Quick Takes

Dish Network sues FCC over noncom HD carriage mandate

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Dish Network is suing the Federal Communication Commission over the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act, which requires the satTV provider to deliver noncom stations’ HD signals by next year, reports Broadcasting & Cable. The suit, filed last week (July 1) in Las Vegas where Dish is incorporated, seeks a temporary restraining order and injunction against the FCC’s enforcement of the Act. “This is not a case about whether PBS provides important and worthwhile programming or should receive funding from the government,” Dish said in a statement. “Dish highly values PBS programming … This case is about who gets to make the editorial judgment whether to carry local PBS stations in HD — Dish or the government.”

Quick Takes

Growing multicast channels may be big factor in PBS ratings mystery

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Stirrings of audience life in multicast channels may the big reason why the national Nielsen ratings acquired by PBS have been rising even though local Nielsen numbers are still generally slipping. Audience analyst Judith LeRoy, co-director of TRAC Media Services, told Current that Nielsen includes multicast channels’ viewers in national PBS numbers, which are network-oriented, while they are counted as separate channels in local data, which are more strictly channel-oriented.Multicast channels such as Create, World, V-me and some locally packaged channels tend to have no measurable audience or a fraction as many viewers as the largest PBS channel in town, but small increments from two or three additional channels per market could mount up quietly, given that most stations don’t see the data because they’d have to pay extra to Nielsen.Back in November, when only about six stations were buying ratings for their multicast channels, they were adding an average of 28 percent to the main channel’s weekly cume, TRAC calculated. The gain is good news for public TV if — like Discovery and other big multichannel cable programmers — PBS can recapture some of their viewers who are dispersing to other channels. Another factor could be that, according to PBS, Nielsen’s national figures benefit from backup monitoring to count PBS viewing even when stations don’t encode their signals to identify them — a problem that has worried the network. Local station data, in comparison, would be at a disadvantage when many stations don’t encode their signals; the local books don’t count viewers unless Nielsen can identify which particular PBS station was being watched.In May, PBS officials surprised station programmers unaccustomed to good news, reporting that PBS primetime ratings were up nearly 10 percent and PBS Kids audiences were up 19 percent, compared to 2009.

Quick Takes

Vocalo cuts five jobs, will emphasize building the broadcast

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To advance Vocalo, its radio/web experiment in reaching a younger, more diverse audience, Chicago Public Media (formerly Chicago Public Radio) said Friday that it’s shifting its emphasis to the broadcast side to create “a dynamic broadcast that draws a sizeable audience.” Vocalo is dropping the jobs of five training and outreach employees. Seven Vocalo staffers remain, writes Vocalo blogger Robert Feder. This fiscal year, the licensee will have to operate without $312,000 that the state government contributed in fiscal 2010, the Chicago Tribune reported. WTTW public television earlier said it would cut 12 percent of its staff after losing $1.25 million from Illinois.

People

RTDNA national Murrow Awards for 2009

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NPR won four national Edward R. Murrow Awards in latest RTDNA contest honoring excellence in electronic journalism. Top winners among the 14 additional public radio newsrooms recognized by the Radio Television Digital News Association for 2009  include Boston’s WBUR, honored for overall excellence among large-market radio stations, and Michigan Radio’s The Environment Report, cited for best news series in the radio network division. Among five public radio outlets that won in the small-market division, North Country Public Radio in Canton, N.Y., won a Murrow for investigative reporting by David Sommerstein and WSHU in Fairfield Conn., for Charles Lane’s continuing coverage of attacks against Latinos in Patchogue, Long Island. The national Murrow for overall excellence among broadcast-affiliated websites went to NPR.org, which was redesigned last summer to highlight news headlines and feature more visual elements. NPR’s winning news reports include:

A Familiar Enemy for Platoon,” a two-parter reported by Tom Bowman and Graham Smith, sharing the national Murrow for hard news reporting;

“Friday Night Lives,” a series on high school football by Tom Goldman and Mike Pesca, for sports reporting;
“Can I Just Tell You?,” commentaries by Tell Me More host Michel Martin, for writing; and

“In the Kennel: Uncovering a Navy Unit’s Culture of Abuse,” an investigation of hidden abuses of homosexuals in the military by Youth Radio’s Rachel Krantz, aired on All Things Considered.

People

Creative Arts Daytime Emmy Awards for 2009

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Public TV cleaned up at the Creative Arts Daytime Emmy Awards June 25
PBS and American Public Television, as distributors, had 16 winners (and earlier, 53 nominations). Nickelodeon’s programs and artists won 11 Emmys and ABC’s won 10. Sesame Street scored seven and Electric Company five. Avec Eric, APT’s new food series with chef Eric Ripert, took an award for graphic design. The competition covers broadcasts during the calendar year 2009, 2 to 6 p.m.

Public TV winners included:

Outstanding Children’s Animated Program
Curious George
Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Ellen Cockrill, Carol Greenwald, Dorothea Gillim David Kirschner and Jon Shapiro, e.p.; Matthew Baughman and Paul Higgins, coordinating producers; David Wilcox, producer; Share Stallings, co-producer; Jacqui Deegan, series producer.

Quick Takes

Police officer hit her during May Day violence, pubradio reporter testifies

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A pubradio reporter testified Wednesday (June 30) about being hit by a police officer during a violent May Day event three years ago, according to Courthouse News Service, a nationwide news service for lawyers and the media based in Pasadena, Calif. Patricia Nazario of KPCC in Pasadena told the court she had hidden behind a tree to call her editor when a police officer stabbed his baton to the right side of her back. Nazario asked him why he did so, the officer said, “Shut up, move!” then hit her just above her knee, knocking her down, she testified. She said the cellphone she was using to talk to her boss went flying over her head.

Quick Takes

OETA dismisses three on-air news staffers due to state budget cuts

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Oklahoma Educational Television Authority has dropped three longtime on-air news personalities due to state budget cuts, reports the Oklahoman. News anchors Gerry Bonds and George Tomek and weatherman Ross Dixon, “who have won numerous awards and combined for nearly 45 years of experience with OETA,” the paper notes, left after Wednesday’s (June 30) 6:30 p.m. Oklahoma News Report. John McCarroll, OETA exec director, said a $994,000 drop in the 2010 fiscal budget by the Legislature, added to $725,000 additional cuts this year, prompted the changes. He said their salaries “are a big part of that $994,000 that we’re going to be able to divert to other things.” But Bonds — “stunned” by her termination — said the three are contract and not full-time employees and that their departures will “hardly make a dent” in that number.