Comcast to sell TV advertising for Newnan Utilities cable / News Channel 9 shuts down

By ALEX McRAE
alex@newnan.com

Newnan Utilities has entered into an agreement with Comcast Spotlight in which Comcast will sell advertising on Newnan Utilities cable TV.

The agreement will mean the end of a seven-year cable TV relationship between Newnan Utilities and The Times-Herald, which operated NewsChannel 9 and sold advertising for 13 channels on Newnan Utilities cable.

The change will likely take place by the end of February.

When Newnan Utilities entered the cable TV business in 1997, it approached The Times-Herald about providing news and programming to the local cable system in exchange for being the seller and producer of advertising on the Newnan Utilities system. An agreement was reached and NewsChannel 9 was operated by The Times-Herald.

In the years since, NewsChannel 9 has produced hundreds of commercials for clients of the Newnan utilities system. The commercials aired on NewsChannel 9 and other channels including CNN, ESPN, The Weather Channel, Home and Garden Channel, USA Network, Discovery, MSNBC, Fox News, TNT, CNBC, A&E and others.

Recently, Newnan Utilities and The Times-Herald were approached by Comcast Spotlight, a division of Comcast Cable. Comcast Spotlight provides advertising sales and production for most of the cable systems in metro Atlanta, according to Dennis McEntire, general manager of Newnan Utilities.

The Comcast unit already produced and sold much of the advertising on Charter Cable and wanted to do the same for the Newnan Utilities system, said McEntire.

The Times-Herald was given the opportunity to continue the relationship by operating NewsChannel 9 but after discussions, decided the time was right to end the TV venture and concentrate on the company's core newspaper business.

Both parties stressed that the parting was mutual and amiable.

"We feel like much of our success as a cable system was due to our relationship with The Times-Herald," said McEntire. "They provided things for us the competition couldn't match and gave us a huge advantage in local programming."

McEntire said he hoped Newnan Utilities would continue to provide local programming through its new relationship with Comcast.

"It has been a great relationship with Newnan Utilities these past seven years and we couldn't have had a better partner, but we felt it was in our best interest to make the change," said Times-Herald Publisher Sam Jones. "It was a sound business decision for both parties."

NewsChannel 9 produced both morning and evening news shows as well as local interest and entertainment shows. Hosts of NewsChannel 9 shows included Dean Jackson, Winston Skinner, Nichole Golden, Alex McRae and Cynthia Rosers, president of the local African-American Alliance. Earlier this fall, Mike Barber took over a weekly sports show hosted for years by Johnny Brown.

NewsChannel 9 also aired live scheduled meetings of the Coweta County Commission and provided coverage of local election debates and local election results. NewsChannel 9 has also aired the Newnan Christmas parade, the Newnan Fourth of July parade and the annual Martin Luther King Jr. parade.