The Insider
None of the sports and TV executives and stars in the ballroom of New York’s Waldorf-Astoria missed the joke written into the NBC Sports ad in the program for last week’s March of Dimes 20th Anniversary Sports Luncheon.The event’s four…
In Depth
VH1 Plans to Serve Up Liquor Ads
Drinking from a source most national networks avoid, VH1 is selling ads to hard-liquor distributors.Ad buying sources said VH1 is offering spots to hard-liquor clients on what’s being called a test basis, despite a voluntary industry policy against taking spirits…
Cap Decision Puts Stations Back in Play
Next year, it will be different for TV stations.Thanks to a confluence of events that are certain to cast the value of stations in a more flattering light, many people who follow station sales activity predict that 2004 will be…
JOHN SIE ON ‘ELECTRONIC MOLTING’
Only minutes after his company announced the launch of new cutting-edge channels offering movies on demand and in high definition, John Sie was musing about competing media. As founder and chairman of the Starz Encore Group, much of his focus…
Western Show Notes
Former USA Networks Chairman and CEO Kay Koplovitz has been named chairman of the board of directors of Reality Central, a channel devoted to reality programming that plans a mid-2004 launch. Ms. Koplovitz told TelevisionWeek she was drawn to the…
Clairol, ‘Starting Over’ Join in Deal
NBC Enterprises’ rookie daytime reality show “Starting Over” and Procter & Gamble’s Clairol Nice ‘n Easy have joined for a rare multimillion-dollar, seven-month marketing promotion.The arrangement is atypical for TV syndication marketing. Most syndie deals are with proven off-network shows…
Broadcaster Remembered
Hal Walker, who passed away Nov. 25 at age 70, broke barriers in TV after becoming the first black correspondent at CBS News in 1969. He came on the scene when one of the biggest stories was the civil rights…
Disney Has Plenty to Worry About
Comcast Corp. and Cox Communications have given Michael Eisner a competitive challenge to worry about that could do serious damage to The Walt Disney Co. and its balance sheet long before dissident shareholders Roy Disney and Stanley Gold launch their…
Pop Star Arrest Ups Newsmags
While most genres struggled toward the end of the November sweeps, celebrity-driven newsmagazines-both weekly hours and strips-continued their climb up the charts, buoyed by news of the Michael Jackson scandal.According to Nielsen Media Research figures for the week ending Nov….
NBC O&Os Deciding Their 2004 Lineups
The NBC owned-and-operated stations are fine-tuning their schedules for 2004, and the results will be seen beginning in February.Last week the group announced it had officially renewed freshman talk show “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” for a second season and canceled…