May is upfront season in the slave-to-the-cycle TV business. It might just as well be called the Month of Cliches. This is the time of the year when executives declare, without any sense of irony, that the past nine months…
Forecast Spending Declines Indicate Sales Volume May Drop
A record number of consumers called the Federal Communications Commission’s national helpline Thursday in response to a nationwide DTV soft test. The FCC helpline received more than 55,000 calls from consumers, a single-day record. The helpline has averaged 15,000 calls…
Fox has officially claimed its fifth consecutive win among adults 18-49 for the 2008-09 TV season, while CBS wrapped up the season as the most-watched broadcast network for the sixth time out of the last seven years. With “America Idol”…
Fuel TV, the News Corp. cable channel specializing in action sports such as surfing, struck a deal with the Dish satellite TV service that expands the network’s distribution to almost 30 million U.S. homes. The channel also announced it had…
DirecTV will relaunch The 101 Network on May 31 with a fresh look. The rebrand will include new 3-D graphics, a new logo and other broadcast elements that will reflect the network’s programming and new direction. The rebrand on May…
Benita Fitzgerald Mosley will step down from her position as president-CEO of Women in Cable and Telecommunications on June 30. Ms. Mosley, a 1984 Olympic gold medalist, is departing the organization to join USA Track & Field as chief of…
“American Idol” wrapped up its eighth season Wednesday night with its lowest-rated finale ever. Last night’s two-hour results show averaged a 10.0 rating among adults 18-49 from 8-10:07 p.m., according to time-zone-adjusted Fast National numbers from Nielsen Media Research. The…
Affiliate jitters regarding “The Jay Leno Show” appeared to have subsided as NBC-affiliated station heads arrived in New York City yesterday for their annual meeting. Michael Fiorile, NBC affiliate board chairman and vice chairman of the dispatch group said the…
The CW, the final broadcast network to make an upfront schedule presentation in New York this week, added three new dramas to its lineup, allowing entertainment President Dawn Ostroff to make the claim that the five-night-a-week channel has the same…