by Wayne Friedman on Feb 28, 3:35 PM
Big live traditional TV programs continue to offer live-streaming. These include the NCAA Men's College Basketball tournament, the Super Bowl, the Grammys, and now the Oscars. But the objectives may fool you.
by Wayne Friedman on Feb 27, 4:54 PM
Where are TV's next big hits coming from? Digital? Cable? Maybe local stations? Those hits may just be decent-performing forms of TV entertainment. In that light, we may need to redefine a "hit."
by Wayne Friedman on Feb 26, 4:37 PM
Walt Disney has started an online movie service, Disney Movies Anywhere, that allows consumers to connect and store previously bought movies to Apple's iTunes. The movies can then be played on iPads, iPhones or iPodTouch devices. This is Disney's version of the movie industry's Ultraviolet initiative, which Disney and Apple have avoided. Ultraviolet, which lets consumers store movie purchases in a cloud-based library, has partnered with retailers like Walmart and Barnes & Noble.
by Wayne Friedman on Feb 25, 4:08 PM
For Comcast, it's like hitting two game-winning homeruns in the ninth inning on two consecutive days. The first: a powerful deal to acquire Time Warner, the second largest U.S. cable operator. The second: a possibly precedent-setting deal with Netflix for faster "direct" connection. This process could pave the way for Comcast and other video providers to reel in additional revenues for their broadband operations.
by Wayne Friedman on Feb 24, 1:55 PM
Ad sales for the Sochi Winter Olympics will have easily topped $1 billion, when all is said and done. NBC paid $775 million for rights to the Games. When NBC -- with sports rights fees soaring -- secured multiyear rights to the Winter and Summer Olympics some time ago, who would have predicted the network would now be making money? But, as with "Sunday Night Football," NBC placed its sports bet on the right play.
by Wayne Friedman on Feb 21, 1:12 PM
For the second consecutive season of Netflix's political drama "House of Cards," we are left to our imagination -- or rough estimates -- about how many of Netflix's nearly 32 million subscribers have viewed one or all of the 13 new episodes.
by Wayne Friedman on Feb 20, 4:44 PM
In six years, we might run out of cocoa beans -- you know, the stuff that makes chocolate. When it comes to entertainment, though, we have no worries about running out of sweet offerings. For instance, the rough-and-tumble reality shows are getting somewhat kinder and more aspirational. Include NBC's "The Voice" in this category. Then, of course, there are the Olympics from NBC, where all kinds of events cater to viewers' sweet side by providing them with "ahh" moments, for the most part.
by Wayne Friedman on Feb 19, 3:58 PM
It's an insatiable media information market. Media consumers are in need of information, especially in real or near-real time. Though there have been efforts in the past to have TV cameras cover Supreme Court arguments, a new coalition of media groups, journalist organizations and others is now on the case.
by Wayne Friedman on Feb 18, 4:36 PM
Just days after Valentine's Day, Comcast and Time Warner Cable are still letting consumers, content providers and marketers bask in the red glow of their announced merger. Will the love continue? Just wait for the first blackout of a broadcast or cable network to see where the chips fall.
by Wayne Friedman on Feb 14, 3:32 PM
How happy will advertisers be after the Comcast-Time Warner merger is complete? Are better advertising-related products coming down the road? We can't be sure.