Despite a rash of troubling macroeconomic indicators that suggest the recovery may have lost its forward momentum, media buyers and network executives are confident that the TV advertising marketplace will remain robust through the end of the year writes Mediaweek. After that, it's anyone's guess. Buyers and sellers have begun the process of converting holds to orders, and while there's still some time on the clock, early indications support the notion that there won't be an inordinate amount of breakage. On the broadcast side of the ledger, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and The CW are all facing another arduous autumn battle, as cable continues to make raids on prime time and younger viewers get lured away from the tube by the digital pied piper. Last season, only Fox managed to grow its share of adults 18-49, and in the aggregate, cable now enjoys a two-to-one lead in share.

What's slowed is TV pitches, according to Deadline. In early August, the marketplace had only a few pitches in. "We're very late this year," a network topper tells me. Some point to the last selling season which was so long and bruising, by the end of it everyone felt exhausted. "We all took a collective break," one top TV lit agent says. Also, there are a lot of new scripted series -- 38 -- picked up by the broadcast nets for next season, almost 60% more than the 24 new series ordered last year. That, coupled with the increased volume of original series on cable, made fewer writers available to develop this year. A non-writing producer told me he has never gotten so many "not available" answers from TV lit agents when inquiring about writers. Read the whole story...

Time, company sources say, is on track to earn a profit of more than $50 million this year. Rick Stengel, Time managing editor, has trimmed the roughly 200-person staff by a quarter over four years, relying more on freelancers, and has assembled a team of high-profile writers. These include Michael Grunwald, David Von Drehle and Pulitzer Prize winner Barton Gellman. Stengel also brought in Mark Halperin from ABC, Michael Crowley from the New Republic and, most recently, Fareed Zakaria from Newsweek.

After being locked for decades in a Coke-Pepsi race, Time and Newsweek both decided to downsize. Time has shrunk its circulation from 4 million to 3.25 million. Time.com now offers a news feed, a collection of links aimed at stopping such sites as The Huffington Post from cannibalizing its traffic. The company plans to offer tiered pricing for access to the Web site, the magazine or something in between. Another upgrade is the Swampland blog, with reporters such as Joe Klein contributing. Read the whole story...

Tribune Broadcasting is launching a new multicast network featuring classic TV shows and movies on its own stations and looking for affiliates in other markets. Antenna TV will begin airing on Tribune's stations on Jan. 3, 2011. Among the TV shows already on the schedule: "Three's Company," "All in the Family," "Sanford and Son," "Benny Hill", "Maude," "The Nanny" and "The Three Stooges."

"Earlier this year Tribune expanded its relationship with MGM to launch This TV, a digital channel of classic movies, in additional markets. The addition of Antenna TV offers a strong compliment to This TV and to our station's existing programming," said Sean Compton, president of programming for Tribune Broadcasting. Read the whole story...

Radio/TV Martí director Pedro Roig resigned Friday after more than seven years at the head of the often controversial U.S. government stations that broadcast to Cuba. "We have, most certainly, achieved the goals of bringing the news and information denied by the communist regime to the Cuban people," Roig, a 69-year-old lawyer, wrote in his resignation letter.

The twin stations have spent an estimated $500 million over the years broadcasting news and entertainment to Cuba, but they have been dogged by complaints of meager audiences, biased politics and journalism and cronyism.An April-May survey of Cubans interviewed within six months of their arrival in the United States showed 43 percent said they had listened to Radio Martí and 6.5 percent said they saw TV Martí. Cuba effectively jams TV Martí over-the-air broadcasts, but the station also broadcasts by satellite, and the radio transmits on AM as well as shortwave frequencies. Read the whole story...

The Justice Department is focusing in on how Comcast Corp.'s bid to purchase control of General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal television and movie unit could affect the emerging Internet video market. Competitors have complained that the combined powerhouse could stunt the Internet video industry's growth.

During its eight-month review of the roughly $13.75 billion deal, the agency's antitrust division has become interested in finding out whether Comcast and other cable and satellite giants are trying to lock up distribution rights to television programming on the Internet, which would block potential competition, according to people familiar with the matter. Will online video providers emerge as direct competitors or complements to the $69.8 billion U.S. TV subscription market? Read the whole story...