Daily Marauder

BROADCAST/CABLE

SCI FI Channel will scare up more paranormal activity with Craig Piligian’s Pilgrim Films and Television, as the network approved a sixth season of Ghost Hunters, a second season of spin-off series Ghost Hunters International and a six-episode series order for Ghost Hunters: New Generation (wt) about college kids tracking down haunted spots around the globe led by experienced investigators. (Cynopsis 12/19)

BBC America will dish out more of Chef Gordon Ramsay as a third U.S. season of Gordon Ramsay’s F Word debuts January 14 at 3p. Rather than getting hot-headed, this series shows Ramsay sharing his love of food and cooking to special guests as well as his take on issues pertaining to the food industry. (Cynopsis 12/19)

Comedy Central revealed it is readying a new six-episode comedy series called Secret Girlfriend for mid-2009. The format is in first-person making the audience a character in the show and it will feature two back-to-back 11-minute scripted mini-sodes. The story is about a playboy, his friends and the various girlfriends he juggles. (Cynopsis 12/19)

Wednesday night’s West Coast town meeting of the Screen Actors Guild came off in a more civil manner than Monday’s catcall-filled gathering in New York, reported THR. SAG President Alan Rosenberg and chief negotiator Doug Allen presented their case for strike authorization to some 570 attending members. The sticking point for SAG continues to be compensation over productions made for new media formats; the studio’s current deal does not allow for new media residual payments nor for product integration revenue sharing. Ballots to authorize the strike go out to active SAG members on Jan. 2 and are due back on Jan. 23 – two days before the annual SAG awards ceremony. (Cynopsis 12/19)

Macrovision has forged a deal, valued as high as $300 million, with Allen Shapiro and JPMorgan Chase & Co.‘s One Equity Partners to sell its TV Guide cable

network. Shapiro expects to push the network to move beyond its TV-listing scroll: “Over time, the scroll will essentially be less and less relevant until it’s gone, and then we’ll have a fully distributed entertainment network.” The New York Times (12/18) , The Wall Street Journal (12/18)

The year’s biggest advertisers on television, radio and in newspapers were the media companies themselves, according to the Media Monitors Special Report 2008. The top two cable advertisers were TNT with 1.3 million spots, followed by TBS with 1.2 million. Advertising Age (12/18)

NBC Universal‘s 9,000-square-foot CES booth in Las Vegas Jan. 8 to 11 will host live programming for CNBC’s “Power Lunch” and “Closing Bell” and MSNBC’s “Your Business” while industry bloggers emphasize how content can be downloaded. Al Roker, Maria Bartiromo, Nancy O’Dell and Jimmy Fallon will be featured in other live shows. Multichannel News (12/18)

Time Warner Cable has expanded its high-definition cable offerings in northern Manhattan by more than two dozen channels and also added premium versions of HBO, Showtime and other outlets. In April, the cable provider said its goal was to offer 100 HD channels and 250 HD on-demand options in the New York City borough. Multichannel News (12/18)