By Dean R. Hanlon

In the Spring of 2003, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain will spearhead the process of reviewing the FCC policies regarding broadcast television ownership and operations. The resulting changes to the FCC's regulations — and possibly to federal law — will impact the broadcast television industry and what each consumer can and cannot see.

Media Management Center Director and Kellogg Professor John Lavine focused his fall class, Media Strategy and Implementation, on this potentially major media change. Lavine’s students had a unique opportunity to think through these issues in MEDM 911, the capstone to their required media courses. Over the course of the ten-week class, Lavine’s students created strategic plans for the future of the broadcast television industry and engaged industry leaders about their conclusions.

The course began with a lively exchange about the future of broadcast TV between Fox Television Networks President Tony Vinciquerra and veteran Hearst-Argyle station General Manager Hank Price. (Until his present post, Price was president of Channel 2 Chicago, which is owned by CBS.)

The students read Kellogg Professor Sonia Marciano’s Primer on the U.S. Television Industry, a document that placed the broadcasters in the context of the entire television market (cable, satellite, etc.). They also read a study on the present status of the TV industry as well as various readings on business strategy, case studies concerning media strategy, and detailed lectures from Prof. Lavine supplemented the information in the aforementioned documents.

“The sheer volume of information and the huge scope of the assignment made the project seem overwhelming, at least initially,” said Matthew Weber, a student in the class. “It quickly became clear that this was a great opportunity to really learn something.”

In order to aid the students’ understanding of the entire industry, Prof. Lavine assigned each of the nine project groups a particular industry player on which they prepared a detailed report. The students, acting as business journalists, compiled extensive documents on the television industry’s major stakeholders: from media conglomerates to cable providers, from the FCC to the consumers. The resulting compiled document is an outstanding report on the current state of the television industry, one with which Prof. Lavine and his colleagues were very impressed.

“The students were able to build a knowledge base about the issues,” said Hank Price. “As a result, [the students] formed [their] own opinions about current media trends... Their analysis on the stakeholders was better and deeper than many working executives possess."

The research groups then shared these reports with each other so that they all might have an in-depth knowledge of every stakeholder in the television industry. Using this shared base of knowledge, each group set out on their own to determine the best course of action for the survival of the broadcast television industry. Under the guidance of Prof. Lavine, Fox Television Networks President Tony Vinciquerra and veteran Hearst-Argyle station General Manager Hank Price, the student project groups spent a month conducting exhaustive research.

“We used every source we could think of,” said student Michelle Lin. “The most difficult sources to obtain were interviews with television executives, but they might have been the most valuable.” Lin said her group also used newspaper, magazine and journal articles, analyst reports and interviews, FCC working papers, and Senate Commerce Committee hearing transcriptions, among other things.

Each group worked independently resulting in nine reports containing original, exciting ideas. Prof. Lavine sent the reports to several major executives in the television industry. Some of those top executives attended the final class on December 5th to view in person the project presentations and discuss the ideas with the students. The new CEO of Tribune, Inc. Dennis FitzSimons, CEO of Emmis Communications, Inc. Jeff Smulyan, Hank Price, and Bruce Sagan of Chicago were among those in attendance.

“I couldn’t believe that we were going to be presenting in front of those executives,” said Matthew Weber. “I mean, what an opportunity.”

Although not all groups presented in the final class, many important television industry business leaders around the country read the reports. (A snow storm shut down airports and stopped some executives from attending.) The new ideas and fresh perspective of the bright, young students may someday affect a business plan on a local, regional or national level, or even influence changes in FCC regulation of the broadcast television industry.

Though not surprised about the excellent quality of the work, Price did find something surprising in the reports.

“There was an even greater benefit that I didn't count on in the beginning. The reports reflected unique attitudes of [the students’] generation toward the media landscape,” Price commented. “I was particularly struck by the differences between their generation and mine.”

According to the executives in attendance, the ideas and plans in the students’ reports reflected a desire for and willingness to change, as well as an ability to recognize and adapt to trends that cannot be controlled. Prof. Lavine’s students reported that they gained real-world experience in the execution of this project, which is similar to the issues facing all of the media, not just TV. The students “are now far better prepared to work in a changing environment than many of my television, newspaper and radio colleagues,” said Price.