Comic-Con Notepad Vol. 3 – Big day for Marvel and DC

Marvel Mania; Black Lightning the standout during The CW panels; Family Guy news; SyFy succeeds with live Comic-Con show This final Comic-Con Notepad of 2017 covers the weekend at the San Diego Convention Center, featuring huge panel of hot movies, old TV favorites, and lots more. Included in the festivities were Marvel and presentations from Warner Bros., and TV show panels […]

Disney splits with Netflix; creates new OTT service

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, […]

Comic-Con Notepad: Vol. 2

TV shows, trailers dominate for the second day (Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared on Tumblr due to a recent site outage. A trailer to “The Defenders” and “The Punisher” – which weren’t linked in the original Tumblr post were added and the original YouTube video for the “Rick And Morty” panel was replaced. – T.H.)  Friday’s Comic-Con from San […]

The Media Notepad: Michelle Beadle becomes full-time host of NBA Countdown

Also: Page Six clears 90 percent  of country First look at new Defenders; ABC 7 drops “First Alert” branding; Frank Mathie retires. In an unusual move late in the regular season, ESPN announced earlier this week the promotion of Michelle Beadle as NBA Countdown host, ESPN/ABC’s pre-game show. She’ll also host halftime segments in-between games. Beadle returned to ESPN a few years ago […]

T Dog’s Media Notepad: Bulls dragging down NBA ratings

Also: ABC 7 and WGN-TV are February sweeps winners; Tribune Broadcasting update; T.D. Jakes show is canceled; Legion, Good Wife renewed; Iron Fist debuts  With the 33-37 Bulls once again struggling in the ratings locally, it comes as no surprise Chicago’s NBA team is dragging down the league’s ratings nationally. According to Nielsen via Sports Media Watch, March 12’s game on ABC […]

T Dog’s Media Notepad: “Light TV” to debut next month

Plus… Mundo Max is done; CW makes schedule schedules for mid-season; Marvel to debut new Inhumans; The end is near for FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. It what could be the fastest launch ever for a diginet (digital subchannel), Fox Television Stations and MGM are launching Light TV, a new channel devoted to faith-based and family-oriented programming headed by MGM President […]

T Dog Media’s Comic-Con Media Notepad, Vol. 1

As promised (sort of), here’s a quick write-up on what went down on the first two days of Comic-Con in San Diego in terms of TV panels: – Marvel and Netflix renewed Daredevil for a third season, which should drop next year. As you recall, Cage appeared in a few early episodes of Jessica Jones, another Marvel/Netflix series set in […]

San Diego Comic-Con is underway

Movie studios skip the gathering, leaving TV wide open The world’s largest pop culture convention is back for another go-around. San Diego Comic-Con (or Hollywood South as many dub it) launched Thursday at the San Diego Convention Center. The gathering is expected to attract close to a million people over the next few days as geeks and fans from around the world […]

Comic-Con Notepad: It’s A Marvel (or a DC)

  Attendees were still jackin’ it in San Diego as the 2015 Comic-Con extravaganza continued with more costumes, more cosplay (whatever that is), and more panels of your favorite TV shows, movies, and comics. More highlights: – Even though Marvel Studios’ film studios sat out Comic-Con, its television division held plenty of panels – including Marvel Television Presents on Friday, with […]

2015: A look ahead

With 2014 now behind us, here’s what to expect in 2015: 1. The Cubs’ new media homes. This year, the Cubs enter a new era: a new over-the-air TV home (WLS-TV/ABC 7) and WBBM-AM, after 90 years with WGN-AM. What’s left unresolved is a package of 45 games, whose TV home is yet to be determined. 2. As the WGN […]

T Dog’s Grab Bag: Alternative rock returns to 101.1

It’s official: the alternative rock format, which vanished from the 101.1 frequency in 2011 after Merlin Media took over, returned Friday morning at 9 a.m. prompt, simulcasting sister station WKQX/87.7 FM for a period of 30-45 days.  The move came a week after Cumulus announced it was taking over operations of three Merlin Media stations in Chicago. According to Radio […]

Marvel hooks up with Netflix

In a sign where online video distributors are ramping up their original programming slates, Marvel Entertainment announced Thursday it is pairing up with Netflix to launch four new serialized series beginning in 2015, with thirteen episodes each, scheduled for “multiple years. ” First on tap is Daredevil, followed by series based on Marvel Comics characters Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, and […]

Comic-Con: Animation Special

Of course, it’s not Comic-Con without some animation being presented, right? From adult favorites to kids’ fare (a.k.a. programming that also attracts the stoner crowd), many panels were held for fans over the four-day event. Here’s a quick synopsis on what went down: – Though this time without Seth MacFarlane or Mila Kunis, Family Guy made the trek to Comic-Con […]

Comic-Con, Day 3: Superstar Superhero Crossover Saturday

If you thought The Simpsons-Family Guy crossover event announced last Thursday wasn’t going to be trumped… well, two of the world’s prominent superheroes said “we’ll see about that.” In a stunning development, DC Comics and Warner Bros. announced on Saturday it is teaming up Batman and Superman in a yet-to-be-titled epic blockbluster slated for release in 2015. So far, Henry […]