Thursday, June 30, 2011
Vacay
I'm wrapping up my time in London and preparing for one last week of fun in Europe, so I'm giving the blog a brief siesta. I'll try to post anything important that happens for archival purposes, but won't get back to regular posts until after next week. Here's hoping the world of TV is pretty boring over the next ten days.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Thursday's Over
Brian Steinberg says Thursday night's ad viewership supremacy is giving way to Sunday or Wednesday.
Retrans Filings
Pay TV and broadcasting reps have filed their contrasting views on retrans reform with the FCC.
Russia Today
David Weigel introduces us to Russia Today, a bombastic Russian cable news channel targeting Americans.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Notable Cable Ratings
Wilfred has set a ratings record for FX, while Covert Affairs and White Collar have gotten big DVR boosts, and the BET Awards were a big ratings success.
New In Media Res
Theme: Aaron Sorkin
- Monday June 27, 2011 – Todd Sodano (St. John Fisher College) presents: Say What, Sorkin?
- Tuesday June 28, 2011 – Richard Newton (Claremont Graduate University) presents: President Bartlet’s Bully Pulpit
- Wednesday June 29, 2011 – Janet McCabe (Birkbeck, University of London) presents: Sorkin Lives: Mediating the post-9-11 US political mind in The West Wing
- Thursday June 30, 2011 – Kelli Marshall (Independent Scholar) presents: Aaron Sorkin’s Elite Smart Girls (or Lack Thereof)
- Friday July 1, 2011 – Pamela Ingleton (McMaster University) presents: Lacking "honesty" and "a human quality": Sorkin and the Anti-Social Network
Supremes Tackling Indecency
The Supreme Court will indeed hear arguments over the FCC's indecency enforcement rules.
Accidental Finales
AV Club surveys series finales that weren't expecting to be series finales. Jaime Weinman adds thoughts.
AARP Encourages TV
AARP is trying to convince the TV industry that older people are worth making TV for too.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Reports From London
My last post about British TV is up at Antenna, and I'm pretty sure I've forgotten to link to some of them, so here they all are: Scheduling, Documentary, Channels, Content Regulation, The Week That Was, Final Thoughts.
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Sports Ratings
Spotted offers a summary of 2010-11 ratings for broadcast primetime sports and championship games.
Tea Party Pilot
Producers associated with the Tea Party movement have created a TV drama set in colonial America; the pilot is going straight to DVD as they try to shop it as a VOD series.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Thursday, June 23, 2011
TWC-Viacom Pause
Time Warner Cable and Viacom have paused their legal battle over iPad distribution of content will they try to work out a deal on their own.
But now Viacom is going after Cablevision.
But now Viacom is going after Cablevision.
Pilot at Comic-Con
Producers of Locke & Key are hoping a Comic-Con screening of the rejected pilot will court a suitor.
Subs Fall
Cable subscriber numbers in the top 15 markets have fallen, though they're are nearly offset by satellite and telco sub pickups.
Greatest Writers' Rooms
Splitsider has a fun, and at times surprising (Dana Carvey Show!), list of the greatest writers' rooms in TV history.
The Killing Wrap-Up
Alan Sepinwall has an interview with The Killing showrunner Veena Sud, and you can read reviews of the finale from Mo Ryan, Matt Zoller Seitz, Alan Sepinwall, Jaime Weinman, Ken Tucker, Cory Barker, James Poniewozik, Andy Greenwald, Jason Mittell, and Jace Lacob.
Myles McNutt wonders if the poorly received (and that's an understatement) finale will threaten the AMC brand. Louis Peitzman addresses the critical reaction to the critical reaction. Daniel Walters says the problem was placing too much narrative weight on one question: "The longer we have to wait for a reveal, the better the reveal has to be."
It's also worth noting that, as usual, the NYT review is terrible, and it would appear that the reviewer, Ginia Bellafante, hasn't even seen the whole episode. Update: Bellafante has now defended her interpretation of the show's ending. David Bushman defends Bellafante and the finale.
Update: Showrunner Veena Sud has responded to the finale hate and says she loves it. And AMC's president says they didn't expect the backlash.
Myles McNutt wonders if the poorly received (and that's an understatement) finale will threaten the AMC brand. Louis Peitzman addresses the critical reaction to the critical reaction. Daniel Walters says the problem was placing too much narrative weight on one question: "The longer we have to wait for a reveal, the better the reveal has to be."
It's also worth noting that, as usual, the NYT review is terrible, and it would appear that the reviewer, Ginia Bellafante, hasn't even seen the whole episode. Update: Bellafante has now defended her interpretation of the show's ending. David Bushman defends Bellafante and the finale.
Update: Showrunner Veena Sud has responded to the finale hate and says she loves it. And AMC's president says they didn't expect the backlash.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Hulu Deal
Fox is close to re-signing with Hulu, which will also bring more ads. Also, rumors continue that Hulu is up for sale. But both Peter Kafka and Ryan Lawler note it's a tough sell, and there are rumors that false news is being strategically leaked to jack up Hulu's value. THR offers reasons why the studios might be interested in a sale. Comcast can only sit back and watch. Amanda Natividad charts Hulu through the years.
Dems Against FCC Bill
Katy Bachman reports that Democrats oppose a Republican bill that would reform the FCC, arguing it would undermine the commission's ability to enforce public interest concerns.
Retrans Uncertainty
Price Colman says uncertainty over how big a chunk of retrans revenue networks should get is slowing down station sales, this as Fox is willing to drop affiliates that won't agree to its demands.
Demo Outliers
Nielsen stats show how valuable people under 25 and over 49 can be for advertisers, who are mostly focused on the ages in the middle.
Hulu for Sale?
After receiving an offer, Hulu is considering putting itself up for sale (article behind WSJ paywall); Janko Roettgers considers who the suitors could be, while the LA Times reports that Yahoo made the offer. But Will Richmond thinks a deal is unlikely.
Google Purchase
Google has snapped up a company called SageTV that some speculate is a move to improve GoogleTV.
Reality of Aussie Immigration
A new reality TV series in Australia tackles the issue of immigration.
Local Broadcasting Value
A study commissioned by the NAB claims that local radio and television add $1.17 billion a year to the GDP (or 7% of it) and support 2.52 million jobs.
Staffing Season Highlights
Deadline has some interesting info on writers' room staffing for fall shows.
Fall Write-Outs
A few pilots feature actors who are committed to other shows, and rather than reshooting or recasting, their characters will be written out of the shows after the initial episodes.
USA Brand
Cory Barker tackles the USA Network brand and what's at stake for the channel this summer.
Show Futures
Vulture speculates on how much longer certain long-running shows, like House and HIMYM, will last.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Olbermann's Back
James Poniewozik watched last night's new Keith Olbermann show on Current and reports that it looked quite a bit like the old one on MSNBC, only with more digs at MSNBC. If you missed the show and want to catch up online, you won't be able to catch everything you missed thanks to carriage deal restrictions.
Netflix Challenges
Larry Dignan says a few problems Netflix ran into this weekend might be a sign of challenges to come.
Dodger Deal Rejected
In wacky rich people news, MLB commish Bud Selig has rejected a cable TV deal between LA Dodgers owner Frank McCourt and Fox, saying the deal was more about McCourt's personal finances than the team's needs.
Current Watching Bloomberg
Joe Flint says Current is keeping an eye on the Bloomberg-Comcast carriage fight with interest in qualifying for status as a news channel.
Summer Pattern
Aaron Barnhart says cable's summer programming has gotten formulaic. But Ben Grossman notes that FX is breaking some rules with its Thursday night comedies.
Critics Choice Awards
The inaugural Critics Choice Television Awards were handed out last night; Tom O'Neil wonders if they'll last.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Cable Pushing Everywhere
Nat Worden reports on how cable operators are pushing TV Everywhere initiatives, even as programmers are resisting.
3D's Struggle
Ben Grossman says his excursion into Best Buy revealed the struggles with 3D TV set sales. 3D apparently isn't going over well in Britain either.
Product Placement Confusion
UK TV introduced product placement earlier this year, but the vast majority of viewers still don't recognize the symbol required to signal the use of product placement. A survey of viewers asked what the P symbol meant found that found that "11% thought the symbol related to parking, 2% thought it was some sort of pay point, and 1% thought it was related to the online payment company Paypal."
Pakistan Army Show
Pakistan's military is trying to boost its image with a TV action show depicting the army fighting Taliban militants.
Good TVeets: The Killing
Had to take Good TVeets out of mothballs to capture the amazing reaction to The Killing season finale. I've weeded out spoilers (unless "it sucked" counts as a spoiler for you).
All I heard all season from AMC and the creative team was how after the finale everyone would be talking about #TheKilling - check and mate
Just because tonight's #TheKilling finale sucked, that doesn't have to diminish the hours of boredom you got out of the rest of the season.
Wow. So apparently the string of expletives I heard walking home through this warm Chicago evening were @moryan watching #TheKilling finale.
All of this just makes me wish we'd had Twitter for the series finale of the US version of "Life On Mars."
Sudenfreude: the pleasure a TV showrunner gets from not giving a crap about viewers. #thekilling
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Olbermann Profile
David Carr delves into Keith Olbermann's persona and where he fits in the cable news landscape.
Louie's Back
Louis CK's comedy Louie returns to FX this week; James Poniewozik has a profile and Andrew Goldman has an interview, as does Jessica Grose (in the latter, he makes his Tracy Morgan comments).
NBC Changes
NBC's station group is rebranding, and Media Life talks to a media analyst about changes taking place at the struggling networ..
Saturday, June 18, 2011
HD Beauty
The BBC has hired beauty experts to get its news presenters looking fit for high def. (The license fee payers in the comments section don't seem too pleased by this expense.)
Soap Defense
A senior BBC Drama exec is defending soap operas against concerns that their content is too adult for pre-watershed times, arguing that they help teach children about the world.
BBC Wins The Voice
A British version of NBC's hit (and Dutch original) The Voice will air on the BBC.
OWN Falling Short
OWN is having to offer make-goods to advertisers to make up for ratings falling short of promised numbers.
TV Ads Still Strong
Emily Steel reports that marketers are spending more money on TV ads (behind WSJ paywall).
Cable Ad Gains
Meg James reports on cable's ad dollar gains this upfronts season, when cable's take is poised to be greater than broadcast TV's take for the first time, though political ads are still going most to local stations.
Online Viewing Stats
George Winslow reports on online viewing stats from May; about 83% of US internet users watched online video during the month, and Hulu served up the most ads to users.
Captions Lawsuits
CNN is being sued for not providing captions for online videos. Now Netflix is too.
Streaming Law
The Senate is likely to make illegal streaming of internet video a felony, closing a loophole that banned downloading but not streaming.
Glee Expands Room
Glee is bringing more people into its writers' room, adding six (!) new writers. Jaime Weinman shares his reaction.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Mobile Recovery
Janko Roettgers wonders if a slight mobile subscription revenue recovery could mean a full mobile TV comeback.
Cloud v. Set-Top
Ryan Lawler sees in a Comcast cloud platform something that may kill off the set-top box.
UK Black Actors Leaving
Apparently UK TV and theater are losing black actors to US TV and film because of a dearth of multicultural roles (which, if true, is really saying something, given that non-white roles in the US aren't voluminous either).
Soap Changes
Elana Levine notes the changes taking place at ABC's doomed soaps, which seem to be working harder to please fans just as they're leaving them.
More From NCTA
At the Cable Show, NCTA chief and former FCC chair Michael Powell spoke, current FCC chair Julius Genachowski spoke, and among the panel discussion topics were the issue of pricey programming on targeted channels, the challenge of figuring out which shows work abroad (dramas do better than comedies, Glee is a tough sell), and the need for multi-platforming. And everyone there is obsessed with Netflix, with some talking boldly.
By the way, you can keep up with more Cable Show news (I'll only post some highlights) at this link.
By the way, you can keep up with more Cable Show news (I'll only post some highlights) at this link.
Actor Salaries
Wayne Friedman discusses the issue of what TV actors are paid relative to their value to viewers.
Time-Shifting Gains
CBS led the networks in gaining 10.1% more viewers via seven-day time-shifting last season, while ABC's Modern Family and Grey's Anatomy did the best among in 18-49 viewership of shows.
Klosterman on Spoilers
Chuck Klosterman (on the quite compelling new blog Grantland) discusses the possibility that writers are affected by the easy spread of spoilers today: "Let's assume certain screenwriters are anticipating the ability of audiences to wreck plot twists, so they're actively structuring stories in ways that defy that possibility. Might this actually be good?" Jason Mittell responds.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Hanson on Twitter
Bones showrunner Hart Hanson discusses the problems he's had with fans on Twitter.
TV Land Success
TV Land has successfully reinvented itself with originals like Hot in Cleveland, which returns tonight.
Cable Quality?
Todd VanDerWerff questions if we can still consider cable the dominant home for quality scripted programming given the changing economics of the TV industry. James Poniewozik also chimes in on the issue, which was previously discussed by Tim Goodman, as does Jaime Weinman.
Cable News
D.M. Levine notes that a lot of the NCTA Cable Show is focusing on how the industry is afraid of oncoming changes, which they should be given that stats are showing people aren't necessarily cutting the cord, they're just cutting cable. Execs are also worried about poverty in regard to losing subscribers. Analysts say cable companies need to work on customer service more, while Time Warner's Jeff Bewkes thinks just putting TV on the internet sounds like a good future plan.
Cross-Platform Report
Nielsen has a report on how viewers watch video across multiple platforms. Wayne Friedman digs into the part of the report that indicates heavy streaming is hurting TV viewership, as do Janko Roettgers, Peter Kafka, and Audrey Watters. The report also has stats on HD set ownership, finding two-thirds of homes with HDTVs.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Cable Challenges
At this week's annual National Cable & Telecommunications Assn. convention, also known as The Cable Show, talk is of challenges ahead and the future of TV on TV.
Future of Audience Research
Philip Napoli recently presented a talk on the need for better research into audiences and media consumption; video of the talk can be viewed here.
Al-Jazeera Building
Al-Jazeera is trying to build awareness of its channel through getting wider carriage, rather than through advertising.
Watershed Debates
With concern heating up (at least in the press) about the increase in graphic content available to children in the UK, some say the concept of TV's watershed still matters, while others are saying it's obsolete. (And if you don't know what the watershed is, check out my Antenna post.)
Misfits on Hulu
You'll soon be able to see the UK drama Misfits on Hulu, and trust me, you definitely want to see it. Hulu is also getting Whites and A Booth at the End from the UK.
ABC Tops With Women
ABC reportedly draws in more female viewers than the other networks, with serial dramas and soaps helping them do so. Least watched channel among females? Golf Channel.
Playboy Club Shunned
NBC's affiliate in Salt Lake City will not air The Playboy Club in the fall, which is within its rights to do.
Factors for Success
Orrin Reed laments the heavy reliance on ratings in influencing the fate of TV shows and calls for greater consideration of other factors.
Artistic Title Sequences
The Independent praises creative title sequences in shows like Mad Men and Dexter.
Media Spending Rebounds
Stuart Elliot reports on a study that finds media spending having increased in 2010, with ad spending at the core.
iPlayer Going Global
The BBC's iPlayer will be available to Western Europe soon, as its internationalization advances.
The Killing Renewed
With Rosie Larson's killer revealed (I'm assuming; I haven't caught the finale yet), AMC announces The Killing will return for a second season.
Monday, June 13, 2011
BBC Suicide Controversy
Speaking of content regulation, some are angry with the BBC about a documentary it is airing tonight about assisted suicide, which will include footage of one.
British Content Regulation
Over at Antenna, I wrote about content regulation in British TV. I also realize I forgot to link to my previous post on channel line-ups in England.
Rushdie Likes TV
Author Salman Rushdie says TV drama is the new literature and is a better home for writers than the cinema. Mark Lawson adds thoughts.
Kids & Media
Nielsen has released a report on how the high school class of 2011 interacts with media.
Upfronts Update
Jon Lafayette reports that cable is setting records for upfronts advertising volume.
Interview Payment
Brian Stelter and Bill Carter report on the network news practice of paying for interviews, which is getting particularly fierce at ABC and NBC. Kari Lipschutz also writes on this issue.
More Bleeping
Melissa Maerz reports on the increase in foul language on TV and the bleeping thereof.