I Want My Local Sports Anchor by David Goetzl

When Skip Bayless left sports writing in San Jose to join ESPN, he told readers he had always hungered to move to New York and play for the Yankees. Referring to ESPN's dominance and budget, he said that "ESPN has become the Yankees." ...Read the whole story

  • Despite HD Content, Advertisers Slow To Embrace HD Ads by Wayne Friedman

    TV content owners may be moving quickly on HD programming; TV advertisers for HD commercials are another story. A new study says advertisers using HD in their commercials were just 13% of all the TV creative that ran in fourth-quarter 2010. ...Read the whole story

  • automotive Hyundai Effort Urges 'Don't Be A Sheep!' by Karl Greenberg

    You don't have to be a sheep and you don't have to accept conditioning. No, it's not a political slogan from a George Orwell novel. It's the theme of Hyundai Motor America's new ad campaign for the 2011 Elantra. The automaker is touting both Elantra and Sonata with four new ads, some of which will run as part of its buy on the Super Bowl. ...Read the whole story

  • Media Buyers To Wall Street: Demand Is Soaring, Upfront Will Be Strong, Especially For Cable by Joe Mandese

    Demand for all media, but especially big, national media outlets like the major TV networks, will continue to expand through 2011, and will culminate in a strong upfront TV advertising marketplace later this year, according to results of a survey of 31 media buyers represent more than $5 billion in U.S. advertising budgets, released Thursday by Wall Street securities firm Deutsche Bank. ...Read the whole story

  • 'American Idol' Has New Judges, Takes Ratings Dive by David Goetzl

    With two new judges and maybe some viewer fatigue in its 10th season, "American Idol" posted sharp drops for its season premiere Wednesday. The Fox show also had its lowest debut ratings since season one in 2002 when it was a virtual unknown. ...Read the whole story

  • Peacock Plumage: NBC 4Q Profits Soar 38% by Wayne Friedman

    Looking even better for Comcast -- as the company will close on its NBC Universal deal at the end of the month -- NBC reported its best quarterly profit results in six years. NBC witnessed a big 38% jump in fourth-quarter 2010 to $830 million in profits; revs grew 12%. ...Read the whole story

  • retail Sherwin-Williams Expands HGTV Partnership by Tanya Irwin

    Sherwin-Williams will support the line's launch with a comprehensive marketing plan from Carmichael Lynch Spong, including national advertising, public relations and new in-store merchandising and color features. Products will be available in stores by June. ...Read the whole story

  • CMT Launches Multiplatform Marketing Push For 'Working Class' by David Goetzl

    As it moves into the comedy genre, CMT is deploying a marketing campaign that stretches from a popular Facebook game to the more traditional direct mail and mall signage. "Working Class" links to a trailer for the show within Facebook's "Social City." ...Read the whole story

  • RerunCentral Aggregates Web Links To Classic TV by Wayne Friedman

    Another new digital video venture has launched -- this one more as a program guide looking to aggregate information and links of TV reruns. For fans, it offers links of TV reruns from 1948-1999, available at Hulu, Crackle and TV Land. ...Read the whole story

  • What A Job: FINS.com Launches Multimedia Effort by Aaron Baar

    A year after a relatively quiet launch to serve financial services professionals, FINS.com, a job search and career management site and service from The Wall Street Journal, is getting ready to make a splash with a multimedia advertising and marketing campaign that will include television, Internet video, print and social media. ...Read the whole story

  • IFC Drives 'Portlandia' With Zipcar, Aloft by Fern Siegel

    IFC is big on corporate alliances -- the latest with Aloft and Zipcar to pitch its new six-episode offbeat comedy "Portlandia," which premieres today. Both companies target Gen Y, which shares the sensibilities of the new show. ...Read the whole story

Can the New Comcast NBC Universal Get Social? by Diane Mermigas

The newly merged Comcast NBC Universal's biggest problem isn't outmoded prime-time ratings or over-the-top threats to cable television. It is the absence of a compelling, coordinated social-networking strategy to aid the challenging integration of its content and distribution businesses. ...More

  • Household Media Review by Jack Loechner

    Acccording to new data from The Nielsen Company, State of the Media 2010, the average US household has 2.5 TV sets, with 1.9 standard definition TVs and 0.6 high-definition TVs. Furthermore, Nielsen data shows that HDTV households have more sets than the national average. 31% of Americans own four or more TVs. ...More

  • Comcast and NBC: The Evolution Will Be Televised by Don Seaman

    Please forgive me if I'm not shaken to my core over Comcast's acquisition of NBCU. There's been so much written in the past few days about why this is bad for us as consumers. Comcast, the distribution source, will now control massive amounts of content. It will certainly be poised to create a chokehold over what consumers watch and how they watch it. Prices will go up. Net neutrality will suffer. The new company will be able to suppress content from competitors and favor its own.All of that is possible -- maybe probable, even with some "voluntary" restrictions imposed by ...More

  • 'American Idol' Returns: Still Big With Viewers, While Fox Looks Long-Term by Wayne Friedman

    The first episode of "American Idol" is down a lot, ratings-wise. Does that change anything? For Fox, not really, especially looking at the bigger picture going into next season. ...More

  • Word-A-Week: More On Types of Set-Top Boxes by Jane Clarke

    Last week we began with defining Set-Top Box, which is not as simple a task as it sounds. Generically, these boxes span the range from Analog (those that can only deliver data in one direction which is to the box) and Digital (those that have the ability to deliver data in two directions, which is to and from the box). Because they have the ability to deliver data back from the box, it is only the Digital Set-Top Boxes that can provide Set-Top-Box data. Digital Set-Top Boxes vary in level of sophistication, which can impact the amount and quality of ...More

  • Piers Morgan Adds Zip To Self-Marketing With Twitter Plea To NYT Reporter by Wayne Friedman

    Piers Morgan didn't wait for the marketing machine at CNN to take its normal course. The new digital world perhaps forced this. Twitter also had a hand. ...More