Filed under: MISC
SATURDAY NIGHT GOES REALLY LIVE
Photo: Joe Fornabaio for The New York Times
Over the weekend, the Saturday Night Live cast performed at the prescribed time (11:30 PM) but in sufficiently less posh digs. Due to the Writers’ Strike, The show was performed at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theatre in Chelsea, NY. Guest Host: Michael Cera from Superbad. Musical Guest: Yo La Tengo. Special Guest: Norah Jones (who performed Iran So Far with Andy Samberg.)
“We all thought about what we’re going to do during the strike, and because we have no other skills, we just scraped this together,” said Amy Poehler, who hosted a racier-than-normal “Weekend Update” with Seth Meyers.
Photo: Joe Fornabaio for The New York Times
Andy Samberg and Mr. Armisen performed their rap starring Mr. Armisen as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran. The show was a mix of the writers’ favorite old sketches and never-before-seen but already written bits that had been rejected, for raunchiness, humor or time.
Photo: Joe Fornabaio for The New York Times
The cast members did their own makeup and, with the Upright Citizens Brigade staff, got their own minimal props and costumes. Mr. Armisen studied his cue cards before a sketch.
Photo: Joe Fornabaio for The New York Times
Up Next at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade: 30 Rock tonight performed live at its regularly scheduled time (8:00 PM). Reserved tickets are sold out but according to the UCB web site, a limited number of tickets at $20 each will be available at the door.
NBC is said to be firing “nearly the entire” production staff of its late-night staple “Saturday Night Live.” The exiting employees aren’t getting any severance. (http://www.nypost.com/seven/11172007/gossip/pagesix/pagesix.htm 11/17)
Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE
BROADCAST/CABLE
The Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers are to resume talks on a new contract Nov. 26. The two sides are displaying a rare show of unity in announcing the plan. “It’s in everybody’s best interest to get this thing over,” says one studio exec. (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-wga17nov17,1,7438841.story 11/17)
Why are striking Hollywood writers so intent on getting a cut of today’s puny Internet profits? The media giants are proclaiming that the future lies online. Entertainment content is “not going to be delivered over cable, it’s going to come over Internet protocol.” (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-future19nov19,1,4047150.story 11/19)
If you’re wondering about the American Music Awards and Jimmy Kimmel’s hosting duties - it was affected by the writers’ strike. While the basic script was written before the strike, Kimmel was unable to sweeten it with any of his own jokes, because the strike prevented him from writing them and adding them to the script. He did throw a few extra lines in from time to time, but he also apologized to the audience for having to listen to “made up crap.”
ABC has ordered a full-season pickup for Dirty Sexy Money, the fourth freshman series to get a back-nine episode order from the network and the first series on any network to get a green light since the beginning of the writers strike.
Watch the latest episode by clicking the logo below.
CNN averaged 4.04 million viewers in Thursday’s debate among the Democratic presidential hopefuls. It was the best ratings ever for a presidential debate on cable TV and surpassed the 3.26 million viewers that watched a Democratic debate on Fox News Channel in January 2004. (Multichannel News 11/16)
DreamWorks principals David Geffen and Steven Spielberg are said to be talks to move their operation to NBC Universal, seeking a way out of an acrimonious relationship at Viacom’s Paramount. Also: The report of formal NBCU-DreamWorks negotiations is “inaccurate,” writes Nikki Finke. (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/17/business/media/17dreamworks.html?_r=1&oref=slogin 11/17, http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/ny-times-reports-dreamworks-wrong/ 11/17)
Shares of EchoStar, the second-largest U.S. satellite television service, rose in early trading Monday after Barron’s reported that AT&T may be interested in buying the company. AT&T reportedly wants to get approval for the purchase before any change in White House political control next year. (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=andX78LflaUg 11/19)
With an eye toward expanding its HDTV and other programming offerings, Charter will soon begin offering switched digital video in its Los Angeles service area. “Switched digital video allows us to significantly expand programming choices for customers and improve the overall bandwidth efficiency of our network,” said Marwan Fawaz, the company’s chief technology officer. (Multichannel News 11/18)
Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Amazon.com is rolling out a handheld electronic book-reading device, the Amazon Kindle, costing $399. In addition to downloading books, the Kindle also downloads subscriptions to newspapers, magazines and select blogs. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos says: “This isn’t a device, it’s a service.” (http://www.newsweek.com/id/70983 11/26)
A new patent granted to Google, titled “Customization of Content and Advertisements in Publications,” suggests that the Internet giant may soon begin to offer users the ability to create customized, printed magazines from Internet content, along with customized advertising. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/19/google-magazine 11/19)
It looks as though Quarterlife creators Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick have managed to get their show on the air after all. NBC picked up the rights to broadcast, sell on DVD and stream the show in the U.S. and internationally, planning to premier it on air sometime in February or March after it completes its initial 36 webisode run on Yahoo TV. The deal breaks mold in various ways. It is the first primetime show to debut online then secure a network spot. (Herskovitz and Zwick first pitched Quarterlife to ABC 3 years ago, but the network ultimately passed on it.) Although NBC will contribute to production and development costs, the two producers will retain ownership and creative control of the show, according to reports. Finally, the show may be strike proof as it’s primarily an independently-financed online venture not subject to the strike embargo. (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-quarterlife17nov17,1,1514429.story 11/17)
After watching the first episode, I was decidedly against. That said, after four episodes, it’s now growing on me.
Yahoo shares rose on Friday on renewed speculation, sparked by blogger Henry Blodget, that the Internet company could be a takeover target for Microsoft. Blodget, a Wall Street analyst during the dot-com boom, is now banned from working in the securities industry. (http://www.reuters.com/article/hotStocksNews/idUSN1641176320071116 11/16)
Yahoo employees in Europe are being given until the first quarter of 2008 to revitalize poorly performing areas of their operations or face closure or sale. Yahoo is already considering “strategic options,” including a possible sale, for Kelkoo, its comparison shopping service. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21869332 11/18)
AOL’s advertising division, Platform-A, is developing a video ticker ad format as an alternative to conventional pre-roll spots for online video. The video ticker appears 10 seconds into the video stream. When a viewer clicks on the ticker ad, it expands within the video player’s window. (http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2007/11/19/aol-rolls-out-video-ticker-ads 11/19)
Facebook has offered $85 million for college social network Zhanzuo, buying its way in to the lucrative Chinese market, The Times reports, without attributing a source. On the record, Facebook only said Zhanzuo CEO Jack Zhang and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg ”were acquainted but this did not mean that they intended to reach a deal”: “There could be more information by the end of the month”. (http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-facebook-offers-85-million-for-chinese-social-net-zhanzuo 11/19)
Barry Diller, with his CollegeHumor.com and 236.com sites, is joining fellow “old media” mogul Michael Eisner, the backer of the online drama “Prom Queen,” in the race to develop a business model for iTV. Also: The future of original productions for the Internet is not clear, Eisner says. (http://www.thedeal.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=TheDeal/TDDArticle/TDStandardArticle&bn=NULL&c=TDDArticle&cid=1193281691463 11/16, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/magazine/18wwln-Q4-t.html 11/18)
Music discovery site Last.fm launched an OpenSocial-compliant music application for the 122,000 social networking sites currently using the white label Ning platform.
Online video venture Vuze has petitioned the FCC to adopt net neutrality regulations to prevent internet service providers from interfering with P2P downloading activity. Vuze argues the FCC should use the internet traffic throttling issue to forge a workable solution fair to all.
BBC shows such as Strictly Come Dancing and The Mighty Boosh and content based on BBC Worldwide and Greenlight Media’s Earth natural history feature will be made available on social networking site Bebo. Other broadcasters offering up free footage for viewing to subscribers are Channel 4, BSkyB, MTV, and smaller television producers such as Sumo.TV and Kontraband. Each broadcaster adds footage to its own Bebo page, retaining copyright. Bebo has 40 million members worldwide including 10.7 million in the U.K., mainly in the A13-24 range.
SyncTV is a new company spun off from electronics company Pioneer, and is says it is trying a slightly novel tactic: it is offering a la carte channels to subscribe to, for online viewing. Not really. Sites such as JumpTV (TSE: JTV) have been offering international/ethnic channels for some time now, as are others. The spin here is that SyncTV will offer the shows not just as streaming, but also for download. (http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-pioneer-spinoff-synctv-tries-a-la-carte-online-channel-subscriptions-an 11/18)
Venture capitalists at the NewTeeVee Live conference say they aren’t optimistic about the future of many online video start-ups. There are “too few ideas.” (http://blogs.ft.com/techblog/2007/11/online-video-si.html 11/14)
Internet video services — including Heavy, Joost, Blinkx and Babelgum — have started or are planning television-like offerings. But so far, most leading advertisers remain wary about the Internet, partially for fear of undermining their brand image by associating with edgy Web fare. (http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/18/business/video19.php 11/18)
Filed under: GAMING
GAMING
Sony officials will cut by half the fee it charges software firms that create titles for the PlayStation 3 system. The move comes after Sony’s recent cut of PlayStation prices to attract more consumer interest. (International Herald Tribune/Associated Press 11/19)
The company boasts millions of subscribers to its Xbox Live service, which connects Xbox players to others around the globe. Users have clocked more than 3 billion hours of play since the service’s inception five years ago. The Los Angeles Times interviews Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s gaming unit, on plans for future growth. (Los Angeles Times 11/19)
Filed under: MISC
MISC
Production of Columbia Pictures’ film Angels & Demons starring Tom Hanks, the prequel to The Da Vinci Code has been postponed. This is the first big-screen fallout due to the writers strike. The film, directed by Ron Howard, was originally set to open during the 2008 holiday season and now it has been pushed back to 2009. Screenwriter Akiva Goldman, a member of the WGA, is barred by strike rules from editing or working on scripts for the duration of the strike.
