• by November 4, 2003

CABLE TV, OR NOT TO BE. AN '04 CAB CONFERENCE WAS IN QUESTION -- At a time when TV ad trade groups would seem to need face time more than ever with advertisers and media planners and buyers, they're pulling back, not expanding. The latest example: the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau, which Monday cancelled its 2004 annual Cable Advertising Conference in New York. The move follows the implosion of the Syndicated Network Television Association, which bumped Gene DeWitt as its president earlier this year and has yet to replace him. One of the most successful parts of DeWitt's charter was the creation of a "Syndication Day" event in New York that was especially well received by media buyers who need a good East Coast confab during their pre-upfront planning process. It's still unclear when the SNTA will name a new chief and if and when it will host another syndication day. The SNTA move itself, followed the waning relevance of NATPE, once the poster child of TV industry conventions, where top TV buyers and ad execs flocked to get a glimmer of the new syndicated shows and to hobnob and mingle with Hollywood stars. The CAB conference also has been waning in scope in recent years, so it's probably a good thing that new CAB President-CEO Sean Cunningham is taking a break to rethink the event. Over the past couple of years, it had been winnowed down to a half-day event that was essentially little more than an extended breakfast forum. Cunningham says that in the interim, the CAB will focus on small group meetings with key ad contacts to brief them on vital cable ad developments.

SHOWTIME FOR REAGAN BIOPIC? -- CBS, which had planned a two-day miniseries on Ronald Reagan's presidency with sweeps later this month, might end up giving the film to fellow Viacom subsdiary. At least that's what The New York Times reports, saying that the decision could be made as soon as today.