TV/21″/dt1st/mark2nd

By FRANK SWERTLOW

Staff Reporter

Back in the Paleolithic era of broadcasting when it meant only radio the networks were all headquartered in midtown Manhattan. It was where radio began and television evolved.

But with the industry splintering into any number of directions, L.A. is rapidly becoming the center of the broadcasting world. Fox, UPN and The WB are already headquartered here. So are the two Spanish-language networks Univision and Telemundo, which recently switched its operations from Miami.

Even though network officials insist that the three traditional networks ABC, CBS and NBC will remain headquartered in New York, more and more of their operations are based in Los Angeles.

The folks at CBS News, for example, who traditionally reported to executives in New York, now report to CBS Television President Les Moonves, who operates out of the network offices in the Fairfax District. NBC’s programming is headed by Burbank-based Don Ohlmeyer, whose title is president, NBC West Coast. (His boss, NBC President Robert Wright, remains headquartered in New York’s Rockefeller Center.)

ABC Inc. President Robert Iger now spends more than half his time in Los Angeles to help the network integrate its operations with its parent, Walt Disney Co. Pat Fili-Krushel, president of the ABC TV network, also divides her time between the two coasts. An additional 200 ABC staffers from New York will relocate to Los Angeles to help the integration with Disney.

With both CBS and NBC reportedly being coveted by at least one major movie studio, L.A.’s television future looms even larger.

Why the shift?

Some executives jokingly say it’s all about the weather. But when pressed, they acknowledge that centering more and more operations on the West Coast is not only cost-efficient but time-effective. After all, the vast majority of TV production is done in Los Angeles, and L.A.-based executives are better suited to make quick programming decisions that they hope will give them an edge an important consideration as network viewership wanes.

“Cost controls become a bigger component of their adventures in programming,” said Jeffrey Logsdon, an analyst at Los Angeles-based Seidler Cos. “A lot of companies find it more and more difficult to maintain that control. It’s no longer guys in the Ivory Tower (New York) calling the shots. If you really want to run it, you have to move to the Los Angeles area.”

The broadcast and advertising industries both grew up in New York, where their proximity to each other was convenient and cost-effective. In the old days, a radio show for CBS might have been made at the network’s office on Sunset Boulevard, but it was sold, packaged, scheduled and transmitted from the company’s headquarters on Madison Avenue.

Television followed the same system, and in many ways still does but that’s starting to change.

“The software side is here. You no longer need a New York presence,” said Dave Davis, an analyst at Century City-based Houlihan, Lokey, Howard & Zukin. “You don’t have to be right down the street from your banker. A lot more financing is coming out of Los Angeles.”

Harold Vogel, a veteran New York-based entertainment analyst, said the networks, now more than ever, must have the ability to find the best talent quickly and efficiently. And Los Angeles has always been a home for screenwriters, writers, actors, producers and directors, not to mention the best cinematographers, sound technicians and set designers.

Being closer to this action gives a competitor an advantage, not only against another network but also against cable companies that are headquartered on the East Coast. “Management can find the creative talent in Los Angeles,” Vogel said. “You don’t have the same mobility on the East Coast.”

Davis also said that Los Angeles has a physical advantage over New York, where broadcasters have limited room to grow. “You can spread out here,” Davis said. “There’s no central place, you can go from Mar Vista to Burbank.”

It’s unlikely, though, that New York will completely lose its grip on television. The key reason is the power of Madison Avenue. Eighty-five percent of U.S. television commercial time is bought from offices based in New York, and no mass exodus of ad folks appears to be on the horizon.

“Sales is headquartered in New York,” said Bill Croasdale, president of network broadcast at Los Angeles-based media buying agency Western International Media. “It is still where most of the buyers are located.”