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Comedy Extends South Park Deal
Getting a piece of the digital-revenue pie, South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone extended their deal with Comedy Central for three more seasons, and are forming a joint venture with the network to create a digital animation studio, officials said Monday.
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AT&T Touts Big Ten Network Deal
Leading up to the Aug. 30 launch of the Big Ten Network, AT&T is trying to capitalize on its deal to carry the football-oriented channel in its standard lineups as large cable operators have resisted playing ball. AT&T, in its announcement Monday, alluded to the impasse between many cable companies and the network: “When it comes to catching the excitement of Big Ten football, AT&T U-verse TV customers won’t be left on the sidelines.”
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FiOS Expands in New York
Verizon this week will invade more Cablevision Systems territory, announcing that it has begun marketing FiOS TV in parts of the Westchester County communities of Yonkers, Scarsdale and Bronxville, and on Long Island in the villages of Floral Park and South Floral Park. In addition, Verizon said it launched FiOS TV in 10 communities that are part of the Town of Islip: Bayport, Bay Shore, Bohemia, Hauppauge, Holbrook, Oakdale, Ronkonkoma, Sayville, West Islip and West Sayville.
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Nielsen Shutters Hispanic Service
Nielsen Co. made it official Monday: It is closing up a standalone service that was dedicated to tracking TV ratings in Hispanic households. Nielsen said it will produce all national Hispanic ratings through its National People Meter panel, the same sample that is used to produce ratings for non-Hispanic networks.
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Suddenlink Grows Phone Subs
Nearing completion of a phone-service expansion, Suddenlink Communications can now provide voice to more than 75% of its footprint [or more than 1.8 million homes passed], up from about 15% [or fewer than 400,000 homes passed] in January, officials said Monday. The company has also topped the 50,000 phone-subscriber mark, up from nearly 30,000 at the end of last year, and just last month recorded handling 1 million calls in a single day.
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Sony to Debut CableCARD-Ready PC
Sony Electronics set an October ship date for its personal computer that is able to access premium cable content, through a CableCARD slot -- one of the first PCs on the market built to receive cable programming. The Vaio LT PC/TV, running Microsoft Windows Vista operating system, is “a computer entertainment center,” the consumer-electronics company said, allowing users to watch and record analog, digital and cable TV programs, including those in high definition. The LT standard model will start at about $1,900, while the LT HD model with a Blu-ray HD optical drive will cost around $2,900.
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Starz Lines Up AMD for Vongo Promo
Starz Entertainment signed a marketing deal with PC processor maker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) to promote Vongo -- the premium network’s subscription movie and video download service -- offering consumers who purchase certain AMD products a free 30-day Vongo subscription.
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E! Rolls Online News
E! Entertainment Television is launching of E! News Now, a multimedia series that provides fans with video segments created by E! News specifically for non-linear platforms. Featuring new E! News reporters Valery Ortiz and Ashlan Gorse, E! News Now kicks off with at least 12 videos a day available on broadband and mobile phones.
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HSM2 Buzz Spawns New Programming
High School Musical 2 is Disney’s gift to other media companies seeking publicity.
Two examples: Rainbow Media’s Lifeskool TV on-demand service said Monday it’s developing a new series, with choreographer George “GEO” Hubela, that will teach viewers famous dance moves from film, TV and music videos. MGM, meanwhile, said it’s signed HSM2’s Ashley Tisdale (“Sharpay Evans”) to star in a direct-to-DVD movie Picture This.
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ION Combats Childhood Obesity
ION Media Networks, through its qubo and ION Life digital networks, is instituting
advertising and media initiatives aimed at improving children’s health and reducing childhood obesity. Qubo, ION’s multi-platform children’s digital multicast network, made a commitment not to air national advertising that features unhealthy food and beverage choices.
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Intellon Supplies Chips to DirecTV
Intellon said it is supplying integrated-circuit solutions for powerline-based home networking for DirecTV's video-on-demand service scheduled to launch this fall.
Intellon will provide HomePlug 1.0 with Turbo powerline communications chips, embedded in a HomePlug powerline-to-Ethernet adapter manufactured by TII Network Technologies.
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Weather's Green Initiative
The Weather Channel is creating a multi-faceted campaign dubbed “Forecast Earth – Going Green At Work” to further bolster the company’s support of environmental and climate matters. As part of the campaign, the all-weather network has incorporated such initiatives as designing its new HDTV studio according to the guidelines from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design organization; eco-friendly cafeteria serving ware; recycling programs for office supplies; and changes to heating and cooling systems for energy conservation, among others.
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Turner Names VP of Media Currency
Turner Broadcasting System appointed research veteran Susan Nathan vice president of media currency. In her new role, Nathan will track and analyze the impact of changes in the planning and buying currencies in the advertising marketplace, as well as collaborate with Turner Research on key internal and industry research and audience measurement initiatives.
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Nick Hires SVP of Development, Programming
Veteran production and development executive Tracy Katsky joined Nickelodeon in the newly created position of senior vice president of development and original programming.
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Fox Promotes Tremblay
Jim Tremblay was promoted to vice president of advertising sales for Fox Reality Channel. A seven-year member of the Fox Cable Networks advertising sales team, Tremblay is now dedicated to the multi-platform network and will oversee all advertising partnerships for Fox Reality Channel and its digital services including wireless, broadband and mobile video providers.
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Small Ball at the FCC
At the White House, the Bush people do not, in the words of the president, play “small ball” – that is, kill valuable time on marginal issues. At the Federal Communications Commission, small ball is sometimes elevated to an Olympic sport, with all manner of slights meted out in those creatively subtly ways for which bureaucrats are famous.
Last Friday, the FCC was at its small-ball best. In an action by the Media Bureau, the FCC said that an April 2002 ruling by then-Media Bureau chief Kenneth Ferree was wrong and vacated. Ferree had effectively told EchoStar it could, under certain conditions, require customers to use two dishes to view all their local TV signals.
The four-page order overturning Ferree five years after the fact was unnecessary, because in late 2004 Congress outlawed the two-dish option, effective 18 months later.
So what was the Media Bureau’s superfluous action really about? Payback, it seems, not about policy.
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