Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: AMC, American Broadcasting Company, Arts, Disney Channel, Emmy Award, Great Depression, Mad Men, Television
While HBO has a lock on the rights to broadcast the opening ceremony of Inauguration Week on Jan. 18, Disney/ABC plans to provide multiplatform coverage of the many of the subsequent activities celebrating the affair. Disney Channel will broadcast “Kids’ Inaugural: We Are the Future” on Monday Jan. 19, a concert that will also be simulcast on Radio Disney as well as streamed on Disney.com immediately following the telecast. Meanwhile ABC will broadcast “The Neighborhood Ball: An Inauguration Celebration,” on Tues. Jan 20 at 8p ET that will include Obama’s initial speech, President and First Lady’s first dance of the night and live performances from a star-studded cast. (Cynopsis 1/9)
AMC‘s Emmy Award-winning “Mad Men,” arguably the hottest show on cable TV today, will kick off its third season this summer, a network executive confirmed. The series about a New York ad agency in the 1960s will serve as the lead-in to AMC’s six-part remake of “The Prisoner,” the 1960s British spy thriller. Variety (1/8)
HBO introduces a new comedy series, Eastbound & Down next month centered on a star pitcher who, because of his negative behavior gets kicked out of the MLB and goes home to North Carolina to teach P.E. at his former middle school. The six-episode series opens February 15 at 1030p and stars Danny McBride as Kenny Powers. Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, Chris Henchy, Jody Hill, Danny McBride and Ben Best all executive produce. (Cynopsis 1/9)
The media industry used to worry that ad dollars would disappear, but what was merely feared is now an accelerating trend. Barclays Capital (BCS) forecasts a 10% decline in U.S. ad expenditures—the worst since the Great Depression—and consumers continue to spend less. Recently a senior executive at a major magazine company told me the first half of ’09 will likely bring a 30% decline in ad pages. Companies from book publishers to broadcasters are bracing for serious hurt. Declining trendlines and heavy debt loads, taken on in rosier times, leave the likes of Univision, Clear Channel, and the now-bankrupt Tribune Co. under severe pressure. (Iwantmedia 1/9, http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_03/b4116064966329.htm 1/8)
Time Warner announced it will take a non-cash impairment charge of $25 billion to reflect the declining value of its cable, publishing and AOL units. The company said it would post an operating loss for 2008, in contrast to operating income of $8.9 billion in 2007. Time Warner Cable, which is preparing for a spin off, plans to book a $15 billion asset writedown for Q4. (Cynopsis 1/9)
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Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
CNN.com and Facebook are joining forces in an effort to create what they hope will become the largest live event in the history of the Web. CNN.com will stream live footage from Barack Obama’s inauguration ceremony, allowing viewers to provide updates to their Facebook profiles. (Iwantmedia 1/9, http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/content_display/news/digital-downloads/broadband/e3i4d62455821370cfb2368b1cae3959094 1/8)
MySpace will have its own widget on the Widget Channel designed to run on the televisions and other devices powered by Intel’s CE 3100 Media Processor. The MySpace Widget for TV will allow users to receive friends updates, read and respond to messages, publish personal status and mood updates, browse photos and view friends’ profiles. (Cynopsis 1/9)
The continued migration of TV shows and movies to a variety of digital platforms in the future will be restricted only by the creativity and innovation of the entertainment companies that own the content, according to Anne Sweeney, the co-chairwoman of Disney Media Networks and president of Disney-ABC Television Group. “What we haven’t seen yet is how much content we will consume, and how much revenue we can generate from it,” she said. “But all indications are that the more ways consumers have to watch content, the more their appetite for it grows.” MediaPost Communications (1/8) , TVWeek.com (1/8)
Yahoo is said to be in the final stretch of its search for a CEO, and a decision could come as soon as next week. Among the candidates still under consideration is Carol Bartz, the former CEO of Autodesk, a publicly traded company that builds design software used in engineering. (Iwantmedia 1/9, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123146682191166925.html 1/8)
Macrovision, the company that purchased Gemstar/TVGuide about a year ago, is beefing up the interactive programming guide (IPG) it licenses to television manufacturers. The new guide – being developed under the project name “Neon” – provides a framework for CE manufacturers to build next-generation devices that can find and play broadcast and premium content including television shows, internet-delivered media and music. The IPG will also be able to access and manage content from consumers’ personal media libraries from the same screen. Macrovision says it is working with CBS to demonstrate the integration of select CBS content including episodes of CSI, which can be accessed directly from Macrovision’s CE IPG on a broadband-connected television. (Cynopsis 1/9)
Filed under: WIRELESS | Tags: American Broadcasting Company, Arts, CBS, Fox Broadcasting Company, NBC, Stations, Television, United States
Millions of consumers by year’s end should be able to watch free, over-the-air television on cellphones and other mobile devices as the result of a new initiative by U.S. electronics manufacturers and the local affiliates of ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and others. The move is seen as “quite significant.” (Iwantmedia 1/9, http://www.usatoday.com/money/media/2009-01-07-portable-tv-cellphones_N.htm 1/8)
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Filed under: GAMING | Tags: Animation, Arts, Cable network, DisneyXd, ESPN, Toon Disney, Wall Street Journal, Walt Disney Company
The soon-to-launch Disney XD brand, which comprises a cable channel and a companion Web site that includes a social network and games, is aimed at the elusive viewing audience of boys ages 6 to 14. The channel is a rebranded version of Toon Disney; programming is expanding to include live-action shows, original movies, music and sports from sister-channel ESPN. Rich Ross, president of Disney Channels Worldwide, said, “We looked at the landscape and feel that girls are being served — if not superserved — and preschoolers are also well-served, but boys really haven’t been.” The Wall Street Journal (1/8)
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Filed under: TECHNOLOGY | Tags: Consumer electronics, Consumer Electronics Show, High-Definition Multimedia Interface, High-definition television, Howard Stringer, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Slingbox, Television
Sony Chairman and CEO Howard Stringer showed the crowd at the Consumer Electronics Show 3-D video clips from “Cars” and the Orange Bowl to make his point that the technology is “closer than you think” to becoming widely available. DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, appearing on stage with Stringer, said 3-D represented “the third great revolution” of the film industry after sound and color. Multichannel News (1/8)
The President-elect’s team called for a delay in the cutoff of analog TV signals yesterday after The Consumers Union, the non-profit publisher of Consumer Reports, sent a letter to Capitol Hill late Tuesday requesting that the Feb. 17 transition be postponed to better prepare elderly and poorer consumers who still rely on rabbit ears for their television signals. The requests come days after federal officials announced that the program to distribute $40 coupons to defray the cost of digital converter boxes has run out of money. (The boxes retail for between $50-$80 each, without a coupon.) (Cynopsis 1/9)
Comcast and Panasonic announced they have started working on a new breed of digital cable set-top boxes that can link Panasonic’s Viera HDTVs to other entertainment devices in the home. Theoretically, the new boxes, which will employ HDMI-CEC technology, will enable nontru2way TVs to interact with tru2way set-top boxes via a unified remote control and user interface. CED Magazine.com (1/8) , Light Reading (1/8)
Dish Network unveiled the world’s first “SlingLoaded HD DuoDVR,” integrating Sling Media’s place shifting Slingbox technology with a dual tuner HD DVR enabling subscribers to view HD programming on their TVs, laptops or smartphones both at home and remotely. (Cynopsis 1/9)
IPTV programmer NeuLion unveils a new HD TV Box today that allows participating networks to deliver 720p and 1080i HD streaming to PCs or directly to HDTV sets. The current NeuLion box, available for $129, delivers a wide selection of foreign broadcasting services in 480p and 480i as well as sports programming including NFL football and NHL hockey to broadband customers on an a la carte basis. The new box is expected to ship in March 2009 for an undetermined price. (Cynopsis 1/9)
Like the folks who make a popular New Year’s resolution, TV sets will get thinner in the future, according to research from DisplaySearch. According to a new study, the firm estimated that ultraslim TVs — those no deeper than 1.6 inches — could account for 14 million units worldwide by 2012 and that these thin TVs could make up 18% of the North American, Japanese and Western Europe market in three years. TVWeek.com (1/8)
Sync, the voice-activated, dashboard entertainment and communication system launched by Ford 18 months ago, is beginning to look a lot like an iPhone. Like the Apple device, future iterations of Sync are expected to allow users to customize and further pimp their ride by integrating third-party applications as well as computer-generated avatars, Ford CEO Alan Mullaly said during a CES keynote address. The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) (1/9) , CNET (1/8)
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Filed under: Feature
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