Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE
BROADCAST/CABLE
Microsoft aims to bridge the divide between home computers and television sets this holiday season with the release of new “media extenders.” These TV set-top boxes will allow users to use their TV sets to watch movies, TV shows and Web video that is stored on their computers. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070927/ap_on_hi_te/microsoft_tvr 9/27)
NBC will unveil the live reality show Phenomenon October 24 at 8p. Mystifier Criss Angel and mentalist Uri Geller will search for the next great mentalist during the five-week run which also includes a special two-hour live episode on Halloween night at 8p. Ten chosen mentalists will compete against each other, demonstrating their unique powers in front of a panel of celebrity guests and the studio audience. Criss and Uri each will offer advice, but viewers will decide who wins the final grand prize of $250,000.
Eric McCormack has signed on to join the cast of “Truth in Advertising,” a TNT series whose pilot is scheduled to begin shooting in October. The Emmy-winning actor from “Will & Grace” will play an art director at a Chicago ad agency who thrives on the internal politics at the firm. (Yahoo!/Reuters/Hollywood Reporter 9/26)
Scripps Networks made a multi-year pact with Comcast to distribute HGTV HD and Food Network HD. Comcast has begun this task as both networks are now in Boston and parts of New Jersey. Comcast will launch the networks in other markets over the next year.
Time Warner’s Warner Bros. is entering a multibillion-dollar alliance with Abu Dhabi real estate developer Aldar and Abu Dhabi Media to develop a theme park, hotel and cinemas, as well as a fund for films, video games and to help build out the infrastructure for new media in Abu Dhabi. (http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/abu-dhabi-shows-warner-bros-the-money/ 9/26)
Time Warner Cable is expanding its “My Football Tracker” fantasy-football application to Buffalo, N.Y.; Portland, Maine; and Waco, Corpus Christi and El Paso, Texas, for the 2007-08 season. The service allows subscribers to get fantasy-football information on-screen, regardless of which channel they’re watching. (Multichannel News 9/26)
Cox and Hearst-Argyle Television have made final a retransmission-consent agreement covering high-definition digital signals, digital-multicast programming and the ongoing carriage of analog signals in six markets. (Broadcasting & Cable 9/26)
DVR maker TiVo will launch a second-by-second ratings system called Stop||Watch, which will show live and time-shifted viewing habits for both programming and commercials. Publicis Group’s Starcom ad agency has already become the first subscriber to the service. (Yahoo!/Adweek.com 9/26)
Consumers are shelling out more money on media and entertainment thanks to upgrades in technologies, according to a new SNL Kagan study, to the tune of 1.85% of the average U.S. annual income. Things are good all over, it would seem. TV broadcasters are benefiting from political ad dollars and retrans agreements; cable operators will see VOD grow from $1 billion to $5.5 billion by 2017; and wireless carriers saw subscriptions grow by 12% last year and will reach 233 million subscribers by year-end.
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