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Media buyers are still calling for price rollbacks going into television’s annual upfront advertising market this week, but network executives say demands for price cuts have softened since the stock market bounced higher. This week, the broadcast networks—plus cable networks Turner Broadcasting System...
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There’s a certain giddiness in the air at the Sunday morning newsmaker shows these days, with the long election behind them and a whole new set of issues to delve into and guests to pin down. It’s a far cry from a year ago, when TelevisionWeek put together its annual anonymous poll of how the politicians...
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The George Foster Peabody Award is considered by many to be the most prestigious honor in electronic media, akin to the Pulitzer Prize for print journalism. For 2008, the Peabody judges have honored a wide variety of entertainment, news and information media. Among this round of Peabody honorees, HBO...
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Media moguls say they’re starting to see signs of a bottom to the recession and the beginnings of an upturn in the advertising market—just in time for the upfront advertising sales season. Last week, several major media companies reported they took their lumps in the first quarter, but their top executives...
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Sun, May 10 2009
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Filed under: Broadcast, Cable, Print Edition, Earnings, Leslie Moonves, CBS Corp., Scripps Networks, Rupert Murdoch, Economy, Walt Disney Co., John Lansing, Bob Iger, New Corp.
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American satirist H.L. Mencken once said: “No one ever went broke under-estimating the intelligence of the American public.” Take P.T. Barnum’s Feejee Mermaid, for example, purportedly the shriveled remains of a tiny washed-up mermaid that wowed audiences in 1842 and essentially launched Barnum’s career...
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It’s time again for TelevisionWeek ’s list of the 10 Most Powerful in TV News. This year’s report card comes at an awkward time: Election-year performances can’t be ignored, and yet they already seem a distant memory, as the industry is roiled by the same economic turmoil as the rest of the nation. While...
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Sun, Apr 19 2009
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Filed under: Broadcast, Cable, Digital, Phil Griffin, Univision, Print Edition, CNN, Jon Klein, NBC News, Comedy Central, Sean McManus, Fox News Channel, Steve Capus, ABC News, Stephen Colbert, CBS News, Jeff Zucker, Jon Stewart, Roger Ailes, Newspro, Jim Walton, Ken Jautz, Huffington Post, David Westin, Fox Television Stations Group, N.S. Bienstock, Mark Hoffman
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NBC Universal’s Jeff Gaspin, who in a former life created VH1’s landmark “Behind the Music” series, spends much of his time these days working behind the scenes. As president and chief operating officer of the Universal Television Group, Mr. Gaspin has one of the broadest portfolios in television. He...
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Sun, Mar 29 2009
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Filed under: Broadcast, Cable, Digital, Syndication, Bravo, NBC Universal, Print Edition, Sci Fi Channel, USA, Jeff Gaspin, Universal Television Group
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The silly rift that has chopped up the Emmy Awards between two groups may be set to heal, and we urge the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences to accelerate that process. The two bodies split in 1977. Since then ATAS, based on the West Coast...
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For 10 years, Tommy Boyer has supplied equipment for the wardrobe departments of feature films like “The Pink Panther” and “Confessions of a Shopaholic.” Robert De Niro is a frequent customer. But since the state program providing tax credits for film and TV production ran out of money last month, business...
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Channeling Larry King once again… CNBC's Rick Santelli Rick Santelli, the CNBC blowhard who moronically lashed out at President Obama’s mortgage rescue plan last week in a much-publicized rant , certainly had every right to speak his mind as he did. And I have every right to never watch CNBC again...
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Fri, Feb 20 2009
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Filed under: Broadcast, Cable, Fox, Dollhouse, DTV, NBC, SAG, Chuck, Print Edition, Lost, Friday Night Lights, American Idol, Rick Santelli, Patric Verrone, Craig Ferguson
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Media companies just aren’t worth what they used to be. News Corp. and Time Warner last week both took billion-dollar writedowns against quarterly earnings as the economy lowered the value of some of their assets. The industry titans said the downturn was steeper than anticipated and the watchword going...
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Sun, Feb 8 2009
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Filed under: Broadcast, Cable, Advertising, Print Edition, Earnings, Scripps Networks, Time Warner, Jeff Bewkes, Rupert Murdoch, News Corp., Economy
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January may turn out to be the cruelest month for TV types this year, with a crush of broadcast and cable premieres threatening to forever change the rules of midseason launches. Networks, particularly on the broadcast side, have long considered the winter months somewhat safer havens for debuting shows...
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Sun, Jan 11 2009
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Filed under: Broadcast, Cable, FX, Showtime, Fox, TNT, ABC, HBO, CBS, NBC, ABC Family, The CW, Print Edition, CMT, A&E
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Despite the current economic downturn, the Consumer Electronics Show kicking off in Las Vegas this week is projecting that attendance in the entertainment category will hold steady with last year. Overall, the Consumer Electronics Association expects about 130,000 attendees for the annual tech-centric...
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Sun, Jan 4 2009
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Filed under: Broadcast, Cable, NBC, Syndication, Print Edition, Today, Access Hollywood, G4, Sony, Dr. Oz, Jeopardy!, CES, NBC Evening News, Attack of the Show
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TV critics and Emmy voters don’t always see eye to eye, but when it comes to the delights of Don Draper, the two camps are completely copacetic. Avoiding any signs of a sophomore slump, AMC’s “Mad Men”—which in September snagged the drama series Emmy—soared to the top of TelevisionWeek ’s semiannual...
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Sun, Jan 4 2009
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Filed under: Broadcast, Cable, FX, Showtime, ABC, HBO, NBC, The Office, Pushing Daisies, Mad Men, AMC, Chuck, 30 Rock, Print Edition, Friday Night Lights, Comedy Central, The Shield, The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, True Blood, Dexter, Critics Poll
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In their eternal quest to attract both ratings and headlines, television networks once relied upon “event” programming. But HBO’s recent sweep of eight Emmys for “John Adams” notwithstanding, the heyday of the miniseries has long passed. Later came the era of appointment television, when landmark series...