Focus on Horizon Media
Interview: Horizon Media---Koenigsberg, Bill---Chief Executive Officer (slow)
>> welcome back. you are in time to check commodities. the price of crude oil rose to a two-month high and had a third week gain. heating supply supplies may not be adequate as temperatures fall. gold closed hiver at $373 an ounce. echostar is going to court in a bid to buy all of the bankrupt satellite maker’s assets. loral space communications is requesting court approval of a $220 million agreement to build two satellites for directv. echostar and loral creditors filed objections to plan in federal court. echostar is willing to pay the many $100 more than its bigger rival directv. earlier loral denied an offer for all of the assets available. focusing on the media, specifically on television, our next guest says so far there has not been a major hit this fall season. there was, however, a record amount of advertising dollars committed up front this year. and our guest tells us how this will affect the bottom line of advertisers and the networks. his name is bill coningsberg, c.e.o. of horizon media. explain what you do at horizon.
>> the name of the company is horizon media, with the largest independent media service company in the country. we buy and plan advertising time for about a billion dollars worth of billing for advertisers all around the country.
>> you are out there and you need to know what’s coming up with these networks, and you have to figure out what’s going to be the best place to put that money.
>> absolutely. it’s our job to know which shows are going to be hit. it’s our job to know when the client should commit their money when you should hold back. as you said this year, there was a record $9.2 billion spent in the up front. that was up from 8.2 billion a year ago.
>> why that record amount?
>> well, number one, advertisers this year were hedging against a very strong market. so many of them actually overcommitted in the marketplace this year. they didn’t hold money back for the scatter marketplace. they decided to commit up front. so more money came in earlier.
>> just for those who don’t know the up front, you are buying the advertising ahead of time. the scat ter market is later on.
>> yeah, the benefit of the up front is that you get audience guarantees and hopefully you are buying at better prices than you would if you came in later during the course of the year.
>> is that going to be the case, with all the moynl coming up front, the lower prices are still in the up front.
>> well, right now, the scatter market is soft because so much money was placed in the up front. it appears right now that there are deals to be had in the scatter marketplace which is counter to what everybody thought.
>> because of the way things have come. no big hits so far. the way things―there hasn’t been a lot of buzz around many of the shows. more about shows that have returned after, you know, the summer season went by.
>> yeah, the c.s.i.’s, the e.r.’s, the frep frends, they have legs. there were 35 new shows that launched this fall. no breakout hits, coupling on nbc is doing well. it has great real estate because it’s between e.r., and “will & grace”. two and a half men, cbs is doing well, great real estate between everybody loves raymond and c.s.i..
>> the new my two dads.
>> you mentioned the real estate factor. srment on the must see nbc line-up sticking coupling there which is being described as the future friends, not by the critics but just for where they are putting it, would that fly? if they stuck that on monday night would it be doing as well as it does now?
>> it absolutely would not be doing as well on a monday night as a thursday night. it absolutely has the advantage of being sandwiched between those two shows but the viewers are staying. the proof is in the numbers.
>> they are getting the single guy and suddenly susan numbers that if they were taken off they probably wouldn’t have them. coupling, of course, based on a british sitcom which is one man’s opinion is better than the u.s. sitcom. what about dramas? there is a lot of drama out there right now. are any of them breaking out? the l.a. drag net debut is what people are looking for.
>> l.a. drag net debut, vegas, cold case on c.b.s. is doing well. that i think is the number three show of all the new shows out there today. and what’s happened is the networks have gone back to the dramas and the comedies, and away from the reality shows that we had way too much of back a year ago.
>> so at this point are advertisers pleased with what they have, though there are no breakouts, are the viewer ships for network versus cable, is it holding up to the point they spent their money on?
>> i think there are concerns out there. cable actually is up 10% in viewership, the first couple of weeks of this broadcast season. that’s a big increase. there is close to 48% of viewership now is tuned to cable in prime time because the networks like bloomberg and other networks that are out there. and advertisers are getting more and more concerned that there is more and more erosion and the cable networks have invested so much money and original programming they are now owned by a lot of these conglomerates. look at the g.e. deal that just went down, u.s.a. and sci-fi are coming into their family, that they are making big investments and it’s showing. they are gaining viewership.
>> they see where the future is and they are buying in that direction.
>> yes. absolutely.
>> thank you very much.
>> thanks for having me.
>> the c.e.o. of horizon media. still to come the trade deficit unexpectedly narrowed in august. an update on all the economic news of the day when we return.
