Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: Disney Channel, ESPN, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Oprah Winfrey, Russia, United States, Walt Disney Company
With its venerable “WWE Raw” fightfest, USA attracted an average 3.11 million viewers during the week ended Dec. 14, according to Nielsen live-plus-same-day figures. It was the first weekly ratings race that ESPN did not win since the beginning of the 2008 football season. Mediaweek (12/16)
Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Films has made final a programming-collaboration deal with HBO that will give the cable network known for cutting-edge content access to series, movies and documentaries. The deal came together after Harpo executives, citing the need for greater creative freedom, ended a 15-year relationship with ABC. Los Angeles Times (12/17) , The Wall Street Journal (free content) (12/16)
The Walt Disney Co. sometime in 2009 will purchase a 49% stake in a new joint venture with Russian TV station operator Media-One Holdings and begin offering the broadcast equivalent of the Disney Channel in the country. Russia, according to these articles, is considered to be one of the last great untapped regions of the globe for the media industry. The Wall Street Journal (12/16) , The New York Times (12/16)
A&E Network’s sixth season debut of Intervention last Monday night at 9p attracted 1.6 million A25-54 viewers, 1.7 million A18-49 viewers and 2.2 million total viewers. GRB produces the series for A&E. (Cynopsis 12/17)
CBS Corporation is the latest entertainment company to eliminate staff as employees of CBS Entertainment and CBS Paramount Network Television were laid off Monday. A few high-level CBS Paramount TV executives were also let go: EVP Maria Crenna who served under President David Stapf; SVP/Head of Comedy Brian Banks; and VP/Current Programming Jocelyn Freid. (Cynopsis 12/17)
Viacom‘s BET, with popular shows such as “106 & Park” and “College Hill,” now is available in nearly 30 African countries. The recent move puts the network, which serves up African-American-centric content, in the U.S., Canada, the Caribbean and the U.K. MediaPost Communications (12/16)
FOX approved a 13-episode order for Glee, a musical comedy series from Ryan Murphy (Nip/Tuck, Popular). The 60m series, featuring a soundtrack of popular songs, is about an energetic high school teacher, Will Schuester (played by Matthew Morrison) who is charged with bringing back the McKinley High School Glee Club to its winning glory days by encouraging a group of misfit students to compete in the Nationals. (Cynopsis 12/17)
Fox Business Network has inked a new digital-carriage deal with Charter Communications that will add about 200,000 homes in the Midwest and Northeast to FBN’s subscriber total. The network recently completed a similar deal with Cox, and the two new agreements mean the FBN soon will be available to 45 million homes. TVWeek.com (12/16)
CBS Paramount Network Television signed a first-look deal with actor Laurence Fishburne and his Cinema Gypsy Productions, reports Variety. Fishburne recently joined as star of CBS’ CSI: Crime Scene Investigation also produced by CBS Paramount Network TV. (Cynopsis 12/17)
MTV introduces a diverse slate of new reality series set to debut in first quarter 2009. Also new for the network next year will be a two-hour primetime block on Sundays starting at 9p. (Cynopsis 12/17)
AT&T’s U-Verse IPTV service reached a milestone, signing its 1 millionth subscriber across 79 markets in 16 states. (Cynopsis 12/17)
Fox Cable Networks made a deal with DIRECTV and Verizon FiOS to make FUEL TV On Demand available to viewers, with 10 original hours of action sports programming each month. (Cynopsis 12/17)
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Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: Arts and Entertainment, Business, Disney Channel, HannahMontana, Jerry Bruckheimer, Miley Cyrus, Television, United States
The Disney Channel has ordered six additional third-season episodes of its blockbuster “Hannah Montana” series. The show, starring Miley Cyrus, is Disney’s No. 1 show in the 6-to-11 and 9-to-14 demographics. Variety (12/2)
CBS gave frosh thriller Eleventh Hour from Jerry Bruckheimer and Warner Bros. Television an extension of five more episodes, making it a somewhat smaller full season order. So far this season the drama has averaged a 3.3/9 among A18-49 and 12 million total viewers. (Cynopsis 12/3)
Oxygen struts out with the most current season of America‘s Next Top Model beginning January 18 at 11a, airing back-to-back episodes for thirteen hours. Last September, Oxygen acquired the exclusive cable rights to all seasons of America’s Next Top Model including the 12th season now in production as well as repeat airings going beyond cycle 12. (Cynopsis 12/3)
American TV viewers will see more of Little Britain USA as a second series is slated for production from HBO and the BBC. PPC Enterprises, the commercial unit of Picture Production Company Group, holds the rights to the Little Britain USA brand as well as the rights to Little Britain Classics. (Cynopsis 12/3)
ABC is retooling its midseason schedule adding in new series Castle, Cupid and The Unusuals in the 10p slot on various weeknights. (Cynopsis 12/3)
The CW announced plans to bring back Reaper for a 13-episode second season following 90210 Tuesday nights beginning March 17, reports THR and The Live Feed. (Cynopsis 12/3)
Facing a deadline on Friday, Vivendi apparently has decided not to sell its 20% stake in NBC Universal, the corporate umbrella for the NBC broadcast network as well as a number of cable TV channels, according to unnamed sources in this article. One of these sources, however, said Vivendi might consider such a move in the future: “It is not the right time to sell,” the source said. The Hollywood Reporter (12/2)
Music Choice‘s first-ever Video on Demand music awards program in now available and Chris Brown made the grade as the Most Demanded Artist of the Year, registering over 43 million requests. Lil’ Wayne Featuring Static Major’s “Lollipop” was the most demanded music video of the year, edging out Jonas Brothers’ “Burnin’ Up.” (Cynopsis 12/4)
Barring a few ongoing political races, the election season ad spending has been tallied and according to TNS Media Intelligence the grand total spent was $2.5 billion and $2.7 billion, as reported by B&C. Television took the largest piece of the pie at $2.2 billion with broadcast television at $2 billion with national cable and national networks at $200 million; print, radio, online and local cable round out the remaining $200-$400 million. (Cynopsis 12/3)
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Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: Al Gore, Barack Obama, Billy Ray Cyrus, Current Media, Discovery Channel, Disney Channel, Hannah Montana, Miley Cyrus
With an audience-retention rate of nearly 100% since its premiere Oct. 20, freshman comedy “Rita Rocks” already has proved to be a buzz-worthy hit on Lifetime’s Tuesday-night schedule. The network has rewarded that performance by ordering seven more episodes, which brings the show’s first-season episode total to 20. TVWeek.com (11/10)
Barack Obama’s two daughters have been invited to appear on the Disney Channel kids show “Hannah Montana,” said actor Billy Ray Cyrus, the father of “Hannah” star Miley Cyrus. The show has asked Malia, 10, and Sasha Obama, 7, to take part in an episode around April. (Iwantmedia 11/11, http://www.accesshollywood.com/malia-and-sasha-obama-to-visit-hannah-montana_article_12106 11/11)
Discovery Channel showcases new episodes of Man vs. Wild beginning late January with adventurer Bear Grylls at the helm. Eight new hi-def episodes will follow Bear to challenging locations such as Transylvania, Turkey, Belize, the Yukon Peninsula, Dominican Republic and the Bandlands of Oregon. These new episodes, produced by Diverse Productions, continues season three which began last August. (Cynopsis 11/11)
History unveiled its new series Shadow Force last Friday at 10p, delivering 585,000 A18-49 viewers, 616,000 A25-54 viewers and 1.1 million total viewers. (Cynopsis 11/11)
There have been layoffs at Current Media, the cable network co-founded by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore. A source close to Current told CNET News on Tuesday that 20 percent of the staff has been cut, and that some of the layoffs will take place now and others in January. Current had announced less than a day ago that it had partnered with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. to bring its network to Canada. (http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10094101-36.html?tag=rtcol;relnews 11/11)
The notion that General Electric would like to sell NBC Universal has circulated for years. But the credit crisis has suddenly changed prospects of selling the unit. Analysts now don’t see the point in dumping NBC at a time when other GE businesses are struggling. (Iwantmedia 11/11, http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUSTRE4A92OC20081110 11/10)
The MLB Network secured carriage on Verizon’s FiOS TV service as part of a multi-year agreement. Verizon will add MLB to its Essentials and Extreme HD package when it debuts on Jan. 1 2009. Verizon will also offer the MLB Extra Innings package of out-of-market games to its subscribers. (Cynopsis 11/11)
The MGM HD channel has secured carriage through AT&T’s U-verse IPTV system. U-verse TV customers can receive MGM HD as part of the service’s HD Premium package, a new tier which can be added to an HD service subscription for an additional $5/month. (Cynopsis 11/11)
The FCC said it would seek additional information on the so-called “quiet period” being suggested around retransmission-consent agreements leading up to and following the country’s transition to all-digital TV signals. Cable companies have asked the commission to impose a quiet period that would start at the end of the year so that negotiations would not add to the confusion of the DTV switchover. Broadcasting & Cable (11/10)
Insight Communications turned in a stellar third-quarter performance, adding 9,300 basic-cable subscribers, 14,400 digital-cable customers, 20,500 high-speed data homes and 19,200 telephony subscribers. That solid growth in revenue-generating units helped the company earn $220 million in revenue during the quarter, a 17% improvement over the same period a year earlier. OneTRAK (11/10) , CED Magazine (11/2008)
Dish Network reported another bad quarter losing about 10,000 subscribers to end the quarter with 13.78 million overall subs. The company’s Q3 net income was $92 million – down 54% from Q3 2007. Like its competitor DirecTV, Dish warned it is likely to suffer from the loss of AT&T as distribution partner net year. AT&T subs accounted for around 17% of its gross subscriber additions so far in 2008. (Cynopsis 11/11)
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Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: Arts, Bravo, Disney Channel, Home Sweet Hollywood, Million Dollar Listing, Television, Toon Disney, Tori Spelling
Oxygen drew its most viewers ever Tuesday night for the next-to-last episode of the Tori Spelling reality show, “Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood.” The show attracted 1.4 million viewers and was tops in its time slot among women 18 to 49. Reuters/The Hollywood Reporter (8/7) , Multichannel News (8/6)
Bravo’s season finale of Flipping Out Tuesday at 10p attracted 881,000 A18-49 viewers and nearly 1.3 million total viewers. The network’s premiere of real estate drama Million Dollar Listing following at 11p delivered 510,000 A18-49 viewers and 753,000 total viewers for its second season premiere. (Cynopsis 8/7(
Beginning in February, Toon Disney will be relaunched as Disney XD, a cable channel that will target 6- to 14-year-old boys with a steady diet of original series, movies and animation as well as sports-themed content developed with corporate cousin ESPN. The move has been top secret for about a year now, according to this report, as Disney tried to figure a way to attract more boys, who currently prefer Viacom’s Nickelodeon and Time Warner’s Cartoon Network. Los Angeles Times (free registration) (8/7)
In an investor call Wednesday, Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes focused on “old media,” confirming the split of the company’s AOL Internet-access and media units next year: “Our goal is to create, package and distribute high-quality, branded content across multiple platforms.” (http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10008350-93.html 8/6)
Shareholders of Discovery Holding Co. will vote Sept. 16 whether to make Discovery Communications a publicly traded company, according to SEC filings. Discovery Holdings currently owns two-thirds of Discovery Communications. Advance/Newhouse Programming Partnership owns the remaining one-third. The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) (8/7)
Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: Cable television, Comedy Central, Disney Channel, New York Times, Television, Television movie, Television network, Television program
Anyone who watches TV during the summer months knows network TV does not have much to offer in terms of quality. But on cable, according to this analysis, networks including — but certainly not limited to — TNT, AMC and Disney Channel are just beginning to hit their strides with fresh episodes of shows such as “The Closer,” “Mad Men” and made-for-TV movies such as “Camp Rock.” The New York Times (6/26)
Television and film are absorbing recent lessons (the writers’ strike, strides in cable, reality programs, expanded viewer options) as they assess their schedules.
Bravo’s popular “Real Housewives” series, which has had stops on the West and East coasts, will now turn south … to Atlanta. The NBC Universal cable network will present a preview episode of “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” at midnight Eastern time July 30. (Broadcasting & Cable 6/26)
Comedian Katt Williams is expected to sign a deal with Comedy Central for a sketch comedy series pilot and a special, reports Variety. Katt’s current comedy tour, “It’s Pimpin’ Pimpin’ will conclude July 4 in Las Vegas, and the special was shot during the Washington, D.C. tour stop. (Cynopsis 6/27)
CBS Corporation will finalize its tender offer for all remaining shares of common stock of CNET Networks, Inc. The deal will be complete in the next several business days and in the end, CBS will own about 78% of the outstanding shares of CNET common stock. (Cynopsis 6/27)
Charter Communications, which last month began offering gasoline gift cards to subscribers who sign up for additional services such as broadband or telephony, has increased its online conversion rate 27% since the start of the promotion. The gift cards come in $25, $50 and $100 denominations, depending on the number of services added. (The Hollywood Reporter 6/26)
Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: Camp Rock, Demi Lovato, Disney, Disney Channel, High School Musical, Jonas Brothers, Television, Television movie
Hard on the success of its Jonas Brothers-starring “Camp Rock” made-for-TV movie, Disney Channel has announced plans for a sequel, which is expected to go into production next year. The original, featuring the increasingly omnipresent brothers as well as Demi Lovato, attracted 8.9 million viewers in its premiere Friday night. (Reuters/The Hollywood Reporter 6/24)
MTV, which has not accepted political advertising since the channel was launched in 1981, will now run national ads from political candidates, their campaign committees and nationally recognized political parties. The move is effective immediately and leaves Lifetime as the only high-profile cable network that still does not take political advertising. (TVWeek.com 6/24)
MSNBC has created MSNBC Films, a company that will fund feature-length documentaries and effectively double — from three to six — the number of documentaries that the cable news network televises each year. First up will be “Dear Zachary,” the true story of a man killed by his pregnant girlfriend. (The Hollywood Reporter 6/24)
Sports memorabilia expert Donald Frangipani is filing a defamation lawsuit against HBO and those associated with its “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” program for a segment that accused him of participating in a forgery ring. Bryant Gumbel is named as a defendant. (Iwantmedia 6/25, http://www.reuters.com/article/industryNews/idUSN2438145420080624 6/24)
Shares of most major media companies finished lower with the broader market on Tuesday, following signs that soaring fuel costs are taking a toll on corporate profits. Time Warner lost 2 cents to $14.60; Disney slipped 17 cents to $32.22; New York Times Co. fell 17 cents to $15.60. Iwantmedia 6/25, (http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080624/media_companies_closing_glance.html 6/24)
Cablevision is beefing up its on-demand offerings with Versus on Demand and Golf on Demand as free services to its iO digital-TV customers. Both Versus and Golf Channel are owned by Comcast. (Multichannel News 6/24)
Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: Arts, Camp Rock, Disney Channel, High School Musical, Jonas Brothers, Movies, Studios, Television
George Carlin, the man behind the Seven Words You Can Never Say on TV comedy routine, died of heart failure yesterday at the age of 71, reports the AP. He went to the hospital yesterday afternoon complaining of chest pains, and passed away later on that evening. (Cynopsis 6/23)
With 8.9 million viewers, Disney Channel’s “Camp Rock” made-for-TV movie was the most-watched program last Friday night. The movie’s premiere, which stars The Jonas Brothers, even outperformed the debut of Disney Channel’s original “High School Musical.” (TVWeek.com 6/21)
You know you’ve made it into the public zeitgeist when you’re the subject of a question on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” as AMC’s series “Mad Men” recently was. But the show, set in a 1960s-era Madison Avenue advertising agency, has done that one better: Running from Tuesday until September, the Science, Industry and Business Library within the New York Public Library will stage an exhibition about the ad men — and women — of that era. (The New York Times 6/23)
HBO will bring “In Treatment” back for a second season. Production of the new season of the series, which stars Gabriel Byrne and Dianne Wiest, is scheduled to begin in New York this fall, and new episodes are scheduled for 2009. (Broadcasting & Cable 6/20)
Former “NBC Nightly News” anchor Tom Brokaw is being chosen to temporarily take over the moderator duties on “Meet the Press” left vacant by Tim Russert’s death. The veteran journalist will lead the Sunday morning news program through the U.S. presidential election. (Iwantmedia 6/23, http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b143723_tom_brokaw_named_temporary_press.html 6/22)
Tim Russert (left) and Tom Brokaw (right)
Bravo’s season two premiere of Flipping Out last Tuesday (10p) drew in 511,000 A18-49 viewers and 672,000 total viewers. (Cynopsis 6/23)
The NFL Network, which has been striving to become a cable TV powerhouse, with limited success because of the lack of a major carriage deal, is in talks with ESPN about a joint venture that would give the network distribution on most systems across the country, according to these reports. The talks have gone on for some time now and have reportedly now reached a high level — all the way up to NFL Network boss Steven Bornstein, who once ran ESPN, and Disney chief Bob Iger. (New York Post 6/21, CNNMoney.com/Associated Press 6/20)
Late Friday, ABC announced it is appealing the FCC’s ruling and fines that center on a 2003 episode of NYPD Blue that, according to the FCC, violated indecency policies. (Cynopsis 6/23)
Disney execs including CEO Bob Iger are touting “the Disney Difference” to convince investors that the company’s products and brand make it less of a cyclical media business and more like a consumer goods company, similar to Nike or Coca-Cola. So far, the campaign is proving “a hard sell.” (Iwantmedia 6/23, http://www.reuters.com/article/industryNews/idUSN2240180220080623 6/23)
In a high-profile victory for cable companies, the FCC ruled late last week that Verizon Communications could no longer contact customers who were in the process of switching phone service to other providers. Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks filed a complaint with the FCC, arguing that the practice was illegal. (The Wall Street Journal/Dow Jones Newswires 6/23)
