Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE
BROADCAST/CABLE
The Peabody Award-winning drama series The Wire launches its ten-episode fifth and final season SUNDAY, JAN. 6 (9:00-10:00 p.m. ET/PT), exclusively on HBO, with other episodes debuting on subsequent Sundays at the same time. Beginning Dec. 31 with the season premiere, weekly episodes of The Wire will be available on HBO On Demand the Monday prior to its Sunday debut on the main HBO channel. (http://www.zap2it.com/tv/news/zap-thewirepremieredate,0,7068981.story?coll=zap-tv-headlines 12/4)
NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker says his company would consider buying DreamWorks from Viacom, should the movie studio become available. “If the opportunity were to arise, it’s something obviously we would look at,” says Zucker. “We have a long history with them.” (http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/071203/nbc_dreamworks.html 12/3)
The real issue in the Hollywood writers strike is that nobody knows the value of entertainment anymore, writes Patrick Goldstein. Are YouTube clips “stopping us from watching the shows or are they making us fans of them? If you can’t agree on that, you can’t agree on their value.” (http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/business/la-et-gold4dec04,1,5491562.story 12/4)
The Writers Guild of America will deliver a counterproposal to a recent offer from studios regarding pay for new media, proposing fixed compensation rates that are graduated in increments tied to viewership: “If the number of eyeballs goes up, then [the] residual would go up.” (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3ida2e9d7e0740c3cffc6b75d91e382759 12/4)
(Below) Gawker had some words of insight on this story yesterday: Bravo does not address the important question of whether settings will be available allowing the viewer to selectively mute Michael Kors.
Bravo is building an interactive application into the fourth season of Project Runway, allowing viewers in select Cox, Charter, Comcast and Time Warner digital cable systems the chance to answer trivia questions and vote for their favorite designs using their remote controls. The trivia and polling overlays, powered by Navic Networks, will utilize an open standards format built to scale nationally and accommodate measurable in-program sponsorship opportunities.
“Tin Man,” Sci Fi’s three-part miniseries based on “The Wizard of Oz,” averaged 6.3 million viewers in its premiere Sunday night, a record for the network. The show averaged 3.8 million adults 25 to 54 and 3.4 million in the 18-to-49 demo. (Mediaweek 12/3)
Chapter 1 Part 1
Watch by clicking the image below.
CBS Television Distribution‘s online localized talent show Big Shot is set to launch Feb. 4, 2008 on local affiliate sites representing 60% of the country including the sites of WCBS/NY, KCBS/LA and WBBM/Chicago. Local aspiring actors, singers, models and other talent submit videos to their local sites for a chance to be flown out to Hollywood to land their dream job. Local stations have agreed to promote the show on air and online in exchange for selling local sponsorships.
With its acquisition of Oxygen by NBC Universal, came layoffs. 60 people, or approx 25% of the staff, were laid off in Oxygen’s NY, LA and Dallas offices, and according to reports range across all departments and levels. NBC signed papers to picked up the female-targeted network in November and paid a reported $875 million. Laid off employees will either be paid thru to the end of the calendar year and/or provided with a severance package, or will be offered another position within NBCU where available. (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117976958.html?categoryid=1238&cs=1 12/3)
The hit Disney Channel series Hannah Montana landed in the top spot in Ask.com’s list of 2007′s most popular television show searches. Animated shows Family Guy and SpongeBob SquarePants rounded out the top 3.
Ask.com’s Top Television Show Searches of 2007
1. Hannah Montana
2. Family Guy
3. SpongeBob SquarePants
4. WWE
5. American Idol
6. Big Brother
7. Gilmore Girls
8. South Park
9. Charmed
10. Grey’s Anatomy
Charter is expanding its HDTV services in Los Angeles via the switched digital video technology, including BigBand Networks’ switched video analysis application. Using the technology, which will provide more program channels to the subscribers, Charter hopes to double its HDTV programming by 2008. (Broadcast Engineering 12/3)
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