Verizon Uplifts Locals, Root at the Box, That's History, Reality of The Jonas Bros, Rating Liberals and other news
By Cable 360 Staff
NEWS BRIEFING FOR THURSDAY, MARCH 20, 2008
It’s the first day of spring and the Cable 360 news staff is preparing for wind gusts of 50 miles per hour today. Good day.
Showing that two can play the local game, Verizon FiOS is making a foray into local programming to compete with cable’s local news channels and its local coverage generally, The Wall St Journal reports. The FiOS 1 Channel is taking a different strategy against cable's local news channels. It's started nets with a series of feel-good shows featuring uplifting human interest stories. Cable MSOs like Comcast, Cablevision and Time Warner Cable are responding in kind and with more local shows on-demand, adding to a wealth of existing local coverage. [WSJ]
Among the chattering classes in Hollywood the name of former Discovery Channel GM Jane Root is being mentioned to replace ousted HBO Entertainment President Carolyn Strauss, The Hollywood Reporter says, slightly mocking the guessing games that have already begun for one of TV’s most envied jobs. [THR]
Comcast apparently is asking a Boston suburb to assume responsibility for local access operations in an arrangement similar to others it’s crafted. Comcast provides funds to local government so it can form a non-profit to run local access, The Boston Globe reports. Not all the cities want to do this, however. [BG]
Briefly Noted As it promised last year, Verizon unveiled plans to open its network, allowing its 65 million wireless customers to use devices and services not sold by Verizon. [WSJ]
Liberals are more engaged with the presidential election and CNN and MSNBC are the ratings beneficiaries, MediaDaily News says. [MDN]
You knew this was coming—Disney Channel gave greenlighted a reality series for the spring about tween-teen heartthrob band The Jonas Brothers. The band is closely associated with Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana and joined her sold-out tour that ended in January. [THR]
Comcast’s Business Class service—video, Internet and voice—was named as the number one provider by readers of New Hampshire Business Review.
Actor Ivan Dixon, forever etched in our minds as electronics whiz Kinch on Hogan’s Heroes, died Sunday, aged 76. [LAT]
LATE STORIES
Lynn Grosz, former VP of Training for the former small cable operators group CATA, died in Charlottesville today from injuries suffered last month in a car accident. She was the lead architect of the Cable Industry Public Affairs Training Program from 1990-1996, successfully providing communications training to more than 5000 cable executives across the country.
Customer service vendor Convergys inked a multi-year contract renewal with Cox.
The History Channel changed its name to History. [AP]
Verizon was the biggest winner in the recent FCC spectrum auction. [WSJ]
Today in CableFAX Daily: Another FCC meeting on broadband network management (will Comcast’s seat fillers sleep through this one?) and is Sundance Channel for sale? [For an interesting homage to Sundance Channel, see Thomas Hine’s blog. [NYT] ]
Got a tip? Contact sarenstein@accessintel.com and sgoldstein@accessintel.com
Help CableFAX: The Magazine decide by nominating the executives you think should be included in our annual list of the Most Powerful Women in Cable. We will rank the top 50 most powerful women, and run a list of the second 50, in the November issue of CableFAX: The Magazine. Nominations are open to all cable operators, programmers, vendors and trade associations. Click here for nomination form. Deadline for nominations: Sept. 19.
• • •
CABLEFAX: THE MAGAZINE
THE 100 POWER LIST It's time to get in your nominations for the CableFAX 100, version 2008. Nominate here. Deadline for nominations: Sept. 19.
Cable's stars turned out for the first annual CableFAX 100 luncheon at New York's Grand Hyatt last December. Catch Mad Men's Jon Hamm, Cash Cab's Ben Bailey as well as Sundance Channel's Larry Aidem and Cable Pioneer Bill Bresnan and others in our video from the wintertime event.
Going Green: How to Do It, Communicate It and Sell It Thurs, Sept. 25
1:30-3:00pm est
[Register Now]
MER and BER Fundamentals Free 2-part Series Thurs, Sept. 4 &
Thurs, Sept. 11
1:00-2:30pm est
[Register Now]
Who are cable's most powerful women executives?
Help CableFAX: The Magazine decide by nominating the executives you think should be included in our annual list of the Most Powerful Women in Cable. We will rank the top 50 most powerful women, and run a list of the second 50, in the November issue of CableFAX: The Magazine. Nominations are open to all cable operators, programmers, vendors and trade associations. Click here for nomination form. Extended deadline for nominations: Sept. 19.
CableFAX announces the launch of CableFAX Content Business, an online premium service featuring proprietary coverage of cable content, ratings, programming and advertising trends, new technologies and distribution channels.
Get a trial subscription to Content Business here. Read the press release.
CABLEFAX DAILY
