FW: Shoptalk

[Donna Halper <dlh@donnahalper.com>]

Sent to me by a reliable source.  Mel strikes again???  What could this mean?
  
>WCBS/Ch.2 (New York) has begun selling half-hour blocks of early
>evening airtime to infomercials - pre-empting "Entertainment Tonight"
>for paid, program length commercials. It is rare for a big-city,
>network- owned station to program infomercials between 7 and 8pm,
>which is typically the single most watched time period programmed by
>local stations. But WCBS, under a great deal of pressure from the
>network to increase profits, made the decision to sell the time
>outright. Channel 2 viewers expressed shock and outrage Tuesday night
>when a half-hour infomercial for Time-Life mail-order records aired
>during the time usually devoted to the syndicated TV magazine show
>"Entertainment Tonight." Ch.2 insiders said the decision to air the
>infomercials during the early-evening hours was made at the corporate
>level by Jonathan Klein, president of the CBS Television Stations
>division. The ads also ran in similar timeslots on the other 13 CBS-
>owned television stations. (NY Post)
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