Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE
Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes’s major challenge is to figure out “how AOL fits in the whole mix,” says former chief Richard Parsons. “That is something I wrestled with for six years, and I’m still not sure I got it right. I wish him luck.” Also: Running for New York mayor “is not something I want to do.” (Iwantmedia 3/18, http://www.first30days.com/making-change-easier/multimedia/change-nation-richard-parsons-31808.html 3/18)
CBS will follow this winter’s Big Brother 9 edition with another one this summer, which thus far has averaged a 2.1 A18-49 rating. The summer editions tend to rank higher: Summer of 2005 Big Brother averaged a 2.9 A18-49 rating, while the summer 2006 and 2007 airings averaged a 2.8 A18-49 each. CBS has not released a premiere date for the upcoming summer installment. (Cynopsis 3/18)
Click the image below to watch full episodes.
FX has picked up the cable rights to five Marvel Studio films: Paramount’s Iron Man and Universal’s The Incredible Hulk, plus three other superhero movies, titles TBA, reports Variety. A four year broadcast deal will be made with the same titles, and both titles will have their pay TV airings – Iron Man on Showtime and Incredible Hulk on HBO. The estimated cost of the five picture deal is in the $100-$110 million neighborhood. (Cynopsis 3/18)
HBO has decided not to continue developing “12 Miles of Bad Road,” a comedy about a real estate agent in Dallas starring Lily Tomlin and Mary Kay Place. The show’s producers now are looking for a new cable home, which, according to this article, might be Lifetime, but no commitments have been made. (Variety 3/17)
About 9% of the 1,000 viewers surveyed by N.Y.-based ad buyer Carat said they have been watching more TV since the writers strike ended. More than 60% said they plan to watch their favorite shows when they return with original scripts in April. (The Hollywood Reporter 3/18)
NBC Domestic Television Distribution said Monday that it had inked deals for Fox’s “House” and USA’s “Monk” to be available on TV outlets covering 99% of the country for their broadcast weekend syndication debut this fall. (Broadcasting & Cable 3/17)
House
The U.S. Supreme Court is deciding to hear its first broadcast indecency case in 30 years. The case, to be argued in the fall, involves “fleeting expletives.” In March 2006, the Federal Communications Commission cited Fox for expletives uttered during the Billboard Music Awards. (Iwantmedia 3/18, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/17/AR2008031700842.html 3/18)
Comcast is asking a federal appeals court to overturn a U.S. Federal Communications Commission rule enacted in December that bars it from making a major cable acquisition. The U.S. cable giant says in a filing that the order is “arbitrary, capricious and an abuse of discretion.” (Iwantmedia 3/18, http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20080318_Comcast_takes_FCC_to_court_over_ownership_rule.html 3/18)
Standard & Poor’s says the U.S. economic slowdown will hurt some media companies, as cutbacks in consumer spending could be reflected in the number of attendees at Disney’s amusement parks and advertising revenue at Time Warner’s magazines or News Corp.’s newspapers. (Iwantmedia 3/18, http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/newstex/AFX-0013-23847090.htm 3/18)
DISH’s launch late last week of the AMC-14 satellite did not go as planned, leaving the bird in a lower-than-expected orbit and the TV provider’s HD-expansion plans on hold. One analyst, Sanford C. Bernstein’s Craig Moffett, released a report on Monday describing Dish’s high-def plans as “lost in space.” (Multichannel News 3/17)
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