MLB MAY SCORE $1 BILLION IN DEAL WITH NETWORK

With its current deals with ESPN, Fox and Turner set to expire at the end of the season next year, Major League Baseball is being wooed by CBS and NBC, each of which is offering what today’s (Tuesday) New York Post described as “a mountain of cash” to take over exclusive rights to the telecasts. […]

HOLY ’60S, BATMAN! WB TO LICENSE TV CHARACTERS

In the decade of The Dark Knight, the campy Batman television series of the 1960s seems oddly old-fashioned, but Warner Bros. presumably believes there’s still life in the old series yet. It announced a new licensing and merchandising program today (Thursday) built around the “Dynamic Duo” of Batman and Robin and their iconic enemies including […]

MORE CONSUMERS ACCESSING TV VIA THEIR GAME DEVICES

Some 38 percent of U.S. households now are able to connect to the Internet via their TV sets, most of them by using a Blu-ray Disc player or an electronic game device, according to the Leichtman Research Group’s quarterly Emerging Video Services report. That percentage is up from 24 percent just two years ago. The […]

SONY TO CUT 10,000 JOBS — MOSTLY IN TV UNIT

Sony, whose Trinitron TV sets have traditionally served as the benchmark for television quality, may be considering downsizing its TV business, particularly in small and midsize products, published reports said today (Monday). Sony has been hit on every side by a glut of TV sets on the retail market that have forced down retail prices, […]

NETFLIX BECOMING A TV RERUN SERVICE

Given the wariness of the major Hollywood studios to support its streaming service, Netflix will become a mostly TV rerun operation when Starz yanks its content on Wednesday, the New York Times observed today (Tuesday). Commented the newspaper: “It’s a transition that Netflix has made rather successfully in the last six to 12 months, in […]

CHINESE CRACKDOWN ON TV SHOWS BENEFITS WEBSITES

The decision by Chinese cultural authorities to eliminate two-thirds of the country’s television entertainment programs in favor of “programs that promote traditional virtues and socialist core values” could turn out to be a boon for operators of advertising-supported video websites in the country, the Wall Street Journal indicated today (Wednesday). Many websites are offering content […]

FOOTBALL IS THROWN FOR A RATINGS LOSS

The most-watched television show last week was not NBC’s Sunday Night Football. In fact, the contest between Baltimore and San Diego ranked only fourth on the Nielsen ratings list for the week, presumably brought down by competition from the season finale of CBS’s Survivor: South Pacific. No, the No. 1 show was CBS’s eight-year-old drama […]

NEW HOLIDAY BARGAINS AHEAD; WALMART PLANS BLACK SATURDAY

With some reports indicating that holiday sales have not been living up to expectations since last month’s Black Friday, some department stores and consumer electronics outlets are reportedly moving quickly to make sure they’ve reduced inventory substantially before Dec. 25. Walmart said Wednesday that on Saturday, Dec. 17 it plans to offer its “lowest prices […]

JERSEY SHORE SHOWS MUSCLE IN SECOND WEEK

For the second week in a row, MTV’s Jersey Shore drew more viewers than anything aired on broadcast television Thursday night. While the MTV show attracted 7.4 million viewers (down 16 percent from last week’s season premiere) and 2.4 million more for the repeat at 11:00 p.m. (not to mention several million more who watched […]

CNBC’S RATINGS SOAR ON TURBULENT RATINGS FOR NETS

Like the Weather Channel during a storm, CNBC, the financial news channel, has seen a surge in viewers during the turbulent ups and downs of the market in recent weeks. The New York Times observed on Sunday that during the first two weeks August, CNBC’s audience averaged 378,000, during the market hours of 9:30 a.m. […]

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