Signals return in time for Emmys and MNF After thirteen days, The Walt Disney Co. and DirecTV settled their beef with a new tentative carriage agreement, restoring Disney’s sixteen channels to the service, including ABC and ESPN. The settlement also returns those channels – including all ABC affiliates nationwide, to DirecTV Stream and U-Verse. The signals returned Saturday morning just […]
Includes Hulu and but no word on if new sports streaming service is included In a move for their streaming services to become more economical for subscribers, The Walt Disney Co. and Warner Bros. Discovery announced Wednesday a plan to bundle their streaming services. Both plan to launch the bundle this summer with ad-supported and commercial-free tiers being offered. Notably […]
Justice Department to analyze deal as the NFL pushes back The planned sports streaming venture proposed by Disney’s ESPN, Fox Corporation, and Warner Bros. Discovery could be finished before it even gets off the ground. Two significant developments took place this week as the Department of Justice (DOJ) is now looking at the proposed joint venture for anti-trust concerns. The […]
Also: Hulu pulls plug on White City; Alpha Media and Sirius/XM announce layoffs; BET up for sale; Sohn withdraws FCC bid In stunning news, Oak Lawn native and Rays radio broadcaster Dave Wills passed away unexpectedly Sunday at the age of 58. Wills was at Rays spring training camp and broadcasting games last week, but did miss the last two […]
Also: NBC 5 makes a new hire while a Baltimore TV reporter gets fired. The second edition of The Field Of Dreams game didn’t have the theatrics of last year’s contest, but still drew a healthy amount of eyeballs. The game featured two teams who were already out of playoff contention this season: The 44-64 Chicago Cubs and the […]
Also: Televisa and Univision become one; Weigel launches another diginet ; The last tie to Marvel at Netflix severs Been away for awhile, so let’s catch up on some items of note making news: The non-profit merger between the Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ officially closed on January 31, with $61 million in philanthropic backing, raised by WBEZ parent Chicago Public […]
Popularity isn’t exactly overrated as 2021 ends a wild year in media Like mystery of the sphinx or crop circles, you just can’t explain the continued popularity of certain things despite questionable changes. After the firing of Mark Giangreco and seemingly public disdain for one of her former co-anchors, ABC 7 remains on top of local Chicago news ratings, […]
ABC-owned stations produced documentary on Blago – but you won’t see it on ABC 7 The ABC-owned stations are producing a new documentary on disgraced former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. But in a marked departure, the new series is not appearing on WLS-TV/ABC 7 or any of the ABC-owned stations themselves or even their digital channel Localish. It’s streaming […]
Veteran animated series renewed for at least sixty more episodes over six years AND fourteen movies With South Park airing on another streaming service, there had to be some kind of way to get the show’s content on ViacomCBS’ Paramount Plus. After all, the show has been home to Comedy Central since 1997, also owned by ViacomCBS. Well, how about […]
Seven-year deal brings the league back to the Worldwide Leader In Sports In news certain to please hockey fans across the United States, the NHL officially announced its return to ESPN on Wednesday after seventeen years. This came as the league decided to split its television rights package with two different partners as opposed to one media outfit – in […]
Pandemic wipes out annual San Diego fanfest but the show must go on Every in-person event this year (ranging from Lollapalooza to the Chosen Few DJs Picnic) has been wiped out due to an villain far more vicious than The Joker, The Riddler, and The Penguin combined: the Covid-19 pandemic. And this includes the annual San Diego Comic-Con, which would’ve […]
Very few people in the Chicago area weren’t able to see the premiere of the new RSN – even if a deal was struck with their provider It’s time to play Monday night quarterback and assess the launch of Marquee Sports Network, the new joint venture between the Cubs and Sinclair Broadcasting. And of course, it didn’t go very well. […]
But here’s the rub: it’s only going to air monthly Hulu becomes latest operator to sign deal with Marquee In an odd move, the Cubs’ new Marquee network is planning to launch a new talk show featuring former Cubs pitcher Ryan Dempster. Speaking to reporters at Sloan Park in Mesa, Ariz. on Saturday, Dempster said his new show would not […]
What’s on the media agenda in the first year of the new decade The new decade brings us things to look forward to in the world of media. So here’s are the ten things to keep your eye on in Chicago and in general for 2020. We’ll check back in at the end of the year to see how we […]
Also: Big 3 add overnight news repeats; Fox renews three daytime shows; Disney + signs ten million users; two prime-shows pink-slipped We have an update on the latest with the Cubs’ new Marquee Network and Dish…and I’m guessing those negotiations aren’t going well. In an interview with the Tribune’s Eric Zorn (a rather pointed opinion piece urging Dish not to […]