All Clients Have November 08 Installed

Just in time for a quiet evening with my wife and cats, I'm pleased to announce the conclusion of the November 2008 data installation and new quarterly selling book creation at all 13 of my stations.

In the next week, NBC sports will be totally reviewed and re-estimated through 3rd Quarter 09.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays..

Paul

Nielsen's Present to me....

While you NBC folks all have your data and estimates, the Fox stations in Dothan, AL and Panama City, FL just got their data in an hour ago... it's Christmas Eve.. the ODI offices are closed until Monday, but my clients will have November 2008 share-based estimates when/if they come into work on Friday morning.

How many of your employees work on Christmas Eve and/or Christmas Day without hesitation or "compensatory time?"

Pocatello has been transformed

Ok.. not Sports or Specials yet... but it IS late.

Will someone get Lin a new computer?

Jackson... Merry Christmas!

WLBT's new Inventory has been published and your Master Planner has been mailed, and can be found in the Open Avail section of ClearView.

By the way.. ODI offices will be closed from Christmas Eve at Noon (Central Time) until Monday morning the 28th, then again on New Year's Eve at Noon (Central Time) until Monday, January 4th.

Your RDRx service, however, is always on call. This is the first year in a decade that all of my clients' data has been delivered before Christmas Eve.

Still Waiting for Jackson & Pocatello

Check in the morning... I will.

Casper is ready, too....

Happy Holidays to Peggy and her crew!

Helena is Published...

Yes, Debbie, there is a Santa. He's brought you November 2008 Sweep based estimates before Christmas!

Check the Public Area for a Master Planner based on the 4 new Selling Books and the updated Specials book, too.

KSEE is ready for action!

Yes, Fresno is ready to kick butt and take names starting Monday morning, but if anyone was REALLY interested, the Selling Books are already waiting for you. Just remember to close ClearView and re-open it to see new programming and estimate changes mentioned here.

WRCB has November 08 based Estimates

Birmingham got the data Saturday. Chattanooga got their estimates the same day.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Ft. Wayne, IN: November 08 Is Ready!

Clients WISE and WPTA both got their November 2008 Sweeps data yesterday afternoon.

This morning, WISE and WPTA were able to review new Selling Book estimates for four quarters and specials based on November 2008 shares.

If you want a copy of a Master Planner once your November 2008 Sweeps is installed, simply go to Open Avail, and check the box that says "View Public Area." Sort by date, and at the top you'll likely see the saved avail that created the Master Planner. You can open this Planner "As Template" to customize for your immediate use.

My other clients' data will not be released until next week or later.

December NBC Prime Changes In ClearView

Three new programs announced:

Today Looks Back @ 2008 on the 22nd
Top Chef on the 26th
Beijing Olympic Ceremony on the 29th

A few holiday shows moved around as well.

All ODI RDRx client inventories reflect all known changes as of now.

Did you see the Atom option at the bottom of the page? Click it if you wish to find out how to be automatically notified each time this page is updated.

Several December Changes from NBC...

More details in the morning of Friday the 12th. by which time all my clients will be already updated.

Check your Prime Inventory for Jay in Fall 2009

RDRx clients will find Jay Leno's Show in prime inventory, just for kicks and what if's.

Take a look at the demos and tell me what you think.

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/source-nbc-may-strip-leno-at-10-pm/

Fewer Prime & Specials in the future?

NBC might scale back hours, Zucker says

NBC Uni chief discusses options amid economic downturn

By Paul J. Gough and Georg Szalai of TheHollywoodReporter.com

Dec 8, 2008, 01:06 PM ET

Updated: Dec 8, 2008, 01:56 PM E

NEW YORK -- NBC is looking at "all options" to revamp its broadcast model, including possibly cutting the number of primetime hours or even nights per week, NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker said Monday afternoon.

Zucker said that the entire broadcast industry, including NBC, are under tremendous challenges because of the changing media landscape as well as the downturn in the economy.

"Can we continue to broadcast 22 hours in primetime? Three of our competitors don't," Zucker said during Monday's keynote at the annual UBS Global Media and Communications Conference. "Can we continue to broadcast seven days a week? One of our competitors doesn't."

He asked whether Friday and Saturday should be programmed the same way as it has been in the past. Most of the other networks don't program originals on Saturday night anymore, with the exception of CBS' "48 Hours Mystery" and NBC's "Saturday Night Live" after 11:30 p.m.

"All of those questions are on the table and are actively looking at all these options," Zucker said.

After the UBS event, Zucker told The Hollywood Reporter there are no plans to do this but that in today's media climate, the options are prudent to at least consider. But he also said he didn't want to give the wrong impression.

"It's not giving up. It's not retrenching. It's not throwing in the towel," Zucker said.

There have been rumors that the networks were at least looking at the possibility of cutting back on hours or days, returning them to local affiliates to program. But it seemed the first time that they had been discussed in public, to the investment community or anywhere else.

NBC, CBS and ABC, the legacy networks, program in primetime seven days a week for at least three hours a night. Fox programs two hours a night, seven days a week. The CW and MyNetworkTV do less.

But at the same time, the ratings are down across the board for the broadcast nets. Only CBS has had relatively modest declines; the rest have seen steeper drops.

"We do have to continue to rethink what a broadcast network is today and what we want to be aspirationally," Zucker said. "Do we have to be the way we've always been?"

Zucker expressed doubts about an often-predicted economic rebound in the back half of 2009, saying it may only come later. "I don't think we know," he cautioned. "And I don't know how anyone knows."

The NBC Uni CEO also said that digital ad sales momentum has hit a sudden wall this quarter and will not grow as much as people had predicted, not even in the area of high-end video (such as NBC.com, Hulu). "It has really, really slowed dramatically," Zucker said, and "dried up in the scatter market."

Overall, the company "can't count on digital to be the big growth engine that we thought it would be in 2009," he warned.

Zucker called the Beijing Olympics a learning experience. "Online viewing of the Olympics helped drive the TV ratings" without cannibalizing TV viewing, he said.

However, the online Olympics coverage was not a revenue and profit driver to the degree it could have been, he said. "We will use what we learned to go to market better" in Vancouver and other future Games, Zucker said. Asked about a possible actors strike, Zucker said that "as an industry we have been able to negotiate (deals) with six other unions" under better economic circumstances. But "for reasons I can't understand," SAG doesn't want to sign the same deal, he added.

"We would like to make a deal," he concluded, adding that it is "hard to imagine that in a weak economy common sense wouldn't prevail here."

Meanwhile, Zucker acknowledged the poor performance of NBC but didn't lay the blame at NBC Entertainment co-chairs Ben Silverman and Marc Graboff.

"We have not had a good fall at NBC," Zucker acknowledged. He said that none of the broadcast nets have had a strong TV season. But that doesn't give him any comfort that broadcast overall isn't in good shape.

"I don't think that's lost on Ben or Marc Graboff," Zucker said in response to a question about Silverman's status from the audience. "In no way have we lost confidence" in either Silverman or Graboff.

Zucker also said that the network's development model has been evolving, and it would involve an increased amount of pilots this coming season but there would also be some direct to series shows as well. He said NBC was increasing the amount of investment in original programming.

No Feb Sweeps, So March Becomes Key

NBC, as well as other major networks, announced plans for the upcoming March sweep period.

All of my NBC client stations now have more than 40 lines of inventory in Prime and more than 60 lines of inventory in Specials airing in the next 16 weeks, all updated since the announcements last week.

Please be advised of NBC's TBA status in a number of dayparts in March Prime.

ODI RDRx clients can find the most recent Prime and Specials Planners within the Public Area of Saved Avails. Open 'As Template' to use as the initial foundation for an avail.. I've already done the heavy lifting, so you can spend your time customizing schedules.

More Changes for NBC Stations.....

Tons of changes for NBC in January.. while February is still up in the air.

Update to NBC Prime & Specials on 11/23/08

Good Monday Morning!

Look for significant changes in NBC Friday and Saturday night schedules between now and mid January. Several holiday specials have been removed and 2 hour Datelines air on 3 Fridays.

Speaking of Friday, Lipstick Jungle lives, but only for 4 more weeks.. 2 in December and 2 in January, at 9pE/P, 8pC/M. Crusoe has been banished to Saturdays through January.

Do you have any news of upcoming programming changes on NBC? Post it here!