Conde Committed to Growth at Univision

New Univision Networks chief Cesar Conde groups education, digital, programming and culture in his domain

Cesar Conde has quite a bit to do as the newly appointed president of Univision Networks. And yet at the same time, Conde has taken on one of life’s great logistical challenges: He is getting married early next year. He will have to fit his myriad wedding plans—while learning a few dance steps—around a demanding day job that includes improving original programming at Univision, overseeing TeleFutura and Galavision, and expanding the definition of this dominant multi-cultural, multi-media company.

Before gaining the president title—previously held by Ray Rodriguez, who is retiring at the end of the year—the 35-year-old Conde was chief strategy officer and worked previously as special assistant to Univision Communications CEO Joe Uva. Prior to that, he worked across the board in corporate development, sales and interactive services, and as head of cable channel Galavision. And he has great confidence in the present and future of the Hispanic arena.

read the entire article from Broadcasting & Cable Magazine

You’ve Been Laid Off…Now What?

The article which follows was written specifically for members of the Society of Broadcast Engineers by Ken and Daria Dolan of the WOR Radio Network.

The Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE) expresses its sincere thanks to Ken and Daria for preparing this timely article.

Manufacturing, newspapers, magazines, the auto industry, airlines, retail, financial services firms and just about any other American business sector you can think of…all have had heavy layoffs…so you’re not alone.

Nearly 2,000,000 Americans lost their jobs during 2008.
Especially hard-hit last year was the field of broadcasting…on-air, support, sales, engineering, etc. – with little relief expected in 2009 as radio and television struggle to maintain their share of an ever-expanding list of venues to deliver news and entertainment.

Also…in 2009, many more pink slips will be handed out across America in many other sectors of our economy.

That said…let’s turn lemons into lemonade by talking with you about what to do if you’ve been laid off.

read the entire article at Broadcast Union News

No Holds Barred: The Intensification of Employer Opposition to Organizing

In case you are wondering why we need the Employee Free Choice Act, a 2009 study by Cornell University researcher, Dr. Kate Bronfenbrenner, explains why.

New findings from Dr. Kate Bronfenbrenner provide a comprehensive, independent analysis of employer behavior in union representation elections supervised by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Her research identifies the range and incidence of legal and illegal coercive tactics used by employers NLRB elections and the ineffectiveness of current labor law to protect and enforce workers’ rights during the process.

Dr. Bronfenbrenner’s report also compares employer behavior in this study’s period to previous studies that she and her research teams have conducted over the last 20 years.

By Kate Bronfenbrenner, Ph.D.American Rights at Work Education Fund and Economic Policy Institute May 2009

read the entire article at Broadcast Union News

CBS Web Traffic Soars

Was most-visited broadcast network Web site for week ending Sept. 19

By John Eggerton — Broadcasting & Cable

CBS’s recent prime time success is being reflected in its online traffic as well.

CBS’s Web site was the most-visited broadcast network site for the week ending Sept. 19, with 36.63% of traffic, according to Hitwise, which samples more than 10 million users. NBC was second with 23.81%, followed by ABC with 16.22% and Fox with 14.10%. That order will almost certainly change come January. American Idol usually dominates the online rankings once it premieres.

The CW had 9.06% of traffic and MyNetworkTV garnered .19%.

CBS’ Big Brother site led the way, with 18.97% of traffic, followed by Survivor with 6.85%. CBS also had the fourth-most-visited site, NCIS with 3.60% of traffic.

In fact, those three sites had a far greater percentage of traffic than the other seven broadcast TV show Web sites in the top 10 combined.

Big Brother was also the winner, by a nose, when both cable and broadcast site traffic was combined with 5.85% of traffic vs. 5.66% for Spongebob on Nickelodeon, though that was close enough for a statistical draw.

from Broadcasting & Cable Magazine

Spanish-Language Marketing is Sensitive

Cable-operator, satellite-TV marketers discuss whether to go Spanish-only or bilingual in messages

Cable-operator and satellite-TV marketers shared stories about targeting Hispanics – whether to go Spanish-only or bilingual in messages, how to stretch niche-marketing dollars in a down economy – at a Hispanic Television Summit session Sept. 21 that even put a Time Warner Cable executive on the spot over the company’s choice to hire a non-Hispanic marketing agency to promote its El Paquetazo package.
David Gray, TWC’s regional VP of marketing and sales in New York City, where the 138-channel, $35 El Paquetazo launched in June, said the cable operator expected “it was going to be a little controversial” when TWC opted to run bilingual commercials to promote the big mix of English and Spanish-language programming. Broadcasters were expected to resist running such ads, he said, but TWC ended up getting “much more pushback” from Spanish-language programmers. So the company had to develop a Spanish-only campaign for those networks.

read the entire article from Broadcasting & Cable Magazine

Hispanic TV Summit: Growing Hispanic Market Awaits "Cultural Mind-Shift"

Marketing and sales executives say mainstream advertisers need better understanding of Hispanic consumers.

While the 2010 Census is very likely to back up Hispanic marketing executives claims that the increasing population will lead to a thriving consumer marketplace, advertisers may still be reluctant, according to a panel of marketing and sales executives at the 7th annual Hispanic Television Summit in New York on Sept. 23.

The Census numbers are certainly generating excitement among Hispanic marketers, but as Bromley Communications COO Jessica Pantanini says, "what really counts is the action that is taken by corporate America." Pantanini said marketers need to take the Census data but also approach advertisers with metrics that show increased Hispanic viewership means increased consumer spending in the market.

But on the advertiser side, she believes it will take a "cultural mind-shift" and a better understanding of Hispanic culture in order for buyers to see the market’s blossoming potential.

read the entire article from Broadcasting & Cable Magazine

Primetime Ratings: Super Start For CBS Premieres

‘NCIS’ reaches close to 20 million in debut, ‘NCIS: LA’ and ‘Good Wife’ win time slots

CBS trounced the competition last night with the season premiere of NCIS, which attracted nearly 20 million viewers, and the series debuts of NCIS: Los Angeles and The Good Wife, both of which easily won their respective time slots.

The return of NCIS won the opening primetime hour with a 4.6/13 and 19.9 million viewers. It was a big increase from last fall’s season debut, which averaged a 3.5/10 and drew 17.7 million viewers. Hell’s Kitchen on Fox was next at 3.2/9. ABC’s Dancing With the Stars was just behind at 3.1/9 but second in viewers with 14.1 million. NBC was fourth with a 2.9/8 for the first hour of Biggest Loser. 90210 on The CW was fifth with a 1.1/3.

read the entire article from Broadcasting & Cable Magazine

WPIX Extends 6:30 News To Weekends

Tribune station finds a niche when others are national

By Michael Malone — Broadcasting & Cable,

On the heels of its 6:30 p.m. news launch Sept. 14, WPIX New York is debuting a weekend edition of PIX News at 6:30 Sept. 26. WPIX’s 6:30 program goes against national newscasts on the ABC, CBS and NBC affiliates during the week.

The weekend newscasts on the CW outlet will be anchored by Jackie Hyland and Peter Thorne and will follow the same format as the weekday show, with "11 Stories Making News Right Now" along with news, weather, sports and traffic.

Tribune’s WPIX produces 33 ½ total hours of local news a week in the #1 DMA.

from Broadcasting & Cable Magazine

Filling Hi-Def Holes

Vendors at IBC target international markets, pursue better interoperability

While high-definition television production has become commonplace for U.S. broadcasters and cable programmers, it is still a relatively new phenomenon in much of the world. And although high-definition technology is now mature, vendors are still working to provide better interoperability between their products to enable content creators to take full advantage of file-based workflows.

Both truths were evident at the IBC show in Amsterdam last week, as much of the news from major vendors focused on large sales tied to hi-def upgrades as well as incremental improvements to their products to handle the various file formats used in HD production.

Grass Valley announced a bevy of HD system sales. These included a contract to build a new multichannel HD playout center based on its servers, storage and routing products that will jointly serve the Australian Broadcasting Corp. and that country’s WIN Corp.; a deal to supply HD cameras and other gear to Vision HD in Caracas for Venezuela’s first HD production truck; a sale of HD servers and 3-gigabit-per-second routers to HBO Latin America for an upgrade of its playout facilities; and a sale of HD cameras, switchers and routers to Belgium’s VRT for use in two new HD production trucks.

read the entire article from Broadcasting & Cable Magazine

WNYW “Disappointed” In News Anchor’s Expletive

Anastos to issue on-air apology

By John Eggerton — Broadcasting & Cable

Fox’s WNYW New York has apologized for an F-bomb dropped by a news anchor Wednesday night, and will make an on-air apology as well.

Ernie Anastos, 10 p.m. anchor, made the slip in banter with the station’s weather anchor. The clip went viral and drew this response Thursday from VP and GM Lew Leone. “We are disappointed with Ernie’s comment on the air last night. He will apologize for his use of inappropriate language tonight during FOX 5 News at 10 p.m.”

The timing was a bit unfortunate, coming the same day Fox was filing a court brief opposing the FCC’s indecency finding against Fox for expletives dropped in an awards show.

It was clearly beyond WNYW and Fox’s bounds, but as far as the FCC is concerned, Anastos’ comment was within the rules since it was after 10 p.m., when broadcasters are theoretically able to say or show anything short of outright obscenity.

from Broadcasting & Cable Magazine