NBC has the wind at its back after the first full week of the May sweep. The "Friends" finale frenzy has pushed the network's adults 18-49 demo rating up 20% over the comparable period in the May 2003 sweep -- and that's before the sitcom's Thursday swan song is considered.
Fox News Channel is threatening to take a sign company to court if it does not post a cheeky billboard tweaking archrival CNN. Fox claims the owners of the billboard, across the street from CNN's Atlanta offices, refuse to post a message trumpeting Fox's successes in the ratings war between the cable networks.
Contract talks between television and film writers and producers have stalled, with the Writers Guild of America rejecting a proposed three-year deal and offering a one-year deal while the parties continue to negotiate.
The network that concocted a contestants' reunion even before "The Apprentice" ended could hardly be expected to let "Friends" go quietly. NBC's send-off has been the most overwrought and prolonged farewell since Violetta's death scene in "La Traviata."
A scenario whereby Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Inc. join forces to purchase bankrupt cable operator Adelphia Communications Corp. would be good for the industry, analysts said on Wednesday.
Charles H. "Chuck" Townsend, the president-CEO of Conde Nast Publications of less than four months, is wasting little time remaking the nation's second-largest magazine company.
The Advertising Council has often depended on serendipity to shepherd its public service campaigns to the right audiences. With no budget to buy commercial time, print ads or billboard space, the group distributes campaign materials to media outlets nationwide - and then hopes the campaigns are used.
Saying the economics of the television production business has reached a crisis point, the 20th Century Fox television studio announced yesterday the creation of a separate unit specifically designed to generate new shows at much lower cost.
Oscar-winning filmmaker Michael Moore's documentary linking U.S. President George W. Bush with powerful Saudi families, including that of Osama bin Laden, is stirring up controversy even before its release. That's if it even gets released.
Today New Yorkers on their daily commute may notice an extra newspaper hawker lurking around their subway entrance, as Metro International launches a free daily paper called (what else?) Metro. "We are all over the world," said Henry E. Scott, publisher, noting that the London-based company has papers throughout Europe, South America and Asia, as well as Boston and Philadelphia. "New York is the next obvious place to come."