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In Depth

Upfront a Record $9.3 Bil

A buyers’ feeding frenzy has fueled a record-setting broadcast prime-time upfront market, with early estimates from network and advertising executives alike pointing to a total take that will exceed $9 billion, perhaps reaching $9.3 billion or even higher.NBC, the upfront…

NAB Loses on Three Counts

Although major media companies will be the winners June 2, when the Federal Communications Commission is widely expected to radically loosen regulations limiting broadcast ownership, don’t expect any backslapping when the National Association of Broadcasters board convenes in Washington the…

Visa Card, Discovery In Cross-Promotion

Discovery Networks and Visa USA have signed their first cross-platform advertising deal together.The multimillion-dollar deal, structured around the cult hit What Not to Wear, which airs on TLC and BBC America, will include advertising on six Discovery networks and is…

News Briefs

The season-long seesaw battle for second place among the major newsmaker shows went to CBS’s Face the Nation With Bob Schieffer, which finished with an average of 2.907 million viewers, down 6 percent season to season. It had an average…

Vivendi Opening Books

Troubled French conglomerate Vivendi Universal is moving one step closer to selling its entertainment assets, preparing to let serious bidders begin the process of poring over the books of Vivendi Universal Entertainment starting the first week of June, people close…

Product Spotlight: Ukon

What it is: A universal conversion platform from Snell & Wilcox that converts video back and forth between high definition and standard definition, taking into account different frame rates, image sizes and aspect ratios. The product is designed for use…

Guest Commentary – To Congress, FCC: Wake Up

We are about to allow the elimination of one of the most valuable assets we have for reaching out to our citizens in times of emergency. The free over-the-air television service that we all take for granted as always being…

`Rainbow’ Fading? Last Hurrah for Live-Action Kiddie TV

A week ago, Reading Rainbow won the Emmy as Best Children’s Series for the third year in a row, bringing its total number of Emmys to 18 in 19 seasons. PBS ranks it as the program most used as a…

Success Stories: Supply drives and circulars

Gannett Broadcasting’s WTSP-TV in the Tampa-St. Petersburg DMA has run its Tools for School supply drive with sponsor Publix Super Markets for the past 11 years. Collection boxes are placed in more than 130 supermarkets in a nine-county area. Consumers…

SAVING FACE IN HI-DEF

Cameron Diaz is beautiful, right? After all, the green-eyed blonde has been a regular on People magazine’s list of the most beautiful people in the world. However, the magazine’s editors-and most of the Western world-do not have a high-definition TV….