Broadcasting & Cable articles from April 2008

Broadcasting & Cable archives from April 2008

BC Beat.(ABC News Inc.)(Federal Communications Commission issures rules for digital television)(Fox Soccer Channel )
April 7, 2008... Edited by Joel Topcik CBA: Martin, Dingell Miss Low-Power Signals Joel Topcik When it comes to spreading the word about the digital-TV transition, the federal government appears to be taking the "Liberty Valance" approach:...

The Disappearing TV Critic.(Industry overview)
April 7, 2008... By Marisa Guthrie The world of television choices-what to watch and how to watch it-keeps growing. But no matter: As the newspaper industry continues to shrink, TV critics are the ones getting squeezed out. The fraternity of the...

Deals.(Hoak Media LLC acquires Media General Inc.)(Schurz Communications Inc. acquires Zaser and Longston)(Studio 51 Multi-Media Productions acquires Metro-Video Production Services Inc.)
April 7, 2008... By BIA Financial Networks TV WMBB (TV)/Panama City, Fla.; KALB-TV/Alexandria, La. PRICE : $60 million BUYER : Hoak Media LLC (Eric Van den Branden, president) SELLER : Media General Inc. (James Zimmerman,...

Immaculate Reception.(KDKA-TV)(WPXI-TV)(WTAE-TV )
April 7, 2008... By Michael Malone Three top players keep Pittsburghers informed Pittsburgh has a grave perception problem, say station executives. Even though its trademark steel industry has long since packed up, and high-skill sectors like medical...

Discovery's Agency of Change.
April 7, 2008... By Anne Becker Cable company pitches its creative powers for advertisers Discovery Communications has a solution for cost-conscious advertisers this upfront season: Let us make the ads for you. The Silver Spring, Md.-based cable...

More Layoffs to Follow?(CBS Corp. CBS Television Stations Group)
April 7, 2008... By Michael Malone CBS casualties likely just the beginning Those who were rocked by last week's announcement that the CBS Television Stations group was axing more than 100 staffers might have to get used to the feeling. With the...

McManus' Busy Season.(CBS Inc. CBS News)
April 7, 2008... By Ben Grossman If you think there is so much stress at work right now that you may give your pharmacist an adjoining office, I have good news. It could be worse. You could be Sean McManus. This week alone, the head of both CBS...

Where to be & what to watch-.(Calendar)
April 7, 2008... By Michael Malone Monday, April 7 Dick Cavett narrates the infamous on-air spat he and the literary lions Norman Mailer and Gore Vidal had during a 1971 Dick Cavett Show at the Paley Center for Media in New York. Speaking of the Paley,...

Fates & Fortunes.(Judy Kenny appointed at MyNetworkTV)(Jennifer Boudreaux promoted at NBC Universal Digital Distribution)(Spencer Hunt promoted at Sony Online Entertainment Inc.)
April 7, 2008... Staff BROADCAST Staff Judy Kenny , executive VP of sales, Univision, has joined MyNetworkTV as executive VP of sales. David Hershey , VP of creative, L.A. Promotion Co., has joined KTVT/KTXA Dallas as VP of creative services...

He Schedules Hallmark's Care Packages.(Crown Media Holdings Inc. Hallmark Channel)
April 7, 2008... By Allison Romano From Westerns to original movies, David Kenin nurtures the channel's brand Soon after he arrived at the Hallmark Channel in 2002 as head of programming, David Kenin made a bold move: He dusted off a Western series...

Smooth Operators.(NVision Grafix Inc.)(OmniBus Systems Inc.)(Utah Scientific Inc.)
April 7, 2008... By Glen Dickson Master control vendors at NAB will tackle HD upgrades While broadcasters' investments in high-definition production gear to launch HD newscasts have drawn much attention over the past year, many stations are also...

Transforming Tribune.(Ed Wilson and Sean Compton appointed at Tribune Broadcasting Co.)
April 7, 2008... By Paige Albiniak Trio's arrival part of sea change Tribune Co. is wooing some of TV and radio's best business builders with the promise that they'll have the opportunity to revolutionize the company. Tribune Chairman and CEO Sam...

Bush Opposes Federal Shield Law.(Free Flow of Information Act)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... By John Eggerton The Bush Administration is ramping up its opposition to a federal shield law, including firing off letters threatening a veto and even adding a Website to host those letters and other information. News outlets have...

Clarification.(Correction notice)
April 7, 2008... By Staff An article on CNBC's Charles Gasparino (March 31) stated that he made a bad call in predicting that BlackRock CEO Larry Fink would take over at Merrill Lynch. According to Gasparino, he reported that the Merrill Lynch job 'was...

Correction.(Correction notice)
April 7, 2008... By Staff Ad spending data in the tables in the March 31 cover story 'Car Crash' should have been labeled as billions of dollars, not millions.

NBC Pitches Advertiser Tent Earlier.(National Broadcasting Company Inc. NBC Entertainment teams up with DIRECTV Inc. and Liberty Mutual Insurance Co.)
April 7, 2008... By Marisa Guthrie Fourth-place network unfolds a 65-week road map for buyers ABC, which has been languishing in fourth place, attempted to forge an early alliance with advertisers last week by unveiling a 65-week schedule that will,...

ACA Chief Polka Speaks for the Little Guy.
April 7, 2008... Staff Small cable operators are dealing with some big issues in Washington. They are chafing at an FCC order requiring them to carry TV stations in analog and digital after the DTV transition if that's what it takes to provide a...

AMC, Nielsen Partner to Create New Metrics.
April 7, 2008... By Anne Becker Network says new tools help tailor shows to sponsors' needs AMC is marrying its classic movies with new research to offer advertisers what it says is the ability to target audiences as closely as Web search engines can....

Dorgan: Tighten Cross-ownership Ban.(newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership ban)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... By John Eggerton Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) says he will push ahead with a resolution to overturn the FCC's loosening of the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership ban despite a veto threat this week from the Bush Administration. 'The...

FCC Prepares Fines For DTV Set Slip-Ups.(Federal Communications Commission)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... By John Eggerton The Federal Communications Commission last week signaled it was preparing to crack down on some digital-TV-equipment manufacturers and retailers for rule violations. Included on the FCC's upcoming agenda were four...

Clinton Agrees to CBS News Debate.(Hillary Clinton)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... By Marisa Guthrie Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) has accepted CBS News' invitation for a debate on April 27 in North Carolina, her campaign confirmed Thursday. As of Friday, CBS had yet to get a confirmation from Sen. Barack Obama...

Fox Renews 13th yr. of King of the Hill.(Fox-13 Inc.)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... By Joel Topcik Fox will return to the fictional town of Arlen, Texas, for a 13th season of King of the Hill , part of the network's Sunday primetime animated block. The network ordered an additional 13 half-hour episodes of the...

USA is cable ratings leader; Disney No. 2.(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... By Anne Becker USA Network topped the first quarter (Dec. 31, 2007, through March 30, 2008) cable ratings with 2.89 million total viewers in prime, according to Nielsen Media Research. The network was also No. 1 in the 18-49 demo with 1.27...

Qualcomm plots use for new spectrum.(QUALCOMM Inc.)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... By Glen Dickson Qualcomm said it will use the wireless spectrum it acquired in the FCC's recent 700-MHz auction to expand the programming offered by MediaFLO, the live mobile-TV service it currently operates on UHF broadcast spectrum in 58...

B&C taps Business Editor.(Broadcasting and Cable Inc.)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... By Staff Broadcasting & Cable has named veteran media writer Robert Marich to the position of business editor. 'Bob brings a wealth of experience and financial acumen to B&C ,' said Editor in Chief Mark Robichaux. 'We're glad to have...

Voices We Need.(how many newspapers, big and small, are laying off or offering buyouts to television critics)
April 7, 2008... Staff There was a time when newspapers refused to run television listings, because they only saw the medium as competition. But from the 1970s on, newspapers began to take television criticism seriously. They recognized that the medium was...

Heck of a Job, Marty.
April 7, 2008... By Coleman Bazelon The FCC recently raised a record $19 billion in an auction for rights to the nation's airwaves. While this sounds like another successful commission auction, it was not. The rules written by the FCC Chairman, Kevin...

BC Beat.(Knight Rider television program)
April 14, 2008... Edited by Joel Topcik 'Knight Rider' Puts EP in NBC's Fast Lane Joel Topcik Gary Scott Thompson can expect to see a lot of love from NBC now that he is showrunner of one of the network's pet projects, the remake of 1980s hit...

The Top 25 M&A Forecast.
April 14, 2008... By Robert Marich TV station business has cooled, but there are warm spots The climate is cooling for TV station mergers and acquisitions, as recession fears linger and the credit crunch makes financing more costly and difficult to...

Deals.(Television Capital Corp)(Price Hill Television )(Great Plains Media Inc)
April 14, 2008... By BIA Financial Networks TV NEW-DT/Mobile, Ala. PRICE: $1.425 million BUYER: Daystar Television (Marcus Lamb, president/CEO) SELLER: Television Capital Corp. (C.E. Feltner, board chairman/CEO) FACILITIES: DTV Ch. 18,...

Horse Play.
April 14, 2008... By Michael Malone WLEX leads the pack in thoroughbred country With favorable weather, a relatively low crime rate and scenic horse country, residents of Lexington, Ky., say they've got a pretty fair quality of life. Many others will...

The Antidote for Reality TV.(Column)
April 14, 2008... By David Bianculli If network heads had to try this stuff first, maybe we'd be spared the worst There's only one way I can think of to stop the tsunami of reality shows flooding and muddying broadcast primetime TV. There ought to be a...

E! Welcomes Stars 'Home'.
April 14, 2008... By Anne Becker Network to feature hot celebrities in its summer schedule What would happen if you put Pam Anderson, Denise Richards and Snoop Dogg together to pose for a picture? That's what E! will find out this week as it corrals...

Radio Daze: Tribune Gang Sets Out to Reinvent TV.
April 14, 2008... By Michael Malone Exactly what are those wacky Zell/Michaels guys thinking? According to recent press releases from Tribune Co, new interactive president Marc Chase blackmailed his way into his new post, the company is changing its...

Couric to Leave Anchor Desk Soon.(Katie Couric )
April 14, 2008... By Marisa Guthrie Ambitious plan to revitalize 'Evening News' format fell short Katie Couric's ascent to CBS Evening News anchor was to be the triumphant chapter in a storied career as one of the giants of morning television. But her...

IB's Lebow Sharpens Stations' Web Focus.(dialogue with David Lebow at Internet Broadcasting Systems Inc.)(Interview)
April 14, 2008... Michael Malone Last summer, David Lebow took over as president/CEO of Internet Broadcasting (IB), which manages TV stations' Web business. He's charged with growing traffic and revenue at IB's 75-plus partner stations' sites with enhanced...

BET Wants Buyers To Vote for Them.(Brief article)
April 14, 2008... By Anne Becker BET will structure its New York upfront stage show around an election theme. The April 17 presentation, called 'Upfront '08-Connection You Can Feel!' will stress the need for politicians to court African American consumers....

Obama's Unusual Primetime Exposure.(Barack Obama)
April 14, 2008... By Marisa Guthrie Runs ads on entertainment shows to woo young, undecided voters The Barack Obama campaign-with its themes of inclusion and unity-has recast traditional political media strategy, funneling almost half of its TV cash...

Citizen Journalists Get Syndie Show.
April 14, 2008... By Michael Malone Just over a year since it debuted YouNews on the Web, Broadcast Interactive Media (BIM) is packaging users' videos of twisters, high school hoops and impossibly cute Shih Tzus into a syndicated show. The weekly YouNewsTV...

Broadcasters to Huddle On Big D.C. Issues at NAB.(National Association of Broadcasters)
April 14, 2008... By John Eggerton Cross-ownership, white spaces, DTV education among topics up for discussion at Vegas confab With all the regulatory issues before broadcasters, you can almost hear them humming a certain Barry Manilow tune as they...

A Real Disconnect.(Column)
April 14, 2008... By Ben Grossman When CBS made its recent newsroom cuts at local stations around the country, I really didn't think twice about it. It seemed rational given the challenges at the network and through the TV business. Then someone I grew...

Where to be & what to watch-.
April 14, 2008... By Michael Malone Monday, April 14 The NAB holds its annual shindig at the Las Vegas Convention Center. 'Where Content Comes to Life' is the tagline: Academy Award-winning actor Tim Robbins offers the opening keynote, and CBS News...

Katie Can't.(Katie Couric )
April 14, 2008... Staff Maybe Katie Couric won't be the anchor of the CBS Evening News until 2011. According to news reports, she'll be gone soon after the presidential inauguration in 2009. CBS said it had 'no plans' to ice Couric, and the anchor's own...

Where's the Commander in Chief?
April 14, 2008... By Gary Arlen Every president from Herbert Hoover through George H. W. Bush spoke to a convention or other large gathering of the National Association of Broadcasters, or its predecessor National Association of Radio Broadcasters....

Fates & Fortunes.(briefs)(WPSG Philadelphia)
April 14, 2008... Staff Broadcast Staff Craig Jahelka , VP and general manager, KERO Bakersfield, has joined WBOC Delmarva as VP and general manager. Gary McNair , senior VP and GM, WBOY Clarksburg, has joined WECT Wilmington, as VP and...

Janet Annino Likes Her New Recipe.
April 14, 2008... By Paige Albiniak Former Entertainment Tonight producer finds success with Rachael Ray Cooking wasn't exactly Janet Annino's strong suit when she agreed to become the executive producer of Rachael Ray back in 2006. After all, Annino...

Technology Leadership Awards.(Awards list)(Brief article)
April 14, 2008... Staff Monday, April 14, 6 p.m. Las Vegas Hilton, Ballroom D-E Mark Aitken , Sinclair Broadcast Group Brandon Burgess , Ion Media Networks Hugo Gaggioni , Sony Bob Hesskamp , CNN Blake Krikorian , Sling Media Phil...

Mark Aitken.
April 14, 2008... Kevin Downey Helping set the standards for mobile TV In 1974 Mark Aitken was working as a draftsman and mechanical detailer for a small company called CCA Electronics. All that changed within a year when a consultant from Comark...

Bob Hesskamp.(Biography)
April 14, 2008... Kevin Downey Master of CNN's tech effort Bob Hesskamp, a lifelong St. Louis Cardinals fan, had a pretty good idea of what he wanted to do with his life when he started at the University of Missouri in the early 1980s. He wanted to...

Hugo Gaggioni.(Biography)
April 14, 2008... Kevin Downey Sony executive was into HD before anyone had ever even heard of it As a young student in Venezuela in the early 1970s, Hugo Gaggioni, 54, applied for a government scholarship that he figured would help him pay for college....

Blake Krikorian.(Sling Media)(Biography)
April 14, 2008... Kevin Downey How the love of baseball led to the Slingbox You can credit, or blame, the San Francisco Giants for the success of 40-year-old Blake Krikorian, co-founder of Sling Media. 'There was one day in the summer of 2002,...

Brandon Burgess.(Biography)
April 14, 2008... Kevin Downey The reluctant technology pro Brandon Burgess, chairman and CEO of ION Media Networks and one of the founders of the Open Mobile Video Coalition (OMVC), describes himself as an improbable winner of a technology award,...

Remembering Phil Livingston.(Panasonic Broadcast and Television Systems Co.)(Biography)
April 14, 2008... Kevin Downey Phil Livingston, a 28-year veteran at Panasonic Broadcast & Television Systems, had a thing for electricity. It was just a natural curiosity that led him as a child to rewire the lights on his family's Christmas tree at his...

'Lopez' A Sleeper Hit.
April 14, 2008... By Paige Albiniak Off-net sitcom an overachiever Going into this TV season's final stretch, Warner Bros.' George Lopez -a C-level sitcom that was tough to sell to stations-has turned into a sleeper hit. During its run on ABC from...

ABC News Aims for Digital History.
April 14, 2008... By Glen Dickson Teams with IBM for massive archive project After five years of planning, ABC News has taken on the massive task of digitizing its content archive. And by fall, the network hopes it can identify its 500 best clips while,...

Remote-Control Graphics.
April 14, 2008... By Glen Dickson Media General's centralization project picks up speed While station group owner and newspaper publisher Media General has been under pressure from activist shareholder Harbinger Capital Partners to streamline its...

Judge dismisses bulk of Rather's suit.(Brief article)
April 14, 2008... By Marisa Guthrie A New York judge dismissed the majority of the claims in Dan Rather's $70 million lawsuit against CBS and Viacom. Rather claims that CBS News committed "fraud" and "seriously damaged his reputation" by scapegoating him...

Dr. Oz to Follow Dr. Phil from Oprah.(Brief article)
April 14, 2008... By Paige Albiniak and Ben Grossman Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Productions is developing a talk show featuring heart surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz for an expected fall-2009 launch. Winfrey and her team met with potential distributors last month in...

FCC Fines Retailers, DTV Suppliers.(Brief article)
April 14, 2008... By John Eggerton The FCC levied more than $6 million in fines on retailers and equipment companies for violating its rules on digital-TV-set labeling, prohibitions on shipping sets with analog-only tuners and requirements that new TVs work...

Harris, Snell Team On News Demo at NAB.(Brief article)
April 14, 2008... By Glen Dickson At the NAB Show, broadcast conglomerate Harris and video processing specialist Snell & Wilcox will try to show new interoperability between their products with a demonstration of Snell's Kahuna multi-format production...

Harmonic Aims At Mobile TV.(Electra 5400 standard definition)(Brief article)
April 14, 2008... By Glen Dickson Compression supplier Harmonic has integrated low-resolution encoding into its DiviCom Electra MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) encoders, with a specific focus on mobile video applications. It will be demonstrating the development at the...

Eurosport Taps On2 for Web video.
April 14, 2008... By Glen Dickson European sports programmer Eurosport, which operates one of the most comprehensive global sports Websites has licensed video encoding technology from On2 Technologies, a Tarrytown, N.Y.-based firm whose encoding is used in...

BC Beat.
April 21, 2008... Edited by Joel Topcik And All I Got Was This Lousy CNN T-Shirt... Joel Topcik CNN , apparently not content to offer news you can use, is peddling news you can wear. Call it pret-a-reporter: Beginning April 21, visitors to...

Girl Power!
April 21, 2008... By Claire Atkinson Now more than ever, women are dominating screens big and small Women rule-at least in the eye of the camera. At the box office the movie Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds grossed $65.1 million...

Deals.(Luken Communications )(Equity Media Holdings Corp)(Obidia Porras )(Colorado TV Marketing )
April 21, 2008... By BIA Financial Networks TV WEVU-CA, WLZE-LP & WTLE-LP/Fort Myers, and WBSP-CA & WUVF-CA/Naples, Fla. PRICE : $8 million BUYER : Luken Communications (Henry Luken III, member) SELLER : Equity Media Holdings Corp. (Larry...

KGW Reigns Supreme.
April 21, 2008... By Michael Malone Belo station wins in Portland with news chops The fair weather is around the corner in Portland. Perhaps the more pressing question is, will the economic climate improve in the coming months as well? After...

Revolution in the Air.(Radio-Television News Directors Association)
April 21, 2008... By Michael Malone 'New media' becomes 'media' at RTNDA Fifty years after famed newsman Edward R. Murrow urged those at the Radio-Television News Directors Association convention to use their medium to teach and inspire their audience,...

Political TV Ads Uneven, Backloaded.
April 21, 2008... By Robert Marich Stations await $3 billion windfall from pols. But when? All ships are not rising with the tide of political TV advertising. The reason: Election-cycle spending is uneven so far. The entire TV medium is still in...

Hockenberry Spreads Multi-Platform Message.(National Public Radio)(Interview)
April 21, 2008... Marisa Guthrie John Hockenberry has logged his time navigating the unpredictable media landscape. During 15 years at NPR, he covered the Gulf War as Middle East correspondent, and he reported on the war in the Balkans for NBC's Dateline....

Industry Self-Regs Could Trump Task Force.
April 21, 2008... By John Eggerton Regulation threat may have been enough to change food marketers' ways The vaunted Task Force on Childhood Obesity was launched with much fanfare at a Capitol Hill press conference in fall 2006. Given all the...

Bull Durham's Curve Ball.(Viewpoint essay)
April 21, 2008... By David Bianculli Tim Robbins handed me his speech. 'Tell me what you think,' he said. And there I was, thrust into a difficult position at the very last minute. We were backstage in the green room at the NAB conference, where...

Where to be & what to watch-.(Calendar)
April 21, 2008... By Michael Malone Monday, April 21 It's Ethics Week, sayeth the Society of Professional Journalists . 'Act independently' is the catch phrase, and SPJ offers suggestions for keeping news ethics unassailable on www.spj.org . It's also...

Shield Now.
April 21, 2008... Staff Whenever we hear the professional cynics say it really doesn't make any difference who runs the country-politicians are all the same-we want to pounce. Because clearly, the person who is the chief executive sets the tone and the...

All Scandal, No News.(National Association of Broadcasters)(Viewpoint essay)
April 21, 2008... By Tim Robbins Last week, the NAB invited actor and frequent political firebrand Tim Robbins to address the association about new media. Instead of a planned conversation with B&C critic David Bianculli, Robbins delivered a pointed, often...

Fates & Fortunes.
April 21, 2008... Staff BROADCAST Staff Dianne Smith , partner in the public policy and regulatory group, Holland + Knight LLP, has joined Fox Television Stations as VP of legal/FCC compliance. Bob Cleary , WMC Memphis, has joined KRIS...

The Last Analog NAB.(National Association of Broadcasters)
April 21, 2008... By Glen Dickson Broadcasters weigh opportunities, turn to mobile video as DTV transition wraps up For broadcasters and vendors who have been plotting their digital futures for more than a decade at NAB shows, sometime during last...

'ET,' 'Insider' Go HD.(high-definition .)
April 21, 2008... By Paige Albiniak CBS' hits jump on the hi-def bandwagon CBS' Entertainment Tonight and The Insider will make the leap to high-definition come September, making them the first two entertainment newsmagazines to announce such a move....

ABC Debate Wins, But Draws Ire.(Brief article)
April 21, 2008... By Marisa Guthrie More viewers tune in, but some question the questioners Although the presidential race has already lasted longer than most of the new primetime series introduced last September, viewers continue to be captivated by...

Mobile Hulu: A Good Call?(Brief article)
April 21, 2008... By Alex Weprin Hulu CEO Jason Kilar hints that the video site co-founded by NBC Universal and News Corp. could find its way to other platforms, saying that many of them, such as mobile phones, would be "ripe for the Hulu experience." ...

New Spirit at Trib, Zell tells analysts.(Brief article)
April 21, 2008... By Michael Malone New Tribune Chairman and CEO Sam Zell will look to sell some assets, and definitely sell the Chicago Cubs, he told analysts in his first extensive public remarks since his team took over the company at the end of last...

Google Does Well By Not Doing Badly.(Financial report)(Brief article)
April 21, 2008... By Robert Marich The Web-services sector-and perhaps the U.S. economy generally-dodged a bullet when Google reported solid first-quarter earnings, allaying fears of a slowdown in its search ad business that could drag down its profits. ...

NBC Shuffles Station Execs.(Brief article)
April 21, 2008... By Michael Malone NBC realigned the team overseeing its 10 owned stations. Frank Comerford was promoted to president of platform development and commercial operations; Larry Wert was named president, Central and Western region; and Tom...

CBS Photog Rescued from Captors in Iraq.(Brief article)
April 21, 2008... By John Eggerton CBS journalist Richard Butler was freed by Iraqi troops last week in a raid on a house in Basra. Butler, who was working for CBS as a cameraman, was taken more than two months ago. "We are incredibly grateful that our...

NFL and Comcast Start Fighting Again.(Federal Communications Commission)(Brief article)
April 21, 2008... By John Eggerton NFL Network plans to file a program-access complaint with the FCC over the nation's largest cable operator's decision to place the network on a sports tier. "After months of unproductive efforts by network executives...