• Will AT&T Continue Its Buying Spree And Acquire A Big Entertainment Content Producer?
    Could AT&T be looking to make a big next step into the media industry by acquiring an entertainment content provider?
  • What's Acceptable' And 'Unacceptable' About TV Commercials?
    So the same company that has no problem offering free ad-blocking software to digital media consumers, now wants those same consumers to get "acceptable" advertising. Ad Block Plus is going in this direction, pitching this "acceptable advertising" thing to digital media publishers. Hmmm.. . The controversy around this kind of activity continues -- with many calling it extortion.But that's not my complaint here. I'm wondering where traditional TV has this kind of issue -- the space between advertising avoidance and "acceptable" TV commercials.
  • No Moderators For Presidential Debates? Um, Sure - But Simon Cowell Needs To Be The Judge
    Ratings for "Sunday Night Football" are falling, and new TV shows will probably head in the same direction. Count on Presidential debates to offer up some surprises -- and good ratings. Donald Trump has a few ideas to liven things up.Issues over format have arisen for previous debates. But now Trump wants to move to new ground: no "moderators."
  • Better Program Stacking Deals Can Increase TV Sampling
    Despite the ever-growing variety of traditional TV/video programming, there's still a rough consumer journey to find all that content. One of networks' bigger efforts to smooth that journey is by securing full-season streaming and video-on-demand (VOD) rights -- so-called stacking rights -- for TV shows on the traditional airwaves.
  • FCC Says Pay TV Providers Need To Provide Free Content Apps, Forget Set-Top Box Rentals
    Now the Federal Communications Commission not only wants to stop the requirement that around 100 million pay TV subscribers must pay rent for TV set-top boxes - but may also require pay TV providers to supply a free app so consumers can view all the content they are buying on any of their devices.
  • Not 'Broad'-Casting: Quirkier Network TV Comedies Coming
    Jennifer Salke, NBC's president of entertainment, told the New York Times that, when it comes to developing comedy shows, the new aim isn't to be well liked by everyone: "Not a broad and soft, trying-to-please-the-whole-world kind of show." Instead, new broadcast comedy shows will try to mimic programs that run on ad-supported premium cable TV networks: that is, quirkier, niche-like shows.
  • The Value Of Image, On Reality TV Shows - And While Running For President
    Donald Trump says Hillary Clinton doesn't have a "presidential look." No, Trump wasn't doing a casting call for a new reality TV show -- a spinoff of, say, "The Apprentice" and "Celebrity Apprentice." He was talking about much more reality: How should the leader of the United States look?
  • YouTube Monitoring Ad-Friendly Content -- To Become More Like TV Networks?
    YouTube may be outpacing traditional TV when it comes to potentially offensive, sexual-oriented, or other "inappropriate" content -- as it relates to advertisers. Recently YouTube creators began receiving notices some videos were ineligible for advertising because they violated the service's longstanding advertiser-friendly content guidelines. Some of the no-nos: "Sexually suggestive content," "Violence," "Inappropriate language," and "Controversial or sensitive subjects and events."
  • Trumping A Different Media Campaign Now
    A daytime TV commercial on CNN for Thumbtack, a service where consumers can find high-rated local professionals, says in small, on-screen print: "Paid actors." I'd hate to see actors go unpaid. Work is work. Then Donald Trump appears somewhat later at the end of the commercial block -- in a promotion for upcoming editorial content. Though not quite advertising, Trump also needed a on-screen qualifier here like "real person," "actual Presidential candidate," or perhaps "promising business executive," I think.
  • The Song Isn't The Same: Is MTV's VMAs A Growing Opportunity?
    MTV's "Video Music Awards" now seems to be undergoing a big transition. The show is no longer a single MTV network show. It now runs on virtually all Viacom networks -- some 11 networks this year. (Last year it was on 10 networks; the year before that, four channels.). We get it -- young viewers can be hard to find, and it's harder to keep their attention.
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