BizofShowBiz: January 2007 Archives

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Jan31	Uma Thurman May be Calling it Quits Gary Bourgeault January 31, 2007 Know More: Actress Uma Thurman, the star of "Kill Bill" and "Pulp Fiction" says that she has is planning to quit acting so she can spend time with and raise her two children. Thurman says, "I love acting, truly it is the first love of my life. But I am thinking about becoming a stay-at-home mom." Concerning whether she's thinking about looking for a husband to be part of the picture, she said, "I'm not getting married. For any human a partner that you trust is invaluable and the partners that I trust most are my children." Maybe that isn't good news for her sometimes relationship with hotel owner Andre Balasz. Her two children, named Maya; age 8, and Roan; age 5, are from her marriage with former husband Ethan Hawke, of whom she says she wants to dedicate all her time to. *Remember to Sign up* for my feed, bizzbite and digg this!** Posted at 8:26 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan31	"House" Holds Viewers, Fox Crushes Competition Again Gary Bourgeault January 31, 2007 In more bad news for their competitors, Fox's (NWS-A) "House" retained 84 percent of the lead-in from "American Idol" and scored the best viewers for a scripted show in over a year. The duo also is believed to have broken... Continue Reading Posted at 5:07 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Sidney Sheldon Dies at 89 Gary Bourgeault January 31, 2007 World famous author and screenwriter Sidney Sheldon died in California Tuesday at the age of 89 from complications related to pneumonia.His 18 popular novels sold over 300 million copies and were translated into 51 languages. As a result he was... Continue Reading Posted at 4:30 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Time Warner Increases Revenue 4 Percent for 2006 Gary Bourgeault January 31, 2007 Time Warner (TWX) performed fairly over 2006 with revenue increasing by 4 percent to $44.2 billion. Operating income grew by 11 percent to $11.1 billion before depreciation and amortization.Considering the revenue shortfalls in their publishing division Time Inc., AOL and... Continue Reading Posted at 3:02 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	DreamWorks/Aardman Animations Partnership "Flushed Away" Gary Bourgeault January 31, 2007 Dreamworks and Aardman Animations, the creators of the Wallace and Gromit film have ended their relationship before completing the agreement inked in 1999. Originally, the pact was for five films, but losses of the most recent offering, "Flushed Away," pretty... Continue Reading Posted at 12:56 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan30	How Will the Super Bowl Factor Impact CBS? Gary Bourgeault January 30, 2007 There has been a lot of projection about the size of the audience that will watch the Super Bowl broadcast on CBS (CBS). Some predict as high as 100 million viewers, while others say there's no guarantee that it will... Continue Reading Posted at 8:21 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Fox Wins Their First Monday of the Season Gary Bourgeault January 30, 2007 Fox (NWS) continues its assault upon the network ratings as it surged to its first Monday night win for the season in the 18-49 group. The action-packed combination of Prison Break" and "24" led the network to the win.Nielsen reported... Continue Reading Posted at 6:32 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	"Not Too Late" by Norah Jones Called Her Best Gary Bourgeault January 30, 2007 EMI finally got some good news as jazz vocalist superstar Norah Jones released what critics are calling her best album she's ever done. Her new release, called "Not Too Late," was so popular with online retailer Amazon.com (AMZN) that it... Continue Reading Posted at 5:22 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	“Armed & Famous” Dropped by CBS Gary Bourgeault January 30, 2007 After only four episodes, the CBS (CBS-A) reality show “Armed & Famous” wasn't, as the network decided to drop it. The show was able to garner some publicity through its controversial decision to have the five lesser-known celebrities carry guns... Continue Reading Posted at 2:33 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Fox Promotes Hutch Parker to Vice Chairman 20th Century Fox Gary Bourgeault January 30, 2007 Chairmen of Fox Filmed Entertainment, Jim Gianopulos and Tom Rothman, made a lot of changes in the unit, beginning with naming former president of 20th Century Fox, Hutch Parker, as 20th Century Fox Film Group's new vice chairman. Parker will... Continue Reading Posted at 12:45 AM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan29	Online Download Revenue to Reach $6.3 Billion by 2012 Gary Bourgeault January 29, 2007 The growing demand for online television and film downloads shows that it should increase 10-fold to reach about $6.3 billion by 2012, according to a report. Even with this increasing reality, many networks are still resisting and are dragging their... Continue Reading Posted at 11:03 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Cable Upfront Looks Slightly Stronger This Year Gary Bourgeault January 29, 2007 The only other year worse than last year in the history of the cable upfront was right after the 2001 terrorist attacks. The poor showing caused a lot of concern in the industry as people had no idea how the... Continue Reading Posted at 9:29 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	"American Idol" Causing More Network Changes Gary Bourgeault January 29, 2007 With "American Idol" destroying everything in its path, some networks are responding by going defensive with some of the shows they believe have a long-term chance at success.ABC (DIS), for example, is switching some of the shows competing with "Idol"... Continue Reading Posted at 1:05 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan28	Penelope Cruz Wins 'Best Actress' at Spanish Film Academy 'Goya' Awards Gary Bourgeault January 28, 2007 The top film awards in Spain were good to Penelope Cruz she won the Best Actress award for her role in the film "Volver." Hoping to gain momentum for the Oscars, Cruz is the first nominee in the best actress... Continue Reading Posted at 7:37 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Top Bollywood Music Director O.P. Nayyar Dies at 81 Gary Bourgeault January 28, 2007 One of Bollywood's most respected music directors, O.P. Nayyar, died on Sunday of a heart attack at 81 years of age. He was most well-known for putting out popular songs in the 1950s and 1960s. According to the Press Trust... Continue Reading Posted at 6:27 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Box Office Results for the Weekend Gary Bourgeault January 28, 2007 New releases took the top two spots at the box office this weekend with the comedy spoof "Epic Movie" taking the top honors. The film which makes fun of a bunch of films, some MTV shows and Paris Hilton finished... Continue Reading Posted at 1:57 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan27	Oprah Picks Sidney Poitier's "The Measure of a Man" for Book Club Gary Bourgeault January 27, 2007 For the first time in about a year, Oprah Winfrey chose a book for her club, choosing to present the autobiography of Sidney Poitier called, "The Measure of a Man" as the choice.Winfrey said that it's taken her so long... Continue Reading Posted at 7:53 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Paramount's Grey Rejected for Best Picture Credits for "The Departed" Gary Bourgeault January 27, 2007 Rejecting the decision of the Producers Guild, Brad Grey, Chairman of Paramount Pictures (VIA-B), was refused concerning the grab at being included in the Oscar credits for the film "The Departed" as a producer, by the Academy of Motion Picture... Continue Reading Posted at 1:57 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan26	Sam Raimi Considering Directing "The Hobbit" Gary Bourgeault January 26, 2007 Rumors have been floating around for awhile that Sam Raimi of "Spider-Man" fame was being considered for taking over the helm of "Lord of the Rings" prequel, "The Hobbit." Now some top-level insiders are saying that Raimi is now seriously... Continue Reading Posted at 11:29 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Imax Fighting to Move Beyond its Traditional Base Gary Bourgeault January 26, 2007 Imax (Imax) has been under strong pressure to grow as its stock price has plummeted after not being able to find a buyer last year.In response they've come up with the idea of going beyond their traditional base of museums and... Continue Reading Posted at 9:32 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Time Warner Profits Decline in 4th Quarter Gary Bourgeault January 26, 2007 What's the problem with high performance in the last quarter you're being compared with? Outdoing it the next year. That's the issue that Time Warner (TWX) faces when profits come out for last quarter's profits in comparison to last year's strong... Continue Reading Posted at 3:24 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Fox Moving Closer to Launching Business News Channel Gary Bourgeault January 26, 2007 Fox has repeatedly said that until they reached the 30 million household distribution mark for carriage, they wouldn't launch their new Fox Business Channel (NWS-A). With recent signings of carriage agreements with Time Warner Cable (TWX) and Comcast (CMCSA), they... Continue Reading Posted at 1:50 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Sundance Film Festival Offering Footage Online Gary Bourgeault January 26, 2007 The Sundance Film Festival extended its online coverage as it made a deal with Yahoo (YHOO) to offer online footage of behind the scenes action at the event. Beginning on Thursday, Yahoo starting adding the video clips of the festival.Included... Continue Reading Posted at 11:56 AM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan25	Focus Features Lands $200 Million Financing Gary Bourgeault January 25, 2007 The money keeps pouring in for film investments as Focus Features, a specialty division of Universal Pictures, secured $200 million from investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort, which will finance between 20-25 features, according to Hollywood Reporter.This isn't Dresdner's first foray into... Continue Reading Posted at 11:22 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Weinstein Company and Dimension Films Sole Sponsors of FX Drama "The Riches" Gary Bourgeault January 25, 2007 The upcoming launch of the FX drama series, "The Riches," will premiere on March 12 with very little commercial interruption. The network has made a deal with the Weinstein Company and Dimension Films to exclusively sponsor the new series opener... Continue Reading Posted at 8:50 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	NBC Universal Presses Charges Against Former Treasurer Gary Bourgeault January 25, 2007 The former treasurer of NBC Universal (GE) was arrested by federal authorities on charges that he stole $800,000 from the company. The indictment was on two counts of wire fraud for Victor Jung of New York. He'll be arraigned today.It... Continue Reading Posted at 4:30 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Age of Fox Viewers Jumps by Five Years Gary Bourgeault January 25, 2007 In an unprecedented increase, Fox (NWS) network had its demographic jump in age by five years since the fourth quarter of 2005. What's unusual about it is that normally these spikes move only by about a year up and down.Nielsen... Continue Reading Posted at 12:18 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan24	Fox Wins State of the Union Cable News Coverage Gary Bourgeault January 24, 2007 The coverage of the Fox News Channel of President Bush's State of the Union Address was almost twice that of its nearest rival CNN. For the night they averaged 4.56 million total viewers and reaching 1.41 million of adults aged... Continue Reading Posted at 9:09 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Judge Blocks Adelphia's $15 Billion Reorganization Plan Gary Bourgeault January 24, 2007 With bondholders introducing to a federal judge eight alleged ways that a bankruptcy judge had made errors in approving the Adelphia reorganization plan, the judge ruled that the bondholders had revealed a "substantial possibility" that there had been mistakes made... Continue Reading Posted at 6:05 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	TV and the Internet Grabbing More of Our Time Gary Bourgeault January 24, 2007 There have been predictions for years that the demise of television watching was at hand, and yet not only is it increasing, it's being watched more per day than ever in history, with people saying that it's on for eight... Continue Reading Posted at 3:59 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Teachers Offered Free Tickets to See "Freedom Writers" Gary Bourgeault January 24, 2007 The AMC theater chain, owned by AMC Entertainment Inc., announced that it was offering teachers who want to see "Freedom Writers" a free ticket to the show starting on February 1. Those interested must teach between the grades of kindergarten... Continue Reading Posted at 1:58 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan23	Fox Grabs New Dramas: "The Cure" and "K-Ville" Gary Bourgeault January 23, 2007 Several new shows were picked up by the networks recently, including two by Fox (NWS-A). One called "K-Ville," is set in the aftermath of Katrina in New Orleans. It's scripted by Jonathan Lisco (NYPD Blue) who also will be the executive... Continue Reading Posted at 11:41 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	"Heroes" Overcomes "24" to Win the Night Gary Bourgeault January 23, 2007 NBC (GE) broadcast its first "Heroes" episode since December 4 and came away with the No. 1 show for the night, according to Nielsen. Heroes finished with a 6.5 rating/15 share in the 18-49 demographic, leading the way for NBC... Continue Reading Posted at 7:40 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	HBO Sues EchoStar Over Failing to Pay for Licensing Fees Gary Bourgeault January 23, 2007 Time Warner Inc. (TWX), via its HBO cable network has sued EchoStar Communications Corp. (DISH) for $90 million saying that it has miscalculated the payment on its licensing fees. The suit alleges that Echostar not only has failed to pay... Continue Reading Posted at 5:09 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Is 'Top Chef' Selling Too Much Real Estate? Gary Bourgeault January 23, 2007 The ongoing product placement experiment continues as the popular Bravo reality show "Top Chef" has a plethora of products integrated into the shows' storyline.Some think that the show is going a little overboard in how the products are being placed... Continue Reading Posted at 1:31 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan22	Football Scores Big Numbers For the Networks Gary Bourgeault January 22, 2007 Capping off a great 10-game postseason average, the Colts-Patriots football game brought in the biggest audience numbers for the American Football Conference championship game in 21 years for CBS (CBS-A). The network is sitting good as they'll broadcast the upcoming... Continue Reading Posted at 8:33 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	DirectTV, CBS Sign Multi-Year Pact Gary Bourgeault January 22, 2007 In a deal with the CBS Corporation (CBS-A), DirecTV (DTV) will continue carrying out-of-market games for the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament. The agreement will also bring the market penetration of CSTV to above 20 million households.The college sports network at... Continue Reading Posted at 6:22 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Analyst Says Big Media Growth May Stall in 2007 Gary Bourgeault January 22, 2007 While the traditional big media companies performed better than expected in 2006 because valuations were less expensive and they focused on controlling and cutting cost better, Banc of America analyst Douglas Shapiro believes that 2007 doesn't look like it will... Continue Reading Posted at 5:39 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	MySpace Launches New "Artist-On-Artist" Interview Series Gary Bourgeault January 22, 2007 News Corp.'s (NWS-A) MySpace has announced that it's launching a new community page on its "Artist-On-Artist" series that will feature videos of various celebrities interviewing one another."The unique nature of the Artist-On-Artist series, creates a 'fly on a wall' experience... Continue Reading Posted at 2:37 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Music Industry Divided in its Outlook - That's Good Gary Bourgeault January 22, 2007 With many critics of the music industry (including me) saying that the focus on "free" content being downloaded has consumed the music industry and kept them from putting their focus on innovation and creativity to come with answers on how... Continue Reading Posted at 12:56 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan21	Barrie M. Osborne Recruited to Produce Racing Great Bruce McLaren's Story Gary Bourgeault January 21, 2007 In a move that will thrill racing and movie fans around the world, Barrie M. Osborne has been chosen to be the producer of the upcoming story of Formula One racing great Bruce McLaren (1937-1970). Osborne was the producer or... Continue Reading Posted at 10:07 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Mediacom Needs a New CEO Gary Bourgeault January 21, 2007 When Sinclair Broadcast Group and Mediacom Communications Corp. weren't able to reach an agreement for pricing concerning a new agreement, Sinclair pulled 22 of their stations from Mediacom after the contract expired. The result was that 700,000 cable subscribers were... Continue Reading Posted at 6:59 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Hollywood Investors Getting Smarter - Part Two Gary Bourgeault January 21, 2007 Continuing on in our look at Hollywood and its investors, let's see a couple of the things that are changing. One of the issues that are being worked on is the studio distribution fees, which investors are insisting upon more flexibility in.... Continue Reading Posted at 5:41 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Hollywood Investors Getting Smarter - Part One Gary Bourgeault January 21, 2007 With its poor history concerning results of returns for its investors, there is a more concerted focus on working with existant cash-rich hedge funds to see if there can be a long-term relationship that can emerge. The past history of... Continue Reading Posted at 5:23 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	NBC Universal Finishes Year Strong Gary Bourgeault January 21, 2007 For the first time in quite a while, NBC Universal (GE) has some positive news going forward. For the first time in a year, the General Electric entertainment division experienced an increase of profits for a quarter. The overall revenue... Continue Reading Posted at 3:51 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Top Ten Weekend Box Office Gary Bourgeault January 21, 2007 "Stomp the Yard" held onto the number one spot in the North American box office for the weekend taking in $13.3 million. After 10 days into release, the film has brought in $41.6 million, and is estimated to finish with... Continue Reading Posted at 1:07 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan20	The Pressure's on Hollywood to Produce Big in 2007 Gary Bourgeault January 20, 2007 With Hollywood talking about a record-breaking year for box office revenue in 2007, anything less than that will now be considered a disaster.The busy season will kick off in May as three blockbuster film franchises offer their new productions that... Continue Reading Posted at 3:58 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Indie Music Labels Form New Group to Aid Artists Gary Bourgeault January 20, 2007 Some independent music labels are banding together in a new group called 'Merlin,' with backers asserting that they will be the "fifth major" in the industry.They look at this as the golden opporunity and time to secure artists with the... Continue Reading Posted at 2:47 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan19	A&E 'Sopranos' Backs Off Against 'Idol' Gary Bourgeault January 19, 2007 The "Idol" factor continues to influence the success of those outside of its broadcast competition as "Sopranos" took it on the chin in their second week running opposite of "Idol" in its first hour.The first week for "Sopranos" on A&E... Continue Reading Posted at 9:29 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	"Ice Age" Most Profitable Film of 2006 Gary Bourgeault January 19, 2007 In the category of the most widely released movies for 2006, the most profitable movie of the year was surprisingly "Ice Age: The Meltdown," which beat out what most thought would be the leader "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's... Continue Reading Posted at 8:10 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Comcast Counting on PGA Deal for Golf Channel Success Gary Bourgeault January 19, 2007 Comcast's Golf Channel has struggled since its inception 12 years ago, even with it being co-founded by Arnold Palmer.In response, they made a deal for 15 years, in hopes that it'll make the channel a household name. Included in the... Continue Reading Posted at 5:44 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan18	CBS Creates New Unit to Focus on DVD Releases Gary Bourgeault January 18, 2007 In a move to further focus and specialize, CBS Corp. (CBS-A) announced that it has built a separate division to center in on its expanding DVD business. The new unit will be called CBS Home Entertainment.It's overall strategy will be... Continue Reading Posted at 6:54 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	"American Idol" Rankings Stay Atmospheric for Night Two Gary Bourgeault January 18, 2007 While executives at Fox (NWS) may not be able to explain it, they probably don't care, as "American Idol" scored huge again in its Wednesday night special with an estimated 36.9 people tuning in to watch the two-hour special in... Continue Reading Posted at 4:42 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	FCC Chaiman Says Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio Merger Prohibited Gary Bourgeault January 18, 2007 With the speculation that has be swirling around the possible mergers of Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI) and XM Satellite Radio (XMSR), it may have been put to rest by FCC chairman Kevin Martin when he said that FCC rules prohibit... Continue Reading Posted at 3:01 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Gwyneth Paltrow Joins Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man Gary Bourgeault January 18, 2007 Originally saying that the role for playing Tony Stark's (Iron Man) secretary Virginia "Pepper" Potts in the upcoming Marvel Entertainment (MVL) project should be like Gwyneth Paltrow, they decided rather than getting someone "like" her, why not try to get... Continue Reading Posted at 1:15 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan17	"American Idol" Numbers Make Other Networks Weep Gary Bourgeault January 17, 2007 Not only showing strong staying power, but growth along with it, "American Idol" soared to new heights as it opened to its highest viewership ever. The show exploded for a extraordinary average of 37.3 million viewers and a 15.7 rating/36... Continue Reading Posted at 8:13 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Nielsen Introducing Six Separate Rating Data Streams Gary Bourgeault January 17, 2007 In the new TV world that included DVRs ... TV studios, advertisers and agencies have demanded more data that reflects these new realities.In response, Nielsen has created three new data streams that will bring the total to six that they... Continue Reading Posted at 5:07 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	United Talent Agency Using Veoh Networks to Find New Artists Gary Bourgeault January 17, 2007 In the continuing search to find new artists, the talent company United Talent Agency has launched a channel on the Internet video service Veoh Networks for a way to discover new clients. UTA represents Hollywood heavyweights like Ben Stiller and... Continue Reading Posted at 4:55 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Fox and Football Finish First in Primetime Last Week Gary Bourgeault January 17, 2007 Last week football came to the aid of the Fox (NWS-A) network as it propelled them to finish first in the prime-time network race last week, according to Nielsen Media Research.The college national championship game between Ohio State Buckeyes and... Continue Reading Posted at 3:52 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	'Final' Dolan Offer for Cablevision Rejected Gary Bourgeault January 17, 2007 A board committee set up for the purpose of considering the offer by the Dolan family, who are the founding members of Cablevision Systems Corp. (CVC), to buy out the company and take it private, rejected the offer, according to a letter... Continue Reading Posted at 3:09 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Worldwide Digital Music Sales Double in 2006 Gary Bourgeault January 17, 2007 The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) announced through its 2007 Digital Music Report that global digital music sales were almost double for 2006, reaching to about $2 billion, which equates to about 10 percent of total music sales.They... Continue Reading Posted at 1:52 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	USA NetWork Adopting User-Generated Content for 'Nashville Star' Gary Bourgeault January 17, 2007 Trying to engage their fans beyond the broadcast show, USA Network has partnered with Juice Wireless to help promote their fifth season of the reality show 'Nashville Star'. JuiceCaster is a service that empowers users to immediately post photos and... Continue Reading Posted at 12:30 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan16	Warner Bros.' Studio 2.0 Lands First Deal Gary Bourgeault January 16, 2007 The recently launched Studio 2.0, a division of Warner Bros. (TWX), created for the purpose of developing content for broadband and mobile, have landed their first deal with Anheuser-Busch. They've been retained to create an online show for the company... Continue Reading Posted at 10:39 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	EMI Music Partnering with China's Baidu.com Gary Bourgeault January 16, 2007 With holiday sales being extremely disappointing and the resultant firing of two of their top music executives, EMI Music is looking to China to prop up its faltering sales. The company made a short-term response of cutting costs and issuing... Continue Reading Posted at 4:51 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	The Super Bowl Becoming a Hard Ad Sell Gary Bourgeault January 16, 2007 While the Super Bowl is the major televised sporting event and a strong revenue producer for whoever has the rights to broadcast it, the commercial spots are growing harder and harder to sell.This year seems to be even harder as... Continue Reading Posted at 1:32 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Syndication's Low Clutter Advantage Gary Bourgeault January 16, 2007 Nielsen Media Research released new data at the National Association of Television Program Executives meeting that shows that the TV syndication industry has some strong advantages against the national TV distribution network.With a difficult upfront anticipated by everybody, the research... Continue Reading Posted at 12:19 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan15	ABC's Strategy for Upcoming Season Gary Bourgeault January 15, 2007 President of ABC Entertainment, Stephen McPherson said during the Television Critics Association's meeting that he will be changing some of the mix of their current comedy, dramas and procedural programming in the upcoming season, according Media Daily News."There is so... Continue Reading Posted at 3:52 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	ABC Struggling With Direction of "Lost" Gary Bourgeault January 15, 2007 With viewership of "Lost" dropping 14 percent this year, ABC (DIS) executives have been struggling to come up with a solution to the complicated show that will keep existing fans while drawing back fans that have left.Executive producer Damon Lindelof... Continue Reading Posted at 1:16 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	"Ugly Betty" Best Primetime Ad Buy Gary Bourgeault January 15, 2007 Not only has the unique show "Ugly Betty" one of the surprise hits of the season with around 5 million viewers between the ages of 18-49 tuning in to watch it, but it's also the best buy this season in... Continue Reading Posted at 12:21 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan14	Alliance Atlantis About to be Under New Management Gary Bourgeault January 14, 2007 The Alliance Atlantis Communications (AAC-B) saga may be finally coming to an end as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), in a joint takeover of the company with CanWest Global Communications Inc. ( CGS)for $2.3 billion, begins running operations this week.... Continue Reading Posted at 9:38 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Universal Pictures Wants Rob Cohen for "Mummy 3" Gary Bourgeault January 14, 2007 Universal Pictures is in negotiations with Rob Cohen to take over directing their third installment of the "Mummy" series. He would take over for Stephen Sommers who directed the first two "Mummy" films which were released in 1999 and 2001;... Continue Reading Posted at 1:44 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Bill Moyers Returning to PBS Gary Bourgeault January 14, 2007 Saying that people have been encouraging him to get back into the mix and tell stories and represent voices that aren't being heard, Bill Moyers decided to return to PBS to host a weekly public affairs series with the former... Continue Reading Posted at 1:04 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Indie Record Label V2 North America Restructures Gary Bourgeault January 14, 2007 The indie music label V2, founded by British billionaire Richard Branson in 1996, has announced a restructuring of its business that resulted in its staff being laid off, and it becoming a catalog label. Approximately 35 people were let go,... Continue Reading Posted at 12:29 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Top Ten Box Office for Weekend Gary Bourgeault January 14, 2007 Stomp the Yard, the story about a Los Angeles student at an Atlanta university who helps his fraternity compete in a step dancing contest, came in first place for the weekend with an estimated $22 million in sales.Night of the... Continue Reading Posted at 11:57 AM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan13	EMI Music Group Issues Profit Warning Gary Bourgeault January 13, 2007 Weak sales in the holiday season has forced EMI Group to issue a profit warning Friday, outlining another restructuring to cut costs and also announced that their two top recorded music executives are gone.The company said that for the fiscal... Continue Reading Posted at 10:11 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Disney CEO Earns Big Payday Gary Bourgeault January 13, 2007 The compensation committee for Disney (DIS) deemed that CEO Bob Iger exceeded the financial performance goals set before him and rewarded him with $15 million in bonus pay in response. This was in addition to his yearly salary of $2... Continue Reading Posted at 9:25 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Virgin America Chooses EchoStar for Inflight Entertainment Gary Bourgeault January 13, 2007 Richard Branson's tentative new airline Virgin America announced that they have chosen EchoStar Communications Corp. (DISH) as the primary inflight entertainment for the airline.Technically Branson can't legally have a controlling interest in the airline, as U.S. law forbids foreign control... Continue Reading Posted at 9:09 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Johnny Depp and Warner Bros. Secure Rights to KGB Agent Story Gary Bourgeault January 13, 2007 In a surging battle to tell the story of the strange death of KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, Warner Bros. (TWX) has struck first by acquiring the film rights to an unpublished book "Sasha's Story: The Life and Death of a... Continue Reading Posted at 4:15 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	The 11 Greatest Recording Studios in the World Gary Bourgeault January 13, 2007 Writing for the Telegraph, Andrew Perry and Robert Sandall talk about the new television music series that will feature the most famous recording studio in the world - Abbey Road, and will appropriately be called, 'Live From Abbey Road.'A number... Continue Reading Posted at 12:42 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan12	Weather Channel Launching Two New Miniseries Gary Bourgeault January 12, 2007 The Weather Channel which has always had the challenge of getting people to stay on the channel once they've seen the forecast, are rolling out a couple of new shows to see if they can drive longer visits.Planned to coincide... Continue Reading Posted at 9:56 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	NBCU Launching New Horror Channel "Chiller" Gary Bourgeault January 12, 2007 NBC Universal (GE) has decided the increasingly crowed field of the horror genre by launching a new channel catering exclusively to that niche content.They follow Comcast (CMCSA) which launched a similar channel last year called "FearNet," which is only distributed... Continue Reading Posted at 9:27 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Dolan Family Increase Buyout Bid to $30 Per Share Gary Bourgeault January 12, 2007 In their continuing bid to take Cablevision Systems Corp. (CVC) private, controlling shareholders, the Dolan family, increased their bid for the company to $8.9 billion, saying that this was their final offer.The offer was for $30 per share which was... Continue Reading Posted at 7:01 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	National CineMedia Going Public Gary Bourgeault January 12, 2007 When you watch those pre-show commercials when you go to the movie theater, you can count it probably being handled by National CineMedia. In a move to clear their debt slate and grow, the company announced that it will be... Continue Reading Posted at 2:27 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	CBS Creates New Sports Selling Division Gary Bourgeault January 12, 2007 In an effort to improve communication across divisions and create multi-year deals, CBS (CBS) has created a new division called "CBS Sports Properties Group." CBS has picked Chris Simko to head up the new division. He was the senior vice... Continue Reading Posted at 1:59 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	KFC Anti-DVR Ad-skipping Commercial on "American Idol" Gary Bourgeault January 12, 2007 Last year KFC (YUM) got a lot of press concerning its advertising strategy that fought the DVR ad-skipping habit many people are into. This year they're doing it again in a one-time ad during the upcoming "American Idol" show on... Continue Reading Posted at 12:45 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan11	New Line Cinema's Bob Shaye Lashes out at Peter Jackson Again Gary Bourgeault January 11, 2007 The high profile battle between Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema's Bob Shaye is getting even nastier as Shaye lashed out a Jackson again this week saying, "I don't care about Peter Jackson anymore. He wants to have another $100... Continue Reading Posted at 5:56 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Violent TV Content Has Surged According to Parents Television Council Gary Bourgeault January 11, 2007 The Parents Television Council, which watches out for families and children concerning media behavior, released a new report stating that violence on TV has increased tremendously and is calling for "marketers to demand full refunds when their ads appear next... Continue Reading Posted at 4:46 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	A&E's Sopranos Premieres with a Bang Gary Bourgeault January 11, 2007 The results for A&E's premiere of Sopranos had to make executives at the company breath a little easier as it drew 4.3 million viewers, which makes it the most-watched off-network series premiere in cable history. The company paid $2.55 million... Continue Reading Posted at 4:08 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Kirstie Alley To Produce and Star In "And She Was" Gary Bourgeault January 11, 2007 In a movie being made for the Lifetime Channel, Kirstie Alley will executive produce and star in the upcoming movie "And She Was."The film is a satiric comedy about a middle-aged female screenwriter that understands that she is considered finished... Continue Reading Posted at 3:09 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Bravo Signs On New Sponsors for its Upcoming "Top Design" Series Gary Bourgeault January 11, 2007 Having success with their reality show offerings like Top Chef and Project Runway, sponsors have flocked to be part of the 10-part series "Top Design" which debuts on Bravo January 31.Sponsors for the show include Elle Décor, LendingTree.com, Thomasville Furniture,... Continue Reading Posted at 2:27 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Sumner Redstone Exercises Options and Sells Shares Gary Bourgeault January 11, 2007 Viacom (VIA) Chairman Sumner Redstone exercised options on 24,430 shares of common stock in the company and sold another 14,538 shares under a prearranged trading plan, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.Redstone reported that he had exercised the... Continue Reading Posted at 12:32 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan10	Broadband Video-to-TV a Challenge to Cable Companies Gary Bourgeault January 10, 2007 In an apparent contradiction, consumers want the ability to view content they have on their PCs on TV Screens, but not pay for it. Now that part of the problem is being solved with devices being created that do just... Continue Reading Posted at 6:27 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	ESPN Drops Out of Top 10 Cable Audience Gary Bourgeault January 10, 2007 With the National Football League season over, the ESPN hold on being the top cable rated network is over. The ESPN (DIS) network not only dropped from first place, but also dropped out of the top ten prime time average... Continue Reading Posted at 4:46 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Hollywood Reaching out to Core Demographic Through Xbox Live Marketplace Gary Bourgeault January 10, 2007 The Xbox Live Marketplace (MSFT), where the core demographic of young males like to congregate, has been a fertile ground that Hollywood has been exploring to reach out to their key consumer. They've had a tough time finding them as their... Continue Reading Posted at 3:31 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Disney Ranked High by Ad Agency Executives Gary Bourgeault January 10, 2007 The Advertiser Perceptions' Advertiser Intelligence Report, research based upon surveying over 2,000 ad executives and how they feel about the results that media companies provide, unveiled its latest findings, which is performed twice a year.The latest report shows that concerning... Continue Reading Posted at 1:49 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Web TV Comedy Channel Sends Cease-and-Desist Order to SNL Gary Bourgeault January 10, 2007 The Web TV Comedy channel STASHWAX, has sent a cease-and-desist order to NBC's "Saturday Night Live," accusing them of copyright infringement.Media Daily News says that "The order demands that 'SNL' end all visibility of its short video skit 'SNL Apocalypto... Continue Reading Posted at 1:36 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	HDTV Penetration in U.S. at 16 Percent Gary Bourgeault January 10, 2007 The Leichtman Research Group discovered that with a little over two years to go, one of of every six households in the U.S. have an HDTV, some have more than one. Two years ago those numbers were one in every... Continue Reading Posted at 11:29 AM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan 9	Nickelodeon Expanding its Advertiser Base Gary Bourgeault January 9, 2007 In an attempt to expand its advertising base, Nickelodeon, whose demographic is the 2-11 age group, has made a deal with State Farm Insurance in a multiplatform deal. The deal entails not only the Nickelodeon network, but also includes the NickJr.com... Continue Reading Posted at 10:35 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	James Cameron in "Avatar," wants to "Rekindle Mystical Moments" Gary Bourgeault January 9, 2007 James Cameron started working on the Science Fiction action screenplay for "Avatar" 11 years ago, when he wrote an 80 page summary of what he wanted. The movie, which will be shot in the new digital 3-D format so that... Continue Reading Posted at 9:18 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Paramount Partners with Apple for Movie Downloads Gary Bourgeault January 9, 2007 Paramount and Apple iTunes (AAPL) have reportedly reached an agreement to sell movies through its download service, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal via MediaPost.One missing element that was obvious through its absence was the selling of... Continue Reading Posted at 5:30 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Stupid Sirius Satellite Radio pays Howard Stern $83 Million Stock Bonus Gary Bourgeault January 9, 2007 Showing why their company is hemmoraging money, Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI) paid Howard Stern an $83 million stock bonus based upon an agreement when they signed him on. Talk about giving away the company. You can't blame Stern, if a... Continue Reading Posted at 3:09 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Steve Jobs About to Launch Apple TV Gary Bourgeault January 9, 2007 With a lot of people eager to get a look at the new set-top box that will empower consumers to stream video from their computers to their televisions, Apple Computer (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs announced that the company will start... Continue Reading Posted at 1:19 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan 8	A&E Reveals "The Sopranos" Strategy Gary Bourgeault January 8, 2007 Paying out a whopping $2.5 million per episode for the snydication rights to "The Sopranos," A&E had to come up with a plan to make the investment worth it.For the "Soprano" fans, Mel Berning, exec VP-advertising sales, said that he... Continue Reading Posted at 5:37 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Sinclair, Comcast Battle Heating Up Gary Bourgeault January 8, 2007 Battling over retransmission consent, Sinclair Broadcast (SBGI) may end up pulling 30 stations off of Comcast if they can't reach an agreement. It would end up affecting about 3 million customers who wouldn't receive the signal.The current carriage deal with... Continue Reading Posted at 4:26 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Supreme Court Rejects EchoStar Appeal Gary Bourgeault January 8, 2007 Trying to get the Supreme Court to hear their appeal of a nationwide injunction that prohibits them from transmitting network television signals, the EchoStar Communications Corp. (DISH) was denied the opportunity.The issue centered around the Federal law that lets satellite... Continue Reading Posted at 2:45 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Fox wants "American Idol" to be Year-Round Property Gary Bourgeault January 8, 2007 Fox (NWS) has adopted a new strategy this year concerning its "American Idol" property. They still have their three big major advertisers in Coca-Cola (KO), Ford (F) and Cingular (T), but hava also added six more advertising partners that will... Continue Reading Posted at 2:03 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Product Placement Making Strong Impression on TV Viewers Gary Bourgeault January 8, 2007 When IAG Research took a look at what the most effective way of offering product placement for television shows, they found that offering something to help the consumer was the key differentiator. Consumers were positive about brands that were placed... Continue Reading Posted at 1:21 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Study Shows Males' Media Consumption Doesn't Change Over Time Gary Bourgeault January 8, 2007 In an interesting study by Horizon, research revealed that when men grow into their 20s and 30s, they either return to, or continue watching the same type of TV shows that they did as boys."They watch "The Simpsons," Adult Swim,... Continue Reading Posted at 11:46 AM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan 7	"Night at the Museum" Tops Weekend Box Office Gary Bourgeault January 7, 2007 Topping the weekend box office for the third consecutive week, "Night at the Museum" took in $24 million. The three-week total for the film now has reached $164.1 million.The feel-good movie "The Pursuit of Happyness," starring Will Smith and his... Continue Reading Posted at 1:26 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Hank Steinberg Nabbed by NBC Gary Bourgeault January 7, 2007 With his deal with Warner Bros. TV (TWX) ending in June of 2007, it didn't take long for one of Warner's competitors to grab Hank Steinberg. Steinberg is currently creator and executive producer of "Without a Trace." He signed a... Continue Reading Posted at 12:23 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan 6	DirectTV In Talks to Buy Rainbow Media Holdings Gary Bourgeault January 6, 2007 With the DirectTV (DTV) deal with News Corp. (NWS) taken care of, John Malone is now looking to acquire Cablevision's Rainbow Media Holdings (CVC), which would include the movie channels WE: Women's Entertainment and AMC. The reason for the negotiations... Continue Reading Posted at 2:08 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	NYT Co. Sells "Broadcast Media Group" for $575 Million Gary Bourgeault January 6, 2007 Saying that they want to focus more on their digital media and newspaper business, The New York Times (NYT) announced that it reached a deal with Oak Hill Capital Partners, a private equity firm, to sell its Broadcast Media Group... Continue Reading Posted at 1:24 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Consumers Fight Back Against Major Digital Music Players Gary Bourgeault January 6, 2007 The music industry has continually infuriated consumers by using all sorts of methods to attempt to protect their copyrights. Now people are starting to fight back and attempt to turn things around. Apple Computer (AAPL) was recently sued by one... Continue Reading Posted at 12:21 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	DriverTV Adopting Cost-Per-View Model Gary Bourgeault January 6, 2007 In November of 2005, DriverTV launched its business by guaranteeing a specific number of views over a 12-month period for their automaker customers. They are now moving toward and adopting a cost per click model.DriverTV is now on Comcast (CMCSA),... Continue Reading Posted at 12:01 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Showtime Launching New Comedy Series Gary Bourgeault January 6, 2007 With the public having a seemingly insatiable appetite for comedy, Showtime has announced that it is launching a new comedy platform called, "Laugh Out Loud." It will include monthly comedy from a number of well known comedians and comediennes such... Continue Reading Posted at 10:55 AM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan 5	NBC Distributing "Black Donnellys" Through Netflix First Gary Bourgeault January 5, 2007 NBC (GE) is trying different strategies to get their new shows noticed. In another attempt at using different means to that end, they have made their upcoming drama "The Black Donnellys" available for Netflix subscribers before they even stream it... Continue Reading Posted at 2:15 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	MGM to Syndicate Comedy Centrals' "Reno 911," "Chappelle" Gary Bourgeault January 5, 2007 The recent partnership between New Line Television and MGM has produced its first results as the companies announced that they're bringing the risqué comedies "Reno 911" and "Chappelle's Show" into syndication. In a way similar to "Sex and the City,"... Continue Reading Posted at 1:23 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	NBC Will Offer Broadcasts in NYC Taxis Gary Bourgeault January 5, 2007 NBC is about to launch a unique experiment this year by offering NBC (GE) television content via New York City taxi cabs. They have gone into a partnership with Clear Channel Taxi Media to make it happen.Clear Channel Taxi Media... Continue Reading Posted at 11:41 AM \| Permalink \| Comments
	The Walt Disney Company gets "Spocko Brain" Shut Down Gary Bourgeault January 5, 2007 In the continuing battle between big media and bloggers, The Walt Disney Company (DIS) struck back at media critic "Spocko" by getting the site "Spocko's Brain" taken off the web."Spocko" evidently didn't like what right-wing talk show hosts at Bay... Continue Reading Posted at 11:22 AM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Warner Markets 'Painted Veil' to Specific Theaters Gary Bourgeault January 5, 2007 In a unique experiment and trial, Warner Independent Pictures (TWX) marketed their film "The Painted Veil" to specific theaters in specific markets, something that hasn't been done before with theatrical movies.As we all know, a message from TV advertising of... Continue Reading Posted at 11:06 AM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan 4	Sean Hannity Hosting New Fox News Channel Show: "Hannity's America" Gary Bourgeault January 4, 2007 Starting this Sunday, Sean Hannity, one of the stars of the popular "Hannity & Colmes" show on Fox, has been given his own weekly, hourly show called "Hannity's America." The show will be broadcast live, and will be a little... Continue Reading Posted at 4:51 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Survey Confirms that Going to Movie Theaters will Continue to Decline Gary Bourgeault January 4, 2007 In a joint global survey by PA Consulting Group and the Motion Picture Association of America, it was found that not wanting to go to the movie theater itself, along with increasing competition for the time and money of consumers,... Continue Reading Posted at 4:14 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	At Large with Geraldo Rivera returning to Fox News Channel Gary Bourgeault January 4, 2007 Twentieth Television has decided to stop production on the Geraldo at Large in the middle of January, while returning the show to the Fox News Channel (NWS-A) with a weekend edition. The time slot is yet to be determined. It... Continue Reading Posted at 3:22 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Disney, News Corp. and Time Warner Stocks Up Big for the Year Gary Bourgeault January 4, 2007 In contrast to the last three years, some of the big media companies had great years as far as their stock prices go. Disney (DIS), with Bob Iger seeming to make the right move at the right time every time,... Continue Reading Posted at 2:23 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	PGA Tour Adding Points Competition To Keep Viewers' Interest Gary Bourgeault January 4, 2007 In a bid to keep viewers interested in the PGA Tour throughout the year, they have decided to use the NASCAR model to do the job.Golf has had an interest problem for a long time as it had no mechanism... Continue Reading Posted at 12:50 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Small Sports Conferences Being Sought Out by Cable Networks Gary Bourgeault January 4, 2007 With the seemingly insatiable appetite for sports viewing in America, the cable networks are digging deeper into the pool as they look for more content to offer their audiences. ESPNU (DIS) has made a deal with the Metro Atlantic Athletic... Continue Reading Posted at 7:54 AM \| Permalink \| Comments
	'Apprentice' Premiering Online Before Being Aired Gary Bourgeault January 4, 2007 In a move that is becoming increasingly used by the networks, NBC (GE) has decided to premier its popular "The Apprentice" online several days before it is aired. The one different thing this time is that it will show the... Continue Reading Posted at 7:19 AM \| Permalink \| Comments
	American Idol's Bucky Covington Gets Recording Contract Gary Bourgeault January 4, 2007 Another American Idol finalist from season five has been signed to a recording contract. Bucky Covington was signed by Lyric Street Records to make him the eighth person from season to receive that honor.Covington said, "People don't realize that when... Continue Reading Posted at 4:24 AM \| Permalink \| Comments
	The O.C. Will Say its Goodbye on Feb. 22 Gary Bourgeault January 4, 2007 Fox (NWS) has announced that this will be the final run of The O.C. starting with new episodes on Thursday, and finishing up with the final episode on Feb. 22."The O.C. season four finale will also be the series finale.... Continue Reading Posted at 12:25 AM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan 3	Two Big Hollywood Agents Defect to Endeavor Gary Bourgeault January 3, 2007 Things were fun in Hollywood today! Two of the top Hollywood agents, who represent highly-ranked directors and writers in both film and television, jumped ship from International Creative Management, to rival Endeavor.Once the announcement was made, all hell broke loose... Continue Reading Posted at 11:27 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Sirius Needs to Merge with XM - XM Doesn't Need to Merge with Sirius Gary Bourgeault January 3, 2007 Mel Karmazin, CEO of Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI) has been pushing hard to get their chief rival XM Satlellite Radio (XMSR) to merge with them. David Frear, CFO for Sirius, also said the merger would help "to reduce costs, and... Continue Reading Posted at 8:11 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	News Corp. and Time Warner Reportedly Reach Deal on Fox Channels Gary Bourgeault January 3, 2007 News Corp. (NWS-A) and Time Warner (TWX) have reached an agreement on an all-encompassing contract that is said to have been finalized on Dec. 28. The deal, according to executives close to the proceedings, includes:"... retransmission-consent carriage for Fox’s owned-and-operated... Continue Reading Posted at 7:09 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	MyTVPal Launches New VOD Service Gary Bourgeault January 3, 2007 Entering the growing Video on Demand space, MatrixStream Technologies finally launched is VOD service via its MyTVPal.com Web site.At this point its main point of differentiation is that it will offer content in DVD and HD-quality video in 720X480 resolution.... Continue Reading Posted at 4:42 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan 2	Bravo Renews Popular Top Chef Series Gary Bourgeault January 2, 2007 With boasting rights to the top-rated food show on cable, Bravo will begin casting for its third season for the the popular Top Chef reality series.In its second season, the show averaged 1.22 million viewers aged 18-49, according to Nielsen... Continue Reading Posted at 10:29 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Echostar Dish Network No Longer Carrying Court TV Gary Bourgeault January 2, 2007 Turner Broadcasting announced that they couldn't reach a deal with Echostar's Dish Network (DISH) for a new carriage agreement and as a result the feed for Court TV was pulled at 12:01 ET Monday morning, according to a report by... Continue Reading Posted at 10:10 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Walt Disney Studios has a Breakout Year Gary Bourgeault January 2, 2007 I've talked about the success of Sony's (SNE) year at the box office, but The Walt Disney Co. (DIS) also had a tremendous year, with their studio division generating $3.26 billion in global box office revenue for 2006. In a... Continue Reading Posted at 9:32 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	"Wheel of Fortune" and "Jeopardy!" Renewed Through 2012 Gary Bourgeault January 2, 2007 Roger KIng, CEO of CBS (CBS) Television Distribution, announced that "Wheel of Fortune" and "Jeopardy!" have been renewed through the 2011-2012 seasons.So far the shows have been renewed in around a third of the country, with Sinclair, ABC (DIS), Post-Newsweek,... Continue Reading Posted at 8:22 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Music Industry Starting to Understand it can Monetize User-Generated Content Gary Bourgeault January 2, 2007 While it has taken far longer than it should have, the music industry is finally starting to understand that the user-generated videos that include copyrighted music, are sources of income that the industry hasn't even had to promote or spend... Continue Reading Posted at 7:33 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	CBS Decides Not to Replace Ed Bradley of '60 Minutes' This Season Gary Bourgeault January 2, 2007 CBS has decided they won't replace "60 Minutes" correspondent Ed Bradley this season, who died Nov. 9. "It's a long-term project to find the next full-time person who can show the abilities that are expected of a '60 Minutes' correspondent,"... Continue Reading Posted at 7:01 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	The Fiesta Bowl leads Fox to Primetime New Year's Day Victory Gary Bourgeault January 2, 2007 The last quarter of the 2006 TV season didn't do much for Fox (NWS), but the New Year's Day victory to start off 2007 should be the first of many victories in the coming months ahead for the network. The... Continue Reading Posted at 6:37 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	The Impact of DVRs on TV Watching Gary Bourgeault January 2, 2007 The recent season rankings of the most-watched shows using a DVR confirmed that sporting events and reality shows are for the most part viewed live. Another finding was that shows with continuing story lines also ranked high on DVR viewing.Another... Continue Reading Posted at 3:33 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan 1	Hollywood Finishes 2006 with a Modest Increase Gary Bourgeault January 1, 2007 The final weekend of the 2006 box-office finished strong with a 10% increase over last years box-office finish. Still for the year, revenue grew by 4.9% over 2006 to $9.4 billion, credited to a 3.3% increase in attendance and increased... Continue Reading Posted at 5:35 PM \| Permalink \| Comments

« December 2006 | Main | February 2007 »

Jan31	Uma Thurman May be Calling it Quits Gary Bourgeault January 31, 2007 Know More: Actress Uma Thurman, the star of "Kill Bill" and "Pulp Fiction" says that she has is planning to quit acting so she can spend time with and raise her two children. Thurman says, "I love acting, truly it is the first love of my life. But I am thinking about becoming a stay-at-home mom." Concerning whether she's thinking about looking for a husband to be part of the picture, she said, "I'm not getting married. For any human a partner that you trust is invaluable and the partners that I trust most are my children." Maybe that isn't good news for her sometimes relationship with hotel owner Andre Balasz. Her two children, named Maya; age 8, and Roan; age 5, are from her marriage with former husband Ethan Hawke, of whom she says she wants to dedicate all her time to. *Remember to Sign up* for my feed, bizzbite and digg this!** Posted at 8:26 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan31	"House" Holds Viewers, Fox Crushes Competition Again Gary Bourgeault January 31, 2007 In more bad news for their competitors, Fox's (NWS-A) "House" retained 84 percent of the lead-in from "American Idol" and scored the best viewers for a scripted show in over a year. The duo also is believed to have broken... Continue Reading Posted at 5:07 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Sidney Sheldon Dies at 89 Gary Bourgeault January 31, 2007 World famous author and screenwriter Sidney Sheldon died in California Tuesday at the age of 89 from complications related to pneumonia.His 18 popular novels sold over 300 million copies and were translated into 51 languages. As a result he was... Continue Reading Posted at 4:30 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Time Warner Increases Revenue 4 Percent for 2006 Gary Bourgeault January 31, 2007 Time Warner (TWX) performed fairly over 2006 with revenue increasing by 4 percent to $44.2 billion. Operating income grew by 11 percent to $11.1 billion before depreciation and amortization.Considering the revenue shortfalls in their publishing division Time Inc., AOL and... Continue Reading Posted at 3:02 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	DreamWorks/Aardman Animations Partnership "Flushed Away" Gary Bourgeault January 31, 2007 Dreamworks and Aardman Animations, the creators of the Wallace and Gromit film have ended their relationship before completing the agreement inked in 1999. Originally, the pact was for five films, but losses of the most recent offering, "Flushed Away," pretty... Continue Reading Posted at 12:56 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan30	How Will the Super Bowl Factor Impact CBS? Gary Bourgeault January 30, 2007 There has been a lot of projection about the size of the audience that will watch the Super Bowl broadcast on CBS (CBS). Some predict as high as 100 million viewers, while others say there's no guarantee that it will... Continue Reading Posted at 8:21 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Fox Wins Their First Monday of the Season Gary Bourgeault January 30, 2007 Fox (NWS) continues its assault upon the network ratings as it surged to its first Monday night win for the season in the 18-49 group. The action-packed combination of Prison Break" and "24" led the network to the win.Nielsen reported... Continue Reading Posted at 6:32 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	"Not Too Late" by Norah Jones Called Her Best Gary Bourgeault January 30, 2007 EMI finally got some good news as jazz vocalist superstar Norah Jones released what critics are calling her best album she's ever done. Her new release, called "Not Too Late," was so popular with online retailer Amazon.com (AMZN) that it... Continue Reading Posted at 5:22 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	“Armed & Famous” Dropped by CBS Gary Bourgeault January 30, 2007 After only four episodes, the CBS (CBS-A) reality show “Armed & Famous” wasn't, as the network decided to drop it. The show was able to garner some publicity through its controversial decision to have the five lesser-known celebrities carry guns... Continue Reading Posted at 2:33 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Fox Promotes Hutch Parker to Vice Chairman 20th Century Fox Gary Bourgeault January 30, 2007 Chairmen of Fox Filmed Entertainment, Jim Gianopulos and Tom Rothman, made a lot of changes in the unit, beginning with naming former president of 20th Century Fox, Hutch Parker, as 20th Century Fox Film Group's new vice chairman. Parker will... Continue Reading Posted at 12:45 AM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan29	Online Download Revenue to Reach $6.3 Billion by 2012 Gary Bourgeault January 29, 2007 The growing demand for online television and film downloads shows that it should increase 10-fold to reach about $6.3 billion by 2012, according to a report. Even with this increasing reality, many networks are still resisting and are dragging their... Continue Reading Posted at 11:03 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Cable Upfront Looks Slightly Stronger This Year Gary Bourgeault January 29, 2007 The only other year worse than last year in the history of the cable upfront was right after the 2001 terrorist attacks. The poor showing caused a lot of concern in the industry as people had no idea how the... Continue Reading Posted at 9:29 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	"American Idol" Causing More Network Changes Gary Bourgeault January 29, 2007 With "American Idol" destroying everything in its path, some networks are responding by going defensive with some of the shows they believe have a long-term chance at success.ABC (DIS), for example, is switching some of the shows competing with "Idol"... Continue Reading Posted at 1:05 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan28	Penelope Cruz Wins 'Best Actress' at Spanish Film Academy 'Goya' Awards Gary Bourgeault January 28, 2007 The top film awards in Spain were good to Penelope Cruz she won the Best Actress award for her role in the film "Volver." Hoping to gain momentum for the Oscars, Cruz is the first nominee in the best actress... Continue Reading Posted at 7:37 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Top Bollywood Music Director O.P. Nayyar Dies at 81 Gary Bourgeault January 28, 2007 One of Bollywood's most respected music directors, O.P. Nayyar, died on Sunday of a heart attack at 81 years of age. He was most well-known for putting out popular songs in the 1950s and 1960s. According to the Press Trust... Continue Reading Posted at 6:27 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Box Office Results for the Weekend Gary Bourgeault January 28, 2007 New releases took the top two spots at the box office this weekend with the comedy spoof "Epic Movie" taking the top honors. The film which makes fun of a bunch of films, some MTV shows and Paris Hilton finished... Continue Reading Posted at 1:57 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan27	Oprah Picks Sidney Poitier's "The Measure of a Man" for Book Club Gary Bourgeault January 27, 2007 For the first time in about a year, Oprah Winfrey chose a book for her club, choosing to present the autobiography of Sidney Poitier called, "The Measure of a Man" as the choice.Winfrey said that it's taken her so long... Continue Reading Posted at 7:53 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Paramount's Grey Rejected for Best Picture Credits for "The Departed" Gary Bourgeault January 27, 2007 Rejecting the decision of the Producers Guild, Brad Grey, Chairman of Paramount Pictures (VIA-B), was refused concerning the grab at being included in the Oscar credits for the film "The Departed" as a producer, by the Academy of Motion Picture... Continue Reading Posted at 1:57 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan26	Sam Raimi Considering Directing "The Hobbit" Gary Bourgeault January 26, 2007 Rumors have been floating around for awhile that Sam Raimi of "Spider-Man" fame was being considered for taking over the helm of "Lord of the Rings" prequel, "The Hobbit." Now some top-level insiders are saying that Raimi is now seriously... Continue Reading Posted at 11:29 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Imax Fighting to Move Beyond its Traditional Base Gary Bourgeault January 26, 2007 Imax (Imax) has been under strong pressure to grow as its stock price has plummeted after not being able to find a buyer last year.In response they've come up with the idea of going beyond their traditional base of museums and... Continue Reading Posted at 9:32 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Time Warner Profits Decline in 4th Quarter Gary Bourgeault January 26, 2007 What's the problem with high performance in the last quarter you're being compared with? Outdoing it the next year. That's the issue that Time Warner (TWX) faces when profits come out for last quarter's profits in comparison to last year's strong... Continue Reading Posted at 3:24 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Fox Moving Closer to Launching Business News Channel Gary Bourgeault January 26, 2007 Fox has repeatedly said that until they reached the 30 million household distribution mark for carriage, they wouldn't launch their new Fox Business Channel (NWS-A). With recent signings of carriage agreements with Time Warner Cable (TWX) and Comcast (CMCSA), they... Continue Reading Posted at 1:50 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Sundance Film Festival Offering Footage Online Gary Bourgeault January 26, 2007 The Sundance Film Festival extended its online coverage as it made a deal with Yahoo (YHOO) to offer online footage of behind the scenes action at the event. Beginning on Thursday, Yahoo starting adding the video clips of the festival.Included... Continue Reading Posted at 11:56 AM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan25	Focus Features Lands $200 Million Financing Gary Bourgeault January 25, 2007 The money keeps pouring in for film investments as Focus Features, a specialty division of Universal Pictures, secured $200 million from investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort, which will finance between 20-25 features, according to Hollywood Reporter.This isn't Dresdner's first foray into... Continue Reading Posted at 11:22 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Weinstein Company and Dimension Films Sole Sponsors of FX Drama "The Riches" Gary Bourgeault January 25, 2007 The upcoming launch of the FX drama series, "The Riches," will premiere on March 12 with very little commercial interruption. The network has made a deal with the Weinstein Company and Dimension Films to exclusively sponsor the new series opener... Continue Reading Posted at 8:50 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	NBC Universal Presses Charges Against Former Treasurer Gary Bourgeault January 25, 2007 The former treasurer of NBC Universal (GE) was arrested by federal authorities on charges that he stole $800,000 from the company. The indictment was on two counts of wire fraud for Victor Jung of New York. He'll be arraigned today.It... Continue Reading Posted at 4:30 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Age of Fox Viewers Jumps by Five Years Gary Bourgeault January 25, 2007 In an unprecedented increase, Fox (NWS) network had its demographic jump in age by five years since the fourth quarter of 2005. What's unusual about it is that normally these spikes move only by about a year up and down.Nielsen... Continue Reading Posted at 12:18 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan24	Fox Wins State of the Union Cable News Coverage Gary Bourgeault January 24, 2007 The coverage of the Fox News Channel of President Bush's State of the Union Address was almost twice that of its nearest rival CNN. For the night they averaged 4.56 million total viewers and reaching 1.41 million of adults aged... Continue Reading Posted at 9:09 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Judge Blocks Adelphia's $15 Billion Reorganization Plan Gary Bourgeault January 24, 2007 With bondholders introducing to a federal judge eight alleged ways that a bankruptcy judge had made errors in approving the Adelphia reorganization plan, the judge ruled that the bondholders had revealed a "substantial possibility" that there had been mistakes made... Continue Reading Posted at 6:05 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	TV and the Internet Grabbing More of Our Time Gary Bourgeault January 24, 2007 There have been predictions for years that the demise of television watching was at hand, and yet not only is it increasing, it's being watched more per day than ever in history, with people saying that it's on for eight... Continue Reading Posted at 3:59 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Teachers Offered Free Tickets to See "Freedom Writers" Gary Bourgeault January 24, 2007 The AMC theater chain, owned by AMC Entertainment Inc., announced that it was offering teachers who want to see "Freedom Writers" a free ticket to the show starting on February 1. Those interested must teach between the grades of kindergarten... Continue Reading Posted at 1:58 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan23	Fox Grabs New Dramas: "The Cure" and "K-Ville" Gary Bourgeault January 23, 2007 Several new shows were picked up by the networks recently, including two by Fox (NWS-A). One called "K-Ville," is set in the aftermath of Katrina in New Orleans. It's scripted by Jonathan Lisco (NYPD Blue) who also will be the executive... Continue Reading Posted at 11:41 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	"Heroes" Overcomes "24" to Win the Night Gary Bourgeault January 23, 2007 NBC (GE) broadcast its first "Heroes" episode since December 4 and came away with the No. 1 show for the night, according to Nielsen. Heroes finished with a 6.5 rating/15 share in the 18-49 demographic, leading the way for NBC... Continue Reading Posted at 7:40 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	HBO Sues EchoStar Over Failing to Pay for Licensing Fees Gary Bourgeault January 23, 2007 Time Warner Inc. (TWX), via its HBO cable network has sued EchoStar Communications Corp. (DISH) for $90 million saying that it has miscalculated the payment on its licensing fees. The suit alleges that Echostar not only has failed to pay... Continue Reading Posted at 5:09 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Is 'Top Chef' Selling Too Much Real Estate? Gary Bourgeault January 23, 2007 The ongoing product placement experiment continues as the popular Bravo reality show "Top Chef" has a plethora of products integrated into the shows' storyline.Some think that the show is going a little overboard in how the products are being placed... Continue Reading Posted at 1:31 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan22	Football Scores Big Numbers For the Networks Gary Bourgeault January 22, 2007 Capping off a great 10-game postseason average, the Colts-Patriots football game brought in the biggest audience numbers for the American Football Conference championship game in 21 years for CBS (CBS-A). The network is sitting good as they'll broadcast the upcoming... Continue Reading Posted at 8:33 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	DirectTV, CBS Sign Multi-Year Pact Gary Bourgeault January 22, 2007 In a deal with the CBS Corporation (CBS-A), DirecTV (DTV) will continue carrying out-of-market games for the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament. The agreement will also bring the market penetration of CSTV to above 20 million households.The college sports network at... Continue Reading Posted at 6:22 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Analyst Says Big Media Growth May Stall in 2007 Gary Bourgeault January 22, 2007 While the traditional big media companies performed better than expected in 2006 because valuations were less expensive and they focused on controlling and cutting cost better, Banc of America analyst Douglas Shapiro believes that 2007 doesn't look like it will... Continue Reading Posted at 5:39 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	MySpace Launches New "Artist-On-Artist" Interview Series Gary Bourgeault January 22, 2007 News Corp.'s (NWS-A) MySpace has announced that it's launching a new community page on its "Artist-On-Artist" series that will feature videos of various celebrities interviewing one another."The unique nature of the Artist-On-Artist series, creates a 'fly on a wall' experience... Continue Reading Posted at 2:37 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Music Industry Divided in its Outlook - That's Good Gary Bourgeault January 22, 2007 With many critics of the music industry (including me) saying that the focus on "free" content being downloaded has consumed the music industry and kept them from putting their focus on innovation and creativity to come with answers on how... Continue Reading Posted at 12:56 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan21	Barrie M. Osborne Recruited to Produce Racing Great Bruce McLaren's Story Gary Bourgeault January 21, 2007 In a move that will thrill racing and movie fans around the world, Barrie M. Osborne has been chosen to be the producer of the upcoming story of Formula One racing great Bruce McLaren (1937-1970). Osborne was the producer or... Continue Reading Posted at 10:07 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Mediacom Needs a New CEO Gary Bourgeault January 21, 2007 When Sinclair Broadcast Group and Mediacom Communications Corp. weren't able to reach an agreement for pricing concerning a new agreement, Sinclair pulled 22 of their stations from Mediacom after the contract expired. The result was that 700,000 cable subscribers were... Continue Reading Posted at 6:59 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Hollywood Investors Getting Smarter - Part Two Gary Bourgeault January 21, 2007 Continuing on in our look at Hollywood and its investors, let's see a couple of the things that are changing. One of the issues that are being worked on is the studio distribution fees, which investors are insisting upon more flexibility in.... Continue Reading Posted at 5:41 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Hollywood Investors Getting Smarter - Part One Gary Bourgeault January 21, 2007 With its poor history concerning results of returns for its investors, there is a more concerted focus on working with existant cash-rich hedge funds to see if there can be a long-term relationship that can emerge. The past history of... Continue Reading Posted at 5:23 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	NBC Universal Finishes Year Strong Gary Bourgeault January 21, 2007 For the first time in quite a while, NBC Universal (GE) has some positive news going forward. For the first time in a year, the General Electric entertainment division experienced an increase of profits for a quarter. The overall revenue... Continue Reading Posted at 3:51 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Top Ten Weekend Box Office Gary Bourgeault January 21, 2007 "Stomp the Yard" held onto the number one spot in the North American box office for the weekend taking in $13.3 million. After 10 days into release, the film has brought in $41.6 million, and is estimated to finish with... Continue Reading Posted at 1:07 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan20	The Pressure's on Hollywood to Produce Big in 2007 Gary Bourgeault January 20, 2007 With Hollywood talking about a record-breaking year for box office revenue in 2007, anything less than that will now be considered a disaster.The busy season will kick off in May as three blockbuster film franchises offer their new productions that... Continue Reading Posted at 3:58 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Indie Music Labels Form New Group to Aid Artists Gary Bourgeault January 20, 2007 Some independent music labels are banding together in a new group called 'Merlin,' with backers asserting that they will be the "fifth major" in the industry.They look at this as the golden opporunity and time to secure artists with the... Continue Reading Posted at 2:47 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan19	A&E 'Sopranos' Backs Off Against 'Idol' Gary Bourgeault January 19, 2007 The "Idol" factor continues to influence the success of those outside of its broadcast competition as "Sopranos" took it on the chin in their second week running opposite of "Idol" in its first hour.The first week for "Sopranos" on A&E... Continue Reading Posted at 9:29 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	"Ice Age" Most Profitable Film of 2006 Gary Bourgeault January 19, 2007 In the category of the most widely released movies for 2006, the most profitable movie of the year was surprisingly "Ice Age: The Meltdown," which beat out what most thought would be the leader "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's... Continue Reading Posted at 8:10 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Comcast Counting on PGA Deal for Golf Channel Success Gary Bourgeault January 19, 2007 Comcast's Golf Channel has struggled since its inception 12 years ago, even with it being co-founded by Arnold Palmer.In response, they made a deal for 15 years, in hopes that it'll make the channel a household name. Included in the... Continue Reading Posted at 5:44 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan18	CBS Creates New Unit to Focus on DVD Releases Gary Bourgeault January 18, 2007 In a move to further focus and specialize, CBS Corp. (CBS-A) announced that it has built a separate division to center in on its expanding DVD business. The new unit will be called CBS Home Entertainment.It's overall strategy will be... Continue Reading Posted at 6:54 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	"American Idol" Rankings Stay Atmospheric for Night Two Gary Bourgeault January 18, 2007 While executives at Fox (NWS) may not be able to explain it, they probably don't care, as "American Idol" scored huge again in its Wednesday night special with an estimated 36.9 people tuning in to watch the two-hour special in... Continue Reading Posted at 4:42 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	FCC Chaiman Says Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio Merger Prohibited Gary Bourgeault January 18, 2007 With the speculation that has be swirling around the possible mergers of Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI) and XM Satellite Radio (XMSR), it may have been put to rest by FCC chairman Kevin Martin when he said that FCC rules prohibit... Continue Reading Posted at 3:01 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Gwyneth Paltrow Joins Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man Gary Bourgeault January 18, 2007 Originally saying that the role for playing Tony Stark's (Iron Man) secretary Virginia "Pepper" Potts in the upcoming Marvel Entertainment (MVL) project should be like Gwyneth Paltrow, they decided rather than getting someone "like" her, why not try to get... Continue Reading Posted at 1:15 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan17	"American Idol" Numbers Make Other Networks Weep Gary Bourgeault January 17, 2007 Not only showing strong staying power, but growth along with it, "American Idol" soared to new heights as it opened to its highest viewership ever. The show exploded for a extraordinary average of 37.3 million viewers and a 15.7 rating/36... Continue Reading Posted at 8:13 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Nielsen Introducing Six Separate Rating Data Streams Gary Bourgeault January 17, 2007 In the new TV world that included DVRs ... TV studios, advertisers and agencies have demanded more data that reflects these new realities.In response, Nielsen has created three new data streams that will bring the total to six that they... Continue Reading Posted at 5:07 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	United Talent Agency Using Veoh Networks to Find New Artists Gary Bourgeault January 17, 2007 In the continuing search to find new artists, the talent company United Talent Agency has launched a channel on the Internet video service Veoh Networks for a way to discover new clients. UTA represents Hollywood heavyweights like Ben Stiller and... Continue Reading Posted at 4:55 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Fox and Football Finish First in Primetime Last Week Gary Bourgeault January 17, 2007 Last week football came to the aid of the Fox (NWS-A) network as it propelled them to finish first in the prime-time network race last week, according to Nielsen Media Research.The college national championship game between Ohio State Buckeyes and... Continue Reading Posted at 3:52 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	'Final' Dolan Offer for Cablevision Rejected Gary Bourgeault January 17, 2007 A board committee set up for the purpose of considering the offer by the Dolan family, who are the founding members of Cablevision Systems Corp. (CVC), to buy out the company and take it private, rejected the offer, according to a letter... Continue Reading Posted at 3:09 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Worldwide Digital Music Sales Double in 2006 Gary Bourgeault January 17, 2007 The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) announced through its 2007 Digital Music Report that global digital music sales were almost double for 2006, reaching to about $2 billion, which equates to about 10 percent of total music sales.They... Continue Reading Posted at 1:52 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	USA NetWork Adopting User-Generated Content for 'Nashville Star' Gary Bourgeault January 17, 2007 Trying to engage their fans beyond the broadcast show, USA Network has partnered with Juice Wireless to help promote their fifth season of the reality show 'Nashville Star'. JuiceCaster is a service that empowers users to immediately post photos and... Continue Reading Posted at 12:30 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan16	Warner Bros.' Studio 2.0 Lands First Deal Gary Bourgeault January 16, 2007 The recently launched Studio 2.0, a division of Warner Bros. (TWX), created for the purpose of developing content for broadband and mobile, have landed their first deal with Anheuser-Busch. They've been retained to create an online show for the company... Continue Reading Posted at 10:39 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	EMI Music Partnering with China's Baidu.com Gary Bourgeault January 16, 2007 With holiday sales being extremely disappointing and the resultant firing of two of their top music executives, EMI Music is looking to China to prop up its faltering sales. The company made a short-term response of cutting costs and issuing... Continue Reading Posted at 4:51 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	The Super Bowl Becoming a Hard Ad Sell Gary Bourgeault January 16, 2007 While the Super Bowl is the major televised sporting event and a strong revenue producer for whoever has the rights to broadcast it, the commercial spots are growing harder and harder to sell.This year seems to be even harder as... Continue Reading Posted at 1:32 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Syndication's Low Clutter Advantage Gary Bourgeault January 16, 2007 Nielsen Media Research released new data at the National Association of Television Program Executives meeting that shows that the TV syndication industry has some strong advantages against the national TV distribution network.With a difficult upfront anticipated by everybody, the research... Continue Reading Posted at 12:19 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan15	ABC's Strategy for Upcoming Season Gary Bourgeault January 15, 2007 President of ABC Entertainment, Stephen McPherson said during the Television Critics Association's meeting that he will be changing some of the mix of their current comedy, dramas and procedural programming in the upcoming season, according Media Daily News."There is so... Continue Reading Posted at 3:52 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	ABC Struggling With Direction of "Lost" Gary Bourgeault January 15, 2007 With viewership of "Lost" dropping 14 percent this year, ABC (DIS) executives have been struggling to come up with a solution to the complicated show that will keep existing fans while drawing back fans that have left.Executive producer Damon Lindelof... Continue Reading Posted at 1:16 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	"Ugly Betty" Best Primetime Ad Buy Gary Bourgeault January 15, 2007 Not only has the unique show "Ugly Betty" one of the surprise hits of the season with around 5 million viewers between the ages of 18-49 tuning in to watch it, but it's also the best buy this season in... Continue Reading Posted at 12:21 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan14	Alliance Atlantis About to be Under New Management Gary Bourgeault January 14, 2007 The Alliance Atlantis Communications (AAC-B) saga may be finally coming to an end as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), in a joint takeover of the company with CanWest Global Communications Inc. ( CGS)for $2.3 billion, begins running operations this week.... Continue Reading Posted at 9:38 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Universal Pictures Wants Rob Cohen for "Mummy 3" Gary Bourgeault January 14, 2007 Universal Pictures is in negotiations with Rob Cohen to take over directing their third installment of the "Mummy" series. He would take over for Stephen Sommers who directed the first two "Mummy" films which were released in 1999 and 2001;... Continue Reading Posted at 1:44 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Bill Moyers Returning to PBS Gary Bourgeault January 14, 2007 Saying that people have been encouraging him to get back into the mix and tell stories and represent voices that aren't being heard, Bill Moyers decided to return to PBS to host a weekly public affairs series with the former... Continue Reading Posted at 1:04 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Indie Record Label V2 North America Restructures Gary Bourgeault January 14, 2007 The indie music label V2, founded by British billionaire Richard Branson in 1996, has announced a restructuring of its business that resulted in its staff being laid off, and it becoming a catalog label. Approximately 35 people were let go,... Continue Reading Posted at 12:29 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Top Ten Box Office for Weekend Gary Bourgeault January 14, 2007 Stomp the Yard, the story about a Los Angeles student at an Atlanta university who helps his fraternity compete in a step dancing contest, came in first place for the weekend with an estimated $22 million in sales.Night of the... Continue Reading Posted at 11:57 AM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan13	EMI Music Group Issues Profit Warning Gary Bourgeault January 13, 2007 Weak sales in the holiday season has forced EMI Group to issue a profit warning Friday, outlining another restructuring to cut costs and also announced that their two top recorded music executives are gone.The company said that for the fiscal... Continue Reading Posted at 10:11 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Disney CEO Earns Big Payday Gary Bourgeault January 13, 2007 The compensation committee for Disney (DIS) deemed that CEO Bob Iger exceeded the financial performance goals set before him and rewarded him with $15 million in bonus pay in response. This was in addition to his yearly salary of $2... Continue Reading Posted at 9:25 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Virgin America Chooses EchoStar for Inflight Entertainment Gary Bourgeault January 13, 2007 Richard Branson's tentative new airline Virgin America announced that they have chosen EchoStar Communications Corp. (DISH) as the primary inflight entertainment for the airline.Technically Branson can't legally have a controlling interest in the airline, as U.S. law forbids foreign control... Continue Reading Posted at 9:09 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Johnny Depp and Warner Bros. Secure Rights to KGB Agent Story Gary Bourgeault January 13, 2007 In a surging battle to tell the story of the strange death of KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, Warner Bros. (TWX) has struck first by acquiring the film rights to an unpublished book "Sasha's Story: The Life and Death of a... Continue Reading Posted at 4:15 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	The 11 Greatest Recording Studios in the World Gary Bourgeault January 13, 2007 Writing for the Telegraph, Andrew Perry and Robert Sandall talk about the new television music series that will feature the most famous recording studio in the world - Abbey Road, and will appropriately be called, 'Live From Abbey Road.'A number... Continue Reading Posted at 12:42 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan12	Weather Channel Launching Two New Miniseries Gary Bourgeault January 12, 2007 The Weather Channel which has always had the challenge of getting people to stay on the channel once they've seen the forecast, are rolling out a couple of new shows to see if they can drive longer visits.Planned to coincide... Continue Reading Posted at 9:56 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	NBCU Launching New Horror Channel "Chiller" Gary Bourgeault January 12, 2007 NBC Universal (GE) has decided the increasingly crowed field of the horror genre by launching a new channel catering exclusively to that niche content.They follow Comcast (CMCSA) which launched a similar channel last year called "FearNet," which is only distributed... Continue Reading Posted at 9:27 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Dolan Family Increase Buyout Bid to $30 Per Share Gary Bourgeault January 12, 2007 In their continuing bid to take Cablevision Systems Corp. (CVC) private, controlling shareholders, the Dolan family, increased their bid for the company to $8.9 billion, saying that this was their final offer.The offer was for $30 per share which was... Continue Reading Posted at 7:01 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	National CineMedia Going Public Gary Bourgeault January 12, 2007 When you watch those pre-show commercials when you go to the movie theater, you can count it probably being handled by National CineMedia. In a move to clear their debt slate and grow, the company announced that it will be... Continue Reading Posted at 2:27 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	CBS Creates New Sports Selling Division Gary Bourgeault January 12, 2007 In an effort to improve communication across divisions and create multi-year deals, CBS (CBS) has created a new division called "CBS Sports Properties Group." CBS has picked Chris Simko to head up the new division. He was the senior vice... Continue Reading Posted at 1:59 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	KFC Anti-DVR Ad-skipping Commercial on "American Idol" Gary Bourgeault January 12, 2007 Last year KFC (YUM) got a lot of press concerning its advertising strategy that fought the DVR ad-skipping habit many people are into. This year they're doing it again in a one-time ad during the upcoming "American Idol" show on... Continue Reading Posted at 12:45 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan11	New Line Cinema's Bob Shaye Lashes out at Peter Jackson Again Gary Bourgeault January 11, 2007 The high profile battle between Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema's Bob Shaye is getting even nastier as Shaye lashed out a Jackson again this week saying, "I don't care about Peter Jackson anymore. He wants to have another $100... Continue Reading Posted at 5:56 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Violent TV Content Has Surged According to Parents Television Council Gary Bourgeault January 11, 2007 The Parents Television Council, which watches out for families and children concerning media behavior, released a new report stating that violence on TV has increased tremendously and is calling for "marketers to demand full refunds when their ads appear next... Continue Reading Posted at 4:46 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	A&E's Sopranos Premieres with a Bang Gary Bourgeault January 11, 2007 The results for A&E's premiere of Sopranos had to make executives at the company breath a little easier as it drew 4.3 million viewers, which makes it the most-watched off-network series premiere in cable history. The company paid $2.55 million... Continue Reading Posted at 4:08 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Kirstie Alley To Produce and Star In "And She Was" Gary Bourgeault January 11, 2007 In a movie being made for the Lifetime Channel, Kirstie Alley will executive produce and star in the upcoming movie "And She Was."The film is a satiric comedy about a middle-aged female screenwriter that understands that she is considered finished... Continue Reading Posted at 3:09 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Bravo Signs On New Sponsors for its Upcoming "Top Design" Series Gary Bourgeault January 11, 2007 Having success with their reality show offerings like Top Chef and Project Runway, sponsors have flocked to be part of the 10-part series "Top Design" which debuts on Bravo January 31.Sponsors for the show include Elle Décor, LendingTree.com, Thomasville Furniture,... Continue Reading Posted at 2:27 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Sumner Redstone Exercises Options and Sells Shares Gary Bourgeault January 11, 2007 Viacom (VIA) Chairman Sumner Redstone exercised options on 24,430 shares of common stock in the company and sold another 14,538 shares under a prearranged trading plan, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.Redstone reported that he had exercised the... Continue Reading Posted at 12:32 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan10	Broadband Video-to-TV a Challenge to Cable Companies Gary Bourgeault January 10, 2007 In an apparent contradiction, consumers want the ability to view content they have on their PCs on TV Screens, but not pay for it. Now that part of the problem is being solved with devices being created that do just... Continue Reading Posted at 6:27 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	ESPN Drops Out of Top 10 Cable Audience Gary Bourgeault January 10, 2007 With the National Football League season over, the ESPN hold on being the top cable rated network is over. The ESPN (DIS) network not only dropped from first place, but also dropped out of the top ten prime time average... Continue Reading Posted at 4:46 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Hollywood Reaching out to Core Demographic Through Xbox Live Marketplace Gary Bourgeault January 10, 2007 The Xbox Live Marketplace (MSFT), where the core demographic of young males like to congregate, has been a fertile ground that Hollywood has been exploring to reach out to their key consumer. They've had a tough time finding them as their... Continue Reading Posted at 3:31 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Disney Ranked High by Ad Agency Executives Gary Bourgeault January 10, 2007 The Advertiser Perceptions' Advertiser Intelligence Report, research based upon surveying over 2,000 ad executives and how they feel about the results that media companies provide, unveiled its latest findings, which is performed twice a year.The latest report shows that concerning... Continue Reading Posted at 1:49 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Web TV Comedy Channel Sends Cease-and-Desist Order to SNL Gary Bourgeault January 10, 2007 The Web TV Comedy channel STASHWAX, has sent a cease-and-desist order to NBC's "Saturday Night Live," accusing them of copyright infringement.Media Daily News says that "The order demands that 'SNL' end all visibility of its short video skit 'SNL Apocalypto... Continue Reading Posted at 1:36 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	HDTV Penetration in U.S. at 16 Percent Gary Bourgeault January 10, 2007 The Leichtman Research Group discovered that with a little over two years to go, one of of every six households in the U.S. have an HDTV, some have more than one. Two years ago those numbers were one in every... Continue Reading Posted at 11:29 AM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan 9	Nickelodeon Expanding its Advertiser Base Gary Bourgeault January 9, 2007 In an attempt to expand its advertising base, Nickelodeon, whose demographic is the 2-11 age group, has made a deal with State Farm Insurance in a multiplatform deal. The deal entails not only the Nickelodeon network, but also includes the NickJr.com... Continue Reading Posted at 10:35 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	James Cameron in "Avatar," wants to "Rekindle Mystical Moments" Gary Bourgeault January 9, 2007 James Cameron started working on the Science Fiction action screenplay for "Avatar" 11 years ago, when he wrote an 80 page summary of what he wanted. The movie, which will be shot in the new digital 3-D format so that... Continue Reading Posted at 9:18 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Paramount Partners with Apple for Movie Downloads Gary Bourgeault January 9, 2007 Paramount and Apple iTunes (AAPL) have reportedly reached an agreement to sell movies through its download service, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal via MediaPost.One missing element that was obvious through its absence was the selling of... Continue Reading Posted at 5:30 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Stupid Sirius Satellite Radio pays Howard Stern $83 Million Stock Bonus Gary Bourgeault January 9, 2007 Showing why their company is hemmoraging money, Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI) paid Howard Stern an $83 million stock bonus based upon an agreement when they signed him on. Talk about giving away the company. You can't blame Stern, if a... Continue Reading Posted at 3:09 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Steve Jobs About to Launch Apple TV Gary Bourgeault January 9, 2007 With a lot of people eager to get a look at the new set-top box that will empower consumers to stream video from their computers to their televisions, Apple Computer (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs announced that the company will start... Continue Reading Posted at 1:19 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan 8	A&E Reveals "The Sopranos" Strategy Gary Bourgeault January 8, 2007 Paying out a whopping $2.5 million per episode for the snydication rights to "The Sopranos," A&E had to come up with a plan to make the investment worth it.For the "Soprano" fans, Mel Berning, exec VP-advertising sales, said that he... Continue Reading Posted at 5:37 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Sinclair, Comcast Battle Heating Up Gary Bourgeault January 8, 2007 Battling over retransmission consent, Sinclair Broadcast (SBGI) may end up pulling 30 stations off of Comcast if they can't reach an agreement. It would end up affecting about 3 million customers who wouldn't receive the signal.The current carriage deal with... Continue Reading Posted at 4:26 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Supreme Court Rejects EchoStar Appeal Gary Bourgeault January 8, 2007 Trying to get the Supreme Court to hear their appeal of a nationwide injunction that prohibits them from transmitting network television signals, the EchoStar Communications Corp. (DISH) was denied the opportunity.The issue centered around the Federal law that lets satellite... Continue Reading Posted at 2:45 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Fox wants "American Idol" to be Year-Round Property Gary Bourgeault January 8, 2007 Fox (NWS) has adopted a new strategy this year concerning its "American Idol" property. They still have their three big major advertisers in Coca-Cola (KO), Ford (F) and Cingular (T), but hava also added six more advertising partners that will... Continue Reading Posted at 2:03 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Product Placement Making Strong Impression on TV Viewers Gary Bourgeault January 8, 2007 When IAG Research took a look at what the most effective way of offering product placement for television shows, they found that offering something to help the consumer was the key differentiator. Consumers were positive about brands that were placed... Continue Reading Posted at 1:21 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Study Shows Males' Media Consumption Doesn't Change Over Time Gary Bourgeault January 8, 2007 In an interesting study by Horizon, research revealed that when men grow into their 20s and 30s, they either return to, or continue watching the same type of TV shows that they did as boys."They watch "The Simpsons," Adult Swim,... Continue Reading Posted at 11:46 AM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan 7	"Night at the Museum" Tops Weekend Box Office Gary Bourgeault January 7, 2007 Topping the weekend box office for the third consecutive week, "Night at the Museum" took in $24 million. The three-week total for the film now has reached $164.1 million.The feel-good movie "The Pursuit of Happyness," starring Will Smith and his... Continue Reading Posted at 1:26 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Hank Steinberg Nabbed by NBC Gary Bourgeault January 7, 2007 With his deal with Warner Bros. TV (TWX) ending in June of 2007, it didn't take long for one of Warner's competitors to grab Hank Steinberg. Steinberg is currently creator and executive producer of "Without a Trace." He signed a... Continue Reading Posted at 12:23 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan 6	DirectTV In Talks to Buy Rainbow Media Holdings Gary Bourgeault January 6, 2007 With the DirectTV (DTV) deal with News Corp. (NWS) taken care of, John Malone is now looking to acquire Cablevision's Rainbow Media Holdings (CVC), which would include the movie channels WE: Women's Entertainment and AMC. The reason for the negotiations... Continue Reading Posted at 2:08 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	NYT Co. Sells "Broadcast Media Group" for $575 Million Gary Bourgeault January 6, 2007 Saying that they want to focus more on their digital media and newspaper business, The New York Times (NYT) announced that it reached a deal with Oak Hill Capital Partners, a private equity firm, to sell its Broadcast Media Group... Continue Reading Posted at 1:24 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Consumers Fight Back Against Major Digital Music Players Gary Bourgeault January 6, 2007 The music industry has continually infuriated consumers by using all sorts of methods to attempt to protect their copyrights. Now people are starting to fight back and attempt to turn things around. Apple Computer (AAPL) was recently sued by one... Continue Reading Posted at 12:21 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	DriverTV Adopting Cost-Per-View Model Gary Bourgeault January 6, 2007 In November of 2005, DriverTV launched its business by guaranteeing a specific number of views over a 12-month period for their automaker customers. They are now moving toward and adopting a cost per click model.DriverTV is now on Comcast (CMCSA),... Continue Reading Posted at 12:01 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Showtime Launching New Comedy Series Gary Bourgeault January 6, 2007 With the public having a seemingly insatiable appetite for comedy, Showtime has announced that it is launching a new comedy platform called, "Laugh Out Loud." It will include monthly comedy from a number of well known comedians and comediennes such... Continue Reading Posted at 10:55 AM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan 5	NBC Distributing "Black Donnellys" Through Netflix First Gary Bourgeault January 5, 2007 NBC (GE) is trying different strategies to get their new shows noticed. In another attempt at using different means to that end, they have made their upcoming drama "The Black Donnellys" available for Netflix subscribers before they even stream it... Continue Reading Posted at 2:15 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	MGM to Syndicate Comedy Centrals' "Reno 911," "Chappelle" Gary Bourgeault January 5, 2007 The recent partnership between New Line Television and MGM has produced its first results as the companies announced that they're bringing the risqué comedies "Reno 911" and "Chappelle's Show" into syndication. In a way similar to "Sex and the City,"... Continue Reading Posted at 1:23 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	NBC Will Offer Broadcasts in NYC Taxis Gary Bourgeault January 5, 2007 NBC is about to launch a unique experiment this year by offering NBC (GE) television content via New York City taxi cabs. They have gone into a partnership with Clear Channel Taxi Media to make it happen.Clear Channel Taxi Media... Continue Reading Posted at 11:41 AM \| Permalink \| Comments
	The Walt Disney Company gets "Spocko Brain" Shut Down Gary Bourgeault January 5, 2007 In the continuing battle between big media and bloggers, The Walt Disney Company (DIS) struck back at media critic "Spocko" by getting the site "Spocko's Brain" taken off the web."Spocko" evidently didn't like what right-wing talk show hosts at Bay... Continue Reading Posted at 11:22 AM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Warner Markets 'Painted Veil' to Specific Theaters Gary Bourgeault January 5, 2007 In a unique experiment and trial, Warner Independent Pictures (TWX) marketed their film "The Painted Veil" to specific theaters in specific markets, something that hasn't been done before with theatrical movies.As we all know, a message from TV advertising of... Continue Reading Posted at 11:06 AM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan 4	Sean Hannity Hosting New Fox News Channel Show: "Hannity's America" Gary Bourgeault January 4, 2007 Starting this Sunday, Sean Hannity, one of the stars of the popular "Hannity & Colmes" show on Fox, has been given his own weekly, hourly show called "Hannity's America." The show will be broadcast live, and will be a little... Continue Reading Posted at 4:51 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Survey Confirms that Going to Movie Theaters will Continue to Decline Gary Bourgeault January 4, 2007 In a joint global survey by PA Consulting Group and the Motion Picture Association of America, it was found that not wanting to go to the movie theater itself, along with increasing competition for the time and money of consumers,... Continue Reading Posted at 4:14 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	At Large with Geraldo Rivera returning to Fox News Channel Gary Bourgeault January 4, 2007 Twentieth Television has decided to stop production on the Geraldo at Large in the middle of January, while returning the show to the Fox News Channel (NWS-A) with a weekend edition. The time slot is yet to be determined. It... Continue Reading Posted at 3:22 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Disney, News Corp. and Time Warner Stocks Up Big for the Year Gary Bourgeault January 4, 2007 In contrast to the last three years, some of the big media companies had great years as far as their stock prices go. Disney (DIS), with Bob Iger seeming to make the right move at the right time every time,... Continue Reading Posted at 2:23 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	PGA Tour Adding Points Competition To Keep Viewers' Interest Gary Bourgeault January 4, 2007 In a bid to keep viewers interested in the PGA Tour throughout the year, they have decided to use the NASCAR model to do the job.Golf has had an interest problem for a long time as it had no mechanism... Continue Reading Posted at 12:50 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Small Sports Conferences Being Sought Out by Cable Networks Gary Bourgeault January 4, 2007 With the seemingly insatiable appetite for sports viewing in America, the cable networks are digging deeper into the pool as they look for more content to offer their audiences. ESPNU (DIS) has made a deal with the Metro Atlantic Athletic... Continue Reading Posted at 7:54 AM \| Permalink \| Comments
	'Apprentice' Premiering Online Before Being Aired Gary Bourgeault January 4, 2007 In a move that is becoming increasingly used by the networks, NBC (GE) has decided to premier its popular "The Apprentice" online several days before it is aired. The one different thing this time is that it will show the... Continue Reading Posted at 7:19 AM \| Permalink \| Comments
	American Idol's Bucky Covington Gets Recording Contract Gary Bourgeault January 4, 2007 Another American Idol finalist from season five has been signed to a recording contract. Bucky Covington was signed by Lyric Street Records to make him the eighth person from season to receive that honor.Covington said, "People don't realize that when... Continue Reading Posted at 4:24 AM \| Permalink \| Comments
	The O.C. Will Say its Goodbye on Feb. 22 Gary Bourgeault January 4, 2007 Fox (NWS) has announced that this will be the final run of The O.C. starting with new episodes on Thursday, and finishing up with the final episode on Feb. 22."The O.C. season four finale will also be the series finale.... Continue Reading Posted at 12:25 AM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan 3	Two Big Hollywood Agents Defect to Endeavor Gary Bourgeault January 3, 2007 Things were fun in Hollywood today! Two of the top Hollywood agents, who represent highly-ranked directors and writers in both film and television, jumped ship from International Creative Management, to rival Endeavor.Once the announcement was made, all hell broke loose... Continue Reading Posted at 11:27 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Sirius Needs to Merge with XM - XM Doesn't Need to Merge with Sirius Gary Bourgeault January 3, 2007 Mel Karmazin, CEO of Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI) has been pushing hard to get their chief rival XM Satlellite Radio (XMSR) to merge with them. David Frear, CFO for Sirius, also said the merger would help "to reduce costs, and... Continue Reading Posted at 8:11 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	News Corp. and Time Warner Reportedly Reach Deal on Fox Channels Gary Bourgeault January 3, 2007 News Corp. (NWS-A) and Time Warner (TWX) have reached an agreement on an all-encompassing contract that is said to have been finalized on Dec. 28. The deal, according to executives close to the proceedings, includes:"... retransmission-consent carriage for Fox’s owned-and-operated... Continue Reading Posted at 7:09 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	MyTVPal Launches New VOD Service Gary Bourgeault January 3, 2007 Entering the growing Video on Demand space, MatrixStream Technologies finally launched is VOD service via its MyTVPal.com Web site.At this point its main point of differentiation is that it will offer content in DVD and HD-quality video in 720X480 resolution.... Continue Reading Posted at 4:42 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan 2	Bravo Renews Popular Top Chef Series Gary Bourgeault January 2, 2007 With boasting rights to the top-rated food show on cable, Bravo will begin casting for its third season for the the popular Top Chef reality series.In its second season, the show averaged 1.22 million viewers aged 18-49, according to Nielsen... Continue Reading Posted at 10:29 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Echostar Dish Network No Longer Carrying Court TV Gary Bourgeault January 2, 2007 Turner Broadcasting announced that they couldn't reach a deal with Echostar's Dish Network (DISH) for a new carriage agreement and as a result the feed for Court TV was pulled at 12:01 ET Monday morning, according to a report by... Continue Reading Posted at 10:10 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Walt Disney Studios has a Breakout Year Gary Bourgeault January 2, 2007 I've talked about the success of Sony's (SNE) year at the box office, but The Walt Disney Co. (DIS) also had a tremendous year, with their studio division generating $3.26 billion in global box office revenue for 2006. In a... Continue Reading Posted at 9:32 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	"Wheel of Fortune" and "Jeopardy!" Renewed Through 2012 Gary Bourgeault January 2, 2007 Roger KIng, CEO of CBS (CBS) Television Distribution, announced that "Wheel of Fortune" and "Jeopardy!" have been renewed through the 2011-2012 seasons.So far the shows have been renewed in around a third of the country, with Sinclair, ABC (DIS), Post-Newsweek,... Continue Reading Posted at 8:22 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	Music Industry Starting to Understand it can Monetize User-Generated Content Gary Bourgeault January 2, 2007 While it has taken far longer than it should have, the music industry is finally starting to understand that the user-generated videos that include copyrighted music, are sources of income that the industry hasn't even had to promote or spend... Continue Reading Posted at 7:33 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	CBS Decides Not to Replace Ed Bradley of '60 Minutes' This Season Gary Bourgeault January 2, 2007 CBS has decided they won't replace "60 Minutes" correspondent Ed Bradley this season, who died Nov. 9. "It's a long-term project to find the next full-time person who can show the abilities that are expected of a '60 Minutes' correspondent,"... Continue Reading Posted at 7:01 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	The Fiesta Bowl leads Fox to Primetime New Year's Day Victory Gary Bourgeault January 2, 2007 The last quarter of the 2006 TV season didn't do much for Fox (NWS), but the New Year's Day victory to start off 2007 should be the first of many victories in the coming months ahead for the network. The... Continue Reading Posted at 6:37 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
	The Impact of DVRs on TV Watching Gary Bourgeault January 2, 2007 The recent season rankings of the most-watched shows using a DVR confirmed that sporting events and reality shows are for the most part viewed live. Another finding was that shows with continuing story lines also ranked high on DVR viewing.Another... Continue Reading Posted at 3:33 PM \| Permalink \| Comments
Jan 1	Hollywood Finishes 2006 with a Modest Increase Gary Bourgeault January 1, 2007 The final weekend of the 2006 box-office finished strong with a 10% increase over last years box-office finish. Still for the year, revenue grew by 4.9% over 2006 to $9.4 billion, credited to a 3.3% increase in attendance and increased... Continue Reading Posted at 5:35 PM \| Permalink \| Comments

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