Hot Off The Press: The Latest TV News and Information - Page 2684

What happens when they go to 8 teams and a hotly disputed #9 team gets left out a couple times.

WEDNESDAY's fast affiliate overnight prime-time ratings -and what they mean- have been posted on Analyst Marc Berman's Media Insight's Blog

Nielsen Overnights (18-49)
‘Talent’ powers NBC to Wednesday win
Network averages a 2.5 in 18-49s, paced by a 2.8 for 'Talent'
By Toni Fitzgerald, Media Life Magazine - Jun. 28, 2012

After tying for No. 1 with Fox the previous two nights, NBC finally shot ahead on Wednesday thanks to yet another highly rated episode of "America's Got Talent."

The show averaged a 2.8 adults 18-49 rating from 9 to 11 p.m., according to Nielsen, well ahead of the evening's No. 2 show, Fox's "So You Think You Can Dance," which drew a 2.0.

"Talent" peaked with a 3.0 in its final half hour, tripling the average of ABC's new nonficition crime show, "Final Witness," which drew a mere 1.0 in its premiere at 10 p.m.

NBC's Olympic trials also continued to put up solid numbers. Coverage of swimming last night at 8 p.m. averaged a 1.9, second to Fox in the timeslot and tying the previous night.

With 7.02 million total viewers, the event became the most-watched Olympic trials since 2000, surpassing the previous high mark set Tuesday night by just a few thousand viewers.

NBC finished first for the night among 18-49s with a 2.5 average overnight rating and an 8 share. Fox was second at 2.0/7, Univision third at 1.3/4, CBS fourth at 1.1/4, ABC fifth at 1.1/3, Telemundo sixth at 0.5/2 and CW seventh at 0.3/1.

As a reminder, all ratings are based on live-plus-same-day DVR playback, which includes shows replayed before 3 a.m. the night before. Seven-day DVR data won't be available for several weeks. Forty-four percent of Nielsen households have DVRs.

Also, ratings for NBC's Olympic trials coverage are approximate as fast nationals measure timeslot and not actual program data.

At 8 p.m. Fox led with a 2.0 for "Dance," followed by NBC with a 1.9 for Olympics trials. Univision was third with a 1.0 for "Un Refugio para el Amor," CBS fourth with a 0.9 for "Dogs in the City," ABC fifth with a 0.8 for repeats of "The Middle" and "Suburgatory," Telemundo sixth with a 0.6 for "Una Maid en Manhattan" and CW seventh with a 0.3 for a repeat of "America's Next Top Model."

NBC took the lead at 9 p.m. with a 2.6 for "Talent," while Fox was second with a 2.0 for more "Dance." CBS was third with a 1.4 for a repeat of "Criminal Minds." Univision and ABC tied for fourth at 1.3, Univision for "Abismo de Pasion" and ABC for "Modern Family" reruns. Telemundo was sixth with a 0.5 for "Corazon Valiente" and CW seventh with a 0.2 for more "Top Model."

At 10 p.m. NBC was first again with a 2.9 for another hour of "Talent," with Univision second with a 1.6 for "La Que No Podia Amar." CBS was third with a 1.1 for a repeat of "CSI," ABC fourth with a 1.0 for "Witness" and Telemundo fifth with a 0.4 for "Relaciones Peligrosas."

NBC was also first for the night among households with a 5.7 average overnight rating and a 10 share. CBS was second at 3.7/6, Fox third at 3.3/6, ABC fourth at 2.5/4, Univision fifth at 1.8/3, Telemundo sixth at 0.8/1 and CW seventh at 0.5/1.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/talent-powers-nbc-to-wednesday-win/

We are getting hit with the new tax here:

"Online retail giant Amazon.com plans to build two huge distribution centers in New Jersey, creating what Gov. Chris Christie said today will be 1,500 full-time jobs.

But New Jerseyans intent on buying a big-screen TV or laptop computer should act quickly: Come July 2013, Amazon will start collecting a 7 percent state sales tax — whether or not the sprawling warehouses are built."

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/05/amazoncom_to_begin_collecting.html

Critic's Notes
Ann Curry Mess: Did NBC Learn Nothing From Conan O’Brien?
By Sharon Waxman, TheWrap.com - Jun. 28, 2012

Ann Curry's messy exit suggests that despite NBC's new regime the new crew has learned nothing from the old crew and the ghost of Conan O’Brien.

Once again, a prominent piece of talent – this time Curry – was left hanging out to dry, embarrassing the network, angering dedicated viewers and rewarding a loyal employee with an undignified escort to the curb.

In the case of Conan O’Brien in 2010, the bungled management of his failed turn as “Tonight Show” host turned the 16-year, true-blue veteran of the network into an embittered enemy with an army of Twitter followers. It spelled the end of network chief Jeff Zucker. It tarnished NBC’s brand and cost them a pile of money.

The departure from the "Today" show of Curry, a 15-year veteran of NBC, may not be as bad a debacle, but it’s hardly been elegant.

Her official exit as "Today" co-host on Thursday followed more than a week of frenzied speculation in the media and on the web about her fate, leading the morning co-host to finally break her silence to USA Today on Wednesday and say that she has been "hurt deeply" by the leaks and gossip.

What happened this time? Insiders tell TheWrap that people within NBC News -- Matt Lauer, NBC News chief Steve Capus and “Today” show executive producer Jim Bell -- were divided over Curry.

Some felt she was the source of the once-dominant show’s declining ratings. Others said the show itself had lost its dynamism and its wide ratings lead over “Good Morning America” for other reasons.

Ultimately, two insiders told TheWrap, NBC CEO Steve Burke had to step in and adjudicate the situation.

Particularly damaging were the multiple leaks to The New York Times in which unnamed NBC insiders said Curry had too much “empathy,” and lacked chemistry with Lauer. That led Curry’s lawyer Robert Barnett to wring every advantage out of the standoff; he was in no hurry to give NBC a quick conclusion.

So negotiations took more than a week.

On Thursday Curry broke down in tears as she told viewers that she’d be leaving her dream job to be a roving correspondent for NBC News.

For Lauer’s sake, he had better hope ratings start to climb again, because from here on in he won’t have Curry as an excuse.

Savannah Guthrie, Curry's presumed successor, also may face challenges if she gets the job. NBC's high-profile coverage of the 2012 Olympic Games in London -- with former "Today" co-host Meredith Vieira already touted as a special correspondent -- could leave Guthrie in the shadows.

Television observers -- including plenty of passionate commenters on TheWrap and elsewhere – insist that Curry was only a small part of “Today” show’s problems.

And either way, the network has once again managed to wring a lose-lose out of a delicate management situation.

http://www.thewrap.com/tv/column-post/ann-curry-mess-did-nbc-learn-nothing-conan-o-brien-45961

TV Notes
Frank Darabont’s ‘LA Noir’ Nears Series Order At TNT
By Nellie Andreeva, Deadline.com - Jun. 28, 2012

Frank Darabont’s LA Noir continues to gain momentum at TNT. I hear the project, Darabont’s followup to The Walking Dead, is expected to land a series order after TNT brass officially screen it early next month. LA Noir tells the true story of a decades-long conflict between the LAPD, under the determined leadership of Police Chief Parker (Neal McDonough), and ruthless criminal elements led by mobster Mickey Cohen, a one-time boxer who rose to the top of LA’s criminal world.

Additionally, TNT may renew all four series currently on the air. Rizzoli & Isles and freshman Dallas are considered shoe-ins — Rizzoli & Isles is The Closer‘s heir apparent as TNT’s new flagship series, and Dallas is considered a marquee property. Despite a significant dropoff in Week 2, Falling Skies is still the No.1 scripted cable show in adults 18-49. The sci-fi series also anchors TNT’s genre Sunday night and is big internationally, making it even more lucrative for the network, which owns it. That makes a renewal is likely. Franklin & Bash posted an encouraging ratings uptick this week though TNT will probably monitor the dramedy’s performance for another week or two before making a decision. Franklin & Bash star Breckin Meyer just got a renewal for his other series at Turner, TBS comedy Men At Work, which he created and exec produces but doesn’t appear in.

http://www.deadline.com/2012/06/la-noir-nears-series-order-at-tnt/

TV Notes
ESPN extends Rose Bowl deal
By Michael Hiestand, USA Today - Jun. 28, 2012

Despite all the speculation around college football adopting a playoff system, this development flew under the radar: ESPN announced Thursday that it will retain the Rose Bowl's TV rights through 2026 — meaning, presumably, it's already grabbed a piece of college football's new playoffs.

ESPN's existing deal with the Rose Bowl, which has a marquee 5 p.m. ET New Year's Day start time and is generally the highest-rated bowl aide from the national championship game, includes the 2013 and 2014 Rose Bowls and the 2014 national title game.

After that, ESPN's new 12-year Rose Bowl extension and college football's new four-team playoff system kick in. The new playoffs, in adding two hot bowl games by creating semifinals, are likely to produce bigger TV rights fees for the big bowls. (Besides, big-event TV sports rights fees, for various reasons, just keep going up and up.)

The Rose Bowl figures to be one of the sites included in the new college football playoff. And whatever that playoff TV package sells for, ESPN has a piece of the action.

Just watch, baby: The second game of ESPN's NFL Week 1 Monday night doubleheader is as close to a throwaway game as an NFL regular-season game can get. It generally gets ESPN's worst NFL rating. And no wonder: It has the season's worst start time —10:15 p.m. ET — and usually includes less-than-marquee West Coast teams.

The Week 1 doubleheader partially makes up for not having a Monday game in the season's final week. ESPN experiments with the announcers on it. And, from a business perspective, ESPN made a brilliant choice for that Sept. 10 San Diego Chargers-Oakland Raiders game: Chris Berman on his first NFL regular-season game.

As a bete noire of the Internet, the choice drew immediate buzz as Berman trended high on Twitter and Google on Wednesday. The choice drew lots of reaction such as this awfulannouncing.com headline: "ESPN Confirms Our Worst Fears."

But like LeBron James' The Decision in 2010 — which drew ESPN's highest ratings that summer — Nielsen doesn't measure if you like what you watch, just whether you watch. Berman is bound to bring a ratings boost. And with ESPN having been around long enough that some young viewers might wonder how they could really like what their fathers grew up watching, sometimes it's not bad to seem, well, bad.

NFL P.S.: To avoid overlapping action, late Sunday NFL games that are part of doubleheaders on Fox or CBS this season will start at 4:25 p.m. ET — back from 4:15. (Late Sunday games not part of TV doubleheaders will keep their 4:05 p.m. starts.) The NFL says if the change had been in effect for the past three seasons, instances of networks moving viewers from one game to catch mandatory kickoff coverage of another would have dropped by 66%.

Lede: Levi Morgan figures he had a good shot at qualifying as an archer for the U.S. team for this summer's London Olympics. But that wasn't his priority. Says Morgan, an archer from North Carolina who has won eight world championships and more than 50 national titles, "I didn't have the time to dedicate to (the Olympics) with the new show."
His show is Gold Tip's Name the Game, in which Morgan and his wife Samantha, who has also won archery titles, go bowhunting. It debuts Friday (10:30 p.m. ET) on Sportsman Channel.

To qualify for this summer's London Games, he says, you have to start a year in advance to get your world ranking. That creates scheduling conflicts with the shooting of his show.

Eventually, he says, "I'd like to shoot for my country." But that dream had to wait for another: "I just saw a fourth-grade paper I'd forgotten about on how I wanted to end up with a hunting TV show. It's been my dream my whole life."

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/hiestand-tv/story/2012-06-28/hiestand-rose-bowl-bcs/55900290/1

TV Notes
The CW's fall premiere dates revealed
By James Hibberd, EW.com's 'Inside TV' Blog - Jun. 28, 2012

The CW just announced its fall premiere dates. For The CW this year, “fall” means October, with the network waiting for the Big Four broadcasters to fire most of their guns first during August and September. Once The CW starts launching its shows Oct. 2, all of its programs will be out within the following two weeks.

Here’s the lineup:

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 2

8:00-9:00 PM HART OF DIXIE (Season Premiere)

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3

9:00-10:00 PM SUPERNATURAL (Season Premiere)

MONDAY, OCTOBER 8

8:00-9:00 PM 90210 (Season Premiere)
9:00-10:00 PM GOSSIP GIRL (Season Premiere)

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10

8:00-9:00 PM ARROW (Series Premiere)
9:00-10:00 PM SUPERNATURAL

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 11

8:00-9:00 PM THE VAMPIRE DIARIES (Season Premiere)
9:00-10:00 PM BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (Series Premiere)

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 16

8:00-9:00 PM HART OF DIXIE
9:00-10:00 PM EMILY OWENS, M.D. (Series Premiere)

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19

8:00-9:00 PM AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL: COLLEGE EDITION
9:00-10:00 PM NIKITA (Season Premiere)

http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/06/28/cw-fall-dates/

AFAIK, we do not have any distribution centers in this sate, that don't actually have a retail outlet. Definitely not Amazon. Would be nice having next day delivery for some stuff via free shipping.

Illinois can't collect tax on something that I bought. Never have and UPS trucks have driven thru your state. If Illinois does collect taxes from IL residents who purchase stuff using that flimsy excuse, ouch. That is really stretching it.

As for offices, ya I knew that. With an office you can do business. A warehouse is new to me.

Sooner or later, WI will find a way to collect taxes as well. They already harassed lots of residents in this state to for them to declare what they bought on line and pay up.

AIUI, Uncle Sam is going to make it happen nationally. Forcing all on line stores to collect the taxes.

We are being taxed to death. But, that is nothing new.

I'm confused as to how taxing you for something you buy on the internet that would be and has always been taxed if you bought it at Best Buy instead is unfair. Online shopping is putting a dent in same store sales that can no longer be ignored. Companies that provide retail jobs across the country are finding their stores and their employees serving as show rooms and salespeople for online vendors because of lower prices, partly the result of freedom from local sales tax. In the process, tax free online shopping is not just hurting these brick and mortar businesses; it's hurting state and local governments that depend on local sales tax revenue.

As we often hear on television, the government shouldn't be in the business of picking winners and losers. Allowing online stores to skirt sales tax obligations is a subsidy that perhaps made sense in the infancy of the internet, but is now doing little more than pad their bottom lines at the expense of local businesses and, yes, the taxpayer.

Amazon and others have gotten a free ride for over fifteen years now and have exploited that advantage to the moon. Time to start playing by the same rules as everyone else now. The long term picture for brick and mortar retail expansion is bad enough without giving online vendors yet another leg up.
Edited by URFloorMatt - 6/28/12 at 8:12pm

This when Amazon will start collecting sales taxes in Virginia.
EDIT: I thought it was 2014 but it is September 1st, 2013. That sucks. All because they will be opening a couple of distribution centers in Virginia soon. It will definitely affect my purchases.

Well, that's my point. You live in an area which offers local sports which are of interest to you and are more likely to be available OTA (how do you get ESPN3 without a tie to pay TV?). 1) If you are a sports fan, 2) live in an area NOT geographically the same as your favorite team(s) = 3) you are going to have to pay for it. Sports (IMHO) are the bane of OTA.

I live in a tax free state (Delaware) & purchase via Newegg, Amazon, etc. often. It's not just a tax savings (although a good one), which gives sites like Amazon an advantage. I am sure they will be just fine.

TV Sports
How WIll NFL’s Kickoff Time Change Affect CBS’ Sunday Schedule?
By Nellie Andreeva, Deadline.com - Jun. 28, 2012

Starting this fall, NFL’s 4:15 PM Sunday games will start at 4:25 PM, the league announced today. The move is designed to reduce the number of instances when stations have to cut away from the final minutes of the earlier game in order to show the later one. Fox and CBS alternate carrying the Sunday afternoon games. While Fox has a cushion built into its primetime schedule, which includes a post-game show and comedy repeats from 7-8 PM, CBS’ lineup starts at 7 PM with 60 Minutes. The start of its primetime always gets delayed when the network carries the late NFL game – nine weeks out of the 17-week regular NFL season — leading to late starts for all of its Sunday programs.

I hear NFL floated the idea of the kickoff time shift to CBS a few weeks ago. The network has been already looking into contingencies to adjust to the change, that will push the start of its Sunday primetime lineup even further back. Last season, CBS’ primetime delay on nights with a late game was about 27 minutes on average. It will likely increase this coming season.

One possible scenario that the network is looking at is changing its listings for Sunday night when following a game to have 60 Minutes start at 7:15 PM. That would reduce the wait for viewers of CBS’ Sunday series, which would start closer to their announced times. The kickoff time change may lead to an extra episode of CBS’ 10 PM series getting pre-empted. For the past couple of seasons, that was CSI: Miami, this fall it will be The Mentalist.

http://www.deadline.com/2012/06/how-will-nfls-kickoff-time-change-affect-cbs-sunday-schedule/

Critic's Notes
Bianculli's Best Bets
By David Bianculli, TVWorthWatching.com - Jun. 28, 2012

MOYERS AND COMPANY
Public Television, Check local listings
In HBO’s new drama series The Newsroom, Jeff Daniels plays a veteran newsman who ultimately decides to take the brave step of “speaking truth to stupid.” In real life, Bill Moyers is doing that already – as exemplified by this week’s new essay, in which he describes what we should really be thinking about during the upcoming Fourth of July holiday. Moyers & Company is shown by local public TV stations between Friday and Sunday. To find it in your local area, click the schedule HERE.

BUTHE NEWSROOM
HBO, 8:00 p.m. ET
And here’s a same-week repeat of the premiere of The Newsroom, repeated in case you haven’t yet seen it. I urge you to stay with this series, though – by episode four, it really clicks, and the characters and issues become equally compelling. Jeff Daniels, Emily Mortimer star.

WOMAN IN HIDING
TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET
TCM is devoting the evening to women-in-jeopardy films. Big deal, I hear you say: Lifetime and Lifetime Movie Network do that every night. Hmm. Good point. (Quiet, though — I'm working here.) But these are some earlier, classic entries in the genre — starting with this 1950 thriller, in which a women (Ida Lupino) suspects her husband of murder, and of wanting to kill her as well. And, of course, she’s right. Howard Duff co-stars.

THE RICKY GERVAIS SHOW
HBO, 9:15 p.m. ET
Boy, am I going to miss this show when it’s gone. Tonight, Karl Pilkington explains why he thinks “the worm has turned” is such a stupid saying. And, as with so many observations by Karl, there’s a special brand of genius to his simplistic point of view.

REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER
HBO, 10:00 p.m. ET
If I’ve kept track accurately, this is the last installment of this series before Maher takes the rest of the summer off. This is another show I’ll miss while it’s gone – but this one, at least, is coming back. Tonight’s guests include someone who ought to generate a lot of conversation, regardless of what’s happening in the news: Jack Abramoff.

http://www.tvworthwatching.com/

TV Notes
Erin Ryder and her team research close encounters in ‘Chasing UFOs’
By Ginia Salomone, New York Daily News - Jun. 29, 2012

Erin Ryder, one of three trained investigators who seek answers in the new series “Chasing UFOs,” has a long history with the subject matter.

“I grew up in a family that was really open to all this stuff,” she tells the Daily News. “The UFO phenomenon was because I grew up in the Hudson Valley, just north of New York City, which was the site of one of the most widely witnessed episodes of UFO activity ever.

“Thousands of people observed this blue craft from 1982 all the way to 1995,” Ryder adds. “And some of those witnesses were my family members, one of my great grandfathers. So it’s just been in my blood and my family line for a really long time. And I think there’s something about the mystery of it that really intrigues me.”

In the first episode, airing Friday at 9 p.m. on the National Geographic Channel, the investigators visit Stephenville, Tex. In January 2008, hundreds of the city’s residents reported seeing unidentified flying objects.

The investigators hold a town meeting, where witness after witness shares a story of what was seen. A pilot explains something he saw up close: “This was not a shooting star … My estimation is it was about a half a mile wide and a mile long.”

Ryder and a team of experts go into the field one night to make their own observations. She spots something that “looks like a flying saucer” in the sky, and cameras capture blinking lights that shoot around to form a circle.

The team determines the lights don’t belong to any terrestrial craft, and Ryder declares on the show, “For the first time in my life, I really, really am tempted to say that I believe UFOs exist.”

The 31-year-old labels herself a “skeliever,” however.

“It’s a way I’ve combined skeptic and believer, because until I have concrete evidence, I’m going to still kind of teeter in the middle,” Ryder says. The show’s other two investigators are Ben McGee, “the skeptic,” a space-minded geoscientist, and James Fox, billed as “the believer.” Fox is a UFOlogist who directed and produced three films on the subject.

“I am the tech supervisor, and I’ve always been real tech-minded,” Ryder explains. “I’m the one that garners all of our equipment in terms of the thermal cameras and the lenses, the metal detectors, everything. I’ve just been fascinated by that kind of stuff.

“So I put together this incredible package based upon what investigation we’re going to do,” she says. “At the same time, I also help with the reconnaissance work in terms of where we’re going to go, when we’re going to go, how we’re going to get there. A lot of the times, we’re on some federal property and we just have to be careful about things. So I’m the one who does the preplanning of that.”

In each episode the team visits a different location that’s been a hotspot for UFO sightings. At the end, the investigators give their verdict as to how credible the sightings were.

“We each individually state what our beliefs are, based on everything that we’ve seen, everyone we’ve talked to, all the evidence we’ve collected,” Ryder says. “We all have such different opinions.”

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/television/erin-ryder-team-research-close-encounters-chasing-ufos-article-1.1104238

Spolier alert!

They don't find one.

TV Sports
NBC: We’re airing 5,535 Olympic hours
That's a new record and nearly 2,000 more than 2008
By Bill Cromwell, Media Life Magazine - Jun. 29, 2012

Next month's London Games will be all but unavoidable on television and online.

Yesterday, NBCUniversal firmed up details for its upcoming Summer Olympics broadcast, and it includes 5,535 hours of coverage, almost 2,000 more than the Beijing Games in 2008 and a new record for any Olympics telecast.

Nine cable networks, including two devoted solely to the Games, will carry coverage, and NBCOlympics.com will stream every event live for 3,500 total hours of coverage.

NBC will carry the bulk of the medal events, airing the most popular sports on tape delay since London is five hours ahead of the Eastern time zone.

This marks the first time NBC has offered every medal event live online. It marks a big change in policy for the network, which for years has presented tape-delayed events in primetime as though they were taking place live.

But the advent of the internet, where people can find out real-time results, forced NBC to change its policy. Now the network insists that the online coverage will boost interest in the Games overall and could lead people to watch the tape-delayed events even if they already know what happened.

The network is also making a major push on NBC Sports Network, formerly known as Versus, hoping to elevate the channel's profile as it attempts to compete with longtime cable sports leader ESPN.

Other NBCUniversal channels airing Olympic coverage are MSNBC, CNBC, Bravo, Telemundo, a first-ever 3D platform and two specially launched channels focusing solely on the Games.

The network also slated its talent for the Games, including Bob Costas anchoring the network's primetime coverage for the ninth time.

"Sunday Night Football" play-by-play man Al Michaels and former "SportsCenter" anchor Dan Patrick will host NBC's mid-day coverage.

"American Idol" host Ryan Seacrest will serve as a special contributor, making his Olympic debut.

Mary Carillo will be the network's late-night anchor, just as she was in Beijing and the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver.

NBC Sports Network's coverage will be anchored by Michelle Beadle, Liam McHugh and "Morning Joe" co-host Willie Geist.

To view the online stream, web surfers will have to register by verifying their cable, satellite or telco provider. The stream is available on mobile devices as well, but verification is required no matter what screen you plan to watch on.

The network also said it plans to have an extensive Twitter presence during the games and offer a number of social media extras, such as "hangouts" with athletes on Google+, where fans can ask questions and offer encouragement to their favorite medal contenders.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/nbc-were-carrying-5535-hours-from-london/

This is the way it works in CT. Items shipped by a common carrier (UPS, FedEx, etc) out of state are exempt from sales tax in the state the order originates in and don't give the selling company nexus in the state they are delivered to. Items delivered by the selling company's trucking service are subject to sales tax to the state they are delivered to. If you don't get charged sales tax by the seller, you have to pay the state "use tax" on your purchases. We have a line on our state income tax return to pay our use tax. If you put no amount on the line then you are deemed to not have filed a use tax return and the statute of limitations doesn't start. If you put "0" for use tax when you actually owe it then you have filed a false return. YMMV

They do. It's called ESPN.

All kidding aside they do have a SEC Network and they do broadcast OTA. Unfortunately for me the 2 closest stations are WJKT in Jackson, TN( actually Alamo ) and WUXP in Nashville. Neither which is carried by my cable company and both are difficult to get in via OTA. WJKT because they choose to broadcast at only 392 kW and has an antenna a good 300 feet lower than it should be. WUXP broadcasts at 1000 kW but they use a very directional antenna that cuts the effective power to 53 kW for me.

BTN (Big Ten Network) took a while for all of the cable companies (including U-Verse) to accept it, so the first year of its existence, I missed several of my beloved Purdue football & basketball games. However, by year two, every football game and all but a couple of very early season non-conference basketball games were available either on BTN, ESPN, ESPN2, or one of the major networks, usually ABC or CBS.

Of course not; you live in Wisconsin.  I was using my home state as an example. UPS trucks aren't the merchant's own trucks.  If the merchant's own trucks sometimes deliver into Illinois or cross Illinois, and there is a sale into Illinois delivered by common carrier and not by any of those trucks, then Springfield wants Illinois sales tax on it. Yes, ouch.
That is almost exactly how it works in Illinois, except that our state income tax return has a schedule for calculating the use tax figure for the line on the return itself.  There also are default figures for use tax based on income, which one may use without submitting a calculation or needing to prove it.
Edited by dattier - 6/29/12 at 8:59am

Illinois is notorious for targeting small offenders under the idea that it will scare the big offenders into complying voluntarily. (like the RIAA ?) Make a mistake on your Federal taxes - you can probably negotiate a reasonable settlement. Make a mistake on your State taxes and you're going down unless you have deep pockets and a good lawyer here.

Thats not true....for example last year there were 3 MNF games that rated lower as theres always some dog matchup or a game that goes against the world series or something.

Okay, even the playing field- get rid of all sales taxes! Just joking, but I fail to see why the government should get paid just because I buy something. I am partial to income taxes and users fees to fund government. BTW, some states do not have a sales tax so it's not that big of a leap.

Im just bitchin n moanin about it cause im so used to not paying that tax.

IMO it should be every state pays amazon tax or no state pays....not a this state does/this state doesnt deal.

Just came to bash E* for dropping AMC.

Don't want to stream or to illegally download Breaking Bad.
I do not want to wait 1+ years for the show to be released on DVD. I do not own a BRD player yet.
I don't have any "friends" in the city to where I can go to their house and watch it in HD & DD 5.1

I think I am SOL for this years Breaking Bad