Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 9, 1994 TAG: 9406090057
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By RUSS BRITT LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
CBS has signed deals for four adaptations of Harlequin books and plans seven films produced in conjunction with Hallmark Cards Inc., said Peter Tortorici, president of CBS Entertainment. The network also is planning several figure skating specials for the time slot, from 3:30 to 6 p.m., Tortorici said.
``We need an audience that obviously is not there to watch football,'' Tortorici told the managers of the TV stations that are the network's affiliates. They heard of the fall lineup at the network's annual meeting last week.
CBS lost rights to National Football League games to upstart Fox Broadcasting Network in December and then saw eight of its key affiliates, many in NFL cities, defect to Fox last week.
In addition to what the network calls female-oriented ``counter-programming'' on Sundays, CBS officials said they are working to find substitute affiliates for those that left, which are owned by New World Communications Inc. of Los Angeles.
Howard Stringer, CBS Broadcast Group president, said he expects the network to win a fourth consecutive ratings crown despite the defections.
``Broadcasting has been for most of us a lifetime odyssey. The winner won't be decided in a weekend,'' Stringer said.
But affiliates had lukewarm comments about the programming choice after hearing Tortorici's announcement. Some said it was the best CBS could do under the circumstances, while others would not discuss it.
J. Michael Early, general manager of WWL-TV in New Orleans, would not comment on the network's plans. The city is home to the New Orleans Saints, an NFL team.
Some managers of stations that are defecting to Fox were glad that they eventually would wind up with NFL games.
Jeff Rosser, general manager of KDFW-TV in Dallas, said his station likely will not go over to Fox until sometime in 1995. Rosser expects that his station will lose revenue this fall because he won't be broadcasting the Dallas Cowboys, the reigning Super Bowl champions and highly popular in his market.
Rosser expressed relief he would go only one season without them.
``I presume there are some non-football fans in Dallas. I've never met one,'' Rosser said.
Bill Sullivan, chairman of the affiliates' advisory board and general manager of KPAX-TV in Missoula, Mont., reserved judgment on the programming choice until he saw actual films. Sullivan had said that affiliates would prefer to retain football games, which had been a big moneymaker for them although unprofitable for the network.
Faced with the prospect of further losses on football programming, CBS underbid Fox's $1.6 billion, four-year contract by $400 million in December.
CBS Chairman Laurence Tisch vowed to spend whatever it takes to ensure the network remains at the top of the ratings in other programming. Tisch said the network had $1.1 billion in the bank to spend on other types of programming.
That still does not set well with the affiliates, said Bishop Sheen, analyst for Paul Kagan Associates, an entertainment analysis firm in Carmel, Calif.
``Football was a big number. It's a big loss,'' Sheen said. Movies "obviously won't generate the revenue, and it won't generate the profits either.''
Sheen added that the network's traditionally strong Sunday evening lineup with ``60 Minutes'' and ``Murder, She Wrote'' could be threatened without football leading viewers into those programs.
``You break that block apart now. Any way you slice it, it's not going to be as good as it was,'' Sheen said.''
The movies planned are in development and are akin to the recent production of ``The Yearling,'' Tortorici said. Films produced in conjunction with Hallmark will not be under the company's ``Hall of Fame'' trademark, but will be family-oriented movies, he added.
Tortorici said the network plans to spend as much on producing these films as it does on other prime-time features it makes. He added that the network could get 9 or 10 percent of the nation's viewers, while football traditionally has gotten 12 percent.
CBS has been successful in countering ABC's Monday Night Football with female-oriented situation comedies such as ``Designing Women,'' said James Goss, analyst for Duff & Phelps in Chicago. But the network's plans on spending for production left Goss a little uneasy.
``Maybe a sitcom isn't as far a stretch from what networks tend to do as much as these romance novels might be,'' Goss said.
by CNB