Networking in Texas Media: 2007 Event Calendar

The following is a rough 2007 calendar of Media Industry Events in Texas.

Here are some websites to use in order to stay up to date on scheduled events around the state:

• American Women in Radio and Television (AWRT) - http://www.awrt-dfw.org/
• The Dream Fund - http://dreamfund.org/
• The Dallas Ad League - http://www.dallasadleague.org/
• Texas Association of Broadcasters – http://www.tab.org/
• Houston Ad Federation - http://www.haf.org/
• Austin AWRT - http://www.awrtaustin.org/index.html
• Austin Ad Federation - http://www.austinadfed.com/
• San Antonio Media Alliance - http://www.awrtsa.org/

Monthly events (DALLAS)

• Dallas Ad League monthly luncheon
• AWRT-DFW monthly luncheon
  

Texas Media Events:

February 8: DALLAS – Dallas Ad League 2007 Addy Awards

• This annual event presents awards to great creative produced in Dallas. I went to this event several years ago and it was primarily creative services people that attend. Some good work is show-cased, but it wasn't well-attended by media professionals on the buying or selling side of the business. None of my media clients were involved nor were clients.
• Recommendation: As a media networking opportunity, skip it.

February 17: HOUSTON – Houston Ad Federation 2007 Addy Awards

• This annual event presents awards to great creative produced in Houston. It is less exciting than the Dallas version and less attended.
• Recommendation: For media, definitely skip it.

February 23: AUSTIN – Austin Ad Federation 2007 Addy Awards

• Haven’t been to this one, but I have heard it is not well attended.
• Recommendation: Again, marginal media value - Skip It.

March 7: SAN ANTONIO – Ad League 2007 ILA Honors Luncheon

• Honoring AT&T for their innovation and leadership in advertising, this event sounds interesting. I haven't been to an ILA Luncheon before, but on the basis of who potentially might attend, it might be interesting as a networking opportunity and as a way to learn more about AT&T as a potential client.
• Recommendation: Deserves more investigation.

March 22: DALLAS - AWRT Awards Gala

• A well-attended, annual event, there are actually two simultaneous events. One is inside the ballroom during the long presentation of media-industry awards and the other is at the bar outside the ballroom.
• Recommendation: Should Attend (and work both parties).

March 29: DALLAS – Ad League All Fools Golf Tournament

• I have never participated. I am curious about other events surrounding the golf like awards ceremony, lunch, dinner, etc. There might be some good networking opportunities, but I am not familiar enough with the event to say.
• Recommendation: Deserves more investigation.

April 10: DALLAS – Ad League Ad Roast (2007 Roastees Barbara and Stan Levinson)

• A well-attended, annual event, but it is truly painful to endure it. Advertising and Media professionals attempt, usually badly, to roast like the Friar’s Club. It goes from extreme boredom to amazingly insulting. However, it is a big event and everybody goes.
• Recommendation: Should Attend (even though you probably won’t enjoy it)

April 19: AUSTIN – Austin AWRT Trailblazer Awards

• 2nd Annual and I have not been previously. The Trailblazer awards are where the media community honors people in the community who have been visionaries when it comes to media. The worth of the event as a networking opportunity depends a great deal on whom is being honored. A good honoree means A-list attendees on both the agency and client side of the business plus all the sellers.
• Recommendation: More Investigation Needed

April 26: DALLAS – Texas Showdown 2007

• A well-attended, annual event, which is attended by television stations, radio stations, media mavens, buyers, planners, and assistants. It is an experience. It starts at the hotel with a suite-crawl from one sponsor party to another. After jello shots and fourteen flavors of beer, you take the shuttle out to the ranch. Frozen margaritas and beer are the constant background to events like riding the mechanical bull, getting your butt sketched, line dancing, calf roping, and carnival games.
• Recommendation: Should Definitely Attend. This is a great networking event and a unique media experience in Texas.

April 27: DALLAS – AWRT Mournin’ After Golf Tournament (Showdown)

• I have worked this event as a sponsor for several years. You can sponsor a team or sponsor a hole. As a team sponsor, you play in the tournament. As a hole sponsor, you set up an table at the tee-box with Bloody Mary’s, Mimosas, snacks, cokes, freebies, etc. There is usually alcohol and free stuff on every other hole.
• Recommendation: Maybe Attend. (Please note that this is the morning AFTER Showdown. Pace yourself if you intend to tee off at 8am.)

August 9: AUSTIN – Texas Association of Broadcasters 2007 Annual Convention

• This is a great event with good sessions. It is mainly attended by Texas broadcast television stations and the numerous companies that call upon them. The sessions are great even though more of them focus on the technical side of broadcasting. The legislative affairs session is always good and the broadcaster panel discussions.
• Recommendation: Should attend if you are a Texas Broadcaster or sell to them.

October TBD: DALLAS – Dream Fund Night in Monte Carlo

• A well-attended, annual event with casino table games played for chips. This is a great networking event attended by media industry buyers and sellers. There is a silent auction and at the end of the night, there is a live auction where you use your poker winnings to bid on prizes. People cheat at the live auction so don’t get your hopes up, but it is a good event.
• Recommendation: Should Attend this great event for a great cause.

October TBD: HOUSTON – Houston Media Classic Golf Tournament

• A well-attended, annual golf tournament. I have never been, but I am told it is one of the better events in Houston. As with all golf events, I would like to know more about networking opportunities like lunch or awards presentations.
• Recommendation: Maybe Attend

October-November TBD: DALLAS – AWRT Battle of the Media Stars

• This is a strange event, but typically well-attended by the station and agency people in Dallas. The idea is that there are teams and they compete in odd events like Battle of the Network Stars. If you are interested in competing, then you have to go to the Battle Team Lottery Happy Hour to try and get on a team. More people watch than compete so it is worth attending either way. Over the last few years, I have started to feel that the attendees have become more and more junior people rather than senior people.
• Recommendation: Maybe Attend.

November TBD: Dallas – Dream Fund Chili Cook-off

• I have never been to this event, but everybody that goes says it is great. I don’t know how well-attended it is personally, but it sounds like a relatively large event and the nature of the event lends itself to easy networking.
• Recommendation: Should Attend

November TBD: HOUSTON – Trailblazer Gala

• This is the Houston Ad Federation’s annual gala where they recognize and award Trailblazer in Houston media. The quality of the event really depends on who the award recipient is scheduled to be. This is a well-attended event with relatively inexpensive sponsorship opportunities and it is attended by agencies and clients.
• Recommendation: Maybe Attend

December TBD: DALLAS – SBR / AWRT Christmas Party

• This is a well-attended event by all Dallas media. Party dresses and dancing, this event is every sales assistant's first opportunity to make bad professional decisions. This event brings out almost everybody and is an excellent networking opportunity.
• Recommendation: Should Attend
  
  

TBD Events:

• AUSTIN AWRT Battle of the Media Stars
• AUSTIN AWRT Bachelor Auction
• SAN ANTONIO AWRT (Media Alliance) SAMA Awards Gala

--Carter Cathey

(c) 2007

Broadcast / Cable Re-Transmission Agreements: Why Should We Care?

On the surface, there is little that appears as boring as the recent announcement that Time Warner Cable and Sinclair Broadcast Group have reached a cable re-transmission agreement. The net result of this news: nothing changes for viewers.

But, in the broadcasting world, this shows a fundamental shift in business practice and a new step in the evolution of how content is delivered to viewers. Let me back up a bit…

Broadcast television stations create local content and can have exclusive local licenses to network and syndicated content. This means that WFAA-TV, Dallas ABC, produces local news at 6pm and 10pm, they carry ABC network programming exclusively in Dallas, and they have Oprah, for instance, through exclusive syndication.

Local television stations, therefore, own or have an exclusive local license to everything that they broadcast. From their towers, broadcast stations typically send out their content over an analog and a digital signal. As a viewer, you can pick this up through an antenna for free. Sometimes. Some rural viewers do not get a quality over-the-air signal, for instance.

In the Dallas area as an example, 77.7% of the homes have either cable or satellite. So, 22.3% (529,890 households) are using this over-the-air signal while 77.7% (1,848,770 households) are tuning into the local channels through a cable or satellite system that is re-transmitting these local stations on their system. In a small number of cases, people get up and flip the A-B switch on their cable box to view via antenna, but most of the time, people use the online guide to switch to ABC.

This is cable re-transmission.

(While there are different rules for satellite companies and cable companies, for the rest of this article I am going to use the catch-all term 'cable systems' in discussion of re-transmission.)

Cable systems must get permission to re-transmit local broadcast station content. For cable systems and local broadcast stations, this negotiation is critical. Most cable system subscribers expect to be able to get their local channels through their set-top box with no additional effort on their part.

For local broadcast stations, there is a definite benefit as well. Broadcast stations have a coverage area that is strictly defined by the amount of power they put through their tower, the height of their tower, and the geography of the region. Cable re-transmission allows local stations to reach much farther away from their tower, increase their viewing area, and to reach new viewers with no additional cost. They do not have to build additional towers or increase the power of their signals. Larger coverage areas and larger potential audiences lead to higher viewership, higher Nielsen ratings, and more advertising revenue. And, at least in the beginning, local cable systems were not a serious competitor for local television advertising dollars.

The federal government, through the FCC, has been involved in this process for quite some time. Most recently with the Satellite Home Viewers Improvement Act (SHVIA), the federal government set forth some rules for the relationship between local broadcast stations and the cable and satellite systems in their local markets. Three key provisions of SHVIA and other like-minded legislation:

• Value of True Local Content - The FCC recognized the value of local content and the role local broadcast stations have in their communities by providing local content like weather, news, emergency warnings, and local sports. Therefore, cable and satellite systems can not bring in out-of-market stations and call them ‘local’ to specific markets. For example, KNBC-TV (Los Angeles NBC) could not be brought into Odessa Texas by the local cable system and called the ‘local’ affiliate for Odessa.
• Must-Carry Provisions – This means that any broadcast station in a market has the right to be carried on all cable and satellite systems in their market as the ‘local’ affiliate. For example, WFAA-TV (Dallas ABC) can assert must-carry and Time Warner is obligated to put the station on their cable systems in Dallas. Must-carry involves no financial obligations from either party.
• Re-Transmission – This means that a broadcast station, as the content owner in a local market, is not obligated to make their content available to cable systems for free. They are able to withhold their content and negotiate terms for re-transmission.

A local broadcast station could either assert their must-carry rights OR negotiate a re-transmission agreement that might include some sort of compensation or other provisions. In the past, local stations exercised their must-carry rights to force cable systems to carry their content, but provided their content for free. However, in recent years, local stations have begun to reconsider this practice.

Considering the benefits to local broadcast stations, why does providing content to cable systems pose a problem for local television stations?

• While not historically a threat, local cable systems are now one of the biggest competitors of local television stations when it comes to local commercial advertising sales.
• In addition, local cable systems now routinely charge their subscribers an additional $4.00 - $10.00 per month to access the local broadcast channels. They are charging customers for content that they are getting from local broadcast stations for free.
• Local Broadcast stations know how important and profitable it is to cable systems to provide access to the local broadcast station content to their subscribers.

The result has been the beginning of a change in practice. Local stations and, more importantly, large station groups like Nexstar Broadcasting and Sinclair Broadcasting Group, are beginning to re-negotiate their deals with cable and satellite systems demanding compensation for the right to re-transmit their content. They are asking the question 'Why should local broadcasters provide content to cable and satellite systems for free?'

What would happen if local broadcasters decided not to license their content to cable and satellite systems? This is an interesting question which nobody can fully answer. Cable system owners worry about three things:

1. Would subscribers pay for cable that did not include local channels?
2. If Satellite reaches an agreement with local stations, would cable subscribers convert to satellite rather than cable?
3. And, perhaps the biggest question, if cable systems pay one station in one market for local content, does this mean that every station in every market is going to want to be paid?

But, it isn't as lopsided in favor of the local broadcast television stations as it might seem. They are hesitant to pull their content from cable systems even though they feel strongly that they should be getting compensated. It looks good on paper, but it is a risk. In the short-term, viewership and ratings would go down. This would be true for no other reason than it takes people a while to figure out how to find programming in a new place. This would level off some over a period of months, but it would be a noticeable hit. This dip in ratings would negatively affect the station for a long time as it creates a history that will be used to negotiate future media schedules. But, the risk goes deeper than that...

Back to WFAA-TV, what if they withheld their content from cable only to find that viewers started going to ABC.com to watch Lost and Desperate Housewives each week or watched them through sling-casting from another ABC station in another market? Nobody has an idea what the full consequences would be. And, nobody wants to be the one left holding the bag.

For local broadcast systems, there has been a lack of solidarity on this issue. They have been competitors first and broadcasters second. I think this is changing due in large part to broadcasters like Perry Sook (photograph), Nexstar Broadcasting, that challenged the way it had always been done and led the charge even when he had to do it alone. Pulling his stations off the cable systems in several markets when his request for compensation was denied, he jump-started the conversation of how to correctly value and compensate local stations for local content. Under Sook's direction, Nexstar Broadcasting was the first broadcast group to reach a re-transmission agreement that included some form of compensation. Now, Sinclair Broadcasting has reached an agreement, also undisclosed, that includes compensation.

The battle over re-transmission is an important one for local broadcasters and content creators especially as we enter a new technical age where content can be consumed in so many new and fast-changing ways. With the introduction of video streaming, pod casting, video phones, sling-casting, and other new technologies, the battle over re-transmission will set an important precedent on the relationship between local content producers and those that amalgamate local content regardless of the technological form the distribution might take in the years to come.

--Carter Cathey
(c) 2007

Business of Media 1: Four Types of Television Commercials

In television, there are four basic types of commercials that run everywhere: Network Commercials, Local Spot Commercials, National Spot Commercials, and Direct Response.

* Network Commercials - These commercials are sold by the broadcast or cable network and are part of the feed that goes to local stations. These are spots that run simultaneously across the country. If you buy a network commercial during Desperate Housewives, that commercial is going to be seen by every viewer of that program in every household in the country. It doesn't matter if they are in Denver or Dallas or Durham.

* Local Spot Commercials - These commercials are sold by the local television stations or cable providers in each individual market. These spots run only in the market in which they are purchased. If you buy a local spot commercial during Desperate Housewives in Dallas, you would purchase it directly from the Dallas ABC affiliate (WFAA-TV) and it would run only in Dallas. If you wanted it to run in Denver or Durham, you would have to contact those local stations and purchase from them directly. Local Spot Commercials tend to have lower production values. Imagine the local car dealer standing in front of the car lot swinging his arms and talking about the great deals at Westway Ford.

* National Spot Commercials - These commercials are sold in a couple of different ways. Primarily, each local station has a National Sales Manager that works with a National Television Rep Firm who in turn works with media agencies to complete this buy. National is used when an advertiser wants to cover several markets with their advertising message, but doesn't want to buy network. There could be many reasons not to buy network. The company might be regional so a national buy would deliver their message to people that can't shop in their stores. They might be testing a new product or a new advertising message in a few local markets. They might have different advertising messages for different parts of the country.

* Direct Response Advertising - Direct Response is an entirely different process. These are predominantly the commercials that have a phone number at the end so that you can call and purchase the new Vidalia Chop Wizard or whatever new widget they are selling. By definition, there is a way for you to "respond directly" during the commercial. These commercials are often used to fill unsold inventory. Sometimes, they are purchased and sometimes there is a revenue-sharing agreement in place between the DR advertiser and the local station. Each situation is unique.

--Carter Cathey
(c) 2007