Word: murdochs
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Both are being modeled on the success of Fox. Against all odds and most conventional wisdom, Murdoch, the Australian-born media baron, launched Fox's prime-time schedule in 1987 with one night of programming that included Married . . . With Children and The Tracey Ullman Show. The network expanded gradually, targeting its shows to a younger audience and developing a roster of trend-setting hits such as The Simpsons and Beverly Hills, 90210. Still, it has remained a distant No. 4 in the ratings...
...Murdoch, the New World stations were a tempting target, especially since many were CBS affiliates still smarting over the loss of N.F.L. football. On Perelman's side, an alliance with Fox provided an opportunity to create a "vertically integrated" media company that would offer a wider distribution system for New World shows. "We now have the opportunity, with the Fox slots that we got, to really crank up our own programming, in size and number and quality of projects," says Perelman...
...Though Murdoch has spent lavishly to obtain the rights to N.F.L. football and beef up his station lineup, few on Wall Street last week were expressing doubts about the wisdom of his latest investments. When all the New World stations join Fox (half of them could be on board by this fall, the rest in 1995), the network's VHF coverage will jump from 25% to 40% of the country. That will probably boost ratings and ad revenue. "If you take the increase in viewership in just these 12 stations and apply it across our ((advertising)) rate card," claims Murdoch...
...executives were doing their best last week to minimize the shock of the Murdoch heist. At a Thursday press conference, CBS Broadcast Group president Howard Stringer pointed out that the affiliation switches affect only 8% of the network's audience and predicted that the ratings loss would amount to no more than two-tenths of a Nielsen point. (CBS was No. 1 in the Nielsens for the 1993-94 season with a 14.0 rating, 1.6 points higher than No. 2 ABC and 6.8 points better than...
...station. Many former Fox affiliates, too, are not happy at being dumped by the network they stuck with during bad times and good. "A tough pill to swallow? More like trying to swallow a football," griped Dennis Thatcher, general manager of Cleveland's WOIO-TV in the Hollywood Reporter. Murdoch's response: "We sympathize with ((the abandoned Fox stations)). But they've all done very well. Their UHF stations were built up into real assets, and a lot of them will now become network affiliates. And that's something more than they could have ever hoped for before we came...