| Technology: TiVo Enters Partnership to Expand Reach | The Wall Street Journal August 27, 2008 | TiVo Inc. hopes to make it easier for consumers to record top television shows by taping recommendations from Entertainment Weekly magazine.
The Silicon Valley company on Wednesday plans to announce an agreement with the Time Warner Inc. publication that will let users of TiVo's digital video recorders automatically record shows suggested by the magazine's staff.
|
| | NBC's Olympics coverage logs one final ratings win | | Associated Press/AP OnlineAugust 26, 2008 | NEW YORK - It was seven more golden days for NBC last week, radiant with Olympics coverage that brought the sort of ratings victory a network dreams of.
Overall, the 17-day Beijing Games were a triumph for NBC, and the final week won TV's eight top-rated prime-time slots.
|
|
| Earnings Preview: TiVo Inc. | | Associated Press/AP OnlineAugust 26, 2008 | NEW YORK - TiVo Inc., a pioneer in digital video recorders, reports earnings for the fiscal second quarter, which ended on July 31, after the closing bell Wednesday.
The following is a summary of key developments and analyst opinion related to the period.
|
| | WB is Set to Stream Shows on New Site | | Chicago TribuneAugust 26, 2008 | Before "the" CW, there was "the" WB, America's first pretentiously named TV network aimed exclusively and unapologetically at viewers younger than age 35.
On Wednesday, theWB.com will launch with a menu of old and new shows.
|
|
| NBC Online No Perfect 10 | | Chicago TribuneAugust 26, 2008 | The 2008 Summer Games will not go down in history as a watershed online event, even though it drew a record number of viewers on the Web.
That's because NBC could have gone further, putting content on more devices, making it easier to access and providing more live coverage.
|
| | CBS Paramount Shops Swingtown to Cable. | | Broadcasting & CableAugust 25, 2008 | By Melissa Grego and Ben Grossman
The on-screen grownups of Swingtown are not the only ones exploring their options, as CBS is courting a new partner for the couple-swapping rookie drama.
|
|
| ESPN Will Jump Into Olympic Bid Pool. | | Broadcasting & CableAugust 25, 2008 | By Alex Weprin, John Eggerton and Ben Grossman
ESPN chief George Bodenheimer says ESPN/ABC is "very interested" in future Olympics rights, and will be in on the bidding process for the 2014 Winter Games and 2016 Summer Games.
|
| | For Rent: ABC Studio. | | Broadcasting & CableAugust 25, 2008 | ABC News' already lonely Washington bureau will see a further reduction in production, this time due to the departure of an outside client it only recently snagged.
An ABC News spokeswoman confirmed that cable network Retirement Living TV is not renewing its contract to produce Daily Cafe out of the ABC bureau's studio.
|
|
| ABC News' Hi-Def Harvest. | | Broadcasting & CableAugust 25, 2008 | And like the other networks, ABC News will also broadcast both conventions in HD for the first time.
After being on the road for two weeks, World News and Nightline will return to their New York studios on Sept. 8 and start being produced in HD from there.
|
| | Comcast Picks Up FX, Speed in HD. | | Multichannel NewsAugust 25, 2008 | Fox Cable Networks has inked a pact with Comcast to carry the enhanced version of FX and Speed across its systems, giving the networks HD positioning with telco, satellite and cable providers.
Largely scheduled to be positioned on HD basic, the enhanced versions of Speed and FX, presented in the 720p format, should be available to all of the operator's HD customers by the end of 2009, according to Fox Cable Networks officials.
|
|
| BET Takes Scripted Leap. | | Multichannel NewsAugust 25, 2008 | by R. Thomas Umstead
BET will join the growing list of cable networks launching scripted series when it debuts the comedy series Somebodies on Sept. 9.
|
| | Comcast Offers Widgets. | | Multichannel NewsAugust 25, 2008 | The operator plans to integrate interactive TV technology, dubbed the Widget Channel framework, being developed by Intel and Yahoo into cable set-tops.
The technology, previewed last week at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, is supposed to let developers use Web application tools to quickly write interactive TV "widgets" that can serve up Internet social networking features and content such as weather updates, news and games.
|
|
| Comcast to Spruce Up Home Phone Service | | The Philadelphia InquirerAugust 24, 2008 | Aug. 24--Having swiped millions of customers from telephone companies, Comcast Corp. says it plans to jazz up the boring-as-dirt home phone.
Comcast's first enhancement to its phone service -- which is being tested in the Coatesville area -- pops the number of an incoming call onto PCs and TVs. It will be offered free to Comcast phone customers, beginning later this year.
|
| | NBC giddy at conclusion of successful Olympics | | Associated Press/AP OnlineAugust 25, 2008 | NEW YORK - NBC says the Beijing Olympics proved so captivating that millions of Americans now need to catch up on some sleep.
NBC Universal is giddy following its 17-day Olympics coverage, which ended Sunday with a tape-delayed presentation of the closing ceremonies.
|
|
| |
| Davis, Wolfson attending convention for Fox | | Associated Press/AP OnlineAugust 25, 2008 | NEW YORK - Longtime Clinton confidant Lanny Davis and Howard Wolfson, Hillary Clinton's former communications director, once anticipated being very busy at this week's Democratic National Convention.
Both see their punditry positions as something like missionary work, and argue that it makes little sense for Democrats not to engage with Fox News Channel viewers, even those they know oppose them.
|
| | WB TV Didn't Croak; It's Back As TheWB.Com | | The Kansas City Star (Kansas City, Missouri)August 22, 2008 | Before "the" CW, there was "the" WB, America's first pretentiously named TV network aimed exclusively and unapologetically at viewers under the age of 35.
On Wednesday, TheWB.com will launch with a menu of old and new shows.
|
|
| FCC Chief Slams Cable Rates | | The Washington TimesAugust 20, 2008 | Aug. 20--The nation's top media regulator says he doesn't have the power to solve the "single biggest problem" facing media consumers and isn't counting on Congress to act any time soon.
But Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin J. Martin said the inability of cable subscribers to choose among channels is keeping prices high and is a sign that the market isn't working.
|
| | NBC to Buy Stake In Carnival Studio | | The Wall Street JournalAugust 21, 2008 | Australian television production and distribution company Southern Star, a wholly owned subsidiary of Fairfax Media Ltd., said it has agreed to sell its 75% stake in Carnival Film & Television Ltd. to General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal for GBP 22.5 million ($42 million).
Southern Star Chief Executive Hugh Marks said Carnival, which has produced the television drama "Babylon Hotel" and other shows for the British Broadcasting Corp., had been a worthwhile investment.
|
|
| ESPN signs digital rights deal with baseball | | Associated Press/AP OnlineAugust 21, 2008 | BRISTOL, Conn. - Major League Baseball and ESPN have signed a new digital rights agreement that will allow it to put baseball content on multiple platforms, including video game consoles and portable players such as iPods.
The deal announced Thursday extends and expands the agreement through 2013.
|
| | Media & Marketing -- Advertising: FTC Commissioner Tackles Ads for Kids | | The Wall Street JournalAugust 20, 2008 | The Federal Trade Commission commissioner is at the center of the agency's scrutiny of marketing to children by food and beverage companies.
He was particularly outspoken in a recent FTC study on the issue, urging marketers to do more to regulate themselves and saying that if they don't, the FTC could step in and do it for them.
|
|
| Expansion Thins CNN's Chicago Staff | | Chicago TribuneAugust 20, 2008 | Aug. 20--What CNN is calling expansion will mean reducing the number of staffers assigned to its bureau in Chicago by 25 percent, to nine from a dozen.
"What I want to get away from is [the idea] that this poor guy is going to be holding down the fort for all [CNN outlets] and at the end is going to fall down in a heap of exhaustion," said Nigel Pritchard, a vice president for CNN Worldwide.
|
| | Media & Marketing: Survey Shows TV Is Still Main News Source | | The Wall Street JournalAugust 18, 2008 | Fewer Americans are reading newspapers -- they are getting their news online instead -- but television remains the leading source of news in the country, according to the Pew Research Center's biannual survey on news-consumption habits.
Younger people tend to get more of their news on the Internet, while older people use traditional media such as television and newspapers, said the survey, released Sunday.
|
|
| Can Comcast Deliver TV 2.0? | | Multichannel NewsAugust 18, 2008 | The vision Comcast has for the future of TV isn't locked up somewhere inside its brand-new, glass-encased headquarters in downtown Philadelphia.
But Comcast Interactive Media, which the operator formed in December 2005 to establish new online ventures, hopes to evolve Fancast into the last program guide a viewer would ever need.
|
| | Cable Boos NAB's 'Quiet Period' Idea. | | Multichannel NewsAugust 18, 2008 | Last Tuesday, the National Association of Broadcasters announced that many of its TV-station members have agreed not to pull their signals from cable systems from Feb. 4, 2009 to March 4, 2009 in an effort to ensure a smooth digital TV transition in mid February.
Cable's main trade associations immediately dumped on NAB's "quiet period" plan, mainly because it wouldn't give cable systems the right to restore carriage of TV stations that were withholding their signals as Feb. 4 arrived.
|
|
| Time Warner Fears Indecency Rules. | | Multichannel NewsAugust 18, 2008 | Washington-- Time Warner Inc. is concerned that banning fleeting indecency on broadcast TV could be used to justify regulating cable television programming for indecency for the first time.
The company, a major owner of cable-TV systems and programming networks, stated in an Aug. 8 filing in the U.S. Supreme Court that government regulation of television content shouldn't be allowed to spread to the cable medium.
|
| | MGM Has VOD Impact. | | Multichannel NewsAugust 18, 2008 | Comcast and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer last week launched "Impact," a new video-on-demand channel of action programming.
Within the first year, Impact will premiere such successful action films as movies from the James Bond series, Rocky , Magnificent Seven , RoboCop and Roadhouse .
|
|
| Ruling Could Boost DVR Penetration | | Television WeekAugust 11, 2008 | Now the DVR is primed to become a phenomenon on the order of a locust-with the ability to multiply rapidly and do even more significant damage.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for New York last week overturned a ruling that had blocked Cablevision-and, by extension, other cable providers-from making use of a "network DVR" that would allow it to run a massive video-storing operation from a single location rather than installing individual DVRs in each subscriber's home.
|
| | NBC Faces Olympic Pirates | | Television WeekAugust 11, 2008 | While NBC said it has implemented tools and forged relationships with Web sites to reduce its exposure to piracy during the Beijing Olympics, a leading piracy expert predicts that millions of Internet users around the world will view illegal clips of the global sporting event over the next two weeks anyway.
"But for some moments from the Games, instant-replay types, they will be viewed millions of times, including unauthorized clips on DailyMotion, YouTube, streaming sites and others ...
|
|
| ABC to Debut ?National Stay at Home Week? on Emmy Night | | The Milwaukee Journal SentinelAugust 15, 2008 | Aug. 15--It's all in jest, but ABC is using high gas prices to boost TV viewing in its marketing campaign for the fall season by dubbing its premiere week "National Stay at Home Week."
Although it hasn't been formally announced (with Variety "breaking" the story), ABC is going the viral video route, trying to create a buzz with Internet video.
|
| | SPORTSWATCH: NBC Scoring Big With Phelps & Co. | | Newsday, Melville, N.Y.August 15, 2008 | Aug. 15--On sports talk radio, the Beijing Games might as well be Beijing opera, a subject presumed to be of little interest to the Joba-and-Johan-obsessed.
But in the real world, they have struck a chord, from an opening ceremony that later proved to be reality-enhanced to the historic achievements of swimmer Michael Phelps.
|
|
| Comcast Reaches Deal With Big Ten Network | | The Philadelphia Daily NewsAugust 14, 2008 | Aug. 14--Area Penn State fans not holding tickets for the Nittany Lions' Aug. 30 season opener against Coastal Carolina in Beaver Stadium can breathe a little easier.
They will be able to catch all the action in the comfort of their own homes, on the Big Ten Network.
|
| | SEC, CBS agree to 15-year extension | | Associated Press/AP OnlineAugust 14, 2008 | BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Southeastern Conference has agreed to a 15-year contract extension with CBS Sports to broadcast football and basketball games.
CBS will carry a football game of the week along with prime-time games and doubleheaders and continue to broadcast regular-season SEC basketball games.
|
|
| NBC sees new media habits form with Olympic games | | Associated Press/AP OnlineAugust 14, 2008 | NEW YORK - About half of the people who are using mobile phones to pull down video or information about the Olympics have been trying out that technology for the first time, NBC said on Wednesday.
The number of people requesting Olympic content over their phones is still relatively small - 494,506 on Sunday and 476,062 on Monday - but NBC executives say they're stunned at how many of those never used the phones for this purpose before.
|
| | CNN to Open More U.S. Bureaus | | Los Angeles TimesAugust 13, 2008 | CNN plans to double its newsgathering presence in the United States, even as threats of an advertising recession have led to job cuts at other news organizations.
It will begin operations in Columbus, Ohio; Denver; Houston; Las Vegas; Minneapolis; Orlando, Fla.; Philadelphia; Phoenix; Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; and Seattle.
|
|
| Olympics Give NBC a Boost | | Los Angeles TimesAugust 13, 2008 | NBC's coverage of the first three days of the Summer Olympics proved to be immune from the trend of declining viewership for most forms of television programming, drawing nearly 27% more viewers than the corresponding period in the Athens Games four years ago, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.
The average of 30.4 million viewers for the first three days of the Beijing Games was 26.7% more than the 24 million for the same period during the Athens Games.
|
| |
| Nielsen Delivers A Deep Dish Dip. | | Multichannel NewsAugust 11, 2008 | Many cable networks saw their Nielsen distribution numbers drop anywhere from 200,000 to 1 million homes after the measurement company adjusted its figures for Dish Network this year, officials said last week.
The fact that Nielsen had revamped its "universe estimates" for many networks -- due mainly to problems tallying Dish Network's subscriber counts for individual networks -- came up during Crown Media Holdings second-quarter conference call last week.
|
| | 'Huge Win' on Net DVR. | | Multichannel NewsAugust 11, 2008 | After more than two years on the sidelines, Cablevision Systems' long-awaited network digital video recorder product finally appeared ready to enter the game last week, after an appeals-court judge paved the way for a centralized service programmers fear could make ad-skipping much easier for many more TV viewers.
In a 3-0 decision Aug. 5, a panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court decision that said the application -- dubbed the Remote Server DVR, or RS-DVR -- violated the copyrights of television programmers.
|
|
| A Cold Snap in Fox's Summer | | Los Angeles TimesAugust 12, 2008 | WHEN News Corp. President Peter Chernin was taking a victory lap last week after the company reported a 27% jump in its fiscal fourth-quarter net income, he took pains to credit the 20th Century Fox Film Group for much of the good news.
For Hollywood insiders, it was telling that Chernin -- perhaps the savviest showbiz mogul of our era -- somehow failed to mention any of his studio's movies from this summer.
|
| | Fox Business Ad: Give Us a Twirl | | Chicago TribuneAugust 10, 2008 | CNBC will have the Olympic Games.
So in the last local ad slot Monday on CNBC before it switches at 4 p.m. from business to Beijing boxing, viewers in the Chicago area on Comcast and RCN are set to hear from someone familiar.
|
|
| 'Nightline' at Risk If ABC Gets Leno | | Los Angeles TimesAugust 11, 2008 | This should be a new dawn for "Nightline."
After years of lagging behind dueling late-night talk shows, the ABC news program is winning attention with a series of high-profile scoops and closing the viewer gap against "Late Show With David Letterman."
|
| | NBC Will Have Staggering Amount of Olympic Coverage | | The Miami HeraldAugust 08, 2008 | Aug. 8--To appreciate the enormity of NBC's Olympic television and Internet coverage, consider this:
If you recorded every minute of Olympic competition that will be available on NBC, six other TV networks and nbcolympics.com, it would take 150 days to watch everything you taped.
|
|
| IRL Deal Drops ESPN, Adds Versus | | Chicago TribuneAugust 08, 2008 | The Indianapolis 500 and four other IndyCar Series races will be televised by ABC Sports through 2012 in a contract extension announced Thursday by the Indy Racing League.
The move to Versus means ESPN will no longer carry IRL races on its domestic channels.
|
| |
