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Product Name: Broadcasting
Product Description
Hearst Broadcasting includes television stations, radio stations and an interest in a television/production company. In 1997, Hearst launched Hearst-argyle television, which today has 28 TV stations reaching about 18 percent of US TV households. The company was created by the merger of Hearst’s Broadcasting Group with argyle Televisions, Inc.
“2005 will be remembered as one of the most challenging—yet rewarding—years in the history of Hearst-Argyle Television.” –David Barrett, President and CEO, Hearst-Argyle Television
The head of the 28-TV-station group said that part of the challenge was to perform in a challenging TV ad market and against comparisons to 2004, a political and Olympic year. Then came Hurricane Katrina, which knocked New Orleans station WDSU off the air and drove a steep increase in extraordinary expenses. The combined result: a decline in both revenue and profit for the year.
But Barrett believes that the weather calamities in key markets said something important about television, and about Hearst-Argyle.
“In times of disaster, viewers’ reliance on their local tele¬vision stations reinforces the value of our service to local communities,” he said. “Our people were up to the respon¬sibility. They performed courageously while covering dif¬ficult stories that impacted our communities—and while setting aside personal concerns. In the worst imaginable circumstances, they provided critical news and information. There is no doubt that our emergency information fulfilled our role as ‘first informer’ and prevented greater loss of lives.”
Barrett said the commitment to communities extended beyond the news. Collectively, Hearst-Argyle stations raised more than $11 million for Katrina relief efforts.
The power of television and the professionalism of Hearst-Argyle stations, Barrett noted, came together in a number of other markets in the disaster-prone months of 2005.
October flooding in New Hampshire resulted in 12 consecutive hours of coverage by market leader WMUR, Manchester, N.H., with cooperation from the com¬pany’s other New England stations, including WMTW in Portland, Maine. New Hampshire Governor John Lynch placed a personal call to Barrett, praising the station’s efforts not only in covering the story, but in saving lives.
In November, another market leader, KCCI in Des Moines, Iowa, provided continuous and critically important information to that market when devastating tornados ripped through the community. A week earlier, WLKY in Louisville, KY, covered equally destructive storms that caused extensive damage in Indiana.
Among other Hearst stations, Sacramento’s KCRA celebrated 50 years of news leadership with on-air historical retrospectives. For the first time in four years, KETV, Omaha, ranked at the top of news ratings in the important demographics.
While serving the community today, Hearst-Argyle is also looking at where a rapidly changing industry goes from here—particularly, how it can use new combinations of content and distribution to compete in a choice-rich environment.
In a keynote address at the 2005 U.S. Telecom Association convention in Las Vegas, Barrett proposed a “partnership” between television broadcasters and telecommunications providers, combining digital broadcast program content with new distribution technologies being developed by the telecom industry. He said that services like Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) could be used “to provide America’s television viewers with the most advanced local television service in our nation’s history.”
According to Barrett, the timing of telecom’s entry into the video distribution business is ideal. Just as telecom is revolutionizing the way local television signals are distributed to viewers, broadcasters are revolutionizing the content of local programming. Two examples: new high-definition broadcasts, and new compression and multicasting technologies.
Weather Plus, the group of local digital-television all-weather channels launched by NBC and its affiliates, now reaches more than 70 percent of U.S. TV households. A typical Weather Plus broadcast via a digital channel uses about 15 percent of a digital television station’s spectrum capacity, allowing the station to simulcast, for example, a high-definition football game.
“The future may include gavel-to-gavel coverage of special legislative proceedings, high school sporting events, political debates and real-time election returns,” Barrett predicted. “As audience interests segment and narrow, viewers are likely going to want even more diversity in niche programming. New technologies can deliver it.” He said these new technologies can also expand local television’s role as “first informer” during crises like Katrina.
“Multicasting will offer a new world of program choices for viewers on both a national and local level,” he continued. “It will provide a voice for underserved issues and communities. And it will expand broadcasters’ abilities to provide critical public safety information.”
Armed with the newest, best technolo¬gies, success—and the ability to serve communities—comes down to the quality of content. And it was another award-winning year for Hearst-Argyle.
National Edward R. Murrow and Associated Press Station of the Year honors, along with a number of local Emmys, went to stations throughout the group. WBAL became the first Baltimore television station to win a Peabody Award, for an investigation into Chesapeake Bay pollution that ultimately led to changes in Maryland’s environmental policies. WBAL’s win represented the third consecutive Peabody for HTV stations.
Hearst-Argyle also solidified its position as the nation’s most honored TV station group for political journalism, earning its third consecutive Walter Cronkite Award from the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School.
“I am proud of the work of our stations in 2005,” said Barrett, “not only of our news performance, but of our resourcefulness and ability to innovate and, importantly, of our commitment to serve our communities.”
Company Details
"In our third century, Hearst is continuing to place traditional media products alongside exciting new technologies in a formula that has consistently proven successful."
—Victor F. Ganzi
Ganzi began his career with Hearst in 1990 as general... more
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