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)
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