TIME WARNER CABLE CHANNELS BUOY CONGLOMERATE

Time Warner may be the only media conglomerate among the top five — the others are Comcast (NBC), News Corp (Fox), Disney (ABC) and National Amusements (CBS) — without a broadcast network of its own (its Warner Bros. unit is partnered with CBS in the CW network), but its vast system of cable networks propelled […]

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 […]

BROADCAST NETWORKS MAKE STRONG SHOWING AT EMMYS

After being trounced by the cable networks for years, the broadcast networks made a comeback Sunday night, collecting a slew of Emmy awards for such shows as ABC’s Modern Family, PBS’s Downton Abbey, and CBS’s The Big Bang Theory, Mike & Molly, and The Good Wife. One would be tempted to add DirecTV’s Friday Night […]

UNIVISION TO ENTER CABLE BIZ — WITH THREE NETWORKS

Spanish language Univision, which already is giving the four major broadcast networks a run for the money with some of its telenovelas (limited-run primetime soap operas), says it plans to launch three new cable networks in 2012. One will be devoted to sports — principally soccer — another to news and information; and a third […]

PROFITS AT FOX PLUNGE 50 PERCENT

Without Avatar, operating profits for 20th Century Fox fell 50 percent to $248 million against $497 million during parent News Corp’s third quarter last year, the company said in an SEC filing on Wednesday. The steep drop contributed to a 24-percent plunge in overall News Corp revenue to $639 million from $839 million, even though […]

LOCAL TV STATIONS STAGE A COMEBACK

Following one of their biggest financial downturns ever in 2009, local TV stations experienced a resurgence in ad sales in 2010, thanks in large part to political advertising and the return of auto dealers as big media spenders, according to Kantar Media. The researchers said that local TV stations saw revenue rise to $15.6 billion, […]

AL-JAZEERA WINS PLAUDITS FOR EGYPT COVERAGE

Al-Jazeera continued non-stop broadcasting out of Egypt on Monday even as Egyptian authorities made what appeared to be clumsy moves to shut it down. The government has blocked entrance to the Arab news network’s offices in Cairo, arrested at least two of its news crews then released them after confiscating their equipment. And while all […]

CABLE NETS PREPARE TO BATTLE NETFLIX

Cable networks are beginning to recognize publicly the potential threat of video websites that are offering the same content that they have paid high prices for. Speaking at a media conference in Scottsdale, AZ on Wednesday, Turner Broadcasting System chairman and CEO Phil Kent objected to deals between studios and Netflix that provide programs to […]