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BROADCAST/CABLE by Marauder

BROADCAST/CABLE

Lifetime filed a motion late Friday to move its legal battle with NBC Universal‘s Bravo over which net gets “Project Runway” from New York state court to the federal level. Attorneys for Lifetime contend that its right to exclusively telecast episodes of the show in the future will pertain to federal copyright law and should, therefore, be heard in federal court. Reuters/The Hollywood Reporter (10/19) , Variety (10/17)

AMC renewed Mad Men for a third season although the show’s production company Lionsgate is in negotiations with the series creator/executive producer Matthew Weiner about who will lead the show for the next season. To date, Lionsgate does not have a contract agreement with Weiner for a third season and Weiner is hoping to raise his pay in light of Mad Men’s Emmy last month for best drama series. (Cynopsis 10/20)

FOX gave a full season order for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. FOX said yes to the back nine episodes for the sci fi series’ current second season from Warner Bros. (Cynopsis 10/20)

Cartoon Network is adding to its growing list of original features with a movie treatment of children’s horror book series “NASTYbook,” which is being described as a children’s version of “The Twilight Zone.” “NASTYbook” is to be a live-action/computer-generated movie and joins other Cartoon Network movies in development, such as “Tiger’s Apprentice,” “Firebreather” and “Ben 10.” The Hollywood Reporter (10/20)

TBS ran into technical difficulties on Saturday night that prevented their airing the first 18 minutes of Game #6 of the ALCS championship between the Boston Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays.  Instead, fans tuning were disappointed to see The Steve Harvey Show. By the time TBS was able to regain transmission, fans had already missed Tampa putting the first score on the board.  What was the problem?  In simplest terms it sounds like they blew a fuse and two circuit breakers were tripped.   TBS has been averaging approx 6 million viewers per game thus far this ALCS series. (Cynopsis 10/20)

Cable providers are working overtime to develop new ways to expand their bandwidth capabilities and, in doing so, have been able to offer subscribers more programming options in general and a growing slate of Hispanic offerings in particular, this article reports. Time Warner Cable, for instance, recently introduced El Paquetazo, which includes more than 50 Spanish-language networks, in Los Angeles. Multichannel News (10/20)

NBC Universal President Jeff Zucker outlined a 3% drop in the network’s annual budget and asked leaders of its various divisions to make cuts in travel, entertainment and use of consultants. In his memo, Zucker said, “it has become evident that the decline in consumer confidence and spending will impact our operations.” The Wall Street Journal (10/20) , Los Angeles Times (10/18)

Comcast and online job-search site Monster.com are joining forces to launch a new TV channel for those looking for work. The new channel is expected to be up and running by the end of the year, and it will be available in about 16.5 million households. Bloomberg (10/19)

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