• Writers Talks Break Down
• FCC Bans Cable-MDU Exclusives
• Ascheim Leaves Nickelodeon
• Comcast Cuts BigBand Deal
• HBO Scheduling ‘Treatment’
• Nike Backs ESPN 360
• Hallmark Promotes White

• Turner to Stream Big Ten Games
• Docu Channel Runs Gotham Awards

• Worth Watching
• ‘Positively Cable’ Homes in on Martin, Albrecht

Writers Talks Break Down
Talks between the Writers Guild of America and negotiators TV producers broke down late Thursday, but the WGA, which had been threatening to strike, did not instruct its members to walk of the job at midnight. The WGA had been negotiating with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. One of the main issues of contention has been how writers and producers should share revenue from Internet sales of TV shows. “Today, just hours before the expiration of our contract, the AMPTP brought negotiations to a halt. The Companies refused to continue to bargain unless we agree that the hated DVD formula be extended to Internet downloads,” WGA said in a statement issued Thursday night. WGA said it will hold a meeting with members in Los Angeles Thursday night. click to read more...
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FCC Bans Cable-MDU Exclusives
Washington – Cable operators can’t enforce exclusive contracts with apartment building owners or sign new ones under a sweeping prohibition unanimously adopted by the Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday. FCC chairman Kevin Martin promoted the ruling as an attempt to ensure that 90 million Americans who reside in multiple dwelling units (MDUs) were not entirely locked out by contract from sampling pay-video services provided by AT&T and Verizon. “Trying to remove any barriers to those cable overbuilders is really critical if you want to hold down cable prices,” Martin said. Not for the first time, Martin complained that cable rates had risen 93% from 1995 to 2005; and not for the first time, Martin failed to mention that he was referring to nominal cable rates that were not adjusted for inflation, programming quality improvements or channel additions. The ruling -- which applies to AT&T and Verizon just as it does to Comcast and Time Warner -- does not place any restrictions on DirecTV and EchoStar and private cable operators, which are multichannel TV providers that do not need a local franchise because they don’t occupy public rights of way. click to read more...
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Ascheim Leaves Nickelodeon
Tom Ascheim has traded in the world of kids television for the global perspective provided by Newsweek. The executive vice president and general manager of Nickelodeon Television left his post Friday to serve as CEO of the newsweekly, taking over those duties for Rick Smith, who is also stepping down as editor-in-chief of the Washing Post Co. title, but will retain its chairman spot. Nickelodeon officials indicate that there is no immediate time frame to find a successor to Ascheim, who was named to his most recent post at the programmer in February 2006 by Cyma Zarghami. click to read more...
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Comcast Cuts BigBand Deal
BigBand Networks disclosed that it has been selected by Comcast to provide switched digital video management software, news that came amid the vendor’s announcement that it will lay off 15% of its work force and discontinue its cable modem termination system platform. Comcast has selected BigBand’s switched digital video manager, the software that manages the communication between the set-top box and makes the decision about which channels to deliver, BigBand president and CEO Amir Bassan-Eskenazi said in an interview. In addition, Bassan-Eskenazi said, BigBand in the third quarter received commercial orders for SDV systems from two other cable operators, which he declined to name. BigBand’s announced SDV customers include Cablevision, Time Warner Cable and Cox Communications. All three “are now in the process of doing commercial deployments of our system,” Bassan-Eskenazi said. click to read more...
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HBO Scheduling ‘Treatment’
HBO will run daily episodes of its original series In Treatment as part of an innovative strategy tied around the January launch of the drama program. HBO will debut new episodes of the half-hour series -- which chronicles the sessions between four patients and a therapist played by Gabriel Byrne (Vanity Fair) -- Monday through Friday at 9:30 p.m. beginning Jan. 28. Each patient’s session – including the lead shrink’s own psychoanalysis with a therapist – will air on the same weekday throughout the series’ nine-week, 43-episode run. New episodes will be preceded on the main HBO channel at 9:00 p.m. by the previous week’s episode for that day. click to read more...
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Nike Backs ESPN 360
Touting its new LeBron James campaign, Nike was the sole sponsor on Thursday’s NBA doubleheader simulcast on ESPN’s broadband portal. ESPN tips off its 2007-08 game coverage tonight with the Dallas Mavericks, led by reigning MVP Dirk Nowitski visiting James’s Cleveland Cavaliers at 8 p.m. (ET), followed by the Denver Nuggets hosting the Seattle SuperSonics at 10:30 p.m. The contests will be simulcast on ESPN360, the sports giant’s broadband service that reaches some 17 million homes, as well as on NBA Mobile TV, marking the first exploitation of digital live game rights under the new eight-season, $7.4 billion deals ESPN and TNT signed with the league in late June. click to read more...
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Hallmark Promotes White
Anthony White has been promoted to senior vice president, marketing for Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movie Channel. In his new position, White, who was vice president, is responsible for developing strategic marketing partnerships and alliances, cause-based marketing initiatives as well as marketing analytics. click to read more...
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Turner to Stream Big Ten Games
Turner Sports’ PlayOn Sports Webcasting division signed a deal to stream nine Big Ten Conference men’s basketball games online this season, in what PlayOn senior vice president and general manager Phil Sharpe termed a “trial.” Each of the nine non-conference games will be available for free at BigTenNetwork.com, both live and on-demand. The games will include the Nov. 1 season openers for Iowa and Minnesota. click to read more...
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Docu Channel Runs Gotham Awards
The Documentary Channel, NYC-TV and Netflix will carry the Gotham Awards this year, potentially reaching more then 20 million viewers, officials said Wednesday. IFP, the nation’s largest membership organization of independent filmmakers, produces the Gotham Awards and has struck a deal with the three distributors. click to read more...
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