Inside Tucson Business: TV networks not doing so well getting advertisers pumped for fall

TV networks not doing so well getting advertisers pumped for fall

By David Hatfield, Inside Tucson Business
Published on Tuesday, June 16, 2009

What if the TV networks launched a fall season but hardly anyone cared? It’s not that bad — and certainly by the time most people make it through the summer, the idea of fresh new TV programs will hold an attraction.

But typically June is the month the networks are supposed to get big advertisers all excited so they’ll agree to spend their money buying commercials on next season’s TV shows. It’s called the “upfront,” in the industry, as opposed to the “scatter” market where advertisers buy their commercials during the season. Usually about 80 percent of the commercial advertising time is committed during the upfront.

Barclay’s Capital forecast in April that advertisers would spend $7.4 billion this year in upfront buying. That would be down 15 percent from last year. But so far advertisers aren’t even coming close to that due to a standoff from advertisers refusing to pay the higher prices networks are asking. It doesn’t help that two big advertisers in General Motors and Chrysler are tied up in bankruptcy court.

NBC may be the network that’s looking to change the face of primetime television the most this fall by moving Jay Leno’s show to 9 p.m. weeknights. The network insists this will not simply be the “Tonight Show” in prime time but more of an entertainment-variety show. Still, though, there are concerns. The NBC affiliate in Boston had threatened to pre-empt the show to air its late news in the timeslot figuring the earlier Leno show would send viewers to bed earlier.

ABC is taking the biggest gamble for this fall with its plans to launch 11 new series, including an entirely new Wednesday night line-up made up mostly of sitcoms starring the likes of Kelsey Grammer, Patricia Heaton, Ed O’Neill and Courteney Cox.

CBS, which has generally held the highest ratings in prime time in recent years, is sticking close to its successful traditions. Its biggest move is switching “The Mentalist,” a ratings success at 8 p.m. Tuesdays, to Thursday nights.

Returning CBS shows include “Survivor,” “The Amazing Race,” “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” “NCIS,” “60 Minutes,” “Ghost Whisperer,” “Numb3rs,” “Cold Case,” “How I Met Your Mother,” “Two and a Half Men,” “The Big Bang Theory,” “The New Adventures of Old Christine,” “Gary Unmarried” and “48 Hours Mystery.”

Fox, which has been an innovator in the past, this year is stressing its hits, namely “American Idol” and “24.” An experiment to limit commercials in prime time shows won’t return.

KCEE changes owners

The $1.3 million sale of radio station KCEE 1030-AM became official June 8. Doug Martin, president of the station’s new owner Good News Broadcasting, says his company has moved KCEE’s studios in with its other stations, which include the Voice KVOI 690-AM, Christian talk KGMS 940-AM and K-Love KLTU 88.1-FM.

On July 1, the conservative talk format of KVOI and the pop standards music format of KCEE will swap dial positions, Martin says. He’s waiting until then because that’s when about six months worth of engineering work started by KCEE’s former owner Jim Slone should be finished. Not only will the work improve the 1030-AM’s signal coverage, especially at night, the station has been operating at reduced power while the work has been underway.

Once it’s all done and the station is back up to full-power, KVOI will move to 1030-AM featuring “Wake Up Tucson” with Joe Higgins and Chris DiSimone (6-7 a.m.) and the nationally syndicated programs of Dennis Miller (7-9 a.m.), Dennis Prager (9 a.m.-noon), Michael Medved (noon-3 p.m.), Hugh Hewitt (3-6 p.m.), Miller’s third hour (6-7 p.m.) and Rusty Humphries (7-10 p.m.).

And KCEE will move to 690-AM but attentive listeners might notice a few changes in the songs. Under Slone, the music mix was his pet project. He was pretty successful at it, too. Just two weeks ago, Arbitron released its latest monthly trend report showing KCEE was beating its two closest competitors KTUC 1400-AM and KGVY 1080-AM.

Slone readily admits his heart wasn’t in to selling KCEE. He did it on the advice of his financial adviser. In fact once the deal was signed, he said he gave it about three hours of thought and headed south to the Mexican coast “to decompress for a few days.”

Contact David Hatfield at dhatfield@azbiz.com or (520) 295-4237. Inside Tucson Media appears weekly.