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MARKETERS TUNE IN TO THE TWEEN SET
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Paul Farhi and Jennifer Frey]
The average American tween lives in a world of electronic opulence, inside his or her own media bubble. According to a recent survey by Nickelodeon, 77 percent of 9- to 14-year-olds have TVs in their bedrooms, with about half this group enjoying cable or satellite access. Some 59 percent have video-game systems, 49 percent have a DVD player and 22 percent have computers connected to the Internet. Marketers have known about the buying power of the pre- and early-adolescent -- or "tween" -- market ever since the late '60s and Bobby Sherman. What's different now is how much more efficient and precise selling to tweens has become. Now, thanks to niche cable channels and even niche-ier Internet sites, advertisers can tailor messages specific to tweens, leaving the rest of the world only dimly aware of tween culture. Broadcasters stopped long ago trying to appeal to kids during prime time, now focusing on adults between ages 18 and 49. So, for tweens, the big action is on cable. The most-watched networks among the nation's 26 million children between ages 9 and 14 (definitions of tween vary, some including children as young as 7) are Viacom's Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel, owned by the Walt Disney Co. But there's more: Another Disney-owned channel, ABC Family, targets tweens, as does the Cartoon Network, owned by Time Warner Inc. Sure, tweens watch "American Idol" like the rest of the nation -- it's the No. 1 show in their demographic -- but of the 25 most-popular programs among 9- to 14-year-olds in mid-April, only seven were on the traditional broadcast networks, according to Nielsen Media Research. Sixteen of the programs were carried by either Nickelodeon or the Disney Channel, the twin towers of tween targeting. Sheer numbers alone don't explain why the media conglomerates, and their advertisers, are busily courting tweens. Although they form a sizable bloc in themselves, tweens are valued customers primarily because of their influence on their families' overall spending.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/22/AR200605...
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KOPPEL PROPOSES NEW JOURNALISM JOB
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
When asked for B&C's anniversary issue to dust off his crystal ball and predict what future programming development will have the greatest impact on the business, Koppel used the opportunity to take aim at the current state of journalistic affairs. "At some point, in the not-too-distant future, it is going to occur to someone in authority at a network news division that developments beyond the borders of the United States are worthy of ongoing and detailed attention by a corps of smart, curious and courageous young men and women who are willing to live and work in places like India, China and the Middle East for extended tours," said Koppel. "We could call these people '“foreign correspondents.' Their reports could inform us of important and potentially dangerous developments at a time when we can ill afford to remain in the dark. Actually, ... never mind. It’s too expensive, and why would anything that anyone’s hatching overseas have any kind of impact on us?" Asked to describe TV at its worst, Koppel laid into it with vigor: "Television, which has such an enormous capacity for greatness, remains the most timid medium in the communications universe," he said. "It is marked by endless repetition, banality and lack of creativity. It continues to be strangled by its own commercial success, breeding endless copies of whatever mediocrity currently enjoys ratings success. Television makes money by reacting to the market rather than achieving greatness (and perhaps making even more money) by leading and producing genuine creativity."
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6336804?display=Breaking+News

RETRANS: A BIG HOLE IN TELECOM BILL
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: James Gleason, American Cable Association]
The roughly 900 independent cable operators represented by the American Cable Association are encouraged by many of the provisions in the proposed Senate Telecommunications Bill, S. 2686. But its members will be even more encouraged if the Senate addresses problems caused by the unintended consequences of prior broadcast carriage legislation. The issue that has the most impact on a cable operator’s business — retransmission consent and the tying and bundling of content — is missing from this legislation. Through such tying and bundling, broadcast groups and media conglomerates have effectively taken over cable operators' video pipes by saying they'll withhold their signal, creating havoc for customers. By government fiat given to the broadcasters, customers are forced to pay for ever-increasing retransmission consent demands while also being forced to take cable networks they don't want, all for the right to receive free over-the-air TV. If the Senate does not address retransmission consent, then two things are a given: One, basic and expanded basic cable rates will rise and rise. Two, more and more unwanted, and often indecent, programming will be shoved onto consumers -- and they will be given no choice. The Senate bill is a good starting point. However, to ensure consumers in smaller markets and rural America receive the best in voice, video and data from cable, the Senate must tackle the issue of retransmission consent.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6336336.html?display=Opinion

DIVISIVE IN ANY LANGUAGE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: E. J. Dionne Jr.]
[Commentary] As it considered the immigration bill last week, the Senate passed an utterly useless amendment sponsored by Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) declaring English to be our "national language" and calling for a government role in "preserving and enhancing" the place of English. There is no point to this amendment except to say to members of our currently large Spanish-speaking population that they will be legally and formally disrespected in a way that earlier generations of immigrants from -- this is just a partial list -- Germany, Italy, Poland, Russia, Norway, Sweden, France, Hungary, Greece, China, Japan, Finland, Lithuania, Lebanon, Syria, Bohemia, Slovakia, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia were not. Immigrants from all these places honored their origins, built an ethnic press and usually worshiped in the languages of their ancestors. But they also learned English because they knew that advancement in our country required them to do so. True, we now have English-as-a-Second-Language programs that have created some resentments and, in the eyes of their critics, can slow the transition from Spanish to English. Still, the evidence is overwhelming that Spanish speakers and their kids are as aware as anyone of the importance of learning English. That's why we have an attorney general named Gonzales, senators named Salazar, Martinez and Menendez, and a mayor of Los Angeles named Villaraigosa.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/22/AR200605...
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