Expands footprint in Chicago area In news that would’ve been a big deal fifteen years ago, WOW! – or Wide Open West, has sold its cable and broadband services to RCN parent Astound Broadband for $661 million. The deals were one of two separate transactions WOW! made last Wednesday: the other was a sale of its Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio […]
Part of larger deal involving Sinclair Broadcast Group. If you are a Cubs fan, and a Comcast subscriber, you might want to send the peeps at Sinclair Broadcasting Group a thank you card. Yeah, yeah I know. In a deal announced literally hours before the first pitch Friday night at Wrigley Field against the Milwaukee Brewers, the Cubs’ new Marquee […]
Wow, indeed: deal with chief competitor puts heat on Comcast/Xfinity In a deal that could put pressure on Comcast, Wide Open West – basically known as WOW, reached an agreement Wednesday to carry the Chicago Cubs’ new regional sports network beginning March 13. What makes this deal important is WOW covers much of Chicago’s South Side with Comcast as […]
But here’s the rub: it’s only going to air monthly Hulu becomes latest operator to sign deal with Marquee In an odd move, the Cubs’ new Marquee network is planning to launch a new talk show featuring former Cubs pitcher Ryan Dempster. Speaking to reporters at Sloan Park in Mesa, Ariz. on Saturday, Dempster said his new show would not […]
New RSN drops details; Xfinity still not on board The Cubs and Marquee Sports Network finally (finally!) unveiled details about the new network to fans Saturday at the annual Cubs Convention in downtown Chicago. Programming on the channel consists of the obvious fare you would find on similar regional sports network channels: Cubs pre-game and post game shows and Cubs […]
1st District Congressman not happy with nation’s largest cable company In a huge broadside against one of the country’s biggest cable operators, Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) slammed Comcast for their role in a lawsuit involving one of the nation’s most successful African-American media entrepreneurs and may lead the company to be broken up. In a letter to Comcast CEO Brian […]
Chicago to become next battleground in retrans battle between RSNs, satellite providers If you are going to gloat when Marquee launches with a lack of distribution while NBC Sports Chicago is in your Dish and DirecTV channel lineup, you might be in for a rude awaking come October 1. That’s because with the Cubs dropping out of the NBC Sports […]
Also: Sinclair passes on O’Reilly; Grim reaper closing in on WYCC; World Series a ratings hit; The Twilight Zone to be rebooted. Again. Given the huge number of items making news this week, it’s time for another edition of The Media Notepad: Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is among those calling for the Sinclair-Tribune deal to be rejected. According to […]
The latest service to be featured “over the top” is one featuring several beloved classic cartoon characters. Time Warner announced this week a new Internet-only version of its classic animated channel Boomerang. The service plans to exclusively offer 5,000 hours of classic library material from the Warner Bros. and Hanna-Barbera catalog, featuring characters such as Bugs Bunny, Scooby-Doo, and Fred […]
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 […]
Many affiliates are upset with ABC and ESPN over a decision to remove several Sunday afternoon NASCAR races from the broadcast network to ESPN, leaving them with just three prime-time races to carry. The move rankled affilates – particuarly in Southern television markets, where NASCAR is very popular. NASCAR – whose season begins this Sunday with the Daytona 500 – […]
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 […]
A reminder: the new WMEU-CA, branded Me-Too is launching today at 5 a.m.The new channel is a spin-off of Me-TV (WWME-CA), which launched in 2005. WMEU is taking the place of ethnic-programmed WFBT-CA, which is switching to one of WCIU’s sub-channels. WMEU, WFBT, WWME, and WCIU are all owned by Weigel Broadcasting. Me-Too is available on broadcast analogchannel 48 (good […]
In a huge victory for the Big Ten Network, Wide Open West, which serves much of Chicago area (the same territory as Comcast), has signed a deal with the fledging sports net to carry the network on an expanded basic cable package in the eight states where there are Big Ten schools. Later in the day, BTN also struck a […]