Also: ‘Showtime At The Apollo’ returns; The end of the road for “MyTV” branding? Blackhawks’ ratings for 2016-17 drop An update on the WGA labor situation: With the May 1 deadline approaching, the chances of a walkout by the Writer’s Guild seems to be increasing. According to the New York Times, progress has been made on issues such as pay […]
Here we go again? The story in Tuesday’s New York Post suggests another Writer’s Strike may be on tap, ten years after the last one crippled Hollywood for one hundred days. The Writer’s Guild of America is slated to start negotiations on March 13. The current three-year contract ends on May 1 – timed to coincide with the Upfront presentations […]
A few weeks ago, President Obama announced he was backing a FCC proposal to unlock cable set-top boxes. Whee. The problem is, those set-top boxes you lease to cable operators are about as obsolete as an 8-track tape player. It’s not the direction the industry is moving in, and this idea would be great – if it was 1992. Generally, you need […]
In what has to be the most politically divided vote at the Federal Communications Commission since the Sirius/XM merger of nearly seven years ago, the government agency passed new Net Neutrality rules on Thursday, a victory for open-Internet activists and the defeat of ISPs and telecoms, notably Verizon, AT&T, and Comcast. The three-to-two vote came among party lines: Democrats Mignon […]
Ending months of wondering and worrying, the nation’s major broadcasters dodged a major bullet Wednesday when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of them in their case against Aereo (ABC v. Aereo), an Internet startup company which took (or some say stole) broadcasters’ signals and allows subscribers to watch on their laptops, smartphones, and other devices – without Aereo […]
In what can be described as a historic deal, Philadelphia-based Comcast Corp. – the country’s largest cable operator – is purchasing New York City-based Time Warner Cable – the second-largest cable operator for $45 billion, or $159 a share in an all-stock deal. The combined entity will boasts 30 million subscribers when Comcast plans to divest three million households due […]
There is a lot of mediocrity that abounded in the media business this year. But in this post, T Dog Media is honoring the standouts of 2011 – the year’s ten best shows and the best media items. Let’s countdown the best shows of the year first… Best shows of 2011 10. Bob’s Burgers (Fox). What could’ve been the next […]
While there is currently labor discord in the NFL and with public employees in Wisconsin, there is labor peace in one place where there was turmoil nearly four years ago – Hollywood. The Writers Guild of America and The Association of Motion Picture of Television Producers – who represents the major Hollywood studios and the television networks – reached a […]
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 […]
It’s finally over. With 92.5 percent of the vote, the WGA on both coasts voted to return to work effective on Wednesday, ending the 14-week strike which cost everybody involved – the networks, the advertisers, the city of Los Angeles, the studios – and the writers. Snoopy: (c) United Features Syndicate, Inc.
WGA West and WGA East are expected to vote on Tuesday whether or not to accept the tentative agreement hammered out by the studios and the guild. If the writers accept the deal (and that is likely the case), production could resume on many TV series by midweek. The WGA Strike Central section on the sidebar of this blog will […]
Click here for details. UPDATE: At 2:51 p.m.. Details are emerging of the tentative agreement. You can click here to read.
Independents Lionsgate and Marvel Productions have signed interim deals with the Writer’s Guild, meaning those entities are no longer struck companies. Lionsgate produces Mad Men for AMC and Weeds for Showtime, while Marvel Productions’ current projects the company is working on include Captain America and Thor. Marvel, of course, produced animated programs based on characters from Marvel Comics, including Spider-Man […]
With the Screen Actors Guild boycotting the Golden Globes and the WGA about to enforce its strike rules against Jay Leno (which NBC said is a violation of Federal labor laws), one could think that this mess in Hollywood between the WGA and AMPTP would get any worse… But don’t laugh Chicagoans – if our version of the WGA and […]
The first deal the Writer’s Guild made since the strike began is for Late Show with David Letterman. The new interim deal covers not only Letterman’s show, but Craig Ferguson’s as well, since Letterman owns his show and Ferguson’s (a main stipulation in the CBS deal when he came to the Tiffany Network in 1993.) New shows began January 2, […]
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