Through the Wire

Contributor: Linda Haugsted.

Delay of Game for Comcast, NFL Net

Who’s going to win? No, not the Pittsburgh Steelers or Charter Communications Inc. chairman Paul Allen’s Seattle Seahawks. Handicapping Super Bowl XL is easy compared to forecasting how the National Football League will handle its proposed late-season primetime Thursday-Saturday package.

Many sports-TV watchers had expected it to be tackled by Comcast Corp.’s OLN or by the NFL Network already — especially as top Comcast execs have been spotted in the league’s Park Avenue offices in recent weeks. (Some also say a third entity remains in the hunt.)

But, at press time, the league remained mum.

What’s holding things up? People in the know cite a lack of consensus among broadcast committee members, with OLN and NFL Network each favored by a trio of parties. A seventh committee member, it’s said, remains on the fence.

Others say the league’s priority has shifted to finishing its collective bargaining agreement with the players union.

And the 2006 schedule might be an impediment. “It’s the first year with flexible scheduling [for NBC on Sunday nights]. There are [eight] new coaches — who really knows which teams are going to be good?” one league insider points out.

Given the New Orleans situation — with the Saints being displaced from the Louisiana Superdome — the insider added, “It may be better to wait a season.”

Under that delay-of-game scenario, Sunday afternoon carriers Fox and CBS are winners, retaining games that would make up the primetime package. Label Comcast the loser, because those eight NFL games would drive rate increases as OLN’s affiliate deals expire over the next year.

Takashi Miike Offering’s Too Gross for Showtime

In spite of what cable’s critics might believe, there is a content line that channels, even premium channels, perceive and will not cross.

Showtime executives confirm that, for content reasons, the network has decided to pass on one of the episodes shot for Masters of Horror. The series is comprised of one-hour horror stories, which differ in tone and content and are each shot by noted directors in the genre, such as Joe Dante, John Carpenter and Dario Argento.

Another contributor is Takashi Miike, a Japanese director known for his long and graphic depictions of torture and other violence. His hour, “Imprint,” features an American journalist in 19th century Japan who spends the night in an island brothel with a “unique woman” and learns the danger of dredging up old ghosts, according to a synopsis on the Masters Web site.

The episode was “too much for cable” and would get the equivalent of a theatrical X rating, Showtime entertainment president Robert Greenblatt said at the Television Critics Association gathering in Pasadena, Calif., on Jan. 19.

Rather than edit it, Showtime will take a pass and let the episode become an exclusive extra on the series DVD. When asked, Greenblatt said he wasn’t trying to boost interest in the DVD, as it’s made and sold by another company.

Wire Says Mazel Tov Upon Analyst’s Report

A shout out to Merrill Lynch & Co. senior media and entertainment analyst Jessica Reif Cohen and August Media Co. managing director Bob Cohen on the birth of their daughter, Vanessa Summer Cohen, on Jan. 25 in Manhattan. Weighing in at eight ounces, the new daughter of the 2004 MCN Wonder Woman is also a new sibling for Marisa and A.J. Cohen.

We Prefer Anchovies But Hey, a Bet’s a Bet

OLN president Gavin Harvey finally settled the bet with GSN boss Rich Cronin over which of their high-profile reality series acquisitions would perform better in its first month. With Amazing Race (355,000 viewers on average) outperforming Survivor (200,000) from July 11 to Aug. 10, 2005, Cronin avoided having to walk four miles each way to work for a week. Harvey crunched on cricket pizza at Joseph’s in New York on Jan. 24. “It had a nice salty taste, but the antennae did tickle on the way down,” Harvey said. Jumping Jiminy!