Companies upping ante in retrans dispute; ABC 7 could be off DirecTV by Saturday The latest entity to go toe-to-toe with a satellite and cable provider is the biggest name in cable: ESPN. And it could take Chicago’s most-watched TV station down with it. In a carefully orchestrated move, ESPN on its bottom score ticker alerted viewers about the potential […]
Disney and Fox wheeling and dealing with one another? Laughable, even a year ago. Now, its one step away from reality. In 1990, The Walt Disney Company and the Fox Broadcasting Network battled one another over early fringe afternoon time slots over kids animation: The Disney Afternoon (consisting of DuckTales, Chip n’ Dale Rescue Rangers, Tale Spin, etc.) was expanding […]
The two rivals are discussing, but would not include some Fox properties, including Fox News and Chicago’s WFLD-TV Itchy and Scratchy joining forces with Mickey Mouse? It could happen. As first reported by CNBC Monday, 21st Century Fox is considering selling part of their assets to the Walt Disney Company. The proposed deal would not include Fox Broadcasting, Fox O&Os, […]
Disney to pull films from SVOD service in 2019; launches new service; also new ESPN OTT In a stunning move, The Walt Disney Company announced Tuesday it was pulling its movies from Netflix and launching its own subscription streaming service instead in 2019. Starting with the 2019 theatrical slate, Disney and Pixar movies will stream exclusively on the yet-to-be-unnamed service, […]
– A lot has made of the Stanley Cup Final ratings between the Boston Bruins and Chicago Blackhawks, but what about the NBA Finals you ask? Well, the seven-game series between the San Antonio spurs and defending champion Miami Heat drew the highest rating overall for ABC since 2010 and the third highest-rated Finals series during its tenure, dating back […]
Miss The Clone Wars? Well, don’t fret: “the force” is creating a new animated series to ease the pain. Lucasfilm announced Monday it was launching a new animated series called Star Wars: Rebels, which will have a one-hour launch special on the Disney Channel in the fall 2014 and then move to Disney XD as a regular half-hour series. Rebels […]
It’s the first Six Pack of 2012 and here’s and the list of winners and losers of the new year so far: A Happy New Year Chicago Bulls. With the team off to a strong start this (abbreviated) season, ratings are already soaring for Comcast SportsNet and WGN-TV – not a good thing to hear for the major networks locally, […]
Highlights from the second day of ABC’s portion of the TCA tour: ABC Showrunner fest ABC had the showrunners from its popular dramas on a panel, incluidng those from Lost, Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, and Ugly Betty. University Park native Shonda Rhimes assured everyone there is no feud between her and Katherine Heigi, who critized the writing staff of the […]
To the tune of 17.2 million viewers for the Disney Channel last night, according to Nielsen, topping the 7.8 million viewers the original had. Not only that, it broke ratings records in kids 6-11 and the highest Friday viewership for any show – broadcast and cable – in the last five years. One word to describe this: Phenomenon.
From the Television Critics Association tour: -The Disney Channel will premiere a sequel to the phenomenonal movie High School Musical called High School Musical 2 on August 17 (now that’s an original name.) -Snoop Dogg amd Missy Elliott will be toasted in latest installment of VH-1’s Hip Hop Honors due to air in October, while gossip queen (yes, I said […]