Summer is the season for cable networks to embark on their annual attempts to lure viewers away from the beach, the vacation and broadcast reruns. This year, they’ll do that with a steady dose of reality shows, some scripted series…
House Energy and Commerce Chairman Billy Tauzin, R-La., will not offer digital television legislation anytime soon, despite a major impasse among industry players over how to protect digital content from copyright infringement.The congressman has repeatedly threatened to offer a bill…
MTV Networks Chairman and CEO Tom Freston expects all the MTV Networks to make a strong showing in the cable upfront market that began to break last week. But it’s MTV’s “The Osbournes” that’s on track to attract the industry’s…
This WeekJune 9-14, ARF/ESOMAR Week of Audience Measurement, sponsored by the Advertising Research Foundation, in Cannes, France. Information: 212-751-5656 or www.thearf.org.June 10, Service to America Summit, sponsored by the National Association of Broadcasters Education Foundation, at the Ronald Reagan Building…
Intertainer launching broadband VOD in EuropeIntertainer will form a joint venture with Freedomland, an Italian new media company, to launch an Internet protocol video-on-demand service in Europe. The joint venture, to be called Intertainer Europe, will be modeled after Intertainer’s…
A month before their first national get-together in more than a year, ABC and its affiliates seem as far apart as they’ve ever been.The network’s bruising 2001-02 season exacerbated tensions on both sides on some new issues and some old…
TelevisionBroadcast properties* ABC Television Network* 10 ABC owned-and-operated stationsTelevision Production and Distribution group* Touchstone* Buena Vista Productions* Domestic and international distribution of ABC and studio productCable networks* ESPN-branded networks* ABC Family* Disney Channel* Disney Channel International* Toon Disney* Soap NetRadio*…
Upton, Tauzin ask for repeal of cross-ownershipTwo influential House lawmakers urged the Federal Communications Commission last week to repeal the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership rule, which prohibits the common ownership of a daily newspaper and a broadcast station in the same market….
AOL Time Warner is fit to be tied.With its stock price, executive ranks and recovery under siege, AOL Time Warner is desperately searching for ways to create a positive spin. But that may still be a ways off, given the…
Hey, who stopped the revolution halfway through?In the battle for a better Emmy Award, the good guys were winning!Just two years ago, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences introduced the most radical-and risky-overhaul of Emmy voting in 35 years:…