Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE
BROADCAST/CABLE
Three hot cable TV series — Lifetime’s “Army Wives,” MTV’s “Making the Band 4″ and HBO’s “Big Love” — wrapped up their seasons last weekend with impressive season-finale ratings. “Wives” averaged 4.1 million total viewers; “Making the Band 4″ averaged 3.5 million; and “Big Love” pulled in an average 2.9 million. (The Hollywood Reporter 8/29)
Marc Abrams and Michael Benson, who produced “Entourage” for HBO, have signed a two-year, seven-figure deal with Universal Media Studios. The pair will develop and produce drama, comedy and reality programming. (Variety 8/28)
Disney Channel, buoyed by the cable-record-shattering “High School Musical 2,” won the primetime summer ratings race, averaging a 2.5 household rating, placing it No. 1 among basic-cable networks. “High School Musical 2′s” Aug. 17 debut attracted 17.2 million viewers. (http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6472317.html 8/28)
MTV is preparing a new series titled “The Paper,” which will follow a team of high school journalists working on their school newspaper. The series is scheduled to kick off its eight-episode run early next year. (Yahoo!/Reuters/Hollywood Reporter 8/28)
Katie Couric plans to leave Wednesday for an ambitious reporting trip to Iraq and Syria — the CBS anchor’s first time in the war zone — for a report on progress of the American military effort. Couric will anchor the “CBS Evening News” from Baghdad and Damascus next week. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/28/AR2007082801820.html 8/29)
News Corp.’s Big Ten Network, the U.S. television service aimed at fans of the college conference’s sports teams, plans to triple subscribers to 50 million in the next two years, says the channel’s president, Mark Silverman. The venture will see “tens of millions of dollars” in investment. (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=ahF7MLcjzMTI 8/29)
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has given antitrust clearance for News Corp.’s $5 billion acquisition of Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones. The companies expect the deal to close in the fourth quarter, pending approval by Dow Jones shareholders and other customary approvals. (http://www.smartmoney.com/bn/ON/index.cfm?story=ON-20070828-000549-2016 8/29)
Sundance Channel signed a deal with Virgin America to produce a custom inflight TV channel on the airline’s “Red” inflight entertainment system, which now offers 18 satellite TV channels, 25 PPV movies and a selection of video games and music files. Sundance originals including Nimrod Nation, Iconoclasts and Big Ideas for a Small Planet will be featured. (Multichannel News 8/28)
As part of the announced strategic plan to double its number of international cable channels in the next two to three years, NBC Universal agreed to purchase Sparrowhawk Holdings and its worldwide cache of pay TV channels from Providence Equity Partners, 3i and management shareholders. This deal includes 18 feeds of the non-US Hallmark Channels, airing across 152 territories to more than 60 million subscribers in the UK, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Australia, Latin America and Asia. (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-nbc29aug29,1,3511254.story?ctrack=1&cset=true 8/29)
Comcast, with cable systems in Big Ten states such as Michigan, Illinois and Indiana, is highlighting its planned football programming, even if a carriage deal is not in place with the new Big Ten Network, which launches Friday. The company intends to air about 150 college football games and 100 NFL matchups this season on various cable and broadcast networks. (Multichannel News 8/28)
Cablevision has rolled out Broadcast Video Transport, a video transmission and delivery system, for its business broadband clients. It’s aimed at companies that need high-resolution video capabilities, such as television stations, broadcasters and production facilities. (Newsday (Long Island, N.Y.) 8/28)
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