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News Corp. is planning to sell nine of its 35 local TV stations, mostly in medium-sized markets. The stations are profitable and should bring between $1.3-$1.5 billion. A News Corp. spokesperson said the company is selling the stations for strategic reasons. Strategic reasons? Most analysts agree, News Corp. doesn’t need the cash (even with the Continue Reading →

FCC CHAIRMAN KEVIN MARTIN is scheduled to speak today in support of The Family Choice Act of 2007. The proposed legislation will suggest several ways to protect children from viewing indecent and violent material on TV. One such measure, which Martin supports, is to allow consumers to purchase programming on an a la carte basis. Continue Reading →

GOOGLE has added Placement Performance reports to AdWords, allowing advertisers to track the success of campaigns on specific sites in the Google Content Network. The addition came in response to advertiser requests for transparency and control over ad placement, and will allow advertisers to easily identify responsive audiences. BLOCKBUSTER has cut prices for its online Continue Reading →

WARNER BROS. will begin a trial-run of releasing movies to VOD and DVD on the same day. The experiment begins on July 10th with “The Astronaut Farmer,” which underperformed at the box office. YOUTUBE will soon begin testing home-grown video fingerprinting to identify copyrighted material. Content owners of identified clips will have the option of Continue Reading →

 APPLE is in advanced talks with Hollywood studios about offering downloadable movie rentals. Apple is said to be “aggressively pursuing” the idea, and wishes to launch the service in the fall. A downloadable Apple VOD system would compete heavily with cable company offerings.NBC has begun a unique online show that targets a new “prime Continue Reading →

“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” — John Wanamaker, US department store merchant (1838-1922) This may be the most famous quote in the advertising business. And for good reason — in the black art of media planning and buying lies the tacit understanding that Continue Reading →

THE FCC has issued almost $3 million in fines to companies that are still shipping TV sets without digital tuners. As of March 1st, all TV’s that are shipped must be capable of receiving a digital TV signal. The Commission has also been warning retailers that they must display proper Consumer Alerts on sets that Continue Reading →

If you follow the media, you have probably seen a dozen factoids this week decrying that the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric has hit an all-time ratings low. Since we live in a “Top 10,” everybody loves a winner society, many armchair television programmers are feeling a certain sense of schadenfreude. You should all Continue Reading →

ROCKETBOOM has adopted a sponsorship model. For $3000 per show, a sponsor will receive a 7 second post roll and a personalized blog entry. Quicktime versions of Rocketboom will also include an embedded link to the sponsor’s web site. Andrew Michael Baron, the CEO and founder of Rocketboom, recently discussed the challenges of finding advertising Continue Reading →

By definition, summer blockbusters attract blockbuster-sized crowds — especially on opening weekends. By the time the commercials start, the theater is typically SRO. Commercials? Yes, about eight of them taking over ten minutes to get through. Then, after a short promo for the concession stand and a Cingular commercial altruistically dressed as a “please turn Continue Reading →