• A Lesson In Branding From NBC
    What hurts a TV brand most? Not the obvious. NBC News' different entities were not affected by what everyone seemed to think would affect them.
  • Murdoch: Central Casting's Version Of A Media Exec?
    If God envisioned a media executive, it might be Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch is a character, to be sure, which makes for great TV entertainment, intrigue, and drama. All that and more is why Bloomberg TV is running a special this week on Rupert Murdoch, the chairman/CEO of News Corp.
  • NFL Looks To Add Another TV Package
    Through thick and thin, in bad and good overall TV markets, the NFL has endured well for its TV partners -- especially when it comes to TV advertising. Wildly strong gains were achieved this year -- amid an overall strong TV advertising market. In poor years, like in 2008 and 2009, the NFL still posted gains when every one else took cutbacks. Who's to think that anything will slow this train down?
  • The New 63-Minute Show: Super-Sizing TV Ain't What It Used To Be
    For TV advertisers, going long -- in football parlance, running the clock -- is always a disruption Current TV's hour-long "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" has been doing this regularly, running a few minutes into the next hour, for 63 minutes in total. All this presumably to cut into the viewership of other news shows after "Countdown," like the similarly targeted MSNBC's "The Rachel Maddow Show."
  • Are MSOs Looking For Mobile Ad Revenue At The Expense Of Cable Networks?
    Viacom's dispute with cable operators -- first Time Warner and now Cablevision -- over iPad apps is not only about license fees but also advertising revenues.
  • An Independent Hulu Would Still Be Holding Its Hands Out
    Hulu needs to be an independent company so it can compete in real-time, real-world business. Trouble is, consumers still seek out TV network content. The cliche is real: Content is king (make that mostly TV network content).The problem is the kind of current Hulu video content: As long as Hulu remains, for the most part, a de-facto DVR on the Internet -- for many of those U.S. viewers who don't have actual at-home DVR hardware -- it will be limited. And a lot of Hulu's problems will remain.
  • Good Cable News: Keith Olbermann Gets Promotional Help From Other Cable News Competitors
    Where are the best places to promote Current TV's new "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" show on television? Not necessarily on Current TV.
  • Always Pledging Allegiance, Before All Entertainment -- Or None At All
    Why are we only talking about the pledge of allegiance to our flag for the opening of an golf event? Shouldn't we be require to cite our allegiance before other business and sports openings -- perhaps just after waking up in the morning, or before going to sleep at night?
  • Cable's Big Headlines This Upfront: Continued Good News, Or A More Complex Story?
    This TV headline looks good: For the first time, cable networks grabbed more upfront advertising dollars than broadcast networks -- $8.96 billion versus broadcast's $8.5 billion. But digging deeper, we can see this is like comparing a few apples to a lot of oranges. Typical published cable upfront numbers refer to all day-parts -- not just the prime time referenced for the broadcasters -- and some 70 advertising-supported cable networks, versus five to seven broadcast networks.
  • Cable Operators Head To The Clouds -- Will Addressable Ads Come Along?
    Cable system operators are finally moving to a point where the description of their business will truly be a misnomer. Increasingly, entertainment distribution systems are working wirelessly.
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