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Terms & Conditions and extra inventory

P

PreProduction

New Participating Member
Hey Friends:

ABC news requires our talk station to carry 2 minutes of inventory during the morning show. This is in addition to the embedded spots within the top of hour newscasts. Coast to Coast AM (premiere) requires inventory too.

Do any of you PDs or GMs drive a hard bargain with these syndicators? I spoke with a Fox News rep the other day and they too require excess inventory and a monthly fee for their top of hour news services. Do these clowns negotiate?

I believe these terms are highway robbery. What do you guys think?

Sincerely, A morning talk host who's show has too much damn inventory.
 
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Have you tried to counter them? If the rep you're dealing with refuses, have you made clear you'll walk away and if he indicates no ability to negotiate demanded to deal with someone who is able to? No idea what number of stations your talking about, but I know of at least one that carries Fox at TOH and 'The Blaze' at BOH and I only hear spots for both with the newscasts. To my knowledge, they only need to to carry the spots and get the 'casts for free. I'm referring to WAAM. Give them a call, they might talk to you.
 
My sense is they'd be more willing to negotiate if your station has 100K AQH and is in a major market. On the other hand, if you're a small, rural AM with next to no audience, what do you have to negotiate?
 
Maybe nothing, but if you don't try to counter, you'll never know. The Blaze is trying to build a group of stations, that alone means they might give the content for free if a few spots are included with the content. Fair deal if you ask me. I don't know their terms, but I do know you never take the first offer if you don't like it.
 
I'll check into the Blaze news thing, Thanks. Yes we're small market (250ish) and we're a 5000 watt AM so that's a factor. I'm walking into a situation where my predecessor didn't negotiate. In the past I have negotiated and won but it's been years since I've dealt with syndicators and contracts. In 2000 I programmed a talk station with CBS and Osgood File features and we aired the embedded spots and nothing more. I think times have changed. I told Premiere that "if you can't make money airing the network spots within Coast to Coast AM live hours then you're in the wrong business". They said too bad.
 
Cumulus/Westwood One now has all the network news brands except Fox (which Clear Channel distributes). Sounds like they think they've got a monopoly. The only alternative is AP Radio, no spot requirement but you do have to pay.
 
FredLeonard said:
Cumulus/Westwood One now has all the network news brands except Fox (which Clear Channel distributes).
Click to expand...

Not so fast...as of December, they're discontinuing NBC News Radio, and in January, they're losing ABC News Radio, which will be self-syndicating.
 
TheBigA said:
Not so fast...as of December, they're discontinuing NBC News Radio, and in January, they're losing ABC News Radio, which will be self-syndicating.
Click to expand...

For ABC Radio News, that might mean more willingness to deal after the first of the year.

Westwood One will probably try to get stations taking NBC (and ABC) branded news into their new no-name network.
 
FredLeonard said:
For ABC Radio News, that might mean more willingness to deal after the first of the year.
Click to expand...

Since all these networks get their income from selling the inventory they receive as compensation, they will only deal in small areas. Perhaps some of the spots can run in lesser demand dayparts, etc. But getting C2C without daytime spots or branded newscasts without extra inventory in a rather small market is unlikely. A small station adds nearly nothing to the network reach, and making an exception sets precedent once the word gets out.

Westwood One will probably try to get stations taking NBC (and ABC) branded news into their new no-name network.
Click to expand...

Westwood One still has CBS. The "non-branded" network is intended to be a "workpart" service that gives content for a station's own operations, likely delivered via FTP.
 
PreProduction said:
Hey Friends:
Do any of you PDs or GMs drive a hard bargain with these syndicators? I spoke with a Fox News rep the other day and they too require excess inventory and a monthly fee for their top of hour news services. Do these clowns negotiate?

I believe these terms are highway robbery. What do you guys think?

Sincerely, A morning talk host who's show has too much damn inventory.
Click to expand...

Rated market? Should be able to hold all the cards. I help run an AM/FM oldies and 2 AM talkers and we pay NO cash for anything but payroll and the weather guy. We run NASCAR (because the big boys didn't want it any more) 2 different NFL networks (not WW1/Dial Dlobal but still, it's the NFL) and the local university's sports. All our news updates (save for our Fox updates on the oldies station, and that's only 6 minutes a day we give up outside of the news only updates) and features (sports, business, etc.) are all self contained. Hell, we even ran the horse racing Triple Crown because one of the NFL networks we deal with had it and offered it to us. Play hardball with them, all they want is to be carried, especially if they've been rejected by other groups in the market.
 
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