Daily Marauder

BROADCAST/CABLE by Marauder

BROADCAST/CABLE

The voice talents behind the characters on FOX’s The Simpsons have not made a deal with 20th Century Fox TV for the 20th season of the show. Per Variety, despite FOX announcing The Simpsons would be back on Sunday nights during last week’s upfront presentation, production is on hold until this talent deal is resolved which may force FOX and the studio to reduce the number of episodes to 20 instead of 22. Currently the cast is reportedly make $360,000 per episode and if the new deal comes to fruition they could each possibly make $500,000 per episode in addition to other bonuses. (Cynopsis 5/20)

Fox has greenlit a new series Hole in the Wall from FremantleMedia N.A., which is already a hit in several foreign territories.  Based on the video game Tetris, contestants standing on a platform are required to move their bodies into certain shapes so that the wall moving toward them with the cutout shape successfully passes by them.  If they are not in the right shape, the wall pushes them into the water. Fox has ordered 13 episodes. (Cynopsis 5/20)

HBO on Sunday night will premiere “Recount,” a dramatization of the 2000 presidential recount that eventually led to George W. Bush‘s first term in office and, for a short time, made “chads” water cooler conversation. The film stars Kevin Spacey and Denis Leary and does not pick sides on the controversial election: “The film is not about who should have won,” said screenwriter Danny Strong. “This movie is about our electoral process and gives us an intimate look at how this process went down in one particular state. And then it sort of asks the American people: Is this how you want to elect a president?” (Los Angeles Times 5/19)

Recount Trailer

Mark Greenberg, a 25-year cable veteran who was most recently with Showtime, has been tapped to run a pay-TV channel being developed by Paramount, MGM and Lions Gate Entertainment. The new company, expected to launch next year, will face rivals such as HBO, Starz and Showtime. (The Wall Street Journal 5/20, The Boston Globe/Associated Press 5/19)

AOL Time Warner ex-CFO John Michael Kelly and seven other former execs are being charged with accounting fraud by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over their role in helping the company inflate revenue by more than $1 billion after AOL’s merger with the media giant. (Iwantmedia 5/20, http://www.crainsnewyork.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080519/FREE/652695851/1057 5/19)

Sen. Barack Obama, in new public remarks, says he will make Big Media a target of his administration’s antitrust enforcers if he is elected president. Much of the Democratic Party base blames media consolidation for uncritical coverage of the Bush administration’s lead up to the war. (Iwantmedia 5/20, http://www.thedeal.com/dealscape/2008/05/obama_would_target_big_media.php 5/19)

Senator Barack Obama

The White House is blasting NBC News for what it contends is “deceitful editing” of correspondent Richard Engel’s interview of President Bush. Counselor to the president Ed Gillespie asserts that the interview misrepresents Bush’s remarks concerning Barack Obama. (Iwantmedia 5/20, http://www.tvweek.com/news/2008/05/white_house_blasts_nbc_broadca.php 5/19)

IFC has acquired the North American rights to South Korean action film “The Chaser,” about a man on the run from police as he tries to rescue a serial killer’s victim before it’s too late. The channel is expected to premiere the movie late this year or early next and make it available on its VOD platform as well. (Variety 5/19)

This looks amazing.  The important point to make here is that this is a TRUE story.  I can’t find a version of this trailer in English but even from the Korean version, you can tell that this is shot beautifully and filled with drama.

The Chaser Trailer

NBC officially ordered the new drama Kings to series yesterday, despite announcing back in April the drama was part of the winter schedule in the Sunday at 10p time period. Apparently, network executives had only ordered a two-hour movie but after viewing footage of the contemporary re-telling of the David vs. Goliath tale starring Christopher Egan and Ian McShane, they decided to make it official. (Cynopsis 5/20)

The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists warned members in an email not to expect a quick resolution to the thorny issue of consent for online use of its work. Like SAG, AFTRA is objecting to producers’ proposal to pay a flat fee for online distribution in return for not having to obtain artists’ consent. SAG held a town hall meeting last night in LA to update members on contract talks. (Cynopsis 5/20)

Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt, participating in a panel discussion at The Cable Show in New Orleans, said cable networks should not wonder whether the country’s second-largest cable provider minds when channels stream shows for free the same day they are on TV. “Guess what. We do mind,” Britt said. “If you’re talking about putting (a program) online for free on the same date (it airs on TV), that will erode your other business model.” (The Hollywood Reporter 5/19)

The Sundance Channel will kick off an aggressive increase in its video-on-demand offerings beginning June 1. Sundance Channel On Demand, currently available in 29 million homes, will boost standard-definition VOD programming from 10 to 25 hours per month and HD VOD from six to 12 hours monthly. (RBR.com 5/19)

Univision unveiled the most extensive on demand library of Spanish-language content yet assembled on VOD. Scheduled to launch in Jan. 2009, the broadcaster promises more than 1,000 hours of sports, news, movies and entertainment offerings. (Cynopsis 5/20)

Video-on-demand technology may still be evolving, but one thing is clear: Cable-industry executives see it as a potentially important way to more precisely target advertising messages in the future. “Where the customer is and where the advertising is can be linked by the technology,” said Cablevision Chief Operating Officer Tom Rutledge, who participated in a panel discussion at NCTA’s The Cable Show. “VOD is just a part of the application — a more intriguing technology for delivering advertising.” (OneTRAK 5/19)

Charter Communications will become the first multiple-system operator to deploy Digeo’s new cable set-top box the Moxi Cable HD DVR 3012, Digeo announced at NCTA’s The Cable Show. The second-generation system combines dual high-definition tuners and a DVR. (TWICE 5/19)

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