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In Depth

Online Sweepstakes Pay Off for Stations

As TV stations continue to mine the Internet as a potential outlet for nontraditional revenue, a number of local broadcasters are looking to online contests to bring in extra change.In an economic climate that’s putting budget squeezes on TV stations,…

Fox Exploring VOD Flexibility

Fox Broadcasting Co. is in the early phase of discussions with its program suppliers to obtain rights to experiment with distributing Fox Network shows in a promising new after-market being created by video-on-demand technology. In exchange for those rights, Fox…

Discovery Detects a High Percentage of Female Viewers

When Billy Campbell arrived at Discovery Networks less than a year and a half ago, he was surprised to discover that so many of the cable empire’s successful shows were driven by female viewers.“The top-rated night on Discovery Channel is…

Gigs

ROLESFormer Conan O’Brien sidekick Andy Richter (above) has agreed to host “The Commies,” Comedy Central’s first awards show. The program will be taped Nov. 22 at Sony Studios in Los Angeles. “The Commies” will air Dec. 7 at 9 p.m….

ROI Measure Gaining Favor

If media planning sometimes seems like religion, it’s because the field has always been driven by a few gospel-like principles that haven’t changed all that much since the dawn of the mass media marketplace. In the beginning, it was all…

FCC Approves ‘Broadcast Flag’ Technology

The Federal Communications Commission last week approved regulations clearing the way for Hollywood studios to prevent Internet redistribution of digital TV programming that is delivered by broadcast stations. With so-called “broadcast flag” technology, the FCC said, consumers will continue to…

Follow the Money to Jail?

Lawyers at the Fox Cable Networks Group could be kept busy this week figuring out whether they really can file criminal charges against staffers who disseminated an e-mail last week listing the take-home pay of everyone in the division, from…

Hitting the Primary Target

While the television industry scratches its head about why the number of young male viewers has declined this season, one thing is crystal clear about today’s TV landscape: Women remain programmers’ and advertisers’ primary target.Since women were first defined as…

Editorial: CBS Buckles Under ‘Reagans’ Pressure

If we are to take CBS at its word, the decision to dump the miniseries “The Reagans” only two weeks before it was scheduled to air was made because of a last-minute realization that the long-in-the-works project “does not present…

Guest Commentary: Network Evening News Faces Uncertain Future

When I read that more television viewers watched the coverage of 9/11 on the 24-hour cable news channels than on the Big 3 networks, it became apparent that it was the dawn of a new day. When Tom, Peter and…