Daily Marauder

BROADCAST/CABLE

AMC‘s newest original dramatic series, Breaking Bad, produced by Sony Pictures Television, has already ranked in the top five on iTunes‘ “Top Downloaded TV Shows” after just two episodes. This past Sunday’s episode reached number one.

Keep in mind that this iTunes stat is probably pushed by the fact that the full episodes are not available streamed through AMC’s site for the time being.  My favorite moment so far has been when the two main characters decide to get ride of a body by decomposing the body in a bathtub with acid.  One problem, the porcelain of the bath tub was also degraded by the bathtub, spelling disaster all over the place.

Sneak Peek of Episode 3

NBC has ordered a second season of Celebrity Apprentice from Mark Burnett Prods. Season #1 of Celeb App will conclude on March 27. To date, the current rendition has averaged a 3.9/10 A18-49 rating.

Monday night’s State of the Union Address aired live on nine national networks: ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, CNN, FOX News Channel, MSNBC, Telemundo and Univision. The combined preliminary average audience estimates for total viewers (2+) from 9p-10p was a 24.7/38 rating/share and 37.5 million total viewers. These numbers were down considerably compared to the January 23, 2007 Presidential address which did a 29.6/24 rating/share and delivered 45.5 million viewers among total viewers (2+).

Click the image below for the full address.

MtvU extended its reach to 700 college communities nationwide, launching on Charter, Verizon FiOS, Suddenlink, AT&T U-verse and 70 other systems. The deals represent 2.6 million additional subscribers.

USA attracted 2.89 million total prime-time viewers during January and completed a monthlong run atop the cable leader board. The channel ended the last full week of January No. 1 in the 18-to-49 demographic (averaging 1.25 million) and the 25-to-54 demo (1.29 million), according to Nielsen Media Research. (Mediaweek 1/29)

IAC chairman Barry Diller returned fire to Liberty Media CEO John Malone calling his attempt to remove him from the IAC board “preposterous” in an issued statement. Liberty filed a lawsuit on Monday attempting to reclaim voting rights it gave to IAC in a previous agreement, claiming the agreement was voided when IAC tried to split up the internet conglomerate against its will.

Search giant Google, its mobile developer platform Android, and rising News Corp. exec James Murdoch are the “media sensations to watch” in 2008, according to a survey of media execs by the Guardian Media Group. Of those canvassed, 44% say they read a print newspaper every day. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jan/30/digitalmedia.googlethemedia  1/30)

Shares of Disney dropped Tuesday after being downgraded by Citigroup analyst Jason Bazinet over concerns about the company’s theme parks, prompting a rare response from the media giant. Says Disney CFO Tom Staggs: “We are pleased with the pace of business at our parks.” (http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/analyst-sees-disney-park-pitfalls/story.aspx?guid=%7B96C0FFB4-36F8-4BB1-AC92-593A5E9D9F8D%7D 1/29)

News Corp.’s Fox, which is airing the Super Bowl on Feb. 3, sold the last ad spot Tuesday. The ad is said to have fetched north of the $2.7 million average price. (http://www.nypost.com/seven/01302008/business/fox_sells_out_super_bowl_ads_213641.htm 1/30)

Rentrak’s OnDemand Essential measurement system, which allows cable companies and advertisers to analyze the financial success of video-on-demand programming, has signed up eight new cable firms. The eight are BendBroadband, Blue Ridge Cable, Buckeye Cablevision, Eatel, Entouch Communications, GVTC, Massillon Cable and Metrocast. (CED Magazine 1/29)

AT&T has begun marketing its U-verse TV service to 175 communities outside Chicago in what the company says marks its largest introduction of the IPTV service to date. AT&T, which is fighting Comcast in the Chicago area, said last week that U-verse had grown 83% in the last three months of 2007. (Multichannel News 1/28)