Digital

Vuguru Taps Larry Tanz as President

Michael Eisner’s Vuguru studio tapped Larry Tanz as president, the Los Angeles Times reports. Tanz is the former president and chief executive of LivePlanet Inc., formed by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, where his productions included HBO’s "Project Greenlight." –Elizabeth…

Jeff Zucker Signs New G.E. Contract

NBC Universal president and CEO Jeff Zucker signed a new three-year contract with G.E. last week, reports The Hollywood Reporter. The deal will keep him at the company through 2013. Zucker is to be CEO of the new NBC U…

CBS Under More Fire for Its Foulmouthed Frosty the Snowman Online Promo for ‘How I Met Your Mother’ and ‘Two and a Half Men’

CBS is still getting flak for its Web site mashup of visuals from the Christmas children’s classic “Frosty the Snowman” with off-color dialog from “How I Met My Moother” and “Two and a Half Men.” Today it’s Richard Metzger at…

Trade Pub Variety Starts Building Pay Wall For Its Web Site Starting Today

Starting today, Dec 10, the venerable Hollywood trade publication Variety has started to rebuild a pay wall around its site. Though the site has been free to all comers for several years now, it had tried–and abandoned–a pay wall model…

Hollywood Reporter Sale Finalized

The sale of The Hollywood Reporter, along with the music trade Billboard and six other Nielsen Business Media publications, has been finalized, the Los Angeles Times reports. As expected, the new owner is a consortium of investors called e5 Global Media consisting…

Anthea Disney, Well-Respected Top News Corp. Executive, Leaving at Year’s End

Anthea Disney, News Corp’s EVP of Content, will be leaving the company at the end of the year, it was announced today. Disney, who was in charge of TV Guide when News Corp. owned it, has been with the company…

Top Sports Illustrated Golf Writers Are Upset That Revelations About Tiger Woods from TMZ and Other Celebrity News Sites Are Being Treated as Legitimate

The top golf writers from Sports Illustrated, in a recent roundtable discussion, dissed the Tiger Woods news coming from TMZ and other celebrity sites. The roundtable, posted at golf.com, can be read here. A summary of the roundtable is available…

With AOL Spinning Off From Time Warner Today, Former TW CEO Jerry Levin Still Defends Merger

Gerald Levin, the former CEO of Time Warner who, along with then AOL CEO Steve Case, crafted the joining of the two companies, still defends the validity of the merger at the time he did the deal. Levin, who was…

Iger Says He Wants Retrans Fees For Both ABC O&Os And a Cut From What Affiliates Get

Walt Disney Co. will be asking for cash compensation from cable, satellite TV and telco operators and station groups that retransmit its programming in 2010, chairman Robert Iger said today at the UBS Global Media and Communications conference in New York, reports Multichannel News….

Finally Some Good News on the DVD Front

For Hollywood studios, who have been lamenting the decline of DVD sales for some time, it looks like it’s not all bad news. Jeff Bewkes, CEO of Time Warner, says that DVD sales have not fallen as precipitously this year…