In this morning's WALL STREET JOURNAL, Fara Warner reports
that the "upfront" ad market for the networks' '95-96 prime-time
schedule is expected to hit $5B, despite a smaller audience.
Share ratings for the three major nets was down to 57%, compared
to 61% in '93-94 (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 5/18)....UPN plans to add
a third night of programming to its '96 schedule, one year ahead
of their business plan. Wednesday UPN shows will join those on
Monday and Tuesday (BLOOMBERG/N.Y. TIMES, 5/18)....National and
local TV spot revenues climbed 7% and 9% respectively in the 1stQ
of '95, according to a Television Bureau of Advertising analysis
cited in AD AGE ONLINE. National spot revenue rose from $1.344B
to $1.444B, while local was up from $1.353B to $1.477B (AD AGE
ONLINE, 5/18)....MLB Home Video is reducing the prices on several
of its top titles, effective May 21. Orion Home Video is the
exclusive sales agent for MLB Home Video (Orion)....Wayne
Huizenga's portfolio of Viacom B and Viacom A stock has increased
roughly $60M in value since the Blockbuster-Viacom merger.
Huizenga's Viacom holdings are now estimated to be worth $401M
(Ft. Lauderdale SUN-SENTINEL, 5/18)....OH-based Koenig Sporting
Goods has hired ESPN's Chris Berman to star in a series of TV
spots (NSGA RETAIL FOCUS, 5/95 issue)....On this morning's
"Bloomberg Business News," Bob Goldsholl reported on sports
information available on the internet and the Web. Geoff Reiss,
Publisher of ESPNet Sports Zone: "Just like sports news it is
constantly being updated, there are constantly new things to be
said." Goldsholl reports, "As exciting and new as it all may be,
cyberspace is far from being the primary source of sports
information, newspapers, TV and radio still carry the ball,
especially for fans of local teams. But the amount of
information online is dizzying" (PBS, 5/18).
