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August 17, 2007
360AM: NBC Strikes Landmark VOD Deal
NBC offers two-week sneak peek at fall line-up; Big Ten wrangling goes down to the wire; AT&T tests naked DSL; Sprint hypes WiMax; and more Friday news.
By Shirley Brady
Cable360AM — News briefing for Friday, August 17 »
NBC is offering an unprecedented video-on-demand preview of its fall shows on "virtually every major cable and satellite system in the country." Full-length premiere episodes for four of its new fall series — Bionic Woman, Chuck, Journeyman and Life — will be available on free VOD starting Sept. 10 via Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Charter, Cox and other cable operators. Dish Network and DirecTV will also preview the shows for two weeks. Variety reports that "most cable operators will also give subscribers access to a 30-minute NBC fall preview special; a two-minute trailer for the new season of Heroes; exclusive scenes from The Office and 30 Rock; five viral videos tied to Chuck; and making-of featurettes for Bionic Woman and Life." MSOs are giving operators "million and millions of dollars worth of advertising impressions," including 250-350 local spots to plug NBC's fall lineup, according to NBCU TV Networks Distribution EVP Henry Ahn. NBC and its rival broadcast networks (except for ABC) are already previewing their fall shows online, while NBC and Fox are preparing to launch their joint venture NewCo/NewSite/NameTBD Web video portal next month.
Mediacom and News Corp.'s Fox are still wrangling over the Big Ten Nework, with a Mediacom rep telling the Des Moines Register that Mediacom has made multiple proposals to carry BTN in time for Iowa's Sept. 8 game against Syracuse. The network goes live Aug. 30. Pali Research analyst Rich Greenfield said in a report this morning he isn't holding his breath as Mediacom won't put BTN on basic cable, as Fox is demanding. A mass e-mail urging Midwest sports fans to lobby Comcast to carry BTN by calling 866-WANT-B10 instead of sending them to DirecTV made MWC commissioner Craig Thompson chuckle, reports the Denver Post. His league's nascent sports net, The Mtn., has carriage on Comcast (which is backing it) while a grassroots petition has collected 9,500 signatures to lobby carriage hold-outs DirecTV and Dish Network.
Insight Communications reported positive 2nd quarter results. On its quarterly earnings call this morning, CEO Michael Willner confirmed that Insight's owner, the Carlyle Group, is still undergoing a strategic review that may lead to a sale. Click here for details.
Adelphia announced it will distribute an additional $531 million and 6.5 million shares of Time Warner Cable class A common stock to settle allowed creditors' claims as part of its chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.
• COMPETITION
AT&T's tests of so-called naked DSL service in Austin, TX, Chicago and Jacksonville, FL isn't worrying Comcast, which operates in the latter 2 markets. Comcast's area spokesman Bill Ferry tells the Jacksonville Times-Union AT&T's $5/mo. service (with a landline, or free to AT&T wireless customers) can't touch Comcast's 4Mbps-for-$58/mo. high-speed service, which he calls "a superior product at a competitive price [and] much faster."
EchoStar, no doubt nervously eyeing DirecTV's 100 HD channel assault that hits next month, announced an advanced ViP722 HD DVR with video archiving "to complement nation's largest HD package" (38 national high-def channels) on Dish Network.
Sprint Nextel yesterday demonstrated its WiMax technology at its Sprint Ahead Technology Summit, where company execs committed to spending up to $5 billion through 2010 to deploy high-speed wireless across America. It's projecting to cover 70 million people on its network with partner Clearwire covering 30 million more by late next year and 125 million total by late 2010 with its new service, dubbed Xohm ("zoam"). Sprint also has a deal with Google to develop a WiMax portal.
Verizon's FiOS TV customers in Maryland and Virginia this week received its interactive media guide, its cutting-edge user interface that integrates multimedia content on TV — click here for a demo.
The Carmel Group estimates more than 2 million satellite TV pirates in North America; its "Getting a Free Bird" report is analyzed here.
• PROGRAMMING
Click here for Seth Arenstein's reviews of upcoming shows on cable.
CBS is streaming live, unedited video coverage from its Big Brother 8 house in a dedicated 24/7 channel on Verizon's V CAST mobile TV through to the series' finale on Sept. 18, marking a first for a U.S. TV network.
Court TV's daily talk show with Star Jones kicks off Monday with Isaiah Washington as her first guest. [EW.com]
Disney Channel's High School Musical 2 premieres nationwide tonight, and it's already working on High School Musical 3 — which will premiere theatrically, not on its tween TV network, Disney execs tell the Wall Street Journal. Not surprisingly, the New York Times isn't enamored with HSM2 — today's review calls it "mediocre" although it has "some knockout songs" and is "a wonderful throwback." On the minus side: "it’s badly lip-synched, badly danced and doused in self-tanner." (Snap!)
HBO signed a development deal with Comedy Central's former The Daily Show With Jon Stewart executive producer Ben Karlin. [Variety | Hollywood Reporter]
MTV Networks is committing more than $500 million over the next two years to boost its global gaming business that includes AddictingGames, Neopets, Nickarcade.com, Shockwave, a growing hub of virtual world games, and franchises such as Rock Band. MTVN's game-related websites recorded more than 42 million unique visitors in June, up 20% in the first six months of this year.
Showtime is pushing back the planned Sept. launch of its Smithsonian VOD channel (which would also run in HD-VOD) as it's still securing carriage. A deal with Verizon's FiOS TV fell through while Comcast is in "preliminary" talks for the complaint-plagued venture, reports Variety.
Starz is marking the Aug. 31st 10th anniversary of Princess Diana's death with the Sept. 1st world television premiere of Helen Mirren's award-winning The Queen, followed by the U.S. television premiere of Diana: Witnesses in the Tunnel on Starz Cinema.
TV Land will premiere its six-part search for "the Next Great Supermodel Age 35 and Older" in the spring, with contestants vying for a "lucrative" contract with Wilhelmina Models.
WE tv expands its wedding show stable with Wedding Central, a six-part series following key wedding party members (except the bride and groom), Rich Bride, Poor Bride, a 26-ep series on wedding planning, and The Fabulous Life Presents: VH1's Big Fat Fabulous Wedding, which is slated for December. Wedding specials planned for February include 10 Most Famous & Fabulous Wedding Dresses and Beach Weddings.
Time magazine looks at the growth of green programming on broadcast and cable TV networks.
• ONLINE
Google's AdSense will distribute original Web videos, including a "how-to" series featuring Disney Channel star Raven-Symone and another series featuring new characters from Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane, reports AP.
Skype has experienced a worldwide outage since yesterday, affecting its 220 million users. The problem is improving today, with updates here.
USA's upcoming Didja.com (not its final name, notes the New York Times) and TBS's veryfunnyads.com will be challenged by the upcoming honeyshed.com, described as "MTV meets QVC" by founder Dave Droga, whose Droga5 shop is developing the branded entertainment video site for his former employer, Publicis.
• IN OTHER NEWS
Cox Communications rolled out VOD in Gainesville/Ocala and Pensacola/Fort Walton, FL.
Hearst-Argyle launched High School Playbook, bringing high school sports coverage to TV, online and mobile.
Philips tapped Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-wai to create a short film, Seduction by Light, to tout its new high-end Aurea HDTV set. Philips will market directly to women (with money to burn) by installing displays in Lanvin stores.
Hollywood studios are feeling the pinch as credit-market turmoil is making Wall Street investors and banks start to balk at movie financing, reports the Wall Street Journal.
Vyyo promoted Jeff Fryling to SVP, business development, from VP of corporate development.
• Click here for Thursday's 360AM news briefing »
Got a tip? Contact Shirley Brady at sbrady@accessintel.com
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