Amazon, Tegna score NHL rights deals

Tegna’s Pacific Northwest stations acquire almost all Seattle Kraken games; Amazon is the new home of SportsNet’s “Monday Night Hockey” in Canada A pair of NHL deals on both sides of the border sent a huge body check to cable TV. On Thursday, the NHL’s Seattle Kraken announced a new television rights deal with MacLean, Va.-based broadcaster Tegna, with at […]

“Katie” clears 60% of U.S. for Fall ’12 launch

Disney-ABC Domestic Television Distribution’s new fall 2012 talk show strip featuring Katie Couric has now been cleared in 60 percent of the country. Titled Katie, the series has now cleared though several broadcast groups including Allbritton, Belo, Cox, Hearst, Gannett, and Scripps, in addition to the entire ABC-owned-and-operated station group (including WLS-TV here in Chicago.) To no one’s surprise, most […]

NBC, CTV score big with Winter Olympics Opener

A week ago, a 27- year record fell when Super Bowl XLIV between the New Orleans Saints and Indianapolis Colts drew more than 106 million viewers, marking it as the most-watched television event ever in the United States. Now its Canada’s turn. Friday’s Opening Ceremonies for the Winter Olympics drew the largest audience ever for a television event in Canada. […]

T Dog’s Groovy Grab Bag

An extended version of The Bag. Here what’s been going on the last couple of days: – Spike O’Dell signs off: The WGN-AM host wrapped up his eight-year stint in morning drive today with a live show at the Metropolis Theater in Arlington Heights. The building was sold out for the show, as people were lining up as early as […]

Local May sweeps numbers, Part 1

Overall analysis: While the major networks lost steam in the recently concluded May sweeps, many local stations actually saw increases year-to-year in late news and in other time periods. Translation: Viewers are tuning out the prime-time shows on the major networks, but not local programming or local news on their affiliates. Boston: CBS-owned WBZ-TV pulled off a major upset by […]

WLS-TV wins TV Week award

In the magazine’s TV Managers of the year, Midwest division -apparently, being number one for 22 years (as well as capitalizing on your competitors’ mistakes – and there are a lot of them) doesn’t hurt, either. And yours truly thinks this is obviously the right choice. Dominant ABC affiliates in Philadelphia (WPVI-TV), Dallas (WFAA-TV), and Atlanta (WSB-TV) and NBC affiliate […]