News Corp. is making significant progress in its quest to win regulatory approval for its $6.6 billion acquisition of DirecTV parent Hughes Electronics and could complete the deal by the end of the year, Chairman Rupert Murdoch said last week….
They lay claim to many staggering victories-highest-rated late local newscast in the country, top-ranked newscast for an ABC affiliate in a top 50 market, 10 or more years of sweeps victories in a row.The list goes on.A handful of stations…
Last spring, I asked 100 TV executives to predict which new TV technology is most likely to succeed. The choices were high-definition TV, video-on-demand, interactive TV and the digital video recorder. By a 2-1 margin, the TV insiders picked the…
Court TV next month will roll out a new prime-time Saturday lineup the cable channel hopes will attract younger audiences and comply with advertisers’ request that programming get closer to viewers.On Sept. 6 the network will introduce the “Saturday Night…
Watchdog group representatives last week said they will urge lawmakers to make sure that legislation to roll back the national TV ownership cap requires CBS and Fox, which are over the cap, to divest stations to comply with the limitation.As…
A wise man once said, “Man cannot live by bread alone.” In our world, a good media plan cannot live on 100 GRPs/week of network day and prime alone. That may be where most of the money is, and indeed…
Eight years into James Dolan’s tenure as CEO of Cablevision Systems, he faces many challenges. The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating improper accounting of expenses involving 14 former employee (the one subject Mr. Dolan would not discuss, on advice…
Actor Gary Coleman and adult-film star Mary Carey will be among the five California gubernatorial recall candidates to appear on Game Show Network’s election spoof, “Who Wants to Be Governor of California? The Debating Game.” Former MTV VJ Kennedy, who…
Did you see the one in the office supply store, where Ellen DeGeneres leaps from chair to chair, choosing her host seat? It’s one of many inventive promos Telepictures produced for its upcoming talk show starring Ms. DeGeneres-many more, in…
“On the whole, I believe local TV news does a terrific job of reflecting and serving the local markets. We compete aggressively on breaking news, investigations, consumer, medical stories and more. And, yes, we use video, sometimes graphic video, to…