Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: Television, Arts, Programs, Reality-Based, American Idol, Television program, Fox Broadcasting Company, Talent Shows
Here’s some fun facts from Nielsen for all the FOX American Idol fans: (Cynopsis 5/16)
- During this current season seven, people age 35-49 watch it the most, which represents 29% of the total audience. The most-watched episode this season was the season premiere on January 15 that averaged 33 million viewers.
- The average fan voted, using mobile text messaging an average of 38 times this past April.
- Last year, American Idol had 4,349 instances of product placement and so far this year there are 3,291 occurrences in first quarter alone.
- American Idol averaged its largest viewing audience in season five with more than 30 million people tuning in, compared to 12 million the first season and 27 million for this season.
- People living in the east central U.S. are more likely to watch the show, while people living in the southwest tune in the least.
News Corp.’s Fox will limit advertising on two new prime-time television shows next season to draw viewers and discourage them from changing channels. The new shows “Fringe” and “Dollhouse,” in an initiative dubbed “remote-free TV,” will have half the usual ads. (Iwantmedia 5/16, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=askK9Gz308vI 5/15)
Fringe
A&E has started shooting the fifth season of “Dog the Bounty Hunter,” the popular series starring controversial bail bondsman Duane “Dog” Chapman, and new episodes are scheduled to debut this summer. The show was a hit for A&E until “Dog” was taped during a tirade that was chock-full of profanities and racial slurs. (The Boston Globe/Associated Press 5/15)
The Screen Actors Guild and major Hollywood studios plan to return to the bargaining table by May 28 to resume contract talks that broke off more than a week ago. Renewing talks by then will give the parties a little more than four weeks to reach a deal before the existing contract expires. (Iwantmedia 5/16, http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSN1532301420080516 5/16)
The U.S. Senate is voting to overturn new, looser media ownership restrictions in the 20 biggest U.S. cities, fearing that media “will no longer reflect the rich mosaic of our country” after possible consolidation. The vote moves lawmakers a step closer toward overturning the new rule. (Iwantmedia 5/16, http://www.reuters.com/article/industryNews/idUSN1532919920080516 5/15)
A federal court jury is clearing News Corp.’s NDS unit of satellite television piracy charges in a suit brought by DISH Network that could have been worth more than $1 billion. The jury is awarding only $1,500 in damages from NDS for a single test incident with a satellite TV smart card. (Iwantmedia 5/16, http://www.reuters.com/article/industryNews/idUSN1529880520080515 5/15)
Multichannel providers will see annual subscriber growth of 2.1% through 2012, bringing the national total to almost 90% of TV homes, according to a study released Thursday by SNL Kagan. The report goes on to say that about 10% of analog-only TV homes will switch to multichannel distributors after the transition to all-digital signals and that most of those providers would be cable firms. (Broadcasting & Cable 5/15)
Cablevision added Music Choice to its iO line up of free on demand programming. (Cynopsis 5/16)
TVN Entertainment’s VOD services surpassed a penetration of 40 million homes with a current affiliate list comprised of 126 cariers in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean. (Cynopsis 5/16)
Insight Communications added 15,100 basic-cable subscribers, 16,300 digital customers and 25,500 phone customers in the first three months of the year. All those new subscribers helped the company post a pro-forma revenue increase of 17%, to $205.8 million. (OneTRAK 5/15, American City Business Journals/Louisville 5/15)
