G4 is serving up its own brand of “The Soup.” The network is readying “Web Soup,” a weekly half-hour compilation of the Internet’s best and worst viral videos. Chris Hardwick, Nerdist blogger and tech correspondent for “Attack of the Show,”…
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…
Mark Burnett’s “Expedition Africa: Stanley and Livingstone” will debut May 31, marking Burnett’s first original show for cable in years, Advertising Age reports. The show will follow the route taken by Dr. David Livingsone and Henry Morton Stanley in their…
Strong affiliate-fee growth from cable operators in the first quarter partly offset a drop in advertising sales at Scripps Networks Interactive, home of channels including HGTV and Food Network. The company’s net income fell to $60.1 million, or 37 cents…
Cablevision Systems says it will explore spinning off its Madison Square Garden business, TelevisionWeek reports. The move, announced along with a strong first quarter earnings report, could be part of the Dolan family’s endgame for the company they founded, TVWeek…
DirecTV added 460,000 new subscribers in the first quarter, but its earnings fell 46%, the Wall Street Journal reports. The subscriber growth marked a four-year high. “Perhaps the only quibble will be whether they achieved the growth via undue discounting,’…
VH1 has renewed the reality show “Tough Love” for a second season, which will begin toward the end of 2009, Daily Variety reports. The series features Steven Ward, a matchmaker, giving women insight into men they’re interested in romantically, the…
TLC is sticking with the May 25 fifth-season debut of “Jon & Kate Plus 8,” despite reports of Jon Gosselin’s infidelity, Multichannel News says. Executives at the network declined to comment on a photo of Gosselin leaving a bar at…
The American Cable Association said it will push for a solution to the “problem” of increasing retransmission-consent payments to television stations, Multichannel News reports. “When cable customers want to know why their bills keep going up, all they need to…
With two of its top players—Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin—facing off in the playoffs, the National Hockey League is hoping new fans tune in, USA Today reports. The games will be on Versus, but some players wish the league’s games…