FBI and San Diego Station Nab Nearly 60 Criminals by David Goetzl

Two days before the FBI launched a major publicity campaign to nab killer James "Whitey" Bulger, a San Diego spinoff of "America's Most Wanted" featured the killer's case. Coincidence? No. Keith Slotter, head of the San Diego FBI office, moonlights as the host of "San Diego's Most Wanted." He knew the national campaign was coming and wanted to use the show for an advance push. It may not have helped capture Bulger, but the show has profiled 57 criminals who have been caught in only a year. "San Diego's Most Wanted" is distinguished by its link with the FBI, which ...Read the whole story

  • Hulu Strikes New Commercial Deal With Disney by Wayne Friedman

    With speculation of a possible sale of Hulu, the big online video site has struck a new TV program deal with co-owner Walt Disney Co. that will bring more commercials to shows. Currently, there are around four to six commercial messages in a traditional 30-minute or 60-minute TV show that runs on Hulu. ...Read the whole story

  • YouTube Gives 'Design Star' Free Ad Time, Younger Demos by Laurie Sullivan

    Free time in front of potential customers doesn't happen for advertisers often, but a video ad model on YouTube makes it a reality for Scripps Network and other advertisers -- as long as the viewer opts out before the 30-second spot concludes. ...Read the whole story

  • packaged goods Summer's Eve Declares 'That's Vaginal!' by Tanya Irwin

    The video features Carlton, a scholarly talking cat, who is on a crusade to tell America how important the vagina is (or should be.) Likening the vagina to such natural wonders as Mount Kilimanjaro and the rings of Saturn, Carlton drives home, in an amusing way, the need for a shift in conversation, to move away from euphemisms and treating the vagina as a taboo topic. ...Read the whole story

  • automotive Ye Gods, Scion Climbs Mt. Olympus To Trumpet TC by Karl Greenberg

    A source close to Attik points out that comedy is something of an advertising sub-specialty, and that agencies will typically subcontract to a species of director whose expertise is hijinks when they want SNL-type humor. Not so with Scion, for whom Attik creative director Simon Needham has helmed most all the automaker's ads, including these. ...Read the whole story

  • 'Burn Notice,' DC Comics Launch 'New Day' by David Goetzl

    USA is launching what it terms an "interactive multiplatform" comic series affiliated with drama "Burn Notice" on outlets such as the network's Web site, Facebook and mobile devices. ...Read the whole story

  • Time Out: Media General Institutes Furloughs by Erik Sass

    Media General, publisher of 21 daily newspapers, including The Tampa Tribune and Richmond-Times Dispatch, announced that it will require employees to take 15 days of unpaid leave in the second half of 2011. ...Read the whole story

  • 'Impossible' Win: ABC's New Shows Click With Viewers by Wayne Friedman

    ABC carved out a win on Thursday night with an entire lineup of fresh programming -- "Wipeout," "Expedition Impossible" and "Rookie Blue." It's new reality "Amazing Race"-type competition show from Mark Burnett, "Expedition Impossible," was the best-rated show of the night. ...Read the whole story

AMC's 'The Killing' Left Viewers Engaged and Enraged by Ed Martin

AMC's "The Killing," which concluded its first season last Sunday, simultaneously engaged and enraged viewers and critics alike with its story of the investigation into the brutal murder of a teenage girl in rain-soaked Seattle. Some of this had to do with the subject matter: a challenging and uncommonly dark blend of murder, madness, grief and desperation. But much of the mixed reaction to the show had more to do with its execution. Was "The Killing" a well-made, meticulously plotted drama that deserved the tsunami of critical praise it received at the time of its premiere -- or was it ...More

  • Are MSOs Looking For Mobile Ad Revenue At The Expense Of Cable Networks? by Wayne Friedman

    Viacom's dispute with cable operators -- first Time Warner and now Cablevision -- over iPad apps is not only about license fees but also advertising revenues. ...More

  • An American Family: The Chilling Birth (and End) of Reality TV by Steve Smith

    What is real in an age when purported "reality TV" has "finales" and one-named self-branded celebrity wannabes posing as people? When being on a show like "Survivor "or "Jersey Shore" is just another path to celebrity in which every move is self-conscious and calculated to achieve effect? You want real? Try enduring the clip below - the emotional climax to the 1973 PBS series "An American Family." ...More

  • Why I Skipped Cannes For Nielsen by Dave Morgan

    I am writing this column on a flight home from a very important industry conference. No, this is not going to be another one of those effete dispatches from the south of France and the Cannes Lions, filling us in on yacht parties, celebrity sightings and media exec sound-bites. I skipped Cannes this year, choosing instead to spend the past three days in Orlando at Nielsen's Consumer360 conference. No, I didn't draw the short straw among my several colleagues who did go to Cannes. I had a choice, and here's why I chose Florida instead of France: ...More

  • Teen Media Behavior; Texting, Talking, Socializing, TV Watching, Mobiling by Jack Loechner

    Nielsen takes look at today's American teen, raised in an age dominated by media choices like never before, from the Internet to cable channels to web connected devices galore. ...More

  • Set-Top-Box Lexicon: Addressability by Jane Clarke

    Addressability is a fairly recent concept in our current understanding of Set-Top-Box data capabilities. But it has gained understanding and interest in media buying circles as a way to optimize the scheduling and targeting of marketing messages to the right audiences of interested consumers. ...More

  • An Independent Hulu Would Still Be Holding Its Hands Out by Wayne Friedman

    Hulu needs to be an independent company so it can compete in real-time, real-world business. Trouble is, consumers still seek out TV network content. The cliche is real: Content is king (make that mostly TV network content).The problem is the kind of current Hulu video content: As long as Hulu remains, for the most part, a de-facto DVR on the Internet -- for many of those U.S. viewers who don't have actual at-home DVR hardware -- it will be limited. And a lot of Hulu's problems will remain. ...More

  • Video Wayback Machine: When TV Told Us When to Laugh by Steve Smith

    Back in the days when the TV was a "box" not a "display," when "boob tube," "idiot box" and "vast wasteland" were synonyms for the most powerful medium of the 20th Century (we weren't being ironic, either) the very symbol of television shallowness was the laugh track. Few artifacts of communication history so well embody media condescension to its audience. Programmers not only gave us tepid situation comedies; they tried to convince us the shows were funny by piping in canned laughter. True videophiles, get your checkbook ready. At an auction gallery in California this weekend (June 25-26) two of ...More