Ladies and Gentlemen – the 1,000th post.

The T Dog Media Blog has reached its 1,000th post. And in those one thousand posts, what has we learned? Well… – Jim Belushi still has no talent whatsoever. – Chicago celebrities in Hollywood can be just as much as a jerk as anyone else – except the one who won the Oscar last year. – If you a guy, […]

R.I.P. HD-DVD

Burial or cremated? It’s official: HD-DVD is dead. Toshiba has officially pulled the plug on HD-DVD, which competed with Blu-Ray to become the official format of the next generation of home video entertainment… This comes after Best Buy and Wal-Mart are recommending customers to go with Blu-Ray, which means the chains will phase out HD-DVDs. Netflix has also pledged its […]

Will the viewers come back?

All right, the strike is finally over. Now comes the toughest task of all: trying to win the viewers back. When Major League Baseball went on strike in 1994 and when the NHL players were locked out twice in the last fifteen years, it hurt both sports tremendously, and some teams are still feeling the effects. Locally, the Chicago White […]

Microsoft bids for Yahoo

The world’s largest computer company made a $44.6 billion bid for its arch web portal rival, and to compete more effectively with Google. So more consolidation in the media business, only now in the high-tech sector. Well, since it worked so well for the radio and television businesses…

Hottest Couple of the Year – Not

The T Dog Media Blog usually doesn’t devolve into tabloid murkiness, but this is worth reporting: Eddie Murphy’s recent marriage to producer Tracey Edmonds is over after only two weeks, according to People Magazine (call it the Viva Laughlin of marriages.) Why I am mentioning this? Because Ebony magazine (the publication yours truly grew up reading religiously) recently named the […]

WLS goes NextGen

ABC-owned WLS-TV here in Chicago has a new feature on its website you can use to keep track of the Presidential Candidates. WLS (Channel 7) is using the NextGenPolitics feature so users can interact with candidates , not only in the Presidential race, but soon local races as well, including the hotly contested State Attorney’s race. Only problem is the […]

Apple TV now more useful

Hey, it looks like Apple TV is being touted more than a box sitting on top of a TV gathering dust. At MacWorld in San Francisco today, Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled plans to make Apple TV into a media on-demand service. New features include (in which current Apple TV owners can download software for): – Renting movies. So much […]

TV Week declares Blu-Ray the winner

After Warner Bros. announced on January 4 that they were releasing its content exclusively on Blu-Ray, with the possibly of Paramount joining them, leaving NBC Universal as the only studio exclusively in the HD-DVD camp. And according to the article, viewers might not want to fork over $300 for a Blu-Ray player but get downloadable HD content from Apple’s iTunes […]

Paramount to kick HD DVD to the curve, too?

According to this report, Paramount (with the DVD rights to most of the CBS library), may follow Warner Bros. lead and dump HD-DVD for Blu-Ray, possibly leaving NBC Universal as the only studio left using the format. Initally, Paramount supported both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. Guess the HD in HD-DVD stands for Hung Dry.

Warner says "screw you" to HD-DVD

Racketing up the HD home video format wars up a serious notch – and just in time for the 2008 International Consumer Electronics Show – Warner Brothers announced today that it was ending its support for HD-DVD and going solely with arch rival Blu-Ray. Warner was previously releasing its material on both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. The HD-DVD/Blu-Ray battle is reminiscent […]

The Excellent 10 of 2007 and more

From #10 to #1, the best TV shows of 2007… 10) Chuck (NBC) Computer geek who works at a big-box is also a spy. Great concept. 9) Mad Men (AMC). Realistic look at ad agency business in the 1960’s, far more accurate than what you saw on Bewitched. On Mad Men, nobody becomes impotent from spells cast by Endora. 8) […]

The Toilet Bowl of 2007

There were a lot of forgettable moments in media in 2007, and we have them right here… First, let’s start off with the year’s worst TV, from #10 to #1: 10) The O’Reilly Factor (Fox News): This show still sucks. 9) Around the Horn (ESPN) Ditto. 8. Chicago Sports (various channels) What a great year for Chicago Sports! The Cubs […]

News and notes

– The game between the Chicago Bears and Washington Redskins that aired on WPWR-TV last Thursday night from the NFL Network averaged a 16.6 rating – the highest number on that station since at least 1994, when WPWR aired the final episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. But it’s not so good for the Bears: The 16.6 rating and […]

WLS-TV relaunches website

WLS, and other ABC owned-and-operated stations, including top-rated outlets WABC-TV in New York, KABC-TV in Los Angeles, WPVI-TV in Philadelphia and KTRK-TV Houston relaunched their websites over the weekend, with large Flash video players and added more video to make their websites “more like a TV newscast”. Check out WLS’ new website here. (Thought: I like the new site. It’s […]

Internet radio at death’s door again?

This comes after Yahoo! and AOL are considering shutting down their Internet radio operations after a 38 percent increase in royalties to air their music. Both are reportedly losing money, as well as other operations, and with still no firm agreement on a model that will work for Sound Exchange and web carriers, Internet radio once again may be on […]