• What Really Embarrasses Me About The Coverage Of TV Research
    Here's a disclaimer I've had to make far too many times during my 30-year career covering media, especially television: I am not a researcher. I am a journalist who, from time to time, writes about research, including research about television. I do not know how to compute a "statistical deviation," and I cannot tell you what the "regression from the mean" really means. I simply report on research findings and, when relevant, on the methods researchers use to come up with those findings. That's it. It's not a cop-out. It's just the truth.
  • No More Silly Glasses? How 3D TV Will Look in 2011
    Best Buy has indicated that sales of 3D TVs aren't exactly moving at warp speed. Will Toshiba change things with its new model that could make viewing a 3D channel as simple as viewing any other network?
  • Since We Have No Place To Go, Let It O, Let It O, Let It O
    10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, O. Actually, that is an O, not a zero. Get it? Yep, it's the countdown of the days leading up to the Jan. 1 launch of Oprah's new television network, the aptly named OWN, or Oprah Winfrey Network. Okay, so it's actually, 11 days, but I'm filling in for regular TV Watch columnist Wayne Friedman today, so this is my opportunity to weigh in on the Big 0. And while the launch of OWN may not be news to the kind of TV insiders who read TV Watch, the way …
  • The Misinformed: More Than Just Your Regular TV News Viewer?
    In this past election cycle, Fox News Channel viewers were the most misinformed, according to a recent study. But other cable news networks viewers weren't that far behind.
  • A Brand New Kind Of TV Season: The Retransmission-Blackout Season
    There's a new TV season developing: not the premiere TV season, not the winter weekend NFL season, not the replacement show mid-season, nor the repeat season. It's the retransmission blackout season. Seems like the end of the year is now the time for cable operators, TV station groups and cable networks to get their business-war gear on.
  • Does The TV Season Have A 'Most Dangerous' Day?
    You just missed the most dangerous day of the year for traffic accidents in California, according to Allstate Insurance: Dec. 15. You're safe -- unless you're swearing at that driver you had a problem with yesterday. This got me thinking: Historically, what's been the worst day for TV in the calendar year?
  • Televisions: Flat Profile For Sales Of 3D Sets
    Give me television equipment surveys -- and then give me real results. The truth seems to be somewhere in between. Talk to the chief executive at Best Buy, the nation's largest electronic retailer, and you'll get the lowdown over what is really going on with 3D and Internet-connected TVs: Consumers just aren't buying as many as had been expected.
  • Watching TV One Minute; Someone On TV Watching ME, The Next
    Though Internet and mobile platforms seem to garner more concerns over privacy, TV, for all its laid-back, lean-back media profile, still makes the average consumer wonder a bit -- even if he/she isn't exactly sure what is going on.
  • 'Closer' And 'Loser': Big December Announcements; Little Insight
    "The Closer" and "The Biggest Loser" are closing and losing -- respectively. Kyra Sedgwick is leaving, ending the longtime TNT drama; fitness trainer Jillian Michaels is departing NBC's "The Biggest Loser" -- which gets TV Watch's mind working in mysterious ways.
  • Carving a New Window for the Super-Rich Entertainment Consumer
    How much would you pay for say, the 2010-2011 season-ending May episode of "Grey's Anatomy" -- in January? That is, right now. Well, we don't really know whether that episode is actually completed. But if it was -- and somehow was available digitally or otherwise -- maybe in the future ABC might charge $50 for an exclusive viewing. (That is, if they could also keep everyone from blabbing how it all went down). In much the same way, a new digital media company, Prima Cinema, wants to sell same-day theatrical release movies into …
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