NBC ALIGNS ALL ITS CABLE NETWORKS FOR SMASH RERUN

Six cable networks owned by NBC Universal will simultaneously broadcast a rerun of the pilot episode of NBC’s Smash tonight from midnight to 1:00 a.m. In a statement, the company called the simulcast, which will air from midnight to 1:00 a.m. a “cable roadblock,” presumably suggesting that viewers clicking their remotes to see what’s on [...]

ER CREATOR: EDGY SHOWS NOW GOING TO CABLE

Writer/producer/director John Wells, who was responsible for bringing such shows as China Beach, ER, and The West Wing to television said on Thursday that he would have struck out if he tried to sell the networks any of those shows today. Instead, he would have taken those shows to cable. Currently, his Shameless airs on [...]

BROADCAST NETS DOWN, CABLE UP IN 2011

The major broadcast networks continued to see an erosion of their audiences in 2011, while cable networks saw theirs expand, according to TVbytheNumbers.com. The website said on Thursday that while ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC saw their total household audience decline 3 percent this year, the audience for ad-support cable as a whole was up [...]

DISH MAY LAUNCH NETFLIX-LIKE STREAMING SERVICE

Taking to heart the old adage, If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, the DISH satellite company is planning to launch an online video streaming service to rival Netflix’s, CEO Joseph Clayton has told Bloomberg News. The service would presumably be an extension of the one Blockbuster already offers. (DISH acquired Blockbuster in a bankruptcy [...]

NICKELODEON GIVING FREE ADS TO SPONSORS

With Nielsen ratings indicating that Nickelodeon’s kids audience has fallen 15-20 percent in recent months, the Viacom-owned channel has wasted no time giving advertisers “make goods” for its failure to deliver guaranteed audience levels, MediaPost said on its website today (Monday). Moreover, the channel is providing advertisers on-air inventory in the third quarter, the most [...]

REPORT: NFL PUTTING THE SQUEEZE ON NBC

NBC and the NFL have begun talks aimed at renewing Sunday Night Football, with the NFL making it clear it wants a significant increase in payments, the New York Post reported today (Friday). The current deal calls for NBC to pay the NFL about $600 million yearly for rights to air the Sunday games. According [...]

RESEARCH FIRM PREDICTS CONTINUED STRONG AD REVENUE FOR CABLE

While some analysts express concern that cable television networks may be heavily impacted by customers who opt for Internet video sites and begin dropping their cable subscriptions — so called cord-cutting — researchers SNL Kagan said today (Tuesday) that cable networks will see a 14-percent rise in ad revenue to $25.5 billion this year, softening [...]

MNF DRAWS 16.8 MILLION VIEWERS

ESPN’s Monday Night Football telecast drew an average of more than 16.8 million viewers, Nielsen Research said on Wednesday. The game, in which the Chicago Bears defeated the Philadelphia Eagles 30-24, topped not only everything else offered on cable TV — but on broadcast TV as well. (The highest-rated broadcast television show on Monday was [...]

STUDY: BROADCASTERS AIDED BY DVR; CABLERS, NOT SO MUCH

The DVR has slowed, if not halted, the exodus of viewers from broadcast TV to cable, a study by Nomura Securities analyst Michael Nathanson would seem to indicate. The study, covering DVR viewing over the past four years, found that viewers use their DVRs to watch broadcast TV shows via the devices about half the [...]

FIRST TWO WEEKS OF SEASON A NET LOSS FOR NBA

The NBA on Monday canceled the first two weeks of the 2011-12 basketball season due to begin on Nov. 1, amid signs that additional weeks, if not the season itself, will likely be canceled unless some magical formula can be found to break the current stalemate between the team owners and the players. For the [...]

Next Page »