Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: Bravo, Matt Lauer, New York Fashion Week, ProjectRunway, Super Bowl, Television, Weinstein Company, White House
NBC says it has landed the “first television interview from the White House” with President Obama since his inauguration. The live interview, with NBC News’s Matt Lauer, will air during the pre-game show before Sunday’s Super Bowl. More of the interview will air the next day on “Today.” (Iwantmedia 1/27, http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2009/01/61930374/1 1/26)
Advertisers are paying NBC as much as $3 million for 30 seconds of airtime during this year’s Super Bowl — 11% more than the $2.7 million that Fox charged during last year’s game. Companies say they’re spending big because no other event captures the interest of 100 million viewers. (Iwantmedia 1/27, http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-superbowl27-2009jan27,0,7885040.story 1/27)
Tire maker Bridgestone Americas Inc. is again sponsoring the Super Bowl halftime show and will unveil two new TV ads, including one set in space that an executive says is very “high-tech as far as the graphics.”
Lifetime’s “Prayers for Bobby,” the story about a woman whose gay son kills himself, attracted 3.8 million total viewers and a 3.1 household rating in its debut this past Saturday. The premiere pulled in 1 million women in the 18-to-49 age group and 1.1 million women 25-to-54, the network’s two most-important demographic categories. Multichannel News (1/26)
The next season of “Project Runway” may never make it to television, but producers plan to film the big New York Fashion Week finale anyway. The show remains tied up in lawsuits between NBC’s Bravo, its producers at the Weinstein Company and new “Runway” owner Lifetime. (Iwantmedia 1/27, http://www.nypost.com/seven/01272009/tv/can_runway_make_it_work__152186.htm 1/27)
CBS revs up for the fourteenth edition of The Amazing Race on February 15 at 8p with Phil Keoghan as host. (Cynopsis 1/27)
ABC will debut the new Better Off Ted March 18 at 830p following Scrubs at 8p. On Thursday nights beginning March 26 at 8p, ABC will pair the new Megan Mullally/Cheryl Hines comedy In the Motherhood followed by Samantha Who? at 830p. (Cynopsis 1/27)
News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch, who turns 78 in March, is said to have “hazy” succession planning. Murdoch dying in office without an anointed family heir could force News Corp.’s board to appoint a new CEO itself — and that person might not be any of Rupert’s offspring. (Iwantmedia 1/27, http://www.businessday.com.au/business/decision-time-is-looming-for-the-murdoch-family-20090126-7q1f.html 1/27)
ABC approved a redo of the 1980s miniseries V about alien lizards landing on the planet. Scott Peters (The 4400) writes the new adaptation and also will executive produce along with Jason Hall of HDFilms. Warner Bros. Television produced the original miniseries and will produce the pilot. (Cynopsis 1/27)
CBS okayed a pilot presentation for a reality program titled Missing You from executive producer Shaun Cassidy about a team of investigators focusing on new missing-persons cases each week. Cassidy and Ned Nalle created Missing You and Nalle will also executive produce along with James Bruce and Raquel Productions. (Cynopsis 1/27)
The Senate passed a bill that would extend the transition to all-digital TV signals from Feb. 17 to June 12, with the hope that those who have not yet prepared for the switch will do so in the additional months. 
ClipSyndicate (1/26) , The Washington Post (1/27) , Reuters (1/27)
In his first meeting as acting chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Michael Copps said the FCC’s near-term agenda will be “DTV, DTV and DTV,” and he urged commissioners and staffers to conduct business in a more inclusive manner. These changes, Copps said, will “make the FCC more transparent, open and useful to the stakeholders that we serve. And when I say stakeholders, I include not just the industries that we regulate but, more importantly, all citizens.” TVWeek.com (1/26) , Broadcasting & Cable (1/26)
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Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA | Tags: AT&T, EBay, Facebook, Lil Wayne, Netflix, Skype, Social network, Yahoo
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Yahoo released its fourth quarter 2008 earnings today. Its non-GAAP EPS came in at $0.17 a share, above the $0.13 consensus. (Yahoo lost $0.22 a share on a GAAP basis due to restructuring and impairment charges). Total revenues came in at $1.8 billion, with net revenues (after what Yahoo pays to network partners) coming in at $1.375 billion. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/27/yahoo-ceo-bartz-i-did-not-come-to-yahoo-to-sell-the-company 1/27)
Facebook will feature a live worldwide performance of Lil’ Wayne’s new single “Prom Queen,” on two AT&T pages tonight at 9:30PM PST, streamed live on both AT&T’s Freedom of Choice page as well as its Mobile Music page. Fans will be able to purchase ringtones or mp3s of the full track following the performance. Lil Wayne is the logic choice for the experiment; he sold more ringtones than any other artists last year on the AT&T network and attracted more visitors to his Facebook page than any other artist. (Cynopsis 1/27)
Time corrected from Cynopsis.
eBay has signaled its intent to sell its Skype internet telephone division after reporting weak Q4 profit, reports The Times (UK.) The auction site acquired Skype 4 years ago for a princely sum of $2.6 billion but has struggled to effectively monetize its massive subscriber base. (Cynopsis 1/27)
The troubled economy doesn’t seem to be hampering Netflix, which just announced fourth-quarter profit was up 45%, to $22.7 million, on revenue of $360 million, a 19% bump from the comparable period in 2007. The company reported 9.39 million subscribers by the end of the quarter, which exceeded the high end of its previous range forecast. The Wall Street Journal/Dow Jones Newswires (subscription required) (1/27)
If you want to track the most popular fan pages on Facebook, AllFacebook pushed out a new Facebook Pages Tracker
last night that keeps stats on 611,213 fan pages on the social network. Only about 57,000 of those pages have more than 1,000 fans. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/27/facebook-users-are-becoming-big-fans-of-masturbation-and-other-fan-page-stats 1/27)
Both sales volume and online CPMs are down significantly in the display ad market according to an informal survey of publishers and advertisers conducted by Ad Age. The low end of the ad market – the kind of products aggregated by remnant ad networks – continue to drag down the rest of the market as the average CPM on ad networks has dropped from $1.10 to only 60 cents/thousand impressions. (Cynopsis 1/27)
Hulu, the joint video venture between NBC Universal and News Corp., will be running a commercial during this Sunday’s Super Bowl. The big game airs on NBC, one of Hulu’s corporate parents. Hulu’s announcement of the spot promises that the ad will “reveal the secret behind Hulu.” (Iwantmedia 1/27, http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10150197-36.html 1/26)
MTV Networks has signed on to be the exclusive ad sales rep for comedy Web site JibJab.com, a deal that also includes brand integrations and custom sponsorships on JibJab. The site had about 105 million visitors last year and maintains more than 6 million registered users. ClickZ (1/27) , The New York Times/Gigaom (1/26)
Fox Interactive Media is eliminating more than just free lunches. News Corp’s digital arm is trimming nearly 100 jobs across several business units, including Photobucket, MySpace, Scout Media, Rotten Tomatoes, and corporate. The total comes to a little under 5 percent of FIM’s domestic U.S. workforce, and about 3 percent of its global workforce of 2,900. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/26/fim-trims-about-100-jobs-mostly-at-photobucket-and-corporate 1/26)
YouTube uploads for the week ending 2009-01-24
1. CNN (205)
2. Fox News (196)
3. MSNBC (132)
4. ABC (125)
5. CBS (54)
6. CNBC (39)
YouTube views for the week ending 2009-01-24
1. ABC (780,302)
2. CNN (602,095)
3. MSNBC (544,343)
4. Fox News (470,993)
5. CNBC (106,257)
6. CBS (65,208)
7. AP (1,063)
Source: Affine Systems
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Filed under: WIRELESS | Tags: ABC News, Business, Disney Channel, George Stephanopoulos, Hannah Montana, Phineas and Ferb, Sprint Nextel, Verizon Wireless
The Disney/ABC Television Group, ESPN and Verizon announced a deal to offer a broader selection of programming to Verizon Wireless VCast and mobile web customers. The agreement covers mobile distribution of on-demand, full-length episodes to VCast Video, complementing existing short-form content already available from ABC and ESPN. Full-length programs now available include Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy, Lost and Ugly Betty from ABC; Nightline, This Week with George Stephanopoulos and 20/20 from ABC News; and Hannah Montana, The Suite Life on Deck and Phineas and Ferb from Disney Channel. (Cynopsis 1/27)
After losing some 1.3 million subscribers during Q3 Sprint Nextel announced it is preparing to eliminate some 8,000 workers or 14.3% of its workforce by the end of March (the same month that Palm is rumored to introduce its new Pre smartphone on the Sprint network.) (Cynopsis 1/27)
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Filed under: TECHNOLOGY | Tags: Apple, GarageBand, ILife, IMovie, iPhone, IPhoto, iPod Touch, Smartphones
Internet giant Google plans to launch its Google Drive service, which could make PCs obsolete. The GDrive would allow users to access their personal computers from any Internet connection, eliminating the need for a hard drive. But some privacy experts are concerned about users storing personal files on Google’s servers. The Observer (London) (1/25)
My only question is…when can I have one?
iLife ‘09 is finally available on store shelves, and while most of the attention will probably go to iPhoto’s spiffy new face-recognition, there’s a feature tucked into GarageBand that might be making headlines very soon: premium lessons for piano and guitar, presented by the artists themselves. Dubbed ‘Lesson Store’, Apple’s online marketplace for music lessons has all the makings of a revolution in music learning that could prove to be incredibly popular and lucrative. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/27/the-garageband-lesson-store-could-be-apples-next-revolution-in-music 1/27)
(Below) Watch out Palm. Apple will undoubtedly now be gunnin’ for your Palm Pre.
Apple has won potential protection against its iPhone and iPod Touch rivals in the form of a patent that covers technology for “detecting one or more finger contacts with the touch-screen display” to enter commands. The patent covers such methods as finger or thumb swiping, twisting or spreading to flip pages, rotate views or enlarge images, according to an online filing on the U.S. Patent and Trade Office’s site. Google/Agence France-Presse (1/27)
A new report from In-Stat says that about 39 million U.S. households contain a high-definition TV, but only 22 million of those hi-tech homes have signed up for HD programming. On a more positive note, the report said the number of high-definition households with both an HDTV and HD programming was up 40% last year. TWICE (1/26) , Cartt News Service
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Filed under: MISC | Tags: China, Intellectual Property, Intellectual property infringement in the People's Republic of China, Reuters, Trademark, United States, us, World Trade Organization
The World Trade Organization has sided with the U.S. in nearly the entirety of its complaint against China and its failure to protect copyrights and trademarks. Chinese piracy is believed to rob content owners of more than $3.7 billion in lost sales on music, movies, books and software. 
ClipSyndicate/Bloomberg (1/26) , Reuters (1/26)
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Filed under: Feature
C-song and I headed to the East Village for cocktails with the new media elite. Wanna learn more about SXSW Interactive? Click here.
Mobile post sent by Marauder using Utterli. Replies.
Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: AbsolutelyFabulous, Jack Nicholson, jennifersaunders, John Updike, Television, USA Network, Warner Bros., Witches of Eastwick
USA Network‘s season two premiere of Burn Notice last Thursday at 10p drew in 2.47 million A18-49 viewers, the most since the show began. The debut episode also attracted 2.69 million A25-54 viewers and 5.12 million total viewers. The network also launched COVERT OPS 2.0, an interactive online game based on Burn Notice and as a follow up to last year’s COVERT OPS 1.0. The game, sponsored by GM’s Saab USA, allows fans of the show to become spies and participate in various challenges and intrigues. (Cynopsis 1/26)
FOX okayed a U.S. version of the iconic British comedy series, Absolutely Fabulous. FOX’s take is based on the original, though set in Los Angeles, and will even keep the same main characters, crazy best friends and party-mongers Edina and Patsy and Edina’s disapproving daughter, Saffron. Jennifer Saunders who wrote and starred in the Brit version will executive produce FOX’s edition; Christine Zander will write and executive produce along with Ian Moffitt, Mitch Hurwitz, Eric Tannenbaum and Kim Tannenbaum. Sony Pictures Television will produce with Tantamount and BBC Worldwide Americas. (Cynopsis 1/26)
FINALLY Ab fab is making its sparkling return. This makes me almost want to light up at my desk…
Bravo is hitting all the right notes with the 18-to-49 demographic, which is highly coveted by advertisers. Last Tuesday, Bravo attracted 1.44 million in the demo for an episode of “Real Housewives of Orange County,” while its “Top Chef: New York” is up 18% in the age group so far this season. Multichannel News (1/23)
ABC gave a nod to a television adaptation of The Witches of Eastwick from Warner Bros. written and executive produced by Maggie Friedman. The TV version based on the novel by John Updike and the 1987 movie, centers on three women who discover they have supernatural powers after a strange man moves to town. (Cynopsis 1/26)
Now who praytell could play Jack Nicholson’s character?
On the heels of picking up the dramedy pilot Mercy revolving around three nurses, NBC approved a second new medical drama pilot titled Trauma about medical emergencies out in the field, though the pick-up is contingent on finding a director. (Cynopsis 1/26)
ABC landed a two-hour pilot order for Happy Town, a mystery set in a small town where a series of kidnappings took place seven years prior. The project is billed as similar to ABC’s offbeat drama from the past, Twin Peaks. (Cynopsis 1/26)
Liberty Media’s DirecTV plans to create a new premium network with HBO-like programming for its subscribers. The satellite television service aims to become “a pre-cable window for premium channels.” DirecTV also will produce original movies that will serve as pilots for potential series. (Iwantmedia 1/26, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/24/business/media/24direct.html?_r=1 1/24)
NBC Universal is entering a deal with American Airlines to take over the carrier’s in-flight entertainment service. As part of the deal, the airline will part ways with CBS, which had programmed American’s in-flight service for more than 10 years. CBS had sold the in-flight ad time; NBC will not. (Iwantmedia 1/26, http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117999040.html?categoryid=18&cs=1 1/25)
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