Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE
Hours after shareholders holding 60.27% of Dow Jones’s voting stock approved the $5.16 billion sale to News Corp., chief Rupert Murdoch addressed staffers and pledged to set a “higher bar.” Says Murdoch: “The Wall Street Journal will be a key frontispiece to everything we do.” (http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB119755500310926517.html12/14, http://blogs.reuters.com/mediafile/2007/12/13/murdoch-to-wsj-back-to-work/ 12/13)
Dow Approves Deal
Dow Jones shareholders approved the $60 a share sale of the company to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. today. Kelsey Hubbard reports. (Dec. 13)
The assets of ReplayTV, the company that in the late 1990s challenged TiVo for supremacy in the then-nascent DVR market, have been purchased by DirecTV. ReplayTV nearly went out of business in 2002 after a series of lawsuits over the service’s ability to copy and share programming and skip commercials. (The Hollywood Reporter 12/14, Electronic House 12/13)
One of ReplayTV’s recent announcements was a USB add-on for HDTV viewing and recording on your PC.
Comcast is suing NFL Enterprises over a marketing campaign that encourages the cable giant’s subscribers to “make the switch” to satellite providers to watch the NFL Network. NFL Enterprises’ campaign constitutes a breach of contract, Comcast claims. (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=ak7IQ.kVmstA 12/13)
Time Warner Cable President Glenn Britt has said that his company would be willing to offer the Dec. 29 NFL game between the New England Patriots and New York Giants, in which the Patriots could cap their undefeated season, as a digital “freeview.” But Britt, whose company does not carry the NFL Network, said the best way to make the game readily available to the widest audience would be for the league to strike a deal with a major broadcast network. (Broadcasting & Cable 12/13, Multichannel News 12/13)
The Writers Guild of America claims that the studios violated federal law by ending contract talks last Friday after the guild refused to meet their demand to take several proposals off the table. The guild’s move is likely to set up further tension between the two groups, say observers. (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-strike14dec14,1,4973798.story12/14)
The Writers Guild of America is warning media companies that striking film and television writers and their audiences will migrate to the Internet in the event of a prolonged strike: “The ability to explore this business without media conglomerates is becoming a real possibility.” (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8aec2a6a-a9e9-11dc-aa8b-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=112/14)
News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch, in an interview on his Fox News Channel, says that the U.S. economy is “probably” in for a recession and predicts that the writers strike is “not going to last long.” He adds that the Internet is unlikely to become the “holy grail” that union reps think it will be.(http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/business/news/e3ia105b0763cdad9fd2dd0e00cacb7fb4f 12/14)
Hundreds of freelance employees of MTV Networks received a partial reprieve from parent company Viacom yesterday as the company reversed some of the cuts to freelance benefits packages, according to The New York Times. The permanent freelance workforce will now be permitted to keep their current health care plans and were also given a two-month extension on the deadline to choose plans. Viacom said it would also consider making some of the freelance jobs into staff positions. Despite this reversal, about a hundred freelancers protested outside MTV Network’s Times Square headquarters for a third day, hoping the rest of their benefits package would be restored including paid time off, tuition reimbursement and company matching for 401(k) contributions. A Viacom spokeswoman indicated further changes to the proposed benefits package are unlikely, reports the NYT.
A new study released by SNL Kagan, “Video-On-Demand: A Strategic and Economic Analysis” estimates total VOD, PPV and NVOD revenue amassed by U.S. multichannel service providers will exceed $6 billion within five years. This study is including cable, satellite and telco video outlets with the bulk coming from adult and event PPV areas. The report also predicted that on-demand services will evolve from being value-added elements to being significant revenue streams. In addition, the study thinks VOD advertising has potential as a revenue generator and the market will eventually be analyzed on a cost per thousand basis.
Controlling shareholders of Discovery and Advance/Newhouse Communications have reached a deal to combine their shares to make Discovery Communications a publicly traded TV company. Details of the agreement are not yet final, but Advance/Newhouse will retain some of its veto rights over major decisions, according to CEO-Chairman Bob Miron. (The Wall Street Journal (free content) 12/14)
Going public will make it easier for Discovery — whose networks include Discovery Channel, TLC and Animal Planet — to expand.
Jeffrey Immelt, chairman and CEO of NBC Universal parent General Electric, says it’s the “wrong time to think about” selling NBC Universal, which includes cable nets such as Bravo and USA Network. Rumors have circled in the TV industry and on Wall Street that GE would put NBC Universal on the block after next year’s Summer Olympics in China. (Broadcasting & Cable 12/13)
Fox Business Network will debut a new series Monday titled “Opening Bell,” which will spotlight early-morning financial news and provide a look ahead at the day’s stock trading. The one-hour show will be anchored by Alexis Glick, the network’s vice president of business news. (Mediaweek 12/13)
BET’s “Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is” attracted 2.9 million people to its second-season finale Monday. The reality show, about the R&B singer’s professional and personal life, will have an encore run on BET tonight at 9. (Multichannel News 12/13)
Click the image below for full episodes from the second season.
Some of baseball’s biggest stars, including Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, were linked to the use of performance-enhancing drugs, in a report made public yesterday by former Sen. George Mitchell. Despite the allegations tainting the game’s image, experts say marketers aren’t likely to withdraw from relationships with Major League Baseball. However, players named in the report could face some difficulty in renewing contracts with their sponsors. (The Wall Street Journal (free content) 12/14)
Roger Clemens, who pitched for the Yankees last year.
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The three largest newspapers plus the Internet site al.com in Alabama are owned by Advance Publications, Inc. Advance Publications Inc. is owned by Samuel Irving Newhouse Jr. and his brother Donald Newhouse.
They literally print nothing but lies about all Democrats in the state. They will not allow their investigative reporters any access to these cases. If they would have investigated and printed the truth about Don Siegelman (Jewish) like the locally own papers done the Canary’s would have been run out of the state by its citizens before now.
It has taken a few months, but most Alabamians now know the truth about their good friend Don Siegelman, about the conspiracy that removed the most popular Democrat in Alabama by Bush’s appointees and how his elections were taken from him.
These three newspaper instruct their writers to start every article that they write about Siegelman with this statement, “our newspapers endorsed Riley and we believe Siegelman to be a crook” then they twist every sentence after that to sound negative.
Many of us are dropping our subscriptions and are switching to locally owned newspapers.
Comment by Rev. Bob Richards December 17, 2007 @ 9:09 AM