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CABLE WORLD STAFF
The Women in Cable & Telecommunications Foundation has done the industry a favor in its latest research report, "Benefits of Balance: Increasing Employee Productivity Through Work/Life" programs.
The report extends the foundation's research into worker benefit programs and the link to productivity by delving into work/life issues such as tele-commuting, job sharing and child care across the media industries.
Cable and telecommunications companies offer child-care assistance programs above the national norms, according to the report. Employees at video programmers report child care benefits at nearly twice the national average. That's part of the good news.
But cable falls behind the national average in job flexibility, child and elder care resource and referral services.
When asked what benefits were most important to them, a majority of cable employees listed flextime. About half said telecommuting and a third said job sharing.
Interestingly, the same number of men as women wanted flextime, telecommuting and job sharing benefits.
That's important because men still dominate the executive suites at most companies. And their management beliefs often set the tone for all departments under them, including human resources.
At the same time, many men in management positions have elderly parents and children, not to mention working spouses. There's no reason these issues shouldn't effect them like they effect women in America.
Second, in a tight job market it's smart for management, whether they are male or female, to take a flexible approach to job issues in order to retain good employees and get the most out of them. There's a basic law of human nature: the more flexible and benefits-oriented a company is, the more productive their employees will be. And in this era of consolidation and multiple new product launches, cable needs all the top-flight productive workers it can get.
The prevalence of men speaking to work/life issues also may stem from the first generation of men in their 20's whose mothers worked full-time throughout their childhood.
The foundation's study, which was supported by Lifetime, details a number of programs companies put in place to deal with work/life issues. It's worth a look by any companies contemplating how to improve the workplace for their employees.
Last week also brought details of cable's prime time ratings in the first quarter of 1999. And what a story cable has to tell. Each of the top four cable networks-USA, TNT, TBS and Nickelodeon-saw their ratings climb. Of the top 10 networks, seven saw their ratings climb, two stayed even while only one dropped back.
It was a bit rough at Fox, where the Fox Family Channel dropped from a 1.4 to a 0.9 and FX fell from a 1.0 to a 0.7. But Rupert Murdoch can take solace that Fox News Channel jumped from a 0.3 to a 0.6.
Despite the drops at Fox, the combined cable network ratings total jumped more than one point in first quarter 1999.
At the same time, 71 of the top 98 highest rated shows were USA and Turner wrestling fare. It's an interesting dichotomy. Critics, including those in the broadcasting field, will laugh that cable's consistently highest-rated shows are wrestling. For all of cable's qualitative improvements in programming, wrestling is making the headlines.
But that doesn't explain the wide increases across the board. Cartoon, A&E, ESPN, TNN, TV Land, Sci-Fi, VH-1, E!, Animal Planet, Weather Channel, Food, Travel and Court TV all rose 0.1 in the quarter. That's a combined 1.3 rating hike. And HGTV rose 0.2. There's not much wrestling on those networks.
Despite the February sweeps, cable's ratings rose, again. And although wrestling dominates the headlines, there is more to cable's ratings growth. It's the workings of a video democracy in action.
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