Daily Marauder

BROADCAST/CABLE

Discovery Channel’s 21st annual “Shark Week” of programming attracted more than 29 million viewers from July 27 to Aug. 2. “Shark Week” also performed well online, where Discovery racked up a record 7.5 million page views and more than 600,000 total visits. Multichannel News (8/5)

News Corp. reported revenue of $8.59 billion for Q2, up 16.5% over the previous year on income of $1.48 billion. Television was hard hit due to lower ratings and revenue, with income dropping 28%, while investment costs at Fox Interactive Media were high, driving operating income at FIM down to just $6 million. A silver lining was MySpace’s new contextual display advertising efforts; advertisers are paying double CPMs on hypertargeted branding campaigns within the social network. (Cynopsis 8/6)

Time Warner Cable added 200,000 digital-video subscribers in the second quarter and earned a profit that exceeded the expectations of Wall Street analysts. The company, which is being spun off from Time Warner, said that revenue was up 7%, to $4.3 billion, and that net profit hit $277 million, up from $272 million in the comparable period a year earlier. Reuters (8/6) , American City Business Journals/Buffalo (8/6)

Cablevision Chief Executive Officer James Dolan said the company was “actively looking” at a number of strategic alternatives to boost the firm’s stock price. One of those alternatives, according to analysts, would be to spin off Rainbow Media — which holds cable networks such as AMC, the Independent Film Channel, the Sundance Channel and WEtv — for an estimated $4 billion. Los Angeles Times/Associated Press (free registration) (8/5) , Bloomberg (8/5)

BROADCAST/CABLE

Sci Fi Channel’s finale of Doctor Who on August 1 delivered a 1.0 HH rating and 1.26 million total viewers, according to Live + Same Day Nielsen data. In key demos, Dr. Who delivered 695,000 A25-54 and 588,000 A18-49.  Overall Season #4 was up over the previous season by 25% in household ratings, and 6% in both key demos. (Cynopsis 8/5)

Coming up next for AMC - a new political thriller, reports THR.  The project from Jason Horwitch is about a secret society who is using the political system as its own puppets, and a think tank analyst who realizes his employers are not what he thought they were. Production is scheduled to begin in October. (Cynopsis 8/5)

In a move that could potentially transform the way advanced video services are rolled out to viewers, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in New York ruled Monday that DVRs that operate via a central storage server rather than a set-top storage device do not violate copyright law. Analyst Craig E. Moffett said the decision “means a huge increase in the number of viewing hours per day potentially subject to ad-skipping.” The use of networked technology paves the way for the delivery of interactive and dynamic advertising via recorded programs. The New York Times (8/5) , The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) (8/5)

Cablers with 2,500 subscribers or fewer that are not part of larger systems serving 10% or more of national pay-TV subscribers would be able to receive a three-year exemption from the HDTV must-carry rule, according to a proposal backed by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin. The exemption, scheduled for an Aug. 22 vote by the commission, in theory would be available to just about every cable company, except Comcast and Time Warner Cable, according to Multichannel News. Multichannel News (8/4) , Broadcasting & Cable (8/4)

Dish Network reported that its subscriber base dipped 25,000 in the second quarter, marking the first time the satellite provider had lost customers in its 12-year history. The company is facing increased competition from cable and telecom providers. The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) (8/5) , The New York Times/Reuters (8/4)

Insight Communications added 3,800 basic-cable customers during the second quarter, compared with 2,500 a year earlier, while digital additions totaled 9,200, a 3% uptick. The MSO added RGUs in the four key categories as it attracted more high-speed data and voice subscribers than it did in the same period in 2007. OneTRAK (8/4)

BROADCAST/CABLE

If you plan to set your DVR to record NBC’s Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony from Beijing on August 8th, plan to set it beginning at 730p ET, rather than 8p.  NBC Sports has announced Opening Ceremonies would start a half hour earlier than originally planned for no other reason other than it looked so good during rehearsals that they decided to get the games started a tad earlier. (Cynopsis 8/4)

While the presidential race has boosted the ratings and online hits for cable news networks, other media outlets — the broadcast networks, newspapers and magazines — have seen little bounce from the campaign, according to The New York Times. One possible reason: the rapid rise of Internet news and opinion sites such as Politico.com, which averaged 2.5 million unique visitors in the first half of the year. The New York Times (8/4)

Senator Barack Obama was asked about Senator John McCain during a taping of “The Situation Room” on CNN in May.

Basic networks have enjoyed ratings bonanzas this summer by placing a large emphasis on original, scripted series, while the broadcast networks stuck largely to reality shows, according to the Los Angeles Times. The key question for cable programmers, however, is how many of those viewers they will retain once the broadcasters launch their fall schedules. Los Angeles Times (8/4)

Shailene Woodley, left, India Eisley and Molly Ringwald in ABC Family’s “The Secret Life of the American Teenager.”

Fox has ordered up a fifth season of So You Think You Can Dance, from 19 Entertainment.  The show is scheduled to air its current season finale later on this week. (Cynopsis 8/4)

Wall Street has been impressed by the latest round of quarterly reports coming out of the cable MSOs, saying they have performed better than expected. On the flip side, analysts noted their disappointment in the performances of Verizon’s FiOS TV and AT&T’s U-verse services. Combined, Comcast and Cablevision nabbed 69% of the net new broadband subscribers in the second quarter, with AT&T, Verizon and three other telcos together attracting just 31%, according to the Silicon Alley Insider. Silicon Alley Insider (8/4) , Broadcasting & Cable (8/4) , Barron’s (8/4)

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)