Chuck Ross

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Chuck Ross is the managing director of TVWeek.com. He's been involved in the TV business ever since he sold cable TV subscriptions in Santa Monica, Calif., door-to-door in the mid-to-late 1970s. He's had regular gigs reporting and/or editing about TV and advertising for Cablevision magazine,The Hollywood Reporter, the San Francisco Chronicle, Inside Media and Advertising Age. He first joined the predecessor to TVWeek, Electronic Media, in 2000.

Vast Wasteland My Ass, Part Two. Strange Bedfellows: ‘Oh Calcutta!’ ‘Playhouse 90’ and ‘The Beverly Hillbillies’

One of the more controversial blog entries we’ve had recently was when TVWeek Open Mic Guest Blogger Norman Horowitz, a veteran TV executive, took on former FCC Chairman Newton Minow’s famous comment–made 50 years ago–that TV was a "vast wasteland."…

Charter Positioning to Sell L.A.-Area Cable System

Charter Communications is getting ready to sell its Los Angeles system in an auction that could attract $2 billion or more, reports Multichannel News. The move comes after Charter failed to reach an agreement with Time Warner Cable to swap…

Showtime Renews Series

Showtime has ordered a second season of a series that had a strong debut earlier this month, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The series is "The Borgias," which debuted with 3.71 million viewers during its premiere week and delivered the…

Netflix Reaches Milestone

After signing on an average of 1.1 million U.S. customers for each month in the first quarter, Netflix now has more subscribers than any other video service in the country, reports The New York Times’ Media Decoder blog. The company…

Lawmakers Questioning Apple, Google and Others About Location-Tracking Technology

U.S. lawmakers are questioning six companies including Apple and Google about whether their products violate privacy rules by tracking user locations, reports Bloomberg. Five Republican lawmakers sent letters Monday to the companies, questioning how they store location data and whether…

Yahoo Buys Maker of TV ‘Check-In’ App for Apple Devices

Yahoo has bought IntoNow, a company that makes a television "check-in" app for Apple devices such as iPhones and iPod Touch, reports the Los Angeles Times’ Technology blog. The app works by using microphones inside the devices to listen to…

Tears For (Past) Fears: Lady Gaga Crying Backstage in HBO Video Clip

The superstar still has moments when "I still sometimes feel like a loser kid in high school." The entire program, "Lady Gaga Presents The Monster Ball Tour: At Madison Square Garden," debuts on HBO on May 7, 2011.

Engineer Behind the Teleprompter Dead at 91

Hubert J. "Hub" Schlafly Jr., a television engineer who helped invent the teleprompter, has died at 91, reports The Washington Post. The idea for the teleprompter came in the 1940s when a Broadway actor, Fred Barton, came up with the…

Ratings Record for BBC America

BBC America set a ratings record with the season premiere of a British import Saturday, TVGuide.com reported. The first part of a two-part "Doctor Who" episode drew 1.27 million viewers to the cable channel, which made the show the network’s…

Guest Blog–Vast Wasteland My Ass, Part Two. Strange Bedfellows: ‘Oh! Calcutta!’ ‘Playhouse 90’ and ‘The Beverly Hillbillies’

[Editor’s Note: This is a guest blog by Norman Horowitz, and a follow-up to a blog entry he wrote that can be found if you click here. Norman started in the TV business in 1956, when he was 24. He has been president of…