Des Moines, Ia. –based Meredith Corp., owner of CBS affiliate WGCL-TV in Atlanta, has agreed to take over day-today operations of Turner Broadcasting’s WPCH-TV (aka Peachtree TV) in a local marketing agreement giving Meredith control of the station’s marketing, promotions, advertising, and technical operations while Turner stays on as owner and licensee. The deal takes effect in the next few […]
Bonneville also sells Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Washington D.C. stations In the first major shocker move of 2011 involving local media, Salt Lake City-based Bonneville International has sold its Chicago cluster of radio stations to Minneapolis-St. Paul-based Hubbard Broadcasting for $505 million. The deal also includes thirteen others: six stations in Washington D.C., and four stations each in Cincinnati and […]
Big media just got bigger. The FCC approved the Comcast-NBC Universal deal on Tuesday more than a year after the deal was announced, with the Justice Department also giving its blessings. And unlike the Sirius/XM merger, this deal wasn’t voted upon party lines.The FCC voted in favor of the deal 4-1 with Democratic commissioner Michael Copps the lone dissenter. While […]
The end is (finally) here: CBS Corp. wrapped up the broadcast portion to the two-week miniseries known as the Winter Television Critics Association tour in Pasadena on Friday with CBS and the network it part-owns with Time Warner, The CW. CBS -The executive session featured programming chief Nina Tassler and addressed the matter surrounding Two And A Half Men star […]
Here’s a brief synopsis of the cable presentations for NBC Universal’s cable networks: SyFy If you walked down State Street in Chicago’s loop in the last few weeks, then you have noticed ads on bus shelters for SyFy’s new show Being Human, which is a show about a ghost, vampire, and werewolf all living together – and are cute twentysomethings! […]
Last year at this time, the NBC Television Critics Association Press Tour presentation was played amidst the backdrop of the Jay Leno-Conan O’Brien late-night mess. This year, there’s no such drama. But NBC’s presentation on Thursday did generate interest nevertheless, with panels on several new mid-season shows, including The Cape and Harry’s Law. But what was also absent was an […]
Bagging a renewal: Sheldon and the gang are around for three more years. The Grab Bag is actually living up to its name today by grabbing some baggage and some renewals: – WCIU here in Chicago and nine stations owned by Sinclair Broadcasting quietly began testing an off-cable dating game show this week called Baggage, with a format that combines […]
While ABC skimped through its TCA Press Tour presentation Monday, Fox had a full plate of panels for three of its new shows on Tuesday, including one for its revamped version of American Idol, with new judges Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler. Fox announced at the press tour its was renewing Raising Hope for a second season, announced a premiere […]
The Winter Television Critics Association Press Tour continued on Monday with ABC as the first commercial network to present. – ABC right off the bat announced the early renewal of six shows for the 2011-12 season: Castle, Cougar Town, Grey’s Anatomy, The Middle, Modern Family, and Private Practice. Fans of Dancing With The Stars, Desperate Housewives, and 20/20 need not […]
The CW announced Monday it was launching a new half-hour strip this fall with Dr. Drew Pinsky from Telepictures productions called Dr. Drew’s Lifechangers, a spin-off of a segment of the syndicated magazine series Extra, which is also produced by Telepictures (and syndicated by Warner Bros.) The acquisition marks the first time a spin-off from a syndicated program landed on […]
The cable portion of the TCA Winter Press Tour wrapped up over the weekend, with the rest of the cable networks making their presentations. Remember, even though the cable portion of the tour wrapped up Saturday, cable networks owned by the major broadcast networks are still scheduled to make presentations this week. Rainbow (We, AMC, IFC) -AMC – the home […]
Obviously the biggest highlight of the Winter version of Television Critics Association Press Tour was a rare appearance by the Queen of Talk, Oprah Winfrey. She was at the press tour to promote her new cable network, The Oprah Winfrey Network, or OWN, which launched January 1 in place of Discovery Health. Discovery Communications owns half of the new joint […]
It’s “Game” back on for the one-time CW sitcom. The Television Critics Association tour continued in Pasadena on Thursday with Oprah Winfrey and her new OWN network obviously the biggest attraction (more in the next post.) But there was other news from this day as well, with BET, Turner, and Discovery making presentations: BET The biggest projects BET has on […]
It’s the Winter Television Critics Association tour where TV critics and bloggers escape the cold to come out to somewhat warmer Pasadena, Calif., a suburb of Los Angeles known for the wonderful Rose Parade, the Rose Bowl, and where Sheldon Cooper lives. Over the next few days, networks will trot out stars and execs to hawk their new shows and […]
Modern Family syndication sales reaches up to 50 percent of the U.S. Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution seems to benefitting the most thus far when it comes to replacing The Oprah Winfrey Show when it leaves this September, with Anderson Cooper and Ellen DeGeneres’ talk shows snapping up time slots soon-to-be formerly held by the queen of talk. Anderson has […]
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