• Network TV: OK To Laugh Now?
    The overall U.S. economy may have a slower build-back. But early signs are that TV's comedy market -- sitcoms, including single-camera shows, and talk shows -- might be improving.
  • U.S. Viewers Trust -- And Don't Trust -- TV News
    Fox News has recently come out as the most trusted -- and the least trusted -- news organization, according to a recent study by Sacred Heart University.
  • A Season's Worth Of Branding In One Easy TV Character Package
    Product placement deals in scripted TV shows are fairly commonplace. But each individual brand typically gets just fleeting notices -- perhaps in just one episode in a given season. (Reality TV is something else. Don't get me started). But how about a brand placement that is in every single episode of a scripted TV series? Overkill, you say?
  • Where Will New TV Programming Ideas Come From?
    The future of TV seems to be -- of all places -- Chattanooga, Tenn. Forget about your West Coast and East Coast-centric ideas. The man who gave you the Chattanooga-based Retro Television Network (RTN) -- the local digital-TV signal based TV network -- believes there is much more programming to come, at least locally anyway.
  • What Would NBC Look Like If It Were On Its Own?
    NBC might be an independent media company soon if some plans work out for minority owner Vivendi and majority owner General Electric. What would the company look like?
  • A Tax For Bad TV? If It Works For Sugar...
    According to a recent report, people are throwing around the concept of taxing stuff that contains too much -- or any -- sugar. What about bad TV shows? Programming that is too sweet, trite, hackneyed, not funny, not well cast; shows with bad direction, poor lighting, not believable sound effects. I figure all those should be taxable.
  • Entertainment At TV's Expense: Has The Emmys Found Its Formula?
    Another self-deprecating Emmy Awards show -- this one with an uptick in some ratings. Maybe the awards show is on to something. All the best of gallows humor was there, with references to low viewership, pleadings for viewers not to use the remote, reminders to watch the show again next year.
  • Who's To Blame For Slower Local Cable Ad Growth? Apparently Everyone
    Addressable advertising won't be the big saviour for cable system operators anytime soon. A new report suggests cable system operators collectively will only hit $5.3 billion in local advertising sales within five years -- far below the $15 billion the industry had hoped to get.
  • Saturday Night: CBS And ABC Make Sports Noises
    Applaud those efforts the networks make to develop new programming ideas for seemingly throwaway time periods. ABC started up college football a few years ago on Saturday night. Now, CBS is taking another run with martial arts fighting. (It had done this with another producer in 2008). You might want to make fun of "The Tiffany Network" being associated with a kicking and punching sport. But CBS has the right idea.
  • NBC And MTV Both Need An Old-School Hit
    For the second time in two days, a major media executive said his main TV network needed some drastic improvement. On Wednesday, Viacom president/CEO Philippe Dauman called for a makeover of MTV. The day before, Jeff Zucker, president/CEO of NBC Universal, had said that NBC needs to be reinvented as well.
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