Daily Marauder

BROADCAST/CABLE

The premiere of season #3 of Sci Fi Channel‘s original series Eureka debuted on Tuesday night at 9p and delivered 2.808 million total viewers.  In the key demos, Eureka deliver 1.426 A25-54, and 1.301 million A18-49. That makes this premiere episode the most watched performance of the series since its series premiere in July 2006, and made it the #1 cable program for the day among A25-54. (Cynopsis 7/31)

New HBO project called How to Make it In America, focused on a group of 20-somethings out to make it big in New York City.  Executive producing the project are Stephen Levinson, Ian Edelman who will also write the script, Mark Wahlberg and Rob Weiss. (Cynopsis 7/31)

Prior to the launch on its linear channel, Sundance Channel will bring six new films from the upcoming season of Asia Extreme to Sundance Channel on Demand, beginning tomorrow.  Asia Extreme showcases the work of innovative filmmakers in a variety of genre movies - crime, thrillers, sci fi, comedies, etc.  The six films are Old Boy (revenge/thriller), The Ghost of Mae Nek (ghost story), The Maid (horror), The President’s Last Bang (thriller), Re-Cycle (thriller), The Red Shoes (thriller). (Cynopsis 7/31)

I’m pointing this out, being that Old Boy is one of my favorite movies of all time.  If you haven’t had the opportunity to check out Park Chan Wook’s trilogy on revenge, of which Old Boy is a part, I strongly suggest it.  A cinematic masterpiece.

Discovery Channel has ordered six one-hour episodes of a series tentatively titled “Doing Da Vinci.” The premise of the show will be to actually construct the designs found in the Italian artist’s sketchbooks. The Hollywood Reporter (7/31)

Citing higher ad revenue and affiliate payments, ESPN reported that its profit rose 9% in its fiscal third quarter, which ended June 28. The sports network and its Web sites helped fuel parent Walt Disney Co. to overall revenue and net income gains of 2% and 8.5%, respectively. The New York Times (7/31) , Financial Times (7/30) , OneTRAK (7/30)

Comcast, the country’s largest cable company, added 555,000 telephony customers and 278,000 broadband subscribers during a second quarter in which total revenue was up 11%, to $8.55 billion, and net income was $632 million, or 8% greater than the comparable period in 2007. The news sent Comcast shares 4.6% higher, to $20.07. ClipSyndicate/Bloomberg (7/30) , The New York Times/Associated Press (7/31) , The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) (7/31)

Cox Communications has announced it inked a carriage deal for the 2010 Winter and the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, which will be covered by NBC Universal. The agreement extends the relationship between the two companies: Cox said earlier this week that it would provide some of its systems enhanced coverage of the Beijing Summer Games, which also are being presented by NBCU. Multichannel News (7/30)

Viewers with digital video recorders don’t fast-forward through advertising nearly as often when they perceive the ad to be relevant, according to new research by DVR maker TiVo. The study showed, for example, that households with kids 12 and younger were 22% more likely to watch a toy or game ad. Adweek (7/30) , CNET (7/30)