CBS joining the family

-- Broadcasting & Cable, 4/24/2000

The Family Friendly Programming Forum gave The WB $1 million this year to help develop family programming. Now, the advertiser-driven organization is looking to do business with other networks.

Executives from the Forum are currently in talks with executives at all the other major broadcast networks, and CBS has agreed to work with the advertiser group on two projects next season. This September, CBS will televise the Forum's first Family Program Awards, which celebrate "outstanding" family-friendly TV series. The honors will be bestowed annually.

CBS has also signed on for a holiday film with Johnson & Johnson, Nestléand another, yet-to-be named national advertiser. The film, titled The Flight of the Reindeer, will air during holiday season 2000-01 and will be both sponsored and co-produced by the three national advertisers, CBS executives say, calling it a first-of-its-kind deal.

Andrea Alstrup, VP of advertising at Johnson & Johnson and the founder of the Forum, says she is talking with executives at the Big Four networks about initiatives similar to the $1 million WB project. "We're encouraged with what has transpired this year at The WB and excited about the possibility of having more family-friendly programming back on network TV," she says. "We hope the other networks want to put more advertising-friendly and family-friendly shows on, too."