Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: Arts, Discovery Health Channel, New York City, O, Oprah Magazine, Oprah Winfrey Network, Oprah Winfrey Show, The Oprah Magazine, Warner Bros.
Time Warner film studio Warner Bros. suddenly has a lot riding on the box office performance of “Sex and the City” after the disappointing numbers posted by “Speed Racer” — which cost $100 million to make but has only grossed $32 million domestically. “Sex and the City” opens Friday. (http://www.nypost.com/seven/05252008/business/picking_up_speed_112395.htm 5/25)
I met Patricia Field at a Sex and the City party just after I moved to New York City. She pulled up next to me at the bar with her shocking red hair wearing skin tight leather pants and pasties over her ta-tas. As I maneuvered quickly to make room for her, all I could think to myself was, god. . .please don’t let me poke Pat Fields in the boob. Luckily, I avoided the transgression.
Sex and the City – Behind the Fashion
The average audience for “The Oprah Winfrey Show” has fallen nearly 7% this year. The circulation of O, The Oprah Magazine, has fallen by more than 10% in the last three years. The weaker numbers come as Winfrey preps OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, her new cable channel. (Iwantmedia 5/27, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/26/business/media/26oprah.html 5/26)
Both ABC and NBC are teaming up with cable operator Cox on a video-on-demand service that allows viewers to watch shows such as “Desperate Housewives” and “30 Rock” any time they choose without fast-forwarding through ads. The “MyPrimetime” test is rolling out in several states. (Iwantmedia 5/27, http://www.nypost.com/seven/05272008/business/ad_hungry_nets_develop_on_demand_rivals__112706.htm 5/27)
While cable networks such as Bravo, E!, TBS and USA are enjoying their best ratings ever and are on track to hit a record this year, broadcasters are watching a continuing trend that they do not like. “While the recent strike was certainly a factor in the migration of more viewers to cable, the bigger story is that broadcast ratings were down sharply before the strike even began,” said Steve Koonin, the president of Turner Entertainment Networks. (The New York Times 5/26)
NBC, the first broadcast network to announce its prime-time slate for next fall, is also the first broadcast network to announce changes. Four “Saturday Night Live” election specials will be added to the Thursday 9:30 p.m. time slot. The specials will be called “Thursday Night Live.” (Iwantmedia 5/27, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/23/AR2008052302788.html 5/24)
HBO is adapting the British show “Bad Girls,” which revolves around the lives of the staff and inmates at an all-female prison. The pay cabler’s version is being written with the assistance of Alan Ball, the creator of “Six Feet Under” and the upcoming “True Blood” for HBO. (The Hollywood Reporter 5/26)
Prior to the kick off of the fall schedule, NBC will debut another new series – Fear Itself is an anthology series of 13 episodes set to debut on June 5th at 10p, and each penned by a different writers of the thriller genre. (Cynopsis 5/27)
Last Saturday’s NHL Game 1 of the 2008 Stanley Cup Final telecast on VERSUS posted a 1.8 national HH rating and had more than 2.3 million total viewers tuning in. (Cynopsis 5/27)
Kelsey Grammer will star in the ABC comedy pilot Roman’s Empire as Roman Pretty, an eccentric billionaire who wants his daughter’s boyfriend to stay part of the family after the couple splits up. (Cynopsis 5/27)
Cable prices have risen 77% since ’96, about double the rate of inflation. And the average cable customer pays $60/month to watch about 13% of 118 channels provided in his or her lineup. The traditional cable model seems more unsustainable than ever, it would seem, given the increasing availability of programming via digital platforms. (Cynopsis 5/27, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/24/technology/24cable.html?_r=1&oref=slogin 5/24)
Comcast is trying to sell 46 smaller U.S. cable systems serving 400,000 to 500,000 subscribers. The cable giant is believed to be “pruning some of the more outlying areas in order to make a more efficient cluster.” Almost one-fourth of the cable systems are in rural central and northern Maine. (Iwantmedia 5/27, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080523/ap_on_hi_te/comcast_sale 5/23)
Comcast introduced a new service in Massachusetts this week that enables viewers to begin a movie or show in one room, stop it and then watch the rest of it in another part of the house. The new offering is part of a wider trend that, according to this article, is slowly but surely turning houses into “connected” media centers. (The Boston Globe 5/26)
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