Word: metromedia
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...familiar to TV viewers as ABC, CBS and NBC. Right now it is short for Fox Broadcasting Co., the most ambitious effort yet to create a full-fledged fourth network. Financed by Australian-born Press Baron Rupert Murdoch (who in 1985 added 20th Century-Fox studios and the Metromedia chain of independent TV stations to his worldwide media holdings), Fox made its first foray into national programming in October with The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers. Though Rivers' ratings in the battle against Johnny Carson have been disappointing, her determined parent company is now set to challenge the networks...
...Late Show Starring Joan Rivers will be more than just a pesky new competitor to Carson. It is the first salvo in a major assault on the three networks by Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul who last year bought Metromedia's six TV stations and 20th Century-Fox studios. Rivers' program is the first offering from Murdoch's new Fox Broadcasting Co., which he hopes will grow into a full-fledged fourth network. Along with the Rivers show, FBC plans to introduce two nights of prime-time programming next March (one announced show: a half-hour sitcom based...
...called fourth networks have been tried without success before, but Murdoch's effort is the most ambitious yet. With the six Metromedia stations as a foundation (in such large markets as New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago), FBC aims to sign up affiliates reaching more than 80% of the nation's viewers. Programming will include sitcoms, action-adventure shows and movies, little different from current network fare. But Fox executives claim their shows will be less subject to mass-audience pressures. "If we've got a good male action series," says FBC President Jamie Kellner...
...prospect of increased profits from his London papers comes at a critical time for Murdoch. Last year he doubled the size of his empire by buying seven Metromedia television stations ($2 billion), 20th Century-Fox ($575 million) and a stable of business magazines from Ziff-Davis ($350 million). To finance his purchases, Murdoch has borrowed about $480 million from banks and issued shares in Fox Television Stations, the first time stock in a Murdoch-controlled enterprise has been offered to the U.S. public. Despite Murdoch's heavy financial obligations, analysts who have followed his fortunes over the years trust...
...television network. The press lord has marched toward his goal with a zealous efficiency worthy of Citizen Kane. Murdoch began last March when he bought half of the 20th Century-Fox movie and TV studio. Then he agreed to pay an impressive $1.5 billion in May for six of Metromedia's big- city independent television stations, a chain that reaches one of every five U.S. homes. Finally, in September, Murdoch bought the other half of Fox. Now that he has acquired the pieces, Murdoch has begun to put his electronic assembly line into operation...