Through the Wire
By Kent Gibbons, Tom Steinert-Threlkeld, Linda Haugsted and Linda Moss -- Multichannel News, 6/17/2007 8:00:00 PM
Wanted: Exec to Get Univision $1 Per Sub
Time Warner’s O’Hayre Goes Out Multiply Feted
Emeril To Help Parade Go Over With a 'Bam’
'Sopranos’ Finale Site Visit Brings Fans No Closure
Wanted: Exec to Get Univision $1 Per Sub
Time Warner’s O’Hayre Goes Out Multiply Feted
Emeril To Help Parade Go Over With a 'Bam’
'Sopranos’ Finale Site Visit Brings Fans No Closure
Wanted: Exec to Get Univision $1 Per Sub
Univision Communications, looking ahead to some bruising cash-for-retransmission negotiations with cable operators over its top-rated Spanish-language stations, wants a new distribution chief to bang heads (or sweet talk) affiliates.
While nothing has been announced, executive vice president of affiliate distribution Tim Krass has left the company and search firm Spencer Stuart has been interviewing possible replacements, people familiar with the situation say.
The problem, one potential candidate said, is not many high-profile distribution chiefs have experience doing contentious retransmission-consent deals. Getting cash for carrying its stations is “a top priority” for Univision’s new ownership group, led by Haim Saban. The new owners bought Univision in March for $12.3 billion.
Recently hired CEO Joe Uva, at Univision’s upfront presentation to advertisers in May, said Univision wants $1 per subscriber in retransmission payments in new deals, replacing those that mostly expire by the end of 2008.
Distribution executives say whoever’s hired will be “quote-unquote, working closely” with a key Univision consultant: Fred Dressler, the retired former top programming negotiator at Time Warner Cable.
One person likened the Univision gig to an Army doctor telling his family he’s headed for duty in Iraq and won’t be seeing them for two years. But the job likely includes equity, so the better the deals that get negotiated, the better the payout when Saban and his backers eventually sell out, executives say.
Univision, through a publicist, declined comment. Krass couldn’t be reached.
Time Warner’s O’Hayre Goes Out Multiply Feted
He was feted with what might have been the two biggest industry parties in New York City last week. One night, he was on the receiving end of a Champagne toast and a print of an oil painting of a 19th century New York harbor scene at a party held by his company in a townhouse on 68th Street belonging to the Council of Foreign Relations. The next night, a dinner at the former International Toy Center on 23rd Street that is now a Cipriani’s restaurant.
Showing up on one or both nights were said to be such luminaries as Julian Brodsky, co-founder of Comcast; Alan Gerry, founder of Cablevision Industries; Insight Communications CEO Michael Willner; Leonard Tow, former CEO of Century Communications; and Time Warner Inc. chairman and CEO Richard Parsons.
Who is “he”? David O’Hayre, who has served since 1982 as vice president of investments for Time Warner Cable and its predecessor company, ATC.
An accountant, O’Hayre was responsible for countless complex acquisitions, including Cablevision Industries and, more recently, part of Adelphia Communications. And true to the clustering of his going away parties, he was an architect — of Time Warner’s strategy of clustering systems in desirable markets.
Emeril To Help Parade Go Over With a 'Bam’
How’s this for a platform: A cable network star gets picked as the focus of an internationally televised holiday event.
Food TV has gotten just such exposure, as Emeril Lagasse has been selected as the Grand Marshal of the 119th annual Tournament of Roses Parade, airing on ABC Jan. 1.
“Emeril Lagasse is the very best ambassador for our theme, Passport to the World’s Celebrations,” said CL Keely, president of the Tournament of Roses Association. “Food is an integral part of celebrations and traditions around the world and Emeril is a master at bringing us all a taste of the fun and excitement through his culinary skill and creativity.”
A Food spokesman said they were certainly happy for their star chef, but don’t have any plans now for location programming from Pasadena, Calif. Sister network HGTV already cablecasts the parade, so for now, Food TV is leaving any special programming to that channel.
'Sopranos’ Finale Site Visit Brings Fans No Closure
With inquiring minds wanting to know more, some enterprising Sopranos viewers last week visited and called the ice cream parlor where the show’s final scene took place, hoping to get the inside scoop on what happened to Tony Soprano.
“People want to know whether Tony died here,” said Chris Carley, co-owner of Holsten’s Brookdale Confectionery in Bloomfield, N.J.
The Sopranos spent two days in March filming at Holsten’s, and the soda fountain was the setting for the ominous final scene in the show, where the screen went blank on Tony, played by James Gandolfini. It was an ambiguous ending that infuriated many fans.
Some of those fans stopped by Holsten’s to take pictures and peek around. But others wanted answers, frankly, barraging the owners with questions. Like, where was Tony sitting and what happened after the screen went black, as if the action had really continued on.
“We actually had people calling and asking, 'Did they shoot him? Did the guy come out of the bathroom and shoot him?’ ” Carley said. “I’m talking like six to eight people who called and asked that same question. They honestly think something happened [here] after the screen went black. I said, 'No, the guy said 'cut’ and the guy came out of the bathroom. That’s what happened.’”
Carley reported business was up about 40% since the finale ran on HBO June 10, with Holsten’s needing extra counter servers and waitresses to handle the crowd. The hot seller is the snack that Tony and his family were eating in that scene: onion rings.
Theories about what happened when the screen went blank on Tony are basically that he was shot by the man who went into the men’s room, or that his life just went on.
Carley’s take: “At first I was disappointed, and then I said, OK, it sort of makes sense. My thought process was he’s [Tony] going to live his life always looking over his shoulder…I think life went on. That’s his cross to bear, his life, and he’s always going to be paranoid.”
During the finale, every time someone came into Holsten’s, a bell on the door would ring and Tony would look up. In reality, Holsten’s doesn’t have a bell. “That would drive me crazy,” Carley said.
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