I was almost out of the room when I thought I spotted Michael Chiklis, and ambled over to chat.

It wasn’t too surprising to see the star of The Shield at last Thursday night’s event, a reception thrown by Fox Cable Networks for local advertisers in the New York City area. Actors, producers and writers of FX’s Damages and Rescue Me were there, and The Shield, FX’s hit cop drama, returns Sept. 2 for a seventh and last season. So of course that was “Vic Mackey” himself, puffing on a stogey at the outdoor rooftop bar in New York’s Hotel Gansevoort.

Being a fan of the show, and remembering how nice he was when he came to our show-daily newsroom at the National Show in New Orleans in 2002, I went over and, after askin...Read More

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Warning: This post is a group effort by a few Multichannel News editors who watch Sci Fi Channel’s Battlestar Galactica. The opinions expressed are solely those of the editors; standard spoiler warnings and disclaimers apply. 
Midway through the final season of Battlestar, the ever-present tease to reveal the final Cylon was kicked into overdrive during the preview to this week’s episode. 
In the teaser, we see the unboxed model No. 3, D’Anna (Lucy Lawless), say to someone, “You know about the final five, but you don’t know you are one of them.” It sounds a lot like tonight’s episode will reveal that missing Cylon. Here’s the promo. (Note to legal department: Sci Fi emailed us the actual file but it’s so huge we decided to use this YouTube posting instead.) 

...Read More

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Verizon’s being required to seek a franchise to offer fiber-based cable television service in New York City is likened to “legalized bribery” today by an analyst who follows one of Verizon’s key FiOS TV vendors.

To which the response here is: um, yes, but so is every cable franchise. Should Verizon be any different?

Anton Wahlman, a prominent technology analyst with ThinkPanmure, sent out a note this morning (not posted online so not linkab;e) related to Verizon and vendor BigBand Networks and concerning the telco’s application to provide FiOS TV service throughout the Big Apple. Its headline was “Verizon's Struggle With Mercantilism And Institutionalized Bribery.”

“We think it is a sad day in America when Verizon has to apply for a permit in order to offer consumers an alternative. This ‘...Read More

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Some survival tips for cable's last (at least for a while) "Spring Break" week in New York City, which hits a peak today (March 4).

First, don't be deceived by the balmy 61 degrees and sunshine this morning. The forecast is for rain, starting early this afternoon. Bring an umbrella.

Second, don't forget the day's events are not all in the same location, the way they have been some years past. This morning's Horowitz Associates multicultural forum and the Multichannel News/WICT New York chapter Wonder Women luncheon are a...Read More

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Can it really almost be time for the Cable Positive dinner? Yes.

The HIV-AIDS information organization, producer of public service announcements and funder of local assistance outfits through six local chapters, will on March 4 host its biggest single fundraiser, a benefit event at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City.

This year what they're calling the Power Awards are going to three honorees (a first): Michael Willner of cabler Insight Communications; Bill Roedy, of MTV International and MTV Networks; and Dr. Helene Gayle, CEO of CARE and former head of the HIV-AIDS initiative at the Gates Foundation and the Centers for Disease Control.

Cable Positive CEO Steve Villano sent a letter out to supporters this week, say...Read More

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At a public hearing in New York City on Jan. 17, a man stood up and told city officials about a category of local programming that is cable exclusive.

“You’re not going to find this on satellite,” the man said. “You’re going to find it on cable.” 

The unusual thing was, the man doesn’t work for a cable company, or even one of those for-profit programmers that rely on cable distribution to earn their profits.

The man, Michael Knobbe, runs BronxNet, the non-profit organization that operates four public-access channels on Cablevision Systems, available to about 300,000 Bronx residents. The hearing was part of Cablevision’s renewal of an expiring franchise in the borough; Time Warner Cable's franchises in other boroughs also has been the subject of ...Read More

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Hallmark Channel HD will be available to affiliates on April 2 but it won't be on DirecTV, as I mistakenly reported elsewhere on this Web site and in print.

Multichannel News corrections typically don't lay blame on how these mistakes happen, so let me use this blog post to explain to our readers that I made the mistake. It wasn't bad information from anyone, it was just a mistake that I made and didn't confirm with DirecTV, much as it pains me to write that. There was a portion of the story that appeared to paraphrase a Hallmark executive as discussing affiliates in addition to DirecTV, but that was an extension of the original mistake, not the words of that Hallmark executive.

DirecTV rightly points out this is a mistake that costs them time and money, and that it could have been avoided with a phone call, and they're right. I apologize t...Read More

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Would you watch Stargate Titanic: The Musical? Of course you would, if you're a Stargate fan like me.

Unfortunately, it exists only in the frenzied creative imaginations of the Stargate Atlantis cast members who feature prominently in tonight's episode on Sci Fi Channel, called "Trio."

In a media call back in September, Amanda Tapping (Col. Samantha Carter) and Jewel Staite (Dr. Jennifer Keller) talked about the giddiness that set in when they and David Hewlett (Rodney McKay) were filming the episode, under difficult conditions. The scenario: they're trapped in a collapsing mine (video preview here).

The Web site ...Read More

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U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter (R.-Pa.) has taken heat for carrying Comcast’s water in the current dispute the senator is raging against the National Football League.
But as Woodward told Bernstein in the All The President’s Men movie, if you’re going to hype it, hype it with the facts. This is a message to Chris Russo of WFAN radio in New York (simulcast on YES Network) after his diatribe on the topic Tuesday.
Russo told his radio partner Mike Francesa he can’t take Specter seriously when the senator talks about investigating why the NFL destroyed videotapes that were collected from the New England Patriots after the first game of the 2007 regular season. The Patriots were found to have videotaped New York Jets defensive ...Read More

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“How you behave toward others is the essential of living your life: Fred Dressler.”

Old Greenwich, Conn. -- Everybody who talks about Fred Dressler has a story, Glenn Britt said. Some are strictly about business, about how Time Warner Cable’s top programming executive could get what he wanted in a contract, and was willing to stonewall, stall, do what it took to make sure his company got what it needed and anticipated future changes in the TV business.

But a lot of the stories are about friendship, about dealing with people the right way, about helping and mentoring, about times “where Fred reached out and did something special,” Britt said, recalling his longtime friend and colleague at a memorial to Dressler last Thursday. Dressler died on Christmas Eve of pancreatic cancer, less than a year into his retirement at a...Read More

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Woke up Saturday morning, toddled to the TV to see what English football matches were on Fox Soccer Channel, only to see the error message: “CableCard failure. Please remove and reinsert CableCard to continue.”
Knowing, from my reading of Todd Spangler, that CableCards are firmly secured in the box, I got my screwdriver out and proceeded to remove the two screws on the plate securing the little darling in the back of the Scientific Atlanta HD DVR. I also had to remove a piece of green colored tape that covered the bottom screw.
The card was in snugly, with a little cap holding it in place. It was hard to get out, so I called Time Warner Cable customer service to make sure I was doing...Read More

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There are lots of ways programmers attempt to get carriage on cable companies. Often they don’t succeed, a major frustration to a company with a business plan built on reaching millions of TV homes.

These days, a tactic more networks are trying is to go on the attack against potential affiliates for not carrying them.

These aggrieved networks range from the well-connected and powerful (the Fox-backed Big Ten Network and the National Football League-backed NFL Network) to independent services that haven’t even launched yet (The America Channel, or TAC).

Some cable companies are so big and own so many of the networks on their cable systems that non-affiliated programmers understandably see conflicts of interest when they don’t get carriage deals that similar-looking affiliated services get.

Some programmers see government...Read More

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