Beck Advertiser “Backlash”…

Reuters’ Kenneth Hein writes about advertisers pulling out of FNC’s Glenn Beck program…

A Fox representative noted that Geico is dropping its ads from the show but was quick to note that it was shifting dollars to other programs. “The advertisers referenced have all moved their spots from Beck to other programs on the network, so there has been no revenue lost,” the rep said.

Beck’s show pulled in an average of slightly more than 2 million viewers for each of its 19 telecasts in July, according to Nielsen.

Progressive Insurance representative Cristy Cote said that there has been a lot of confusion surrounding the company’s involvement with the program. “We had not bought advertising on the show in the first place,” she said, “so when we learned that our advertising had appeared on the show by mistake, we contacted the network to correct the error.”

She said Progressive tries to “avoid programing that we believe our customers and potential customers might find extremely offensive.”

A Procter & Gamble representative echoed that sentiment: “At times our ads are run by mistake on shows that they were not meant to … Any of our ads that ran did so by mistake, and we’ll try to make sure that doesn’t happen in the future.”

Spin Control…

Portfolio’s Jeff Bercovici writes about Don Imus and FBN…

If he brought along even a fraction of his current audience, Imus could easily give a huge boost to Fox Business’ numbers. A cable news insider I spoke with believes that FBN could actually overtake CNBC in the morning by signing him. “I don’t think you attract a guy like Imus to shut the channel down,” says the source. “You bring a guy like Imus to set you up for the real business news of the day with a really big audience.”

Indeed, MSNBC’s simulcast of Imus in the Morning performed better in the Nielsens than Morning Joe, its current morning show, which is much celebrated among Beltway insiders. Moreover, notes the insider, while Imus admittedly isn’t a financial-news expert, FBN could supplement his broadcast with regular break-ins from the world of business.

Gee I wonder who this cable news insider works for? Nice spin going there. I particularly like the part about the “real business news of the day”. It’s a clever, albeit too obvious, attempt to reframe the story; to suggest that 6-9am doesn’t matter…that the “real news” happens after the market opens. That is of course bul****t…but I give them chutzpah points for trying to put that one over. If it were true CNBC wouldn’t be spending time covering 6-9 the way it does. Not for the crummy numbers they get out of it.

And MSNBC tried to get Imus to boost their morning news ratings. They tried it for 10 years. Didn’t work. People that tune in for Imus, tune in for Imus. Most tune out when Imus is done. So in the end FBN would have an Imus lead in which likely boosts FBN’s ratings, while gutting their business news brand, only to see those ratings likely drop when 9 am rolls around.

GE Blasts O’Reilly for “unconfirmed” GE Story…

The AP’s David Bauder writes about GE’s on the record response to Bill O’Reilly’s GE story on last night’s Factor…

General Electric Co. called a Fox News Channel report about the company supplying terrorists with material used in bombs “irresponsible and maliciously false” on Wednesday, as a feud between Fox’s Bill O’Reilly and MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann kept sizzling.

It was the first time that GE, the parent company of NBC News and MSNBC, had publicly responded to accusations made by O’Reilly on his Fox show.

And then there’s this…

GE spokesman Gary Sheffer said he was surprised by the report, given O’Reilly’s admission that he could not confirm GE’s involvement.

GE does not do business with Corezing, and does not produce the radio frequency modules that were described in the report, he said.

“We usually do not respond to the misleading and inaccurate claims made on this program because very few people take them seriously,” Sheffer said, “but tonight’s report took this smear campaign to a new low.”

A Fox News spokeswoman, Irena Briganti, had no immediate comment about GE’s statement. FBI spokesman Steve Kodak said the bureau does not comment about any investigations it may be doing.

Olbermann blasts O’Reilly for “unconfirmed” GE Story…

It didn’t take long for Olbermann to come back at O’Reilly for last night’s Factor broadcast on GE. If it was really that unconfirmed, as in bogus, why doesn’t GE just sue O’Reilly for defamation?

Rumor Mongering…

City File talks Olbermann and the Deal and alleged discomfort inside MSNBC…

That Olbermann was quick to put the blame on his colleagues didn’t sit very well with MSNBC insiders, we hear. The handful of lies and overall feeling that Olbermann had reignited a war that could have been brought to a close didn’t do much to endear him to his colleagues either. Especially since Olbermann’s numbers have been headed downward for months now, and there was a general feeling that a little change wouldn’t be such a bad thing. Although MSNBC management had expected to see ratings come down from their 2008 election highs, the drop-off has been more pronounced than execs at the network anticipated. Changing up the Countdown formula could have been to MSNBC’s advantage.

One other point that sticks in the craw of some MSNBC staffers is that Olbermann’s ratings began to fall off right around Olbermann renegotiated his contract with the network, a deal that immediately made him one of NBC’s highest-paid news personalities. In November 2008, NBC Universal agreed to rip up his old contract, worth an estimated $4 million a year, and offered him a new one that nearly doubled his annual salary to $7.5 million a year through 2013. The timing certainly worked out well for Olbermann. Less so for NBC Universal and MSNBC, which has watched as the show’s ratings dip and has seen Olbermann turn into more of a greater liability than they imagined.

Unfortunately for NBC execs, there’s little they do to fix the situation. MSNBC depends heavily on Olbermann, a fact made clear when he was told to tone down his rhetoric: According to the Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz, Olbermann indicated he’d be prepared to walk out the door if NBC president Jeff Zucker forced him to make substantial changes to his show as part of any secret deal with Fox News. (Not that Olbermann hasn’t threatened to quit on several occasions in the past. He has.) It’s hard to imagine where Olbermann could go if he decided to leave. And yet at the same time, NBC would be hard-pressed to fire him—even if he continues to play the rogue and ignore the directives of senior management.

Imus and FBN…

Wall Street Pit’s Ron Haruni writes about what Imus could bring to FBN. What makes this article a must read is the insider dope Haruni has been fed. There’s so much detail being revealed that you have to wonder if the FBN side clearly is expecting for this deal to happen and it’s just a question of contractual terms and conditions now.

Insiders say that Imus’ business coverage will only increase once the radio legend joins FOX Business Network.

A source close to the deal tells Wall Street Pit, the ‘Imus in the Morning’ program will feature multiple breaking business news alerts throughout each hour, topics of discussion will be increasingly business focused and FBN anchors will regularly appear on the show to break down the pre-market news. In addition, two thirds of the screen will feature business news and market tickers through the lower thirds and HD wing.

Not good enough. You’re a business channel. You cover business news. You don’t rely on a handful of business alerts, cameo appearances, and a crawl to compensate for a non-business show going up against CNBC during one of the most important business news times of the day.

FBN Numbers Peek…

The New York Times’ Brian Stelter has numbers on FBN. What makes this article so noteworthy is that 1) We get an inside peek at why FBN still isn’t publicly rated despite having more than enough subscribers (dispute with Nielsen over reliability) and B) Nielsen is named as the source for these numbers; both of which say to me that FBN had to have signed off on this story. This article also is a big clue as to why FBN would even consider all but abandoning early morning business news coverage to CNBC by putting Don Imus on. The numbers have been atrocious.

It appears that the audience for most of Fox’s programming day remains too low to be reported by Nielsen. It said it could not report ratings for the 6 to 9 a.m. time period that Mr. Imus would inhabit. (Fox Business hasn’t confirmed the talks with Mr. Imus.)

Fox’s message is decidedly one of growth, no matter how small its total audience is.
Citing more recent ratings that were provided to Fox Business by Nielsen, Kevin Magee, an executive vice president, said that his channel’s audience was “up 188 percent” while CNBC was “down 27 percent.”

“These are gigantic trend numbers,” he said.

The increases for Fox Business, of course, come from such a small base that it makes wild percentage gains relatively easy to earn. CNBC’s audience is more than 10 times the size of the Fox Business audience.

Still, Mr. Magee said twice that CNBC’s summer audience had declined this year. He also said that many of CNBC’s programs still “scratch” — an industry term for programs that do not meet the minimum audience threshold to be rated by Nielsen — “from time to time.” He added that the rival business channel Bloomberg does not subscribe to Nielsen’s public ratings.

The Hazards of Live TV: #25,014

Scroll to 2:50 mark…

Free for All: 08/12/09

What’s on your mind?