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Chicago sports fans who subscribe to Dish Network better keep an eye on a West Coast carriage dispute in which Dish customers have not had Comcast SportsNet California since Nov. 24.
Potentially at stake is the access of roughly 360,000 Chicago-area homes — about 10 percent of the market — to Blackhawks hockey, Bulls basketball and Cubs and White Sox baseball.
Sen. Al Franken, a critic of Comcast Corp.’s proposed deal for control of NBC Universal, asked the Justice Department Monday to investigate whether the giant cable company had engaged in “illegal collaboration” concerning its intended target.
Franken (D-Minn.) said that on Sept. 26 Comcast had named its chief operating officer, Steve Burke, as the prospective chief executive of NBC Universal. Last week, Comcast named several executives who would hold top jobs at NBC Universal after the cable company took control of the broadcaster and movie studio from General Electric Co. Get the full story »
Wiegel Broadcasting is taking its low-power, Baby Boomer-focused Me-TV national. Weigel started the channel almost six years ago with a reverential approach to vintage programming and morphed into a digital subchannel complementing WCIU-Ch. 26.
This time Me-TV — which ostensibly stands for Memorable Entertainment Television — is set to transform into a nationally distributed network with programming from the 1950s, ’60s, ’70s and ‘80. A formal announcement is set for noon Tuesday.
Chicago-based daily deals company Groupon said its Web site is back to normal after the combination of an Oprah Winfrey mention and a popular deal with retailer Nordstrom Rack caused traffic problems.
The site had been experiencing intermittent slowness in the morning for users depending on their location, said Groupon spokeswoman Julie Mossler. Get the full story »
From The New York Times | Roger Ailes, the chairman of Fox News, publicly apologized on Thursday for comparing NPR executives to Nazis.
Comcast Corp. on Thursday named several executives who will hold top jobs at NBC Universal after the cable company takes control of the broadcaster and movie studio.
Former Showtime President Bob Greenblatt will be chairman of NBC Entertainment, responsible for prime time and late night programming, business affairs and NBC Universal Media studios. Get the full story »
From the New York Post | Oprah Winfrey yesterday toured a $68 million mansion for sale on the grounds of the former Frick estate in Alpine, N.J. before heading north to look at another property a few miles north in Snedens Landing. Get the full story>>
NBC will make Thursday an all-comedy night and move its two “Law & Order” dramas as part of a midseason shake-up.
The network announced Monday that it is shifting “30 Rock” and the freshman series “Outsourced” to the final hour of prime time starting Jan. 20. The rest of the night’s lineup, starting at 8 p.m. ET, will include “Community,” newcomer “Perfect Couples,” “The Office” and returning series “Parks and Recreation.” Get the full story »
A TV display at a Best Buy. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
The Pay TV industry has heatedly debated this fall whether consumers are dropping their cable or other TV subscriptions to watch more TV content online. A new study by Nielsen, commissioned by the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing, argues that most people who watch at least some content from the Web on their TV sets are “cord keepers” rather than “cord cutters.”
The study, called “Life is a Stream,” surveyed 769 people 18-49, and used eight focus groups to explore the viewing habits of consumers who watch at least some TV shows and movies from the Internet on their TV sets. That group makes up about 11 percent of the U.S. population, according to the study’s authors.
One key finding of the survey, which will be unveiled this week: 84 percent of such viewers reported that they are watching the same amount, or more, regularly scheduled TV since they started streaming or downloading content to watch on their TV set. Importantly for TV distributors, 92 percent of these entertainment enthusiasts subscribe to a pay TV service, with only 3 percent reporting plans to give up their subscription. Get the full story »
ELITE STREET | By Bob Goldsborough | WMAQ-Ch. 5 news anchor and reporter Jeff Goldblatt and his wife have listed their four-bedroom house in Deerfield for $749,000.
Goldblatt, 41, joined NBC-5 in September after concluding a two-year run at WFLD-Ch. 32 as a news anchor. He was a Fox News correspondent for nearly a decade before that. Get the full story »
Popular U.S. Web video service Hulu should more than double revenue this year to $240 million, its chief executive said on Wednesday, a growth projection likely to create more buzz about a potential public offering. Get the full story »
News Corp.’s Fox Business Network has signed a multi-year contract with former CNN anchor Lou Dobbs, who will host a daily show on the network beginning in the first quarter.
Dobbs also will appear on a variety of Fox Business programs to provide analysis and commentary. He will continue to host his radio talk shows and financial reports, Fox Business said. Get the full story »
MSNBC says Keith Olbermann will be back on the air Tuesday, ending his suspension for violating NBC’s rules against making political donations after two shows. MSNBC’s chief executive Phil Griffin said late Sunday that after several days of deliberation, he had determined that two days off the air was “an appropriate punishment for his violation of our policy.”
Keith Olbermann. (AP Photo/Peter Kramer, file)
MSNBC has suspended prime-time host Keith Olbermann indefinitely without pay for contributing to the campaigns of three Democratic candidates this election season.
Olbermann acknowledged to NBC that he donated $2,400 apiece to the campaigns of Kentucky Senate candidate Jack Conway and Arizona Reps. Raul Grivalva and Gabrielle Giffords.
NBC News prohibits its employees from working on, or donating to, political campaigns unless a special exception is granted by the news division president — effectively a ban. Olbermann’s bosses did not find out about the donations until after they were made. The website Politico first reported the donations. Get the full story »
Dish Network Corp, the second-biggest U.S. TV satellite operator, posted higher-than-expected quarterly profit and sales as its existing customers spent more on its services. Get the full story »
