• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, August 1, 2011

It's truly remarkable that the NFL will be back with no missed games next month, which looked so unlikely with the labor impasse not long ago. But a desire not to risk annual revenues topping some countries' GNP brought owners and players together.

So now, the NFL and even political Washington have major deals breaking stand-offs. Best of luck to the NBA in following suit.

So, with football on schedule, so is August's Leaders & Bleeders.

LEADERS:

1) GROUPM -- Maxus, its low-profile media agency in the U.S., seemingly comes from nowhere to win huge portion of NBC Universal's media account and global buying business for S.C. Johnson. Also, WPP arm steals Optimedia's Antony Young to serve as CEO of its Mindshare operations in the U.S., and establishes a position to look for marketing opportunities in explosive video gaming category.

2) OPRAH -- Impressively opts to put her reputation on the line and become both CEO and chief creative officer of the eponymous OWN network. She appears so willing to become a network executive that she made an appearance at the TV critics' tour to pump the network last week. The success of the coming series using clips from her syndicated show to impart some new lessons and inspiration could serve as an early signal about how successful she'll be. Oprah says: "I wouldn't bet against me -- I just wouldn't." No reason to.

3) FRANCES BERWICK -- Her remarkable run as a driving force in turning Bravo into one of the most valuable assets at NBC Universal made her network chief last year. She now adds oversight of the Style network and is a clear winner in executive shuffling at the new NBC Universal. There will be considerable partnership opportunities between Bravo and Style and her track record in program development should have NBCU offering more money for R&D to Style.

4) CITIES OF BROTHERLY LOVE -- Neil Smit, who heads Comcast cable operations out of Philadelphia, recently hinted synergies with NBC Universal's NYC and Hollywood businesses can start from a simple call to counterpart Steve Burke at corporate sibling NBCU. So far, there is no offer for free episodes of "30 Rock" on iTunes for Comcast customers who won't cancel their landlines. But, a deal to bring dynamic ad insertion to NBCU video-on-demand programming on Comcast systems could have industry-wide ripple effects. Advertisers have long been interested in updating creative in a VOD stream as it stays on a menu for weeks.

5) SPANISH-LANGUAGE PROGRAMMING -- Univision is set to launch an all-news cable network that may meet a glaring need in the market. Time Warner Cable says it's launching 25 Spanish-language networks on its iPad app and next year it will debut the country's first regional sports network in Spanish in Southern California with Lakers games. Also, the Democratic and Republican National Committees have already started airing Spanish ads 16 months before next year's election, an early boon for local stations and sign political dollars might roll in to local stations at perhaps a greater level in 2012 than thought.

BLEEDERS:

1) CANOE VENTURES -- Clearly, the company formed by the six largest cable companies faced a much harder challenge in launching a national platform for advanced advertising than -- at least publicly -- was anticipated. CEO David Verklin may have created a sense of over-promising and under-delivering. Verklin's strength may have been in the ad sales side of Canoe's operations. New chief Kathy Timko's experience in weedy technology may be a better fit in finding a way to make millions of set-top boxes work in harmony, which would allow transformative ads to make it into homes. Canoe is moving into facilitating dynamic ad insertion in VOD streams, which should be helped by Comcast's commitment to help make that widely available.

2) ONLINE VIDEO VIEWERS -- There are signs all broadband providers may soon charge consumers who watch a lot of online video and eat up bandwidth more dough than others. AT&T is in the mode and last week Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt hinted tiered pricing may be coming (though he suggested that model could benefit people who don't gorge on Netflix and Hulu). Meanwhile, Fox is implementing a type of pay wall for viewing its shows online. Some consumers will have to wait eight days until after an episode airs to watch it for free.

3) BLACKBERRYs -- President Obama fought to keep his beloved device after moving into the White House. Now, he's got to be coveting an iPhone (he has an iPad). Market share for the once-ubiquitous BlackBerrys in the U.S. is plummeting just as online video viewing on smartphones is taking off. There are new BlackBerry devices and an operating system coming, but has the brand been damaged too much to make a comeback?

4) ANIMAL PLANET -- Cable networks finding some way to create reality programming around struggling celebrities seems to be an unending trend. Animal Planet is now firmly aboard with "Prostitutes to Parrots," the special with former Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss that aired Sunday.

5) CURRENT TV -- Not long ago, Current TV co-founder Joel Hyatt said he and partner Al Gore felt they needed to hire a leader who actually knows something about running a cable network. Enter former MTV Networks executive Mark Rosenthal. Now, exit. Rosenthal is out, and Hyatt is back in the CEO role. With Keith Olbermann as the face of the network, Rosenthal may have disagreed with a move to turn Current into more of a public affairs-type destination. He's got pretty good instincts.