SPEAKING AT THE CABLE SHOW in Chicago last month, Time Warner CEO Jeffrey Bewkes, for the short term at least, dismissed the range of concerns gathering over the television business. "Let's cheer up. This is not the music industry; this is the cable industry," said Bewkes, adding that the industry should make hay while "things are going great." Indeed, since the economic recovery began, media company stock prices have rebounded, earnings have jumped, and while head counts remain tight, CEO compensation has skyrocketed. Comcast, CBS, Viacom and Cablevision Systems have all felt secure enough in their fiscal future to declare or raise dividends. And in a robust $18 billion upfront advertising market, prices for television commercials on broadcast zoomed 9% to 12%. Spots on cable were up even more, with volume jumping more than 15% to a record $9.4 billion. Such exuberance flies in the face of more sober statistics from an economy that is likely to sputter for the remainder of the year.
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