With time-shifting growing more prevalent by the day, can TV networks continue to charge advertisers premium prices for viewers who are watching shows on DVRs and mobile devices, possibly fast-forwarding through commercial spots--or skipping them entirely?  That's the question increasingly confronting sellers and buyers alike. And now a number of cable channels, spotting an opportunity, are trying to take advantage of the situation by telling advertisers they will negotiate prices exclusively on live ratings. It's a possible competitive advantage in the upfronts, but it also makes for a dicey negotiation in those instances where cable channels are owned by …

Has America's seeming insatiable appetite for celebrity finally begun to cool?  It's a provocative question, even if the answer is a definitive "maybe."  And few magazine writers do provocative better than Kurt Andersen, the industry vet who, despite his bleats to the contrary, seems enamored of the celebrity whirl.  He's got a fine piece in this week's New York magazine in which he suggests Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Angelina Jolie and hundreds of other pop-culture stars may have seen their best days, at least insofar as magazine and TV coverage are concerned. Andersen: "I have a hunch that the …

Despite assertions on both sides that we're talking about happenstance, the mass-market paperback edition of Dan Brown's TheDa Vinci Code will finally hit retail shelves tomorrow--on the very same date that The Jesus Papers is published.  That’s significant because the author of The Jesus Papers is Dan Baigent, who has been alleging in court that Brown's Da Vinci Code, a publishing phenomenon, is based on Baigent's earlier novel, Holy Blood, Holy Grail.  Publishers Weekly:  "Although Baigent’s publisher, Harper San Francisco, insists the shared laydown date is a coincidence, you couldn’t pray for a better publicity hook. ‘We’re really …

How long has it been since media buyers and planners applauded NBC for its lineup of TV shows? It's been a while. With stinkers such as "Joey," an Olympics telecast that basically flopped with viewers, and nothing to counter the enormous popularity of Fox's "American Idol," NBC has been in the doghouse for a couple of years. But media vets are impressed by what NBC showed them last week, saying the network has a number of winners in development. They're especially keen on NBC Uni's plans to make that content available across a variety of platforms. Reports TheWall Street …

The Financial Times is reporting that Bertelsmann, Europe's largest media conglomerate, is preparing to sell off its music division, possibly setting off a worldwide realignment within the highly competitive music industry.  "People familiar with the company's plans said a sale was under preparation, though still at an early stage," according to FT.com. "The group is examining the sale of its 50 percent stake in Sony BMG and of its wholly-owned BMG Music Publishing division, which has the rights to more than 1m songs from artists including Christina Aguilera, Keane and Coldplay."  Vivendi Universal, among others, would be likely bidders …

With more and more big-time newspapers introducing Web logs as an enticement to readers and advertisers, it's a wonder there haven't been more brouhahas over the content in those online journals. The Washington Post experienced the risk of the blogosphere firsthand last week when washingtonpost.com, which operates independently from the print paper, discovered that its newest hire had had some problems with plagiarism in the past. The Post's online unit had recently brought on 24-year-old Ben Domenech, a former Bush administration aide, to write the Red America blog. Says C|Net, "The Redstate.com blogger, who had recently referred to Coretta …

As if conventional news-content services, such as the Associated Press, didn't have enough challenges these days. Now comes Mochila, a new-age service that intends to sell print, photographs, audio, and video content on a customizable basis to its media clients. What makes Mochila novel is that customers--newspapers, magazines, broadcasters, and Web sites--can easily sell information to other content providers. According to today's New York Times, "Publications buying content from Mochila have the option to accept related advertising along with the content. Doing so eliminates the cost of buying the content and the buyer can share in ad revenue if the …

NBC Universal is planning to launch a daytime talk show as early as year's end. As currently envisioned, it would immediately follow the two-hour "Today," essentially adding a third hour to NBC's powerful morning block. According to the network, what will differentiate the new program from others tried before is a local component. Jay Ireland, NBC station group president, says local programming is crucial. "When you air a locally oriented program, you compete only with TV stations in your market. If you use syndicated programming which isn't local, you are no longer differentiated, and you are suddenly competing with the …

“The Tony Danza Show,” now in its sophomore season, looks like it won't come back for its junior year, according to industry observers who have talked to Media Life.  Ratings are quite decent in many of its markets, and Danza himself has been a trouper, doing everything possible to build audience loyalty for his daytime talker.  But circumstances appear to be working against the Buena Vista-owned strip.  “Despite Danza giving the program his all, the probability of the program coming back for the 2006-2007 is at best a long shot,” Bill Carroll, director of programming at Katz TV Group, …

Editor & Publisher, which is producing some impressive work these days about the beleaguered industry it serves, this week gives us Part 1 of a series on the ever more intimate connection between newspapers and the Internet.  The Net remains much feared among many journeymen newspaper pros, they explain, but the days of ignoring the medium are gone. Forever.  Today, forward-thinking papers and their leaders are embracing the Web and all the opportunities it brings both to their advertisers and their readers.  E&P's report is rife with examples of companies that are doing it right.  "Although newspapers have been …