Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE
Top executives from the NFL, its new NFL Network cable TV channel and Time Warner Cable are expected to meet this week with Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., in hopes of working out a carriage deal that will bring the potentially historic game between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants on Dec. 29 to a wider audience. Executives from Comcast, which carries the NFL Network on its sports tier and sued the NFL last week, have said they will not participate in the talks. (Broadcasting & Cable 12/14)
ESPN’s freshman season with “Monday Night Football” has been a huge success among national cable audiences. It’s also been a hit on the local level: During the November sweeps, “MNF” was in the top 10 programs in Tampa, Fla.; Philadelphia; Atlanta; and Washington, according to Nielsen Media Research’s average live program ratings for adults 18 to 49. (Mediaweek 12/17)
Fed up with the lack of progress made with the AMPTP, the WGA is determined to negotiate directly with individual studios on a case-by-case basis to find a solution for the new media bypass. The writer’s guild will begin to approach individual producers from today, according to letter sent to its members over the weekend. An AMPTP spokesman responded to the plan on its site: “WGA organizers are grasping for straws and have never had a coherent strategy for engaging in serious negotiations.”
Peter Chernin, Les Moonves, Bob Iger and other Hollywood chieftains are signing a statement of unity, after striking screenwriters signaled they would try to negotiate individually with the studios. The statement reads: “Different assets … Different businesses … Different companies.” (http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSN1535771320071217 12/16)
Dozens of striking film and television writers in talks with venture capitalists to set up companies to bypass the Hollywood studio system and reach consumers with video entertainment on the Web. (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-webwriters17dec17,1,299083.story 12/17)
MOVING TO NEW MEDIA: Aaron Mendelsohn, a Writers Guild board member known for the “Air Bud” franchise, is in a group that plans to produce programming for the Internet independently of Hollywood studios at odds with the union. “It’s in development and rapidly incubating,” he says.
Showtime has bought 20 episodes of British TV hit “Secret Diary of a Call Girl,” the first of which will premiere in the summer of 2008. It’s the first deal brokered by former HBO executive Chris Albrecht since he joined IMG. (Variety 12/16)
LOVE it. Hannah chats frankly with the camera in a manner unseen by me since Ferris Beuller’s Day Off. Yes, yes. MUCH different subject matter. I’ll put a prediction down on this one right now. It’s a hit.
Check out the first 7 minutes below and tell me that’s not some damn fine television. Wink wink. Nudge nudge.
New Frontier Media President Ken Boenish says his company has struck a deal with an unidentified “top five” cable company to distribute high-definition adult programming from Penthouse magazine. Boenish said Penthouse On Demand was available to 2 million subscribers. (Multichannel News 12/14)
Food Network, which last week taped its last episode of “Emeril Live,” is in the middle of a major transformation as it faces heightened competition in the celebrity-chef genre that it created, according to this report. Looking toward the future, the network has signed its biggest star, Rachael Ray, to a new contract. The (New York Times 12/17)
Michael Eisner, Disney’s former CEO, wants to transform Topps, the sports card and confectionery company he bought recently, into a fully-fledged media company. Bazooka Joe, the eye-patch wearing comic hero of Topps’ bubble gum, is Eisner’s new “Mickey Mouse.” (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22287026/ 12/17)
Hartmut Ostrowski, who takes over as CEO of Bertelsmann on Jan. 1, is vowing to restore the German owner of Random House and Gruner + Jahr to the top ranks of global media. He says he won’t be afraid to sell off floundering assets: “You’re not going to turn a lamb into a lion.” (http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/dec2007/gb20071214_094161.htm 12/14)
The steady erosion of primetime television is about to change the fundamental structure and financial clout of broadcast TV’s perennial cash cow, warn advertisers. The three-hour primetime window could shrink to just two hours a night; the standard TV season may “disappear.” (http://www.nypost.com/seven/12162007/business/past_its_prime_559177.htm 12/16)
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