A new U.K. media survey offers findings that could boost the morale of U.S. TV networks. It shows that traditional TV is more likely to benefit from the growing popularity of online video than dedicated Internet-based companies. The survey was conducted by Deloitte and YouGov. Viewers' awareness of broadcasters' on-demand sites such as the BBC's U.K. iPlayer service was 84%, per the survey. In comparison, there was 76% awareness of YouTube and 64% awareness of iTunes. "In an ironic twist to earlier expectations, broadcasters and independent producers may, in the medium-term, benefit most from online television," says Deloitte partner …

Dish Network shares rose 4.8% yesterday after adding subscribers for the first time in five quarters. Analysts had projected that the company would lose as many as 100,000 customers, but instead Dish boosted its promotion spending 65% and added 26,000 net new customers in the second quarter. It was an uphill battle. Dish lost its marketing deal with AT&T this year to larger rival DirecTV, and is facing mounting competition from cable and phone companies such as Verizon, which offer bundled packages. Dish's churn -- the percentage of customers who left -- fell to 1.7% in the quarter from …

CBS Radio will exit Portland, Ore., the No. 23-ranked market. It is selling four radio stations to Alpha Broadcasting for $40 million cash. Alpha is a new entity formed by veteran broadcaster Larry Wilson and Endeavour Capital in Portland. The sell-off is part of CBS Radio's continuing strategy to focus on the nation's largest markets. In the last eight months, the company has announced three deals to sell 12 stations. "The marketplace for station sales is improving, so we expect to make further progress going forward," says CEO Dan Mason. CBS Radio revenue was down 23% in the …

"American Idol" judge Paula Abdul became the latest household name to usurp the breaking news power of traditional media by making a big announcement on Twitter. Abdul's scoop came on the heels of the July 27 announcement that Ben Silverman would be departing NBC. That news broke via the Twitter page of Ryan Seacrest, well ahead of an NBC press release. "It's the democratization of media," says Brad Adgate, senior VP at Horizon Media. Programming executives at newsmagazines hope Twitter will actually help them in the end. "All it does is whet the appetite for viewers to come …

ABC heads into another television season with its most aggressive development slate in years. In an attempt to lure viewers back to prime time, the network is betting big on the situation comedy, a genre that has had scant success of late. Come fall, there will be four comedies--including new star vehicles for Kelsey Grammer, Courteney Cox and Patricia Heaton -- sharing the schedule with three new dramas and a reality competition show. Still bolder: The network plans to serve up the stable of half-hour comedies as an all-new two-hour comedy block on Wednesday evenings. ABC execs acknowledge the move …

Across the board, premium cable channels are feeling the pinch. Starz, Encore, HBO and Showtime are seeing slower subscriber growth or even declines because of user cancellations amid the recession. Liberty Media says its Starz service saw an average sub gain of 5% in the second quarter compared with the year-ago period, and Encore essentially was flat year-over-year. But compared with the first quarter, Starz lost 3% of its subscribers in the period and Encore was down 1%. DirecTV notes that demand for premium channels and pay-per-view buys has weakened amid the recession. "We're continuing to see more customers …

Executives at Financial Times' FT.com are considering a pay-as-you-read model loosely based on Apple's iTunes to further increase the paper's digital revenues. The site could introduce some form of micropayment model within 12 months, as long as it's easy for readers to pay and at the right price, says FT.com managing director Rob Grimshaw. FT.com is known for its hybrid part-free, part-paid content model -- the site allows registered readers to read up to 20 stories a month without paying. "It's incumbent on us to offer readers maximum flexibility," says Grimshaw. "There's nothing to say that sampling is incompatible with …

TV networks and advertisers are quietly testing whether consumers will respond to promos and ads that run on the top and bottom sectors of the screen while programs are airing. For instance, Walt Disney recently disclosed that its ABC and ESPN TV networks are testing the efficiency of "upper-third messaging," or graphics that appear in the top third of the TV screen. Advertisers have already found that such in-show ads are memorable to viewers. The Ask.com search site ran "crawl" ads along the bottom of the TV screen on selected networks earlier this year. When the crawls ran at the …

Despite Al Gore's imprint, an Emmy and some 60 million homes worldwide, Current TV has been just one channel among many in the cable universe. North Korea's high-profile detention and release of Current journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee has changed that. Lee and Ling have come under criticism for their assignment; a San Diego radio host, for one, asked what they were doing putting themselves in harm's way. The barbs probably wouldn't have been leveled had Current TV had the more famous personalities of say, CNN. Ironically, while the story surrounding Lee and Ling has brought the channel …

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously Aug. 7 to ban the construction of new digital billboards and the conversion of any existing digital boards to digital. The new ordinance may not be the final chapter for the buildout of new digital boards. It might be revised when the Council returns from its summer break and revisits digital billboards as part of the development of a comprehensive ordinance covering all out of home signage. Opponents of the digital boards in L.A. cited the usual concerns, such as urban blight and safety. Studies from the Outdoor Advertising Association of America and …