjacent to Adelphia systems, including most notably systems in Los Angeles; Cleveland; Buffalo, N.Y.; Florida; and Pennsylvania, creating opportunities to wring out synergies from being able to further cluster systems in those markets. "A Cablevision-Adelphia combination would deliver none of these synergies," Mr. Moffett said.

In the stadium fight, Cablevision's $760 million bid to buy rail yards from the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority failed to beat a $720 million offer from the New York Jets professional football team. Cablevision, which owns Madison Square Garden, had opposed selling the land to the Jets, fearing it would compete with the Garden.

However, people close to Cablevision said the fight to block the stadium is far from over: Several state and local lawmakers have concerns over publicly funding portions of the stadium's construction. In addition, there are indications that Cablevision and others might challenge the MTA's decision to sell the land to the Jets.

The Insider hears that ABC News President David Westin will announce the next stage of his plan to build a digital national-local news network around ABC News Now, his division's broadband operation, at the National Cable & Telecommunications Association's National Show in San Francisco this morning.

The news executive used the 2004 campaign as the launch pad for a digital broadcast and cable test run in the markets of ABC's 10 owned-and-operated stations and some 70 affiliates' markets. The channel also got a good workout when hurricanes pummeled the United States last year. In January ABC News took the channel off TV, announcing that it would continue to invest in it and seek affiliate partners, and that it would be relaunched later.

The ABC affiliates advisory board still has not come to an agreement with the network about the affiliate body's equity stake and voice in such a venture. Sources said many affiliates feel it's time to fish or cut bait.

But Mr. Westin is said to be very optimistic that he can eventually get widespread affiliate participation, and he is expected to announce that he is going fishing for deals one affiliate group at a time.

There are indications that Mr. Westin expects some deals to firm up in July, which might mean that The Insider will have another all-news alternative to summer reruns.

Meanwhile, anyone who wants a peek at some of the feature segments that have been developed for ABC News Now can check out the network's overnight newscast, "World News Now," which began sprinkling some of them in mid-March.

Of Carlson Ties and Teases

To bow (tie) or not to bow (tie): That is the question being posed pictorially at MSNBC, which is developing a Tucker Carlson show to follow "Countdown With Keith Olbermann" on the weeknight lineup.

As of late last week the MSNBC brain trust still had not locked in a format, title or launch date for the hour-long show (think late April or early May).

Then there's the more intrinsic question: Will the congenitally bow-tied Mr. Carlson give up his sartorial signature? Carlson confidants can't recall ever seeing the man who used to debate from the right on CNN's "Crossfire" in a regular tie.

MSNBC had Mr. Carlson photographed with and without bow tie and has been posting the alternating photos at MSNBC headquarters in New Jersey, where Mr. Carlson began house hunting early this year.

The Insider, whose favorite form of exercise is leaping to conclusions, suspected this photo flip-flop was a way to put the couture question to a vote. Alas, when she tried to enlist a proxy, she was told that (a) there was no vote, (b) the wind seemed to be blowing in the direction of Carlson keeping the bow tie and (c) this was mostly a tease to raise suspense.

The Insider's goosebumps are standing up straight and tall enough to wear little bow ties.

Roles

Alyson Hannigan ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer") has signed to appear in CBS's "How I Met Your Mother." Neil Patrick Harris ("Doogie Howser, M.D.") and Jason Segel ("Freaks and Geeks") will also appear in the comedy pilot from 20th Century Fox TV. "Mother" focuses on a middle-aged married man looking back on his single life. Carter Bays and Craig Thomas ("American Dad") are writing and executive producing the project.

… Jane Leeves ("Frasier") will star in "Best Laid Plans" for The WB. Ms. Leeves will play a woman who must deal with the repercussions after her daughter meets her anonymous sperm-donor father. 20th Century Fox TV and Imagine TV are producing the pilot. Jeff Kleeman and Michael Saltzman wrote the script and will serve as executive producers.

… Danny Glover has signed to guest star on the NBC drama "ER." Mr. Glover will play Charlie Pratt, estranged father of Mekhi Phifer's character, Dr. Gregory Pratt. Mr. Glover will appear in the May 19 episode and will make multiple appearances next season.

… Lil' JJ ("Coming to the Stage") and Shelbie Bruce ("Spanglish") inked holding deals with Nickelodeon. The network will develop original projects for each actor and feature them in guest appearances on Nickelodeon's current series.

… Michelle Trachtenberg ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer") will star in the Lifetime original movie "The Dive From Clausen's Pier." The telefilm is based on Ann Packer's novel about a young woman's quest to find herself after her fianc%E9; is paralyzed in a diving accident. The movie is produced by Con Artists, the television arm of Icon Productions, in association with Fox Television Studios. Bruce Davey ("Braveheart"), Nancy Cotton ("Kevin Hill") and Brenda Friend ("Joan of Arc") will executive produce. Harry Winer ("Veronica Mars") will direct.

… Rick Schroder ("NYPD Blue") joins the cast of Lifetime Television's medical drama "Strong Medicine." Mr. Schroder will appear in the series' sixth season, which starts in June. "Strong Medicine" is produced by Sony Pictures Television.

… Claire Forlani has been tapped to star opposite John Leguizamo in an untitled drama pilot for CBS. The David Diamond and David Weisman project from 20th Century Fox TV and Paramount Network TV centers on the lives of a sports agent and his wife, a magazine editor, as they juggle careers and parenthood.

… Quint Kessenich has joined ESPNU as a commentator. Mr. Kessenich will cover college lacrosse, serve as a play-by-play commentator for college basketball and report on college football and wrestling. … Will Smith and Ludacris will headline at MTV base's 100th "LIVE!," a concert to celebrate the launch of MTV base, MTV's first pan-African music channel and MTV Networks' 100th channel worldwide. Highlights of the show will be carried on MTV channels around the world in May.

… "America's Next Top Model" judge Janice Dickinson, former slugger Jose Canseco, Sandi Denton of Salt-N-Pepa, Bronson Pinchot from "Perfect Strangers," Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth from the first season of "The Apprentice," British model Caprice and motocrosser Carey Hart will star in the fifth installment of VH1's "The Surreal Life." Production is under way, with the show set to debut Sept. 4.



Directors

Horror film directors lined up to direct installments of Showtime's "Masters of Horror" series include Dario Argento ("Opera"), John Carpenter ("Halloween"), Larry Cohen ("It's Alive"), Roger Corman ("Little Shop of Horrors"), Don Coscarelli ("Phantasm"), Joe Dante ("Gremlins"), Mick Garris ("Riding the Bullet"), Stuart Gordon ("Re-Animator"), John Landis ("An American Werewolf in London"), Tobe Hooper ("Texas Chainsaw Massacre") and George Romero ("Night of the Living Dead"). The pay cable network plans to run at least 13 of the one-hour telefilms. Mick Garris, Andrew Deane and Keith Addis will serve as executive producers. Principal photography will begin in Vancouver, B.C., Canada, in late April.



Executives

Aaron Meyerson has been named Oxygen's senior VP of development and production, and Cynthia Ashworth is the new senior VP of marketing. Mr. Meyerson will oversee development and production for Oxygen. Ms. Ashworth will oversee the network's consumer and affiliate advertising sales and online marketing. Both will report to Debby Beece, president of programming and marketing.

… Tiffany Smith was promoted to director of publicity for CBS Entertainment. Ms. Smith will continue to work on publicity campaigns for CBS series, specials and movies. She will report to Phil Gonzales, VP of communications for CBS Entertainment.



Please submit Gigs news to gigs@crain.com.

Cable operators increasingly are pooling their marketing resources to promote big high-definition TV events, all in an attempt to combat strong marketing efforts by satellite distributors DirecTV and EchoStar.

Since promoting HD broadcasts of NBC's Summer Olympics last August, many cable operators-led by Comcast Cable-have begun cooperating on similar creative messages, which are then customized for each MSO.

The pace has picked up recently, with cable marketing spots being shared to tout HD broadcasts of ABC's "Monday Night Football" and Academy Awards, Fox's Daytona 500 and CBS's Masters golf tournament and NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.

"The big paradigm shift for the MSOs is that they are starting to realize they are entertainment brands, not [just] positioning themselves as utility brands when talking about programming," said Jeff Boortz, president of Concrete Pictures, a Philadelphia-based advertising company that has done promo work for Comcast Cable.

Concrete Pictures' recent creative work touting HD programs for Comcast has been shared with other cable companies such as Adelphia, Charter and Cox.

"We call it the tentpole strategy," Mr. Boortz said. "It's a call to action." By that he means rather than airing general-interest commercials promoting cable's diversity of channels or improved technology, call-to-action spots promote specific programming events such as the NCAA Basketball Tournament or the World Series in an effort to lure consumers to sign up for HDTV packages.

"Usually, sports is what drives the purchase of the HD sets," Mr. Boortz said.

Because Concrete's clients are cable system operators, it initially had a difficult time getting footage of sporting events such as the Daytona 500 or the NBA Finals from the broadcast networks. Broadcast networks don't typically work with cable operators, since they are viewed as competition.

But Mr. Boortz said that after some negotiation the agency now gets sports footage, having convinced the broadcast networks that cable operators would be helping to promote broadcast network programming.

Concrete Pictures promo spots start and end with an "HDTV on Demand" logo. Sports footage is inserted in between the logos. At the end of the spot the cable system logo is shown with the HDTV logo.

Charter Communications is using Concrete Pictures' work as a template for its monthly effort to promote HDTV. It won't always follow Comcast to the letter in selecting the same program to promote. For example, starting in April it will tout ESPN's HD programming.

"But when there are events such the Final Four or the Daytona 500, those are events we will be promoting," said Kim Blankenburg, director of branding and creative services for Charter Communications. "Our main purpose is to get topical-that if you want to see this program in HD, there is sense of urgency to sign on."

"Concrete Pictures developed a graphic package for big-event HD promotion, and we followed the same structure as Comcast's," she said. "It would be the same as if we went to the same editing facility."

Marketing experts think cable operators' regional and local marketing efforts are sometimes less effective than national campaigns, especially against the strong national advertising campaigns of DirecTV and EchoStar.

The push for coordinated marketing efforts among MSOs came from Andy Addis, Comcast Cable senior VP of marketing and new Products, who left the company in January. Comcast executives wouldn't comment about any shared marketing efforts at press time.

Since last fall CTAM's "Only Cable Can" marketing initiative has been heavily involved in pushing these joint marketing sales efforts.

When the CBS sitcom "Yes, Dear" premiered in October 2000, critics were not kind.

But like high-profile sitcoms, "Yes, Dear" appears to have gotten the last laugh.

Despite predictions that the show, which profiles the lives of two young married, parenting couples-one buttoned-down and yuppie, the other crass and blue-collar-would be yanked off CBS's schedule before its initial run had aired, "Yes, Dear" is in its fifth season. Besides making it into syndication this past fall, the oft-maligned sitcom survived a fall 2004 hiatus and a new time period to become a ratings performer on Wednesday nights for CBS. On March 30, "Yes, Dear" was CBS's highest-rated show in the demo with a 3.5, outpacing "60 Minutes" (1.9), "The King of Queens" (2.8) and "CSI: NY" (3.3).

In addition, "Yes, Dear" has a chance to make it back on the prime-time schedule for 2005-06.

Back in 2000 the Los Angeles Times called the show "grating." John Carman wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle a sentiment that many critics expressed when the show debuted and continue to argue about: "It's the show for viewers who find hilarity in a child spitting up strained peas. For anyone else, it's the worst new show of the fall."

The New York Times at least got a sense of what the producers were going for. Greg and Kim Warner (Anthony Clark and Jean Louisa Kelly) and Jimmy and Christine Hughes (Mike O'Malley and Liza Snyder) are in-laws who find themselves sharing a house in Southern California that becomes a test lab for how each couple chooses to raise its children. "The aim is to spoof today's anxious, competitive, humorless culture of child rearing," The New York Times' William McDonald wrote. "That's a promising idea, but good satire requires wit and some bite, and little is evident in tonight's pilot episode."

The show has come a long way since writers Greg Garcia and Alan Kirschenbaum realized half a decade ago that there were no comedies on television about parents raising young children. Mr. Garcia and Mr. Kirschenbaum, who had worked together on the sitcom "Nothing Personal," both found themselves with development deals at 20th Century Fox Television in 1999. In addition, they began having children at the same time.

"It was loosely based on my life if my brother and sister-in-law moved out and lived in my guest house," Mr. Garcia said. "Alan always saw my family as the Beverly Hillbillies."

Mr. Garcia and Mr. Kirschenbaum pitched the show to CBS, which bought the idea and commissioned a script and then a pilot. In May 2000, after solid results from focus group testing and network creative support, CBS announced that "Yes, Dear," a 20th Century Fox Television/CBS Productions co-production, was getting the 8:30 p.m. (ET) slot on Monday nights, right after the blue-collar comedy "The King of Queens."

"The show is really a buddy comedy disguised as a family comedy," Mr. Kirschenbaum said of "Yes, Dear." "It has all the trappings of a domestic comedy, but at its core it's the relationship between these two brothers-in-law. It's a very good form for television comedy."

Mr. Kirschenbaum described "Yes, Dear's" lead-in "King of Queens" and lead-out "Everybody Loves Raymond" not as family sitcoms but as "relationship comedies" that helped his show delineate itself while still fitting into the overall flow of the nightly schedule.

"They were enough like our show that it was compatible, but different enough that it wasn't more of the same," he said.

Even with a nearly universal thumbs down from critics, the show performed in its first season. In 2000-01 "Yes Dear" averaged a 5.2 rating in the adults 18 to 49 demographic and 13.1 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. That was good enough to take the show to No. 29 in the demo rankings for the season.

"We occasionally went down, but we occasionally went up," Mr. Garcia said. "We got to the point where we would hold the number each week, which CBS was thrilled with."

"Yes, Dear" series regular Mike O'Malley said no one should be surprised the show has made it to a fifth season.

"It's not so baffling that 'Yes, Dear" is a success," Mr. O'Malley said. "What's really, really hard to find in a successful series is what is the premise. A lot of criticism that comes toward the show is people think it's a show that it isn't. The show is 'The Odd Couple' for married couples. So take any issue of being married-you've got opposites there-and how does it play out?"

By the end of the first season, "Yes, Dear" not only retained "King of Queen's" audience in the demo, but it also surpassed its lead-in by 2 percent. In its second season "Yes, Dear" averaged 13.86 million viewers and hit a 5.3 in the demo, climbing into the top 20 spot. Season three saw a drop to 4.6 in the demo and a slide to No. 33 in the rankings. In 2003-04 a move to 8 p.m. cost "Yes, Dear"; it dropped to a 3.4 in adults 18 to 49 and 56th place in the demo rankings.



Taking Chances

Last spring with enough episodes to go into syndication and waning ratings, it looked as though CBS and 20th were ready to move on as the network geared up for its 2004 May upfront presentation.

Dana Walden, president of 20th Century Fox Television, said the initial discussions with the network were amicable and understandable.

"They came and said, 'We love the show, and it has been a success on our air, however, if we're ever going to nurture new shows into successes we have to take some chances,'" Ms. Walden said. "The fall ship had sailed as we headed to New York. So at that point we were looking for a 13-episode midseason order."

To get that order, 20th Century Fox came up with a reduced license fee for the show's fifth season. Mr. Garcia said that with two of his co-executive producers asking to return to Fox's "Family Guy" and Mr. Kirschenbaum leaving to run CBS's new comedy "Center of the Universe," the budget dropped considerably. Shifting from film to digital tape also made a difference.

"We made do," Mr. Garcia said of his reduced writing staff. "We probably had too many writers anyway. Our lower-level writers stepped up."

The show was off the air for the fall, but came back Feb. 16, after "Center of the Universe" failed to win over critics and audiences. "Yes, Dear" is airing in "Universe's" initial fall time slot, Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m., after its old lead-out, "King of Queens," which also migrated from Mondays.

"It was great for us," Mr. Kirschenbaum said of the Wednesday move. "We spent three years being totally thankful for the 'King of Queens' audience. They are two very, very compatible shows. We attribute a lot of our early success to being hooked up with them."

For the current season through March 27 "Yes, Dear" has averaged a 3.4 in the demo, flat with its performance from last season and even with "Universe's" average in adults 18 to 49 at 9:30 p.m.

Kelly Kahl, senior executive VP of programming operations for CBS and UPN, said it made sense for CBS to try something new during the fall, but it was useful for the network to have a midseason backup that had a track record.

"We were trying to create a couple new comedy franchises," Mr. Kahl said. "With a comedy like 'Yes, Dear," it affords you the flexibility to do that. In truth, maybe we were a little cavalier with it, but it's a good feeling to know you have a utility player, that no matter where you put it, it will perform fine."

Ms. Walden said she applauded CBS for sticking with the show and giving it a promotional launch when it came back in February. "It premiered with more fanfare from the network this past season than it did in its original premiere," she said.

This season also marks "Yes, Dear's" first foray into syndication. For the February sweeps, it averaged a 2.0 national household rating, up 33 percent from its September 2004 debut week.

Bob Cook, president and CEO of Twentieth Television, which syndicates "Yes, Dear," said the show has grown consistently since its launch.

"The very fact that it's advertiser-friendly is a help," Mr. Cook said. "Ratings [are] the cure-all, whether you're limited to a time period or not. It plays in early fringe, and it plays in late fringe-that universality is something you look for. Generally that gives it a longer life, because it can play a lot of different places."

He said stations are "reasonably pleased" with the show's performance. "You'll take a 2 or a 3 rating anywhere you can get it," he added.

Mr. Kirschenbaum said if the show comes back next season he would be interested in returning full-time. He noted that "Yes, Dear," which he described as a "very enjoyable show" to work on, means even more to him after producing elsewhere. "My appreciation for the work experience and the people on 'Yes Dear' has been completely reaffirmed," he said. Mr. Garcia is currently working on the single-camera pilot "Earl" for NBC. If both shows get picked up he said he was not sure if he would work on "Yes, Dear" and "Earl" concurrently, but he added, "It's a high-class problem."

The show's success hasn't meant much to critics, who have remained relatively silent on "Yes, Dear." The lack of coverage keeps the show's stars off out of gossip columns and stifles award nominations, but that doesn't bother Mr. Kirschenbaum.

"People in the business, the cultural capitals of the countries, the blue states, as my partner Greg says, are not aware of the show," he said. "But leave those places and the show is very popular, very well established, and I think it is borne out in the ratings."

To see all of the hubbub surrounding the auction for Adelphia Communications, one might conclude that the mergers-and-acquisitions craze has once again visited the world of cable.

Indeed, the list of candidates chasing Adelphia and its 5.3 million subscribers is a veritable who's who of heavy hitters, in both the cable space and the private-equity arena. They include multiple system operators Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Cable, private-equity firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Providence Equity Partners and a raft of smaller cable operators and private-equity players. All appear to be making a big bet that the cable sector is poised to be a cash cow for years to come, especially now that cable plant rebuilds are largely over and most MSOs are offering advanced services such as high-speed data, high-definition television and phone service.

Another sign that there could be keen interest in the cable sector: Though Adelphia's systems are regarded as only average in terms of quality and location, many analysts believe a final transaction price could peg Adelphia's per-subscriber value at between $3,200 and $3,500-a price range above industry averages.

But the apparent excitement doesn't stop with Adelphia. Cablevision Systems is another cable operator that has market players excited about the fulfillment of a long-held dream that the cable operator doing business mainly in the New York area might one day be sold to a larger operator, such as Time Warner or Comcast. The recent internal strife between members of the controlling Dolan family has only turned up the heat on speculation that a sale is in the offing.

Yet even if Adelphia and Cablevision are sold, analysts say one can't conclude that the M&A madness that this year has gripped everything from the software sector to the telecommunications industry has moved to the cable sector. Most analysts suggest that the consolidation craze in the cable sector has long since passed.

What Adelphia and Cablevision represent instead are unique situations that could result in a sale.

Adelphia, for example, is under federal bankruptcy protection and has explored a sale as a way of repaying creditors affected by a massive financial fraud and accounting scandal first discovered in 2002. And while Comcast and Time Warner, whose joint bid is considered the offer to beat at this point, would get bigger as a result of winning the Adelphia race, increasing their respective sizes is only part of the motivation to go after Adelphia.

Comcast now holds a 21 percent stake in Time Warner Cable, and sources say the company hopes that the Adelphia deal can facilitate a swap of sorts, in which Comcast gets specific cable systems in exchange for the Time Warner Cable stake.

The story is different at Cablevision, which operates cable systems mainly in the New York area. While Time Warner has long had an interest in snapping up Cablevision's systems to further bolster its presence in the New York area, Cablevision has rebuffed Time Warner's overtures.

Analysts believe Cablevision Chairman Charles Dolan's tune might be different this time because he is locked in a pitched battle with his son, CEO James Dolan, and several board members over the fate of Voom, a struggling satellite service that Charles Dolan has championed but that James Dolan and other board members have sought to shut down. If Charles Dolan finds it difficult to obtain outside funding for Voom, analysts believe he will sell his stake in Cablevision in order to keep Voom going.



Emergence of Clusters

Once those two companies' respective situations are re-solved, though, don't expect other cable companies to hang out a for sale sign, analysts say.

Why? Analysts say the consolidation wave has pretty much played itself out at this point, with the key players pretty much owning what they need.

That's a far cry from as recently as six years ago, when smaller cable operators were being snapped up to create larger companies. The trend took place for most of the 1990s and culminated in 2002 with the $54 billion purchase by Comcast of AT&T Broadband, which has resulted in Comcast being the largest MSO, with 21.5 million subscribers, most of whom are located in the top 25 U.S. markets.

Since that mammoth deal, the industry's focus has been on building and creating clusters, obtaining the kinds of efficiencies that cable operators get when they have a strong regional presence.

"From a pure M&A perspective, Adelphia and Cablevision are the last two large chunks for sale," said Alan Bezoza, a cable analyst at Friedman, Billings, Ramsey in New York. "I suspect you would see operators trade properties" on the belief that cable operators can squeeze out efficiencies better when systems are clustered together.

However, the emergence of clusters has changed the industry's dynamics. Whereas once any cable system was a possible target, buyers, especially the large MSOs, are becoming increasingly picky, said Craig Moffett, a cable analyst at Bernstein.

"We are on the brink of a real bifurcation in the cable market, in which you have well-clustered cable systems in metro areas and then everything else," he said.

That means large operators such as Comcast and Time Warner will increasingly focus on buying cable systems that enhance already existing clusters, leaving private-equity players interested in buying cable systems to choose among smaller and rural cable systems not part of clusters.

"It has been a very long time since an attractive, well-clustered cable system has been available to private-equity players," Mr. Moffett said.

Another trend that could keep a lid on consolidation in the cable market is that of companies going private. With the stock market having beaten up cable operators for the past several years, a growing number of MSOs are looking at exiting the public market altogether. Analysts say that while such a move illustrates management's commitment to the cable business, it also sends the message that large-scale mergers-the kind funded through stock deals-are not in the offing.

Cox Communications started the trend last year when its controlling shareholder Cox Enterprises paid $8.5 billion to purchase the 38 percent of Cox Communications that it didn't already own. Just a few weeks ago Insight Communications, a smaller cable operator, an-nounced that its management was teaming up with private-equity firm The Carlyle Group to take Insight private.

The client members of a Nielsen Media Research steering committee designed to give clients a larger role in improving Nielsen's service are expected to be in place and ready to meet by late May.

Nielsen has hired media research consultant Richard Zackon to grapple with the steering committee structure, the members' roles and the process of choosing committee projects. Nielsen is investing some $2.5 million in the steering committee and its projects.

Nielsen President and CEO Susan Whiting sketched out in a communiqué to clients last month what Mr. Zackon, a former research director with the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau and Court TV, has been assigned to do.

Earlier this year Ms. Whiting promised regular updates on significant initiatives that Nielsen announced in February. On other initiatives:

Some TV stations are helping area companies use promotional contests to entice viewers into coming up with creative services that normally would cost the advertising client many thousands of dollars.

When Mr. ShowerDoor, a Naples, Fla.-based manufacturer, wanted to increase exposure for its frameless shower door, WBBH-TV of Fort Myers, Fla., helped it launch "The Apprentice & Mr. ShowerDoor."

The promotional campaign, taking a page from "The Apprentice," invited area high school students to film, produce and edit a 30-second television commercial about Mr. ShowerDoor's products and services.

The winner from among 10 entries received $1,000 and had his commercial air on the Waterman Broadcasting NBC station during last season's final episode of Donald Trump's reality series. Second and third runners-up received $500 and $250, respectively.

"It was a great way for the students to learn about TV production," said WBBH senior account executive Ann Marie Fox. "You could see it in the kids' faces that they accomplished a task." The client is now gearing up for another version of this promotion.

Fox owned-and-operated WBRC-TV in Birmingham, Ala., used a contest to help amusement park Visionland name its newest roller coaster. More than 6,500 contestants entered via online registration or postcard. The winner, 11-year-old Nate Bailey, and the name Zoomerang were announced in February on the station's morning show, "Good Day Alabama." He received four season passes to the park, 24 one-day tickets for friends and a $250 Visionland gift certificate.

"Visionland is a premier local attraction and this was a great way to include the community in something for the community," said WBRC VP and General Sales Manager Mike Lewis.

In today's cluttered media world, "tracking" research, which measures viewers' awareness of and intent to view programming, is becoming a more significant tool of the prime-time business.

That's primarily because tracking helps network marketing executives assess how well the multitudes of promos they throw behind their shows are working.

"It's more important now because there is more competition," said Vince Manze, president and creative director of The NBC Agency. "It can help you figure out where you stand, and how to translate that information into what you need to do [to get viewers to tune in]."

With data from tracking studies, a network can adjust marketing elements for a show, such as airing more promo time, adjusting the creative content of the promos or buying more print or radio.

Typically, tracking starts six weeks before a show is to debut. In June, before promos are aired for new fall shows, the networks' research departments work with outside research companies to collect research data from viewers. This process involves asking viewers simple questions, such as whether they have heard about any upcoming new network shows. Generally, few viewers are aware of new shows. Another report normally is generated in the third week of July. Then reports start being generated weekly until the premiere of a show.

"This gives us a base story," Mr. Manze said. "If they have heard of your show, then you are doing very well. But that's usually still a very low number." That can be in the 5 [percent] to 10 percent range of awareness among all viewers, he said.

Later in the summer the networks begin airing promos, and another tracking study is taken in July. This time the network executives are looking for higher awareness levels. "At this point, you'd like to start in the high teens to 20 percent on awareness," Mr. Manze said. "You want to end up in the 40s-that's a good score."

The big goal for new shows is not only to get the awareness score to a 40 or above, but also to get the intent-to-view score in the 40-plus area. Rare are the shows that reach a 40 score in both measures. Of course, this data cannot guarantee ratings success.

In the days before NBC's March 7, 9:30 p.m., premiere of "The Contender," the reality show set in the world of boxing made it to a 40 awareness level and about a 20 intent-to-view score. That was pretty good, Mr. Manze said.

However, in its March 7 premiere "The Contender" garnered a 4.0 in adults 18 to 49 and 8.4 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research, which placed it third in the 9:30 p.m. half-hour (behind CBS's "Two and a Half Men" and Fox's "24") and second in most demos from 9-10 p.m. (behind CBS's "CSI: Miami" but ahead of ABC's "Supernanny"). "The Contender" built slightly from its lead-in ("Fear Factor," which got a 3.8 in adults 18 to 49), but was lower against "Factor's" 9.3 million viewers.

In its Sunday, March 13, time period debut, the show sank to a 2.7 in adults 18 to 49. That was 4 percent above the time period average for the season in the demo. "Contender" came in fourth in the time period.

Programming analysts said the show didn't have higher ratings because women viewers tend to dislike any content that involves boxing.

"You would have liked it to be a bigger hit, but we were relieved for the number that we had got," Mr. Manze said.

While a high awareness level is generally a good thing, if it's combined with a low intent-to-view score, the data could indicate ratings trouble. If a network show gets a 50 in awareness, for example, and a 10 in intent-to-view, that likely means that while viewers have seen the advertising, they are not interested in tuning in.

If the numbers are reversed-a low score for awareness and a high number for intent-to-view-that generally means few have seen the advertising, but those that have are very interested in the show.

A network may change the creative focus of the spots during tracking-making them more romantic, or tougher, or funnier or quirkier. But mostly networks look to adjust creative in the earlier focus group process-where actual audiences screen the promo spots.

For NBC's "The Office," the network knew from the start the mock documentary one-camera sitcom would have a different creative style from other standard sitcom promos. "I wanted to be loyal to the show," Mr. Manze said.

That meant doing a spot in the same mock-documentary style, with no voice-over, no music, just some biting wit from the show's star Steve Carell, who plays a politically incorrect paper sales manager.

Sometimes a show's awareness level is nearly impossible to budge. For example, NBC tried to promote the 1998 Al Franken-produced comedy, "LateLine" but couldn't raise its awareness scores. "Apparently, people were confused by the title," said Mr. Manze, "perhaps confusing it with NBC's "Dateline" or ABC's "Nightline."

"We knew it was the name [that was the problem]," Mr. Manze said. "We knew we couldn't have run that many spots and have that low of an awareness level."



Close to the Vest

Tracking information is somewhat closely held among network executives. TV producers-in an increasingly competitive world-seek any information that will persuade the networks their shows need more marketing help.

But Mike Benson, senior VP of marketing, advertising and promotion for ABC Entertainment, said tracking studies shouldn't be taken as gospel.

"It's more of a guide," Mr. Benson said. "The odd thing about tracking is that the numbers can bounce from week to week. They don't necessarily make a lot of sense. You have to look at it over a long period of time and see if the needle is going in the right direction."

ABC's strong debut for "Grey's Anatomy" tracked well but not perfectly. While its intent-to-view score was very high, its awareness was slightly below average, Mr. Benson said.

In its debut March 27 at 10 p.m, "Grey's Anatomy" scored a 7.2 rating in adults 18 to 49 and 16.3 million viewers,easily winning its hour over NBC's "Crossing Jordan," which pulled in a 3.7 rating in the demo. "Grey's" was down from "Desperate Housewives'" 10.7 adult 18 to 49 rating and 24 million-viewer lead-in.

The show's ratings performance was a product of the right promos, Mr. Benson said, as well as its lead-in.

Competing network marketing executives snickered that the show needed only "Housewives'" gigantic large lead-in of viewers to assure the launch's success.

Mr. Benson disagreed.

"We want to hit a certain communication goal when the show launches," he said. "You are hoping you build up awareness and intent-to-view to get the 'Desperate Housewives' viewers who will watch. The lead-in is incredibly important. But if you are going to put a brand-new show after a really great show, and no one has heard anything about it, then the chance to get people to stick around is more difficult."

Given the growing importance of tracking, more elaborate research is starting to be marketed to networks.

In the past several months media agency Initiative Media has been selling a research tool called PropheSEE. It gleans data from millions of messages from publicly accessible Web sites and merges that data with information from TNS Media Intelligence, a research company that also does tracking for the broadcast networks.

Initiative Media said the added benefit of Web site chatter is that it is a good predictor of TV shows. Additionally, PropheSEE gives networks a broad tracking picture.

"The networks are only tracking their own stuff. They are not tracking what everyone else is doing," said Stacey Lynn Koerner, executive VP and director of global research integration for Initiative Media.

Also, where the networks primarily track only in the summer months in preparation for the new season, PropheSEE develops tracking trends many months in advance of when a show is tentatively scheduled to air-all of which give networks a new level of information in predicting how a show will perform.

PropheSEE is close to getting its first network clients, Ms. Koerner said. "We are in the middle of a deal with one network and three-quarters of the way through a conversation with another," she said.

Branded entertainment is an increasingly popular TV marketing tool, but until recently few observers have been able put a real dollar amount on the value of TV product placement and product integration exposure.

The results of a just-released study conducted by Stamford, Conn.-based research firm PQ Media indicates that product placement is growing faster in television than in films, video games and other media. The study said the total value of product placement deals on television in 2004 was $1.88 billion, a 46.4 percent increase from 2003.

Advertisers paid $552 million for TV product placement deals in 2004, an increase of 84 percent over 2003, the study said. Paid arrangements represented 29.2 percent of product placement deals; 64.2 percent were on a barter basis, in which money did not change hands; and 6.6 percent were on a gratis basis, where branded products were used without the involvement of the manufacturer.

PQ put a value of $1.21 billion on barter deals, an increase of 39.1 percent over 2003, and $118 million on gratis deals.

Though reality shows such as CBS's "Survivor," Fox's "American Idol" and NBC's "The Apprentice" represent the fastest-growing program category for product placement, other program genres have had more product integration deals.

TV drama shows represent the largest portion of all product placement deals, with 22.6 percent. News and talk shows are next at 17.3 percent. Reality and game shows logged in at 16.6 percent.

In the survey, PQ Media examined all product placement deals for TV since 1974. But Patrick Quinn, president of PQ Media, said the real uptick in TV product placement occurred in summer 2000, when CBS launched "Survivor."

"As part of that deal, CBS was willing to try a different way to pay for the show-and they went to product placement deals from [creator] Mark Burnett," Mr. Quinn said. "[In] the first placement in the first challenge of 'Survivor' the winner got a bag of Doritos and a six-pack of Mountain Dew."

Some critics said it's difficult to examine actual paid product integration deals because those deals are tied to traditional TV advertising buys. As much as 80 percent of any money paid in these deals is put into traditional TV media, such as 30-second commercials.

Mr. Quinn said PQ Media took great pains to strip out these revenues.

Though product placement has generated big headlines in the TV business press, Mr. Quinn said, it's just a fraction of all TV advertising dollars.

"It's still a smidgen," he said of the $550 million in paid product placement. "If you add all TV together, you have about $50 billion in [advertising] spending."

With $550 million in paid product placement media deals, according to PQ Media, "That implies product placement is 1 percent of those revenues," said Brian Wieser, VP of industry analysis for Magna Global. Media research analysts say that number sounds reasonable, but they want to examine further data.

Of more interest to marketers is the evaluation of each individual product placement deal, media buying executives said.

"A lot of people are really confused [about product placement], and they are looking for some sort of benchmark," said David Poltrack, executive VP of research and planning for CBS Television. "There is a perception that they are paying too much. From our perception we may not be charging enough, but we don't know."



Long History

In addition to television, product placement continues to grow in other entertainment media, including theatrical film, where it has a long history. In that sector placement grew 14.6 percent to $1.25 billion in value in 2004. In the survey's "other media" category, which includes newspapers, video games, Internet, recorded music, books and radio, product placement was up 19.9 percent to $325.8 million.

PQ Media found the biggest product placement brands were automobiles, which represented 16 percent of all deals in 2004. Apparel was next at 15.6 percent. Food and beverage products were at 12.5 percent, followed by travel and leisure (11.1 percent); health and beauty (10.5 percent); house and home appliances (9.9 percent); and toys and sporting goods (7.3 percent).

PQ Media produced the research because marketers were desperate for more information in this growing field. "There was a real dearth of information on the size and structure of this market," Mr. Quinn said.

To compile its database, PQ Media interviewed dozens of brand and agency account managers and media buying and selling executives at ad agencies, media agencies, TV networks and consumer product companies. It also analyzed thousands of private and public documents.

Network research executives believe this type of research is useful in determining the health of the business, but contend that a better research tool for marketers can be found in evaluating specific product placement deals. Mr. Poltrack said companies such as IAG Research provide that kind of detailed analysis.

By Mark Dominiak

Special to TelevisionWeek

Spring is in the air. Easter Sunday recently passed, March Madness has whittled itself down to tonight's final game and the new baseball season starts this week. This is a time of year for both endings and beginnings.

Of spring beginnings, one of the most interesting to follow is the ramp-up to the big summer movie season. With the exception of a few trailer units that ran during the Super Bowl and other big events, the next few weeks will see trailers for summer releases start to air on television. These first trailers are the beginning of a release strategy that is used fairly consistently in new film media plans.



Two Sides of Urgency

Two urgent need states are the driving force behind conventional film release media strategy. On one hand there's the studio's need to reap as much revenue as possible from a film product with an ephemeral shelf life. On the other is the filmgoer's need to experience a hot pop culture commodity before it evaporates. It's easy to understand the film studio's side of the equation, but the filmgoer deserves a bit more commentary.

Films make it to DVD and video so quickly these days one would wonder why people feel the need to flock to the cineplex at $10-plus a pop-and that's just for the ticket. The reason lies in the experience. Being part of what's creating buzz can happen only while the buzz is being created. There's also something special about experiencing a hot entertainment commodity in the presence of a similarly minded mass of humanity that can't be achieved in a home theater.

It shouldn't come as a surprise that the majority of filmgoers during the initial release weeks come from younger demographics. Younger people tend to draw energy from experiential moments rather than relationships. Because younger people have fewer relationships to energize them than people with spouses and kids, it makes sense that they're drawn to the energy surrounding hot pop culture events such as film releases.



Unconventional Convention

Launch strategy for film releases could be considered the antithesis of conventional brand launch strategy. Nonfilm brand launches generally hold every impression in hand until it's actually available to the public, unleashing messaging as soon as the brand hits shelves. Support will continue for the launching brand as long as budget permits. Since conventional brands don't really have an expiration date, a consumer might purchase at any time, so covering as much of the calendar as practical is a real need.

Contrarily, film release strategy begins with a trickle of exposure far in advance of actual in-theater date and ramps up over time, slowly at first to finally very heavy levels at opening week/weekend. Post-opening exposure ramps down fairly quickly following release, lasting for maybe an additional four weeks.

The core driver of the approach is the expiration date notion. Films don't remain in theaters very long-weeks to maybe a few months. That means studios don't have a lot of time to generate revenue. Awareness must be built quickly to generate interest and de-mand in advance of opening weekend. Film companies want potential moviegoers waiting in line to buy tickets when opening day arrives, not at home, hearing about the film for the first time.

While momentum for a film can be built via in-theater or Internet trailers well in advance, the length of calendar time between the first mass media trickle and release date isn't very long. Most films don't begin the real mass media trickle until four or five weeks out from launch week, and even tentpole releases don't start much further out than eight or nine weeks.



Lots in a Short Time

But therein lies the real strength of the film release approach. Very significant budgets are poured into a very short span of time. According to a recent Variety article citing data from the Motion Picture Association of America, the average film in 2003 had a marketing spend of $39 million, about double the $19.8 million level of 1996.

A budget of $39 million invested in an average spending window of just 10 weeks looks for all intents and purposes like a portion of a $200 million annual investment. And that's just for average films. What about the tentpole films, with marketing budgets far exceeding $39 million? A $50 million or $60 million marketing spend will deliver the energy and impact of a $300 million brand to filmgoing consumers sensitive to the buzz created in the release window.

Using this strategy, film releases are able to accomplish many important things:

Grabbing one of Internet marketing's newest buzzwords, Sci Fi Channel has introduced three "podcasts" to its Web site, Scifi.com, to promote its shows. A podcast is downloadable audio content, such as a radio show, that can be played on an Apple iPod.

Last month the network began offering a podcast in connection with its popular show "Battlestar Galactica" in which the show's executive producer Ronald Moore provides an audio commentary for each episode, said Craig Engler, general manager for the Web site. Viewers can listen to the commentary when they want, including while watching the episode.

He said the "Battlestar Galactica" podcast marks the first time a network has created content for a podcast other than the audio stream of the show itself.

Mr. Engler doesn't have numbers for the use of the podcast, but estimates it's been downloaded up to 30,000 times. Though the run of the first season ends this month, Mr. Moore will continue to podcast when the second season starts shooting this month. During production, his podcast will be behind-the-scenes shooting commentary. He'll resume the show commentary podcasts when the second season starts airing in July. In addition, the show's other executive producer, David Eick, will do a behind-the-scenes video blog during the shooting of the second season.

The success of the "Battlestar Galactica" podcast has sparked others at Scifi.com. The show "Stargate: Atlantis" now includes online a podcast with two of the show's writers discussing the episode with DVD-style commentary, and the Web site also offers a podcast of sci-fi entertainment news. "It's a big buzzword now, and if it continues to be strong in the future we'll look at [continuing]," Mr. Engler said. "We're interested in the promotional aspects and being cool because that's a part of our job at the Sci Fi Channel."



Nat Geo to Add Clips to Web Site

At the end of this quarter, National Geographic Channel plans to beef up the broadband video it offers on its Web site with a slate of online video clips from its shows, including "National Geographic Presents" and other current offerings. The clips will come in the Video Juke Box section, which will launch with about 250 clips. The site will add about five per week. The network said the aim is to increase time on the site, awareness of the channel's series and on-air tune-in.

While Comcast has spent $39 billion over the past decade to upgrade its plant nationwide to accommodate advanced services such as broadband, high-definition TV, digital video recorders and video-on-demand-$600 million of that in the Bay Area alone over the past two years-the real work has only just begun.

That work involves educating customers, and much of it occurs at the company's 75 call centers, including three in the San Francisco Bay Area, Comcast's second-largest market nationwide, with 1.6 million customers in nine counties.

Customers are often befuddled and confused by their cable service in general and about new services in particular. The best chance to educate a customer is that critical moment when he or she contacts the call center.

On a Monday in March, One Bay Area customer didn't realize she had high-speed Internet access from Comcast, then asked, "Internet-is that for the computer?" Another opted for three months of free high-speed Internet and digital cable in her new home, then backed out at the last minute because "free" sounded too complicated.



Selling the Services

In the Bay Area, the responsibility for penetrating the market with new services falls on the shoulders of the 1,200 customer service representatives-whose wages start at $12.80 an hour-spread throughout the system's three call centers. While Comcast markets its new services through cross-channel, broadcast, print, outdoor, radio and direct mail ads, the crucial link in the marketing chain is the moment when a customer calls in to the call center and asks "What exactly is VOD, HDTV or DVRs?"

"When you take a look at the customers who call in, some are very knowledgeable and others don't know much," said Pete Dang, one of the managers of the Concord, Calif., call center.

San Francisco is a high-profile market because tech-savvy clientele resides in much of the region due to its proximity to Silicon Valley and because as an old TCI system acquired through Comcast's purchase of AT&T Broadband in 2002, the Bay Area was only recently rebuilt. VOD and DVRs were just introduced in the market last fall. Comcast now offers VOD to 85 percent of its homes nationwide and DVR to all its homes.

Customers may have seen an ad on a bus or a billboard that piqued their curiosity, but the person answering the phone must then be able to capture that customer's interest and get him or her to upgrade to HD, opt for the $9.99 monthly DVR service or order a movie on-demand. Even if a customer is calling about an entirely different matter, a CSR is expected to look for an opportunity to talk about the new services.

"Our [CSRs] try to let them know at the end of the call that there is a new service," said Charlotte Howell, another Bay Area call center manager. For instance, many customers think VOD is the same thing as TiVo, and a CSR needs to explain the difference. Explaining DVRs is easier because it can be compared with a VCR, said Jill Thompson, Comcast's manager of human resources in the Bay Area. "But VOD [is] not like anything they have seen," she said.

That means a good CSR should know the service well. Comcast held a VOD Awareness Week in mid-March for employees of its Bay Area call centers. Programmers set up booths to educate CSRs about their VOD programming. Programmers also joined in periodic "huddles" with 12 or so CSRs for 30 minutes at a time to show VOD clips and ask questions in a mock customer call.

The early efforts seem to be working. Within the first 90 days of launch, about 48 percent of Comcast's digital subscribers who have VOD service were using it regularly.

That CSR education is key, since about 70 percent of Comcast's orders are driven by the call centers, because they process new customers, transfers and upgrades, Ms. Howell said. In the Bay Area, the three call centers receive about 23,000 calls each day, and the average call takes about five minutes to handle.



Customers' Major Issues

Here's an overview of the major issues customers have called about regarding VOD, DVRs and HD:

When Comcast first introduced DVRs in the area late last year the company struggled with an unusual issue-some DVRs froze on the lower analog channels. The problem has since been solved, but many initial calls related to that problem. Other calls concerned audio not working properly when a show was recorded. CSRs walked customers through a fix. The rest of the calls were along the lines of, "I just got this box. How does it work?" Mr. Dang said.

Most VOD calls are simple: What is it, how does it work and when can I get it?

The HD questions illustrate the challenges in general with HD: Many consumers don't realize they need to sign up for HD service when they get an HD set and vice versa. "Customers say, 'I have an HD set. How come I don't have hi-def? What channels are available and how come this particular one isn't?' And some customers will order the service with Comcast without buying the HD set," Mr. Dang said.

Even though a CSR's job is to sell when a call comes in, sometimes it's not appropriate. For instance, on that Monday in March a CSR opted not to upsell a customer who was canceling a service call because she'd just gotten out of the hospital.

Fans of the critically acclaimed Fox Network sophomore comedy "Arrested Development" are hoping their prayers will be answered this spring. First, they hope Fox will renew the show. If that doesn't happen, they are praying that a cable network will pick it up.

However, among the networks often bandied about as potential surrogate homes for the Emmy Award-winning comedy, few would be willing to take it over with the same cost of production. According to an informal survey of network and industry insiders by TelevisionWeek, several outlets would consider the show but only a couple would be likely to make an offer.

"I would love to have it," said one top cable network executive. "And I think there are a lot of people who would think long and hard about it. But there's a question about whether it would be a success on cable. Also, it might be cost-prohibitive."

Speculation that Fox is going to cancel the low-rated comedy has been buzzing since former entertainment President Gail Berman cut the current season order from 22 episodes to 18. Insiders say the recent exit of Ms. Berman, who was a longtime champion of the show, makes its prospects more dire. Ms. Berman's replacement, former FX head Peter Liguori, has said it's "completely premature" to weigh in on the subject.

Fox has until its May 19 upfront to decide whether to renew the series.

"There has been a lot of chatter and casual talk from other networks about `Arrested,' but we so badly believe that the show belongs on Fox," said "Arrested" executive producer and Imagine Television President David Nevins. Imagine Television and 20th Century Fox Television produce the show. "We've had no outside conversations. All of our focus has been on getting it back on Fox."

But some of that talk has been from "Arrested" creator and showrunner Mitchell Hurwitz, who recently declared he will shop the series to cable if Fox cancels it.

(Another broadcast network home does not appear to be in the cards.) The subject has even been addressed in the show: In the March 27 episode, the Bluth family's housing development company was placed in jeopardy when an order is unexpectedly reduced from 22 to 18 homes-similar to Fox's episode order dwindling from 22 to 18. The company survives only by relocating to less-expensive quarters. (Read: "Arrested" might have to move to lower-rent cable real estate.)

For cable executives, however, buying "Arrested" raises two key concerns:

w The cost. With its single-camera production, frequent on-location shooting and ensemble cast, "Arrested" insiders put the show's cost at about $1.5 million per episode-very expensive for a half-hour comedy on cable. Cable has shown an increasing willingness to pay production costs comparable to broadcast. But even hour-long dramas such as "Nip/Tuck" and "The Dead Zone" tend to cost around $1.3 million per episode, and cable half-hours cost between $300,000 and $1 million. Any cable network interested in "Arrested" would likely push producers to reduce costs or share DVD residuals.

w The audience. "Arrested" draws about 6 million viewers per episode-poor for Fox, but fantastic for any cable network. But how much of the show's audience would follow "Arrested" to cable? On this point, the consensus is promising. Viewers who enjoy the snarky intelligence of "Arrested Development"-which more closely resembles cable comedies than broadcast-are probable cable subscribers. If only half of Fox's seemingly loyal "Arrested" fans make the jump, that's a hit in cable.

"Arrested Development," which centers on a dysfunctional Orange County, Calif., family, premiered in 2003 and immediately made a critical splash with its literate humor and documentary-style execution. Though ratings have consistently put the show in the red with Fox, nonstop accolades-such as winning a 2004 Emmy for best comedy series-and Ms. Berman's support have kept it on the air.

Cable channels have successfully picked up network shows before. "The Surreal Life" was canceled by The WB after two seasons, then found a new life on VH1. "The Family Guy" became a hit on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim after being canceled by Fox.

The "Family Guy" example is presumably another reason Fox has been reluctant to pull the life-support plug on "Arrested"-it's embarrassing when a cable network makes ratings lemonade from your lemons.

In an era when local broadcasters feel financially squeezed from nearly every direction, an Oklahoma City station has turned to an old-fashioned programming strategy to make some new-style money.

Hearst-Argyle-owned ABC affiliate KOCO-TV generated more than $100,000 in profit from its recent locally produced special "Oklahoma's Ultimate Makeover," in which women underwent plastic surgery to achieve a new look. The station brought several new advertisers on board for the program.

Many of those advertisers-Lasik doctors, plastic surgeons and cosmetic dentists-don't typically buy on-air spots. The show was a chance to lure them to the station and generate so-called "nontraditional revenue," said Dominique Homsey Gross, sales marketing manager for the station.

"This is one of the most aggressive approaches to nontraditional revenue," she said. "The sponsors that did all of the work [on the women] pay to be part of the show." Local area sponsors included Oklahoma University Medical Center, Smile Solutions and TLC Lasik Eye Centers. Other sponsors included a local hair salon, a spa and a body toning center.

Local broadcasting has its roots in local programming, while brand integration is a recent advertising phenomenon.

The story of two Oklahoma women who went under the knife to have their faces, eyes, eyebrows, noses, lips, breasts and cheeks redone was the highest-rated locally produced entertainment program in Oklahoma City history, said Matt Laws, creative services director at the station. It generated an 8.4 household rating and a 12 share March 23 and a 6.2/10 on its encore presentation two nights later, according to Nielsen Media Research. About 219,000 people total watched the show, exceeding expectations.

On the Wednesday night first episode, the show aired at 9 p.m. (CT), pre-empting "Wife Swap," which has averaged a 7 household rating. But KOCO replayed "Wife Swap" over the weekend. "Oklahoma's Ultimate Makeover"-a takeoff on ABC's prime-time hit "Extreme Makeover"-marked the first time the station has pre-empted prime-time programming for a locally produced special.

Based on the ratings and financial success, KOCO has begun planning the second installment of "Oklahoma's Ultimate Makeover" with the next casting call slated for May and the show to air sometime in the summer.

Local Programming

The station is also prepping for a local twist on another ABC show when it runs "5's Home Team" in late June. The half-hour show, inspired by ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," will feature a local family getting its home redone Local advertisers integrated into the KOCO show are furniture companies; siding, flooring and roofing purveyors; audio and home theater suppliers and construction firms, Ms. Homsey Gross said.

"Even though the concept has been done before, we do it a little differently," Mr. Laws said. "We go more into the story of the family and the depth of Oklahoma. We are trying to showcase that Oklahoma has phenomenal plastic surgeons, phenomenal construction companies."

While national cable and broadcast networks often require an advertiser to place media buys to be integrated into a show, KOCO does not. "The majority of our nontraditional revenue has nothing to do with spot buys," Ms. Homsey Gross said.

This style of local programming is a chance for local advertisers to participate in a bigger way than they can through 30-second spots, said Gordon Borrell, president of Borrell Associates, a research and consulting firm focusing on local media. After all, a local plastic surgeon isn't going to find a brand integration opportunity with a national network.

"[Local programming] is a wonderful untapped niche that all broadcasters ought to be pursuing," Mr. Borrell said. "You will find a lot of advertisers that are tired of buying lots of 30-second spots or a handful of 3by5s in a newspaper, and a chance to integrate into a program makes sense. This is a way for particularly the bigger advertiser to be a part of something exciting rather than just run adjacent."

Other Hearst-Argyle stations are expected to follow KOCO's lead and introduce more local programming. Many already do. Hearst-Argyle's ABC affiliate in Milwaukee, WISN-TV, has garnered strong ratings for its locally produced newsmagazine "On Assignment." The group's NBC station WLWT-TV in Cincinnati has crafted local specials on the Busch Series auto races, while CBS station KCCI-TV in Des Moines, Iowa, has created local weather specials, said Marv Danielski, VP of marketing and creative services for the station group.

He said Hearst-Argyle stations are not looking to pre-empt their syndicated shows, but will look for appropriate opportunities to offer more locally produced content.

Brent Hensley, the president and general manager of KOCO, said local programming is a necessity for stations. "It's our obligation as local broadcasters. We are given the opportunity and the obligation to serve our local communities, and the network may not always fulfill that obligation, whether for sports or news," he said.

This summer KOCO will invite sponsors to join its "On the Road" promotion when it takes its newscasts into various Oklahoma communities as another way to generate nontraditional revenue.

"You will see a lot from KOCO and new ideas and new concepts coming around the pike," Mr. Laws said. "We will be the most aggressive station in Oklahoma and probably one of the most aggressive in the country. ... This is definitely a new revenue stream for us that has proven to be profitable for the station and the partners."