Coda

NFL Network's marquee matchup, the New England Patriots' pursuit of regular-season perfection against the New York Giants, which became a political football between the pro football league, carriage-recalcitrant cable operators and members of Congress, is in the Nielsen books.

National Football League fans were the beneficiary of a simulcast as some 34.5 million, the most for a regular-season game in a dozen years, watched the Pats' exciting 38-35 triumph on Dec. 29. CBS won the primetime play with 15.7 million viewers, while NBC had 13.2 million and three local stations combined for 1.2 million.

That left 4.5 million for the NFL Network, which counts some 43 million subscribers, short of the 4.6 million viewers it averaged for its seven other primetime games this season.

So now that the gun has sounded on its eight 2007 primetime games, does NFL Network slide into relative anonymity until next season's schedule prompts a new distribution outcry?

While a network spokesman had said late last year that there would be an arbitration hearing this month, compulsory arbitration was not on the FCC's Jan. 17 meeting agenda as of press time. The topic had been scheduled to be part of the agency's public hearing on Nov. 27, before commissioner Kevin Martin dropped the proposed rules, owing to lack of support from commissioners Jonathan Adelstein, Deborah Taylor Tate and Robert McDowell, according to industry executives.

The NFL didn't comment by press time.

— Mike Reynolds

Discovery Communications president and CEO David Zaslav didn't have to look far to find his new right-hand man: Discovery veteran Mark Hollinger last week was named to the newly created position of chief operating officer.

Currently president of global business and operations and general counsel, Hollinger will also assume responsibility for Discovery Studios, including the Discovery Films unit and Discovery's internal content production operations. He will continue to oversee Discovery's legal, government affairs, and standards and practices functions while the company searches for a new general counsel.

COOs from Discovery's other businesses will become “functional reports” to Hollinger.

In a statement, Zaslav referred to Hollinger as the “operational leader of this company” and added that as COO, “Mark will lead our efforts to operate Discovery in the most efficient and effective manner possible, and support a strong creative culture that produces the highest quality nonfiction content.”

Hollinger, who joined Discovery in 1991, served as senior executive vice president, corporate operations and general counsel for five years before Zaslav overhauled the executive ranks at Discovery last February.

— R. Thomas Umstead

James Assey, the most senior Democratic telecommunications policy adviser on the Senate Commerce Committee, was named the new executive vice president of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association.

Assey, who drafted Democratic legislation that would have imposed network neutrality regulation on cable operators, is filling the trade group's No. 2 position vacated last fall by David Krone, a Democrat who joined Comcast in the company's Philadelphia headquarters. Assey begins his duties on Feb. 1 and will report to NCTA CEO Kyle McSlarrow.

“Widely respected on both sides of the aisle and at the FCC, James will represent our industry at a very high level. We are delighted to welcome him to the NCTA team,” McSlarrow said.

Assey is the second prominent aide to Senate Commerce Committee chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) to migrate to cable. A year ago, Time Warner hired Rachel Welch as vice president for global public policy in its Washington, D.C., office.

— Ted Hearn

New York — After 37 years in cable, Charlie Dietz, Insight Communications' chief technology officer and senior vice president of research and development, will retire from his post as of Jan. 11.

Dietz, 60, said “with the transition of the systems to Comcast, the timing seemed right.”

Insight and Comcast announced last week the completion of the previously announced agreement to divide the Insight Midwest partnership in which each party held a 50% interest, giving Comcast 100% ownership of the cable systems serving 696,000 basic video subscribers in Illinois and Indiana.

Insight CEO and vice chairman Michael Willner, in a prepared statement, said Dietz “has been instrumental in our ability to achieve some of our most remarkable successes over the past decade.”

Next up for Dietz, an extended vacation to Italy: “I'm making good on a lot of promises I've made to my wife.”

— Todd Spangler

New York — Nickelodeon has no plans to pull the February debut of Zoey 101's fourth season despite the controversial real-life pregnancy of Jamie Lynn Spears, the show's 16-year-old star, according to Nickelodeon executives.

On the eve of the show's third-season finale (Jan. 4), executive vice president of corporate communications Dan Martinsen said Thursday that Nick has not changed its plans to premiere next month the fourth and final season of Zoey 101, which it has already taped.

The airing of the show's last season, in which Spears plays a level-headed teenager attending boarding school, came into question after Spears revealed on Dec. 19 in OK! Magazine that she was expecting a child.

Martinsen would not comment on whether the network has received complaints from concerned parents or kids about the show, which has remained on the air despite the controversy.

— R. Thomas Umstead