CBI's own advisory board member (Greg Newton) posted this item to the CBI list prior to the "controversisial" Monday Night Football segement.
"Three items from the past couple of weeks that folks may find interesting or significant in some way. I honestly don't know exactly what the lesson is from any of them right now. As those of you who were at John Crigler's session on the topic in Nashville know, we're still trying to figure out just which words are on the new list of FCC-prohibited profanity and there are definitely a lot more contexts where material is indecent. But if nothing else, you can enliven your family's Thanksgiving dinner discussion next week :-) First, and most recently, NBC Sports seemingly took another hit on Saturday, following the Notre Dame-Pittsburgh college football game. In a live post-game interview, the Pittsburgh quarterback exclaimed how proud he was of "this f-in' football team." NBC's play-by-play guy up in the booth apologized, twice, before the broadcast ended. But it seems certain that complaints will be filed. Under the old standard, probably not indecent. Under the Bono/Golden Globes standard, definitely indecent and profane, too. Apparently, the Dale Earnhardt, Jr. incident a few weeks ago wasn't enough of a heads up for NBC brass. How long before there's delay on all live broadcasts? Second, most of you are probably aware of the decision by many ABC affiliate stations to not air "Saving Private Ryan" last Thursday night (Veteran's Day) in prime time out of fear they would be liable for sanctions under the Commission's revised interpretation of the indecency statute. The network had previously run the movie uncut (as required in their licensing agreement) on two occasions, and the FCC had ruled subsequently that the showings did not violate the law. However, the standard announced in the Golden Globes case would seem to reverse the logic of those previous holdings and at least 20 stations felt that they couldn't run the risk this time. The potential fine for each licensee would easily reach several hundred thousand dollars as the Commission interprets each word to be an actionable "instance." Ironically, the Parents Television Council--one of the prime lobbyists for the FCC's tougher stance--has said on their web site (www.parentstv.org) that they believe the broadcast was not indecent, in context. Don Wildmon's American Family Association, on the other hand, has reportedly filed at least one complaint and we can probably expect many more. Finally, more fallout from Stern's move to Sirius. A petition has reportedly been filed (by a California radio licensee) with the FCC asking the Commission to level the playing field for terrestrial and satellite radio in terms of permissible content. The petition as I understand it doesn't necessarily argue that the Commission go one way or the other, just to make the rules the same for both. I'm not sure I see a legal rationale that would stand up in court (certainly not for putting curbs on satellite); but maybe somebody smarter than me has an idea. For now, the petition is sitting on a desk. But it is at least conceivable that the FCC could open a notice for comment. This would obviously be of concern to CBI's membership, and I'll stay on top of it. In the meantime, if you have would like to discuss the issue, feel free to post or e-mail me privately at newtong@ohio.edu or gregorynewton@earthlink.net. BTW, Howard will be David Letterman's guest on Thursday night. Infinity has muzzled him regarding the satellite move, but that may not hold for Letterman. Stern's been quoted in the trades billing the appearance as a Sirius infomercial. -- Greg"
Internet ad spending outpaces traditional media worldwideA new report from ZenithOptimedia calculates that print, broadcast, cinema, out-of-home and Internet advertising expenditure make up 0.99% of economic output in 57 countries around the globe, and projects that ratio to remain stable in 2005 and 2006. Europe ad expenditures remain on course to grow faster than US spending in 2005. Europe's advertising-to-GDP ratio has recovered to a healthy trend rate of 0.80% and rising. Germany and Italy recovery is strong, too. Spain's ad growth is in line with its vigorous economy and France should sustain stable ad-to-GDP ratios not seen since before the bubble of the late 1990s. More...
Blogger uncovers molehill under Fox's mountainous fineBuzzMachine, by blogger Jeff Jarvis, is reporting the basis for the recent 1.2 million indecency hit suffered by Fox Network for its airing of "Married by America" back in April 2003. Using the Freedom of Information Act, Jarvis asked "...to see all of the 159 complaints the FCC cited in its complaint against Fox." Jarvis found out first that there were in fact only 90 complaints, and that thanks to photocopying and email copying technology, the number of US citizens who actually took the time to express themselves originally on the topic was far less than that. "So in the end, that means that a grand total of three citizens bothered to take the time to sit down and actually write a letter of complaint to the FCC," wrote Jarvis. "Millions of people watched the show. Three wrote letters of complaint." More...
From Radio Ink....
Suspended Lexington Deejays Re-InstatedLEXINGTON, KY-November 17: Three deejays who were suspended last week following a prank story that a smoking ban in cars was now in effect in Lexington were re-instated yesterday after the city decided to drop their threat of a formal complaint to the FCC.
From Media Mix...
E-mail marketing to college students 101Click Z says if you're not marketing to college students, perhaps you should be. Today's college students are one of the earliest generations that have had four to six years of Internet, e-mail, Web, IM (define), wireless, and other digital experiences woven into their lives. Because of college kids' unique nature (most are parent-supported, with plenty of discretionary income), this group is very attractive. Witness these stats from the 360 Youth/Harris Interactive College Explorer Study (Fall 2003): More...
