Sly Fox buys big, gets back on top

Pending the lifting of the FCC's ownership cap, the major changes on BROADCASTING & CABLE's compilation of the nation's Top 25 TV Groups reflect the rapid growth of the Spanish-speaking population in the U.S.

The list also reflects the power of the Top 25 groups as whole: They control 44.5% of commercial TV stations in the U.S., up about 7% from last year.

The biggest movers on this year's Top 25 list (based on FCC's counting rules) are all Spanish-language-based groups. Univision Communications made the leap to No. 7 after placing No. 13 on last year's list (published April 10, 2000), while rival Telemundo Group rose to No. 12 from No 15. Pappas Telecasting, bolstered by plans to create the nation's third Spanish-language network that includes owned stations, jumped to No. 18. And Entravision Communications entered at No. 20.

Univision took a major step with its December 2000 acquisition of the 13 TV stations owned by USA Broadcasting. Univision apparently has plans to get even bigger as it continues to buy more and more of Entravision.

Pappas also has been on a spending spree, to deliver owned stations for its would-be Spanish-language network, Azteca America.

Meanwhile, Entravision rival Telemundo has made just one deal in the past year, creating a duopoly in Los Angeles. But the company moved up several notches on the Top 25 list as Univision swallowed USA.

In the biggest deal of the past year, News Corp./Fox Television made plans to take over Chris-Craft Industries/United Television, No. 7 on last year's list. That deal finally seems to be headed for federal approval.

But the divestiture doesn't alter that News Corp. returns to the top after buying Chris-Craft. This year, News Corp. narrowly beat out Viacom reaching 40.7% of U.S. TV households. Viacom's reach is 40.1%.

Viacom remains a vehement challenger to the FCC's cap on how many TV households a broadcaster can reach. The hope of Viacom and other groups is that the 35% limit will disappear. They were bolstered on April 6 when a federal appeals court ruled that Viacom does not have to sell some of its TV stations by May 4. The FCC had ordered the divestitures as part of Viacom's May 2000 acquisition of CBS.

But if and when the 35% cap is abolished, Viacom and Fox both will likely be trounced at the numbers game by NBC, now at No. 5 among the Top 25 TV groups. NBC holds an option to take over Paxson Communications next year. Paxson currently is the nation's third-largest TV group.

This exclusive list ranks the nation's largest TV groups based on percentage of U.S. household (HH) coverage as calculated by the FCC (shown on list as "HHs/FCC"). The FCC's method discounts HH coverage by UHF stations—ch. 14 and above—by 50%. The ranking also displays total HH coverage without the "UHF discount" (shown on list as "U.S. HHs"). The DMAs and HH numbers are per Nielsen Media Research as of Jan. 1. Stations owned, operated or otherwise affiliated in the same DMA are not counted toward a group's total.

Key:

B = being bought

* = operated under LMA

TBA = operated under time brokerage agreement

S = satellite station

NR = not a Nielsen-rated market

FOX

(subsidiary of News Corp. Ltd.; includes pending Chris-Craft Industries Inc./United TV Inc. acquisition

31 stations/48.481% of U.S./40.741%/FCC

1999 S. Bundy Dr., Los Angeles, Calif. 90025

Phone: (310) 584-2000;

Fax: (310) 584-2087

Web site: fox.com

K. Rupert Murdoch, chairman, News Corp.

Mitchell Stern, chairman, Fox TV Stations

Thomas Herwitz, president, station operations

Other media interests: (Fox only) Fox Television Network; Fox Television Entertainment Group (Fox Entertainment, Fox Television Studios, 20th Century Fox Television, Twentieth Television); cable channels Fox News Channel, Health Network, FX, 34% of Outdoor Life, 33% of Golf Channel; Fox/Liberty (sports) Networks (including Fox Sports Net); 49.5% of Fox Family Worldwide (Fox Family Channel, Fox Kids Network). Online interests include Fox.com. News Corp. is a partner in In Flight Network (airline audio, video and information service)

VIA

(includes former CBS and UPN station groups)

38 stations/48.713% of U.S./40.094%/FCC

6121 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, Calif. 90028

Phone: (323) 460-3000;

Fax: (323) 460-3133

Web site: cbs.com

Sumner M. Redstone, chairman

Mel Karmazin, president/COO

Leslie Moonves, president, CBS Television

Fred Reynolds, president, CBS TV Stations Division

Other media interests: CBS and UPN TV networks; CBS Enterprises (syndication; formerly Eyemark Entertainment and King World Productions); Paramount Domestic Television; Rysher Entertainment; majority of Infinity Broadcasting Corp. (owns/is buying 181 radio stations); about 25% of Westwood One (radio syndicator); TDI Worldwide Inc. (outdoor advertising); cable channels include TNN, Nashville Network, Home Teams Sports, Country Music Television, MTV Networks (including MTV, VH-1, Nickelodeon, The Box), Showtime Networks, 50% of Comedy Central (co-owned with AOL Time Warner Inc.); Paramount Pictures; Spelling Entertainment Group Inc.; book publisher Simon Schuster Inc.; about 80% of Blockbuster Inc.; movie theaters with more than 1,000 screens. Online interests include MTVi, CBS.com, CBSMarketWatch.com, iWon.com

PAX

(NBC Inc., 32.5% owner w/ option to take control in 2002)

69 stations/67.165% of U.S./34.8365%/FCC

601 Clearwater Park Road

West Palm Beach, Fla. 33401

Phone: (561) 659-4122;

Fax: (561) 659-4754

Web site: paxtv.com

Lowell W. "Bud" Paxson, chairman/owner

Dean Goodman, president, TV group

Other media interests: Pax TV network

TRB

23 stations/38.266% of U.S./30.5225%/FCC

435 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 1800, Chicago, Ill. 60611

Phone: (312) 222-3333;

Fax: (312) 329-0611

Web site: tribune.com

John W. Madigan, chairman, president and CEO, Tribune Co. (parent)

Dennis J. FitzSimons, executive vice president, Tribune Co./president, Tribune Broadcasting

Patrick J. Mullen, president, Tribune Television

Other media interests: 25% of WB Television Network (majority owned by AOL Time Warner); Tribune Entertainment Co. (first-run programming); cable channels CLTV News (Chicago), 50% of Central Florida News 13 (joint partner with Time Warner), 29% of Food Network; Tribune Media Services and its ZAP2IT electronic program guide; 4 radio stations; 50% of Knight-Ridder/Tribune Information Services; 11 newspapers including New York Newsday, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Hartford (Conn.) Courant; various magazines. Online interests include cubs.com, metromix.com, Go2Orlando.com, BlackVoices.com with partial interests in CareerBuilder.com, Peapod.com, iVillage Inc., Excite@Home. Partner in iBlast (to be national datacasting network)

GE

(subsidiary of General Electric Co.)

13 stations/28.025% of U.S./26.658%/FCC

30 Rockefeller Plaza. New York, N.Y. 10112

Phone: (212) 664-4444;

Fax: (212) 664-4085

Web site: nbc.com

John F. Welch Jr., chairman and CEO, GE

Jeff Immelt, president and chairman elect, GE

Robert C. Wright, president, NBC

Jay Ireland, president, NBC Stations Group

Other media interests: NBC Television Network; NBC Enterprises; cable channels include CNBC and MSNBC (with Microsoft Inc.), AE Television Networks (joint venture with ABC Inc. and Hearst-Argyle Television Inc.), CNBC Europe; 32.5% of Paxson Communications Corp. (with option to take control in 2002); 15% of SnapTV (formerly home shopping ValueVision International Network). Online interests include MSNBC.com

DIS

(subsidiary of Walt Disney Co.)

10 stations/24.145% of U.S./23.891%/FCC

77 W. 66th St., New York, N.Y. 10023

Phone: (212) 456-7777;

Fax: (212) 456- 6850

Web site: abc.com

Robert Iger, president/COO, Disney

Steven Bornstein, president, ABC Broadcast Group

Walter Liss, president, Stations Group (until May 4; replacement not yet named)

Other media interests: ABC TV Network; 54 radio stations; ABC Radio Networks; ABC Entertainment TV Group (production and prime-time development): Disney/ABC Cable Networks include Disney Channel, Toon Disney, 80% of ESPN, 50% of Lifetime Television (joint partner with Hearst Corp.), 39.5% of E! Entertainment Television, AE Television Networks (joint venture with NBC and Hearst); Walt Disney Television International. Online interests include ABC Multimedia Group, ABC.com, ABCNews.com, ESPN.com

UVN

(includes USA Broadcasting Inc.)

25 stations/37.93% of U.S./18.695%/FCC

6701 Center Drive West, 7th Floor, Los Angeles, Calif. 90045

Phone: (310) 348-3655; Fax: (310) 348-3659

Web site: univision.net

A. Jerrold Perenchio, chairman

Thomas Arnost, Michael Wortsman, co-presidents, Television Group (photos not available)

Other media interests: (Univision): Spanish-language Univision TV network; cable channel Galavision; 42.1% of TV/radio group Entravision Communications (see #20); 49% of KPST-TV San Francisco; 45% of KTVJ(TV) Denver, WHSL(TV) St. Louis and WTMW(TV) Washington; option to buy 45% of wjys(tv) Chicago

GCI

22 stations/17.521% of U.S./17.3625%/FCC

1100 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, Va. 22209

Phone: (703) 284-6760;

Fax: (703) 247-3114

Web site: gannett.com

Douglas H. McCorkindale, chairman, Gannett Co. Inc. (parent)

Cecil L. Walker, chairman, broadcasting (retiring)

Craig A. Dubow, president, broadcasting

Other media interests: 99 daily U.S. newspapers, including USA Today, and 300 non-daily publications. Online interests include usatoday.com. Partner in iBlast (to be national datacasting network)

HTV

33 stations/17.495% of U.S./15.898%/FCC

888 7th Ave., New York, N.Y. 10106

Phone: (212) 887-6800;

Fax: (212) 887-6875

Web site: hearstargyle.com

Frank A. Bennack Jr., president, Hearst Corp. (parent/66% owner)

David Barrett, president, Hearst-Argyle Television

m=management agreement, station owned by Hearst Corp.

Other media interests: Two radio stations; Hearst-Argyle Television Productions (merging into NBC Enterprises). Online interests include ProAct Technologies Corp. (personal-finance/human resources Web site); about 20% of Internet Broadcasting Systems Inc. (site developer). Parent Hearst owns Hearst Entertainment and Syndication; 50% of Lifetime Television (joint partner with ABC Inc.), New England Cable News (with MediaOne); TVA (Brazilian pay-TV company, with ABC), 20% of ESPN, AE Television Networks (joint venture with NBC and ABC); 12 newspapers; 16 monthly consumer magazines including Esquire, Town Country, Good Housekeeping, Harpers Bazaar

SBGI

62 stations/24.065% of U.S./14.62%/FCC

10706 Beaver Dam Road, Hunt Valley, Md. 21030

Phone: (410) 568-1500;

Fax: (410) 568-1588

Web site: sbgi.net

David D. Smith, president/24.2% owner

Barry Drake, CEO, Sinclair Television (through May 31; no replacement yet named)

Other media interests: Sinclair Ventures (makes Internet-related investments)

19 stations/13.627% of U.S./12.944%/FCC

400 S. Record St., Dallas, Texas 75202

Phone: (214) 977-6606;

Fax: (214) 977-2030

Web site: belo.com

Robert W. Decherd, chairman/president/owns 17.3% of voting shares

John L. "Jack" Sander, evp/media operations and president of television group

Other media interests: Two AMs; five local or regional cable news channels including Northwest Cable News, Texas Cable News, 50% of cables Arizona News Channel (joint venture with Cox Communications Inc.); eight daily newspapers including Dallas Morning News, Providence Journal, Riverside, Calif., Press-Enterprise. Online interests include dallasnews.com, AdOne LLC

PRIVATE

(majority owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment and ATT Corp.s Liberty Media Corp.)

10 stations/22.692% of U.S./11.346%/FCC

2290 W. 8th Ave., Hialeah, Fla. 33010

Phone: (305) 884-8200;

Fax: (305) 889-7980

James McNamara, president

Rick Blangiardi, president, station group

Other media interests: Spanish-language Telemundo TV network (33% owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc.); cables Gems TV Spanish- language channel

YBTVA

13 stations/11.379% of U.S./11.296%/FCC

599 Lexington Ave., New York, N.Y. 10022

Phone: (212) 754-7070;

Fax: (212) 758-1229

Web site: youngbroadcasting.com

J. Vincent Young, chairman/35.4% owner

Deborah A. McDermott, executive vice president, operations

Other media interests: 51% of BayTV cable channel

PRIVATE

15 TVs/10.293% of U.S./10.158%/FCC

1400 Lake Hearn Drive NE, Atlanta, Ga. 30319

Phone: (404) 843-5000;

Fax: (404) 843-5280

Web site: cimedia.com/business/

aboutcim/coxglance.html

David Easterly, president, Cox Enterprises Inc. (parent)

Andrew S. Fisher, president, Cox TV

Other media interests (parent): Three TV rep firms; 83 radio stations via Cox Radio Inc.; 18 cable systems; 24.6% of Discovery Communications Inc., 10.4% of E! Entertainment Television; 10% of Primestar. Online interests include investment in Excite @ Home. Partner in iBlast.

SSP

10 stations/10.053% of U.S./8.121%/FCC

312 Walnut St., Suite 2300, Cincinnati, Ohio 45201

Phone: (513) 977-3000;

Fax: (513) 977-3728

Web site: scripps.com

William R. Burleigh, chairman

Ken Lowe, president/CEO/COO

James M. Hart, senior VP, Scripps Howard Broadcasting

Other media interests: Scripps Productions/Cinetel Studios; cable channels Home Garden TV, Food Network and Do It Yourself plus stake in SportSouth; United Media; Scripps Technology Center; 19 daily newspapers; Scripps Howard News Service. Online interests include 27 local portals, hgtv.com, foodtv.com, diynet.com, comics.com, 12% of AdOne.com, Scripps Ventures (invests in Internet startups). Partner in iBlast (to be national datacasting network)

MDP

12 stations/9.711% of U.S./7.3215%/FCC

1716 Locust St., Des Moines, Iowa 50309

Phone: (515) 284-3000;

Fax: (515) 284-2393 or -2700

Web site: meredith.com

William T. Kerr, chairman, Meredith Corp. (parent)

Cary D. Jones, president, Broadcasting Group

Other media interests: Parent owns more than 20 magazines, including Better Homes and Gardens and Ladies Home Journal; publishes Meredith and Ortho book lines. Partner in iBlast (to be national datacasting network)

PRIVATE

34 stations/10.028% of U.S./7.68%/FCC

RSA Tower, 201 Monroe St., 20th Floor, Montgomery, Ala. 36104

Phone: (334) 206-1400;

Fax: (334) 206-1555

Web site: raycommedia.com

John Hayes, president

Wayne Daugherty, Marty Edelman, Jeff Rosser, vice presidents, TV group

Other media interests: Two radio stations; Raycom Sports (production, marketing, events management)

PRIVATE

(includes Azteca America)

20 TVs/11.261% of U.S. HHs/7.6475%/FCC

500 S. Chinoweth Road, Visalia, Calif. 93277

Phone: (559) 733-7800;

Fax: (559) 733-7878

Harry J. Pappas, president/owner

Howard Shrier, executive vice president, TV group

Other media interests: Is building KIDN-TV Avalon/Los Angeles, Calif. (to be Azteca America, ch.54); two radio stations

WPO

(subsidiary of Washington Post)

6 stations/7.299% of U.S./7.299%/FCC

3 Constitution Plaza, Hartford, Conn. 06103

Phone: (860) 493-6530;

Fax: (860) 493-2490

Web site: washpostco.com

Donald E. Graham, chairman, Washington Post

Alan Frank, president, Post-Newsweek Stations

Other media interests: Parent owns CableOne Inc. (cable systems); regional sports cable network; Newsweek magazine; 24 daily and weekly newspapers, including Washington Post; 50% of International Herald Tribune. Online interests include newseek.com; 11% of Internet Broadcasting Systems Inc. (site developer). Partner in iBlast (to be national datacasting network)

EVN

(42.1% owned by Univision)

18 stations/16.731% of U.S./78.45 %/FCC

11900 Olympic Blvd., Suite 590, Los Angeles, Calif. 90064

Phone: (310) 820-5355l;

Fax: (310) 820-2445

Web site: entravision.com

Walter F. Ulloa, chairman/10.6% owner

Philip C. Wilkinson, president/10.6% owner

x=owned by Ulloa

Note: Ulloas brother Ronald L. is buying KVMD(TV) Twentynine Palms/Los Angeles, Calif., and owns 36% of KRPA(TV) Rancho Palos Verdes/Los Angeles, Calif.

Other media interests: Owns/is buying 58 radio stations; Spanish-language radio network; El Diario/La Pensa (New York) newspaper; outdoor displays

SATH

5 stations/13.672% of U.S./6.836%/FCC

5388 Hickory Hollow Parkway, Nashville, Tenn. 37230

Phone: (615) 263-8000;

Fax: