15,322 Entries
Home satellite service DirecTV has been quietly showing free five-minute previews of soft-core adult films in its pay-per-view lineup. The previews, which often display full frontal nudity and simulated sex acts, could be seen by any DirecTV viewer, including children…
Upset about a recent court ruling that further relaxes the broadcast ownership rules, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ernest Hollings, D-S.C., plans to hold a hearing on the issue this month, possibly on March 20.He’s working with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.,…
A proposal designed to reunite stray distributors at the annual National Association of Television Program Executives market has met with positive reaction from domestic distributors, at least for the 2003 gathering.The trade organization, which suffered from defecting longtime exhibitors in…
Though NBC easily won the prime-time ratings crowns during February sweeps, not all the NBC-owned and affiliated stations won all their news races.In New York, WNBC-TV was the model NBC station, winning sign-on to sign-off with a 6.5/15 compared with…
Facing competition from NBC’s Winter Olympics and Fox’s Super Bowl XXXVI broadcast, the February 2002 sweeps resembled a war of attrition for the other broadcast networks-except UPN.In particular, ABC appeared completely exposed, lacking any major program stunting to stem its…
The Olympics may have dampened an important sweeps race for syndicated product, with strips in early fringe and access particularly hit hard from the unusual competition, according to Nielsen Media Research, for the week ending Feb. 17. But metered market…
After losing the country’s top stations, “The Jenny Jones Show” could be left holding a sign that reads “Tribune or bust.”Syndicator Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution is in the process of negotiating with the Tribune station group for a multiyear…
In a major step toward government intervention in the rollout of digital television, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ernest Hollings said he’s preparing legislation designed to safeguard DTV programming, movies and other content from Internet piracy.But the South Carolina Democrat won’t…
Why the TV beat is a laff riotThe Insider was amused by sooo many things last week. Among them:* The Aaron Brown Feb. 25 show on CNN in which the always tongue-in-cheek anchor pledged to go cold turkey on some…
`Watching Ellie’ watched by 18-49 demoCould Julia Louis-Dreyfus be the first to break the post-“Seinfeld” jinx? Benefiting from an Olympic-sized promo push and a “Frasier” lead-in, Ms. Louis-Dreyfus’ premiere in NBC’s “Watching Ellie” broke out with winning ratings in the…