Through the Wire
By Jim Forkan, from bureau reports -- Multichannel News, 11/4/2001 7:00:00 PM
Broadband in Limelight
Comedy Central senior vice president of affiliate marketing Steve Males has produced a five-minute video — to open the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing's Broadband Opportunity conference in Tysons Corner, Va. on Nov. 7 — that shows how important broadband technology can be in the real world.
In the introduction by an uncharacteristically serious Jon Stewart, The Daily Show host notes that much has been written about how New York City responded to the Sept. 11 twin-towers tragedy, but that — "I know this is going to sound odd" — Time Warner Cable also helped a lot — and not just by connecting its subscribers to cable-news coverage. "Right after the disaster," he said, "all I got was channel 2 [WCBS-TV]."
In the video, Time Warner Cable president Barry Rosenblum and others expressed pride as they recalled how their technicians installed high-speed access lines linking the "Ground Zero" command center to One Police Plaza, strung scads of cable above and below ground, and placed television sets at the family-assistance centers so kids of victims' families could be distracted by cartoons from Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network.
A year ago, Males — a member of the CTAM conference's planning committee — produced a more lighthearted video featuring "man-on-the-street' interviews on "what broadband means" to John Q. Public.
Mystery Solved?
Cable industry leaders scratched their heads last week when Nielsen Media Research released its latest cable subscriber figures. In July, Nielsen had reported that the industry had 69 million subscribers, but for November it upped the total by nearly 4 million — to 72.9 million. Such a four-month upsurge had probably not been seen in decades.
A call to Nielsen resolved the matter. Since September, Nielsen has employed a new methodology for calculating cable subscribership. Though it didn't expect anyone to understand the change, a Nielsen source said that methodology "consists of more complex weighting algorithms using many key characteristics."
Apply the new equation to July and November, and cable subscribership actually drops: from 73.1 million subs to 72.9 million.
The Best Garage Band Is:
Who knew there were 655 garage bands out there? That's how many entries The Wiz fielded for its "Little Steven's Cavestomp! Garage Band Contest" since last July. Rocker Little Steven Van Zandt of E Street Band fame and a panel of judges gave their blessing last Wednesday to one grand-prize winner — The Priests from Rochester, N.Y.
Besides announcing the victor, The Wiz said The Priests were set to perform at a Nov. 3 concert in Brooklyn and that, come December, the consumer-electronics retail chain will sell a compilation CD featuring 18 finalists at its stores. Profits from the CD sales will go to World Trade Center relief efforts, the retailer noted.
Little Steven's latest contributions to the garage-band genre, by the way, include a cut by his group The Lost Boys on The Sopranos' recent Peppers & Eggs CD, a Lost Boys CD and a syndicated radio show; the latter two are due next year.
Misguided Missives
"Keep those cards and letters comin'," Dean Martin used to say on his NBC primetime variety series.
But if he and his series were around today, he might avoid saying that anymore, given the wave of anthrax-contaminated letters sent to ABC, CBS, NBC and others in the media in recent weeks.
At Turner Classic Movies, a spokesman said TCM used to take pride in acknowledging every viewer letter with a postcard. With all the anthrax anxiety, he said TCM, undoubtedly like other networks, isn't sure how — or even if — its staff will handle viewer mail from now on.
Here Comes the Grinch
Fox Family Channel hosted a "13 Days of Halloween" party on Oct. 30 at the Man Ray club in lower Manhattan.
But in one of the first side effects of the Walt Disney Co. acquisition, insiders said the network won't host its popular annual "25 Days of Christmas" shindig at the Rockefeller Center skating rink.
No Croc
Steve Irwin, best known as the star of Animal Planet's Crocodile Hunter, was supposed to make his film debut last summer in a mostly biographical motion picture. Instead, production delays and his own heavy cable workload pushed the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. release — still in production in Australia — into June of 2002, network sources said.
Irwin must be a workaholic, since he's also been shooting Croc Diaries, an Animal Planet series due in Wednesday primetime as of January, the programmer said. This series will focus on him and wife Terri as they run the Australia Zoo, the network noted.
Animal Planet also gave its ratings kingpin high visibility last month, by showcasing Crocodile Hunter nightly at 8 p.m., during what it advertised as "Croctober.".
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