BROADCAST NETWORKS THREATENED BY CABLE, WEB

As the 2012-13 television season winds down, it is becoming apparent to many analysts that the broadcast networks are facing their gravest challenges ever. Writing today (Tuesday) in Advertising Age, Horizon Media analyst Brad Adgate observed that for the first time during a regular season, two cable TV series, History Channel’s The Bible and AMC’s […]

WILL ARMSTRONG INTERVIEW SAVE OPRAH’S CHANNEL?

Analysts are speculating about the effect of Oprah Winfrey’s interview with Lance Armstrong on lifting the public’s awareness of her OWN cable network. In today’s (Wednesday) New York Post, media writer Michael Starr commented that it “could go a long way toward putting her cable network, OWN, on the map after two mediocre, money-losing years.” […]

VIEWERS FLEEING NETWORK TV

Every broadcast television network has lost a significant number of viewers this season — particularly among the 18-49 age group that most advertisers target, the New York Times reported on Sunday, citing figures from Nielsen Research. Fox, which airs American Idol, has lost an average of 709,000 viewers or 20 percent of its 18-49 demo. […]

ANALYST: HYPE DOESN’T HELP LOUSY TV SHOWS

Appraising the new shows of 2011-12 at midseason, veteran media analyst Brad Adgate of Horizon Media has found that some of the shows that were the most heavily hyped prior to their debut flopped while other little-noticed entries became hits. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Adgate singled out NBC’s The Playboy Club […]

OPRAH NEARLY OWNS CABLE IN DEBUT

It may be premature to make a conclusive judgment, but early indications are that Oprah Winfrey has not lost her Midas touch with her OWN cable network. According to Nielsen, within the cable universe, the network ranked only behind ESPN and USA Networks among its target audience of women 25-54 during primetime on Saturday, its […]

CONAN MEETS HARRY POTTER — IN HIS AUDIENCE

Conan O’Brien may be taking some of the advice from network executives that he spurned when he hosted NBC’s Tonight show. In the recently published The War for Late Night, author Bill Carter, who covers television for the New York Times, writes that the execs repeatedly urged O’Brien to mingle with and interact with the […]

CONAN’S AUDIENCE DROPS — A BAD SIGN?

As expected, the audience for Conan O’Brien’s new talk show on TBS dropped by nearly a third on its second night, falling to 2.8 million viewers from 4.2 million on Monday. But news reports gave the decline contrasting interpretations. Several reports cited negative criticism of the first show by some TV critics and suggested that […]