FedEx is dropping its advertising out of the Super Bowl after appearing in the pricey venue for 12 years, the New York Post reports. The company expressed concerns about the cost of the commercial time during a recession. NBC is…
PBS interviewer Charlie Rose and “NBC Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams earn kudos from the New York Times‘ TV Decoder blog for their transparency in discussing staff cuts that are rocking the media industry. Rose on a recent show announced…
Charter Communications is in a retransmission battle with two Belo Corp. television stations, St. Louis CBS affiliate KMOV-TV and WFAA-TV, the ABC affiliate in Dallas/Ft. Worth, Multichannel News reports. Both KMOV and WFAA said they are asking for about one…
The Screen Actors Guild said it will delay sending out ballots for a strike-authorization vote until at least Jan. 14, instead of the earlier scheduled Jan. 2, the Associated Press reports. The delay comes after some of SAG’s New York…
ESPN is developing three interactive television products called ESPN My Vote, ESPN In Game Extra and My Bottom Line, with the goal of starting them in summer 2009, Advertising Age says. Each service will provide logo placement for advertisers, while…
Actor Will Ferrell’s Funny or Die Web site raised $3 million from a single, unnamed investor, Reuters reports. Mark Kvamme, a company director and backer, could not be immediately reached for comment. According to a regulatory filing, the investment also…
Lillo Brancato Jr., 32, a former actor on “The Sopranos” who played a young mobster, was cleared in the killing of an off-duty New York City police officer by a New York State Supreme Court jury, the New York Times…
Hulu lost viewers in November from the previous month, the first decline for the video-streaming site, Advertising Age reports, citing figures from Nielsen VideoCensus. Viewers dropped to 7.5 million from more than 9 million, perhaps because the site didn’t have…
The music video “Yes We Can,” made by will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas, was one of last year’s best advertisements, the Wall Street Journal says. The ad, which promoted President-elect Barack Obama, wasn’t commissioned by his campaign. Still, it…
The conflict between YouTube and Warner Music Group, which pulled music videos from the online-video site over the weekend, illustrates the increasing tension between music companies and Web sites over advertising and licensing revenue, the Los Angeles Times says. The…