FAST TRACK
By Staff -- Broadcasting & Cable, 7/31/2005 8:00:00 PM
Items:
Tate And Russell May Go to FCC
Lachlan Murdoch Resigns
Reynolds Exit Puts CBS in a Quandary
NBC Selling 'House'
'Nightline' Names New Exec Producer
MSNBC Moves Carlson's 'Situation'
FEC Clears '60 Minutes' And Sinclair Shows
Sen. Burns May Reassess Ratings Bill
Comcast Suit Against Orioles Is Thrown Out
In Demand Sets Howard Stern Channel
Tate And Russell May Go to FCC
The White House is expected to nominate Tennessee regulatory utility commissioner Deborah Tate and administration technology-policy adviser Richard Russell to fill the two Republican seats, one vacant and one soon-to-be-vacant, on the Federal Communications Commission.
The White House declined to comment.
Tate is a member of the Tennessee Regulatory Authority and had been on several short lists for the FCC.
Russell is a senior director for Technology and Telecommunications at the National Economic Council. He also is an associate director with the administration's Office of Science and Technology.
Prior to joining the White House in 2001, Russell worked for six years as a senior staffer for the House Science Committee and has a background in technology and environmental policy.
Tate, appointed to a six-year term as a director—and one year as chairman—of the Tennessee Regulatory Authority (TRA) in February 2002, is no stranger to the FCC. In December 2003, then-Chairman Michael Powell named her to the agency's Federal-State Joint Conference on Advanced Telecommunications Services.
She also has been active on the voice-over-Internet Protocol front (VoIP), weighing in at the FCC in her capacity as chairman of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) Washington Action Committee.
Tate's résumé includes legal counsel for then-Tennessee Governor Lamar Alexander and assistant to the present governor, Don Sundquist, who appointed her to the TRA.
Legg Mason media analyst and former FCC staffer Blair Levin says he expected the two, if nominated, to give Martin a working Republican majority on a generally deregulatory agenda.
He suggests that both will be friendly to cable and the Bells, saying Russell might prove “challenging” to broadcasters on spectrum issues, though not on media ownership.
The two open Republican seats belong to Powell, who left in March and was replaced by sitting Commissioner Kevin Martin, and Kathleen Abernathy, who is ready to leave whenever the nominee can be confirmed. Abernathy's term expired in June 2004, but she was allowed to stay on until either the end of 2005 or a successor was installed.—John Eggerton
Lachlan Murdoch Resigns
Lachlan Murdoch, the presumed heir to the News Corp. throne of his father, CEO Rupert Murdoch, abruptly resigned and is moving to Australia.
Lachlan, 33, was News Corp.'s deputy chief operating officer, chairman of Fox's TV-station group, and chairman of the New York Post. He will remain on the board of the company.
As the dashing son of a billionaire who married a former lingerie model, Lachlan is a frequent subject of gossip columns, particularly his personal real-estate moves.
Wall Street analysts note that the elder Murdoch, 74, has increasingly favored President Peter Chernin, coaxing him to reject approaches to run Walt Disney Co. Says Merrill Lynch media analyst Jessica Reif Cohen, “We continue to expect Mr. Chernin will take the helm of the company when Rupert Murdoch retires.” —John M. Higgins
Reynolds Exit Puts CBS in a Quandary
Fred Reynolds' abrupt departure as CEO of the Viacom Television Station Group leaves CBS chief Les Moonves in a lurch. Reynolds not only was responsible for the part of CBS that makes most of the money but was widely expected to be promoted to the number-two slot at CBS if it's spun off from Viacom next year as planned.
Several leading candidates have emerged for the station-group spot. Industry executives say one option would be for Dennis Swanson, the highly regarded executive VP/COO of Viacom's stations, to share CEO duties with Tom Kane, head of the group's spot sales division. But it is unclear whether Swanson wants the top spot, and he has talked about retiring as soon as a year from now.
That might prompt Moonves to look outside. The most likely candidate is Mitch Stern, a long-time Fox executive who headed News Corp.'s TV stations and briefly ran DirecTV. He has been on the sidelines since being ousted from DirecTV last March.
Another possibility is an alliance between Stern and Swanson. Under that scenario, Swanson would continue rebuilding the stations for a limited time, while Stern guides the business end. CBS would not comment.
Reynolds quit two weeks ago to join private-equity firm Evercore Partners. Speculation on Wall Street is that Reynolds was frustrated by the plan to lump all of Viacom's slow-growth assets into CBS, then load it up with debt. That would free sibling MTV Networks to acquire new operations and keep growing but would likely leave CBS fairly inflexible. Reynolds is known as a deal-maker and has indicated to associates that under the new structure there could be too few deal opportunities.—Allison Romano
NBC Selling 'House'
Fox's top doctor will soon be making House calls to TV stations and cable networks. NBC Universal, which produces the Fox medical drama, will start shopping the series for syndication this fall—a speedy move considering that House just finished its first season. But, with few hit dramas and sitcoms to sell, syndicators are striking fast wherever they have a hot opportunity. NBC Universal Domestic Television Distribution will position it as a procedural crime drama, playing up its closed-ended episodes, which wrap up stories and tend to repeat better.
On broadcast, House is in fine health. After a strong debut last fall, it exploded when Fox made it the lead-out for American Idol in January. In its freshman season, House averaged a hearty 13.3 million viewers and a 5.2 rating/13 share in adults 18-49. It isn't all Idol, though. “House's success is very independent,” says NBC Universal's Frances Manfredi. Indeed, the show is performing well on its own this summer, luring an average 8.2 million viewers and garnering a 3/8 in 18-49, better than first-year phenoms Lost and Medium.
Manfredi, formerly with NBC Enterprises, was recently named senior VP, general sales manager, cable and non-theatrical sales, replacing Arthur Hasson, executive VP of cable, Canadian and ancillary sales for NBC Universal Domestic TV Distribution and one of the highest-ranking holdovers from the Universal Domestic Television era.—A.R./Jim Benson
'Nightline' Names New Exec Producer
James Goldston, senior producer of prime time specials and investigative reports for ABC News, has been named executive producer of Nightline.
He takes over when Tom Bettag leaves at the end of the year. Bettag and host Ted Koppel plan to hang out their shingle as an independent news/documentary team.
Goldston will run Nightline offices in Washington and New York, remaining based in the latter.—J.E.
MSNBC Moves Carlson's 'Situation'
MSNBC will move Tucker Carlson's new show, The Situation With Tucker Carlson, from 9 to 11 p.m., replacing it with Rita Cosby's new show.
The live program has averaged 201,000 total viewers and 82,000 in the adults 25-54 demo since its June 13 premiere, significantly fewer than its competition in the time slot, Fox News' Hannity & Colmes and CNN's Larry King Live.—Anne Becker
FEC Clears '60 Minutes' And Sinclair Shows
Broadcasters are off the hook for possible legal penalties arising from two controversial news reports generated during the 2004 presidential campaign.
All six members of the Federal Election Commission have voted to dismiss complaints against both CBS and Sinclair Broadcast Group for reports that cast President Bush and Democratic challenger John Kerry in harsh lights.
The FEC found that Sinclair's airing of excerpts from Stolen Honor, a documentary criticizing 2004 presidential candidate Kerry's military service in Vietnam and his subsequent anti-war activities, did not violate federal election laws because the broadcast was protected by the government's exemption of news shows from campaign-finance restrictions.
Similarly, the FEC said CBS and former anchor Dan Rather could not be held liable for a discredited 60 Minutes report questioning whether the president fulfilled his National Guard obligations. Sinclair says it is “pleased” by the rulings.—Bill McConnell
Sen. Burns May Reassess Ratings Bill
Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) said last week that he remains committed to legislation aimed at settling TV- industry disputes over ratings but might back away from a provision that would require Nielsen or others to obtain accreditation.
Burns' proposal calls for Nielsen to get accredited by the Media Rating Council (MRC) before rolling out or changing product. Due to a crush of obligations before lawmakers leave Washington for the August break, though, Burns was the only senator speaking at the Senate Commerce Committee hearing on his bill, although the room was packed with onlookers.
Burn's reassessment came after both Nielsen CEO Susan Whiting and MRC Executive Director George Ivie indicated that agreement on a voluntary code could be reached, requiring audits for potential problems, which Nielsen has agreed to permit before product rollouts.
Currently, ratings services' cooperation with the MRC is voluntary.
Whiting's pledge to at least submit new products to MRC audits did little to sway her critics, including Tribune Broadcasting President Patrick J. Mullen, who said, “The measurement system we have today in the largest television markets is not worthy of public trust.”—Bill McConnell
Comcast Suit Against Orioles Is Thrown Out
A judge last week dismissed Comcast's suit against the Baltimore Orioles over the baseball team's startup of a regional sports network in the Washington and Baltimore markets.
Orioles games currently air on Comcast SportsNet, but the team plans to move the games to its own MASN, the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, in 2007.
Comcast sued, claiming its current contract gives it right of first refusal, a right to match any other offer. But the Orioles countered that the right covers only bids from "third" parties. Since MASN is 90% owned by the team, the network is not a third party.
The dismissal does not immediately affect another part of the dispute. Comcast's refusal to carry MASN coverage of Washington Nationals games.
Comcast had bid on the rights for the Nationals—the relocated Montreal Expos—but lost out to MASN. The operator has, in turn, refused to carry the network on cable systems serving nearly 2 million subscribers in the network's territory.
The Orioles have turned to the FCC for help and are trying to make the dispute an issue in regulators' review of Comcast's planned purchase of parts of Adelphia Communications. In a statement, Comcast Executive VP David Cohen said, "We are disappointed in the judge's decision today. He has invited us to amend the complaint, and we will promptly decide whether we will amend or appeal."—J.M.H.
In Demand Sets Howard Stern Channel
Distributor In Demand is close to finalizing a deal to distribute a "channel" devoted to Howard Stern. Fans of the shock jock will be able to call up video of Stern's Sirius radio show. A package will be sold as a subscription video-on-demand service, for a monthly fee, and will be available to all systems that are affiliates of In Demand. When Stern's Infinity Radio show was taped and aired on E! Entertainment Television, the basic-cable channel heavily edited the footage, particularly the strippers who were frequent guests. As a VOD service, the Stern show will likely be every bit as explicit as the jock promises his satellite-radio show will be.—J.M.H.
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