Ted Koppel Makes A Discovery About Broadcast News

TED KOPPEL MAKES A DISCOVERY ABOUT BROADCAST NEWS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Lisa de Moraes]
Koppel explained that ABC is entirely dependent for its income on the commercials it can sell in the programs that it airs. "As all of you know far better than I, the cost of a commercial on a program that reaches an audience over 45 or 50 is a fraction of what a . . . sponsor is willing to pay for a commercial on a broadcast that reaches the 18-to-29-year-olds." Discovery, meanwhile, also sells ads but gets a significant portion of its income from "cable feeds," Koppel said, and the price is the same whether the subscriber is 18 or 85. "So the pressure to reach a particular demographic is simply not as great at Discovery as it is at one of the commercial networks. That's just a fact. And while I have grown to be very fond of [Discovery Network President Billy Campbell] and all the people I am working for at Discovery, fondness, friendship has nothing to do with it. This is simply a reality of the business world in which we live."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/12/AR200607...
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