NBC Universal has been moving into international markets compared to some other big U.S.-based media conglomerates. While Walt Disney has been a global household name for decades, and MTV is a defining American media brand. NBC was basically a domestic TV business owned by General Electric until it was combined with Universal Studios and other units of Vivendi in 2004. But now NBCU is hoping to catch up, accelerating international growth plans as the U.S. TV businesses slows down. Under president Pete Smith, NBCU is building a worldwide film and TV production and distribution unit based in …

Boasts that MyNetwork TV would be profitable from the start ended as the first ratings reports rolled in last year. The prime time program service cobbled together by News Corp. has nowhere to go but up in its second year, after bombing in its debut last fall with a risky strategy of airing two hours of low-budget telenovelas six nights a week. Now, MyNet is adjusting to the changes it made last spring when it replaced its low-rated nighttime serials with various nonscripted fare like "Celebrity Expose" and "Jail." National ratings are still pretty poor, at fewer …

Jim Cramer will join Donald and Ivanka Trump as a judge for an early episode of "The Apprentice" as the faltering show looks for some new life. But the folks the star of CNBC's "Mad Money" really wants to see fired are elsewhere on the cable dial. "We have a competitor now in Fox and it is really important to destroy and mutilate them," he says, referring to the launch of the new Fox Business Channel. He adds that while he respects Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes (he worked for Fox in 1999), this won't be a friendly …

Publicis posted a 4.6% rise in its underlying third-quarter revenue and is sticking to its full-year financial targets. The French advertising and marketing services group pulled in some $1.61 billion for the three months ended Sept. 30, a 10.8% gain on a reported basis which includes the impact of acquisitions and currency exchange rates. The company also confirmed its goal for 2007 underlying revenue growth of over 4%. However, Publicis sees a drop of between 20 and 50 basis points in operating margins for the year, largely due to the integration of Digitas. For 2008, it has …

Spike TV and the Ultimate Fighting Championship have come to terms on a three-year extension of their deal that will keep the mixed martial arts company on the cable net through at least 2011. The exclusive pact keeps Spike as the basic cable home of the UFC and will include Seasons 9-12 of reality series "The Ultimate Fighter," along with a dozen live fight cards; 39 hour-long episodes of "UFC Unleashed" and two seasons of a new weekly live fight show. Spike will air at least four of the 12 live "UFC Fight Nights" hosted by Joe …

For Heineken USA, the new message is that "It's all about the beer" as the Dutch brewer throws over a humorous ad approach in favor of a new campaign tagged "Heineken. The definitive world class beer." The reason? It needs to maintain its "specialness," says Andy Glaser, brand director-Heineken. And to be so, a brand cannot be ordinary. So rather than follow the beer humor staple of some Miller and Anheuser-Busch campaigns, Heineken wants to suggest that world class beats first class. TV will continue to be a big part of the package, the company says. Through August, …

Johnson & Johnson's Cordis wants to raise the profile of its Cypher stent with a consumer advertising campaign in what could be a first for the category as Abbott and Medtronic move into a market J&J has long split with Boston Scientific. J&J rolled out newspaper ads this month in major dailies including The New York Times and USA Today. Ads from BBDO show an actual-size image of the stent under headlines that read "Tennis partner," "Hiking gear" and "Gym Equipment." The copy tells people with angina that the stent "can help get your blood pumping and …

Republican presidential candidate John McCain has rejected a request from Fox News Channel that he cease airing a TV spot that includes footage of him at a debate it sponsored. In the ad, McCain is shown saying: "A few days ago, Senator Clinton tried to spend $1 million on the Woodstock concert museum. Now my friends, I wasn't there. I'm sure it was a cultural and pharmaceutical event." McCain continues: "I was tied up at the time" in a reference to the 5 1/2 years he spent as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. The Fox News …

NBC Universal has tapped Associated Press Images as its exclusive third-party distribution outlet in the U.S. and Mexico -- and made AP its non-exclusive partner in much of the rest of the world -- for archived television photos. Under terms of the deal, images from NBCU's online archive will be available through AP Images' licensing Web site. In the summer of 2006, NBCU became the first major television or film studio to manage its own photo licensing when it created an in-house business unit and online photo archive. That digital media distribution group develops, digitizes, manages, distributes, …

OMD has snared the global media planning and buying account of Barilla, the Italian pasta and sauce maker, following a review. The shop topped out incumbent Mediaedge:cia, along with Carat and Starcom. Insiders estimate annual global spending on the account is in the $275 million to $300 million range, with the U.S. only a small portion of that. According to Nielsen, domestic media spending by Barilla was just $18 million last year and less than $10 million through the first eight months of this one. In the U.S., the account will be handled out of OMD's …