Hot Off The Press! The Latest Television News and Info [Text View] - Page 94

flint350

03-05-07, 10:14 PM

I do the best I can, Dave.

I long ago decided not to use spoiler tags (as a general rule) on the site.

I try to note which stories contain spoilers, but am not always perfect. In this case, I noted it, and if that left you unwarned, I apologize.

WOW! Sorry, but I'm with Dave on this particular spoiler theme in BSG. I had DVR'd it and I know you take a chance once something has played. But, in this case the spoiler warning was immediately next to the giveaway headline - and the giveaway headline was twice as large and in a stand-out color! You really couldn't miss it - I know I didn't and it diminished my enjoyment of the episode a lot. I don't know what else may have been in the article since I didn't read any further. But to place the big headline so prominently and say "spoiler" almost as an afterthought was a real surprise to me. At least such things could be more judiciously buried in the story and we would know not to read it - but this was a HEADLINE in COLOR about major plot details. How do you decide not to read a post until you see the headline/theme? You could not miss it even if you were trying. Well, maybe it's just me. I recognize the "once it's played" rule, like the Awards example, but I think most sentient beings can see a difference here.

Obviously, I don't set the rules and and I only blame/speak for myself. This one has clarified my future intent. Giveaways are a pet peeve of mine (like movie trailers or reviews that do the same) bcz I just don't want to know until I see it. To prevent that in the future simply requires less, more judicious viewing by me of this thread. This has little to do with the use of "spoiler tags" - the post title was the spoiler for God's sake. Giving away major plot points in a headline is not what I come here for and I suppose only I can prevent it from happening to me again.

AtogMuncher

03-05-07, 10:23 PM

Heroes has been running late (sometimes more than a minute) all the time, at first they didn't update their schedule to reflect that it was running over, at least now they do.

fredfa

03-05-07, 10:29 PM

Inundated

03-05-07, 10:40 PM

fredfa

03-05-07, 10:43 PM

Well, ESPN says all of its games (and I would presume the ABC games it produces, too) will be in HD this year. So perhaps Game Plan could have an HD component.

On the other hand the vast majority of providers simply don't have a lot of bandwidth available yet.

So perhaps there is not yet an economic imperative for ESPN to provide an HD Game Plan experience since so many viewers wouldn't be able to receive the games in HD.

Inundated

03-05-07, 10:52 PM

So perhaps there is not yet an economic imperative for ESPN to provide an HD Game Plan experience since so many viewers wouldn't be able to receive the games in HD.

And we're back to the original here - GamePlan is just a side offering. The games are meant primarily for distribution to local stations/networks. (FSN Ohio even picks up a game or two here! It's weird seeing ESPN-branded programming on FSN, but it has happened in this arrangement.)

Until the local stations/networks start being able to take syndicated programming in HD off the bird, even live sports, I don't expect to see GamePlan to follow as an HD-available offering.

I suspect we're not as far away from this as I think, tho.

rustycruiser

03-05-07, 10:57 PM

I think you are fair game 15 hours after the episode airs. Playing Devil's advocate, maybe next time leave 10-20 empty lines between the tag and the story.

Spoiler!

Like This.

That way someone can quickly scroll through the story with out inadvertently seeing anything. Although that might waste a lot of space, especially after a huge show event. Half the stories the next day are normally about it. (ie: President Palmer's assassination).

kjpjr

03-05-07, 11:05 PM

GP is basically a done deal. This fall they will not show any Big Ten, PAC 10 or Big 12 games. That is a huge base to lose. Also last year they started not showing any games that were on ESPNU, I assume that will continue. The Big Ten Network becomes a key in this deal to see all the Big Ten games I have been able to see living "down south". Also in our area ACC and SEC games are blacked out -- usually can find them on another station but it is fewer games. I have subscribed to GP for the last 6 years and probably will not this year.

I also subscribe to Extra Innings and it looks like I'll save money there too :mad:

dad1153

03-05-07, 11:16 PM

SAY HELLO TO MY (NEW) LITTLE FRIEND: http://www.olevia.com/jsp/products/detail.jsp?pid=747i :D

shuttermaker

03-05-07, 11:18 PM

SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEND: http://www.olevia.com/jsp/products/detail.jsp?pid=747i :D

Congrats dad !

dad1153

03-05-07, 11:25 PM

fredfa

03-05-07, 11:43 PM

dad1153

03-05-07, 11:48 PM

Wednesday or Thursday. Time to call Time Warner for a weekend Scientific Atlantic HD DVR/cable box and to Monoprice for some affordable HDMI/VGA cables for the XBox 360 HD-DVD add-on.

fredfa

03-05-07, 11:58 PM

Lord knows I hope TWC delivers a pristine GSN signal to you! :)

fredfa

03-06-07, 12:01 AM

TV Notebook
Network Insiders Sign Deal to Supply Programs to NBC
Former Fox and ABC chiefs to come up with programming
By Bill Carter The New York Times March 6, 2007

Two former network heads of entertainment programming, Gail Berman and Lloyd Braun, signed a deal yesterday for their new company to provide programs for NBC Universal across all the company’s television channels.

Describing their company, which is called BermanBraun, as a “ministudio,” the two executives said they would begin supplying shows to NBC on what is known as a first-look basis.

That means that NBC will get the first opportunity at any idea they develop, though a show could be later picked up by another network if NBC passes. NBC would retain a financial interest in those programs.

The financial terms were not disclosed, but Marc Graboff, the president of NBC Universal Television West Coast, said NBC would be the chief backer of BermanBraun, at least until the company adds strategic partners in others areas, like programming for the Internet or a film division. Ms. Berman and Mr. Braun said they would establish those divisions in the coming months.

Ms. Berman, who left as president of Paramount Pictures in January, is chiefly known as the former president of entertainment at the Fox network, where she was highly regarded for developing hit programs like “24” and “House.”

Mr. Braun, who last led Yahoo’s media group, was previously ABC’s entertainment chief and has been widely credited with the idea for the hit show “Lost.”

In a telephone interview yesterday, the two executives said they had had talks with several potential backers but chose NBC.

“We know they have some needs,” Ms. Berman said. “It seemed like a great strategic partnership.”

Mr. Braun emphasized that the company would not focus predominately on developing shows for NBC’s prime-time lineup but instead would devote as much time to ideas for syndication, for NBC’s cable channels, as well for its daytime schedule and programs.

Mr. Braun noted that their expertise should make it easier for them to succeed. “Gail and I had these jobs,” he said. “Hopefully there will be a shorthand we bring.”

Mr. Graboff described BermanBraun as “a kind of label.” He compared the company with other production units that have deals with networks but are separate from them, like Imagine Television.

Mr. Graboff said: “Lloyd and Gail have great track records and very complementary skills. Lloyd is a big idea guy, very competitive. He’s like a heat-seeking missile. Gail is very talent friendly; she has great relationships with writers. The two of them make a killer team.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/06/business/media/06nbcnews.html?ref=media&pagewanted=print

fredfa

03-06-07, 12:02 AM

Good idea, rusty.

Anyone else?

I think you are fair game 15 hours after the episode airs. Playing Devil's advocate, maybe next time leave 10-20 empty lines between the tag and the story.

Spoiler!

Like This.

That way someone can quickly scroll through the story with out inadvertently seeing anything. Although that might waste a lot of space, especially after a huge show event. Half the stories the next day are normally about it. (ie: President Palmer's assassination).

dad1153

03-06-07, 12:05 AM

Yep, that's good. Not every show needs it though, just the one where spoilers could ruin it for people mindlessly surfing around the thread (like The Sopranos or Galactica). No spoilers needed for crap like... take your pick! :)

dad1153

03-06-07, 12:08 AM

Lord knows I hope TWC delivers a pristine GSN signal to you! :)

If TWC falls through I hope the Realta HQV chip inside the 747i will smooth the rough edges. As dumb as it may sound to HD nuts around this thread one of the questions that was key in deciding which HDTV I would get was "Would 'Match Game' or 'Password Plus' look good on this HDTV?" A Samsung LN-5296D and a Mitsubishi LT-46231 (both 1080p LCD's) lost to the Olevia 747i in this key factor, so your snide remark actually is more true than sarcastic Fred. :rolleyes:

fredfa

03-06-07, 12:22 AM

Trust me, it wasn't mean to be either snide or sarcastic. More like heart felt.

Though I know you will soon be going through the PBS "Smart Travels" and Discovery Channel phase we all went through. But we will survive your tales of wonder.

(Now that last comment was just a bit sarcastic -- or snide.) :)

fredfa

03-06-07, 01:18 AM

Obituary
B. Rosengarden, 82
seasoned drummer, Cavett show bandleader
By Dennis McLellan Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

Bobby Rosengarden, a versatile drummer who recorded with artists as varied as Duke Ellington and Jay and the Americans, and spent many years as an NBC staff musician before moving to ABC in the late 1960s as bandleader for "The Dick Cavett Show," has died. He was 82.

Rosengarden died of kidney failure Tuesday at a hospice in Sarasota, Fla., said his son Mark.

An Army band drummer during World War II, Rosengarden played with the Henry Busse band for about a year after the war. After moving to New York City, he played with the Alvy West band and was house drummer at the Copacabana and at Bill Miller's Riviera, a top nightclub in Fort Lee, N.J.

By the early 1950s, he had become a staff musician at NBC, where, among other things, he played drums with the NBC Symphony Orchestra and in the band on the "Tonight" show with Steve Allen, "The Steve Allen Show," "The Ernie Kovacs Show," "Sing Along With Mitch" and "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson."

During this period, Rosengarden was also a studio musician. As a percussionist, he played the triangle on the Ben E. King hit "Stand By Me" and bongos on Harry Belafonte songs. He later played conga on Jay and the Americans' "She Cried" and finger cymbals, triangle and tambourine on an Arlo Guthrie album.

He also played drums during a recording session with the Columbia Jazz Band conducted by composer Igor Stravinsky in 1965.

In 1968, Rosengarden moved to ABC as the bandleader on Cavett's daytime talk show and then, beginning in 1969, Cavett's late-night show.

Mark Rosengarden said that as a drummer, his father "always knew he was in the supporting role." But "the opportunity to be the bandleader meant he could pick the music, suggest musical guests for the show and use his sense of humor more and be the center of attention more."

And, he said, "he loved being the center of attention."

Rosengarden's band of top New York musicians played for an array of singers who appeared on the show, including Fred Astaire, who sang a medley of the tunes for which he was famous.

"Bobby made it a lot easier for us to book people on the show who were going to perform, because he was such a terrific musician that they knew that they would be given all the support that they needed," said David Barnhizer, the Cavett show's original director.

Rosengarden also became known for providing often-amusing entrance music for Cavett's diverse guests — so-called "play-ons" for which, Barnhizer said, "he was justifiably famous or infamous, depending on how you look at it."

There was, for example, the time a sex therapist walked on stage, and the band played "I Can't Get Started."

When artist Salvador Dali appeared, the band launched into "Hello, Dolly!" Transsexual Christine Jorgensen was welcomed with "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby?"

Then there was the guest who was an ant expert.

"Bobby played him on with the theme from 'Picnic' — I mean, nobody but a few people got that joke," Barnhizer said with a laugh. "Paul Shaffer of the Letterman show does witty play-ons, but Rosengarden was the king of the play-on."

One of Rosengarden's memorable moments on the show came when rocker Jimi Hendrix was a guest.

"Hendrix said he wasn't going to play, but they had an amplifier and guitar there in case he changed his mind," Mark Rosengarden said.

Hendrix did change his mind, playing a song with backup from the show's bassist, George Duvivier, and Rosengarden on drums.

Whenever he was asked what it was like to play with the legendary electric guitarist, Rosengarden had a stock answer: "I just stayed out of the way, baby."

Born April 23, 1924, in Elgin, Ill., Rosengarden began playing the drums in elementary school and later took private lessons in Chicago.

He studied music on a scholarship at the University of Michigan before entering the Army during World War II.

In the mid-1970s, after his time on the Cavett show had ended, Rosengarden had a stint as the bandleader in the Empire Room at the Waldorf-Astoria. He was also a member of the World's Greatest Jazz Band, the Soprano Summit, the New York Jazz Repertory Company and Gerry Mulligan's combo, among others.

Dividing his time between his homes in Longboat Key, Fla., and New Canaan, Conn., Rosengarden continued to perform until about 2003. One of his last gigs was playing with the New York Pops.

Both of Rosengarden's sons are musicians — Mark is a drummer, and Neil is a keyboard and trumpet player — and Mark recalled that he and his brother did three concerts with their father in the 1990s at the Jazz Club of Sarasota. He said his father enjoyed performing with his sons.

"Quite frankly, he didn't care who he played with," he said. "He just loved playing."

In addition to his sons, Rosengarden is survived by his wife, Sharon; four grandsons; and his sister, Joan Meyer.

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-rosengarden4mar04,1,6064178.story?coll=la-news-obituaries

URFloorMatt

03-06-07, 02:16 AM

About ESPNews HD vs. other ESPN networks going HD:

It's the easiest to do.

They do it out of Bristol, and all they need is one HD capable TV studio in a building that's now set up to handle a bunch of 'em.

The highlights are now coming in HD, and SportsCenter - as far as I've seen - airs those highlights in HD whenever possible.

With DirecTV launching the new set of channels, it's the quickest and easiest new ESPN-branded channel they can flip on with little effort and minimal cost.

The problems with "GamePlan", etc., going HD have already been documented here.

Agreed. When you think about it, given that most of the highlight reals and archive footage are already prepared in HD for SportsCenter, ESPN is really just wasting their effort by not utilizing that HD content on ESPNEWS.

As someone pointed out in one of the ESPN threads around here, at this point, it's as easy for ESPN to produce content in HD as SD--even when we're talking about promos for events that will ultimately air in SD (i.e. the HD promos for SD AFL coverage).

I haven't seen any ESPN promos in SD lately. In fact, the new promos for ESPNEWS were pretty big evidence of an HD relaunch.

SirJW

03-06-07, 02:17 AM

Good job Dad! Welcome to the club, you wont look back...

vonzoog

03-06-07, 07:23 AM

Maybe this will help make up for your lost of Studio 60.

steverobertson

03-06-07, 07:31 AM

Congrats, dad -- your life is about to change.

First word of advice: don't worry about what anyone else has. As long as you are happy with your setup, just enjoy it.

Someone always will have something bigger or newer or more expensive.

So when is delivery?

Isn't that the truth just enjoy it and forget about every other tv out there and new technology that comes around over the next few years.

Iteki

03-06-07, 07:57 AM

Just for kicks gang, since I'm joining the HDTV bandwagon, what type of HDTV (brand, size, type of HD display, etc.) do you guys use as your primary viewing device? How old is your set, and what new HDTV are you eyeing in your near-future as an upgrade or substitute to your present HD set-up? Come on guys, humor this HD noob with some stories from the war front.

Congrats dad...some things to prepare:

1) Get HD Content provider (sounds like you are doing that)
2) Appropriate cables (if you have a A/V Receiver, see if it switches HDMI or Component, that helps simplify things)
3) Go to the Display Devices forum, they likely have an official forum for your new display. There will likely be tips on setup, settings, good/bad experiences (oops, just checked for it here (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=814773) and you are already posting there) :-)

Once it arrives and you have all your components hooked up, change the factory settings to calibrate your display for your viewing room. Most TVs come in 'torch mode' (brightness on full), you'll want to change that.

I have to echo freda's thoughts, forget what anyone else has and just enjoy your display.

For the record, I have a 3 year old 50" Sony Wega, still working on it's original bulb (no idea how long that will last, I probably jinxed myself by mentioning it). I've been very happy with it, an upgrade is probably still a year or so away. At some point I'll be forced to get a display with HDMI, but for now I have a receiver that switches HD component and I'm happy with it. Clock is ticking though :-)

Have fun with your HDTV!

archiguy

03-06-07, 08:09 AM

Maybe this will help make up for your lost of Studio 60.

Yeah, it was a crappy HD picture on that show anyways. Dad's lucky he didn't have to witness that on his fancy new display; it would have made his heartbreak even worse. ;)

dad1153

03-06-07, 08:45 AM

steverobertson

03-06-07, 08:53 AM

Very funny guys. The only shows I'm really looking forward to seeing on HD are the Masters on CBS, "The Sopranos" and Boxing on HBO, "Heroes" on NBC and (if it ever returns to the air) "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip"! Videogames, DVD's and Blu-ray/HD-DVD are going to take a big part of my playtime with the new thing. :D

Last year's Masters was the best I ever saw in HD and hope it is again this year.

You will end up watching more than you think once you get hooked up I know I do HD really brought me back to TV again.

fredfa

03-06-07, 09:50 AM

(Thanks to kenglish for pointing this story out to me)
The Business of Television
Money woes turn off USDTV
NexGen pulls funds; 7,000 customers scramble for service
By Greg Kratz (Salt Lake City) Deseret Morning News March 6, 2007

Draper-based USDTV's four-year attempt to offer a low-cost, family-friendly alternative to cable and satellite television has come to an end.

USDigital Inc. announced Monday that it is ceasing operations, closing down USDTV and laying off its 10 remaining employees.

The action will leave more than 3,000 USDTV subscribers along the Wasatch Front, as well as about 4,000 in the Dallas/Fort Worth, Albuquerque and Las Vegas markets, scrambling for a new TV service.

"What makes this so difficult is that ... we've been able to really launch a pioneering effort that has never existed before in the history of the American broadcasting system as we know it," Steve Lindsley, chief executive officer of USDigital, said Monday.

Formed in June 2003 and commercially launched in December 2005, USDTV leased portions of the digital spectrum from local television stations. Customers with a set-top box and antenna received about 30 channels of "off-the-air" wireless digital TV service for $19.95 monthly.

Lindsley said the decision to shut down the business came after its primary investor, Denver-based NexGen Telecom, "experienced a significant financial setback ... in a non-related business" in last year's fourth quarter.

"(NexGen) came to me during the holiday time period and said that (it) was no longer going to be able to continue to fund the company, which was really a blow for us," Lindsley said. "We had to immediately enact a reduction in force and really slow down our plans."

He said the USDTV management team tried to find a replacement financier, and he still thinks someone could have been found to bankroll the company.

"But the issue has been timing ... to bridge us until the bigger companies could do their due diligence and make a decision," Lindsley said. "Short of being able to find that bridge, unfortunately we ran out of runway, so to speak, so we've had to make the very difficult decision to close down the service and shut down the company."

USDigital said in a release that it is making arrangements with another company to convert the USDTV set-top box so subscribers can keep receiving free, over-the-air local digital and high-definition TV channels without the USDTV cable service.

The company said it also is trying to make arrangements with other TV service providers to give USDTV customers a special offer if they choose to switch. More details will be posted online at www.usdtv.com as they become available.

"We've had a very loyal customer base, and we'd like to be as helpful as we can," Lindsley said.

He said U.S. Digital Television initially was funded by a group of media companies, but it was placed in Chapter 7 bankruptcy by those companies in July 2006. The company was purchased out of bankruptcy in September 2006, and NexGen committed to "funding the company for the long haul," Lindsley said.

Because of that commitment, he said, the company rehired its management team and staffed up to a total of 50 employees. But the good news didn't last.

Lindsley said he has no immediate plans to try to offer a similar service in the future — even though he remains passionate about USDTV's goals of saving people money on family-friendly entertainment.

"We've really worked to provide a fresh alternative," he said, "and I think that's what has been the tool that has driven us all these years."

http://www.deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,660200866,00.html

fredfa

03-06-07, 09:56 AM

The Business of Television
Belo, Cox Sign Eight-Station Retrans Deal
Katy Bachman MediaWeek March 6, 2007

Belo Corp. and Cox Communications announced Monday the two companies have signed a retransmission agreement covering Belo’s 8 TV stations and local cable news channels in Phoenix; Hampton-Norfolk, Va.; New Orleans, La.; Tucson, Ariz.; and Twin Falls, Idaho. The agreement includes the retransmission of both of Belo’s high-definition and analog signals and locally-produced content for video on demand. Local cable news channels included in the deal are Arizona NewsChannel in Phoenix; Local News on Cable in Hampton-Norfolk, Va.; and NewsWatch on Channel 15 in New Orleans.

About 1.4 million Cox subscribers are effected by the agreement.

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but both parties said they were “pleased.”

The Belo-Cox agreement stands in stark contrast to other, more contentious retransmission negotiations. As alternatives to wired cable have increased, broadcasters have taken a tougher stand in negotiations, while cable companies have had to balance paying broadcasters and passing on the cost to subscribers

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003554108

fredfa

03-06-07, 09:59 AM

The Business of Television
WBNS To Launch HD News
By Michael Malone Broadcasting & Cable, 3/6/2007

High-definition local news is coming to Central Ohio, as WBNS-10TV launches HD news April 2. Dispatch Broadcast Group’s CBS affiliate began the HD transition late in 2006.

In advance of the launch, it’s producing HD graphics and remodeling the set. Coinciding with the debut, the station is rebranding its news 10TV News-HD.

“This transition to HDTV is a great fit with the leadership we strive for every day,” state News Director John Cardenas. “We think the viewers are going to be very pleased with what they see.”

Columbus-based WBNS claims to have broadcasted the country’s first live HD sporting event airing an Ohio State football game in high-def back in 1998.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6421795

fredfa

03-06-07, 10:08 AM

Bad ratings news for "The Black Donnellys" and the rest of Monday’s metered market over-night prime-time ratings – and Media Week Analyst Marc Berman’s view of what they mean -- have been posted just near the top of Ratings News the second post in this thread.

dad1153

03-06-07, 10:29 AM

Bad ratings news for "The Black Donnellys" and the rest of Monday’s metered market over-night prime-time ratings.

From Berman's analysis: Particularly alarming for The Black Donnellys was retention of just 54 percent from lead-in Heroes, and loss in the second half hour of 18 percent (5.6/ 9 to 4.6/ 8). Comparably, this is worse than recent occupant Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

Looks more and more likely that "Studio 60" will be granted one more chance to come back and prove its worth (even if its just to fulfill the contractual obligations to Warner, Sorkin and the cast). Can't do any worse than "Black Donnellys" is right now, correct? :p

fredfa

03-06-07, 10:40 AM

It is hard to argue with that conclusion, dad.

Not only are the number bad, but in each airing, people seem to leave it in droves as it continues.

dad1153

03-06-07, 11:03 AM

And for the next few weeks (assuming it lasts that long) "Donnellys" won't even have the cushy build-up of a "Heroes" audience since that show is going on hiatus until the May Sweeps. Those numbers could actually worsen. :D

fredfa

03-06-07, 11:21 AM

Yesterday’s fast national over night prime-time ratings – and Media Week Analyst Marc Berman’s view of what they mean -- have been posted near the top of Ratings News the second post in this thread.

fredfa

03-06-07, 11:22 AM

fredfa

03-06-07, 11:42 AM

Overnights in the 18-49 Demo
Worrisome slide for “Black Donnellys”
Falls 14 percent in 18-49s in its second airing
By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer March 6, 2007

Finding a show that can hold hit “Heroes’” lead-in on Monday nights is proving difficult for NBC. After bumping its highly touted but fading “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” from the 10 p.m. Monday slot for dark new drama “The Black Donnellys,” the latter showed declines in its second week despite a bigger “Heroes” lead-in.

“Donnellys” averaged a 3.0 adults 18-49 rating, according to Nielsen overnights, down 14 percent from last week’s 3.5 overnight average, which did include a very small "Heroes" runover.

The show fell 18 percent, from a 3.3 to a 2.7, from its first half hour to its second, mirroring the declines that “Studio 60” registered early in its run. And it fumbled more than half its big “Heroes” lead-in of 6.6.

Last week “Donnellys” retained 55 percent of “Heroes’” 18-49 audience. This week it retained just 45 percent, despite airing against a repeat of CBS’s “CSI: Miami,” which usually dominates the timeslot.

“Donnellys” dipped below “Studio 60’s” season-to-date 3.5 average, though it’s still above what the show averaged in its last few original outings.

This may eventually prompt NBC to try another show in the 10 p.m. slot before the season ends. “Donnellys” should stay put for at least a few weeks as “Heroes” slips into reruns, and perhaps be replaced when new “Heroes” return.

Just which show could get the desirable slot is uncertain. The network also tried “Friday Night Lights” in a one-time stunt last fall, but it fared about the same as “Studio 60.”

Still, even the 10 p.m. speed bump didn’t stop NBC from winning another competitive Monday night. It took first with a 5.0 average rating and a 13 share. Fox finished second at 4.4/11, rerun-heavy CBS third at 3.9/10, ABC fourth at 3.0/8, Univision fifth at 1.7/4 and CW sixth at 0.8/2.

At 8 p.m. NBC led with a 5.4 rating for “Deal or No Deal,” followed by a 3.9 for Fox for “Prison Break.” ABC and CBS tied for third at 3.2, ABC for a repeat of “Wife Swap” and CBS for a repeat of “How I Met Your Mother” (3.2) and the finale of “The Class” (3.2, a few ticks above its season average), with Univision fifth with a 2.3 for “La Fea Mas Bella” and the CW sixth with a 0.8 for repeats of “Everybody Hates Chris” and “All of Us.”

NBC extended its lead at 9 p.m. with a 6.6 rating for “Heroes,” the night’s top-rated show among viewers 18-49. Fox was second with a 4.9 for “24,” CBS third with a 4.4 for a repeat of “Two and a Half Men” (4.5) and a new “Rules of Engagement” (4.3), and ABC third with a 3.7 for “Supernanny.” Univision remained fifth that hour with a 1.6 for “Mundo de Fieras” and CW sixth with a 0.8 for repeats of “Girlfriends” and “The Game.”

At 10 p.m. CBS took the lead with a 4.2 for a repeat of “CSI: Miami,” with NBC falling to second with a 3.0 for “Donnellys.” ABC was third that hour with a 2.2 for “What About Brian” and Univision fourth with a 1.2 for “Cristina.”

CBS finished first on a competitive night among households, averaging an 8.1 rating and 13 share to NBC’s 8.0/13. Fox was third at 6.9/10, ABC fourth at 5.1/8, Univision fifth at 2.1/3 and CW sixth at 1.3/2.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_10604.asp

fredfa

03-06-07, 12:12 PM

Last week’s complete network average prime-time results (with demographic and season-to-date averages) are now at the bottom of RATINGS NEWS the second post in this thread.

fredfa

03-06-07, 12:25 PM

Last week’s updated top 10 prime-time program ratings are now toward the bottom of RATINGS NEWS -- the second post in this thread.

fredfa

03-06-07, 12:50 PM

Highest Rated Prime-time Shows By Network
Week of February 26-March 4, 2007
(Listed by viewers in millions; overall rank is at left)

A B C
7 DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES ABC 18.31
14 EXTREME MAKEOVER:HOME ED. ABC 14.71
24 LOST ABC 12.78
27 BROTHERS & SISTERS ABC 11.60
30 GREY'S ANATOMY-THU 9PM ABC 10.60

C B S
8 CSI: MIAMI CBS 17.42
10 TWO AND A HALF MEN CBS 16.58
11 NCIS CBS 16.16
12 CSI CBS 15.69
13 WITHOUT A TRACE CBS 14.88

Fox
1 AMERICAN IDOL-TUESDAY FOX 30.65
2 AMERICAN IDOL-WEDNESDAY FOX 29.78
3 AMERICAN IDOL THU SP-3/1(S) FOX 27.39
4 SMARTER THAN 5TH TUE-2/27(S) FOX 26.48
5 SMARTER THAN 5TH GRADER FOX 23.46

N B C
9 DEAL OR NO DEAL-MON NBC 17.26
17 HEROES NBC 14.42
26 LAW AND ORDER:SVU NBC 11.73
28 DEAL OR NO DEAL-SUN NBC 11.04
35 1 VS 100 NBC 9.72

CW
80 AMERICA'S TOP MODEL-2 CW 5.36
87 FRIDAY NIGHT SMACKDOWN CW 4.68
94 GILMORE GIRLS CW 4.18
113t SMALLVILLE CW 2.80
113t EVERYBODY HATES CHRIS CW 2.80

• Source: Nielsen Media Research data

flint350

03-06-07, 12:52 PM

I understand your point Ray and trust me, I sympathize. I doubt that many people read more spoilers -- and have more viewing marred by them -- than I do.

If I had to do it again, I guess I would have changed the headline to something less revealing. But with "death" in quotation marks, I felt it was enough. I guess I made an error.

I am willing to take suggestions, but I ran the Mo Ryan story 15 hours after the episode ran. How long after an episode need I wait?

I certainly don't want people to be concerned visiting the thread, yet I don't want people deprived of reading news and commentary about shows.

So how long need I wait before posting items with details about an already-aired show?

I've cleared my DVR backlog, so I feel safe venturing in here for now. :D

My point wasn't about time period after showing or even providing plot details (though I personally think plot details belong in actual show threads, not in here). My point was simply that the "spoiler" was so highlighted (top position, color, size of font, etc) that you couldn't miss it. It makes it impossible to discriminate between which posts you want to read vs. those you don't want to take a chance on. A headline such as "major character may leave show", etc would provide sufficient warning not to read further. But a headline like the one in question was simply too detailed, obvious and near-unavoidable.

I'm not suggesting using tags if you don't like them - just don't post such blatant plot details as the main subject line in large font/color. That kind of treatment (font/color) could be more useful as the warning - NOT as the content. The scrolling would work almost as well as burying the details, but simply scrolling that one would still have attracted casual attention to the BIG BLUE detail line with the unwanted information highlighted. It was the highlighting, size and positioning of the unwanted details that irked me. I just couldn't miss it. I feel ungrateful posting this since I am such a fan of your work here fredfa, but this one just got me good. Sorry, but keep up the outstanding and indefatigable work.

fredfa

03-06-07, 12:54 PM

Lowest Rated Shows By Network
Week of February 26-March 4, 2007

These are the lowest-rated programs, excluding repeats, by network for last week.
(Shows are listed by overall rank and viewers in millions.)

A B C
85 ACCORDING TO JIM 9PM ABC 4.95
88 WIFE SWAP-FRI ABC 4.44
89 IN CASE OF EMERGENCY ABC 4.42
95 KNIGHTS OF PROSPERITY ABC 4.11
99 ABC SAT MOVIE OF THE WEEK ABC 3.79

C B S
43 GHOST WHISPERER CBS 8.96
44 CLASS, THE CBS 8.85
47 NUMB3RS CBS 8.58
48 JERICHO CBS 8.31
59 48 HOURS MYSTERY CBS 6.89

Fox
71 WINNER, THE-SUN 9:30P FOX 6.02
72 COPS FOX 5.94
92 WAR AT HOME FOX 4.26
97 38TH NAACP IMAGE AWARDS(S) FOX 3.87
100 AMERICAN DAD-SUN 7P FOX 3.77

N B C
68 DATELINE SUN-7PM NBC 6.13
69 DATELINE NBC-TUE NBC 6.11
74 30 ROCK NBC 5.74
82 DATELINE-SAT NBC 5.15
83 FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS NBC 5.07

CW
118 GAME, THE CW 2.47
119 GIRLFRIENDS CW 2.46
121 ALL OF US CW 2.42
122 REBA SUN CW 2.26
124 SUPERNATURAL CW 2.13

• Source: Nielsen Media Research data

fredfa

03-06-07, 12:59 PM

Highest Rated Prime-time Shows in the 18-49 Demo
Week of February 26-March 4, 2007
(Listed by viewers in millions)
[code]
1 AMERICAN IDOL-TUESDAY FOX 15.98
2 AMERICAN IDOL-WEDNESDAY FOX 15.55
3 SMARTER THAN 5TH TUE-2/27(S) FOX 14.59
4 AMERICAN IDOL THU SP-3/1(S) FOX 13.73
5 SMARTER THAN 5TH WED-2/28(S) FOX 12.73
6 SMARTER THAN 5TH GRADER FOX 12.22
7 DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES ABC 9.67
8 HEROES NBC 8.44
9 LOST ABC 7.41
10 CSI: MIAMI CBS 7.35

• Source: Nielsen Media Research data

fredfa

03-06-07, 01:05 PM

Your point was very well made, Ray.

I'll try to be far more careful with the headlines from now on.

But some show content will inevitably creep onto the thread though I tend to try to leave many such columns and stories for those who wish to post them in the specific show threads.

I'll just try to heighten my diligence.

Thanks again for the heads up.

I've cleared my DVR backlog, so I feel safe venturing in here for now. :D

My point wasn't about time period after showing or even providing plot details (though I personally think plot details belong in actual show threads, not in here). My point was simply that the "spoiler" was so highlighted (top position, color, size of font, etc) that you couldn't miss it. It makes it impossible to discriminate between which posts you want to read vs. those you don't want to take a chance on. A headline such as "major character may leave show", etc would provide sufficient warning not to read further. But a headline like the one in question was simply too detailed, obvious and near-unavoidable.

I'm not suggesting using tags if you don't like them - just don't post such blatant plot details as the main subject line in large font/color. That kind of treatment (font/color) could be more useful as the warning - NOT as the content. The scrolling would work almost as well as burying the details, but simply scrolling that one would still have attracted casual attention to the BIG BLUE detail line with the unwanted information highlighted. It was the highlighting, size and positioning of the unwanted details that irked me. I just couldn't miss it. I feel ungrateful posting this since I am such a fan of your work here fredfa, but this one just got me good. Sorry, but keep up the outstanding and indefatigable work.

fredfa

03-06-07, 01:19 PM

Syndicated Nielsen Ratings Notebook
“Ellen Soars
By TVNewsday.com Staff

In an otherwise down week for most syndicated shows, Warner Bros.’ Ellen DeGeneres was the standout, hitting its best ratings of the season and tying its highest ratings ever.

For the week ending Feb. 25, which included the third full week of the sweep, ratings were lower or flat for every strip in first-run syndication except Ellen as milder weather in much of the country sent people outdoors and PUT (persons using television) levels tumbling from the week before by more than 2.5 million viewers on average.

In addition, many strips had to compete with the Anna Nicole Smith courtroom drama which was the week’s biggest story on cable. The cable news channels devoted an average 26% of their airtime to what became the Judge Larry Seidlin show, more than triple the time spent covering the events in Iraq.

Talk Shows

Ellen, the one talk show to improve during the week, jumped 8% in households to a new season high 2.7 and scored double-digit gains in every key female demo. On Thursday, Feb. 22, with Oprah Winfrey as a guest, Ellen’s ratings skyrocketed 43% from the prior Thursday to a 3.3, making it the highest-rated episode in the show’s four-year history. But even factoring out the Oprah show, ratings for Ellen would have been up from the week before as A-list guests and excitement over her hosting the Oscars drew viewers at record levels. Compared to last year at this time, Ellen was the only talker not to decline, holding steady at its series high 2.7.

Six of the other eight veteran talkers were lower and two were flat. The downers included the three higher rated than Ellen: CBS Television Distribution’s Oprah, which ironically had the largest week-to-week decline of any veteran talker, losing 14% to a 6.5; CBS Television Distribution’s Dr. Phil, which dipped 11% to a 5.1; and Buena Vista’s Live with Regis and Kelly, which slipped 10% to a 3.5.

Court Shows

All seven veteran court shows declined from the week before, including the leader, CBS Television Distribution’s Judge Judy, which was down 4% to a 5.1; CBS Television Distribution’s Judge Joe Brown, which slid 9% to a 3.2; Warner Bros.’ People’s Court, which fell 6% to a 3.0; and Warner Bros.’ Judge Mathis, which dropped 4% to a 2.7. Year to year, only two judges improved—Judy and Mathis, which grew 9% and 4%, respectively.

Magazine Shows

None of the magazines were up from the mostly season-high levels reached the week before, but all remained well above their season averages. Of course, last year at this time NBC carried the Winter Olympics which caused some shows to be preempted on its affiliates in some markets.

The highest-rated magazine, CBS Television Distribution’s Entertainment Tonight, slipped 9% to a 6.0 which was still its third best week of the season, 9% above its season average and 11% better than last year. CBS Television Distribution’s Inside Edition dropped 10% to a 3.8 which was 9% above its season average and up 6% from last year. CBS Television Distribution’s The Insider backed off 9% from its series high the week before to a 2.9, but was 7% above its average. NBCU’s Access Hollywood was down 6% to a 2.9, although it was 7% above its average and up 26% from last year. Warner Bros.’ Extra held steady at a 2.5 for a third consecutive week, up 14% from its season average.

Game Shows

All four game shows were down from the prior week, however Buena Vista’s Who Wants to be a Millionaire was still up 13% from last year to a 3.6. CBS Television Distribution’s Jeopardy!was up 4% from the same week one year ago to a 7.2, but leader CBS Television Distribution’s Wheel of Fortune was down 1% from last year to an 8.7.

Off-Net Sitcoms

None of the top five off-net sitcoms were up. Leader CBS Television Distribution’s Everybody Loves Raymond slid 2% to a 5.3; Sony’s Seinfeld was unchanged at a 4.9; and Warner Bros.’ Friends was down 3% to a 3.7. Year to year, all three were down between 14% and 26%.

Weekend

CBS Television Distribution’s Entertainment Tonight Weekend led first-run weekly hours, gaining 3% to a 3.3, which was up 18% from last year. NBCU’s Access Hollywood Weekend was down 6% to 1.7 and Warner Bros.’ Extra Weekend was unchanged at a 1.4, which was up 17% from last year.

Among off-net weekly hours, CBS Television Distribution’s CSI: Miami was down 10% to a 4.5; Warner Bros.’ Without a Trace, at a 2.5, saw 4% of its ratings disappear; and Tribune’s American Idol: Rewind backtracked 5% to a 2.1, its lowest rating yet.

http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2007/03/06/daily.6/

fredfa

03-06-07, 01:54 PM

The Business of Television
Roberts Touts Comcast's Triple Play
VOD More Important Than Adding HD
By P.J. Bednarski Broadcasting & Cable, 3/6/2007

Comcast’s “Triple Play” offering customers bundled cable, telephone and Internet high speed modem service is progressing fast enough that Brian Roberts, chairman and CEO, thinks it will stave off competition from AT&T and Verizon’s nascent cable services.

“If and when the Bells get there—really, really--we’ll have gotten there first,” Roberts said Tuesday at the Bear Stearns media conference in Palm Beach, Fla. Roberts said if anything, “We underestimated how many people wanted Triple Play and how fast they wanted it.”

He said the growth of that bundled package is proved by the numbers. Two years ago, he said, Comcast grew by 3 million “revenue generating units.” Last year it added 5 million. This year, it anticipates to add 7 million. Those units essentially represent new customers, or customers adding new services like modems or phones.

Comcast is predicting 12% revenue growth this year, and a 14% growth in cash flow.

One place cash won’t be flowing, he said, is to broadcasters seeking cash in their retransmission consent agreements. Though it appeared Roberts didn’t rule out the possibility it would pay some cash to broadcasters, he did seem to rule out all-cash deals.

“We will be happy to sit down with reasonable folk and talk about some kind of cooperative deals where comparable value gets exchanged,” he said. “We’re not interested and we will not pay cash as a flat out [part of the deal].”

He said Comcast has finished 600 retrans deals already and another one is nearly done. But he said, of the four largest retrans deals Comcast faces, the earliest come due about five years from now.

He said Comcast is willing to discuss “something other than just pay. We will help market each other’s services where it will be a win-win outcome so we won’t have to raise consumer rates to watch free TV. That line is drawn. That’s not changing. I don’t anticipate that changing.

On another matter, Roberts was bullish on video-on-demand, suggesting that it is more important at this point for Comcast to use its bandwidth to add a large package of on-demand hi-def movies than to add a cable network’s new HD version. And he said viewership is growing. He said, “We have 27 views per month” in Comcast homes that have the ability to access VOD. “That used to be 10.”

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6421943

hearth

03-06-07, 02:26 PM

TV Notebook
“Knights of Prosperity” Gone

ABC today announced the scheduled next three episodes of “The Knights of Prosperty” will be replaced be reruns of “According to Jim” and “The George Lopez Show”.

In an ominous note, the network did not say if the “Knights” episodes will ever be shown.

I think that this is the last straw with ABC and Fox. They have really screwed me this year with the quick hooks for Day Break, Knights, The Nine, Six Degrees, Justice, Vanished, and not even showing the last episode of Big Day. Fox and ABC show very little patience with new shows, and especially this year, I feel the brunt of it.

The upshot for me is, I will not be giving new shows from ABC or Fox a chance for a long while. For example, "Drive" looks very interesting to me, but I will be giving it a miss. October Road? Not a chance...

CBS and especially this year, NBC, has given shows a good chance to catch on, even when the ratings are tanking. I will reward that patience with a willingness to give their new shows a chance to grab me.

Don

fredfa

03-06-07, 02:39 PM

That makes sense to me, Don.

Another option is to DVR new shows you are concerned about until you see how the ratings are doing.

(And welcome to the thread!)

fredfa

03-06-07, 02:44 PM

Critic’s Notebook
The “Mr. Television” Column
Fox and The CW's Moving Pieces
by Marc Berman MediaWeek TV Columnist

In last week's column, you'll recall, I gave the Big Three networks some suggestions of what to think about as they start planning for next season. With programming holes aplenty on Fox and The CW, I needed a separate column devoted to getting these two networks in shape for next season. So, as an addendum to last week's write-up, here are the remaining two networks.

Given the success Fox has found by delaying the new seasons of American Idol and 24 until January, why not use that as an example and wait to premiere the lion's share of its schedule (excluding Cops and America's Most Wanted) until November after baseball season is over? Starting it in September, then having to stop for baseball playoffs, has never been beneficial. What good, after all, did it do for new dramas Vanished, Standoff and Justice—or any established shows, for that matter—when they had to take a backseat to baseball?

Since we all know that baseball in fourth quarter is both a blessing and a curse (a blessing because of the often-solid ratings; a curse because it can thwart the early momentum of any new regularly scheduled series), waiting to launch original scripted programming will A) extend the promotional platform, B) give the new shows a better chance to find a long-term audience in a less competitive environment and C) guarantee an abundance of original options through the end of the May sweeps. Saving enough original programming to air during the weeks when the competing networks normally run repeats could be extremely beneficial.

Although we know that American Idol and, to a lesser degree, 24 will change the network from bland to grand come January, imagine the benefit of peppering the first and second quarters with the original programming wasted during baseball season.

As to the ongoing rumor that Fox is considering moving House to Thursdays next season, that could very well be the programming move of the 2007-08 season. But put it on at 8 p.m., away from Grey's Anatomy and CSI. Although the medical drama is healthy enough to stand up to the killer duo, opening with it could solidify the entire evening. But keep the expectations low at 9 p.m. because a good half of the House audience is likely to head elsewhere. While Fox is making changes, I suggest moving Trading Spouses into the Friday 8 p.m. anchor spot and putting comedies 'Til Death and The War at Home out of their misery.

The CW, unfortunately, got off on the wrong foot by launching with too many on-the-fence performers, which sent the message that the new programming platform was nothing more than the combined efforts of two failed networks. So, what it needs to do is clean house, spend money on development and aggressively promote a slate chock-full of new programming. Ongoing declines for All of Us and Girlfriends and the failure of The Game to generate much interest means that the network should open the week with no fewer than two new comedies on Monday. An early renewal for the fading Everybody Hates Chris was admirable, but the show is no longer capable of anchoring an evening. Nor is the fading Gilmore Girls on Tuesday, which should be allowed to exit with some dignity.

The CW does not have the luxury to cancel everything that really needs to go—that's more than half of its schedule, after all. But the time has come to give up on Veronica Mars. After three years, it's safe to say the critically acclaimed amateur sleuth will never achieve critical mass. While even fading performances for Smallville and Supernatural on Thursday are still worthy of renewal, veteran 7th Heaven needs to also call it quits while there is still a Camden kid left on the series. And I don't see any reason to renew both Gilmore Girls and One Tree Hill, so take your pick.

What this all means, of course, is that The CW is looking at a preliminary fall 2007 schedule with potential changes on five of its six nights. (Friday Night Smackdown! is the one exception.) But since the idea this season was to introduce viewers to the network via existing product, the goal in 2007-08 must be to introduce a schedule populated with five to seven new series. And before the network starts pumping out new shows, I would rethink those bright green promotional colors, which look better on Batman villain The Riddler than on a network that wants to be taken seriously. They should go with a vibrant blue. It will make them look more grown up.

http://pifeedback.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/98010991/m/83010473

archiguy

03-06-07, 02:58 PM

ICBS and especially this year, NBC, has given shows a good chance to catch on, even when the ratings are tanking. I will reward that patience with a willingness to give their new shows a chance to grab me.

Don

Huh? You must have forgotten 'Kidnapped'. That was a ridiculously quick yank of an NBC show that, naturally, I had committed to. Then they rubbed salt into the wound by moving it to Saturday to, supposedly, finish its run. That lasted one week. Then, they moved it to their website where they left each episode up only a week (that made no sense whatsoever; what, are they short of bandwidth? :rolleyes: ). Once I missed the first one, that was the end of that. No, NBC deserves no kudos for their behavior this season. They're just an another part of the problem.

fredfa

03-06-07, 03:30 PM

TV Notebook
Realistic Portrayals Win 'Brothers' Praise
By Lisa D. Horowitz Television Week March 6, 2007

Monday's salute to ABC's freshman series "Brothers and Sisters" took a serious turn as several audience members praised the family drama for its sensitive, realistic portrayal of gay characters.

Creator Jon Robin Baitz said, "We have come far enough in certain aspects of the culture -- Ann Coulter's epithets notwithstanding -- and Touchstone Television and ABC have been wildly encouraging. They never said, 'Less men kissing,' or anything of the sort."

At the event, part of the Museum of TV & Radio's 24th annual William S. Paley Festival, series star Matthew Rhys said that frankness was part of what drew him to the part of gay lawyer Kevin. "I loved the fact that his sexuality wasn't the defining characteristic of who he was."

Mr. Rhys also joked that he took the part because "I was about to be deported back to Wales," surprising many in the audience with his natural accent.

Complimented by moderator Pat Mitchell on how American he sounds on the show, Mr. Rhys demurred. "We were shooting the last episode, and Ken [Olin] shouted cut and said, 'Can you not sound like you're from Middle-earth?'"

Sally Field said Mr. Baitz won her over by saying he wanted to tell a story about a matriarchal family, and "to explore how women age." Mr. Baitz said Peter Coyote "is visiting us" as a love interest for Ms. Field's character.

Mr. Baitz also, in answer to an audience question, said Tom Skerritt would continue to return in flashbacks as the patriarch of the Walker family to explore his relationship with his children.

Getty family scion Balthazar Getty(“Tommy”) won laughs with his reason for taking the part: "The money."

And when Dave Annable (“Justin”) was asked if his character interested him because of how he allows the show to deal with the Iraq war, he said, "Yeah, that's one of the reasons, besides getting to meet Harrison Ford...," drawing the mock ire of co-star Calista Flockhart as well as the audience's laughter.

http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=11659

fredfa

03-06-07, 03:34 PM

Huh? You must have forgotten 'Kidnapped'. That was a ridiculously quick yank of an NBC show that, naturally, I had committed to. Then they rubbed salt into the wound by moving it to Saturday to, supposedly, finish its run. That lasted one week. Then, they moved it to their website where they left each episode up only a week (that made no sense whatsoever; what, are they short of bandwidth? :rolleyes: ). Once I missed the first one, that was the end of that. No, NBC deserves no kudos for their behavior this season. They're just an another part of the problem.

I certainly understand your frustration. "Kidnapped" was not handled well at all, although it must be noted that the ratings went downward in a hurry.

Nonetheless over the past few years with shows such as "The Office", "American Dreams" and "My Name Is Earl" along with this year's "30 Rock", "Studio 60" and "Friday Night Lights" the network seems to have done its best to give shows it believes in a chance.

I'd say Fox is the worst, ABC next, followed by NBC and then CBS. Which doesn't mean to say they all haven't had instances where they pulled shows too quickly.

fredfa

03-06-07, 03:43 PM

Nielsen Notebook
In their TV tastes, the rich are different
Many of their favorite shows earn modest ratings
By Kevin Downey MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer

The very rich are quite different from the rest of us in many ways, and one of them is what they watch on television. They like shows that most others don’t.

Programs enjoyed by the very rich include ABC’s “Saturday Night Football” and “What About Brian” as well as NBC’s “Friday Night” and “30 Rock.”

All four rank in the top 15 among affluent viewers measured on median income, but none ranks higher than 80th among the general household population.

That’s according to a report from Magna Global, using analysis of Nielsen Media Research ratings to rank programs according to their median household income among adults 25-54.

While a couple of the shows matched with the general viewing public’s favorites, like No. 1 “Desperate Housewives,” most were quite different.

That skew in preferences is also seen in the networks favored by rich viewers. Though NBC has slid from first to fourth place in 18-49s over the past few years, it ranks No. 2 in median household income behind only ABC, and it has seven of the top 20 shows in median income.

“Affluent programs are important to advertisers because [their viewers] have more money to spend,” says Steve Sternberg, executive vice president of audience analysis at Magna. “But obviously, they are more important to some advertisers than others.”

ABC’s audience has a median income of $64,000, based on adults 25-54 in fourth quarter, compared to NBC’s $60,000, CBS’s $59,000, Fox’s $53,000 and the CW’s $45,000.

Among middling performers with affluent viewers propping up NBC is “The Office,” a comedy that so far this season ranks only No. 28 among all shows in the 18-49 demographic. But it is tied with ABC’s “Housewives” at No. 1 in affluence, with its viewers having a median income of $70,000.

More telling, “Scrubs” ranks only No. 51 among 18-49s but No. 6 in affluence with a median of $68,000, tied with ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Lost” and NBC’s “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” which is partly why it is remarkably in its sixth season despite never having been more than a modest performer for NBC.

It has consistently had a high median income in the regular reports issued by Magna over the years.

Shows like “Scrubs” probably give the creators of a few first-season shows on NBC and other networks some hope of survival.

NBC Thursday sitcom “Rock,” for instance, is far from a sure bet for renewal. For the season it’s tied at No. 85 in the 18-49 demographic, but its viewers have a median income of $65,000, enough to be tied at No. 11 in affluence with several other shows.

Also doing well in affluence but not necessarily overall ratings is ABC’s “Brian,” a weak drama stuck at No. 82 in the ratings so far this season but, like “30 Rock,” tied at No. 11 in affluence.

Of course, many factors go into whether or not a show makes it another season, notably its overall rating and its ability to retain viewers from lead-in programs. Recent shows with affluent viewers like Fox’s “The O.C.,” ABC’s “Six Degrees” and CBS’s “The Class” are either already gone or in their final throes.

Sternberg says programs like “Studio 60” aren’t likely to see a second season despite their viewers’ affluence.

“If [‘Studio 60’] had held onto its initial audience, I would say yes,” he says. “But since it has been declining I have to say it’s borderline at best.”

TOP 20 SHOWS BY PRIMETIME MEDIAN INCOME
Fourth quarter 2006
Rank PROGRAM NET (Median HH income among 25-54s)
1 Desperate Housewives ABC 70,000
1 The Office NBC 70,000
3 Brothers & Sisters ABC 69,000
4 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 68,000
4 Lost ABC 68,000
4 Scrubs NBC 68,000
4 Studio 60/Sunset Strip NBC 68,000
8 Sat Night Football ABC 67,000
8 Amazing Race 10 CBS 67,000
10 60 Minutes CBS 66,000
11 Bachelor: Rome ABC 65,000
11 Boston Legal ABC 65,000
11 Dancing with the Stars ABC 65,000
11 Six Degrees ABC 65,000
11 What About Brian ABC 65,000
11 Two and a Half Men CBS 65,000
11 30 Rock NBC 65,000
11 Biggest Loser 3 NBC 65,000
11 Friday Night Lights NBC 65,000
11 Sunday NFL Pre-Kick NBC 65,000
• Source: Magna Global

dad1153

03-06-07, 03:51 PM

Happy to see "Studio 60" high up on a list that doesn't have the words "Disappointing" or "Underperformer" in the title. Hooray for the TV tastes of the upwardly mobile! :)

fredfa

03-06-07, 04:12 PM

And thanks for reminding me about that medialifemagazine story, dad. :)

fredfa

03-06-07, 06:33 PM

OK, even in my new ever more spoiler conscious state, I couldn't pass up this piece. It had me laughing so hard I had to stop everything for a few minutes.

But there are some spoilers in the piece, so I have gone against my usual policy and added them here. Enjoy.

Critic’s Notebook
"24": "How could that happen?
Cut the crap! Pilotless drones!"
By Tim Goodman San Francisco Chronicle in his TV blog “The Bastard Machine” March 6, 2007

Damn this show! It is going to simultaneously eat through my brain and destroy every shredded muscle fiber and nerve ending in my screwed-up-from-work hands. I can not condone this. And yet, "24" is insanely stupid. And addictive. It's less like crack and more like...like...I don't know, some totally low-budget meth-like brain melt constructed by felons and shut-ins wearing trucker hats and living in the Delta mud. I'm sure that drug exists. And they are sending it through the Burbank airport (smile) right to the nitwits who construct the "drama" on "24.

Where to begin? How about with this statement: Although I personally and The Bastard Machine as my technological instrument of destruction never EVER use that stupid cliche about shows jumping a certain water animal, if you are prone to needing that for proof that a show - even a lousy but funny one which is what "24" has become - is past the point of saving, then know this: "24" leapt over an ocean's worth of predators and dorsal fins last night. The whole thing where Rob Lowe's brother was convinced that the Buscuit - WHO TRIED TO STOP THE ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT ON THE PRESIDENT AND WAS ABOUT TO BE KILLED HIMSELF - would somehow brush it all off like two 13-year old boys who bump shoulders in the hallway at school and then, after a crowd gathers around looking for blood, let cooler heads prevail, was asinine. It was - stay with me here, because this statement is a doozy - the single most ridiculous moment in the history of "24." I mean, cougar traps, wild leaps of logic, etc. - they are far less offensive than watching a writer unable to get out of the lame corner he/she just wrote into. Why not have the Buscuit step out of a shower to find it was all a dream. Or why not have that other goof from "Ally McBeal" walk in the door and shrug, "Bygones!"

There is stupidity and there is unacceptable stupidity. And it all got made even more heinous by the fact we had to endure, minutes later, THE WORST ACTING BY A FAKE RUSSIAN IN THE HISTORY OF BAD TELEVISION AND CINEMA. I spent 10 minutes crinkling up my nose and snarling like some Cold War era caricature just to amuse myself. Even that couldn't shake the vision of ineptitude. If the Russians have learned to love us, then we're about to undo all of that in a two week span (since, apparently, Ricky Schroeder shoots the bejesus out of their sovereign building next week). Don't enough countries hate us already? Why export entertainment that's going to make it even worse? Let's resurrect Col. Klink next week!

Alright already. The acting here was bad. Only President Logan had a presence. And now the First Lady of Percocet returns next week. She and her stash are about 8 episode too late, Travis. There was more expository rambling than any five episode arc of "Murder, She Wrote." Hey guys: Show, don't tell. I'm not sure that having Cy Tolliver run the country is going to make me any happier. But Heroic (and Not Bloody) Aaron also returns and appears to be shagging the First Lady of Percocet.

Nice. That might help. About the only thing keeping me watching is the humor. And even that is shifting to anger.

But I should spill a big secret now: We've got plans to do a time-shifted podcast critique of "24" on the TV Talk Machine just to see how it works. The idea is you tape it on Monday, perhaps I'll do a short angry blog that references last year's blog in a way that makes no sense to newbies, then on Wednesday or Thursday (hey, they're backed up in the pod cave) you can drag out your laptop or iPod and sync up your TiVo of "24" with me screaming stuff at the top of my lungs. "Don't open the FRONT DOOR of the Russian ambassador's office, Jack! And don't leave those Cubans sitting in that box! Share the smokes!" I don't know. I'm sure there will be yelling and outrage and red wine. I have no idea how to do it, technically, but our people apparently do. Lastly, I will leave you with one final thought. When the worst Russian actor EVER giggled about unmanned pilotless drones being used to drop the nukes, well, correct me if I'm wrong but I immediately laughed out loud and thought of this http://cdn.sfgate.com/blogs/sounds/sfgate/chroncast/2007/01/23/CorrectMe-001-2.mp3 (it's under two minutes and if you haven't listened to it, this is probably how my TV Talk Machine does "24" will sound.) Then, in a natural progression, I had to go watch this, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-4I-KFqgiA which is brilliant and way better than "24" right now (also under two minutes).

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/indexn?blogid=24

biggiE48

03-06-07, 06:42 PM

Saw an eBay deal too good to pass (from a seller with a perfect record) that also included insured FedEx shipping to my door. This is my first HDTV so I'm nervous as s*** thinking about the million and one things that could go wrong.

Just for kicks gang, since I'm joining the HDTV bandwagon, what type of HDTV (brand, size, type of HD display, etc.) do you guys use as your primary viewing device? How old is your set, and what new HDTV are you eyeing in your near-future as an upgrade or substitute to your present HD set-up? Come on guys, humor this HD noob with some stories from the war front.
Two years since I got my Sammy,and one for the Olevia in the bedroom. But it will be a long time before I buy another one. Only thing I may purchase is a HD/DVD once the price drops in the $100/200 range. Until then I want upgrade until content of HD programming and channels is greatly increase.. I use Direct TV and have to pay $9.95 extra for just 11 HD channel, and other than the big 4 and ESPNHD/HD2 the choice are slim and programs are repetitive
Equipment:
Samsung HLP5663W 56" DLP
Syntax Olevia LT37HVS 37" LCD TV
Yamaha RX-V1500
Samsung HD-841 DVD (w/SACD/DVD-A)
Atlantic Technolgy System 2200 with Sub
Velodyne SPL800R Sub Woofer
D* HR10-250 HD/DVR
D* HR20-700 HD/DVR

Maestro J

03-06-07, 07:04 PM

I'm not going to direct quote reply to the post above where the idiot trashed 24 but all that needs to be said is....that's San Fran for ya.

keenan

03-06-07, 07:06 PM

VisionOn

03-06-07, 07:13 PM

I'm a still trying to figure out why they don't have security cameras in an essential maintenance area like the boiler room.

URFloorMatt

03-06-07, 07:18 PM

Goodman is hilarious, and as usual, right on the mark. His comments echo my sentiments exactly about last night's episode, so much of this episode was among some of the worst TV writing I have ever seen, so bad that it straddles the line between so bad it's funny, and so bad that it makes you angry that the writers would try and push this crap past their audience.

I still watch the show, it can definitely be exciting, but boy oh boy, the writing is tanking badly.

The writing tanked well over a year ago. Last season was absurd from minute one. If anything, they were rebounding until last night.

Maestro J

03-06-07, 07:43 PM

I love how people trash the writing of 24 like its supposed to be well written. It is the first show in modern history that attempts "real time" storylines. Remember that it is on the air to entertain us. What will entertain us for 24 epsiodes (which constitutes 24 consecutive hours in a day)? To see Jack Bauer stop for a value meal at McDonalds or high tail it into the mens room at CTU for his daily dump? No. To entertain us is to show car chases, torture scenes, backstabs...all the twist and turns that an action series can muster. Suspension of disbelief.
If I wanted to watch a well written show, I would join the 10 other people that watched Studio 60 (sorry Dad - had to throw a jab there).
So, whatever, flame away. I'm still entertained.

fredfa

03-06-07, 07:57 PM

keenan

03-06-07, 08:00 PM

Whether the writing is good or bad is relative to the particular program and it's premise. With "24" we have what is supposed to the country's uber super agent in Jack Bauer, who you would expect not to do some of the ridiculous things that have been written for his character, such as walking out that door. There's a certain degree of expectancy that the audience gets used to, and when something completely out of character happens, it's a sign of weak writing, for example they have written themselves into a hole and have no other way to write around it given all the factors involved, shooting schedule, etc.

TommyK

03-06-07, 08:04 PM

Huh? You must have forgotten 'Kidnapped'. That was a ridiculously quick yank of an NBC show that, naturally, I had committed to. Then they rubbed salt into the wound by moving it to Saturday to, supposedly, finish its run. That lasted one week. Then, they moved it to their website where they left each episode up only a week (that made no sense whatsoever; what, are they short of bandwidth? :rolleyes: ). Once I missed the first one, that was the end of that. No, NBC deserves no kudos for their behavior this season. They're just an another part of the problem.I agree. There's plenty of blame to go around. Along with NBC nixing Kidnapped, another example is CBS showing no patience with Love Monkey last season. On the other hand, there are examples of networks showing great patience with shows, rare as this may be. Arrested Development on Fox comes to mind.

fredfa

03-06-07, 08:07 PM

TV Review
“The Wedding Bells”
Not much rings true, or new, on Kelley's latest show
By Melanie McFarland Seattle Post-Intelligencer TV Critic Tuesday, March 6, 2007

During "The Wedding Bells" premiere, a mother of the bride played by Delta Burke introduces herself like so: "Hi, I'm Stella Pontell, mother of the bride? I'm an acquired taste."

That's the perfect way to sum up the series, with silver package and satin bow. "The Wedding Bells" 9 PM ET/PT Wednesday, regular time slot is 9 Friday, Fox) isn't for everyone. Once it makes the jump from Wednesday to Friday nights, we may find out that it isn't for anyone. Think about it -- showing up for real-life weddings takes enough of a commitment, and the hosts reward those efforts with cake and an open bar. How we're expected to get through 13 episodes of David E. Kelley's wedding-business dramedy with no free champagne is beyond comprehension.

But it is interesting to see Kelley's fascination with female brittleness and fragility rear its curly little head once again.

Kelley has a trunk full of female archetypes he enjoys hauling out now and again. There is the foal-legged, stumbling ingénue personified in the titular character on "Ally McBeal"; the siren, demonstrated in Rhona Mitra's Tara Wilson on "Boston Legal"; the iron lady, in the mold of "The Practice's" Ellenor Frutt; or some loopy combination of all these -- i.e., those special guest appearances by Betty White, playing a senior with a mean streak.

How lucky for us that "The Wedding Bells" includes a little bit of all of it in one snippy, high-strung pilot -- all this, and Delta Burke, too!

Beware Kelley when he's on his woman time, and yes, this is said with full awareness of its condescending connotations. To get the full meaning in this context, stick around after "American Idol" on Wednesday.

Rarely will you come across a premiere so steeped in irrational mood swings and pointless highs and lows, where every character is exactly the kind of person you'd expect him to come up with. This is the skin of a David E. Kelley show with none of the usual muscle, brains, spirit or cheek behind it. It is television's equivalent of those dancing inflatables that wave you into cheeseball car dealerships, only this sister-act premise has the Bell sisters (couldn't you just die at the cleverness?) take over their parents' business, The Wedding Palace, after Mom and Dad divorce.

"The Wedding Bells' " script also overflows with a synthesis of "if-then" clichés that telegraph every emotional tick. Example: If their management of the family wedding business grew out of a divorce, then the main characters are going to have commitment baggage.

If this is a series about weddings, then it must poke fun at the conventions of the ceremony without making people stuck at home on Saturday night feel a little sick to their stomach at the whole concept.

And, if a flaming dessert wheels into a room full of people, then someone, preferably an unpleasant person, must catch on fire. There's a touch of mystery to that last bit because of the outstanding array of characters that are tough to bear.

Let's start with the Bells, each unique and flawed that typical Kelley way. Jane Bell (Teri Polo), the goody-two-shoes eldest, has a stable marriage to an unbuttered toast slice of a human being, Russell (Benjamin King). He's wholesome and good for her. He's an accountant.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen is a Greek chef with an Italian accent who pulls Jane in close and has her taste his puttanesca sauce, which he calls by its English translation, "my little whore."

Middle sister Annie (KaDee Strickland) is uptight and closed off from the signals beaming her way from David, the in-house wedding photographer (Michael Landes), whom she used to date. We find out that Annie has commitment issues because her parents had a bad marriage

David is a sensitive rogue with perfectly maintained five o'clock shadow and paired with the sexually uninhibited youngest Bell, Sammy (Sarah Jones). Their characters are the series' salt and pepper shakers.

There's a smooth wedding singer named Ralph Snow (Chris Williams), a runaway bride, a high-maintenance client and a pair of peroxide blond bimbo twins who profess a deep fear of black people when they encounter the Bells' plus-size assistant. As one expects, said assistant is chock-full o' sass.

Without a doubt, enough people are going to read this list and, having seen the masterly montage of funniest moments on commercials, think it's enough to give "The Wedding Bells" a shot, and why not? Kelley has a following fond of his sense of humor and snappiness, and a share of his most devoted fans will probably find plenty to like here.

Then again, it's on Fridays at 9, in the Fox death slot. Other channels have managed to find and hold audiences on that night, and the viewership tends to be female skewing. A meringue-coated confection such as this, with all its imperfections, just might fly.

In the same way a wedding is not a marriage, a workable concept for a pilot does not a watchable series make. The first hour of "The Wedding Bells" makes that mighty clear.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/printer2/index.asp?ploc=t&refer=http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/tv/306145_tv06.html

Maestro J

03-06-07, 09:05 PM

I thought the first season, maybe two, was pretty well written.

But hey, I post Goodman for pure entertainment value, and disagree with him a good part of the time.

To me he is just a fun read.

I certainly am not looking to piss off "24" fans -- if I could get them all to check in here at the thread a few times a day I'd be a very happy camper. :)

(and MaestroJ -- if you want to watch a really well written show, try "Friday Night Lights"!)

No problem Fred. It was amusing...that's about all Goodman's good for, IMO.
Funny thing about FNL. My wife was sure that I was going to watch that series when it started last fall and she was shocked that I passed. At the time, my thinking was how original - taking a book which turned into a movie and now has turned into a tv series? Nah, not wasting my time.
Months later, I hate myself for not catching this show. Everybody who watches it loves it. Needless to say, I'm buying the DVD of the first season when it comes out later in the year.

URFloorMatt

03-06-07, 09:10 PM

I love how people trash the writing of 24 like its supposed to be well written.

Well, I thought the first season was very solid, especially the first 12 episodes, and the second season was great most of the time. It's been a fairly steady decline into mediocrity since.

I'm not upset that people criticize the writing because it is absolutely horrible at times. I'm just upset that 24 got the praise poured on so thick last season when the show was horrible television. Now, this year, all these clowns with their media publications and their blogs are hopping on the "Oh, look at this show fail after it gets praise" train. That's what annoys me. It just shows how all these critics have faked their way into a completely meaningless profession.

Sometimes when I talk about 24 I feel like I've slipped into the Twilight Zone.

fredfa

03-06-07, 11:27 PM

(The first numbers I have seen for the Discovery Channel presentation of “The Lost Tomb of Jesus” are in this story. They are somewhat lower than I expected, to be honest.)
Nielsen Notebook
'5th Grader' is promoted
By Gary Levin USA TODAY

•Head of the class. Tuesday's premiere of Fox's Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? scored an A-plus. With 26.5 million viewers, the game show marked Fox's biggest premiere ever and the best on any network since NBC's Jesse in September 1998. Two more editions on Wednesday and Thursday, which also followed American Idol, drew more than 23 million viewers apiece.

•Lesser lights. Monday's premiere of NBC drama Black Donnellys (7.9 million) proved weak behind Heroes, falling below Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip's average in the same time slot. Sunday's two-pronged premiere of Fox's The Winner (7.1 million and 6 million) also failed to impress but did OK with Fox's young male audience.

•Top tops. The eighth-season premiere of CW's America's Next Top Model marked the top opener yet, with 5.4 million viewers, but fell far short of overall series highs.

•Tomb raider. Discovery Channel's controversial special The Lost Tomb of Jesus claimed 4.2 million viewers Sunday, the channel's biggest audience since The Flight That Fought Back in September 2005.

•Improved image. Fox's NAACP Image Awards Friday (3.9 million) outdrew last year's record-low telecast (3.1 million) but still marked the show's third-worst performance.

•ABC specials. The alphabet network improved its lot with two specials, as Oprah Winfrey's Building a Dream (8.8 million Monday) and Bob Woodruff's To Iraq and Back (10.1 million Tuesday) easily improved on prior averages in their 10 p.m. ET/PT time slots. Monday combo Wife Swap and Supernanny also hit season highs.

•USA finale. s USA's season-enders for Monk (5.7 million) and Psych (4.5 million) marked season highs Friday, while Thursday's fourth-season sendoff of Nashville Star (3 million) matched last year's finale.

•No dice. The latest comeback attempt for comedian Andrew Dice Clay fell flat on VH1 Sunday, as Dice Undisputed snared a mere 684,000 viewers. Monday's season finale of the channel's White Rapper Show drew 1.7 million.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2007-03-06-nielsens-analysis_N.htm

fredfa

03-06-07, 11:32 PM

TV Review
“The Wedding Bells”
Love, creepy humor tie the knot; David E. Kelley's new series is anything but domestic bliss.
By Paul Brownfield Los Angeles Times Staff Writer March 7, 2007

Do you, David Edward Kelley, take this pilot, "The Wedding Bells," to be your lawfully wedded show, to have and to hold, through sickness and in health, good lines and bad, for as long as you both shall live and/or two to six weeks, whichever comes first?

I now pronounce you executive producer and stale show on Fox.

"The Wedding Bells" honeymoons tonight after "American Idol" before taking up residence in a shabby fixer of a time slot, Friday nights at 9.

The show returns Kelley, the creator of "The Practice," "Ally McBeal" and "Boston Legal," to his network TV fiefdom but not to the subject matter he does best. The law is his comfort zone, the firm his template; it's via poking holes in the attorney-client relationship and sending up judges that Kelley has excelled as a network dramatist, exploring the various paradoxes of his onetime profession, making fun of its hams and dreaming of how the larger world might enter in.

Is Kelley done with the legal show, as he has a right to be, or are we? Apparently he's adapting the BBC series "Life on Mars" next, and he came up with "The Wedding Bells" after Fox pulled another of its wedding-themed pilots.

Like the comedy "Big Day" on ABC, it's about the fresh hell of trying to segment-produce marriages among the neurotic entitled class. The schadenfreude is an easy hook, and confident of this, "The Wedding Bells" lurches between outright farce and outright sentiment.

The Bell girls — Jane (Teri Polo), Annie (KaDee Strickland) and Sammy (Sarah Jones) — have taken over their divorced parents' wedding-planner business, a mansion on a hill called the Wedding Palace. They're a plucky bunch of secret agents trying to pull off the ultimate bloodless coup — getting two people to pledge undying love to each other when that concept only negligibly exists.

It takes a total team effort — including the willingness of the wedding singer (Chris Williams) to belt "I Will Survive."

The pilot opens with a runaway bride, the sisters giving chase. The bride-to-be is a miserable stuck-up cradling her pug. The Bell girls flutter about her like courtiers in the Emma Thompson mold, though as characters there's deceptively little to them. Jane's rational, in a sex-starved marriage; Annie's emotionally closed off; and Sammy's open for business 24-7.

"By a show of hands, how many of you wanna sleep with me?" Sammy asks a conga line of groomsmen.

This is Kelley's brand of comedy — the primal instinct given articulation, in otherwise inappropriate settings (i.e. the courtroom).

Kelley shoehorns in love stories — as well as patented class and ethnic commentating, as when the mother of the bride (played by Delta Burke) offers Sammy $500 for two mentions of Jesus in the ceremony. "My little baby's marrying a Jew," she says. "I have no problem with this, they're very nice people.... The $500 is for you to get the mail-order minister to slip in Jesus twice."

Mom has defective tear ducts — metaphor alert! I'm not sure why, exactly, but Kelley's humor — here and on hits such as "Ally" and "Boston Legal" — creeps me out a little.

In the first hour of "The Wedding Bells," an old guy shows Sammy his false teeth, the flower girls marvel at the presence of a black woman ("Do you have a record?" one asks), and Jane cautions the chef that the Wedding Palace is already the subject of a complaint to the Anti-Defamation League. The Epsteins, apparently, reported unauthorized shrimp in the marinara as a hate crime. Lawyers.

http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-et-wedding7mar07,0,3271869.story?coll=cl-tv-top-right

RussTC3

03-07-07, 12:28 AM

I have no idea what to think of The Wedding Bells. I might check it out, but the premise really turns me off.

Not the subject matter, just the idea. I mean, how long can the show last? It seems to be trend these days in television. Fox has another show that also makes we wonder what they were thinking: Drive.

Is it really such a good idea to make a show that seems to have no future? ABC was guilty of it this year as well in Big Day and The Knights of Prosperity (which was abysmally promoted).

dad1153

03-07-07, 12:29 AM

A couple of days old but an interesting read given the industry's obsession with attracting young demographics.

Network News Notebook
The Evening News Report: The News At Six (Months)
By Brian Montopoli, CBS' "Public Eye" Blog - March 5, 2007

Yesterday, The "CBS Evening News With Katie Couric" turned six. Six months, that is. The show, which is in third place in the ratings behind the nightly newscasts on ABC and NBC, has been something of an experiment since Couric came on board. The "FreeSpeech" segment, which was fairly radical by nightly news standards, has apparently disappeared; correspondents have come and gone; and Couric has tried to inject more personality into the show, something that has proven difficult within the confines of a 22-minute broadcast.

"I think in some ways we owed it to the industry to try new things," CBS News President Sean McManus told Eric Deggans. "But we found at 6:30 with only 22 minutes of programming time, people basically want you to tell them what happened in the world that day . . . That's probably the biggest lesson we learned."

The broadcast, as Deggans points out, today "looks a lot more like [Couric's] competitors' broadcasts - though with more feature stories, more health stories and more stories with the lead anchor as reporter, according to data on analyst Andrew Tyndall's Web site."

CBS brass have maintained from the beginning that they did not expect the show to jump to #1 immediately, and they continue to say that they are giving it time to develop. "We don't like being No. 3 at all, but I still firmly believe if we keep putting on a better and better show, we're going to see some growth in the ratings," McManus told the Los Angeles Times. "I'm very patient, Katie's patient, my boss is patient."

But no one is patient forever, and there is clearly pressure on all involved to increase ratings.

I talked last week about how the show faces something of an identity crisis: Should it try to reach out to new, relatively young viewers, the 25-54 year olds who bring in higher ad revenue? Or should it pursue the older viewers who now make up a large chunk of the audience? Lately, the "Evening News" has shown signs that the primary focus is now the latter.

The presence of feel-good features like The American Spirit and Assignment America, along with the preponderance of health stories on the broadcast, seems to signal a movement away from experimentation and towards the kind of broadcast likely to appeal to the existing audience. For the past few weeks, the "Evening News" has seemed to be trying to build the audience it has, even if it means giving up, to some degree, on the one it wants.

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2007/03/05/publiceye/entry2537497.shtml

fredfa

03-07-07, 01:29 AM

Obituary
Composer Robert Prince, 78
Emmy nominee scored dozens of TV series
Variety Staff March 6. 2007

Emmy-nommed composer Robert Prince died March 4 in Los Angeles after a brief illness. He was 78.

Prince scored dozens of TV series from the 1960s to the 1980s and shared an Emmy nom for "The Name of the Game" in 1971.

Born in New York, he graduated Juillard School and became a producer, composer and arranger collaborating with Aram Avakian at Decca and Columbia Records. He worked on recordings for Johnny Mathis and Paul Desmond, and composed the score for Jerome Robbin's Ballet USA show "Opus Jazz."

Moving to Los Angeles, he composed scores for features including Francis Ford Coppola's "You're a Big Boy Now," "Claws" and "Squirm." He was known for capturing the musicians' personalities and styles in his scores, and had a lifelong appreciation for bass players.

Prince's extensive TV composing career started with "Mannix" and "Ironside," and continued with "McCloud," "Night Gallery," 'Mission Impossible," "The Streets of San Francisco" and "Wonder Woman." He also composed scores for numerous telepics such as "A Cry in the Wilderness," "Where Have All the People Gone?" and "The Chinese Prime Minister."

He continued working in the theater with commissions by the Center Theater Group at the Ahmanson Theater.

He is survived by his wife, Arline; a daughter; a son; three grandchildren and a great-grandson.

http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=print_story&articleid=VR1117960646&categoryid=14

fredfa

03-07-07, 01:38 AM

The TV Column
The Week’s Winners and Losers
Precocious '5th Grader' Disses 'Housewives'
By Lisa de Moraes Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Actual family members, sitting around watching TV together, took over the airwaves last week. Three editions of Fox's "American Idol" and three editions of new game show "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" controlled the top six slots in the ratings heap, leaving closest competitor "Desperate Housewives," on ABC, limping behind by a whopping 5 million viewers.

Here's a look at the week's Ozzies and Ozzys:

WINNERS

"Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" Nearly 27 million viewers stuck around after the guys sang on "American Idol" Tuesday to check out the unveiling of the Fox game show. That's the network's biggest audience ever for a series premiere and the biggest opening haul for a new show on any network in more than eight years. (That would be since lame sitcom "Jesse" logged 27 million viewers in its premiere in the late '90s, when NBC could throw pretty much any old thing on its Thursday lineup and cop a great number. Good times.) More than 23 million came back to "5th Grader" after "Idol" the next two nights.

"The Lost Tomb of Jesus." More than 4 million viewers checked out Discovery Channel's Sunday "documentary" on the find of a tomb in which Jesus's remains were purportedly buried. And while that's a smaller crowd than watched such cable shows as, say, "WWE," "Monk," "Psych" and "Hannah Montana" last week, it's still Discovery's biggest crowd since bagging 7 million viewers on Sept. 11, 2005, with the debut of "The Flight That Fought Back," in which the cable network "re-created" the hijacking of United Airlines Flight 93. "Jesus" also fell short of the 5 million who watched the debut of Discovery's "Supervolcano," in which thousands of people visiting Yellowstone National Park had to run for their lives when the volcano under their feet blew its lid. "This is a true story: It just hasn't happened yet," Discovery said of that "docudrama."

Following "Jesus," Ted Koppel moderated a chat between Smugly the Investigative Journalist-Filmmaker and skeptical archaeologists and theologians. It drew 2.6 million viewers.

"America's Next Top Model." Tyra's back and 5.4 million watched -- the reality show's best launch yet.

LOSERS

"The Winner." Fox's new sitcom, about a 30-year-old virgin whose best friend is the child of the woman he had a crush on in school (ick), finished third in its debut Sunday at 8:30 p.m. A second episode, at 9:30, ranked fourth in that slot. Fox noted the show did well with men 18 to 34, which we think is sad.

" The Black Donnellys." About 8 million people watched the Monday debut of NBC's replacement for "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip." That's not a great retention of its "Heroes" lead-in of 14.4 million viewers. Nor does it stand up to the "Studio 60" premiere audience of 13.4 million in September. And in conclusion, "Black Donnellys" bagged more than 9 million viewers in its first half-hour, but fewer than 7 million stuck around to watch the second half-hour.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/06/AR2007030602359_pf.html

HDTVFanAtic

03-07-07, 04:08 AM

HDTVFanAtic

03-07-07, 04:11 AM

Network News Notebook
The Evening News Report: The News At Six (Months)
By Brian Montopoli, CBS' "Public Eye" Blog - March 5, 2007

Yesterday, The "CBS Evening News With Katie Couric" turned six. Six months, that is. The show, which is in third place in the ratings behind the nightly newscasts on ABC and NBC, has been something of an experiment since Couric came on board.

CBS News President Sean McManus told Eric Deggans. "But we found at 6:30 with only 22 minutes of programming time, people basically want you to tell them what happened in the world that day . . . That's probably the biggest lesson we learned."

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2007/03/05/publiceye/entry2537497.shtml

Gosh, how did you get out of Minot without knowing that :rolleyes:

HDTVFanAtic

03-07-07, 04:13 AM

nmajdan

03-07-07, 08:30 AM

So I'm hearing that Zach Braff may be paid $350K an episode for season 7 of Scrubs. Thats a nice payday for a show that gets the ratings Scrubs does.

fredfa

03-07-07, 09:07 AM

That's the deal, according to the trade papers, if the show gets renewed.

(And welcome to the thread!)

fredfa

03-07-07, 09:15 AM

TV Review
“The Wedding Bells”
Through Tulle and Tears, Perfecting That Special Day
By Alessandra Stanley The New York Times March 7, 2007

Her wedding is supposed to be a woman’s happiest moment, yet no event is more apt to make her look ridiculous.

The expense, fuss, tears, tantrums and inflated expectations are to modern brides what chastity, veils and vows of obedience were to earlier generations: symbols of subjugation. Any man can feel superior at a bridal shower; too much talk of trellises and tulle can turn even the most tenderhearted woman to stone.

So a series about three sisters who run a wedding business is bound to have a satirical edge. In the hands of David E. Kelley, the creator of “Ally McBeal” and “Boston Legal,” the conceit teeters on the edge of misogyny.

“The Wedding Bells,” on Fox tonight, is Mr. Kelley’s knockoff of the sex-and-romance drama “Grey’s Anatomy.” But that hit ABC show about young surgeons in heat was written by a woman for women, and despite all its absurd excesses, there is no doubting the sincerity and intense partisanship of its creator, Shonda Rhimes. Mr. Kelley’s offering is wittier, but it comes with an ill-disguised sneer — a man’s take on women who are engrossed in the one occupation that men really can’t take.

For a television writer who created so many smart, original female characters in serious dramas like “Chicago Hope” and “The Practice,” Mr. Kelley has shown a surprisingly mean-spirited edge when it comes to comedy. The change was evident even before his disastrous and short-lived series in 2002 about kittenish young lawyers, “Girls Club.” Ally McBeal, for all her insecurities and irritating tics, was the heroine of that series.

By the time Mr. Kelley got around to “Boston Legal,” the leads were aging, lecherous lawyers leering at the secondary characters: young, beautiful women who constantly used their sexuality — and short skirts — to succeed in business. Eventually, the locker room grew so rank that Mr. Kelley had to open a window and let in Candice Bergen. But even now, too many of his women are vixens who abuse the privileges of their sex at the expense of men.

It’s almost as if, having ridden the wave of feminism early in his career as a writer on “L.A. Law,” Mr. Kelley has fallen into a reactionary sulk. (It probably didn’t help that his last series, about three middle-aged brothers in New Hampshire, was a flop.)

Mr. Kelley, a lawyer who made his mark with courtroom dramas, is an unlikely executive producer of this kind of fluffy, feminine show; it’s a little like asking Vera Wang to design combat fatigues for the Marine Corps. But weaving a romantic drama around the wedding planning business is, like some marriages, a calculation: an attempt to carry the train of the cultural mainstream, at least the distaff side.

Fifty percent of couples may divorce, but weddings remain a boom industry, fueled by things like the weddingchannel.com and “Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?,” a reality show on the Style Network. With the recent sitcom “Big Day,” ABC has already tried and failed to wrap a series around a wedding. The “Today” show boosts its ratings by letting viewers choose between competing betrothed couples in a kind of Matrimonial Idol; NBC pays for the wedding of the winning husband and wife.

“Engaged and Underage,” a new reality show on MTV, follows very young couples, many of whom choose to remain virgins until marriage, as they navigate the treacherous shoals of bouquets, tuxedo rentals and mothers-in-law. And, of course, the WE channel has “Bridezillas,” a recurring reality series that profiles brides on the verge of a wedding meltdown.

And there are plenty of bridezilla moments in “The Wedding Bells.” The premiere begins with a jittery, chain-smoking bride who bolts seconds before the ceremony begins. Another bride, the rich, spoiled and imperious Amanda (Missi Pyle), keeps correcting the staff, even the wedding singer and his band. “This is my moment,” she hisses.

The organizers who run the Wedding Palace are three sisters with the surname Bell (unlike the Brontë sisters, they do not use Bell as their pseudonym) who inherited the business — and stately reception rooms — after their parents’ divorce. Jane Bell (Teri Polo) is the serene sister, happily married to Russell (Benjamin King), the company’s financial officer.

Annie (KaDee Strickland) is the more brittle sister, still bruised from her breakup with the handsome, womanizing photographer David (Michael Landes), who doubles as a bride whisperer: he can sweet-talk even the most psychotic wife-to-be. And Sammy (Sarah Jones) is the sexy little sister who never says no to the brides — or the ushers.

“O.K., by a show of hands,” Sammy says to a group of jostling groomsmen during a rehearsal. “How many of you want to sleep with me?” All hands shoot up, and Sammy slithers down the line and picks the most handsome in the group. Not much later, they have sex in a closet.

In format, if not content, the series borrows from “Designing Women,” and homage is paid in the form of the guest star, Delta Burke, who plays Amanda’s willful mother in the premiere. “Sheila Pontell, mother of the bride, I’m an acquired taste,” is how she introduces herself to newcomers. Because the Jewish groom requested a nondenominational service, Sheila bribes the officiant she describes as a “mail-order minister” to mention Jesus twice during the ceremony, even if only as an exclamation after stubbing his toe.

“The man’s a savior,” Sheila says briskly. “He deserves a mention.”

Ms. Rhimes, who is African-American, cast African-Americans as surgeons and a hospital chief on “Grey’s Anatomy.” On Mr. Kelley’s series they have lowlier roles. Ralph (Chris Williams) is a musician who chafes at being a wedding singer. Sherri Shepherd, who played Ramona on the sitcom “Less Than Perfect,” is Debbie, a cynical, scolding assistant who, when reprimanded for allowing two brides to cross paths, woodenly recites the company mantra.

“It should never ever happen, ’cuz it’s their special, special time,” she intones. “Each should feel like the only happy, happy little bride on the planet, because it’s their special, special time.”

Mr. Kelley is a gifted television producer, and “The Wedding Bells” has funny moments, but this series is not a labor of love. It’s a labored effort to simulate romance.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/07/arts/television/07stan.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

fredfa

03-07-07, 09:20 AM

Cable Nielsen Notebook
Discovery reaps big buzz over 'Jesus'
By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer March 7, 2007

“The Lost Tomb of Jesus” didn’t set any viewership records Sunday night for the Discovery Channel. It came nowhere near the 10 million who tuned in for the documentaries “Walking with Dinosaurs” or “Raising the Mammoth” a few years back.

But te network certainly got tons of free publicity out of the special, which will go down as one of the most controversial programs in recent years on cable.

Many Christians were outraged over the special’s claim that it had found Jesus’ tomb, contradicting the Bible’s version in which Jesus was resurrected.

“Tomb” drew a very solid 4.19 million total viewers Sunday at 9 p.m., making it Discovery’s most-watched program of the year. It ranked No. 48 in 2007 thus far among total viewers, outdrawing programs including FX’s “Dirt,” USA Network’s “Psych” and E!’s Academy Awards red carpet show.

And it nearly quadrupled the network’s primetime average of 1.1 million viewers during February, according to Nielsen data analyzed by Turner Networks.

But what’s probably most valuable to the network was the buzz the show received. Since Discovery announced the show on Feb. 26, it received front-page coverage in newspapers across the country.

Christian scholars scrambled to dismiss the findings put forth in the two-hour documentary, including the suggestion that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had a son whose ossuary, or bone box, was also found.

The documentary revisited the 1980 discovery of a group of 10 ossuaries in Israel, which had been sitting in an antiquities department for years. Director Simcha Jacobovici and Dr. Charles Pellegrino, who collaborated on the special with “Titanic” director James Cameron, spent three years researching the tomb, using a DNA test and a robotic camera.

They concluded the odds were 600-1 in favor of it being Jesus’ tomb. But the special’s many detractors, who came forward immediately, aren’t so sure.

One reverend has compared the film to trying to convince the public that astronauts never landed on the moon. Others have dismissed it as conjecture. Even many scientists say the evidence is by no means conclusive.

That’s sparked a hot debate at Discovery’s online message boards, where more than 14,000 posts have been written about the special.

“This show was laughable at best,” one writes. “What a blasphemous idea to even try to conceive, I hope that this journalist/filmmaker will see the evil he is trying to instill on earth. The devil works in so many ways.”

Counters another: “Devout Christians seem very threatened by the idea that Jesus may have been mortal. Could Jesus have had the same needs and desires as the rest of us? Is the idea of him fathering a child so horrifying? Would this information, if it were proven true, diminish the message he brought to the world?”

Meanwhile, in other cable ratings for the week ended March 4:

Top five networks in primetime (18-49s):
USA, TNT, TBS, Discover, A&E

Top five networks in primetime (total viewers):
USA, TNT, Fox News, TBS, Lifetime

Top movie (18-49s):
TNT’s “The Bourne Supremacy” (Sunday, 8 p.m.) 2.09 million

Shows making the top 10 among 18-34s, 18-49s and 25-54s:
USA’s “WWE Entertainment” (Monday, 9 p.m. and 10 p.m.)

Show on the rise:
USA’s “WWE Entertainment,” Monday 10 p.m. The late edition of the weekly wrestling show hit its highest total viewers average of 2007, 6.19 million, bettering the Feb. 5 edition’s 6.01 million total viewers.

Show on the decline:
MTV’s “Maui Fever,” Wednesday 9:30 p.m. The show lost more than 200,000 viewers 18-34 week to week, dipping to 818,000. In 18-49s, the show went from No. 41 to out of the top 50.

fredfa

03-07-07, 09:35 AM

(From Marc Berman’s Wednesday. March 7, 2007, Programming Insider column at Mediaweek.com )
National Ratings in Prime Time:
Week of Feb. 26-March 4, 2007

Led by American Idol and the surprise hit of midseason, Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader, Fox swept the competition for the week of Feb. 26. Comparatively, Fox’s adult 18-49 advantage over No. 2 CBS (88 percent) was its best since the week of May 22, 2006. American Idol and Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader held the top six spots in both total viewers and adults 18-49 -- a first for any combination of shows on Fox. Airing out of American Idol certainly gave Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader a boost, but retention of a healthy 78 to 86 percent in total viewers and 82 to 92 percent among adults 18-49 in its three night (Tuesday-Thursday) launch makes this game show the real deal. Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader, in fact, was the highest rated series-premiere on any network in total viewers since Sept. 24, 1998 (with NBC sitcom Jesse), and highest rated among adults 18-49 since Sept. 27, 2001 (with NBC sitcom Inside Schwartz).

CBS finished the week second in four of the five surveyed categories (excluding adults 18-34, where it tied with NBC for No. 3), with year-to-year losses of 5 to 15 percent. Eroding ABC and NBC battled it out for the No. 3 and 4 spots, with declines of as much as 36 percent more severe for ABC. The CW, of course, rounded off the list in the distant No. 5 spot, but it did manage to build over both UPN and the WB over the comparable year-ago week in adults 18-34 (1.6/ 5) and women 18-34 (2.2/ 6).

In other series-premiere news, NBC mob drama The Black Donnellys did not capitalize on its Heroes lead-in, with 7.93 million viewers (#50 overall) and a 3.2/ 8 among adults 18-49 (#39) Monday at 10 p.m. (out of 14.42 million viewers and a 6.5/15 for Heroes at 9 p.m.). Two episodes of Fox sitcom The Winner did not live up to its title, meanwhile, with the results as follows:

The Winner (Fox)
Sunday 8:30 p.m. (premiere)
Viewers: 7.14 million (#56)
A18-49: 3.5/ 8 (#32t)

Percent Retention from Lead-in The Simpsons:
Viewers: 79
A18-49: 83 percent

Sunday 9:30 p.m.
Viewers: 6.02 million (#71)
A18-49: 3.1/ 7 (#40t)

Percent Retention from Lead-in Family Guy:
Viewers: 70
A18-49: 70 percent

Recently launched sitcom Rules of Engagement on CBS, however, remains a surprise hit ranking 19th for the week with 13.57 million viewers.

Here are the final national ratings for the week of February 26, 2007 (with percent change versus the comparable year-ago period in parentheses for the Big 4 -- the CW is not included), followed by the top 30 ranked programs for the week in total viewers and adults 18-49.

Households:
Fox: 8.9 rating/14 share (+11)
CBS: 7.5/12 (- 5)
NBC: 5.3/ 9 (-16)
ABC: 5.3/ 9 (-34)
CW: 2.2/ 3

Total Viewers:
Fox: 15.28 million (+13)
CBS: 11.81 (- 5)
NBC: 8.19 (-15)
ABC: 8.12 (-36)
CW: 3.37

Adults 18-49:
Fox: 6.2 rating/16 share (+13)
CBS: 3.3/ 9 (-15)
ABC: 3.0/ 8 (-35)
NBC: 2.8/ 7 (-15)
CW: 1.4/ 4

Adults 25-54:
Fox: 6.5/16 (+10)
CBS: 4.3/10 (-12)
ABC: 3.4/ 8 (-36)
NBC: 3.2/ 8 (-18)
CW: 1.2/ 3

Adults 18-34:
Fox: 5.7/17 (+14)
ABC: 2.6/ 8 (-32)
CBS: 2.2/ 7 (-15)
NBC: 2.2/ 7 (-21)
CW: 1.6/ 5

• Source: Nielsen Media Research data

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/newsletters/proginsider/index.jsp

fredfa

03-07-07, 10:11 AM

The Business of Television
Commentary: Get Set For a Retrans Fight
Now that broadcasters are getting the upper hand in retrans negotiations, cable wants to gut broadcasters' rights in Washington
By Harry A. Jessell, Editor and Publisher TVNewsday.com March 7, 2007

You can almost feel it.

Retrans has reached the tipping point.

All of a sudden, it seems, the leverage in retrans negotiations has shifted to broadcasters. A growing number are now able to extract fees from cable operators who want to carry their signals.

With hard-nosed broadcasters like Nexstar’s Perry Sook and Sinclair’s David Smith leading the way, TV station groups are tearing up old revenue projections and factoring in millions in new retrans dollars.

Two weeks ago, CBS CEO Les Moonves finally made good on his big retrans talk by cutting deals involving nine operators and more than one million subs. He later said the deals will yield $6 million a year—50 cents per sub per month.

Moonves senses the shift. “[Did] you noticed that these nine MSO deals were done without a whole lot of noise?” he asked security analysts last week. “The MSOs are realizing that it’s better to get along than to fight.”

LIN TV is excited because it thinks it has the upper hand and most of its retrans deals with cable are now ripe for renewal. Last week, it announced a deal with Cox involving nine stations in five markets. Nobody is talking terms, but everyone is assuming that cash was involved.

Even Gray Television, which has long had a go-along, get-along attitude on retrans, is starting to talk about getting its “fair share” from cable operators.

“We certainly see the momentum shifting,” Gray CFO Jim Ryan said at the Bear Stearns Media Conference yesterday.

The tipping point was a long time coming.

When Congress granted broadcasters retrans rights in 1992, the presumption was that they would immediately begin receiving monthly payments from operators for their signals.

For a lot of reasons, it never happened—until now.

And let me be clear: retrans is not easy. To squeeze money out of cable operators takes the right set of circumstances and a willingness to risk the short term for the long term. It’s not for everyone.

Of course, now that broadcasters are having some success, the cable operators want to change the rules. They want Congress or the FCC to shift the leverage back to cable operators by restricting broadcasters’ retrans rights.

For the most part so far, the effort to gut retrans has been led by the American Cable Association, which represents smaller, independent cable operators who were the first to feel broadcasters’ muscle.

But as TVNEWSDAY’s Kim McAvoy reported last week, cable’s big lobby—the National Cable & Telecommunications Association—has now taken up the fight.

That sets up what should be a titanic contest between NCTA and the NAB this year over retrans that will be real test of their relatively new leaders, Kyle McSlarrow and David Rehr, respectively.

Nothing less than the financial health of TV broadcasting is at stake. Stations need retrans revenue to offset the loss of network comp and the inexorable decline in national spot.

Fortunately, the retrans case for broadcasters is clear and simple.

Cable operators pay monthly affiliate fees to cable networks that have a fraction of the audience. If ESPN is worth $2.50 per sub per month, surely the local CBS affiliate (NFL, The Masters, March Madness) is worth 50 cents.

Cable operators say that paying retrans fees will cause them to raise rates. Nonsense. They can find money for broadcasters simply by cutting fees that they inexplicably pay to cable networks that hardly anybody watches. Better yet, they can drop those networks and send broadcasters an even bigger check.

Broadcasters provide local public service. They have reporters on the street and anchors that show up at community events. They have satellite trucks, helicopters and weather radar that can track tornadoes. Spike TV has World’s Wildest Police Videos and Late Night Strip.

Satellite TV operators and telephone company offering the exact same service as cable are willingly paying retrans fees. No fuss. They enter a market, and the first thing they do is lock up the best programming in town—the programming they need to compete with cable. If the new entrants can pay, entrenched cable can pay.

Cable operators have always recognized the value of retrans rights, but have insisted on non-cash compensation—carriage of cable networks in which the broadcasters had an interest or committing to advertising buys on stations.

But now that broadcasters are demanding cash, the operators pretend that the rights have little or no value.

Part of cable’s anti-retrans rhetoric is that operators shouldn’t have to pay for “free TV.” Well, guess what? Local broadcasting isn’t free. In fact, it costs a lot of money to build, maintain and operate a state-of-the-art TV station, to license syndicated programs and to produce several hours of local news each day.

Right now, broadcasters are still paying the bills for digital transmission facilities and they are preparing to spend millions more so that they can produce local news in high definition and stay competitive with other broadcasters.

The only thing that’s free about broadcasting is over-the-air reception. As part of their pact with the government, broadcasters are committed to making their service available to anyone who can afford a TV set.

But at this point I would say that it is in neither broadcasting’s nor cable’s interest to encourage over-the-air reception. Instead of handing out rabbit ears in the middle of retrans fights, cable operators would be far better off paying broadcasters and making them partners in driving folks to sign up for cable.

That’s what the satellite operators and telcos have done. When a retrans fight breaks out, DirecTV and Echostar swoop in to pick off unhappy cable subscribers. Mediacom says it lost 7,000 in its recent retrans fight with Sinclair.

Cable’s call for retrans reform is really a call for more government involvement in what should be—and has been for a decade and a half—a private negotiation. Does anybody really want more regulation, more FCC meddling in their business?

The broadcasters are playing defense right now. All NAB has to do is maintain the status quo.

But perhaps it should consider offense. Here are a couple of ideas that NAB may want to push when cable comes to shove:

An antitrust exemption that allows all the stations in a market to negotiate together for retrans fees. This would balance things out in market dominated by one or two cable operators. Cable could hardly protest. Last year, ACA proposed that small cable systems be allowed to do the very same thing.

A minimum retrans fee for every TV signal. In this way, Congress could insure the future of local broadcasting—a cornerstone of its communications policy since the 1920s. To be fair, the fees could be tied to ratings. The more viewers a station has, the more money it would get. Stations could accept the minimum or negotiate for higher fees.

In the coming debate, both sides will claim that only they have the true interests of the consumer at heart and that the other side doesn’t really care about either mom or pop at all.

But, face it, this isn’t a consumer issue. This is business.

If cable operators want broadcasters’ signals, they just have to pay for them.

--------

Harry A. Jessell

Prior to launching TVNEWSDAY in January 2006, Harry worked for more than 25 years as a reporter and editor for Broadcasting & Cable (formerly Broadcasting), the leading business magazine for the TV and radio industries. As the magazine's top editor from 1997 to 2004, Harry moved the magazine from Washington, D.C., to New York City and shifted its focus from law and regulation to programming and advertising.

On the magazine's editorial page and in his bi-weekly column, he advocated full First Amendment protections for and minimal government regulation of broadcasting and other electronic media.

As a reporter in the 1980s and early 1990s, Harry covered broadcast technology, cable TV, the Federal Communications Commission, Congress and the federal courts. He was named executive editor in 1993 and editor in 1997.

http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2007/03/07/daily.8/

fredfa

03-07-07, 10:25 AM

The Business of Television
Verizon: Full-Speed Ahead for FiOS TV in Calif.
By Linda Haugsted MultiChannel News 3/7/2007

Verizon Communications wasted no time applying for a state franchise, mapping deployment for 12 service regions in Southern California.

The telco was able to make the application once the state's Public Utilities Commission solidified its administrative rules for the process. That was completed March 1, and the company submitted its paperwork March 2.

The state filing indicated that the next deployments will be Victorville/Apple Valley in San Bernardino County, listed as Region 1 in Verizon's application. The other intended service areas: Region 2, Ventura and Los Angeles County coastal communities from Camarillo through Malibu; Region 3, Santa Monica; Region 4, Los Angeles County coastal communities from Manhattan Beach through Rolling Hills; Region 5, Los Angeles and Orange county coastal communities from Long Beach through Huntington Beach, and north to Norwalk; Regions 6 and 7, East Los Angeles County from Walnut and Diamond Bar north to Claremont and into Western San Bernardino County. This region also includes Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga and part of unincorporated Riverside County.

Regions 8 and 9 cover most of the rest of Riverside County. Regions 11 and 12 include Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage and Desert Hot Springs.

Verizon will compete in these areas mostly with Time Warner Cable, Charter Communications and Cox Communications. Those operators can apply for state franchises in the face of competition, but not until January 2008, according to the new PUC rules.

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6422323.html?display=Breaking+News

dad1153

03-07-07, 10:53 AM

fredfa

03-07-07, 11:02 AM

TV Review
“The Wedding Bells”
Bridezillas are funny! Not.
From Maureen Ryan’s Chicago Tribune blog “The Watcher” March 7, 2007

The main thing you need to know about “The Wedding Bells” (8 p.m. Wednesday, WFLD-Ch. 32) is that Fox has given it a death slot.

The one-hour show has a “sneak preview” after “American Idol” on Wednesday, but after that, it will take up residence on the tail end of Fox’s Friday night lineup (admit it, until this moment you didn’t realize that the network had a Friday night lineup).

So should you spend any time on a show that even Fox is consigning to limbo? Well, I wouldn’t rush to clear space on the old DVR for this muddled marital mess.

The Bells of the title are three sisters, Annie Bell (KaDee Strickland), Jane Bell (Teri Polo) and Sammy Bell (Sarah Jones), who run a lavish wedding reception facility and endure the silliness and stress that comes with the territory while wrestling with relationship problems of their own.

Fox is billing the show as a “romantic dramedy,” but the series never quite settles on a tone. Are we supposed to care that Jane’s accountant husband is a bullying prig? And are we supposed to feel sad that, unlike her uptight sisters, Sammy has a promiscuity problem?

Is it supposed to matter to anyone that the singer for the house wedding band hasn’t realized his dreams? It’s hard to, since these situations are often played for (thin) laughs, and the characterizations are so shallow and forgettable.

Like “Big Day,” a similarly themed ABC sitcom, “Wedding Bells” fails to successfully mine the comedy of the psychosis-inducing nuptial process or intelligently explore the meatier issues of love and commitment.

When the lead client in the pilot is a predictable rich bridezilla (with an ice-queen mother glacially played by Delta Burke) and the in-house cook is a stereotypical Mediterranean lover-man, it’s hard to get excited about the proceedings. Teri Polo acquits herself as well as can be expected, considering the lameness of the material, and as the wedding singer, Chris Williams has a few good moments. But that’s not enough to build a series on, especially when there are so many other escapist options out there.

Sadly, this series lacks the weirdness and the wit of the best work of creator David E. Kelley (“Boston Legal,” “Ally McBeal”). If it’s arch, female-centered melodrama you want, “Desperate Housewives” at its worst is at least better acted than this inconsequential show, and if it’s soapy relationship dramedy you’re after, ABC’s Thursday-night lineup of “Ugly Betty,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Men in Trees” offers much more enjoyable escapism.

http://tempo.typepad.com/entertainment_tv/

fredfa

03-07-07, 11:07 AM

TV Review
“The Wedding Bells”
This marriage of comedy, drama not destined to last
By Tim Goodman San Francisco Chronicle Television Critic Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Whether or not David E. Kelley makes a good television series has everything to do with getting the balance right. He's overly fond of absurdist humor, which is one of the tightest ropes to walk. And he's a sucker for heartwarming dramatic turns. Get that mix wrong, and you've got, well, about a third of his career.

It may be too soon to judge if his latest offering, "The Wedding Bells," (9 PM ET/PT tonight, Fox) will be too heavy on one particular strand of emotion, but the pilot looks dangerously flawed and seriously underwhelming. (Fox only had one episode, the pilot, to send out before the premiere.)

In fairness to one of the better talents in television, one episode is not enough to damn or praise an entire series, but it's clear Kelley has a lot of work to do.

Kelley wrote for "Doogie Howser, M.D." and "L.A. Law" before really making his mark with "Picket Fences," a series that allowed him to toy with whimsy and drama and concoct a mix that had critics calling him a rising talent.

He confirmed that by being an anchor for "Chicago Hope" while launching "Ally McBeal," a series that was, in its prime, the "it" show on television. Ah, but things got a little wobbly in "Ally McBeal," did they not?

With his creative successes running wild, nobody could put the brakes on Kelley's increasingly risky collision of the ridiculous and the weepy. Prone to the too-clever-by-half nuttiness of his own writing, Kelley turned "Ally McBeal" into a circus, instead of a delicate combination of humorous neuroses and the underlying sadness of an unfulfilled woman, which was what the series achieved at its peak.

Part of the problem is that Kelley also had "The Practice" on the air (in 1999 he won for best comedy and drama), and the demands of each were probably too much ("The Practice" dove to dangerous creative lows in its latter years).

Undaunted -- nay, emboldened -- by his vanquishing of television, Kelley tried his hand in 1999 at the always dicey private investigator-comedy genre with "Snoops," which was a bust primarily because it never got the balance right.

He rebounded, at least temporarily, with "Boston Public" in 2000, but the series' morality-tale penchant ran dry very quickly and soon lost its initial vision. The set-in-San Francisco "Girls Club" followed in 2002 and was an outright disaster, never hitting a believable note. But a lovely, underscored little series called "The Brotherhood of Poland, New Hampshire" in 2003 sadly never got off the ground.

With "The Practice" spiraling creatively at that time, many critics believed Kelley was in a slump, and the tortured transformation of that series into the spin-off "Boston Legal" a year later didn't allay those fears.

Though the series has its ardent supporters, nobody would ever call it balanced or tone perfect.

So what to make of "The Wedding Bells," with its less-than-stellar mad dash down the Fox aisles (it's being sneaked at 9 tonight, right after powerhouse "American Idol," with the same episode rerunning in its normal slot: 9 p.m. Fridays)?

Well, Fox is billing it as a "romantic dramedy," which throws up a lot of red flags and winces. The fact that it's not very funny in the parts where it's supposed to be funny is troubling. The fact that the "drama" is thin and forced is more damning.

"The Wedding Bells" is about the Bell sisters, who take over the family wedding planning business when their parents divorce (this is not entirely explained, but no matter). There's Annie (KaDee Strickland), the emotionally cold (but hot looking) sister who used to have a thing for the house photographer, David (Michael Landes), who is asked not once but twice in the pilot to use his suave sexiness to calm harried brides.

Older sister Jane (Teri Polo) works with mean Annie to salvage the faltering business but gets no help from little sister Sammy (Sarah Jones), who says in the pilot -- to the groomsmen who are ogling her -- "Who here wants to have sex with me?"

Plus, Jane has trouble of her own because her bean counter husband, Russell (Benjamin King), knows the family business is in real trouble but can't focus because the Italian chef (you'll know him from the bad accent) lusts after Jane (you'll know this because he tempts her with "whore pasta"). There's also Ralph (Chris Williams), the house wedding singer.

Into this business walk an array of bridezillas, and the drama unfolds at work (getting married is crazy stressful, you know) and in their private lives (watch out for the chef!). But wait, there's a sisterly thing going on (cue the strings). And Annie really likes David but won't admit it. And Sammy slept with a married groomsman and feels used. And there's that unexplained divorce from mom and dad. Oh, and one of the brides insulted Ralph -- pointing out that his dreams of musical stardom are over because all he does is sing "I Will Survive" every weekend. And that hurts him.

That balance. It's like logrolling sometimes. You get all that forward momentum with the humor (like when one of the brides asks Jane if she ever wanted "to welcome a different man into your private areas?"), then you've got to reverse course to nail the drama (like when Annie walks in and finds David shooting a sexy bath towel spread at his apartment with a naked girl).

Unfortunately, the pilot of "The Wedding Bells" is tone-deaf. It's not funny (there's a joke that will surely be cut, but it involves an orgasm and puttanesca), and there's the presence of two twin brides who are strangely "afraid of black people," but "not the 'Cosby' kind." Was that joke even funny in 1988?

Characters walk in and out of "The Wedding Bells" without explanation. It appears some will stick (including one of the brides), but nothing in the pilot explains it. This is where a second or third episode might have helped.

But the question is: Does Kelley manage to correct the off-kilter and off-putting balance of absurdism and sweetness in the next two weeks, or will this just be one of those shows that goes sideways?

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/03/07/DDGLBOFSL31.DTL

fredfa

03-07-07, 11:15 AM

Yesterday’s metered market and fast national over night prime-time ratings – and Media Week Analyst Marc Berman’s view of what they mean -- have been posted near the top of Ratings News the second post in this thread.

PJO1966

03-07-07, 12:00 PM

fredfa

03-07-07, 12:50 PM

Obviously Verizon is -- for the most part -- skimming off the most high-income areas first.

fredfa

03-07-07, 12:56 PM

Phillip Swann has posted the text of a brief interview with Clint Stinchcomb, who oversees HD at The Discovery Channel, on his website.

If you are interested it is here:

http://www.tvpredictions.com/

fredfa

03-07-07, 12:58 PM

Overnights in the 18-49 Demo
A sockeroo debut for 'Pussycat Dolls'
CW reality show pulls a 2.0 rating in 18-34s
By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer March 7, 2007

A bunch of burlesque dancers seem to be a better complement to the “Gilmore Girls” than a brainy college detective.

The premiere of the CW’s new reality show “Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for the Next Doll” delivered all-time bests for the young network in its Tuesday 9 p.m. timeslot last night and even bettered its “Girls” lead-in among teenagers.

“Dolls” averaged a 2.0 in the network’s target adults 18-34, according to Nielsen overnights, tying for best ever in the slot. It set bests in adults 18-49 (1.7), total viewers (3.9 million) and the young adult women demographics as well.

That boosted the CW to its highest-rated Tuesday yet among women 18-34 at a 3.4 average, and it matched the network’s best Tuesday in adults 18-49 (1.9) and women 18-49 (2.6).

Perhaps most interesting, “Dolls” saw big growth from its lead-in among teens, jumping 29 percent to a 2.7. Again, it was particularly popular with girls, averaging a 4.3 in female teens.

In what may not bode well for former timeslot occupant “Veronica Mars,” “Dolls” showed solid improvement over that show’s final pre-hiatus outing last week. It was up 35 percent in women 18-34 and 33 percent in 18-34s. And it held more of “Girls’” lead-in in 18-34s and 18-49s, with almost no dropoff in the second half hour.

The CW finished second adults 18-34 from 8 to 10 p.m. behind Fox, which as usual dominated every demographic.

The “American Idol” network finished first for the night among 18-49s with a 10.3 average rating and a 26 share. NBC was a distant second at 2.3/6, with CBS third at 2.2/6, Univision and CW tied for fourth at 1.9/5, and ABC sixth at 1.8/5.

At 8 p.m. Fox led with a 10.9 for “American Idol,” followed by a 2.6 for CBS for a repeat of “NCIS.” Univision was third that hour with a 2.3 for “La Fea Mas Bella,” NBC fourth with a 2.2 for “Dateline,” CW fifth with a 2.0 for “Gilmore Girls” and ABC sixth with a 1.7 for a repeat of “America’s Funniest Home Videos.”

Fox maintained its huge lead at 9 p.m. with a 9.6 for “House,” with ABC moving to second with a 2.2 for “Primetime.” NBC was third that hour with a 2.0 for a repeat of “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” Univision fourth with a 1.9 for “Mundo de Fieras,” CBS fifth with a 1.8 for a repeat of “The Unit” and CW sixth with a 1.7 for the premiere of “Pussycat Dolls: Search for the Next Doll.”

With Fox out at 10 p.m., NBC led with a 2.8 for a repeat of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.” CBS finished second that hour with a 2.4 for “48 Hours Mystery” and ABC and Univision tied for third at 1.5, ABC for a repeat of “Boston Legal” and Univision for “Ver para Creer.”

Among households, Fox finished first for the night with a 15.1 average rating and a 23 share. CBS was second at 6.3/10, NBC third at 5.3/8, ABC fourth at 4.1/7, CW fifth at 2.8/4 and Univision sixth at 2.3/4.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_10632.asp

keenan

03-07-07, 01:18 PM

Obviously Verizon is -- for the most part -- skimming off the most high-income areas first.
That was one of the major complaints about that legislation, that there would be cherry-picking going on. ATT up here has been quietly laying infrastructure in Santa Rosa for their IPTV system, but only in new sub-divisions so far.

fredfa

03-07-07, 01:42 PM

And it was, at least to me, a very valid complaint.

Cable companies are forced to serve an entire community, rich and poor.

fredfa

03-07-07, 01:47 PM

TV Review
“The Wedding Bells”
Ring a ding ding
By Aaron Barnhart Kansas City Star in his blog “TV Barn” Wednesday, March 07, 2007

David E. Kelley, the man who brought us “Boston Legal” and “Boston Public,” has lately turned into Boston Chicken. Once TV's biggest producer -- he hogged the Emmys during the '90s with “Picket Fences,” “Chicago Hope,” “Ally McBeal” and “The Practice” -- Kelley hasn't changed his recipe in years. Now he seems content to churn out franchises.

The latest is “The Wedding Bells,” which is sort of a “Six Feet Under” at a wedding chapel ... only with more sex. It debuts at 8 CT tonight on Fox, following “American Idol,” which means half of America is bound to sample at least the first five minutes. That's more than could be said of “Brotherhood of Poland, N.H.,” Kelley's last bomb.

The show is about a family called Bell who put on weddings. Get it? “The Wedding Bells” is a familiar mishmash of David Kelley formulaic elements: Extremely attractive people. A lot of yelling and other inappropriate behavior. People having sex. Out-of-control guest stars. And, straight out of the pages of “Ally McBeal,” a closing scene with dancing, singing and episode-wrapping-up conversation.

The one innovation here is that Kelley somehow managed, in the age of so-called indecency police, to slip in a scene that includes a full-frontal shot of a naked beauty. (He should win an Emmy just for studio lighting.)

It's possible that “The Wedding Bells” won't meet with the same crash-and-burn fate as Kelley's other recent efforts: the hideous “girls club,” the obnoxious “Brotherhood,” or that legal “Apprentice” knockoff “The Law Firm.” But then again … this show suffers from the same two core problems as those others: the lack of likeable characters and the lack of big-name TV talent to hold the ship together. “Boston Public” had Chi McBride, “Boston Legal” has Shatner and Spader and Bergen and Bowen. “The Wedding Bells” has Sarah Jones, KaDee Strickland and Teri Polo as the Bell sisters. Not only do they fail to fill up the screen, they seem to spend all their time fighting with each other and the men in their lives. Is that supposed to be an ironic comment on the state of American marriage? Maybe, but coming from the man who's married to Michelle Pfeiffer, it seems a little, oh, insincere at best.

“The Wedding Bells” will play to a huge crowd tonight, thanks to “American Idol,” but when the next episode airs in its regular time period, 8 p.m. Friday, I think it's safe to say the honeymoon will be over.

http://blogs.kansascity.com/tvbarn/2007/03/the_wedding_bel.html#more

123HDTV

03-07-07, 01:49 PM

In the beginning of cable co's that wasn't the case however. They also picked the areas served. It wasn't until the local communities started pushing the issue did cable penetration spread wider.

keenan

03-07-07, 01:49 PM

And it was, at least to me, a very valid complaint.

Cable companies are forced to serve an entire community, rich and poor.
I agree, competition is always good, but not when one party has a legislated edge over the other. Fact is, when current cable franchise agreements are up, cable could essentially do the same thing as they go for regional, or state-wide franchises as well.

foxeng

03-07-07, 02:00 PM

Does CBS really want to risk having most of the New York City or LA market blacked out by Time Warner Cable during a key sweeps period (even for a day or two) because TWC refused to give Leslie Moonves a dime of their gigantic profits?

In a word, YES. Les Moonves wins that one and wins easily, particularly if it is in November and the NY Jets can't be seen on WCBS via TWC. NYC is one market where you DON'T play around with things like that. And both sides know it.

fredfa

03-07-07, 02:01 PM

Absolutely, Jim.

But, in California, the incumbent cable guys have their hands tied behind their back and can't do anything until January of next year at the earliest.

Each state law is different in many ways, of course. In this case I suspect federal legislation will be needed to even the playing field.

taz291819

03-07-07, 02:01 PM

Overnights in the 18-49 Demo
A sockeroo debut for 'Pussycat Dolls'
CW reality show pulls a 2.0 rating in 18-34s
By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer March 7, 2007

In what may not bode well for former timeslot occupant “Veronica Mars,” “Dolls” showed solid improvement over that show’s final pre-hiatus outing last week. It was up 35 percent in women 18-34 and 33 percent in 18-34s. And it held more of “Girls’” lead-in in 18-34s and 18-49s, with almost no dropoff in the second half hour.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_10632.asp

The only problem is that The CW can't run Dolls every year, nor for a full-season.

foxeng

03-07-07, 02:02 PM

In the beginning of cable co's that wasn't the case however. They also picked the areas served. It wasn't until the local communities started pushing the issue did cable penetration spread wider.

What do you mean "did"? They still do. That is how sat came into being. Serving areas cable didn't want to go.

fredfa

03-07-07, 02:04 PM

In a word, YES. Les Moonves wins that one and wins easily, particularly if it is in November and the NY Jets can't be seen on WCBS via TWC. NYC is one market where you DON'T play around with things like that. And both sides know it.

As I understand the FCC regs, carriage agreements expire at (a) year's end. Thus the NFL playoffs (and maybe a Super Bowl depending on the year) would hang in the balance.

Plus CBS, at least for the past several seasons, has been by far the most-watched network.

N.B. Forrest

03-07-07, 02:20 PM

And it was, at least to me, a very valid complaint.

Cable companies are forced to serve an entire community, rich and poor.

Sorry to disagree with you, fred, but this statement is untrue unless you are referring to some context of which I am unaware.

I live in a rural area that went for years without any cable coverage at all while the more densely populated areas within my county enjoyed Viacom service. Just a few years ago, our area began to receive service from a small, independent mom & pop cable company that offers approximately one-half the variety & no HD-availability as Comcast, which serves the urban areas within the county, for almost the same price. This form of dual availability has nothing to do with forced coverage - the smaller company simply saw a business opportunity and stepped in because Comcast doesn't want to serve rural areas, at least around here.

fredfa

03-07-07, 02:51 PM

You are absolutely right, N.B., and I should have been more specific.

I was referring to urban or suburban areas, where minorities often are last to be served (and seem not to be in the forefront of the Verizon California roadmap).

Rural areas have taken a back seat in the cable industry forever. But at least, with the massive costs to wire each home in sparsely-populated areas it is to some extent understandable -- if not forgiveable. It seems local officials in your county dropped the ball when they signed the cable agreement by not requring everyone in the county be served.

(But then DBS would not have caught on so [relatively] quickly had cable been adequately serving rural America.)

Obviously, rural residents have the same problems with high speed cable modems -- is DSL widely available from phone companies in your area?

N.B. Forrest

03-07-07, 03:03 PM

fredfa

03-07-07, 03:10 PM

Yeah, I know the DirecTV internet service is very expensive.

fredfa

03-07-07, 03:12 PM

The only problem is that The CW can't run Dolls every year, nor for a full-season.

I guess they could off one of the current Dolls each year to provide a vacancy. :)

But more seriously, the CW better come up with some rationale (and preferably at least a couple of buzz-worthy programs) before it sinks even farther behind Univision.

URFloorMatt

03-07-07, 03:23 PM

And it was, at least to me, a very valid complaint.

Cable companies are forced to serve an entire community, rich and poor.

Yeah, but that's basically a subsidy that will ultimately impair service as costs rise to service communities in which there is no economic reason to invest.

Anyone can get OTA television. I don't know why cable television should be considered an entitlement.

fredfa

03-07-07, 03:33 PM

fredfa

03-07-07, 03:38 PM

(It is time to change your address book to reflect the new guys in charge of DirecTV programming.)

The Business of Television
DirecTV Shuffles Executives
By Linda Moss [B]MultiChannel News 3/7/2007

DirecTV unveiled a series of promotions Wednesday to fill the void left by the exits of David Hill and Dan Fawcett, who are returning to their former employer, News Corp.

Hill, who served in a dual role as president of DirecTV Entertainment and chairman and CEO of Fox Sports, is returning to News Corp.’s Fox on a full-time basis. He will remain involved with DirecTV as an advisor in some entertainment and content initiatives.

Fawcett, who served as DirecTV’s executive vice president of programming acquisition and business and legal affairs, is leaving DirecTV to take on a new position as president of Fox Digital Media. Fawcett joined DirecTV in 2004 as executive VP and general counsel. Prior to that, he was executive VP of business and legal affairs for Fox Cable Networks Group.

With those departures, DirecTV promoted Derek Chang to executive VP of content strategy and development and Dan Hartman to senior VP of programming acquisition. Chang, a veteran of Charter Communications and Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network, will report to DirecTV CEO Chase Carey. Hartman will report to Chang.

In addition, Eric Shanks, executive VP of entertainment, will now lead all of DirecTV’s entertainment efforts. He will also report directly to Carey.

Together, Shanks and Chang will oversee DirecTV’s content, programming operations and content strategy.

In his new role, Chang’s duties will include all programming strategy, development and acquisitions for the domestic business of DirecTV. Hartman will assume day-to-day responsibilities for interfacing with major programmers and negotiating DirecTV’s core programming rights.

The moves come as Liberty Media’s purchase of News Corp.’s 38% controlling stake in DirecTV, an $11 billion deal, is pending.

Chang joined DirecTV last March as senior VP of strategy and development, and he was responsible for developing strategic business opportunities. Hartman, who joined DirecTV in 1998, was responsible for program-acquisition activities for all general entertainment and premium cable networks and was programming liaison for DirecTV’s advanced-products group.

“I’d like to take the opportunity to thank David and Dan for their significant contributions over the past few years. They have played such an important role in our success,” Carey said in a prepared statement. “I’m particularly excited that David will be available to us in the future and that we’ll continue to benefit from his unique talent and vision. I congratulate Dan and wish him well in the future.”

http://www.multichannel.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleid=CA6422519

RemyM

03-07-07, 03:51 PM

Phone companies, electric and gas companies, all sign franchise agreements that mandate service to all. To me, cable TV has become such a ubiquitous item it really should be considered in a similar light -- as a utility, not an extravagance. Part of the cost of doing business should be, in my mind, providing service to all in whatever area it is licensed to serve.

It all depends on how the franchises are handed out. Here in CT my provider, Cablevision, has a franchise granted by the state that covers several cities and towns (called area 9). They were required to build out all areas in their franchise, including low income neighborhoods. They also have to provide PEG access channels and grants to each city and town.

AT&T argued that U-verse is not a cable TV service and CT's DPUC agreed, so they have no franchise. They can pick and choose where to offer service and don't have to provide PEG channels or charge the 5.5% franchise tax like the cable companies do.

fredfa

03-07-07, 04:03 PM

I guess if U-verse is not a cable TV service, AT&T shouldn't be allowed to provide or charge for TV.

It is apparent that lobbyists do earn their money. :)

fredfa

03-07-07, 04:06 PM

I guess no one at the CT PUC went to the AT&T U-verse website. Or they would have read this:

AT&T U-Verse TV
Welcome to the evolution of TV programming. On-command and digitally delivered television.

AT&T U-verse TV—revolutionizing the way we think of home entertainment.
Enjoy a crystal-clear picture along with digital video recording (DVR), Video on Demand, High Definition, and choice programming—all at a competitive price!

With DVR, get the power to pause, replay, and record live TV. Determine your own instant replays, pause your TV show to refill your popcorn, or go out to dinner with your family while your favorite movie is being recorded.
AT&T U-verse Standard Installation

Sign up now, then sit back and relax. We'll provide complete, professional AT&T U-verse installation of your wireless home networking and up to three HD-ready TV receivers, one with a DVR (included in most packages). Add another receiver for just $5 per month more. You'll also receive TV channel line-up cards and an easy-to-use Features Guide to get you up and running in no time.
A better reason to buy now...
• Order U300 or U400 U-verse TV and get the first 2 months FREE!
• Order HBO®/Cinemax® with your U-family, U100, U200 or U300 purchase and get the first 2 months FREE!
• Order High Definition service (HD) and get the first 2 months FREE!
• Purchase Paquete Español package and get the first 2 months FREE!
• Right now, all Dell™ Plasma and LCD TVs are marked down exclusively for AT&T U-verse customers! Learn more (PDF format*)
• 60-day Money-back Guarantee
After the free promotional period expires, you'll continue to receive recurring monthly discounts on your qualified AT&T U-verse services.
Learn more about the AT&T U-verse Receiver
Learn how to use AT&T U-verse TV (PDF format*)

Learn more about High Definition (HD) Technology (PDF format*)

*PDF format requires Adobe® Acrobat Reader, available free.
Learn more about the AT&T U-verse Receiver
Learn how to use AT&T U-verse TV (PDF format*)
Learn more about High Definition (HD) Technology (PDF format*)
Learn about AT&T U-verse TV Parental Controls (PDF format*)

https://uverse1.att.com/launchAMSS.do

--------------

It sure seems like a cable TV service!

RemyM

03-07-07, 04:10 PM

I guess if U-verse is not a cable TV service, AT&T shouldn't be allowed to provide or charge for TV.

It is apparent that lobbyists do earn their money. :)

In fairness it works the other way too. Cablevision's VOIP telephone is treated as an internet service and does not have the regulations and taxes like AT&T's POTS.

RemyM

03-07-07, 04:18 PM

I guess no one at the CT PUC went to the AT&T U-verse website.

It sure seems like a cable TV service!

They argued it as IPTV so CT treats it as an internet service, when in reality it works almost the same a switched digital video cable system.

keenan

03-07-07, 05:05 PM

It seems local officials in your county dropped the ball when they signed the cable agreement by not requring everyone in the county be served.

To the best of my knowledge, almost exclusively, cable franchises in California are awarded by city rather than county, so the unincorporated areas are usually left out in the cold.

Marcus Carr

03-07-07, 05:58 PM

Jersey Town Whacks Sopranos

by Julie Keller

Wed, 7 Mar 2007 03:07:16 PM PST

Looks like HBO can fugettabout bringing The Sopranos to one suburban New Jersey town.

The city of Bloomfield has barred the Emmy-winning series from filming an upcoming episode there due to its "negative depictions of Italian-Americans," Mayor Raymond McCarthy told the New York Post.

According to McCarthy, whose wife happens to be Italian, the series was slated to shoot its swan-song episode at a local ice cream parlor. Upon hearing about it, however, the mayor spearheaded a successful effort to whack the plans.

Both HBO and the owners of the Holsten's Brookdale Confectionery are hoping to overturn the decision.

Chris Carley, co-owner of the ice cream shop told the Post he had been thrilled to be part of the show, both financially and for posterity sake.

"If it's good for the area and businesses, your personal opinions shouldn't be mixed in," he said.

HBO originally got a green light from Bloomfield's city council last week, according to the Post. But McCarthy and various Italian-American organizations weighed in after hearing about it and the decision was quickly reversed.

Essex County executive Joseph DiVincenzo (yet another Italian) has now stepped in and is bringing the matter back to the table for a final vote next Monday. He's gunning for a go-ahead.

"The Sopranos will hopefully have their last episode here," DiVincenzo told the Post. "Hey, I'm an Italian-American and to me it's about the arts, it's about TV."

For the past five years, the show has come under fire from Italian-American groups, including the Columbus Citizens Foundation and the Coalition of Italo-American Associations, for perpetuating stereotypes. Those groups successfully went to court to bar cast members from marching in New York's Columbus Day Parade in 2002. Earlier that year, the Chicago-based American Italian Defense Association filed a largely symbolic lawsuit claiming the show insults the "dignity" of Italian-Americans by depicting them as mobsters; the suit was eventually tossed.

In other Sopranos news, the latest issue of Vanity Fair pays homage to Tony and his goombahs in a photo spread shot by Annie Leibovitz.

The cover features a serious-looking James Gandolfini with a semi-nude model on his lap. The inside pages bring back several popular characters offed during the show's run, including Drea de Matteo's Adriana, Vincent Pastore's Big Pussy and Joe Pantoliano's Ralphie.

The Sopranos' final nine-episode run begins Apr. 8 on HBO.

http://www.eonline.com/news/article/index.jsp?uuid=ff96aff2-2898-443b-9b0a-5a8798d0e22b

CPanther95

03-07-07, 06:04 PM

Sounds like an Irish mayor trying to make his Italian constituents happy. ;)

keenan

03-07-07, 06:06 PM

Sounds like a politician......period.

taz291819

03-07-07, 06:33 PM

I guess they could off one of the current Dolls each year to provide a vacancy. :)

But more seriously, the CW better come up with some rationale (and preferably at least a couple of buzz-worthy programs) before it sinks even farther behind Univision.

I totally agree.

And imo, all of the contestants for Dolls look better than the actual members.

fredfa

03-07-07, 07:01 PM

TV Notebook
McSpinoff: Daly set for a 'Grey' shift
By Nellie Andreeva The Hollywood Reporter March 7, 2007

Welcome a new McDreamy.

Tim Daly is set to guest star in the "enhanced" two-hour episode of ABC's "Grey's Anatomy," designed to serve as a springboard for a potential spinoff from the hit medical drama.

Paul Adelstein also has been cast as a guest star in that episode with an eye to co-star on the potential spinoff series toplined by Kate Walsh.

The two join previously cast Taye Diggs

The story line for the two-hour episode, being written by "Grey's" creator/executive producer Shonda Rhimes, is being kept under wraps, but it is understood that it will feature popular "Grey's" character Addison Montgomery-Shepherd (Walsh) on the verge of leaving Seattle Grace, a scenario that will be triggered if ABC goes with the spinoff for next season.

Details on the characters in the potential spinoff also are being kept secret, but according to the breakdown, Daly's character is described as "handsome, sincere, like a McDreamy."

It was not clear what character Adelstein will play. The breakdown also includes a female psychiatrist and a female fertility specialist.

Daly most recently toplined ABC's critically praised drama "The Nine." Adelstein co-starred on Fox's "Prison Break."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3i68c4b11b9ed75afd567cf25957119fb6

VisionOn

03-07-07, 07:11 PM

But more seriously, the CW better come up with some rationale (and preferably at least a couple of buzz-worthy programs) before it sinks even farther behind Univision.

Changing their network identity might help. The current logo and promotional style makes CW look like a kids channel or MTV spin off. Unless that's all the audience they care about in which case its no surprise that adults aren't watching.

humdinger70

03-07-07, 07:19 PM

Interesting that there's no mention of the San Fernando Valley. We're in Los Angeles County. The article mentions all the coastal communities and the eastern part of the county, but nothing in between.

Also, notice no mention of anything in San Diego or Imperial County. :mad:

fredfa

03-07-07, 07:38 PM

As you well know, humdinger, San Diego is a very tough nut for a Cox competitor to crack.

DBS penetration is under 10%, among the very lowest in the nation, to some extent because Cox controls the local sports market with its Channel 4 San Diego, broadcasting, among other things, 112 Padres games in HD this year. (With another 40 in SD).

Telcos and DBS would have no access to those games, and thuis I suspect SD will be pretty much last as Verizon builds out. There just is no way to make easy inroads there.

And on top of being a tough competitor, Cox keeps its cusyomers in San Diego pretty happy -- its customer service is very good and so there is no burning reason many people would find to make a change.

The pickings in the LA area, where Adelphia (before the TWC takeover) did a hideous job, and TWC has been stumbling ever since, should be much easier.

fredfa

03-07-07, 07:43 PM

This is way OT, even for me. But I am sure it might interest a number of you….so please indulge me.

The Business of Broadcasting
Internet radio in peril?
Some small stations say a panel's decision to hike music royalties may put them out of business
By Jim Puzzanghera and Josh Friedman Los Angeles Times Staff Writers March 7, 2007

WASHINGTON — Video killed the radio star, as the 1979 hit song goes, and now some fear an obscure group of federal copyright judges may be on the verge of killing Internet radio.

In a ruling made public Tuesday, the Copyright Royalty Board significantly increased the royalties paid to musicians and record labels for streaming digital songs online. The decision also ended a discounted fee for small Internet broadcasters.

Broadcast radio stations that also stream their programs online, such as KCRW in Santa Monica, said they might have to scale back on webcasting, and operators of Internet-only radio stations said the new fees would probably force them to go silent.

An estimated 72 million listeners each month tune in to Internet music programming from hobbyists, traditional radio broadcasters and Web companies such as Yahoo Inc., AccuRadio.com and Pandora.com, seeing them as an alternative to broadcast radio.

The board ruled that the current rate of 0.08 of a cent each time a song is played would more than double by 2010. For music sites run by tax-exempt nonprofit organizations, the board set a flat $500 annual fee per radio channel for a certain number of listening hours per month — which stations such as KCRW far exceed.

"Unless we can find an alternative to paying the published rates, there's no feasible way we can continue," said Bill Goldsmith, who operates an online rock-music station called Radio Paradise in Paradise, Calif. He estimated that he would owe $650,000 in royalties under the new fee structure in 2007 — 25% more than he expected to pull in this year from listener donations.

KCRW general manager Ruth Seymour called the ruling draconian. She said the station, one of the largest National Public Radio affiliates in Southern California, could owe more than $350,000 for 2006 and 2007.

"Do I build a gate, where you can only listen online if you're a subscriber?" she said. "I'm opposed to that idea. I'm a public broadcaster, after all."

Seymour said she was optimistic that National Public Radio and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting could negotiate a better deal with the recording industry. Such separate royalty agreements are possible, though difficult to negotiate. An attorney representing small Internet broadcasters said they would try to do the same.

Internet radio supporters also can appeal the board's decision or ask Congress for help.

All broadcasters have to pay royalties to composers and publishers, but traditional radio broadcasters — arguing that airtime is free promotion — have long been exempted from paying royalties to artists and record labels whose songs they play on the air. Laws passed in the 1990s governing digital recordings, however, required Internet and satellite radio operators to pay those so-called performance fees.

Faced with increased royalty fees, Internet broadcasters in 2002 persuaded Congress to create an exemption that allowed small online radio operators to negotiate a lower fee based on a set 10% to 12% of their revenue, not on how many songs they broadcast. That guaranteed that Internet broadcasters would not have to pay more in fees than they collected in revenue.

In 2004, Congress created the Copyright Royalty Board, a three-judge panel under the auspices of the Library of Congress, to deal with such issues. Because that board established the new higher performance fees, lawmakers may be reluctant to step in this time.

The board's top judge said its guidelines allow it to consider only economic factors — not issues such as educational opportunities at college radio stations and the increased diversity of music that Internet stations may provide.

"Congress apparently made a determination for an interim specified period of time to assist a nascent industry, and that period of time has passed now," Chief Copyright Royalty Judge James S. Sledge said in an interview.

David Oxenford, an attorney who represented independent commercial Internet broadcasters, predicted that a formal appeal to the board or federal courts would be difficult to win.

"This would shut down the entire medium," said Kurt Hanson, who runs AccuRadio.com and publishes the Radio and Internet Newsletter.

SoundExchange, an organization created by the recording industry to collect and distribute Internet and satellite music royalties, dismissed talk of an Internet radio apocalypse.

The organization's executive director, John Simson, said the new fees simply leveled the playing field for Internet radio and forced websites to adequately compensate the artists and record labels providing the music.

"This is money that they've earned from valuable recordings they've created," Simson said.

Simson said the hundreds of Internet radio services include corporate giants such as Yahoo and Clear Channel Communications Inc. that can afford the higher fees. Those companies declined to comment Tuesday.

KCRW has helped eclectic artists such as the Shins, Arcade Fire and Damien Rice break out in recent years. Seymour wondered why the recording industry would want to endanger such a tastemaker.

"I can't believe they want to kill the golden goose," she said.

http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-fi-radio7mar07,0,6053332,print.story?coll=cl-tv-features

keenan

03-07-07, 07:49 PM

fredfa

03-07-07, 07:51 PM

See, Jim, I knew some folks here would be interested in that story! :)

fredfa

03-07-07, 07:56 PM

TV Notebook
Fox: Rosie's 'Idol' Rant 'Ridiculous'
Executive Producer Refute's O'Donnell's 'Absurd' Claims Of Racism, Weightism

By Amy Bonawitz CBS News March 7, 2007

It looks as though Fox may be miffed at Rosie O'Donnell for calling their treatment of booted "American Idol" contestant "racist."

"We're no longer given access to 'American Idol' (video) clips. They're apparently mad at us ... When I say 'us,' I really mean me," O'Donnell said on Wednesday's broadcast, calling the situation "sad."

"It started with the two special-ed boys and then my concern about Paula (Abdul's) possible non-attentiveness and then saying that I thought it was sexist or racist and weight-ist that they put Frenchie (Davis) off and not Antonella (Barba)," O'Donnell said.

Fox responded to O'Donnell's charges Wednesday afternoon.

"Without wishing to add to the obvious self-promotion of Ms. O'Donnell, I feel as though I must refute her absurd and ridiculous claims that 'American Idol' is racist and/or weight-ist," the reality show's executive producer, Nigel Lythgoe, said in a statement given to CBSNews.com's The Showbuzz. "Ms. O'Donnell has, once again, spoken without thought or knowledge. Viewers need only look at the show tonight to realize that 'American Idol' constantly confirms to America that talent has nothing to do with weight or color."

"The View" co-host, Barbara Walters, responded on the show by saying that O'Donnell's comments were "very strong accusations" and that "Rosie's opinions are Rosie's opinions."

But Walters instructed, "don't insult them with your left hand and ask for favors with the right hand."

More here:

http://wcbstv.com/entertainment/local_story_066194330.html

dad1153

03-07-07, 10:02 PM

TV Notebook
Fox: Rosie's 'Idol' Rant 'Ridiculous'
Executive Producer Refute's O'Donnell's 'Absurd' Claims Of Racism, Weightism

By Amy Bonawitz CBS News March 7, 2007

Far be it for me to side with Rosie on anything, but she's right this time. If the heavy-set black woman contestant from a few years back was booted off when nude/suggestive shots of her were discovered (without the benefit of the "Idol" viewing public weighing on the matter) then why wasn't the skinny white chick that's on the current version booted off the show just as fast? The fact that the skinny white girl was even allowed to compete and voted by the public to stay (something the black contestant never had a chance to try) already shows preferential treatment. BTW, this is the only thing that could potentially derail "American Idol" off its pedestal and make it jump the shark: an untalented, controversial and/or unlikable (to at least a sizable portion of the viewing public) contestant winning the whole thing and making the loyal audience sour to the whole concept. Fingers crossed! :D

fredfa

03-07-07, 11:43 PM

Critic’s Notebook
Don't Bet Against Fox
By John Eggerton at the Broadcasting & Cable “bcbeat” blog

Fox's House continues to be the least sympathetic TV lead in the history of the medium.

For all Fox's missteps with bad reality shows and crummy sitcoms, I have to agree with Sinclair's David Smith that it is hard to bet against the company, what with the netlet that became a major, the news channel that became an institution, The Simpsons, American Idol, salted peanuts series, 24, and House.

Smith told investors at a conference that he was ready to give MyNetworkTV several years before handicapping it. Look at NASCAR, he said. Who knew cars going around in a circle could be compelling TV?Well, aside from millions of NSACAR fans, I guess.

And speaking of House, Dave Matthews could have a promising second career as an actor. His turn last night as a savant-pianist with a heart problem was one of the best one-shots of the season, though David Morse's menacing detective is still my pick for best guest Emmy, along with Forest Whitaker on ER.

http://broadcastingcable.com/blog/1380000138.html

fredfa

03-07-07, 11:49 PM

Critic’s Notebook
Kaplan in at 'CBS Evening News'
By Paul J. Gough The Hollywood Reporter March 8, 2007

NEW YORK -- Rick Kaplan, the legendary producer and former president of CNN and MSNBC, will be named executive producer of the "CBS Evening News With Katie Couric."

Sources said late Wednesday that Rome Hartman, who had been named producer of the broadcast in late 2005, would be replaced by Kaplan as early as today. Hartman, a former "60 Minutes" producer and a favorite of CBS News president Sean McManus, will be reassigned to another high post at CBS News.

CBS News declined comment late Wednesday.

Sources said McManus made the decision and not Couric, who also is managing editor of the broadcast, though she was aware of it happening. The broadcast's third-place ranking in the ratings was a major factor in the decision, and the network wants a harder-edged, faster-paced newscast than has been seen in the six months since Couric took to the air.

The announcement marks the return to network television of one of its most accomplished producers. Kaplan most recently was president of MSNBC before leaving in June. He was president of CNN from 1997-2000 and was a senior vp at ABC News during his second stint at the network. Kaplan was executive producer of ABC's "World News Tonight With Peter Jennings" beginning in 1994 after creating and executive producing "Primetime Live" from 1989-94 and stints as executive producer of "Nightline," "World News This Morning" and "Good Morning America." At CBS he was an associate producer of the "CBS Evening News With Walter Cronkite" from 1974-79.

It's also the second personnel change in a week in the leadership of the Big Three's high-profile evening newscasts. Last week NBC reassigned John Reiss as executive producer of "NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams." On Monday, NBC named Alexandra Wallace as the new executive producer.

Neither Hartman nor Reiss was in their high-pressure jobs for long. Reiss, who had been No. 2 at "NBC Nightly News" since 2002, was named to replace Steve Capus (now NBC News president) in June 2005. Hartman replaced Dan Rather's longtime executive producer, Jim Murphy, in late November 2005, though Hartman didn't start officially until early January during the tenure of Bob Schieffer and then remained the executive producer when Katie Couric became anchor and managing editor in September.

Hartman was a longtime producer at "60 Minutes" and "60 Minutes II" before joining the "CBS Evening News." Before that, Hartman had been senior producer for the "CBS Evening News" in Washington and the network's White House producer in the Reagan administration. Even as executive producer of the "CBS Evening News" in New York, Hartman still lived with his family in the Maryland suburbs of Washington.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3id40d4889dd07389cdf9ed67bb104a50a

fredfa

03-07-07, 11:59 PM

Critic’s Notebook
'Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?'
Too Bad There’s No Credit for Lunch and Recess Here
By Virginia Heffernan The New York Times March 8, 2007

The High Commission for Game Show Integrity, or whatever task force was founded after the quiz show scandals of the ’50s, must have vetted “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” before it appeared on the air last week. And yet there’s something fishy — fishier, I mean, than usual with game shows — about this Fox hit, on which duncey adults match wits, sort of, with children.

Take the first Thursday episode. A buffoon named Larry, salesman and family man, was stumped almost to neurological emergency by the question of 2 times 5. He hemmed; he hawed. Finally he tentatively produced the right answer. (No spoilers here.) But as the game wore on, he became a different man, first handily identifying the suffix in “unfortunately” (again, silent as the tomb here) and then bringing the crowd nearly to its feet by recognizing Na as the symbol for — sodium, by golly, not nitrogen, not the Netherlands, not just Na.

Actually what Larry said was “Salt, which is also known as sodium.” At which no one, not one of the cherubic fifth graders who play the show’s “Match Game”-style smarties, nor the comedian host, Jeff Foxworthy, corrected him.

Salt is actually sodium chloride. NaCl. Did you know that?

I did. And maybe that — the desire to prove something — accounts for the show’s success. And by “success,” I mean only the remnants of its success that cannot be accounted for by its charmed regular time slot on Thursday after “American Idol,” when the television test pattern would probably rate pretty high.

But “Are You Smarter” does have charms of its own, not the least of which is its title, which really gets you to wondering. How many feet in a mile? (Beats me.) How much would I remember from all those mimeographed quizzes?

Mr. Foxworthy is a bang-up host, whose rolling Georgia accent as he says “the first grade” and “the fifth grade,” never losing the article, alone justifies not touching the dial. The self-proclaimed champion of rednecks, Mr. Foxworthy teases Larry about his desire to buy a camo-colored Lamborghini with the money he might win. And his invocations of elementary-school concepts, from wedgies to stolen lunch money, lift “Are You Smarter” out of the current day into some shared utopia of childhood, spent mostly in the classroom, where popularity and parents’ divorces don’t trouble anyone. In this utopia preteenage concerns are grammar and whether the walrus is native to the North Pole.

We hear the names of contestants’ childhood grade schools but no mention of their towns or states, which is a cute regional touch that also presumably protects people from stalkers. Photos also show them in childhood. This show is about regression, but regression not to the squalling, demanding babies that television sometimes encourages us to indulge, but to the budding scholars that we all once tried, or were forced, to be. The décor and the schoolteacher vibe of Mr. Foxworthy really might take you back to school days.

No wonder the camera dwells overlong on Larry when he’s cogitating over his easy equations, or when the editing builds in more stupidity for the adults (who seem always to win money, if not hit the jackpot). That’s the promise of the show: some laughs. A little fiction is a necessary part of this ultimately sentimental spectacle, which is not, in the end, about dumb adults but about smart children and the simplest, corniest pleasure of school: learning.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/08/arts/television/08heff.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=television&pagewanted=print

fredfa

03-08-07, 12:02 AM

Critic’s Notebook
'Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?'
Fox's '5th Grader' makes smart moves
By Gary Strauss USA TODAY March 8, 2007

What makes a game show a hit?

Start with the name.

Fox's Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (tonight, 9 ET/PT) earned honor-roll status last week, with three episodes averaging more than 24 million viewers a night, second only to its lead-in, American Idol.

"It's a catchy title," says Shari Anne Brill, programming chief at media buyer Carat USA. "It implies that if you're not smarter than your kids, its humiliating. That's priceless."

Clearly, 5th Grader, whose premiere Feb. 27 was the highest-rated debut on any network since 1998, gets a huge boost from Idol. Whether 5th Grader can make the grade on its own is unclear; March 15 is the first of six 8 p.m. Thursday shows untethered from Idol.

But observers suggest that 5th Grader's premise — adults coming off as dummies when trying to answer grade-school questions — could vault it to the powerhouse status of NBC's Deal or No Deal and ABC's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. "This could play any time of year," Brill says. "There are so many ways to work this."

Title aside, 5th Grader, created by reality guru Mark Burnett, encompasses pieces of other hit games: a comic host (Jeff Foxworthy), third-party participation letting contestants "cheat" (know-it-all fifth-graders), big prizes ($1 million) and opt-outs giving players a chance to leave with some cash. Mike Davies, a veteran producer of shows such as Wife Swap and Millionaire, observes: "This show has that and another twist: shame and embarrassment."

Like other hits — including Idol—5th Grader also appeals to a wide range of ages, Brill says.

Kids upstaging and outsmarting adults on air and at home gives 5th Grader "great play along, where (viewers) are shouting out answers at the TV set," says Rich Cronin, head of game-show network GSN. "It has that edge-of-the-seat excitement and the essence of a successful game show — light, fun, escapist entertainment."

Burnett (Survivor, The Apprentice) bet the premise and family appeal would make the show a hit. But he credits Fox reality programming chief Mike Darnell for tying 5th Grader to Idol, creating a large sample audience and word-of-mouth buzz. Burnett also credits Darnell with the name: "It used to be called Do You Wanna Cheat?" Burnett says.

Darnell says the initial pitch was titled Do You Remember Grade School? "The idea was relatable to kids and parents, but the title was dull," Darnell says.

5th Grader has already spurred a flood of copycats, he says. "We've had a dozen game-show pitches involving kids since last week. And if I'm getting them, everyone in town is getting them."

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2007-03-07-5th-grader_N.htm

vonzoog

03-08-07, 06:25 AM

Except in many rural areas OTA is not feasible. (That is why cable started in the first place back in the hills of Pennsylvania in the late 1940s.) And even today, as ferquent contributor Ken English of KSL in Salt Lake City can tell you, repeaters continue to be built to dot the mountains in the western United States in an effort to serve many homes which simply can't get a primary signal.

Phone companies, electric and gas companies, all sign franchise agreements that mandate service to all. To me, cable TV has become such a ubiquitous item it really should be considered in a similar light -- as a utility, not an extravagance. Part of the cost of doing business should be, in my mind, providing service to all in whatever area it is licensed to serve.

If the industry can spend dozens of billions of dollars to provide phone and internet service why shouldn't it be required to simply provide a basic cable service to all homes in the geopgraphic areas they wish to do business in?

THANK YOU Fred.

From all of the people like me where OTA is at most 4 or 5 stations only if you have a 25 foot tower. No cable. No DSL. No Fios. And my phone lines are so bad the my dial-up connection never ran better than 26.4kbs.

My yard looks like an ESPN truck on a Monday Night Football game. Large multiple dishes.

People show check out the cost of satellite internet service and the speed doesn't even come close to cable, before you make some of the statements I have read on this forum.

People who have lived in their little jaded worlds should realize that a lot of us have no real options. Cable has been around for over 25 years to the majority of the country and they still won't run a line another 1/2 mile down the road to serve ten houses in my area. Go figure.

Sorry for the rant.

CPanther95

03-08-07, 07:01 AM

Far be it for me to side with Rosie on anything, but she's right this time. If the heavy-set black woman contestant from a few years back was booted off when nude/suggestive shots of her were discovered (without the benefit of the "Idol" viewing public weighing on the matter) then why wasn't the skinny white chick that's on the current version booted off the show just as fast? The fact that the skinny white girl was even allowed to compete and voted by the public to stay (something the black contestant never had a chance to try) already shows preferential treatment. BTW, this is the only thing that could potentially derail "American Idol" off its pedestal and make it jump the shark: an untalented, controversial and/or unlikable (to at least a sizable portion of the viewing public) contestant winning the whole thing and making the loyal audience sour to the whole concept. Fingers crossed! :D

There's a big difference between Frenchie posing nude for money from a porn site called "Daddy's Little Girls" that caters to men who prefer underage girls - and someone releasing photos of Antonella in a wet T-Shirt.

Maestro J

03-08-07, 07:38 AM

I agree with Panther. Totally different circumstances. It's a crying shame that every time a white person is perceived to get different treatment than a black person, some loudmouth egomaniac (in this case Rosie) has to spout off to get the attention they crave and desire.

foxeng

03-08-07, 07:40 AM

Far be it for me to side with Rosie on anything, but she's right this time.

Sorry Dad, you have been snookered in with media "me" machine of Rosie. Even Barbara is avoiding this one with her comment of the "left hand, right hand."

If the heavy-set black woman contestant from a few years back was booted off when nude/suggestive shots of her were discovered (without the benefit of the "Idol" viewing public weighing on the matter) then why wasn't the skinny white chick that's on the current version booted off the show just as fast? The fact that the skinny white girl was even allowed to compete and voted by the public to stay (something the black contestant never had a chance to try) already shows preferential treatment.

?????

Frencie (who by the way has stated in the last several days SHE doesn't care about it since she has been working on Broadway for the last several years and she says that has been a plus for her NOT to go all the way in AI.) had pictures on a pay porno website and Antonella Barba didn't. HUGE difference. And have you noticed that one of the two best singers in this years competition is a (dare I say it?) a large African-American woman? (LiKisha can sang!)

BTW, this is the only thing that could potentially derail "American Idol" off its pedestal and make it jump the shark: an untalented, controversial and/or unlikable (to at least a sizable portion of the viewing public) contestant winning the whole thing and making the loyal audience sour to the whole concept. Fingers crossed! :D

Keep dreaming Dad. AI keeps rolling right along.

If you just look at the facts, Rosie is way off base. If someone would ask her if she has even watched AI this season, I would suspect the answer would be some convoluted rambling about racism and gayism and what ever else is on her mind. But the bottom line would be no, she hasn't and only knows what she has heard. Now THAT is an intelligent person. :confused:

I used to really like Rosie. I enjoyed her comedy very much and still do her older stuff. But since she has "come out" it is a completely different Rosie. The chip on her shoulder just keep getting bigger and bigger. The single event that turned it for me was the NRA meltdown on her show with Tom Selleck. He totally didn't deserve that. That was a CLASSIC ambush.

Sorry Dad, got to disagree with you 100% on this one.

Carl Jones

03-08-07, 07:42 AM

THANK YOU Fred.

From all of the people like me where OTA is at most 4 or 5 stations only if you have a 25 foot tower. No cable. No DSL. No Fios. And my phone lines are so bad the my dial-up connection never ran better than 26.4kbs.

My yard looks like an ESPN truck on a Monday Night Football game. Large multiple dishes.

People show check out the cost of satellite internet service and the speed doesn't even come close to cable, before you make some of the statements I have read on this forum.

People who have lived in their little jaded worlds should realize that a lot of us have no real options. Cable has been around for over 25 years to the majority of the country and they still won't run a line another 1/2 mile down the road to serve ten houses in my area. Go figure.

Sorry for the rant.

Wow, where in Delaware?

Gary*w*

03-08-07, 07:50 AM

clapple

03-08-07, 09:37 AM

fredfa

03-08-07, 10:21 AM

Yesterday’s metered market over-night prime-time ratings – and Media Week Analyst Marc Berman’s view of what they mean -- have been posted just near the top of Ratings News the second post in this thread.

fredfa

03-08-07, 10:48 AM

TV Notebook
Kaplan in at 'CBS Evening News'
Producer for Couric Out at CBS
By Bill Carter The New York Times March 8, 2007

The shake-ups at the evening newscasts continued last night.

In the latest disruption, CBS News replaced Rome Hartman, the executive producer of the “Evening News with Katie Couric,” with the long-time TV news executive and producer Rick Kaplan, said several people who were informed of the move.

The decision follows a run of disappointing ratings for the CBS newscast, which had introduced Ms. Couric as its anchor with great fanfare in September. Though the program initially scored impressive ratings, and had increased ratings among some audience groups like younger women, it had sunk back to its long-established spot of last place among the three network newscasts in terms of total viewers.

In recent weeks, the newscast had fallen short of the audience totals achieved this time last year by Bob Schieffer, the anchor that Ms. Couric replaced. CBS executives had made it clear that they expected the program to be more competitive.

CBS News executives, contacted last night, declined to comment. But two of the people who were informed of the decision said that Mr. Hartman was told after last night’s newscast. Several staff members were also told that Mr. Kaplan would become the executive producer.

It was not clear last night when Mr. Kaplan would take over. But according to two people who know both Mr. Kaplan and Ms. Couric, they had established a good working relationship when Mr. Kaplan worked at the MSNBC news channel and Ms. Couric was at NBC News.

Mr. Hartman, a respected veteran at CBS News, had joined the program about a year before Ms. Couric arrived, and had introduced several stylistic changes in its format. Some, like a nightly editorial by commentators outside CBS News, were not well received by many critics and some members of the staff. The most widely heard complaint has been that the newscast was sacrificing hard news reporting for more features and interviews.

The change comes at an increasingly tumultuous time for the network newscasts. In the last week NBC removed John Reiss, the executive producer of “NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams,” after ABC’s evening newscast surpassed it in the monthly ratings. That was the first time that ABC had won a month in 11 months.

In turning to Mr. Kaplan, CBS is adding one of the most experienced producers in television news. He has made numerous stops in his long career, mainly at ABC News, where he previously served as the executive producer of that network’s newscast, as well as at “Nightline,” where Mr. Kaplan won several awards, and at “Primetime Live” the newsmagazine he helped create.

Mr. Kaplan, who is 59, left ABC in 1997 and moved on to CNN where he became the president of that cable news channel’s United States operation before he was ousted in 2000 after ratings declined at that network. Subsequently he was named the president of a rival cable news network, MSNBC, in 2004. He helped create that network’s top show, “Countdown with Keith Olbermann,” but he again fell victim to disappointing ratings and left in 2006.

Mr. Hartman, who is 50, was an award-winning producer for “60 Minutes” before he joined the evening news in late 2005. He is expected to be asked to stay on CBS News in another capacity.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/08/business/media/08couric.html?ref=business&pagewanted=print

fredfa

03-08-07, 10:58 AM

The Digital Revolution
Time-shifted TV: Closer than you think
Lots of folks already watch shows when they want
By Diego Vasquez MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer Mar 8, 2007

Six weeks ago, Microsoft’s Bill Gates struck fear in broadcast and cable executives when he suggested in a speech that within five years, viewers would abandon traditional television for internet protocol TV and other methods that allow them to set their own schedules.

Gates may have been overly optimistic in setting that time frame, but he’s essentially right, according to a new report from Solutions Research Group’s Digital Life America, which conducts consumer trend studies for the Toronto research firm.

It finds that not only are a large number of consumers, especially young ones, already time-shifting television through tools like online downloads, digital video recorders and video on demand, but that within 10 years, this could be the norm rather than the exception.

According to DLA, a quarter of Americans over age 12 have streamed full TV shows, 10 percent currently have a show stored on their computer, and 24 percent have shows on a mobile video device. DVRs are in 17 percent of households, and 15 percent of households use video on demand.

These consumers say by an overwhelming margin that being able to control when and where they watch these shows enhances their enjoyment of television.

Kaan Yigit, study director for DLA, talks to Media Life about who time shifts, who’ll be soon to follow, and why men do it more than women.

Will we ever reach a time when time-shifted viewing outweighs TV watched in regular timeslots?

In about 10 years the term “regular timeslots” will cease to have meaning for most pre-packaged content. And we need to increasingly think video content and not just TV.

There is no schedule for all the content at iTunes, everything there is available to anyone at anytime. Same thing holds true with Joost (now in beta testing). So we need to start thinking in terms of release dates for content as opposed to a rigid schedule.

This said, there are exceptions--live events, in particular sports, for example. And to some extent, our lives have a scheduled rhythm, so schedules will not completely disappear but will become less important or significant.

You found that half of young people ages 20-29 have used time-shifted viewing. When will we see similar saturation among older people?

There is a lag but still sooner than we think-- under five years. However, linear TV and time-shifted viewing (both online and on cable) will co-exist for quite a while to come for older demos.

Once something becomes a no-brainer, older demos adopt and adapt. Look at mobile phones, digital cameras and DVD players, all initially the domain of the under-35 age groups. The online video explosion is driven by ease of use-- you can stream anything on any PC without the need for special software or skills now, a big change from a few years ago where only the 17-year old geeks could do video online.

Which method of time-shifted viewing (DVR, computer streaming, mobile or VOD) is growing fastest? Which has the most potential longer term?

Without a doubt, online/PC streaming is growing the fastest. It’s so easy and accessible now. And all kinds of big media are jumping in. Just this Monday The New York Times started promoting video content on its site. So video is not just for TV broadcasters anymore.
Of course, user-generated video is old news. Mobile is the slowest, notwithstanding the sex appeal of Apple’s video-capable iPhone or Verizon V-Cast and the like. DVRs and VOD are somewhere in between.

More men than women employ time-shifted viewing. Why is that?

Twenty-nine percent of men and 21 percent women streamed TV content (30 minutes or longer) online. The gap is not huge but it’s there.

But DVR use is fairly close. Arguably, there is somewhat more male-skewing content available at the moment online, and sports is a big one--March Madness coming up, for example.
And men tend to still be a bit more inclined to spend time with video content overall on the internet.

You found that a majority of DVR viewers said delayed viewing enhanced their viewing pleasure. Why is this?

Most cable companies find that churn rates go down for households with DVRs and those who use VOD. We live in a culture of acute time poverty; given a choice between time and money, 40 percent of Americans choose time in our research.
Time-shifting via DVRs (and to a lesser extent VOD) saves us time when we fast forward or allow ourselves to enjoy the experience at our convenience, not that of an arbitrary schedule. And we as consumers like control.

Fifty-two percent of DVR owners say they “always” skip commercials. Is this number rising or falling, and why? Should media buyers and planners be worrying about this?

We will track to see if the number will shift over time. Many people skip commercials not because they inherently dislike them but more to reclaim 10 minutes of their lives in a 60-minute segment. And other times, people skip irrelevant bits while keeping an eye on categories that they are interested in when fast forwarding.
However, if my target is 18-49 with an active or busy lifestyle, I would worry as they would be both more likely to have a DVR and more likely to put a premium on their time and therefore skip at least some of the commercials.

What types of programs are most likely to be watched on a delayed basis (news, dramas, comedies, etc.)?

The biggest DVR recording category in our research is 60-minute shows: primetime dramas, reality shows and the like that continue week to week followed by sitcoms and movies. News and sportscasts are least likely to be DVR’d, and sports events are somewhere in between.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_10634.asp

CPanther95

03-08-07, 11:02 AM

The Digital Revolution
Time-shifted TV: Closer than you think
Lots of folks already watch shows when they want
By Diego Vasquez MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer Mar 8, 2007

Many people skip commercials not because they inherently dislike them but more to reclaim 10 minutes of their lives in a 60-minute segment.

Try 18-19 minutes, and even more if you skip "previously on" scenes, etc.

fredfa

03-08-07, 11:09 AM

fredfa

03-08-07, 11:10 AM

Try 18-19 minutes, and even more if you skip "previously on" scenes, etc.

Yup, three hours of network programming can be pretty easily watched in two hours with a DVR.

fredfa

03-08-07, 11:16 AM

The Business of Television
DirecTV’s Carey Discusses Business Strategy
By Colleen Bohen TWICE 3/8/2007

Palm Beach, Fla. — HD will be a primary factor for DirecTV’s business in the near future, according to company CEO Chase Carey at the Bear Stearns 20th annual Media Conference last night, here.

“HD is clearly the centerpiece of what’s thriving in TV going forward,” said Chase. “It’s going to be the center of what’s defining excellence in TV.”

As recently announced, DirecTV will greatly increase its HD content offerings in 2007. Chase said that the company’s position in providing HD content, combined with its focus on making its products easy for the mainstream consumer to navigate, will set it apart from the competition.

When asked about how his company will compete with telco TV providers offering a bundle of services, Carey said, “We’re very competitive with the bundle.”

He explained that he thinks consumers have multiple options when it comes to satisfying their desires to getting a combination of technologies and that his company can remain competitive just providing video services because he believes that for many consumers it is “first and foremost about a great TV experience.” He added that DirecTV can differentiate itself through its content, technology and service. Carey said that his company wants “to be a leader in TV” because he believes it is important to people.

“The bundle is mostly about price,” said Carey. “Within that mix of services, I think TV is the one people care most about.”

One of the key ways Carey thinks DirecTV can differentiate itself is through content. Unique programming — both paid and unpaid — is key for the company. Carey said that DirecTV sees significant direct return on ventures like the NFL Sunday ticket but that it also sees importance in providing certain content like last year’s U.S. Open at no additional charge to members because it is an investment in the DirecTV brand and franchise.

“The payback is not just with more customers, but better customers,” said Carey, explaining that its exclusive programming ventures are generally developed to appeal to a higher-end customer. “We believe it pays back.”

Content packaging appears to be a key component for DirecTV on a number of planes including its approach to the growing video-on-demand (VOD) market. Carey maintained that VOD is still a very small part of DirecTV’s focus at this point.

“Many customers still have to grow into VOD,” he said “There aren’t too many who understand it.”

When the question of whether or not DirecTV will be able to compete as VOD develops more in the mainstream because of “return path issues,” Carey answered that his company expects to be “fully competitive in many ways.”

He said DirecTV will develop its VOD capabilities through its delivery system by increasing space on the disks in the home so that customers can receive and store more content from the satellites and marrying that to a broadband connection.

Carey expressed that with VOD there is a need to integrate the content into his company’s structure and develop the appropriate tools for consumers to easily navigate and sort the content. He said, “The right answer isn’t just to throw as much stuff at the wall and just tell people to go find it.”

To listen to the complete presentation, click here:

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=127160&p=irol-IRHome

fredfa

03-08-07, 11:20 AM

The Business of Television
Hallmark, Dish Renew Carriage Deal
EchoStar Puts Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Movie Channel on Better-Penetrated Tiers
By Linda Moss MultiChannel News 3/8/2007

Hallmark Channel reached a carriage-deal renewal with EchoStar Communications that will boost distribution for the network and its all-movie spinoff.

Crown Media Holdings, owner and operator of Hallmark Channel, entered into a multiyear agreement with EchoStar’s Dish Network direct-broadcast satellite service that provides for continued distribution for the core channel and Hallmark Movie Network.

Also under the new pact, Hallmark Channel will be repositioned to Dish's AT200 package beginning in April, bringing the network’s overall distribution from its current 76.2 million subscribers to more than 80 million. Hallmark Movie will be carried on Dish's AT250 package, increasing its total distribution to more than 5 million subscribers.

The EchoStar agreement represents the second carriage renewal for Hallmark announced so far this year. In February, the network closed a renewal with Mediacom Communications.

The programmer has affiliation agreements expiring with some of its major distributors on or before the end of this year.

“We are delighted to renew our affiliation agreement for Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movie Channel with EchoStar on such mutually agreeable terms," Crown CEO Henry Schleiff said in a prepared statement. "We are particularly appreciative that we could extend and significantly grow this partnership."

Crown Thursday reported 2006 revenue of $201.2 million, a 2% gain from $197.4 million for the prior year. Subscriber-fee revenue increased 33% to $24.9 million from $18.7 million the prior year. Ad revenue increased 19% to $174.2 million from $146.1 million in 2005.

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6422686.html?display=Breaking+News

dad1153

03-08-07, 11:22 AM

Critic's Notebook
Katie Couric's New Coach at "Evening News"
Verne Gay's Newsday TV Blog - March 8, 2007

It must be March - the Ides and all that sort of thing - but this is not a good time to be a producer of an evening news show. Last night, Katie Couric's producer was dumped, which is just about three days, per my count, after the producer of the "Nightly News" was shown the door. That leaves the producer of "World News" badly exposed, but because his broadcast is firmly in first place, I think he'll be OK for the foreseeable future.

What's going on? Rome Hartman was told after last night's edition of "Evening News" that his services would no longer be required. The website, TVNewser, which first broke the news, followed a little later by the Associated Press, added that he'll be replaced by Rick Kaplan, onetime president of CNN/US and MSNBC and - here's the more telling detail - Diane Sawyer's longtime producer. In the Alice-in-Wonderland world of network news, Sawyer's stock has recently soared past Couric's in light of prestige-boosting trips to Syria and other points east. Couric, coincidentally, is being subjected to a higher-than-normal round of torture-by-print stories in a variety of places. Slate - which has no print, by the way - has another just this morning.

CBS officially announced the business just before noon, and - for the record - here's the statement from Katie:
“Rick Kaplan is a big personality with big ideas. Though I’ve never worked directly with him, I know Rick is an extraordinarily experienced producer who has exciting plans for our broadcast. I’m thrilled he has decided to come home to CBS News.”

The changes were expected, as we say in the trade. Kaplan's a smart, well-regarded producer who also happens be about seven feet tall and rules staffs with a very loud voice and imperious manner. He probably won't make a lot of friends immediately at "EN," which will be just fine if the ratings move north. If they don't...well, plenty of time to worry about that later.

What will Kaplan do at "EN?" (He once worked there as a top producer during the Cronkite years.) Expect more Katie, Katie, Katie: More Katie interviews, more Katie "live" in the studio with newsmakers (he was the EP of "Primetime Live" back when it was actually a good broadcast), more Katie-on-the-road, more Katie-debriefing-correspondents.

Kaplan's got a well-deserved rep as being one of the least patient people in the solar system - a hot-tempered bull in a china shop - and I'm a relatively certain that not a single tear was shed when he was booted from MSNBC. But consider a couple of points here. He is a very talented, creative guy who knows how to win in the grinding daily battle that is the nightime news race (and did so with Peter Jennings), and he also let Keith Olbermann thrive on his watch. Olbermann will argue, of course, that his success was entirely of his own making, but surely Rick deserves a little credit (don't you think, Keith?)

Meanwhile, some big questions: Is Kaplan a Bill Parcells of the news biz who once knew how to win championships but now only knows how to score top jobs with mediocre teams? (Parcells is now at ESPN so my analogy doesn't really hold up here, but what the heck.)

And in light of Charlie Gibson's success at "World News," conventional wisdom now holds that evening news viewers only want to get their news from avuncular, late-middle-age men of Anglo-Saxon extraction. That may or may not be true (and it probably is, by the way), but Kaplan clearly has an idea about how to get around this impediment.

I wonder what that might be?

http://weblogs.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/blog/

fredfa

03-08-07, 11:23 AM

Overnights in the 18-49 Demo
Jungle fumble: 'Lost' sinks to new low
Troubled ABC drama pulls 12.3 million viewers
By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer March 8, 2007

After three weeks of fairly steady ratings, ABC’s “Lost” tripped again last night, dipping to an all-time low.

The island drama averaged a series-low 12.34 million total viewers in its 10 p.m. timeslot, according to Nielsen overnights, falling by 440,000 from last week. While that’s a tiny decline statistically, down just 3 percent, it’s more worrisome when put in a larger context.

Since the show’s return from a three-month hiatus on Feb. 7, “Lost’s” average in total viewers has plunged more than 2 million, down from 14.5 million.

And it’s lost even more viewers since last fall, when its October debut averaged 18.8 million. Last night’s episode averaged a 5.5 in adults 18-49, down 0.2 from the last three episodes, despite its top competition (“CSI: NY” on CBS) being a rerun.

There are many theories as to what’s causing the decline. “Lost” fans have been vocal about their frustration with the show for raising too many questions while providing too few answers.

When ABC promoted an episode two weeks ago by promising that three crucial questions would be answered, and that did not seem to happen, there was outrage on the many messageboards devoted to the show.

But there are other, separate programming issues as well. “Lost” now airs an hour later than it did last fall, and television usage drops off at 10 p.m. Many fans may be taping the show or catching it later on ABC.com rather than staying up later.

And the show has virtually no lead-in support. Last night ABC’s 9:30 p.m. program, the struggling sitcom “In Case of Emergency,” averaged 6.1 million total viewers and a 2.7 in adults 18-49.

Last fall, “Lost” lead-in “Dancing with the Stars” delivered 19 million total viewers and a 4.9 rating.

Elsewhere last night, Fox was first for the evening among 18-49s once again with an 8.2 average rating and a 21 share. ABC was second at 3.5/9, CBS third at 3.2/8, NBC fourth at 2.4/6, Univision fifth at 1.9/5 and CW sixth at 1.8/5.

At 8 p.m. Fox led easily with an 11.1 rating for “American Idol,” while the rest of the networks were lumped closely together. Univision and CBS tied for second at 2.2, Univision for “La Fea Mas Bella” and CBS for “Jericho,” ABC was fourth with a 2.1 for “George Lopez” (2.1) and a repeat of “According to Jim” (2.1), with CW and NBC tied for fifth at 2.0, CW for “America’s Next Top Model” and NBC for “Dateline.”

Fox led again at 9 p.m. with a 5.2 for the unspectacular series premiere of “Wedding Bells,” which lost more than half its lead-in. CBS moved to second with a 3.9 for a repeat of “Criminal Minds.” ABC was third that hour with a 2.9 average for a new “According to Jim” (3.2) and “In Case of Emergency” (2.7), with NBC fourth with a 2.4 for new timeslot occupant “Crossing Jordan,” Univision fifth with a 1.8 for “Mundo de Fieras” and CW sixth with a 1.6 for “Pussycat Dolls Present: Search for the Next Doll.”

ABC took the lead at 10 p.m. with a 5.5 for “Lost,” followed by a 3.5 for CBS for a repeat of “CSI: NY.” NBC was third with a 3.0 for “Medium,” its best outing in more than a month, and Univision fourth with a 1.5 for “Don Francisco Presenta.”

Fox also led the night among households easily, finishing with a 12.3 average rating and a 19 share. CBS was second at 7.4/12, ABC third at 5.3/8, NBC fourth at 5.1/8, CW fifth at 2.8/4 and Univision sixth at 2.3/4.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_10661.asp

dad1153

03-08-07, 11:52 AM

You gotta hand it to the NY Post: they've got some of the best headline writers in the biz (especially if you're aware Laura Innes left "ER" not too long ago). :)

TV News
Luka Won't Play Doctor More
By Don Kaplan, New York Post - March 8, 2007

It appears another doctor is looking to be dis charged from the "ER."

Goran Visnijic, 34, who plays Dr. Luka Kovac seems to be angling to appear in a limited amount of episodes next season, according to industry sources.

The move would be similar to the strategy that Noah Wyle used two years ago to exit the medical drama. He appeared in fewer and fewer episodes until he finally left the show.

It is believed that Visnijic's contract with the show is up for renewal. He joined "ER" in 1999 as a replacement for George Clooney, who played the show's pediatric specialist. Almost overnight, Visnijic became one of the biggest stars in his native Croatia, where he had been a paratrooper during the country's war with Serbia.

A rep for Visnijic did not return calls or e-mails.

If Visnijic is negotiating an exit strategy from "ER," he'd be the second main cast member to leave the ensemble in a matter of months. Laura Innes, who played Dr. Kerry Weaver since the show's second season, left earlier this year.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/03082007/tv/luka_wont_play_doctor_anymore_tv_don_kaplan.htm

dad1153

03-08-07, 12:35 PM

Critic's Review
Giving 'Support'
By Scott D. Piece, Deseret Morning News - March 8, 2007

Imagine — a movie about HIV that doesn't focus on gay men!

"Life Support" (Saturday, 9 p.m., HBO) is loosely based on one black woman's story, but by it is by no means an anomaly. Nationally, 30 percent of the new cases occur in women; in Utah it's 17 percent. Nationally, 54 percent of new cases occur among blacks; 64 percent of new infections among women are blacks.

"It's been straight women, black women, minority women, Hispanic women, getting the virus. They're the new group that's getting it in the big numbers," said writer/director Nelson George, whose sister, Andrea Williams, inspired the telefilm's central character, Ana (Queen Latifah).

"It's no longer a gay disease in this country. It's a straight women's disease. It's a minority women's disease," George said. "And because of that, it's invisible."

Latifah added, "We looked at it as a gay man's disease, and we let everybody else catch it because ... we were prejudiced as a country against gay people, and we are to this day. So because of that, now everybody is susceptible to it."

The real-life counterpart to her character is just one of "a lot of married women who never had sex with anybody else but their husbands," said Williams, who, along with her HIV-positive husband, was an intravenous drug-user.

It's a personal issue for Latifah. "I lost relatives to AIDS. A couple of my closest cousins, favorite cousins," one through a transfusion, one through intravenous drug use. "I lost friends to AIDS, high school friends who never even made it to their 21st birthdays in the '80s."

But "Life Support" isn't all about death, it's about life — living with HIV.

"It's a part of my life every day," Williams said. "Just like you go to work every day, you get up in the morning, I do the same thing. Only difference is I take my pills."

The meandering, slice-of-life story focuses on Ana, who channels her energy into working for Life Support, an AIDS outreach group. She's so focused, she's neglecting her family and her own health.

"What drew me to this film was not just the HIV/AIDS aspects of it, but the relationship aspects of it," Latifah said. "We're talking about people, human beings. We're talking about people that have their feelings hurt. People trying to learn how to forgive, people who can't let go of that pain and refuse to forgive, and at what time will you forgive and when do you let someone off the hook?

"Do people deserve second chances? There's so many different things that weave themselves through this film that I don't want us to just get caught up in HIV/AIDS."

We see how HIV affects other women and their families, straight men and gay men. As a movie, "Life Support" is sometimes unfocused as it wanders through a disjointed narrative. But it has moments when the power of the story is overwhelming.

"That's why the film exists," George said. "It's a forum to speak about this. I don't want to say it's a giant (public-service announcement). But on one level, it's a wake-up call both to America (and) the black community in particular."

http://www.deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,660201330,00.html

fredfa

03-08-07, 12:41 PM

TV Sports
DIRECTV/MLB Announcement Today
From SkyReportat mediabiz.com

DIRECTV and Major League Baseball plan on making a "major joint announcement" today at 4:15 p.m. ET.

Although not specified, it is widely believed that the two groups will confirm their much-hyped agreement giving DIRECTV exclusive carriage rights to the league's out-of-market programming package, MLB Extra Innings.

For the past few weeks, rumors of the deal have drawn ire from fellow pay-TV companies, regulators and consumers alike fearing decreased access to such popular sports programming. Last week, DIRECTV CEO Chase Carey wrote a seven-page letter to regulators looking into the proposed deal saying the agreement would actually be better for consumers in the long run.

Among those scheduled to make the announcement are MLB Commissioner Bud Selig, MLB President Bob DuPuy, MLB EVP for business Tim Brosnan and DIRECTV's Carey.

PJO1966

03-08-07, 12:48 PM

shuttermaker

03-08-07, 12:51 PM

Overnights in the 18-49 Demo
Jungle fumble: 'Lost' sinks to new low
Troubled ABC drama pulls 12.3 million viewers
By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer March 8, 2007

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_10661.asp

Thats laughable. I wouldnt call 12.3 "troubled". Unless im mistaken its been in the 12s for several weeks now. Seems pretty stable to me.

fredfa

03-08-07, 12:57 PM

I can understand your feelings, shuttermaker, but a new series low in total viewers (against a rerun of CSI:NY), viewership down by more than six million since the season debut, and a new low in the 18-49 is troubling.

On the other hand the show is still in the top 10 of 18-49 (at least it was last week) and its lead-in at 9:30 was abysmal.

So I guess it depends what side of the glass you are looking at. But Ms. Fitzgerald's use of the word "troubled" is not that big a stretch, at least IMO.

fredfa

03-08-07, 01:02 PM

A note on the upcoming MLB-DirecTV conference call.

I would be very surprised if, after the recent turmoil regarding this deal, if there isn't a major HD component announced today.

That would give MLB some political cover ("Cable doesn't have the bandwidth") and play to the theme DirecTV has been hammering in recent months -- that HD is the future and it will be the leader.

I should stress that in this case I have absolutely no inside information, but I would not be surprised to hear that all (or almost all) RSN games delivered in HD will be available to MLB-EI customers. I would also suspect there will be an HD surcharge.

But, we'll see in a couple of hours exactly what will be announced.

shuttermaker

03-08-07, 01:04 PM

steverobertson

03-08-07, 01:06 PM

Marcus Carr

03-08-07, 01:11 PM

HD Disc War May Be At Crossroads

By Greg Tarr -- TWICE, 3/8/2007 6:26:00 AM

San Diego — A consultant to a top Hollywood studio said at the DisplaySearch Flat-Panel Display Conference, held here Wednesday, that the format war in high-definition discs could be determined in the next three or four months if backers of the Blu-ray Disc camp get behind the planned imminent releases of last year’s top box-office titles.

Vito Mandato, Paramount Home Entertainment executive consultant, pointed out what Sony and other Blu-ray backers have said since International CES, that the Blu-ray format is about to have the lion’s share of the top box office earners from last year released on Blu-ray Disc. That could be enough to ignite a chain reaction of demand that will settle the format war for good, he said.

Blu-ray will enjoy the benefit of the imminent release of some of the top box office earning titles that comprised $1.4 billion of U.S. box office revenue last year, Mandato said.

“When you recognize the total box office for all of last year was $9.4 billion, people are going to want those,” Mandato pointed out. “If the Blu-ray camp can use the power of these and some of the other new releases over the next three or four months, they could win it all. The reason being — people listen to the opinions of early adopters. If the early adopters say, ‘This is my only choice because I’ve got to have these movies,’ that could sway opinion, generate momentum and Blu-ray could win.”

But he warned, “There is a chance that the Blu-ray camp may not be effective in convincing enough consumers that this is a killer app and it has to be paid attention to. We’ll know soon.”

Mandato said Paramount is currently supporting both camps because “we feel strongly that it is important to let the consumer make the decision, give them the ability to choose from a variety of options and pick the one that suits them. It’s our goal to provide them with the absolute best movie experience possible with Paramount movies.”

“On the selfish side, we are putting ourselves in the best position to make the most money for the studio,” he continued. “So why not pick a winner now? Well, there are risks involved in doing that, if you recall the last [presidential] election. Quite honestly, there is some evidence to suggest now that we may not be ready to pick a winner.”

Through Feb. 25, Mandato said, 694,000 Blu-ray movies were sold compared with 655,000 HD DVD movies.

Alternately, he added that the end of 2007 “could result in a universe of HD movie buyers that are dead even” with 3.4 million households buying movies monthly. This includes sales of HD disc players, and gaming consoles.

HD DVD’s biggest advantage is low price. On the Blu-ray side, their biggest advantage is the best movies, said Mandato.

He added that “brand equity will play an advantage with the early majority buyers, which are much less tech savvy than early adopters,” said Mandato.

He said he expects studios to step up and start promoting their HD disc releases more aggressively.

“The studios have not done a good job coordinating the messaging,” said Mandato. “For the Blu-ray opportunities with blockbuster movie releases over the next three or four months, the first of those will be “Casino Royale,” and we have already begun to see the campaign. In the magazine ad, there is a separate fractional page that calls out specifically that it is available exclusively on Blu-ray. If that hard-hitting messaging starts to appear consistently in all of the exclusive hit titles exclusive to Blu-ray, that will start to move the needle.”

Concerning the threat of the rapidly developing video download market, Andy Parsons, Blu-ray Disc Association U.S. Promotions Committee chairman and Pioneer advanced product development senior VP, said bandwidth remains insufficient to deliver a quality feature-length HD video in a reasonable amount of time.

“When you accept the premise that it takes 25 to 30GBs minimum to download a really high quality, high-definition movie, and you have a 4 to 5Mbps pipe running into your home, being able to download that much data in less than 10 hours is pretty difficult,” Parsons said.

Parsons called the gating issue to the acceptance of high-definition downloading “the Target factor,” explaining that if a user can drive to Target, purchase the movie, drive home, watch the movie and go to bed, in less time than it takes to takes to download that same movie over the Internet, the online sale is not very viable.

Parsons also explained that pay per view movies have been available for a number of years, yet they have never slowed the rate of DVD sales and rentals.

“I don’t see it as an either-or proposition,” Parsons said. “Downloads are there. I think they are another slice of the pie, but I don’t see that as taking over the market any time soon.”

As for the prospects of combo format players sustaining the format war, Mark Waring, a Sanyo Technology Center director and spokesman for the HD DVD Promoters Group, said pricing will make it very difficult to maintain a sustainable business model for hybrid players.

Low player pricing for HD DVD players, and the promise of even lower prices once Chinese and Taiwanese OEMs begin producing HD DVD players, is a major weapon in the battle for HD DVD supremacy, he pointed out.

“I don’t think [a dual-format player] is a good vehicle for new entrants, period,” Waring said. “There is a very brutal price point expectation for consumers. Who paid more than $100 for their last DVD player? The bar is getting lower every month. There is only one example of a combo-format player to date and it is well over $1,000. I think that is a real limitation, just in terms of the price elasticity of that product.”

“All of the presentations are operating on the premise that there will be a single format when this is all done,” said Pioneer’s Parsons. “Everybody is waiting for the format war to end, so that the business can take off under a single format. A dual-format player does not really solve the issues of why we have a format war in the first place. In fact, you can even provide a false sense of security for consumers if they go out and buy a dual-format player and then stacks of both discs. When one format goes away and the dual-format player breaks, then that consumer is stuck with a stack of unplayable discs.”

“It’s not a panacea. It doesn’t solve the problem,” Parsons continued. He pointed out that Pioneer’s introduction of a dual-format DVD-Audio/SACD player years ago, did not end that format war, either.

“The player, at the tail end of the entire process of getting movies distributed to consumers, isn’t where the problem is,” said Parsons. “It’s about distributing content on a single format because that is the most efficient way to get it done.”

Similarly, Warner Brothers’ proposed Total HD dual-format flipper disc is not likely to solve the problem, said Paramount’s Mandato, adding that Paramount is not likely to adopt the hybrid disc “until the capacity issue is solved.”

“The capacity issue they laid out at CES was the equivalent of a single-layer on both formats,” said Mandato. “The guiding rule we use for going to dual-layer on Blu-ray is that when the running time for a movie is beyond 105 or 110 minutes, it is pretty much pushing the envelope to needing a BD-50 disc. The average running time for our last 20 or so movies was 124 minutes. So, unless a flipper disc from Warner can accommodate that, I don’t think there will be that much interest.”

As for the possibility of both formats co-existing in the market, Mandato pointed to the recent release of “The Departed” in six different disc format SKUs, saying, “Nobody wants that. The studios don’t want it because it costs money to make all of those different SKUs, ship them and inventory them. The retailers really don’t want that, and we’ve all heard an earful from them.”

“The fact is, the movie business is just not like the video game business,” said Mandato. “Somehow the video game business has been able to peacefully coexist with multiple formats, but part of the reason is there is a lot of cross-ownership of multiple platforms. It’s hard to explain why it’s not going to be a successful model, but it’s not going to be successful in the movie business. It’s too expensive. It eats up money that we could all turn to profit. We are very motivated to get past this. The hardware manufacturers are as well. I think both sides are spending an inordinate amount of money to get to the winners circle, and it would be a lot more profitable to just try to make one format do well.”

http://www.twice.com/article/CA6422671.html

fredfa

03-08-07, 01:17 PM

I can see this being the last season of ER. If not the last, next year should wrap it up. Im a dedicated viewer of ER but, its not what it used to be (obviously) Greys has taken the medical drama slot and, though ive never watched it, House seems to do quite well. Thats a medical show too isnt it?

I think NBC needs ER, even a weakened ER, to hang on for one more season.

(House is certainly a medical show -- but with a major twist, featuring one of the few lead characters in TV history who viewers enjoy disliking.)

fredfa

03-08-07, 01:19 PM

I bet you are right on with this. I have to say screw these HD surcharges and Super Fan charges I pay enough already.

Of course the way for DirecTV to score major points would be to hype the added HD coverage ("at least 35 games a week in HD!") and promise it at no extra charge -- this year.

dad1153

03-08-07, 01:28 PM

Critic's Notebook
The family stone-age
Cavemen are reinventing the wheel in everything from advertising to sitcoms
By Rob Hiaasen, The Baltimore Sun - March 8, 2007

Throughout history, cavemen have often been portrayed as knuckle-dragging, club-wielding, fire-starting cavemen. But even a caveman can get a sitcom.

The three cavemen in the Geico insurance ads will star in a comedy pilot for ABC. In the popular commercials, the prehistoric dudes act insulted over the running joke that "even a caveman can do it." The sitcom, if picked up for the fall season, will feature the cavemen handling "prejudice" as thirtysomethings living in modern-day Atlanta. Long before the Geico guys, though, there were other great moments in prehistoric pop culture:

• Caveman (1981) - Ex-Beatle Ringo Starr "stars" as Atouk. Dennis Quaid and Shelley Long also appear. "Dum-dum comedy saved by fantastic (and funny) special-effects dinosaurs," wrote movie critic Leonard Maltin.

• Cirroc - Phil Hartman's "Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer" character on Saturday Night Live. Despite having been preserved from the Ice Age, Cirroc becomes a noted personal injury attorney.

• Man caves - Modern-day garages for men often featuring flat-screen TVs, classic cars and pristine Marilyn Monroe (or Anna Nicole Smith) posters.

• "Wild Thing" - The Troggs, a 1960s British rock band, gave us: "Wild thing, you make my heart sing. You make my everything. Come on, wild thing." Trog is short for troglodyte (cave dweller).

• Cavemen Cartoons - The New Yorker has a bank of such cartoons as a group of cavemen clumsily trying to start a fire and perform other basic caveman functions. "We are neither hunters nor gatherers. We are accountants," reads the caption. Or the cartoon of one hirsute caveman telling another: "I'm thinking of waxing my back."

• The Cave - Tar Heels know of what we speak. The Cave is considered Chapel Hill's oldest tavern.

• 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) - Cavemen discover monolith. Cavemen confused. Cavemen upset. Cavemen beat other cavemen with clubs.

• FedEx commercial (2006) - One of the most popular ads during last year's Super Bowl showed a caveman being fired by his boss for shipping inefficiently by pterodactyl, illustrating that office culture goes back longer than you think. The Cro-Magnon Dilbert eventually gets crushed by a dinosaur.

• B.C. - Johnny Hart's long-running comic strip features witty, pun-filled cavemen waxing philosophic, often at the altar of "Wiley's Dictionary." (Definition of Luck: "A term generally employed by the terminally unfortunate.")

• Frederick "Fred" Flintstone - The Ralph Kramden of Bedrock, Fred is a crane operator extraordinaire. He's loud, aggressive and has a gambling problem. A real Neanderthal.

• Bernard "Barney" Rubble - Fred's blond-haired cave buddy. The Ed Norton of Bedrock, the dim and loyal Barney excels at bowling, golf and the drums.

• It's About Time (TV, 1966) - The CBS comedy lasted one year and featured two dumb trogs named Gronk and Shadd (the legendary Imogene Coca). The show's theme song can still be conjured from baby boomers: "It's about time, it's about space, about two men in the strangest place ... "

• One Million Years B.C. (1966) - Before there was the Farrah poster, Raquel Welch's loin-clothed movie poster was a cultural phenom. Welch's character, Loana, is attacked by an Allosaurus and, while bathing, is hauled away in the air by a Pteranodon. And there was a movie poster.

• Encino Man (1992) - From what we're told, Brendan Fraser doesn't look bad in a loincloth, either.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/tv/bal-to.cavemen08mar08,0,1712274.story?coll=bal-artslife-tv

123HDTV

03-08-07, 01:48 PM

Of course the way for DirecTV to score major points would be to hype the added HD coverage ("at least 35 games a week in HD!") and promise it at no extra charge -- this year.

They have to pull down HD channels for Sunday Ticket. How are they going to pull this off every day? It just doesn't add up.

steverobertson

03-08-07, 01:50 PM

Of course the way for DirecTV to score major points would be to hype the added HD coverage ("at least 35 games a week in HD!") and promise it at no extra charge -- this year.

Now your talking but I doubt that will happen. I don't have any interest in this package but I do buy ST and will not once they charge me for the SF package which I have got free the last 2 years.

fredfa

03-08-07, 02:30 PM

Critic’s Notebook
More on the “Grey’s Anatomy” Spinoff
Chicago's Paul Adelstein, a.k.a. 'Prison Break's' Kellerman, nabs a role
From Maureen Ryan’s Chicago Tribune blog “The Watcher” March 8, 2007

A decade or so ago, two struggling actors were waiting tables at Chicago’s now-defunct Café du Midi.

There’s nothing notable about that, except that those two actors are now set to star in one the highest-profile projects in television.

Chicago native Paul Adelstein, who can currently be seen as Agent Paul Kellerman in “Prison Break,” has been cast as one of the male leads in the upcoming “Grey’s Anatomy” spinoff, which centers around Seattle Grace Hospital’s Dr. Addison Montgomery (Kate Walsh).

Tim Daly (“Wings,” “The Nine”) and Taye Diggs (“Day Break,” “Kevin Hill”) have also been cast in the unnamed spinoff series (which some fans have semi-jokingly dubbed “Montgomery’s Ward”).

The pilot for that show, which has Montgomery thinking about leaving Seattle Grace, will function as the two-hour season finale of “Grey’s Anatomy” in May. And as it happens, the woman who plays the flame-haired neonatal surgeon Montgomery is an old friend of Adelstein’s, with whom he waited tables at Bucktown's Café du Midi all those years ago.

“I had a nice conversation with [Walsh] last week, we had a good laugh,” Adelstein said in a recent phone interview. “It’s bizarre enough to be a working actor, but it’s such a dream to be around someone who was there essentially at the beginning, and someone who I like so much.

“I said to her, ‘Do you remember that time I was driving you to a voiceover audition, it was 2 degrees and there was no heat in my car and we were late for a shift at the restaurant and you couldn’t pay the rent?’” Adelstein said.

Both actors did workshops with John Cusack’s New Crimes stage troupe and at Evanston’s famed Piven Theatre Workshop; Adelstein and Walsh even appeared in the same episode of the Chicago-set series “Cupid,” which starred Jeremy Piven, but Adelstein said they didn’t have a scene together. The actors kept in touch when they both moved out to L.A., and used to live so close to each other that Adelstein would sometimes ask Walsh to go over lines with him when he had a big scene or audition.

“It’s going to be so great to be able to look across the room at her and think, ‘I’ve known her for 15 years,’” added Adelstein, who said that shooting begins on the “Grey’s” spinoff in a few days.

Over those 15 years, Adelstein has gone from being a respected Chicago stage actor with credits at Steppenwolf and elsewhere to a busy film and TV actor, racking up roles in everything from “Scrubs” and “Without a Trace” to “Memoirs of a Geisha” and “Be Cool.”

But it’s as “Prison Break’s” wily Kellerman that he’s gained the most notice of late, and Adelstein’s new gig raises the obvious question – what happens to Kellerman, especially if the “Grey’s” spinoff becomes a full-fledged series in the fall?

Adelstein was diplomatic and would only say that things would end “on a cliffhanger” for Kellerman at the end of “Prison Break’s” current season.

In any case, Adelstein says he "can’t believe his good fortune” in nabbing a role on the new ABC show, which is being written by “Grey’s” creator and University Park native Shonda Rhimes.

Adelstein wouldn’t say a word about what his role is or what happens in the two-hour pilot – Rhimes is well known for strictly enforcing a cone of silence around her projects – but he would say that the pilot for the new series is “character driven.”

“I think with even some of the strongest writers out there, you could swap out the dialogue between characters on the show,” but that isn't the case with Rhimes, said Adelstein, who noted that he and his wife, Liza Weil, who plays Paris on “Gilmore Girls,” are big fans of “Grey’s.” “Shonda not only writes great dialogue, she writes great characters. It’s all very specific. She’s got a very strong voice, it’s funny and truthful and three-dimensional, which is great fun for an actor and rare.”

“She’s able to write realistic yet outrageous situations that can be funny too,” he said. “It’s all there, that’s what makes it human and that’s what makes you empathize with the characters.”

http://tempo.typepad.com/entertainment_tv/

URFloorMatt

03-08-07, 02:33 PM

I can see this being the last season of ER. If not the last, next year should wrap it up. Im a dedicated viewer of ER but, its not what it used to be (obviously) Greys has taken the medical drama slot and, though ive never watched it, House seems to do quite well. Thats a medical show too isnt it?

Given NBC's attrocious record at launching new must-watch dramas in the last few years, I think ER is probably the second safest show on NBC as far as renewals go, behind SVU. The youngest non-rookie drama on NBC is, what, Las Vegas? Medium? It's slim pickings over at NBC outside the comedy genre.

Besides, losing showrunners only helps keep costs down.

fredfa

03-08-07, 03:19 PM

Note:

The Major League Baseball-DirecTV conference call, apparently to announce the new Extra Innings package, scheduled for 4:15 PM ET, has not yet started.

fredfa

03-08-07, 03:27 PM

TV Sports
The MLB-DirecTV Extra Innings Conference Call

Major League Baseball and DirecTV jointly announced Thursday that the satellite provider will have exclusive access to the Major League Baseball Extra Innings package beginning this season.

The hotly-debated agreement was formally unveiled in a conference call featuring MLVC Commissioner Bud Selig and DirecTV CEO Chase Carey, MLB President Bob Dupuy and MLB Sr. VP os business Tim Brosnan.

Dupuy announced an extension of a seven-year extension of the MLB EI package with DirecTV.

It wasn't clear exactly what Dupuy meant by this -- questions would be asked later -- but he said: "...In response to (concerns mentioned in the past few weeks), baseball has negotiated with DirecTV to offer the package to incumbent MLB EI subscribers to get the package at the same price as last year through their current cable providers..."

The offer extends through the end of March.

steverobertson

03-08-07, 03:30 PM

Wow 7 years is a long time I can't believe they went that distance. That really is to bad for people without access to D*

Fred sounds like those that have had it in the past through cable wil be able to get it again which is a great move if true. I suspect that cable will not be able to sign up new subs for this however.

fredfa

03-08-07, 03:32 PM

TV Sports
The MLB-DirecTV Extra Innings Conference Call

Tim Brosnan: This is a day for baseball fans to celebrate. DirecTV’s commitment to sports and pushing the envelope with it presentation is exceptional.

This agreement guarantees the launch of the MLB channel not only in a meaningful way, but having DirecTV’s inpout in the launch of the Baseball Channel is invaluable.

fredfa

03-08-07, 03:36 PM

TV Sports
The MLB-DirecTV Extra Innings Conference Call Continues

Chase Carey:
Cable companies can negotiate (through March) with MLB to allow current subs to watch MLB-EI.

Dupuy: This would be the same deal. If cable agree to the same terms, it would get the right to carry MLB-EI.

Brosnan: It is quite a simple process. It has been negotiated. We know the steps that we need to take. We want to make this available to our fans, the questionw ill be wwhether the Dish and InDemand fans want to pay the freight to make it available to their customers.

dad1153

03-08-07, 03:39 PM

I haven't seen guys in suits jump though loopholes like this since... the last Presidential Election! Unbelievable gall these guys have! :mad:

steverobertson

03-08-07, 03:45 PM

I haven't seen guys in suits jump though loopholes like this since... the last Presidential Election! Unbelievable gall these guys have! :mad:

It really is amazing

fredfa

03-08-07, 03:51 PM

Chase Carey:

We would have preferred an exclusive deal. Logic dictates that whatever we are paying for these rights, it is a significantly different figure if it becomes non exclusive.

fredfa

03-08-07, 03:53 PM

Fred sounds like those that have had it in the past through cable wil be able to get it again which is a great move if true. I suspect that cable will not be able to sign up new subs for this however.

That seems unclear.

If cable steps up and makes agreements, I would asusme they could sign up new customers. But there has been no specific answer to that.

fredfa

03-08-07, 03:54 PM

Bob Dupuy: The window for Dish and cable to participate in MLB-EI extends through the end of the month. That window carries through for the entire seven-year MLB-EI contract.

Specifically, Time Warner, Cox, Comcast and Dish were mentioned. MLB officials said if any, or all of them agree to the payment and carriage provisions of the DirecTV agreement, MLB-EI would be available to them.

Chase Carey, responding to a question about Comcast Philadelphia, said DirecTV would be happy to provide Philadelphia Comcast, but says there seems to be no resolution.

Bob Dupuy: we are disappointed that games in Philadelphia and San Diego are not available to satellite subscribers.

fredfa

03-08-07, 03:56 PM

What about FiOS?

Carey: the focus for the remainder of March is on the incumbents (cable and Dish).

Tom Brosnan: Under the current deal structure, the incumbent providers are who we are contemplate approaching. We don't have the contracual ability to make a deal with Verizon now.

fredfa

03-08-07, 03:58 PM

Selig:

As has been stressed, MLB-EI is being offered on the same terms to the incumbent cable operators and to Dish.

The decision at this poitn will not be up to us anymore.

Note: There was no specific mention of HD during the conference call, which ended at 4:58 PM ET.

fredfa

03-08-07, 04:03 PM

Much as one may like or dislike MLB or DirecTV, the agreement seems to put the burden back on cable companies (and Dish).

If they match DirecTV's terms, they can have the programming. It certainly makes it harder to scream about exclusivity if it isn't, in reality, exclusive. Expensive, maybe. Exclusive, no. At least not through the end of March.

Maestro J

03-08-07, 04:07 PM

Yup, great move by DirecTV to save face. Now just tell me how many HD games I'm getting and play ball!

fredfa

03-08-07, 04:09 PM

TV Sports
Baseball Pitches New Network to Operators
By Steve Donohue MultiChannel News 3/8/2007

DirecTV and Major League Baseball cut a seven-year rights deal that gives the top direct-broadcast satellite provider rights to the MLB Extra Innings out-of-market subscription game package, but the league said cable operators, EchoStar Communications and other DirecTV rivals can still sell the package to subscribers if they agree to launch MLB’s new cable TV network.

Under the agreement, announced late Thursday, DirecTV will take a minority stake in MLB Channel, set to debut in 2009.

While observers had expected for weeks that MLB would sell exclusive rights to Extra Innings to DirecTV, the league said DirecTV rivals will still be able to market the package to their pay TV customers if the incumbents “agree to carriage rights to the MLB Channel proportionally equivalent to DirecTV’s commitment.”

The move essentially squeezes EchoStar and cable operators. Since DirecTV agreed to distribute the channel on its basic tier, the only way Time Warner Cable, Comcast and other DirecTV rivals could obtain access to Extra Innings and MLB Channel is if they also agree to launch the channel on their basic tiers.

“Should the incumbents decide not to match DirecTV’s commitment, the MLB Extra Innings package will be exclusive to DirecTV,” the league and the DBS provider wrote in a joint announcement.

MLB said deals with incumbents hoping to carry Extra Innings and MLB Channel also must be finalized by the end of the month.

Cable operators have previously fought the idea of carrying niche sports channels on their most widely distributed tiers, as was demonstrated last year, when NFL Network pushed cable operators to place the channel on basic tiers.

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6422845.html?display=Breaking+News

zebras23

03-08-07, 04:14 PM

fredfa

03-08-07, 04:18 PM

TV Sports
MLB-DirecTV Deal Does Not Guarantee Exclusivity
By Ben Grossman Broadcasting & Cable 3/8/2007

In a curveball, Major League Baseball and DirecTV announced Thursday an extension of the out-of-market Extra Innings baseball package, but MLB also said it will give other incumbents In Demand and Dish Network a chance to also retain the package.

It had been widely expected that DirecTV would acquire exclusive rights to the package for the next seven years .

But MLB officials said Thursday they would give In Demand and Dish until the end of this month to match DirecTV’s rate and carriage agreement.

They would have to match both the financial commitment as well as DirecTV’s agreement to carry The Baseball Channel on a basic tier when the new MLB-backed network launches in 2009.

DirecTV will be a minority partner in the new network.

“We want to make this available to our fans and the issue will be whether the incumbents want to pay the freight to make it available to their customers,” says MLB exec Tim Brosnan.

DirecTV chief Chase Carey said while his company obviously would prefer exclusivity, it has separate financial constructs whether or not it ends up with exclusivity in the deal.

It has been reported that DirecTV was prepared to pay $700 million for exclusive rights over the seven year deal, and Carey said that of course the non-exclusive price would be substantially lower.

The expected exclusivity has been the subject of scrutiny from legislators including Massachusetts senator John Kerry. MLB execs declined to comment on whether pressure from Washington or elsewhere had impacted the decision to offer the package to the other incumbents.

Major League Baseball also continues to make out-of-market contests available on a subscription basis via the Internet.

The acquisition now gives DirecTV a second exclusive major out-of-market sports package, as it already has exclusive rights to the National Football League’s Sunday Ticket subscription package. It also launched a new NASCAR Hot Pass enhanced subscription package this year as it continues to try and leverage sports to drive subscriptions to make up for limitations such as an inability to provide video on demand.

DirecTV also plans new enhancements to the baseball package, including a mosaic channel that features multiple games at once.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6422877

fredfa

03-08-07, 04:21 PM

I was going to go back and do a transcript of the conference call, but I think I summarized it well enough during the call.

There was little of interest that didn't get covered in the posts during the call, and some topics were felshed out a bit in the Broadcasting & Cable and MultiChannel News stories.

So, unless there are major objections, (and LOTS of them!) I'll bag the transcript. :)

fredfa

03-08-07, 04:28 PM

TV Sports
DirecTV to Launch MLB Channel as Part of 7-Year Deal
By John Consoli MediaWeek March 8, 2007

Major League Baseball and DirecTV have agreed to a seven-year deal that continues the carriage rights to the MLB Extra Innings subscription package of out of market games, and also includes the launch of the MLB Channel as part of DirecTV’s basic package. Under the terms of the deal, DirecTV will be a minority partner in the MLB Channel, and will work with MLB to develop the network, which will launch in 2009.

The deal is reportedly costing DirecTV about $700 million for the seven years.

As part of the deal MLB and DirecTV agreed to include a provision that allows MLB Extra Innings to be offered to the other incumbents, In Demand and DISH Network, at “consistent rates and carriage requirements.” Both In Demand and DISH Network have until the start of the baseball season to conclude a new deal. If neither exercises the option to renew, the MLB Extra Innings package will be exclusive to DirecTV. All out of market games will also continue to be available on MLB.com.

“This deal compliments our deals with Fox, Turner and ESPN for network game coverage and furthers MLB’s initiative to continue to enhance fans’ viewing experience and reinvigorate our telecasts with unique and innovative features,” said Bob DuPuy, MLB president.

Chase Carey, president and CEO of DirecTV, pledged “to invest millions of dollars” to offer more games in high definition and apply “DirecTV’s award-winning technology to MLB Extra Innings broadcasts on an unprecedented scale.”

DirecTV has had a 10-year relationship with MLB.

The new MLB Channel will be a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week network, and air year around.

MLB said DirecTV’s commitment to carry the MLB Channel as a basic service, reaching more than 15 million homes, was a major factor in doing the deal.

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003556111

dad1153

03-08-07, 04:43 PM

TV Notebook
Is Discovery Burying 'Lost Tomb'?
By James Hibberd, TV Week - March 8, 2007

Discovery Channel's controversial James Cameron-produced documentary "The Lost Tomb of Jesus" drew the largest audience for the network in more than a year on Sunday night, but the network has taken several recent steps to downplay the project.

Departing from normal procedures, the cable network didn't tout its big ratings win. The network also scheduled a last-minute special that harshly criticized its own documentary, and has yanked a planned repeat of "Tomb."

"This is not one where you necessarily beat the drum, from a business perspective," said David Leavy, executive VP of corporate communications at Discovery. "It's not necessarily about making money, or making ratings, or shouting from the highest office building. Sometimes having some maturity and perspective is more important than getting picked up in all the ratings highlights."

The documentary, executive produced by Oscar-winning "Titanic" director Mr. Cameron, claims to have found the family tomb of Jesus Christ, unearthed in Jerusalem. The findings include circumstantial evidence suggesting Christ and Mary Magdalene were a couple, and that they had a son named Judah.

Discovery formally announced the special last month and quickly incited a worldwide media frenzy, including stories in Time and Newsweek and links on the Drudge Report. But much of the coverage was highly skeptical of the documentary's findings. Prominent archeologists disputed the program, while Christian groups criticized it for conflicting with the New Testament.

Although Mr. Leavy said the network stands by the documentary "100 percent," the company took several unusual steps in the wake of the controversy that could be seen as distancing itself from the content.

Last week, Discovery abruptly scheduled a panel debate to air after the documentary, moderated by Discovery newsman Ted Koppel. Discovery's announcement of the panel emphasized that Mr. Koppel "has no connection to the production of 'The Lost Tomb of Jesus'" and that "the panel will explore the filmmakers' profound assertions and challenge their assumptions and suggested conclusions."

When the panel discussion aired, guests criticized the documentary as "archaeo-porn" that played fast and loose with the facts.

The day after the March 4 airing, Discovery yanked a planned repeat of "Tomb" from its more hard-news-branded Discovery Times Channel.

When the Nielsen ratings revealed that "Tomb" averaged 4.1 million viewers - Discovery's largest audience since September 2005 - the network declined to put out a press release touting the numbers, as would be standard practice for a highly successful premiere. The second-season premiere of Discovery Channel's "Future Weapons," for instance, earned a media announcement for its audience of 2.5 million. A network representative, however, insisted Discovery was not trying to bury "Tomb."

No press release on the ratings was sent out, Mr. Leavy said, because of the show's subject matter. As for the yanked Discovery Times repeat, Mr. Leavy said that outlet wasn't the best venue to repeat the special.

The last record-setting Discovery Channel project also was about a sensitive subject, the9/11-themed "The Flight That Fought Back," yet Discovery issued a press release about its ratings.

The network still plans to air a previously scheduled "Tomb" repeat on its Spanish network on March 18, as well as an HD version on Discovery HD Theater on March 28.

"We are very proud of the program - we stand by it 100 percent," Mr. Leavy said.

Mr. Leavy said the network should be credited for airing a critical post-show panel.

"We added the Koppel panel once it was clear there was worldwide interest," he said. "Our responsibility is to give viewers all the information and let them decide. There is no way to ever prove this beyond a reasonable doubt."

Moving forward, Mr. Leavy said the network plans to increase its focus on archeology projects. The network recently signed History Channel's "Digging for Truth" host Josh Bernstein to develop new archeology series and specials.

"We are going to be doubling down in this space," he said. "We will soon be back in the news with more archeology."

http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=11681

shuttermaker

03-08-07, 05:03 PM

TV Notebook
Is Discovery Burying 'Lost Tomb'?
By James Hibberd, TV Week - March 8, 2007

The network still plans to air.........an HD version on Discovery HD Theater on March 28.

http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=11681

Thats what I was waiting for

fredfa

03-08-07, 05:08 PM

It wasn't in HD Sunday?

fredfa

03-08-07, 05:12 PM

TV Sports
Baseball Links Extra Innings to MLB Channel
By Jon Lafayette Television Week March 8, 2007

Major League Baseball, looking to defuse criticism over putting its Extra Inning package of out-of-market games exclusively on DirecTV, said it is giving cable operators and EchoStar Communications another turn at bat.

DirecTV and MLB signed a seven-year deal under which it will carry Extra Innings and a new baseball channel that will launch in 2009. DirecTV will be a minority owner of the channel.

Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox and EchoStar have until the start of the baseball season to agree to carry Extra Innings, but only if they "agreed to carriage rights to the MLB Channel proportionally equivalent to DirecTV's commitment."

Baseball officials declined to answer whether that meant cable operators would have to put the new channel on their basic tiers, as DirecTV will. If so, that would make it almost impossible for them to continue to carry the Extra Innings package.

Should the cable operators and EchoStar fail to reach agreements by the end of the month, DirecTV would get the Extra Innings package exclusively and pay a premium price for the package, reportedly $100 million a year.

"Exclusive and non-exclusive are different deals," said Chase Carey, president and CEO of DirecTV. While he said he would prefer an exclusive arrangement, "Either one works for us."

Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig said the two-track arrangement puts the ball in the cable operator's court and should relieve the pressure being put on baseball by government officials. "The decision is not up to us anymore," Mr. Selig said.

Cable operators, warning that some of their high-revenue subscribers might lose access to the package, stirred up opposition to the deal in local papers and on Capitol Hill. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., referred the exclusive deal to the Federal Communications Commission, which said it will review the situation.

About 250,000 subscribers get Extra Innings through cable operators. About 270,000 subscribe via DirecTV.

http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=11682

keenan

03-08-07, 05:15 PM

Thats what I was waiting for
Me too, I actually figured I'd catch it eventually, but it looks like this one won't be replayed a gazillion times like most everything on DiscHD. Had to mark my calender as the TiVo doesn't go out that far.

fredfa

03-08-07, 05:16 PM

TV Sports
The MLB-DirecTV Deal

From the MLB.com story, which it noted: “…was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.”
“…Beginning in 2008, DIRECTV will provide most, if not all, of the package in High Definition….”

http://mlb.mlb.com/content/printer_friendly/mlb/y2007/m03/d08/c1833910.jsp

shuttermaker

03-08-07, 05:16 PM

It wasn't in HD Sunday?

No...it was aired on the SD channel. I looked forever to find a replay to no avail.

Thanks for the heads up. I didnt actually get to see it on the original airing. I saw it on DVR. Unfortunately I didnt set the DVR to record the discussion program afterwards. Hopefully they will re-broadcast that as well.

fredfa

03-08-07, 05:22 PM

TV Sports
MLB, DIRECTV expand multi-year agreement
MLB.com 03/08/2007

Major League Baseball and DIRECTV, the nation's leading satellite provider, today announced a seven-year agreement that continues carriage rights to the MLB EXTRA INNINGS subscription package of out-of-market games and includes the launch of the MLB Channel as part of DIRECTV's basic package. Included within the agreement, DIRECTV will be a minority partner in the MLB Channel, and will work with MLB to develop the network, which will launch in 2009.

Additionally, in keeping with MLB's desire to provide as much MLB programming to as many baseball fans as possible, MLB and DIRECTV have agreed to include a provision that allows MLB EXTRA INNINGS to be offered to other incumbents - In Demand and DISH Network - at consistent rates and carriage requirements with a deal to be concluded before the baseball season begins. The provision also requires the incumbents to agree to carriage rights to the MLB Channel proportionally equivalent to DIRECTV's commitment. Should the incumbents decide not to match DIRECTV's commitment, the MLB EXTRA INNINGS package will be exclusive to DIRECTV. All out of market games continue to be available on MLB.com.

"With the advent of The MLB Channel, our new agreement with DIRECTV will result in more MLB programming being available to more fans than ever before," said Major League Baseball President Bob DuPuy. "The deal complements our deals with FOX, Turner and ESPN for network game coverage and furthers MLB's initiative to continue to enhance fans' viewing experience and reinvigorate our telecasts with unique and innovative features."

"Just as we did with NFL SUNDAY TICKET and NASCAR HOTPASS, DIRECTV will invest millions of dollars to deliver a spectacular fan experience," said Chase Carey, President and CEO of DIRECTV. "DIRECTV will offer more games in HD and apply its award-winning technology to MLB EXTRA INNINGS broadcasts on an unprecedented scale, taking fans deeper inside the game than ever before."

DIRECTV, continuing its 10-year relationship with MLB and its fans by providing MLB EXTRA INNINGS, will bring new innovations that will enhance the fan experience. The MLB Channel will be the first and only network dedicated to providing baseball programming to MLB fans 24 hours a day, seven days a week on a year-round basis.

DIRECTV will expand the MLB EXTRA INNINGS options to include a game mosaic channel, a Strike Zone Channel that takes viewers to live cut-ins of MLB games in progress at key points; detailed player and team stats, real-time scores and live updates from other games; and other innovations that complement the sport of baseball, entertain viewers and provide fans with a great entertainment value. Beginning in 2008, DIRECTV will provide most, if not all, of the package in High Definition.

Major League Baseball will continue to make available more games by far than any other sport on national and local over-the-air broadcast, basic cable, and satellite. On average, approximately 400 game telecasts are available in each market every season. Fans will continue to be able to watch their home club's games in their home markets. This agreement will not affect MLB's national agreements with FOX, TBS, and ESPN, nor local game telecasts.

The MLB Channel will launch in 2009 on DIRECTV, ensuring that the Channel is immediately available as part of DIRECTV's basic service. DIRECTV's commitment to carry the Channel as a basic service to more than 15 million homes was a major factor in the long-term agreement between the provider and MLB.

"We are quite pleased with the commitment DIRECTV has made to MLB and our fans, and in the coming weeks will continue our efforts to secure corresponding commitments from our incumbent distributors," said Tim Brosnan, Executive Vice President/Business, Major League Baseball.

Last year, more than half of the subscribers of MLB EXTRA INNINGS were DIRECTV customers. MLB.TV, MLB's broadband package, will continue to be available to all consumers through the Major League Baseball website, www.mlb.com, offering upgraded picture quality this season.

This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

http://mlb.mlb.com/content/printer_friendly/mlb/y2007/m03/d08/c1833910.jsp

fredfa

03-08-07, 05:26 PM

TV Notebook
Manslaughter among charges actor Lane Garrison faces
By Peter Y. Hong and John Spano Los Angeles Times Staff Writers March 8, 2007

Actor Lane Garrison was charged today with vehicular manslaughter in connection with a fatal car crash in Beverly Hills in December that killed a teenage passenger.

The former "Prison Break" star faces a maximum of six years and eight months in prison if convicted. Prosecutors sought bail of $200,000.

Garrison, 26, was expected to be arraigned later today in Beverly Hills Superior Court.

Vahagn Setian, 17, who was riding in Garrison's SUV, was killed in the Dec. 2 crash on South Beverly Drive. Two other passengers, 15-year-old girls, were injured when Garrison's vehicle struck a tree shortly before midnight.

"The Setian family is gratified by the criminal charges brought by the Los Angeles district attorney's office," according to a statement issued by lawyer Paul Kiesel. "They have lost their only child due to Lane Garrison's recklessness."

Garrison faces trial for vehicular manslaughter, driving under the influence and other charges.

Beverly Hills police said Garrison had a blood-alcohol level more than 2 1/2 times the state's legal limit of 0.08%, in addition to cocaine in his system. He was driving more than 40 mph in a 25 mph zone, according to police.

Lawyer Harland Braun, who represents Garrison, said District Attorney Steve Cooley did the right thing in charging manslaughter without gross negligence.

"It's a tribute to him," said Braun, a noted criminal defense attorney. Evidence of Garrison's intoxication made standard manslaughter, a lesser offense, the right choice.

"There's a level of responsibility that Lane understands and accepts," Braun said. "It's not a question of us saying he will be vindicated. The question is what level of responsibility Lane has."

Garrison has also appeared in the 2006 film "Crazy," the 2005 ABC series "Night Stalker," and the upcoming film "Shooter."

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ex-garrison8mar09,0,4415505,print.story?coll=la-home-headlines

archiguy

03-08-07, 05:58 PM

It wasn't in HD Sunday?

Nope. To my knowledge, Discovery never simulcasts with its HD channel. I wanted to see this, but I prefer waiting for it to make to DHDT. Glad they haven't squashed it completely.

MRinDenver

03-08-07, 06:01 PM

By the way on one of "My Name is Earl" episoides this year when they did the flash back to Earl in his youth, I could have sworn that "Land of the Lost" was playing on the TV.

You are correct; were those Sleestacks?

homcom

03-08-07, 06:05 PM

Nope. To my knowledge, Discovery never simulcasts with its HD channel. I wanted to see this, but I prefer waiting for it to make to DHDT. Glad they haven't squashed it completely.
Never is a strong word. They simulcast the Discovery Atlas series for the three Sunday premieres they had last year.

fredfa

03-08-07, 06:14 PM

Congrats on the Spartans' win, homcom. :)

archiguy

03-08-07, 06:23 PM

Never is a strong word. They simulcast the Discovery Atlas series for the three Sunday premieres they had last year.

Didn't realize they ever did that. I stand corrected, sir.

homcom

03-08-07, 06:25 PM

Congrats on the Spartans' win, homcom. :)
Thanks, it was too close for comfort. You never cease to amaze me that you can remember what people said 10 posts ago from a totally different thread.

homcom

03-08-07, 06:27 PM

BTW, now that I brought it up, when is the next Discovery Atlas shows debuting? Fredfa have you heard anything?

fredfa

03-08-07, 06:35 PM

I haven't heard a thing about Atlas, homcom.

fredfa

03-08-07, 06:42 PM

Updated version of an earlier story with some initial comments from Sen. Kerry and Rep. Markey.

TV Sports
MLB-DirecTV Deal Does Not Guarantee Exclusivity
By Ben Grossman Broadcasting & Cable 3/8/2007

In a curveball, Major League Baseball and DirecTV announced Thursday an extension of the out-of-market Extra Innings baseball package, but MLB also said it will give other incumbents In Demand and Dish Network a chance to also retain the package.

It had been widely expected that DirecTV would acquire exclusive rights to the package for the next seven years .

But MLB officials said Thursday they would give In Demand and Dish until the end of this month to match DirecTV’s rate and carriage agreement.

They would have to match both the financial commitment as well as DirecTV’s agreement to carry The Baseball Channel on a basic tier when the new MLB-backed network launches in 2009.

DirecTV will be a minority partner in the new network.

“We want to make this available to our fans and the issue will be whether the incumbents want to pay the freight to make it available to their customers,” says MLB exec Tim Brosnan.

DirecTV chief Chase Carey said while his company obviously would prefer exclusivity, it has separate financial constructs whether or not it ends up with exclusivity in the deal.

It has been reported that DirecTV was prepared to pay $700 million for exclusive rights over the seven year deal, and Carey said that of course the non-exclusive price would be substantially lower.

The expected exclusivity has been the subject of scrutiny from legislators including Massachusetts senator John Kerry. MLB execs declined to comment on whether pressure from Washington or elsewhere had impacted the decision to offer the package to the other incumbents.

Kerry was encouraged but cautious: “I will review this deal to ensure it benefits consumers,"he said in a statement. "I’m encouraged that Major League Baseball may be willing to provide broader access to their games than what was initially proposed. I will be watching closely to ensure the league works in good faith so that America’s pastime is available to all fans. My concern all along has been that fans continue to have the ability to enjoy baseball on television.”

"Without the benefit of knowing all the details, it's hard to know if this deal represents a curve ball to consumers or a solid base hit for fans across the country," said Markey. "I am eager to review the agreement in order to weigh its effect on baseball fans, (particularly displaced citizens of Red Sox Nation,) as well as on competition in the video programming marketplace." Major League Baseball also continues to make out-of-market contests available on a subscription basis via the Internet."

Major League Baseball also continues to make out-of-market contests available on a subscription basis via the Internet.

The acquisition now gives DirecTV a second exclusive major out-of-market sports package, as it already has exclusive rights to the National Football League’s Sunday Ticket subscription package. It also launched a new NASCAR Hot Pass enhanced subscription package this year as it continues to try and leverage sports to drive subscriptions to make up for limitations such as an inability to provide video on demand.

DirecTV also plans new enhancements to the baseball package, including a mosaic channel that features multiple games at once.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6422877

fredfa

03-08-07, 07:15 PM

TV Sports
MLB, DIRECTV expand multi-year agreement
The Associated Press via ESPN.com

NEW YORK -- Major League Baseball announced its $700 million, seven-year agreement with DirecTV on Thursday and said the deal contains a provision that allows its "Extra Innings" package of out-of-market games to remain on cable television if the other incumbent providers agree to match the terms.

The president of one of those providers, iN Demand's Robert Jacobson, immediately said those terms were impossible for his company to agree to and called it a "de facto exclusive deal."

… Jacobson said the deal contained "conditions for carriage that MLB and DirecTV designed to be impossible for cable and DISH to meet." He said the agreement will "disenfranchise baseball fans in the 75 million multichannel households who do not subscribe to DirecTV" and "represents the height of disrespect and disregard for their loyal baseball fans."

…"The provision also requires the incumbents to agree to carriage rights to the MLB Channel proportionally equivalent to DirecTV's commitment," baseball said in a statement. "Should the incumbents decide not to match DirecTV's commitment, the MLB 'Extra Innings' package will be exclusive to DirecTV."

That appears to mean Time Warner Entertainment-Advance/Newhouse Partnership, Comcast iN Demand Holdings Corp and Cox Communications Holdings Inc. -- iN Demand's owners -- would have to agree to carry The Baseball Channel on the same tier as DirecTV and not a narrower one.

"We have an exclusive arrangement, if that's where it ends up. If these guys take it up in this window, we have a non-exclusive arrangement that works for us," Carey said. "It's significantly less money for the non-exclusive arrangement."

The complete story is here:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2792214

fredfa

03-08-07, 07:31 PM

TV Sports
MLB pitches DirecTV deal
Satellite broadcaster circles bases
By John Dempsey Variety March 8, 2007

DirecTV has signed a controversial deal with Major League Baseball that will keep the MLB Extra Innings package of out-of-market games on the satellite distributor for seven more years.

The controversy arises out of the fact that the deal is, in effect -- and for the first time -- exclusive to DirecTV. About 230,000 cable subscribers and EchoStar's Dish customers will be deprived of Extra Innings beginning next month.

MLB said that if the deal turns out to be exclusive, it's the fault of cable TV and Dish, which have rejected baseball's offer for Extra Innings.

But Major League Baseball and DirecTV have designed the offer "to be impossible for cable and Dish to meet," said Robert Jacobson, prexy-CEO of In Demand, which negotiated with MLB on behalf of Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Cox Communications, the second-, third- and fourth-biggest cable operators in the U.S.

Jacobson is referring to MLB's demand that cable and Dish agree to place a new 24/7 MLB Channel on the widest-circulated analog tier when the network opens for business in 2009.

Cable operators say they're not giving any new nationally distributed cable nets a slot on expanded basic (which reaches more than 95% of subscribers on a cable system) because that analog tier is too valuable. The latest technology can transform one analog dial position into as many as 10 digital ones.

Even the 24/7 NFL Network, which features eight regular-season pro football games each year, has clashed in the courts with Comcast and Time Warner, both of which are ruling out analog clearance.

Comcast, Time Warner and other cable operators like Cablevision want to pitchfork the NFL Network and the MLB Channel to a digital sports tier. That blueprint is unacceptable to the NFL and MLB because sports tiers, which cost subscribers an extra monthly fee, have not succeeded in attracting enough viewers to draw Madison Avenue's interest.

If the Major League Baseball/DirecTV deal ends up de facto exclusive, the satcaster will pay a cool $100 million a year for seven years for the rights to Extra Innings.

http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=print_story&articleid=VR1117960785&categoryid=14

zebras23

03-08-07, 07:35 PM

You are correct; were those Sleestacks?

Sleestacks were the space aliens. I remember Will & Holly, but not the other name. There was some pre-historic boy who showed up at some point. And didn't the father escape back in time and leave the kids? Bet he didn't win parent of the year.

dad1153

03-08-07, 08:20 PM

[from Land of the Lost] Sleestacks were the space aliens. I remember Will & Holly, but not the other name. There was some pre-historic boy who showed up at some point. And didn't the father escape back in time and leave the kids? Bet he didn't win parent of the year.

What the hell was the deal with the Krofts and their TV shows? Most of them feature young kids abandoned to their own wits in inhospitable and/or downright hostile locations. Leaving his own kids behind is something anathema to what most people would do in real life, but the father in "Land..." did it. So did Spielberg via Richard Dreyfuss in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (he left Earth and his wife/kids just because he wanted to be with the aliens) but at least Spielberg has renounced that action in recent years, saying now that he's a father he'd never advocate or portray the abandonment of his children as depicted in "Close Encounters..." What are the Kroft's excuse (and no, drugs from the era aren't an excuse)?

Maestro J

03-08-07, 08:24 PM

Well, it didn't take long for DirecTV to add a superfan package to the EI offering. Looks like you need it to get HD games and the new channels that allow one to view several games at once.

http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/global/contentPage.jsp?assetId=3140001

Many people thought this might happen. Drats.

dad1153

03-08-07, 08:48 PM

What are you going to do Maestro? Kick your little girl and her GSN addiction the hell out of your bedroom so you can install the Direct baseball package (breaking her fragile little heart in the process)? Or tough it with non-HD baseball? :(

Maestro J

03-08-07, 08:59 PM

Certainly not toughing it. Baseball is probably my favorite sport to watch in HD. She'll get over it.
BTW, who is your favorite all time game show host?

CPanther95

03-08-07, 09:20 PM

BTW, who is your favorite all time game show host?

Damon Killian. ;)

fredfa

03-08-07, 09:22 PM

Updated story from MultiChannel News—

TV Sports
The MLB-EI deal
Baseball Pitches New Network to Operators, EchoStar
By Steve Donohue MultiChannel News 3/8/2007 6:24:00 PM

DirecTV and Major League Baseball cut a seven-year rights deal that gives the top direct-broadcast satellite provider rights to the MLB Extra Innings out-of-market subscription game package, but the league said cable operators, EchoStar Communications and other DirecTV rivals can still sell the package to subscribers if they agree to launch MLB’s new cable TV network.

Under the agreement, announced late Thursday, DirecTV will take a minority stake in MLB Channel, set to debut in 2009.

While observers had expected for weeks that MLB would sell exclusive rights to Extra Innings to DirecTV, the league said DirecTV rivals will still be able to market the package to their pay TV customers if the incumbents “agree to carriage rights to the MLB Channel proportionally equivalent to DirecTV’s commitment.”

The move essentially squeezes EchoStar and cable operators. Since DirecTV agreed to distribute the channel on its basic tier, the only way Time Warner Cable, Comcast and other DirecTV rivals could obtain access to Extra Innings and MLB Channel is if they also agree to launch the channel on their basic tiers.

“Should the incumbents decide not to match DirecTV’s commitment, the MLB Extra Innings package will be exclusive to DirecTV,” the league and the DBS provider wrote in a joint announcement.

MLB said deals with incumbents hoping to carry Extra Innings and MLB Channel also must be finalized by the end of the month.

“Major League Baseball has chosen to cut a de facto exclusive deal –- including conditions for carriage that MLB and DirecTV designed to be impossible for cable and Dish to meet -- with one satellite operator and disenfranchise baseball fans in the 75 million multichannel households who do not subscribe to DirecTV,” In Demand CEO Robert D. Jacobson said in a prepared statement.

“This decision represents the height of disrespect and disregard for their loyal baseball fans,” he added. “Thankfully, these fans will continue to have access to hundreds of games per year, including all of their in-market games and many out-of-market games, on broadcast and various cable networks.”

Cable operators have previously fought the idea of carrying niche sports channels on their most widely distributed tiers, as was demonstrated last year, when NFL Network pushed cable operators to place the channel on basic tiers.

"Without the benefit of knowing all of the details, it's hard to know if this deal represents a curve ball to consumers or a solid base hit for fans across the country,” said Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee, in a prepared statement. “I am eager to review the agreement in order to weigh its effect on baseball fans -- particularly displaced citizens of Red Sox Nation -- as well as on competition in the video-programming marketplace.”

And Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) -- who voiced his opposition to a potential exclusive DirecTV-MLB deal in late January -- said in a prepared statement, “I will review this deal to ensure that it benefits consumers. I’m encouraged that Major League Baseball may be willing to provide broader access to their games than what was initially proposed. I will be watching closely to ensure that the league works in good faith so that America’s pastime is available to all fans. My concern all along has been that fans continue to have the ability to enjoy baseball on television.”

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6422845.html?display=Breaking+News

dad1153

03-08-07, 09:22 PM

Certainly not toughing it. Baseball is probably my favorite sport to watch in HD. She'll get over it.
BTW, who is your favorite all time game show host?

Bob Barker from The Price Is Right, which is why I hope you tape a few of Bob's current batch of "TPIR" shows for your daughter to watch. Yes, I'm advocating that you get your little girl to watch more TV, not less, in a week's time. What kind of sick bastard am I? :cool: Seriously though, when Barker retires repeats of "TPIR" will be scarce (CBS doesn't want to show them because people might seek those instead of giving the new "TPIR" host a try; GSN doesn't want to pay money for the repeats) and I'd like your gameshow-loving kid to have memories of seeing the greatest gameshow host of all time in action before she forgets about it and moves on to other things. Can't you adjust your DVR to tape "Price" weekdays at 11AM ET/PT and see if your daughter likes it? It'd be great to hook her on a great gameshow only to have her heart crushed when the show she likes disappears along with Barker... just like her/your bedroom sanctuary will disappear when the HD package from Direct TV becomes available.

fredfa

03-08-07, 09:24 PM

Doing the math that inDemand's Jacobson provides, if 230,000 out of 75,000,000 subscribers are, in fact, to be "disenfranchised" that would be a grand total of one out of every 3,261 subs.

Surely cable providers (and Dish) could find one analog channel worth replacing (in 2009!) if this disenfranchisement is really so serious?

Maestro J

03-08-07, 09:32 PM

Aaaahhhh, yes, TPIR. Mr. Barker is truly one of a kind and will be sorely missed. She hasn't shown an interest in TPIR up to this point. Probably because like most 7 year olds, she has no concept of how much things cost. "Dad, I want that" and "Dad, order me that" and "Dad, when do I get my own car?".
Hmmmm, maybe a daily dose of TPIR is just what she needs to see that everything has a price tag.

rebkell

03-08-07, 09:33 PM

Updated story from MultiChannel News—

TV Sports
The MLB-EI deal
Baseball Pitches New Network to Operators, EchoStar
By Steve Donohue MultiChannel News 3/8/2007 6:24:00 PM

The move essentially squeezes EchoStar and cable operators. Since DirecTV agreed to distribute the channel on its basic tier, the only way Time Warner Cable, Comcast and other DirecTV rivals could obtain access to Extra Innings and MLB Channel is if they also agree to launch the channel on their basic tiers.

Can someone spell out exactly what basic tier means.

dad1153

03-08-07, 09:35 PM

Its obvious Bud Selig and his legal team at MLB took notes during the NFL Network/Time Warner fights of what NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell did wrong, and isn't giving the cable/satellite providers a PR or legal leg to stand on. Rather than imposing their channel on cable companies and then incite fan revolt on the one's that refused to carry it (ala NFL Network) Direct TV and MLB are giving their competitor a simple plan: pay us the same as the exclusive provider (including the carriage of MLB's equivalent of NFL Network) or leave us the **** alone to make money you're not willing to pay us for product you're not willing to pay to give to your baseball-loving customers. More diplomatic, less bullish and probably way more effective at deflecting the inevitable storm of criticism. Is NBA commissioner David Stern getting ideas of his own when its his league's time to negotiate a new contract with its TV partners in a few years? :rolleyes:

CPanther95

03-08-07, 09:37 PM

Updated story from MultiChannel News—

TV Sports
The MLB-EI deal
Baseball Pitches New Network to Operators, EchoStar
By Steve Donohue MultiChannel News 3/8/2007 6:24:00 PM

“Major League Baseball has chosen to cut a de facto exclusive deal –- including conditions for carriage that MLB and DirecTV designed to be impossible for cable and Dish to meet --"

I'm LMAO at this twist. Same BS InHD pulled by pricing their HD channel "per digital" subscriber instead of HD subs - just so it wouldn't be practical for DBS companies.

Now D* has a financial interest in the MLB channel, so they either get the MLB exclusive - or they lose exclusivity, but make a bundle from 65 million of their competitors' subs.

And at the same time, they've neutered any legislative argument against the deal.

Funny stuff.

CPanther95

03-08-07, 09:40 PM

Can someone spell out exactly what basic tier means.

It would be what most classify as "Expanded Basic". The channels (usually 60-70) that are in the analog tier - no STB needed.

rebkell

03-08-07, 09:50 PM

It would be what most classify as "Expanded Basic". The channels (usually 60-70) that are in the analog tier - no STB needed.

I have Comcast and I also have Direct, I take it I'll be able to watch all the baseball I want and it will be included in my current programming on Direct, just part of my regular programming, aka no extra charges. I have nearly everything on direct now, including all the premiums.

AAF

03-08-07, 11:00 PM

BTW, who is your favorite all time game show host?

That's a great question.

Clive Anderson...but really it's Richard Dawson. He's the epitome of the game show host in my mind.

fredfa

03-08-07, 11:18 PM

Dawson was great, Gene Rayburn in his heyday was wonderful, and I still have some affection for Allen Ludden and Bill Cullen.

fredfa

03-08-07, 11:23 PM

I'm LMAO at this twist. Same BS InHD pulled by pricing their HD channel "per digital" subscriber instead of HD subs - just so it wouldn't be practical for DBS companies.

Now D* has a financial interest in the MLB channel, so they either get the MLB exclusive - or they lose exclusivity, but make a bundle from 65 million of their competitors' subs.

And at the same time, they've neutered any legislative argument against the deal.

Funny stuff.

Agree CP95.

Clearly anyone who still thinks Bud Selig and crew are clueless is sadly mistaken.

What was announced today was a business grand slam. And now the 2008 season, with all -- or nearly all -- games in HD, seems so far away!

The cable guys seem to be in a hard line stance these days: against retrans, a la carte, the NFL, MLB, you name it. Oh, I forgot, they are for bundliing and VOD.

It seems clear that the two satellite companies are the only ones who put actual television viewing at the top of the to-do lists.

As we truly enter the HD era, it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

SirJW

03-08-07, 11:37 PM

When is the last week of the Price is Right? Will there be a Prime Time Special, maybe on HD?

fredfa

03-09-07, 12:17 AM

fredfa

03-09-07, 01:04 AM

TV Sports
The MLB-EI deal
Baseball Bends on TV Plan, but Doubts Linger
By Richard Sandomir The New York Times March 9, 2007

Major League Baseball does not like the terminology, but it appears to have buckled to pressure from devoted fans irate that the Extra Innings package of out-of-market games would be the exclusive property of DirecTV.

Appears is the operative word.

M.L.B. yesterday announced the anticipated deal, but with a notable, alternately hopeful and suspicious wrinkle:Iit will give cable operators and Dish Network, DirecTV’s satellite rival, until March 31 to make a final stab at retaining Extra Innings. Limited time, limited time only. Hardball, Roger Clemens-style. If InDemand, a consortium of cable operators, and Dish fail, their customers will be forced to switch to DirecTV or subscribe to mlb.TV to watch those games.

The leader of the InDemand consortium was peeved when he learned what M.L.B. was seeking.

“This decision represents the height of disrespect and disregard” for loyal baseball fans,” Robert D. Jacobson, the president of InDemand, said in a statement. You can almost hear him sputter “Trojan horse!”

Jacobson called the agreement between M.L.B. and DirecTV “a de facto exclusive deal” whose terms cannot be matched by cable operators.

The response stunned Tim Brosnan, the executive vice president for business for M.L.B., who, after months of negotiating, felt yesterday was a time to celebrate and that the offer to InDemand and Dish will be fair.

“I’m not sure how InDemand can comment on an offer that hasn’t been made,” he said, containing his anger. He said offers will be made to InDemand and Dish “in short order,” which he did not define.

So what was making Jacobson angry?

It is not Extra Innings. It is the fledgling MLB Channel, which does not exist, and will not until the 2009 season. The channel is the root of all discontent, the reason why DirecTV holds such a strong hand.

Consider that baseball wants cable operators to commit 80 percent of the customers in their digital universe (the same offer made by DirecTV) to carry the channel, which is in vitro. Cable has an estimated 32 million digital homes, and baseball is demanding that nearly 26 million of them carry the channel. At that level, cable would be committing far more than the 15 million guaranteed by DirecTV, which is getting a 20 percent stake in the new channel that no one has watched.

Jacobson is still smarting from being spurned by M.L.B. in his offer last month to match DirecTV’s ante of 15 million and break its exclusivity. (Bob DuPuy, the president of M.L.B., said that InDemand did not match DirecTV’s terms, but since the offer has not been shown publicly, the truth is quite uncertain.)

This raises a question — why shouldn’t cable’s much larger digital universe give more to the MLB Channel’s start-up than DirecTV’s? This leads to a counterquestion — why can’t M.L.B. be happy to initiate its channel with a combined guaranteed 30 million subscribers? That would be a terrific start, although not as dandy as if it had an additional 11 million cable subscribers.

If InDemand or Dish choose to meet baseball’s terms, their annual rights fees would proportionately reduce the $100 million that DirecTV has agreed to pay annually for seven years, because the exclusivity that DirecTV once pushed for would be gone, turned into the same nonexclusive situation in operation for years, and one that fans preferred.

“From a customer standpoint, we’d have nothing more than what we had before,” said Chase Carey, the president of DirecTV, “but there are business terms that work for us. It has strategic benefits for us.”

Carey, DuPuy and Brosnan insisted the anger of fans who fear losing Extra Innings did not, lickety-split, alter the talks from a purely exclusive deal to one that is now giving the other two incumbents one last chance. Carey said that nonexclusivity always lurked as a possibility (and why not, if it let more fans into the out-of-market tent?), but the chances of making it a reality waxed and waned.

But DuPuy acknowledged that baseball listened to the fans’ anger and adjusted, which makes one question why Commissioner Bud Selig showed such a lousy grasp on the art of customer relations in his recent declaration that the controversy over the potential loss of Extra Innings to DirecTV is “ridiculous.” If it was a silly tempest blown out of proportion by sportswriters, why adjust one’s negotiations for it? If devoted fans around the country willing to pay $179.95 are squawking loudly, why label it ridiculous?

Now InDemand and Dish are entering a 23-day period of negotiations, assuming they get their offers today. Baseball is trying to put them on the defensive, telling them they can choose to be good guys or bad guys depending on their decisions. Baseball wants to shed the image that it was guilty of making Extra Innings less available to its fans, so it is bringing InDemand and Dish back for a final lightning round.

And it wants Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, off its back, and the F.C.C., which is looking into the deal, to go away quickly.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/09/sports/baseball/09sandomir.html?pagewanted=print

fredfa

03-09-07, 02:00 AM

TV Notebook
ABC TV bumps up 'Grey' pay
By Nellie Andreeva The Hollywood Reporter March 9, 2007

"Grey's Anatomy" star Ellen Pompeo has closed a new deal for her services on the hit ABC/ABC TV Studio medical drama.

Original cast members James T. Pickens Jr. and Chandra Wilson also have agreed to new contracts, with Justin Chambers and T.R. Knight close to new pacts to continue on the Golden Globe-winning series.

Under the new deals, all actors will receive salary bumps. Pompeo now will be at nearly $200,000 per episode, while Pickens, Wilson, Chambers and Knight will be paid in the neighborhood of $125,000 per episode, sources said.

It is understood that the new terms are retroactive, going back to the first episode of this season.

ABC TV Studio and reps for the actors declined comment Thursday.

Yet to close new deals are Patrick Dempsey, Sandra Oh and Katherine Heigl. Details on Heigl's stalled contract renegotiations were leaked to the media late last month, which triggered a statement on the matter from ABC TV Studio.

"Fortunately, we have a long-term contract to ensure she'll be with the show for several years to come," the statement said. "In recognition of her tremendous talent and value to the show, we recently approached Katherine with an offer to raise her compensation significantly above the terms of her current contract."

All cast members on "Grey" are under long-term (reportedly seven-year) deals with the studio. It has become customary for the original casts of hit shows to renegotiate their contracts and receive raises after two seasons. Since "Grey" debuted as a midseason replacement in March 2005, the renegotiations were held now when the show marks two full seasons on the air as opposed to the more common between-seasons period in the summer and fall.

Sources said some of the supporting players headed into the renegotiation process as a group that quickly dissolved, leading to individual contract talks between each cast member and the studio.

The contract status for "Grey" co-star Isaiah Washington is not clear. It has been rumored that he might continue on the show without a raise in light of the recent controversy surrounding his use of a homophobic slur, but his communication with the studio has been kept under wraps.

Meanwhile, Kate Walsh, who joined the cast of "Grey" at the end of Season 1, also has a new deal as part of her central role in the potential spinoff from the hit series, now in the works.

The cast of "Grey" recently won a SAG Award for best drama series ensemble, with Wilson winning the individual statuette for best drama series actress.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i119db77792cbaa01a2f5bd2ea0ddbb5b

TubaSaxT

03-09-07, 04:46 AM

"The Price Is Right" will continue with Dave Price ("The Early Show", CBS) as the new host. Bob's last show will be in June.

CBS has said there will be a Bob Barker farewell special during the May sweep.

Fred, are you sure about the host? I don't ever remember it being announced, other than Dave Price was being considered. Golden-road.net, a TPIR fan site, has on its front page that at least three other hosting candidates are scheduled to try out.

Regardless, long-time lurker in this thread, you do a great job.

dad1153

03-09-07, 07:38 AM

Fred, are you sure about the host? I don't ever remember it being announced, other than Dave Price was being considered. Golden-road.net, a TPIR fan site, has on its front page that at least three other hosting candidates are scheduled to try out.

Hey, I love golden-road.net. One of the best fan-run websites dedicated to any TV show. Joe Capitano's daily recaps of the day's "TPIR" are classic, and the hardcore love (which doesn't mean its all complementary) from fans for anything "TPIR" is scary. Thanks to this website I've learned to love the incompetent directing skills of "TPIR" director Bart Eskander. ;)

CPanther95

03-09-07, 07:48 AM

It would be what most classify as "Expanded Basic". The channels (usually 60-70) that are in the analog tier - no STB needed.

According to the article above, it is confined to digital subscribers. So when they referenced "basic tier" they must mean "digital basic".

I'm surprised D* didn't insist on them matching 80% of customers instead of digital customers. That would have been closer to, but still not as bad as, what INHD did to them.

steverobertson

03-09-07, 07:59 AM

According to the article above, it is confined to digital subscribers. So when they referenced "basic tier" they must mean "digital basic".

I'm surprised D* didn't insist on them matching 80% of customers instead of digital customers. That would have been closer to, but still not as bad as, what INHD did to them.

What did INHD do to them?

CPanther95

03-09-07, 08:17 AM

They established a price for INHD based on the number of digital subscribers instead of HD subscribers. So using random figures, they have 65 million customers and 5% are HD customers. Instead of pricing the channel at $2 for each of their 3.25 million HD subs - they priced it at $0.22 for each of their 30 million digital subs.

Then they offered the same deal to D* - $0.22 per digital sub. Since all D* customers are digital, they'd pay for all 15 million subs. If D* also was about 5% HD customers, they'd have to pay $3.3 million to get INHD to their 750k HD subs - or $4.40 per sub.

If D* is offering MLBN to 80% of digital subs, they are offering it to 80% of all their customers. Only requiring cable to offer it to 80% of digital subs means that cable is really only commited to 35%-40% carriage - they are lucky that D* or MLB didn't chose to play hardball. (pardon the pun)

steverobertson

03-09-07, 08:19 AM

They established a price for INHD based on the number of digital subscribers instead of HD subscribers. So using random figures, they have 65 million customers and 5% are HD customers. Instead of pricing the channel at $2 for each of their 3.25 million HD subs - they priced it at $0.22 for each of their 30 million digital subs.

Then they offered the same deal to D* - $0.22 per digital sub. Since all D* customers are digital, they'd pay for all 15 million subs. If D* also was about 5% HD customers, they'd have to pay $3.3 million to get INHD to their 750k HD subs - or $4.40 per sub.

Ok thanks I do remember that now. Good for D* sticking it to them on this one.

fredfa

03-09-07, 08:46 AM

Fred, are you sure about the host? I don't ever remember it being announced, other than Dave Price was being considered. Golden-road.net, a TPIR fan site, has on its front page that at least three other hosting candidates are scheduled to try out.

Regardless, long-time lurker in this thread, you do a great job.

I would defer to Golden-road.net. I was just repeating Dave Price's name from a story some months ago. But if it says there has been no decsion on Barker's replacement, I'd go with its info.

(And feel free to join in more often.) :)

fredfa

03-09-07, 08:52 AM

TV Sports
The Baseball TV deal goes through, with a twist
League gives DirecTV Extra Innings package and others a chance to match deal. But cable and Dish Network balk at requirements
By Larry Stewart Los Angeles Times Staff Writer March 9, 2007

The long-anticipated announcement by Major League Baseball to shift its Extra Innings pay package to DirecTV came Thursday — but with a twist that one high-ranking cable executive called a "sham."

MLB President Bob DuPuy said the seven-year agreement with DirecTV — first reported in January as an exclusive deal — includes a new provision that would allow the package to remain on cable television and Dish Network if certain criteria are met. But the window to negotiate closes April 1.

It was DirecTV's exclusivity that triggered fan protests and led to an inquiry by the Federal Communications Commission.

While financial terms of the deal were not disclosed Thursday, it was believed that DirecTV, which has 15 million subscribers, had agreed to pay $100 million a year — if it retained exclusivity.

Until now, Extra Innings offered up to 60 regular-season, out-of-market games a week on cable, through the In Demand service, as well as on DirecTV and Dish Network.

"In response to the concerns of our fans," DuPuy said, "baseball has negotiated with DirecTV to offer the package to incumbents In Demand and Dish, through the end of the month, until the start of the season on April 1. If they sign up at the same rates and carriage requirements [as DirecTV], they will get our out-of-market package and they will get the Baseball Channel."

The Baseball Channel, which MLB plans to launch in 2009 with DirecTV as a minority partner, has been the key to the months-long talks. MLB wants cable to agree to carry the channel on a basic tier, not a premium tier.

Industry sources indicated that would never happen.

"Everyone sees this as the sham that it is," the high-ranking source said.

Time Warner, the nation's largest cable provider, has 50 million subscribers. A carriage agreement equal to DirecTV's would require it to distribute the Baseball Channel on a basic tier and, the source said, subscribers could end up paying whether they watched or not.

"You'd be asking 50 million people to pay, say, $2.50 a month so that 200,000 could get Extra Innings," the source said. "That's not going to happen."

EchoStar, which owns Dish Network, echoed that in a statement Thursday: "DirecTV and MLB, as owners of the package, should not be able to line their pockets at the expense of consumers who don't want and won't watch [baseball] content."

In Demand President and Chief Executive Robert Jacobson said: "Major League Baseball has chosen to cut a de facto exclusive deal, which include conditions for carriage that MLB and DirecTV designed to be impossible for cable and Dish to meet," he said. "This decision represents the height of disrespect and disregard for their loyal baseball fans."

It was the protests by fans that drew the attention of Congress and Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), who last month asked the FCC to investigate. He also has asked the Senate Commerce Committee, of which he is a member, to hold a hearing on the matter.

On Thursday, Kerry said, "I will review this deal to ensure it benefits consumers."

Asked whether the provision that gives cable a window to keep negotiating would satisfy federal scrutiny, DuPuy said, "Yes, we hope it will completely alleviate concerns in Washington."

http://www.latimes.com/sports/printedition/la-sp-baseballtv9mar09,1,1267409.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-sports

fredfa

03-09-07, 09:07 AM

HDTV Sports
Five ways CBS could enhance the Big Dance
By Michael Hiestand USA Today March 9, 2007

CBS' NCAA men's basketball tournament coverage is one of the more unchanging formulas in TV sports, presumably delighting viewers who like their sports served straight, rather than as show biz.

But it could be tweaked. Let's blue-sky this:

• Yes, it's great all CBS games are shown live online — complete with a handy "boss button" that makes a generic spreadsheet appear when The Man snoops around — as well as on satellite TV provider DirecTV. It's handy that CSTV, the CBS-owned cable channel, will now have two first-round games viewers won't get on their local CBS station.

But let's go further. CSTV should replay all games, or at least daytime games so viewers can see them after they get home.

• On NFL studio shows, analysts make game picks and viewers see their season records. Let's get brackets from CBS' Clark Kellogg and Seth Davis, so viewers see if they're doing better in their brackets.

And while studio segments are best devoted to highlights or taking viewers for look-ins on other games they aren't getting, CBS could liven things up with some cameos. How about bringing the stars of the highest-rated NCAA final — Magic Johnson and Larry Bird — for a drop-by to talk about which tournament teams today could have matched up to their college teams?

• CBS rarely makes major changes to its on-air lineup; this year's only change is James Brown replacing Craig Bolerjack as a play-by-play announcer — but it could mix things up more in the course of airing 63 games.

Last year, CBS pursued Dick Vitale to call some early-round action, but ESPN essentially said he was a franchise player and nixed the idea.

A novel way CBS could build a little extra buzz someday: Use a woman as a play-by-play announcer.

• TBS' college football coverage included taped "rants" from hard-core fans, and ESPN has put cameras in college student sections. This is college sports; it's OK to be a little goofy.

How about occasional shots from a camera mounted on a mascot? It'd be as good as the umpteen shots of coaches, although CBS understandably focuses on them, given that longtime coaches are better known than virtually all of the players.

• Billy Packer needs to feel freer to admit when he's wrong. And his partner, Jim Nantz, should spice things up by challenging Packer more often.

Fox's NASCAR director sensitive to wrecks

This weekend's NASCAR Nextel Cup race — the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 — will use a renovated high-banked track in Las Vegas built for speed.

Which can lead to wrecks.

But despite the common wisdom that NASCAR's wrecks add to its TV ratings, Fox director Artie Kempner says he hopes he won't see them: "This kind of track scares me. ... I know these guys. I know their kids. With wrecks, I just want to show guys getting out of their cars."

Kempner, who decides what viewers see as he chooses camera shots, has to cover the action. "But," he says, "you don't want to upset viewers. ... We're not going to be gruesome to get the cheap thrill."

Fox never replayed the in-car camera footage of Dale Earnhardt's fatal crash in the 2001 Daytona 500. After Tony Stewart crashed earlier in that race, Kempner made a snap judgment with Stewart's in-car shot: "If a car comes to rest, and I see a guy is unconscious, I get out. All of a sudden I saw Stewart's head drop, and I got off the shot."

Two weeks ago, driver David Reutimann had an unusually brutal crash. After it happened, Kempner cut to Reutimann's in-car camera, his standard move when a car is in a wreck.

With Reutimann's car having come to a stop, Kempner was ready to cut away as he heard the driver's spotter yell to the driver that the car was on fire — and Reutimann didn't move. (Reutimann later said on Fox Sports Radio he "felt like there was absolutely no air in my lungs whatsoever" at the time.) Kempner stayed with the shot only because he saw Reutimann start to move.

But Kempner says he tries not to be too squeamish: "A lot of people feel like they're watching a video game. Part of the philosophy of showing in-car is to show the sport is dangerous."

College stint became a career for Shulman

Being ESPN's lead men's college basketball play-by-play announcer puts you pretty high on the TV hoops depth chart. But Dan Shulman's career doesn't offer much anybody could use to emulate his success.

Shulman, calling this weekend's Big East Conference tournament games, grew up in Canada. He now lives in Toronto, perhaps the only ESPN announcer who can't get regular ESPN programming at home.

Shulman, 40, suggests he might have been propelled by genetic predisposition. On a family vacation in Florida at age 16, he got "absolutely hooked" on the NCAA tournament. With temporary access to U.S. TV, he watched it wall-to-wall. "Everybody else went to the beach," he says. "I don't think I moved for days."

But back home, he was largely cut off. He majored in actuarial science at the University of Western Ontario — where he says one of Canada's better college hoops programs drew a few hundred fans per game — because he was good at math. He figured he'd end up working on pensions or insurance.

He volunteered for the college's radio station only "to appear to be well-rounded" on his résumé.

But Shulman landed a radio job in Toronto. In 1993, he says he got a call from ESPN Radio — "I didn't even know it existed" — after ESPN talent scout Al Jaffe "accidentally" picked up his show from Connecticut.

Shulman assumed Jaffe's call was a joke set up by his college roommate. But it wasn't, and he says he got an audition, which was simply to go on-air as the third announcer ever at the-then fledgling ESPN Radio.

After becoming a local TV announcer for the Toronto Blue Jays, Shulman began calling baseball games for ESPN. He still calls baseball for ESPN, in addition to college basketball, on which he usually teams with the never-shy Dick Vitale.

"Dick always tells the story that all I need to do is say something like 'Welcome to Kansas', and that's all I'll get to say for the next two hours," Shulman says.

But the talkative Vitale says, "It's been a thrill and honor working with Dan."

Shulman might be the only Canadian who can say this: "Dick actually kissed me on-air Saturday."

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/hiestand-tv/2007-03-08-hiestand-weekend_N.htm

CPanther95

03-09-07, 09:07 AM

Since when does TWC have 50 million subscribers?

fredfa

03-09-07, 09:10 AM

I certainly missed it. But Larry is not known for his fact-checking.

fredfa

03-09-07, 09:46 AM

HDTV Sports
MLB-DirecTV deal is set, but fan questions remain
By Jay Posner San Diego Union-Tribune March 9, 2007

In the end, Major League Baseball blinked. The question is whether major cable operators will, too.

If they do, baseball fans will reap the benefits.

The early signs, however, cannot be considered good.

After weeks of speculation, MLB yesterday announced a deal with DirecTV that will allow the satellite TV company to carry the “MLB Extra Innings” package, which allows fans to pay one amount ($179 last year) to see about 60 games a week that normally would not be offered in their market. DirecTV also agreed to carry the MLB Channel starting in 2009.

But MLB did not, as many fans feared, make the deal exclusive to DirecTV. At least not yet.

Instead, MLB agreed to allow “incumbents” that have carried Extra Innings – major cable companies (through In Demand) and Dish Network – to continue doing so, as long as they pay what DirecTV is paying and “agree to carriage rights to the MLB Channel proportionally equivalent to DirecTV's commitment.” They must agree to do so by the end of March, or else DirecTV's deal will be exclusive.

“We want to make it available to our fans,” said Tim Brosnan, MLB executive vice president for business. “The issue will be whether the incumbents want to pay the freight to make it available to their customers.”

That didn't sound likely yesterday after the president and CEO of In Demand released a statement in which he called the contract with DirecTV “a de facto exclusive deal” that included “conditions for carriage that MLB and DirecTV designed to be impossible for cable and Dish to meet.”

The deal would “disenfranchise baseball fans in the 75 million multichannel households who do not subscribe to DirecTV,” said Robert D. Jacobson. “This decision represents the height of disrespect and disregard for their loyal baseball fans.”

Jacobson was not specific regarding his problems with the deal, but it likely has to do with DirecTV's promise to include the Baseball Channel in its basic service. Cable operators probably would want the channel to be on a sports tier, something MLB has been fighting.

Bill Geppert, vice president and general manager of Cox San Diego (Cox is part of In Demand), declined to comment on Jacobson's statement but said “there remains a ray of light.”

DirecTV reportedly was set to pay $700 million over seven years for exclusivity. The company will pay less if Extra Innings remains available to other operators.

The exclusive nature of the deal drew fire from many fans, including Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. The Federal Communications Commission last month began an investigation, which no doubt contributed to MLB reworking the agreement.

“We hope this alleviates those concerns because the product is now being offered to everyone that had the product,” said Bob DuPuy, MLB president and COO.

We'll see about that at the end of March.

March Madness

The folks at CSTV – best known around our parts as the people who make it difficult to see San Diego State on TV – announced plans to carry two real, live NCAA Tournament games next week.

You know, just in case there weren't enough games on CBS.

Actually, if CSTV (which is owned by CBS) does this the right way, it could fill a gap that exists in most years between 2 and 4 p.m. on the first two days of the tournament, when CBS pauses for stations in the East and Midwest to air news and those in the West to jam in Dr. Phil and Oprah. The only way to see those games has been to buy DirecTV's “Mega March Madness” package or view the streaming video on your computer (both are still available).

But now, if CSTV picks those two games to show and you're lucky enough not to have to work or do anything productive, you can plop yourself down at 9 a.m. Thursday and Friday and watch games nonstop (if you don't count commercials) for 12 hours.

What a country.

Those of you stuck earning a living shouldn't despair too much – especially if you have access to a computer with limited Web policing. As it did for the first time last year, CBS again will make every game not offered on the local affiliate available online via “NCAA March Madness on Demand.” Make sure to preregister at cbs.sportsline.com/mmod or ncaasports.com/mmod.

As usual, the bracket will be released at 3 p.m. Sunday on CBS, with ESPN offering instant analysis on “SportsCenter” before its own two-hour special from 4-6 p.m. A first-ever “NIT Selection Show” – which could be of interest to San Diego State fans – will air at 6 on ESPN2.

More baskets

Always in the mood to aid the producers and directors who so clearly need the help, here are three “tips” for how to broadcast the tournament:

• No matter what, when someone “scores the ball” (2007 for “makes a basket”), cut away from the action to show a close-up of the scorer. Don't worry about what else might be going on in the game, such as the other team trying to score a quick basket at the other end. It's much more important to give us that close-up. (ESPN/ABC did this at the end of Stanford-Arizona last week.)

• If there's a close play that the officials could have called either way, such as a charge/block call featuring two of the best players in the game, make sure not to show a replay so that viewers can judge whether the right call was made. It's much more important to show players just walking around waiting for a free throw to be taken. (ABC did this after a play involving Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash during Lakers-Suns.)

• Make sure to instruct your camera operators to zoom out from the action as much as possible so that viewers can see more of fans cheering and less of players playing. Who wants to get a better view of something so boring as the game? I know when I'm at a game I always spend most of my time looking at other fans rather than the action. (Every network has done this recently in football and basketball and it has to stop. Now.)

Flipping channels

• Over the final two laps of Sunday's Busch Series race in Mexico City, ESPN2 used a split screen nearly the entire time to show the leader's wife (attractive, of course) as she watched the race. I always hesitate to say ESPN has reached a new low, because you never know what's coming after the next commercial (probably more self-promotion), but this was beyond belief. If the action isn't enough to stand on its own, then let someone else handle the telecast.

• Earlier in that same race, after Juan Pablo Montoya took out teammate Scott Pruett with what appeared to be some overaggressive driving, analyst Rusty Wallace was asked for his opinion about Montoya's move. Incredibly, Wallace demurred, saying it would be “armchair quarterbacking.” Uh, Rusty, maybe they forgot to tell you, but that's your job.

• Missing the NFL on Sundays? NFL Network will air 90-minute replays of the best four games of each week of the 2006 season every Sunday at 10 and 11:30 a.m., and 1 and 2:30 p.m., starting this Sunday and continuing every week except April 29 (NFL draft) through July. The Chargers are scheduled to be shown eight times, beginning April 1 against Baltimore.

• Got some bad info from Cox Cable last week . . . there is no HD for Padres spring training telecasts.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20070309/news_1s9mediafix.html

fredfa

03-09-07, 09:57 AM

fredfa

03-09-07, 10:11 AM

TV Sports
The big bucks behind March Madness
A 30-second spot runs more than $1 million
By Kevin Downey MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer Mar 9, 2007

The NCAA college basketball tournament kicks off next Thursday, and if recent trends hold, ratings for the men’s championship series will be about flat to recent years, if not down.

But that’s almost beside the point for CBS. Ad spending on the series is up, way up, by more than 60 percent from 2001. This year it’s expected to easily surpass $500 million for the first time.

That makes post-season college basketball the most lucrative post-season televised sporting event, well ahead of NFL football, baseball and basketball. March Madness accounts for three-fourths of all spending on college basketball over a season.

Behind that growth is what drives all increases in ad spending: rising demand facing limited supply.

That limited supply is the young, affluent college-educated men who watch the games but are otherwise scarce when it comes to TV viewing.

The increasing demand is from marketers wanting to reach them, and the marketers are going to ever greater lengths to do so.

“When you tie into this kind of event, and a lot of these have a thematic element tied to March Madness, you have to build it around the event,” says Jon Swallen, senior vice president of research at TNS, the ad tracking firm, which just released a report on March Madness ad spending.

“Some of the revenue escalation ties back to an increased usage of event marketing by top-tier TV ad sponsors."

CBS will air 32 games through the championship on April 2, and viewership will likely be down from last year, when 17.5 million tuned in. The total audience for championship games tumbled 27 percent between 2001 and 2006, and that’s been part of a longer slide, going back to 1979, when a record 35 million people saw the title game.

The one exception was 2005, when 24 million people watched North Carolina beat Illinois March

Still, 17.5 million is one hefty audience, observes Brad Adgate, senior vice president and corporate research director at Horizon Media.

“It still pulls in pretty good numbers,” he says. “In this day and age, if you find an event that draws 15 to 20 million viewers in this fractionalized TV landscape, advertisers will pay a premium for that.”

And they do. TNS estimates that advertisers last year paid an average $1.1 million for a 30-second spot on the NCAA men’s championship game, second only to the Super Bowl at $2.5 million among all sporting events. The NCAA far outpaces the World Series, which pulls in $400,000 per spot, and the NBA championship series at $359,000.

Adgate and Swallen agree it’s a matter more of who’s watching, less how many. “I think it speaks to demographics, good upper income, college educated,” says Swallen. “Audience size doesn’t compare to the Super Bowl or even an NFL championship game.”

He notes that many advertisers on the NCAA men’s games return year after year. The biggest advertisers so far this decade include General Motors, AT&T and Anheuser-Busch, all of which have been on all seven of the past seven NCAA tournaments.

Swallen also says CBS is beginning to generate March Madness revenue online, noting that it had 18 advertisers last year that spent perhaps $10 million to $15 million.

“Last year, CBS for the first time sold sponsorships around webcasts,” he says. “Compared to the nearly $500 million in revenue the TV airtime took in, this is a drop in the bucket. But the webcasts are audience extension and commercial viewing opportunities.”

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_10690.asp

fredfa

03-09-07, 10:18 AM

The Business of Television
Legal Memo: Know the Rules of the retrans game
If it's retransmission consent gold you seek, make sure you understand your rights and the FCC regs governing negotiations
by Michael D. Berg in TVNewsday Mar. 9, 2007

After 14 years on the books, retransmission consent is sure grabbing headlines now.

Last week, Belo and Cox announced a down-to-the-deadline agreement covering 1.4 million cable subscribers, and nine unnamed operators agreed to pay CBS cash for consent—a long-standing cable taboo.

Last month Sinclair and Mediacom reached an agreement, apparently involving cash, that restored 24 stations to 700,000 Mediacom subscribers. The deal was reached only after the FCC denied Mediacom’s request to compel Sinclair’s interim consent in January.

In the last few days CBS, LIN TV and other broadcasters have been vocal about their intent to seek cash from the largest cable operators when current retrans agreements expire.

Retrans consent also plays an important role in the run-up to the Feb. 17, 2009, DTV transition. Between now and then, stations broadcasting in analog and digital—now all but a few—can get must carry only for their analog signal. The companion digital signal can be carried only through a retrans agreement.

Also under current law, stations that go all-digital on or before the transition date can get must carry for their main digital signal, but not for multicast subchannels. They need retransmission consent.

Against this backdrop, here is a snapshot of FCC rules on retrans negotiations and agreements. Like good wine, the rules have gained complexity and appreciation with age. The two main ones are the retrans rule and the good faith rule.

The retrans rule (Section 76.64)—In the 1992 Cable Act, Congress created a new property right for broadcasters in their TV signal with regard to cable and other multichannel video program distributors (MVPDs) including satellite and now telephone companies.

The rule implements that right by prohibiting MVPDs from retransmitting commercial TV broadcast signals without the express written authority of the originating station unless the station has elected must carry.

For the first time in the long history of broadcasting and cable, the rule required operators to get stations’ permission before carrying their signals.

For must carry, FCC rules dictate the terms of carriage and require no written agreement. Payment for must carry, or for must carry channel position, is prohibited.

In contrast, under retrans almost everything—including who pays what kind of compensation to whom—is negotiable, and a written agreement is required.

Under the rule, written retrans agreements:

• May not be exclusive (i.e., the station may not limit its carriage to one MVPD, and the operator may not agree to exclude other TV signals).

• Must specify the extent of consent granted (i.e., for the entire signal or any portion of it). This applies to analog and digital signals.

The retrans rule requires stations to choose between retrans and must carry every three years. Current elections were made by Oct. 1, 2005, and apply to calendar years 2006-2008. The next election is Oct. 1, 2008, and covers 2009-11.

New TV stations, and stations that go all-digital and return their analog spectrum, must make their initial election during the period from 60 days before to 30 days after the start of new or digital-only broadcasting. Those elections take effect 90 days after being made.

The term of agreements—when they expire—is negotiable, and can be longer or shorter than the three-year election periods. That is one reason why some retrans agreements are expiring now, in the middle of an election cycle, and creating headlines.

Another reason is that sometimes operators and stations cannot agree on details in the three months between the October elections and the start of the three years they cover (Jan. 1, 2006). As a result, existing agreements are extended, often more than once, by mutual consent while negotiations continue.

Extensions should be written and signed. Both operator and station have incentives to avoid gaps in consent. During them, carriage by the operator is prohibited.

In some instances now, such as the recent Sinclair/Mediacom dispute, the broadcaster may decide to allow consent to expire to hasten negotiations.

The good faith rule (Section 76.65)—This rule requires both sides to negotiate in good faith. (Incredibly, when Congress first required the rule in 2000, the obligation fell only on TV stations. Not until August 2005 was good faith applied to MVPDs as the “reciprocal bargaining obligation.”)

How can a rule define good faith? In the case of retrans, in two ways: by specific standards (a list of “don’ts”) or by the context (“totality of the circumstances”).

Either party violates good faith by refusing to negotiate retrans, name a representative with authority to bind the negotiator, meet at reasonable times and locations, put forth more than one unilateral proposal or sign a written agreement containing the parties’ full understanding.

Other violations are failing to answer, including reasons for rejection of a proposal by the other side, and agreeing that either negotiating party will not have a retrans agreement with another TV station or MVPD, which also violates the retrans rule.

In addition, a station or operator can try to show that the other party failed to deal in good faith based on the totality of the circumstances surrounding the negotiations.

Enforcement of the good faith rule is complaint driven. An unhappy party must file a complaint within one year of the alleged violation, of the signing of the agreement or of notifying the alleged violator of the intent to complain.

A separate FCC rule, modeled on the above rules, applies to DBS. For telco MVPDs like AT&T and Verizon, the FCC has not ruled on their regulatory status, but they carry stations under retrans agreements.

The rules are the framework for retrans negotiations. What happens within that framework is making news. For business and legal reasons, all TV companies should follow retrans developments and focus on carriage strategy surrounding the digital transition date.

[B](This colums on TV law and regulation by Michael D. Berg, a veteran Washington, D.C. communications lawyer and the principal in the Law Office of Michael D. Berg, appears monthly. He is also the co-author of FCC Lobbying: A Handbook of Insider Tips and Practical Advice. He can be reached at mberg@michaelberglaw.com.

Note: This article provides general guidance only and is not a substitute for individualized legal advice for particular situations.

http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2007/03/09/daily.3/

fredfa

03-09-07, 10:45 AM

TV Notebook
Kaplan aims to win at CBS newscast
By Phil Rosenthal Chicago Tribune Media Columnist March 9, 2007

Innocently ask Rick Kaplan how he's doing, and he'll tell you he is still getting over last month's Chicago Bears Super Bowl loss.

Kaplan, a well-traveled TV news boss named Thursday as executive producer of "The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric," isn't much for losing.

His reputation--as an exec at MSNBC and CNN, as well as while running ABC's "World News Tonight with Peter Jennings," "Nightline" with Ted Koppel and "Primetime Live" with Diane Sawyer and Sam Donaldson, if not all the way back to his start as a copy boy at WBBM-Ch. 2--is that of a fiery competitor. He's not above going ballistic in response to a setback. Or even just a technical glitch.

Kaplan replaces soon-to-be-reassigned Rome Hartman as leaderof a third-place CBS newscast that, six months after Couric's much-heralded debut, has yet to gain traction in the nightly network news race. ABC's "World News with Charles Gibson" is jockeying for first with "NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams," after nearly 11 years of NBC leading the pack.

As always, the 6-foot-7 Kaplan, 59, once described by Koppel as someone who "will go through walls for his program," intends to play to win.

"I wouldn't have come if I didn't know that Katie was absolutely the real deal," said Kaplan, a Lane Tech grad who grew up in Rogers Park and graduated from the University of Illinois.

"You need only watch what she did on 9/11" while co-host of NBC's "Today," he said. "She was superb. She's got great balance. She reports for us. Not only to us, but for us ... and, in time, she'll win over the evening news audience too. ... We can't miss, unless I screw up, which we hope won't happen."

Couric, in her CBSNews.com blog on Thursday, said Hartman was "one of the `good guys,'" and wrote of her "unwavering and enduring respect, affection, and love" for him.

But earlier this week, CBS Chief Executive Leslie Moonves, the man who shelled out $15 million a year for Couric, her popularity and star power, told analysts that building the "Evening News" audience had proved "a tough road" and "hasn't worked ratings-wise as well as I would like."

CBS News and Sports boss Sean McManus, who scored Super Bowl tickets for Kaplan, had lunch a few days before that with his pal, whose first network job was at CBS' "Evening News" under Walter Cronkite.

"I knew what I wanted to do, and I wasn't going to campaign for anything because that's just not civilized," said Kaplan, who left MSNBC in June. "At some point, Sean said, `Why don't we talk about what you might be able to do here?' It evolved into this, and it all went down yesterday. Sean is a very decisive leader."

Kaplan's theory is that, despite the upheaval among the network anchor ranks of late, ABC audiences have been long accustomed to Gibson, and NBC audiences are used to Williams, while Couric is new to CBS. Plus, Hartman tried to introduce several changes with Couric's arrival.

"It was a show that really wanted to try to expand the envelope big time for evening newscasts," said Kaplan, who has pushed a few boundaries himself, sometimes controversially. "An audience is a funny beast. Audiences need to be comfortable and feel secure, and it just takes time. ... All of a sudden, instead of a man reading the news, it's a woman reading the news.

"That's just a lot for an audience to accept right away, but they will."

The larger mission is to adjust the nightly news to the new reality that viewers probably know the headlines through cable and the Internet by the time his broadcast begins.

"I intend to leave the business better than I found it," he said. "We have a great challenge in front of us, which is to do the right thing in light of all this information that's out there for people, and I really look forward to being able to accomplish that."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/columnists/chi-0703090268mar09,0,219626.column

TheStever

03-09-07, 10:46 AM

Dawson was great, Gene Rayburn in his heyday was wonderful, and I still have some affection for Allen Ludden and Bill Cullen.

My vote goes to William Shatner! It was a short career as game show host of Show me the Money, but Mr. Shatner made it an awful show tolerable. (the models dancing didn't hurt either!) ;)

:D

fredfa

03-09-07, 11:11 AM

Overnights in the 18-49 Demo
'5th Grader' still at the top of the class
Returning hit Fox game show averages an 8.0 in 18-49s
By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer March 9, 2007

After a one-week layoff, Fox’s red-hot new game show “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” saw its ratings cool a bit. But it still drew very strong numbers, thumping the competition on a slow night.

“Smarter” averaged an 8.0 adults 18-49 rating in its 9 p.m. timeslot, according to Nielsen overnights, retaining 78 percent of its “American Idol” lead-in. That was down 15 percent from last week’s 9.4, when “Smarter” retained 90 percent of “Idol’s” lead-in.

That’s a considerable decline but not an unreasonable one for a new show that debuts with such a high rating, and Fox still destroyed the rerun-filled competition.

“Smarter” more than doubled the 2.6 average for NBC’s “Scrubs” and “30 Rock,” the only original competition on the Big Five English-language networks. And it was well ahead of CBS’s “CSI,” which repeats well and took second in the timeslot with a 4.3.

Yet that’s still no guarantee of how “Smarter” will perform next week, when it loses its “Idol” lead-in and must air for the first time without the reality show. Fox has made the Jeff Foxworthy-hosted show its 8 p.m. Thursday anchor as it attempts to rebuild what has been thus far this year a disastrous night for the network when “Idol” is not airing.

With “Idol’s” Thursday finale last night, Fox easily finished first among viewers 18-49 with a 9.2 average rating for the night and a 24 share. CBS was second at 4.0/11, NBC third at 2.4/6, ABC fourth at 2.2/6, Univision fifth at 1.7/5 and CW sixth at 0.9/2.

Fox led each of its two hours, starting with a 10.3 rating at 8 p.m. for “Idol.” CBS was second that hour with a 4.5 for “Survivor,” while Univision and NBC tied for third at 2.2, Univision for “La Fea Mas Bella” and NBC for repeats of “My Name is Earl” and “The Office.” ABC was fifth with a 1.7 for a repeat of “Ugly Betty” and CW sixth with a 1.0 for a “Smallville” rerun.

At 9 p.m. Fox led again, this time with an 8.0 rating for “Smarter.” CBS remained second with a 4.3 for a repeat of “CSI,” with ABC third with a 3.0 for a repeat of “Grey’s Anatomy” and NBC fourth with a 2.6 average for “Scrubs” (2.8) and “30 Rock” (2.5). Univision dropped to fifth that hour with a 1.7 for “Mundo de Fieras” and the CW remained sixth with a 0.8 for a repeat of “Supernatural.”

Things slowed down quite a bit during the 10 p.m. hour, with a repeat of CBS’s “Shark” leading with a 3.0 rating. NBC was second with a 2.2 for repeats of “The Office” and “30 Rock,” ABC third with a 2.1 for a “Men in Trees” rerun and Univision fourth with a 1.3 for “Aqui y Ahora.”

Among households, Fox was first for the night with a 13.9 average rating and a 21 share. CBS was second at 8.6/14, ABC third at 4.9/8, NBC fourth at 3.3/5, Univision fifth at 2.2/3 and CW sixth at 1.6/2.

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