March 10, 2008

Cable's Ad Canoe

Cable Paddles Ads Together, Does Anyone Really Know What Time Warner It Is, Cox-WIBW Talking, The Final L Word  and other news

NEWS BRIEFING FOR MONDAY, MARCH 10, 2008

One of the best TV series in years, HBO's The Wire, ended last night with as little fanfare as it received when it began 5 seasons ago. Good day.

Execs from Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox, Bright House, Cablevision and Charter have been shaping a plan to pool resources to sell the long-awaited product known as addressable advertising to their cable subs, The NY Times reports. The MSO execs believe they can triple cable’s local advertising take to $15 billion annually, the paper says. They have been meeting for 6 months, alternating between New York and Philadelphia, as the plan’s chief guides are Comcast’s Steve Burke and Time Warner Cable’s Landell Hobbs. The industry plans to make an initial investment of $150 million toward the project, code named Canoe (as in we must work together). The NY Times (and plenty of others) believes the data stored in cable’s set-top boxes could result in making cable ads even more targeted than Internet ads. Of course, the box’s power makes our next story all the more ironic. [NYT] [For a NY Times' story on what Internet companies know about Web visitors, click here.]

It should have been a fun item on a Monday, but when The NY Times gets hold of it, you’re looking at something bigger. Sunday morning, during the first hours of daylight saving time, more than 1 million Time Warner Cable customers throughout the Big Apple awoke to find their favorite shows were running one hour behind schedule, according to their on-screen guide. The culprits were the set-top boxes, the MSO confirmed, although a specific reason for the malfunction wasn’t announced. But you can bet columnists and bloggers throughout the land will be laughing at what will be seen as yet another example of cable-related incompetence and the irony of the correct time being a rare commodity at Time Warner Cable. [NYT]

A bill pending in Pennsylvania’s state house would allow citizens to choose which cable provider they wanted to sign with (and no doubt create havoc), The Times Leader of northern Pennsylvania reports. Backed by a slew of local governments, consumer, labor and religious groups, the bill calls for state oversight of cable and would allow consumers to choose their programming and service level, too, the paper says. [TL] 

Another day, another columnist portraying the digital transition’s arrival with more than just a soupcon of angst. Today’s writer is the well-respected TV critic Dave Walker of The New Orleans Times-Picayune. Between the lines of his blog page rant, though, it seems Walker’s more frustrated than angry with the resulting confusion. While New Orleans is better than most cities—ironically because Katrina resulted in its citizenry buying new, digital-ready TVs and hooking them to cable of satellite, “still, a potentially jarring transition looms for many viewers who might not even be aware that their trusty old boob tube shortly will become a remote-controlled night light.” [NOTP]

Briefly Noted
The Cox-WIBW stalemate got un-stale late Friday, hours before the midnight deadline, as the two sides agreed to extend their talks and deadline for about one week, to March 13, the Topeka-Capital-Journal online reported. That meant Cox viewers are able to watch the CBS affiliate while Cox and WIBW re-negotiate carriage terms. Apparently “substantial progress” was made Friday, WIBW GM Jim Ogle said. [TCJ]

More and more people are watching network TV via the Internet, The NY Times reports. [NYT]

Showtime said today it will renew The L Word for a sixth and final season. The  series returns in early 2009.

Cartoon Net SVP/GM Paul Condolora was named SVP, Digital for Turner Broadcasting System’s Animation, Young Adults and Kids Media Group.  Condolora will lead digital strategy for Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, SuperDeluxe and GameTap.  

Paramount will make thousands of clips from its films available at Facebook, allowing fans to purchase DVDs of the films at the site, The Hollywood Reporter says. [THR]

Ben Bennett was named CEO of OpenTV. He's been acting CEO and COO since late last August. 

Even before the video game based on Showtime’s (and now CBS’) series Dexter is developed, The NY Times blogger Brian Stelter says its television pedigree doesn’t give it much of a chance of (sorry) making the cut. [NYT]

Got a tip? Contact sarenstein@accessintel.com and sgoldstein@accessintel.com

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