Reacting to a 30% drop in Time Warner’s stock price from its 2007 high, shareholders are urging Chief Executive Jeffrey Bewkes to get rid of the media company’s cable television unit, reports Bloomberg. Divesting its 84% stake in Time Warner…
Beginning in May or June, Cablevision Systems will eliminate analog feeds of basic-cable channels including A&E, TLC, E!, Sci Fi Channel and Animal Planet, reports Multichannel News. Those channels will switch to digital format, requiring current digital subscribers to obtain…
Following the success of AMC’s “Mad Men,” TNT has greenlit its own series set in the world of advertising, the Seattle Times reports. “Truth in Advertising,” starring Tom Cavanagh (“Ed”) and Eric McCormack (“Will & Grace”), follows two Chicago ad…
Crown Media Holdings said it renewed its distribution agreement for Hallmark Channel with Cablevision Systems. The new agreement gives Cablevision the right to distribute the standard definition and high definition versions of Hallmark Movie Channel. Financial terms of the deal…
Blockbuster Inc. might take a stake in the new premium TV channel being created by Viacom, the Wall Street Journal reports. Blockbuster would provide cash for the new venture and get digital rights to the channel’s programming. A report from…
Verizon’s FiOS fiber-optic service tripled its subscribers in the past year, making it the ninth-largest U.S. television service, right behind Mediacom and Suddenlink, Multichannel News reports. Verizon has 1.2 million FiOS TV customers and 1.8 million FiOS Internet customers, the…
Ondrej Zach has been appointed vice president of programming and acquisitions for HBO Central Europe, reports Daily Variety. The Prague-based Zach previously was HBO’s executive director for the Czech Republic. —Vlada Gelman
The Republican National Committee is calling on CNN and MSNBC to pull down a new ad from the Democratic National Committee about Sen. John McCain’s Iraq statements. The RNC said the ad is a “gross distortion” and demonstrates illegal coordination…
Spike plans to launch its first original comedy, “Factory,” on June 29. The series is directed, produced and stars Mitch Rouse, who co-created “Strangers with Candy” for Comedy Central. It follows the story of four workers in a small town…
When it introduces its first original scripted series in years, the A&E cable network will be using a new slogan, “Real Life. Drama.” The network, which along with sibling History holds its upfront presentation for advertisers Monday night, is launching…