What the Good Lord giveth, can also taketh: In a reversal, HBO has canceled freshman drama Vinyl – despite renewing it for a second season four days after it premiered. Despite a stellar cast in front the camera and behind the scenes, the series never gained traction with viewers or critics (though it seemed Vinyl only registered with the elitist […]
I guess the way we do things in Illinois is this: get into a disagreement, take your ball and go home and inconvenience everyone. Chicago-based Tribune Media Sunday night yanked its signals from Echostar-owned Dish Network, based in Englewood, Colo., a suburb of Denver due to an inability to reach a new agreement. The signals were pulled at 7 p.m. […]
Editor’s note: This post has been updated with additional information since being published on Saturday. – T.H. It’s the end of an era as the last “superstation” rides off into the sunset. By the end of this month, WGN America – which once carried WGN-TV programming across the country, is converting into a basic cable network in most areas […]
– Talking Baseball host Bruce Levine confirmed via Twitter Saturday he was out as host of WMVP-AM’s (ESPN 1000) Talking Baseball after station bosses declined to renew his contract, ending his 22-year run as host. The move to cancel the show comes as ESPN 1000 continues to slag far behind rival WSCR-AM (The Score) in the ratings. Not helping Levine’s […]
-As expected, ratings for syndication’s three new shows (The Arsenio Hall Show, Bethenny, and The Test) declined from Monday’s premiere, but Arsenio still was on top with a 1.5 overnight household rating, down from a 1.9 rating. Bethenny slipped to a 0.9/3 household rating/share from a 1.2/4; and The Test slid to a 0.7. On Wednesday however, Arsenio was up […]
Tribune adds stations from Cleveland, Milwaukee, and Memphis to its stable About a year or so ago, there was speculation on whether or not Tribune Broadcasting, planning to exit Chapter 11, would stay in the broadcast business. Consider this a definite answer. Chicago-based Tribune announced Monday it was acquiring Newport, Ky.-based Local TV LLC for $2.7 billion. The […]
Here we go again: yet another broadcaster-MSO dispute – only this time, Chicago baseball and Vampire Diaries fans (wow, there’s an odd combo) may be left in the lurch. Tribune Broadcasting and DirecTV are in a retrans dispute and if a deal isn’t reached by March 31, Tribune’s 24 stations across eighteen markets – including WGN-TV […]
It looks like Sirius-XM received a bailout plan of its own: and it’s not from the government…. Liberty Media (headed by John Malone) has come to the rescue of the beleaguered satellite radio operator, with a $530 million dollar investment. The money will come in two phases – both in the form of loans. One of the phases is being […]
So much so, a rock is actually worth more than their stock. Sirius-XM’s shares tumbled to an all-time low of 5 cents per share on reports the satcaster is headed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Sirius-XM is in talks with Echostar, the owner of Dish Network about a buyout, since the company assumed some of Sirius-XM’s debt. It is also in […]
Sunflower Cable cries Uncle; More Super Bowl numbers; Costas leaves HBO; No Super Bowl bump for NBC – NBC hoped it would get an audience for its Monday lineup of Chuck, Heroes, and Medium. Didn’t work. – But NBC did get some good news: Super Bowl XLIII viewership was adjusted upward to 98.7 million viewers – making it the most-watched […]
An interesting item from TV Barn: Sunflower Broadband (or Cable, or whatever they want to be called), which serves northeastern Kansas, dropped two Hearst-Argyle owned Kansas City stations from its channel lineup because they were asking too much money from them to be carried on Sunflower’s cable system. So Sunflower Broadband COO Patrick Knorr replaced departed ABC affiliate KMBC-TV from […]
Much like what the New York Mets did in the cover of darkness (canning manager Willie Randolph after hours), those class acts at the FCC approved the XM-Sirius merger by a margin of 3-2 this evening when commissioner Deborah Tate and chairman Kevin Martin agreed on another of principles, including a $19.7 million fine for past FCC violations. The merger […]
The FCC will test how well the analog shutoff is going to do by enticing stations in Wilmington, N.C. to shut off their analog transmitters early and go all-digital in September. As some of you know already (or don’t know), the government will shut off analog television on February 17, 2009, and all television broadcasting is going to digital. To […]
A deal was struck this week that may encourage people to join the Pirates. No, not the Pittsburgh Pirates, though they need all the help they can get. I’m talking about the world of download piracy. NBC last week renewed Friday Night Lights for a third season. The critically-acclaimed drama has struggled in the ratings for the past two seasons […]
It’s too late for the just-about-to-conclude college basketball season, but Comcast and the Big Ten Network are close to a deal that would put the new college sports net on its extended basic package.Comcast recently dropped a provision in its stance, stating BTN was a “niche” channel, and should be regulated only to a sports tier. Currently, BTN is not […]
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