While putting too many reality series on the air at one time can turn off viewers, expanding hit shows by episodes or hours has risks of its own. Everybody remembers how ABC scheduled four nights of its hit game show…
This is the year that Discovery Networks will do $500 million in the upfront, compared with last year’s $350 million.That was the buoyant prediction Joe Abruzzese, president, advertising sales, Discovery Networks, made just before Discovery’s upfront presentation, one of two…
As the war with Iraq moved toward the end of week two, bombs-away had become business-as-usual. The war was still the biggest news story in the world, and each day brought fresh drama and controversy. But for American TV journalists…
Three years after NBC and other investors sank $50 million into Lou Dobbs’ Space.com and NBC helped land Mr. Dobbs a daily radio platform, The Insider hears the network has sold back its stake in Space Holding Corp., the multimedia…
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell said last week that the agency has tentatively set June 2 as the date for a final vote on proposals to ax or relax its media ownership rules. Three Republican lawmakers-Sens. Wayne Allard, R-Colo.,…
Last week, hundreds of guests were invited to enter Warner Bros.’ back lot through iron gates, part of a re-creation of the set from The Thorn Birds, the second-highest-rated miniseries in TV history. They would also view artifacts such as…
Advertisers take note: Even before the start of the war in Iraq, news had joined the kids, movies and sports genres in an audience migration from broadcast to ad-supported cable.That’s the edge-of-upfront contention from Jack Wakshlag, Turner Broadcasting’s head of…
NBC Tops Thursday Despite most of its lineup being in repeats, NBC won the night in adults 18 to 49 with a 5.8 rating and 16 share and total viewers with 12.4 million, according to Nielsen Media Research fast affiliate…
‘Wanda’ Debut Scores Big for Fox Amid a sea of reality last night, NBC’s The West Wing drew its smallest audience ever for an original episode, 11.7 million viewers, which placed it third in its time slot, according to Nielsen…
EchoStar’s Lawsuit Thrown Out A federal district court judge in Florida today threw out EchoStar’s claims that broadcasters had conspired anticompetitively to interfere with the satellite TV company’s business. EchoStar originally filed the claims in response to a 1998 lawsuit…