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Apple May Offer A La Carte Channels
10 hours ago
Apple, via its iTunes store, could begin delivering to television viewers as early as next year what many of them have long demanded -- a la carte pricing of broadcast and cable programming, the Wall Street Journal indicated today (Tuesday). The newspaper, citing people familiar with the matter, said that CBS Corp. -- which is the corporate parent of the CBS television network and the Showtime pay-tv channel and a partner in the CW network -- and the Walt Disney Co. -- the corporate parent of ABC, Espn and the Disney Channel -- are considering participating in the plan. In its report, the Journal observed that if Apple is successful in lining up enough top outlets for its service, which would be distributed via the Internet, it "could undermine the big bundles of channels that cable, satellite and telecommunications companies, including Comcast Corp. and DirecTV Inc., have traditionally sold in packages to subscribers. …
Thursday Night Football Sets Record -- On Saturday
10 hours ago
Although it went out under the banner of the NFL Network's Thursday Night Football, the Dallas Cowboys-New Orleans Saints game, which was played on Saturday, not Thursday, drew the biggest audience ever for the network's weekly centerpiece. With 10.5 million viewers tuning in, the game outdrew the Green Bay Packers-Dallas Cowboys game, which was watched by 10.1 million viewers on November 29, 2007 -- which was indeed a Thursday. The next Thursday Night Football game will be played this coming, er, Friday -- Christmas Day -- between the San Diego Chargers and the Tennessee Titans, marking the season finale for the cable network's series, which has averaged 5.4 million viewers this year -- up 57 percent over 2008.
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Sawyer Takes Over As Permanent “World News” Anchor
10 hours ago
Diane Sawyer took over on Monday from Charles Gibson as the headliner of ABC's World News nightly newscast without hoopla -- by design. Her first newscast as regular anchor could have been her 100th or 1,000th. The newscast included an interview with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who dismissed as a fabrication a "smoking gun" document -- first reported by the London Times last week -- that assertedly proved that Iran has been secretly building a nuclear weapon. The greater Iran story, however, was taking place in the country itself, where some reports said that hundreds of thousands of people were participating in renewed protests against the Ahmadinejad government following the death of opposition cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri on Sunday. A day earlier a military court concluded that three opposition protesters had been beaten to death in prison and that three unnamed prison officials had been charged with murder. …
Leno Improves Against Reruns -- Slightly
10 hours ago
TV analysts will be keeping an eye on The Jay Leno Show for the next few weeks as it faces a slew of repeats by competitors in the 10:00 p.m. hour. NBC has said from the outset that while Leno's ratings may be poor opposite all-new programming, he is likely to surge against repeats -- especially during the summer rerun period. On Monday, Leno drew 5.84 million viewers, which was indeed slightly better than his average for the year. But a repeat of CBS's CSI: Miami nevertheless came in first with 8.64 million. A repeat of ABC's Castle drew only 4.40 million.
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Fox Stations Likely To Go Dark On T-w Cable
21 December 2009 12:03 PM, PST
With negotiations at a stalemate and with little hope that either side will give an inch, Time Warner Cable subscribers are likely to see Fox TV stations disappear on New Year's eve, Pali Research analyst Rich Greenfield said in a note to clients on Friday. News Corp, the corporate parent of the Fox network, is seeking $1 per month per subscriber to allow Time Warner to retransmit the signals of Fox's owned-and-operated TV stations. Each side has much to lose if the blackout continues for a significant period. Time Warner Cable could see subscribers flee to satellite services. Fox could see its ratings and advertising revenue plummet. "Fox has the upper hand, leverage-wise," Greenfield wrote, "but the battle is not as lopsided as it appears at first glance, and the risk of regulatory intervention is not in anyone's best interests." He predicted that the two sides will reach an agreement "within …
PBS Shows Will At Last Be Rated
21 December 2009 12:01 PM, PST
Underlining the importance of the expanded "underwriters" messages on PBS, the public broadcaster is expected to announce today (Monday) that it has subscribed to the Nielsen ratings service, the New York Times reported today. In the past, companies often joined charitable trusts to support programming on PBS as a public service and for the prestige of being associated with esteemed and influential productions. They received barely a mention on the air. Each underwriter's announcement may now last up to 15 seconds, and although they are barred from promoting the underwriter or its products or services, some appear close to crossing the line. Since public broadcasting stations often do not carry programs at the same time or even the same day across the network, PBS will be subscribing only to the weekly Nielsen ratings, not to the Nielsen "overnights."
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“Undercover Boss” To Air After Super Bowl
21 December 2009 12:00 PM, PST
In a surprise announcement, CBS said that it has picked the reality series Undercover Boss as the show that it will air after next month's Super Bowl. The series follows several bosses of big corporations as they take low-level jobs among workers and in so doing discover how their employees feel about their bosses and working conditions. In the premiere episode, Larry O'Donnell, president and COO of Waste Management Corp, is seen cleaning porta-potties and working at a recycling plant. "The journey of watching a chief executive walk a mile in their employees' shoes is always very revealing, often humorous and in some cases very inspiring," CBS Entertainment President Nina Tasser told today's (Monday) Hollywood Reporter.
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Bad Timing For Sawyer’S Iran Trip
21 December 2009 11:58 AM, PST
The timing could not have been worse for Diane Sawyer, who is set to take over the anchor's desk on ABC's World News tonight (Monday) with a much publicized interview with Iranian President Mohmoud Ahmadinejad. The interview was taped last week, however, days before the current wave of mass protests struck the country following the death of opposition cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri at age 87. The protests drew front-page attention, with some commentators predicting that they could lead to Ahmadinejad's downfall. But Sawyer was returning to the U.S. as they broke out -- too late to cover them for World News -- and also too late to attend a party for retiring anchor Charles Gibson, whom she is succeeding. In his parting words on Friday, Gibson told his audience, "I thank you for investing trust in us each evening -- trust that we will give you as objective …
Did Billy Bully O’Dell?
21 December 2009 11:57 AM, PST
Despite Nancy O'Dell's routine statement that she was leaving Access Hollywood after 13 years because of her desire "to take her career to the next level" and that her departure "is completely amicable," it was actually triggered by the on-set behavior or co-host Billy Bush, the New York Daily News reported today (Monday), citing an unnamed insider. "The atmosphere at Access Hollywood is like walking on a landmine because of Billy," the insider was quoted as saying. "He throws tantrums and tirades and oftentimes for no apparent reason. It was one of several things that had Nancy at her wit's end after 13 years." The newspaper said that O'Dell had complained repeatedly to executive producer Rob Silverstein, who refused to take action -- possibly because he and Bush are partners on Bush's syndicated nightly radio show, the Daily News suggested. Its source said that O'Dell was "subjected to Billy's outbursts and …
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