WORLD SERIES DRAWS 18 MILLION VIEWERS

Fox’s coverage of Game 6 of the World Series averaged 18 million viewers Wednesday night, making it, according to TVbytheNumbers.com, the highest rated show on any broadcast network since a January 30 broadcast by Fox of American Idol. The telecast, which saw the Boston Red Sox win the Series for the first time in 95 […]

OSCAR TELECAST SELLS OUT — AT $1.9 MILLION PER AD

It’s only October and the Oscars won’t be broadcast until next March 2, but, according to trade reports, ABC has sold out virtually its entire advertising inventory for the annual special, which traditionally is the highest-rated telecast of the year, except for the Super Bowl. Last year’s telecast, hosted by Seth McFarlane, averaged 40.3 million […]

TIME WARNER CABLE HIT HARD BY BLACKOUT

That dispute between CBS and Time Warner Cable that blacked out the network in August and early September in several key cities seems not to have affected CBS’s bottom line whatsoever, but for TWC it produced its biggest quarterly loss of subscribers in its history — 306,000 of them. In an effort to prevent additional […]

BOWIE PRODUCES HIS OWN MUSIC VIDEO — FOR $12.99

Some music videos can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. But David Bowie’s latest one cost just $12.99, according to Bowie’s company. A source close to the singer told the London Daily Mirror: “Last week David had an idea. His new single ‘Love is Lost’ was to be released this week and a video clip […]

JURORS VIEW FIRST EVIDENCE IN U.K. PHONE-HACKING TRIAL

Jurors in the telephone hacking trial that threatens Rupert Murdoch’s media empire continued hearing opening arguments in the case today (Thursday) with prosecutor Andrew Edis playing a tape revealing how detective Glenn Mulcaire was able to obtain confidential information about the phone accounts of celebrities and other public figures from phone operators — an activity […]

AL JAZEERA AMERICA REVEALS ALLEGED BRIBERY OF LEGISLATOR

In what appears to be a major coup for the fledgling Al Jazeera America cable news network, its investigative unit has disclosed FBI documents describing a sting operation in which agents, posing as independent movie makers, offered a bribe to California state Sen. Ron Calderon to lower the movie budget requirements to receive a tax […]

NOW SONY’S FILM DIVISION IS REPORTING LOSSES, TOO

In recent years, the one bright spot on Sony’s financial profile has been its film division. Not so this year. On Wednesday the giant Japanese conglomerate cut its profit forecast for 2013-14 after results for the second quarter showed that Sony Pictures’ revenue dropped by 13 percent, principally as a result of several box-office flops […]

WORLD SERIES STARTS LAST, RISES TO FIRST

A lot of viewers were gathered around their TV sets Monday night, particularly in the 8:00 p.m. hour, when the four major networks together attracted 45 million viewers. Somewhat surprisingly, Fox’s telecast of the World Series ranked only third in the hour with 11.5 million viewers. It was topped by competitions of another sort, the […]

VIVENDI PAYS $1.4 BILLION TO OWN ALL OF CANAL PLUS

French media giant Vivendi has agreed to buy the 20 percent stake in France’s Canal Plus France that it does not already own from media group Lagardère for $1.4 billion in cash. The deal would end four years of bickering between the two companies over the value of the French pay-TV company. The deal was […]

NIELSEN TO INCLUDE MOBILE VIEWERS IN RATINGS

Undercutting to a degree one of the networks’ principal complaints about the Aereo service — that viewers of their programs on mobile devices are not counted in the Nielsen ratings — Nielsen confirmed on Monday that it will begin including audiences using all forms of digital devices into its regular ratings reports beginning with the […]

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