Coda
by Staff -- Multichannel News, 6/15/2009 2:00:00 AM
An Earlier 'Nite’ for Nick
New York — Hoping to mine more co-viewing between parents and kids, Nick at Nite will expand its lineup into the 8 p.m. hour next month.
The network, which shares the channel space with kids kingpin Nickelodeon, will move up its start time one hour from 9 p.m., beginning July 5 with the launch of recently acquired off-network comedy Malcolm In The Middle, according to Nickelodeon and MTVN Kids and Family Group president Cyma Zarghami.
Nickelodeon hopes the move will increase viewership among both kids and their parents for the adult-skewing, top 10-rated Nick at Nite, which averaged 1.5 million prime time viewers last month from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. Year to date, Nickelodeon is averaging more than 2.7 million viewers during the 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. time slot and 609,000 viewers 18-49.
“This first generation of viewers not only is going to have a relationship with Nickelodeon but are doing a lot of co-viewing together with their kids,” Zarghami said.
“So part of the strategy was to see if we could bring the kids closer to their parents and the parents closer to the kids through that early primetime time slot.”
Zarghami said the launch of the award-winning Malcolm In The Middle, which starred a young Frankie Muniz (Big Fat Liar) as well as Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) and Jane Kaczmarek (Raising The Bar) will help foster co-viewing during the time period. The network picked up rights to all seven-seasons and 151-episosdes of the TwentiethTelevision-produced series.
“We think the combination of Malcolm in the Middle, George Lopez Show, Everybody Hates Chris (premiering in September) and Home Improvement, really sets the stage for the new modern family home in Nick at Nite,” she said. “It feels fresh, it feels contemporary, and it feels really exciting to us.”
The move comes on the heels of another Nickelodeon brand strengthening move announced in March that will see the rebrand of Nick’s pre-school targeted Noggin and teen-oriented The N services to Nick Jr. and Nicktoons, respectively.
— R. Thomas Umstead
Cox Makes Travel Plan
Atlanta — Cox Communications hired Goldman Sachs last week as an adviser to help it evaluate strategic alternatives for the Travel Channel, including joint ventures and a possible sale.
Cox, which acquired the Travel Channel in 2007 after it restructured its Discovery Communications partnership — it received cash and the channel in return for its 25% interest in Discovery — said in a statement that it had received “unsolicited inquiries” regarding the channel.
Cox said that no decision has been made and that its options include “maintaining the current structure to joint ventures and other potential structures.”
“Travel Channel has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Cox Communications since May 2007,” Cox CEO Patrick Esser said in a statement. “In that time, it has made significant contributions to our business.”
Possible suitors could include Time Warner Inc., Scripps Networks Interactive, NBC Universal, Viacom and CBS. The channel, which was valued between $800 million and $1.1 billion when Cox first made the deal back in 2007, is probably worth less, given the sluggish economy.
In a separate deal, Scripps Networks said it has hired Allen & Co. to search for buyers for British online energy pricing service uSwitch, which it purchased in 2006 for about $366 million.
The service was initially started to help UK consumers switch energy providers in that country’s deregulated energy market. Along with online shopping service Shopzilla, uSwitch made up the interactive services unit of SNI.
In a statement, SNI said the sale would have no bearing on Shopzilla, which SNI will continue to operate. The company said that Shopzilla is in the process of a competitive repositioning, including enhancing its product offerings, improving the overall customer experience and increasing its focus on measurable returns on investment for participating online merchants.
— Mike Farrell
Q1 Ad Spends Down
New York— The descent rate of U.S. ad expenditures continued to accelerate in the first quarter, dropping 14.2%, or more than $5 billion from $35.2 billion in the corresponding year-ago period to $30.18 billion, according to TNS Media.
The decline came on top of a 9.2% drop in the fourth quarter of 2008.
Local media was hit hardest, with spot TV taking the biggest hit, down 27.5% compared to first quarter 2008.
National ad spending was down 8.5% from the comparable quarter in 2008, with television doing far better than print. One black figure among the red was syndication, which was up 0.2%.
Cable lost 2.7%, while network TV was down 4.2%.
— John Eggerton
TVN + TWC = VOD
Sherman Oaks, Calif. — TVN Entertainment Corp. will provide Time Warner systems with its video-on-demand content delivery services as part of a new long-term agreement.
Under the terms, TVN will provide the MSO with VOD content delivery services and advanced asset management tools, including TVN’s Adoniss interactive system.
The deal comes nearly a month after TVN agreed to merge with IPTV content aggregator Avail Media to provide a full-service, multi-platform video distribution service for cable and telephone companies.
— R. Thomas Umstead
Cablevision Ups Ante For VOD Advertisers
Bethpage, N.Y. — Cablevision Systems Corp. will begin offering same-day video-on-demand insertion and telescoping opportunities across its entire service area later this summer.
The addition of the same-day VOD ad insertion in pre-roll positions will enable advertisers to begin a new flight or swap out existing 15- or 30-second spots within 24 hours of notification.
As for the telescoping opportunity, Cablevision has inked deals with Disney Parks, the U.S. Navy and Newsday, the newspaper owned by the cable operator.
— Mike Reynolds
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