Posted Thursday, Feb. 14, at 8:25 a.m. (PT); last updated at 11:50 a.m.

dick clark productions purchased for $140 million

Dick Clark, the longtime host of “American Bandstand,” is whistling a happy tune.

A pair of major investors — Mosaic Media Group and Capitol Communications CDPQ Inc. — have agreed to buy dick clark productions for roughly $140 million in cash. Mr. Clark, who will remain as chairman of dick clark productions, will be joined by CDP Capitol principal and longtime Hollywood studio executive Jules Haimovitz as vice chairman of dcp.

Under terms of the deal, shareholders of dick clark productions (NASDAQ: DCPI) — other than Mr. Clark himself — will receive $14.50 per share. Mr. Clark, who is estimated to hold 70 percent of the shares in his company, will be getting $12.50 per share and will invest the remaining portions of his shares — along with dcp President and CEO Francis LaMaina — in the acquiring entity (Mosaic Media Group). Henry Winterstern, co-founder and managing partner of CDP Capital Entertainment, will also invest in the acquiring entity.

The transaction is subject to the approval of dick clark productions’ shareholders and is expected to close within 90 days.

Founded in 1957, dick clark productions has produced such perennial hits as “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve,” the “American Music Awards,” “The Golden Globe Awards,” the “Bloopers” specials and series, the “Daytime Emmy Awards,” the “Academy of Country Music Awards,” and the recent “Disney’s American Teacher Awards.” The company also is a leading producer of live events and meetings as well as integrated marketing programs for major corporations.

A subsidiary, dick clark restaurants, licenses and operates Dick Clark’s American Bandstand casual dining restaurants. “American Bandstand” originally aired on ABC in various dayparts from 1957-87, then in syndication (1987-88) and on the USA Network (1988-89). Mr. Clark has also served as host of several game shows, most notably “The $100,000 Pyramid.”

Mosaic Media Group Chairman Allen Shapiro is credited with serving as the architect for the acquisition of dick clark productions, which will continue to operate as independent production company. Mosaic, launched in July 1999, has since merged its film and music company Atlas Entertainment, and its affiliated division Atlas/Third Rail Management, with the talent management group The Gold/Miller Company.

“The acquisition of dick clark productions represents a continuation of Mosaic’s expansion plan with its partner CDP Capital Communications,” Mr. Sharpiro said. “The alliance of Mosaic’s talent relations with dick clark’s television production capacity will create opportunities for both parties. The event programming dick clark productions is associated with is becoming an increasingly valuable part of the television business and the company’s library has tremendous value. We are delighted to be in business with Jules Haimovitz, with whom the principals of Mosaic have had a long relationship.”

CDP Capital Communications is a division of CDP Capital, which invests globally in telecommunications, media and entertainment companies through offices in the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia. CDP has a portfolio of 113 investments valued at over $2.2 billion and in such U.S. entertainment companies as Mosaic Media Group, Mosaic Music Publishing, Cutwater Media and Signpost Films.

CDP Capital Entertainment is an investment management and advisory services company for the entertainment industry, based in Los Angeles, co-managing investments with CDP Capital Communications.

Mr. Haimovitz, who presently serves as a special consultant to MGM, previously served as president and CEO of Viacom-owned King World Productions. He also held senior executive positions at Spelling Entertainment Group and was president of Viacom Networks, overseeing Showtime and the MTV Networks.

WNBC-TV offering 24/7 digital Olympics feed: WNBC-TV, New York, will have a 24 hour/seven day a week digital feed throughout the Olympics available to major cable headends for distribution on digital tiers of cable systems. In other news at WNBC, Alex Benes has been named the executive producer of investigative and enterprise reporting. He will supervise the WNBC investigative unit.

DeNiro to host CBS’s ‘9/11’ doc: Robert De Niro has been signed by CBS to host “9/11,” the exclusive behind-the-scenes video account of the terrorist-led plane crashes into New York’s World Trade Center towers. The eyewitness story, shot by French filmmakers Gedeon and Jules Naudet, will be broadcast by CBS as a special two-hour presentation on Sunday, March 10 (9 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET).

Mr. De Niro, who has won two Academy Awards for acting (“Raging Bull,” “The Godfather: Part II”), is also a director and producer whose Tribeca Film Center is located just a few blocks from Ground Zero at the WTC site.

The presentation of “9/11” will help support the fund-raising efforts of the Uniformed Firefighters Association Scholarship Fund for the benefit of firefighters’ families, including contributions from the Naudet brothers and CBS. The broadcast of “9/11” will include information about how viewers can also support the fund.

CBS News’ Susan Zirinsky is executive producer of the CBS broadcast, along with Gedeon and Jules Naudet, Ladder 1 firefighter James Hanlon and CBS News’ Hal Gessner and Tom Forman, who are executive editor and senior producer, respectively. Betsy West, senior vice president of CBS News, is executive in charge.

Mr. Carter and Vanity Fair’s David Friend, editor of creative development, will also serve as executive producers of the broadcast. Vanity Fair ran an exclusive interview with the Naudet brothers in the magazine’s current issue. The project was brought to CBS by Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, the William Morris Agency’s President and Co-CEO Jim Wiatt and Ben Silverman, WMA’s head of international development.

TV clutter levers reach all-time highs: Clutter levels showed record-high increases in many TV dayparts this year, indicating a reversal of last year when the amount of non-programming minutes on TV’s broadcast networks went down. The only exception to the upward trend was in prime time, which showed a slight decrease in clutter.

The increases were revealed in a joint report by the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) and the Association of National Advertisers, Inc. (ANA) titled the 2001 Television Commercial Monitoring Report.

The annual study was released Thursday in conjunction with the AAAA 2002 Media Conference & Trade Show now under way at the Disney Contemporary Resort in Orlando, Fla.

The report showed that on average, non-program minutes reached an all-time high. Of the six dayparts monitored, three set clutter records: early morning (18:02 minutes per hour from 17:44 in 2000), daytime (20:57 in 2001 from 20:03 in 2000), and local news (17:10 from 17:05 in 2000). Although not at record levels for their dayparts, non-program minutes were also high for late night and network news. Prime boasted the only decrease: down to 16:08 from 16:17 last year, the lowest it’s been since 1998.

Once again, prime time emerged as the least cluttered daypart, while daytime remained the most cluttered for the 10th consecutive year.

Four networks (ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC) are within one minute of each other for non-program minutes in prime time, the closest they’ve been since November 1999. CBS experienced an increase of 26 seconds to 16:04 from the previous year, while ABC — the least cluttered network in prime time — remained the same. Despite showing the greatest fluctuation with a decrease of 43 seconds, NBC, remained the most cluttered network in prime time.

“While we are pleased with the decrease in prime-time clutter, unfortunately, the level of non-programming minutes in the remaining dayparts seems to increase inexorably every year on both broadcast and cable networks,” said O. Burtch Drake, AAAA president and CEO.

All programming covered in this report was monitored by Competitive Media Reporting (CMR) for two distinct seasonal
time periods — May 14-20, 2001, and Nov. 12-18, 2001. Conclusions presented in prior studies were based primarily on the November period because fourth-quarter ad spending is traditionally heavier than in other periods.

AAAA selects new chairman, vice chairman: The Advisory Council of the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) has nominated Ken Kaess, president and CEO, DDB Worldwide, and James R. Heekin, chairman and CEO, McCann-Erickson WorldGroup, to serve respectively as chairman and vice chairman of the AAAA board of directors for the 2002-03 year. Mr. Kaess currently holds the position of vice chairman for 2001-02. He has also been an AAAA director at large since 1998 and has served as a member of the AAAA Large Agency Management Committee since 1999. Mr. Heekin has been an AAAA director at large since 2000.

Comcast takes step to ensure customer privacy: Comcast Corp. issued a statement Wednesday assuring subscribers it will immediately stop recording the Web browsing activities of each of its 1 million high-speed Internet subscribers. The company said it will stop storing the information “in order to completely reassure our customers that the privacy of their information is secure.” The Associated Press reported Tuesday that Comcast had started recording customers’ visits to a Web page as part of a technology overhaul to save money and speed up the network. Comcast moved quickly to reassure customers that their information had been stored only temporarily.

WB to tease HBO ‘Janet Jackson’ concert: In a bite-size portion of synergy between AOL Time Warner-owned networks, viewers of The WB’s “Glory Days” series will get to see a two-minute music video from Janet Jackson’s HBO’s concert special. On Wednesday, Feb. 20, during a two-minute break in “Glory Days” (9 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET), WB viewers will get Ms. Jackson’s encore performance of her hit single “All For You,” which will be taken from “Janet Jackson in Concert From Hawaii” set to debut Sunday (Feb. 17) on HBO.

(c) Copyright 2002 by Crain Communications