Daily Marauder

BROADCAST/CABLE by Marauder

BROADCAST/CABLE

Nielsen reported 4 million viewers for the premiere episode of Lucasfilm’s new animated series, making it Cartoon Network‘s highest-rated debut ever. The network claimed the top spot among children’s networks during the show’s 9 p.m. Friday Eastern time slot. Reuters/The Hollywood Reporter (10/6)

Production for the new season of “Entourage” will begin in 2009 with plans for a summer launch. The series is in its fifth season on HBO. E! Online (10/6) , Variety (10/6)

More people are watching cable business channels to see financial news because of the Wall Street crisis, but advertising is not increasing. Broadcasting & Cable (10/6)

FX has picked up a full second season of 13 episodes of Sons of Anarchy.  So far, this new dramatic series is being touted by the network as the most successful launch among A18-49 since the debut of Rescue Me. (Cynopsis 10/7)

AMC is spotlighting entertainment headlines as the network launches AMC News, a short-form news program covering film premieres, film festivals and industry award events, with host Jacob Soboroff. (Cynopsis 10/7)

Kevin Bacon has a new series for Showtime that sheds light on the man who murdered Abraham Lincoln, reports Variety. The Booths, which does not have a writer yet, will be a period piece focused on the actor-brothers Edwin, Junius Brutus Jr. and John Wilkes Booth and their unstable relationship in the years before Lincoln’s assassination. (Cynopsis 10/7)

NBC Universal officials say they consider mandated channel wholesale a la carte, or unbundled, beyond the FCC’s purview. “There’s no legal or factual basis for government intervention in private carriage negotiations,” said NBC Universal in a filing Monday. Multichannel News (10/6)

Shares of Time Warner, News Corp. and other diversified media conglomerates hit fresh lows Monday, as a broad global selloff was touched off by renewed fears over the spread of the credit crisis. Subscription-based media stocks are said to be “trapped in a downward spiral.” (Iwantmedia 10/7, http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7bA9819E79-326A-47E7-8D09-4D17E2E4B953%7D 10/6)

Barry Diller broke up IAC/InterActiveCorp six weeks ago because he believed it was too complicated and diverse. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Diller talks about his decision to break up IAC, the financial market and why he never wants to run a major movie studio again. The Wall Street Journal (free content) (10/7)

A federal jury in Virginia has dealt a blow to Verizon Communications, saying Cox Communications did not infringe on six Verizon patents related to Internet telephony. This means Verizon may have difficulty getting royalties from cable providers for Internet-based telephony. The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) (10/7)

Comcast is contacting its digital subscribers in Baltimore to inform them of the study that will match viewership to demographics to help inform the development of targeted ads. Customers will have the option of not participating in the six-month project, which follows a similar test by Comcast in Alabama in 2006. CED Magazine (10/2008)

The Supreme Court has declined to hear Dish Network’s appeal of a patent ruling that awarded TiVo millions of dollars in damages for unauthorized use of its “Time Warp” software. A district court may award additional damages in response to allegations that Dish has violated an injunction against its use of the technology. Reuters (10/6) , Mediaweek (10/6)

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