Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE
BROADCAST/CABLE
Ten years after he brought “Sex and the City” to HBO, Darren Star is back at the premium cable channel with “Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl,” a comedy series project he is exec producing with Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas. (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i7b7f6bee78014d178b9f581fc7d933d9 10/19)
Darren Star (Getty Images photo)
News Corp. is “leading the media industry” in the transformation to the digital world, proclaims News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch at the company’s annual meeting. “None of our peers compare in terms of sheer numbers of users or, more importantly for stockholders, revenues.” (http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22617795-664,00.html 10/20)
ABC, Disney, Hearst and other media conglomerates are establishing divisions to take minority stakes in small Internet and tech companies. “We see the impact digital media is making — and it’s being made by some very small players,” says Bertelsmann digital exec Richard Sarnoff. (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/19/business/media/19venture.html 10/19)
Comedy Central is signing a two-year extension deal with “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart. The contract extension will lock in Stewart past the 2008 election, keeping him with the network until at least 2010 — the same year David Letterman’s deal ends at CBS. (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3i9a5b1b09402b23bfe1a767ca4094a53e 10/19)
Showtime’s new Steven Spielberg comedy pilot, The United States of Tara, has signed Toni Collette to star as Tara Gregor. Her character is a wife and mother to two teenagers, and all seems well until you look a little closer and learn she has some sort of disassociative identity disorder – in other words, she’s got multiple personalities – she’s a Sybil!
The first ratings returns this fall for CBS are noticeably weak. The new reality series “Kid Nation” mostly fizzled; a new drama, “Cane,” has been less than stellar. CBS boss Les Moonves admits: “I’m a bit concerned about the state of network television generally.” (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/19/business/media/19cbs.html 10/19)
The last two years were “more difficult” for NBC Universal, so it became “fashionable” to ask whether General Electric will sell off the company, says NBCU chief Jeff Zucker. “If we turn the company around, then those questions will subside.” (http://www.usatoday.com/money/media/2007-10-17-nbc-universal-zucker_N.htm 10/18)
News Corp. plans to invest as much as $300 million in its new Fox Business Network over the next few years, says chief Rupert Murdoch at the company’s annual shareholders meeting. “We have many challenges against an entrenched competitor,” he says, referring to CNBC. (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a13CfSYRVTMo 10/19)
The new Fox Business Network has hired longtime CNBC anchor Liz Claman to host its afternoon business block. Claman left CNBC in July after eight years, most recently as host of the NBC’s “Morning Call.” Her contract prevented her from working for any competitor until Monday. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071018/ap_en_bu/fox_business_claman 10/18)
V-me, a Spanish-language digital-cable channel, has launched on Time Warner Cable systems in the Los Angeles market. Programming on the 24-hour channel runs the gamut, including educational shows for children and current affairs. (The Boston Globe/Associated Press 10/18)
DirecTV has filed a federal lawsuit in Los Angeles charging Cox with false advertising on its Web site. The complaint alleges that the cable company, citing a study, unfairly claimed that the quality of Cox’s HDTV services was superior to DirecTV’s. Cox did not provide comment on the suit. (Multichannel News 10/18)
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