• by Paul Gough , March 19, 2003

As the hours ticked closer to war, networks and advertisers rearranged plans for the next few days.

The two marquee events of the month – the NCAA basketball tourney and Sunday night's Academy Awards – will apparently go on as scheduled with only minor alternations. The NCAA tournaments began Tuesday night and will continue throughout the month. News coverage might shift some games away from CBS, which didn't concern at least one major advertiser. "The people at CBS Sports will definitely have this all figured out. We have full confidence that they're going to take care of it," said Pontiac advertising manager Dino Bernacchi. He said Pontiac's advertising strategy – which is heavily integrated around the NCAA tourney – hasn't so far been affected by the war.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences decided Wednesday to produce the Oscars even during the war, although it's not clear whether ABC will broadcast it if it's knee-deep in wall-to-wall coverage. Oscars producer Gil Cates said ABC and the Academy will make the decision closer to Sunday. "We all understand that the country is on the brink of war and may be sending American men and women into harm's way almost as we speak. We must prepare for the show to be produced under those circumstances," Cates said.

Advertisers and their agencies held constant meetings Wednesday, asking whether their strategies on broadcast and cable TV should continue in the event of war. American Express has put together a contingency plan that includes running its Oscar spots if the ceremony goes on as scheduled. "At this moment, if the Oscars continue to run, the we will continue to run the spots that we had decided on," said spokeswoman Desiree Fish. American Express will decide on whether to pull or switch advertising as the war unfolds. Following 9/11, the company pulled advertising for several days.

Insurance company American International Group said it was waiting to see what would happen before making a decision. "We believe the Academy will wish to delay in the event of a war but in any case, there is a war clause in our contract which would permit AIG to pull advertising in the event of a war," a spokesman said Wednesday. It wasn't clear whether AIG's clause was standard or placed in the contract in the run-up to a war in Iraq.

AT&T Wireless hadn't yet decided about its advertising, media weight and schedule. "We're really at this point evaluating content," said spokeswoman Alexa Kaufman. She said that the company was actively reviewing its spots in light of the war with Iraq. "We're stepping back and looking back at individual ads in terms of the environment and making sure they're appropriate," Kaufman said.

Because coverage plans were fluid Wednesday, it wasn't clear what would happen with AT&T Wireless' major sponsorship and product integration on the hit Fox show American Idol. Kaufman said she wasn't aware of whether the shows would be delayed or whether normal programming would return next week.

A Fox spokesman said the network was planning to go to coverage from Fox News Channel as soon as the war began but no one knew how long it would last. The contingency plans include single- and multiple-day strategies.

While it was clear that network and cable news programming would be disrupted by war coverage, CNBC decided to postpone the debut of its new talk show, Topic A with Tina Brown. CNBC said a new air date would be announced.