Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE
BROADCAST/CABLE
It’s a rare occurrence when a cable show that’s available to a limited number of viewers is able to trump shows on broadcast TV, but that was largely the case Sunday night during the season finale of “The Sopranos.” According to new Nielsen, the 11.9 million viewers who saw “The Sopranos” was second only to the 13 million viewers who watched the season premiere of NBC’s “America’s Got Talent.” This number of viewers represented an almost 50% increase over the viewership from the previous week. “Sopranos” creator David Chase has recently emerged in interviews, saying he doubts there will be a movie based on the series. The big response for The Sopranos did not translate to the premiere of John from Cincinnati immediately afterwards as the series opener averaged almost 3.4 million viewers, a 71% drop from the previous hour. (MSNBC/Associated Press 6/12)
In the spirit of all of this Sopranos talk, I thought I would include an SNL parody of The Sopranos from this past season of SNL. Enjoy.
HBO Chairman and CEO Bill Nelson said Tuesday that all 26 of the HBO and Cinemax multiplex channels will soon be available in 1080-line-interlace HDTV. The HD transition will start later this year and is expected to be completed by the second quarter of next year. (Broadcasting & Cable 6/12)
Advertising spending in 2007 is expected to be the weakest since the recession in 2001, says TNS Media Intelligence. Marketers are continuing to move their dollars out of traditional media and toward the Internet. TNS rep Jon Swallen says: “Take two aspirin and wait for 2008.” (http://www.nypost.com/seven/06132007/business/ad_spending_could_be_weakest_since_2001_business_holly_m__sanders.htm 6/13)
ABC Family’s “Kyle XY” made a strong debut in its second season premiere Monday night. The supernatural drama drew 2.2 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. (Broadcasting & Cable 6/12)
Cablevision received a show of support for trying to build a network DVR solution from several trade and lobby groups including USTelecom, (which represents AT&T and Verizon), the Consumer Electronics Association, CTIA, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The MSO, which had hoped to replace set-top based DVRs with a headend-based stored video solution, lost a court case in March filed jointly by Cartoon Network, Disney Enterprises, NBC, CBS and Turner. The networks argued that the proposed remote storage RS-DVR violated copyright law.
AT&T is working with Hollywood studios and recording companies to develop anti-piracy technologies that would help keep pirated content off its Internet network. AT&T Senior Vice President James W. Cicconi said that once an anti-piracy technology was chosen, the company would examine privacy laws and other legal issues. (Los Angeles Times 6/13)
CBS CEO Leslie Moonves said he expected cable companies to pay up in order to carry his company’s shows. CBS reached retransmission accords with nine smaller cable companies in February whereby those companies now have to pay to carry CBS programming, but renewals loom with larger companies such as Comcast and Time Warner Cable. “If we don’t get paid, they don’t get the Super Bowl, they don’t get David Letterman,” Moonves said Tuesday at an event in New York. (The Toronto Star 6/13)
Comcast will bow 20 new channels into its programming lineup once it takes over for Time Warner Cable in Houston. The new lineup, which is scheduled to debut Tuesday, will include five HD channels. Comcast will also increase the VOD programming from roughly 1,000 hours of content to 6,000 hours. (Houston Chronicle 6/13)
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