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(Frederick M. Brown/Getty)
Broadway dancers, crime victims, unfaithful spouses and soul-food chefs are coming to OWN:The Oprah Winfrey Network, the network announced during its upfront presentation on Thursday.
Six new unscripted series were added to OWN, though there was no news of the most anticipated OWN series: an Oprah Winfrey show, which is expected to launch in September after her daytime talk show ends. Get the full story>>
Data-gathering firms and technology companies are aggressively matching people’s TV-viewing behavior with other personal data — in some cases, prescription-drug records obtained from insurers — and using it to help advertisers buy ads targeted to shows watched by certain kinds of people.
At the same time, cable and satellite companies are testing and deploying new systems designed to show households highly targeted ads. The goal: Emulate the sophisticated tracking widely used on people’s personal computers with new technology that reaches the living room. Get the full story »
Oprah Winfrey talks to reporters about OWN in January. (Reuters)
From the New York Times | Oprah Winfrey’s 2-month-old cable channel, OWN, is attracting fewer viewers than the obscure channel it replaced, Discovery Health. At any given time this month, there have been about 135,000 people watching OWN, according to Nielsen, and only about 45,000 of those people are women ages 25 to 54, the demographic that the channel is focusing on.
Winfrey and her partner, Discovery Communications, have preached patience, especially because she will have a minimal presence on the channel until after “The Oprah Winfrey Show” ends its remarkable run in September. Get the full story >>
The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday gave Comcast Corp., the country’s largest cable company, the green light to take over NBC Universal, home of the NBC television network.
Four of the commission’s five members voted to let Comcast buy a 51 percent stake in NBC Universal from General Electric Co. for $13.8 billion in cash and assets. Michael Copps, one of the commission’s three Democrats and an opponent of media consolidation, voted against the deal. Get the full story »
A couple from the Brooklyn borough of New York part of the Playboy network adult reality program "Brooklyn Kinda Love." (AP/Playboy TV)
For generations, Playboy’s image has been “Entertainment for Men.” Now, it’s TV network wants these men to watch their movies and shows with their wives and women friends.
The premium cable network, which celebrates its 30th anniversary next year, is starting “TV for 2,” slightly steamy programming designed for women and men to experience together. The idea was unwrapped over the weekend with the premiere of “Brooklyn Kinda Love,” a reality series made by the producers of HBO’s “Taxicab Confessions.” Get the full story »
The Oprah Winfrey Network launching Saturday is wary of promising too much of a good thing — Winfrey herself. In stoking interest in the cable channel, the goal is to exploit Winfrey’s popularity while emphasizing that OWN won’t be all Oprah, all the time.
“We really don’t want to be a niche brand. We want to be a mainstream cable” network with appeal beyond Winfrey’s fan base, said Darren Schillace, vice president of consumer marketing for OWN. Get the full story »
The head of the Federal Communications Commission is laying out regulatory conditions to ensure that cable giant Comcast Corp. cannot stifle video competition once it takes control of NBC Universal.
The conditions are intended to guarantee that existing subscription television services and new online video services can still get access to NBC content. Get the full story »
American talk show host Oprah Winfrey, third from right, is joined by Australian stars, from left, Nicole Kidman, Keith Urban, Hugh Jackman, Olivia Newton John and Russell Crowe in Sydney Tuesday. (AP/ Jeremy Piper)
The long-awaited OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network is gearing up for its premiere on New Year’s Day. And the bold ambition of this venture would spark doubts if there were anybody else’s name attached. Consider: a cable network repurposed from Discovery Health and all-dependent on just one person’s identity, vision and marquee power.
But that person is Winfrey, a cultural force. Now, as she moves through the final months of her daytime syndicated talk show, which will end next September after 25 years, OWN is poised to become Winfrey’s new TV home base.
Instead of a daily hour boasting Winfrey’s on-air presence as host, OWN will be a round-the-clock environment in which — her network vows — she will often be seen but, what is more important, always be felt. She will be the network’s spiritual curator, maintaining a constant presence, even from off-camera, as she offers a slate of programs all guaranteed to meet her “Live Your Best Life” mandate. Get the full story »
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 »
Comcast Corp. has unveiled an application for Apple Inc.’s iPad that allows its customers to watch videos, program their digital video recorders and more, as pay-television providers look to keep eyeballs on their offerings, whether in the home or not.
The cable- and satellite-TV business appears to have suffered its second consecutive quarterly subscriber decline during the summer, fueling concerns about the prospect of online video disrupting the media and entertainment industry’s most lucrative and dependable revenue model.
With its iPad application, Comcast joins a growing list of video streaming products from big-name media companies, including Dish Network Corp., Netflix Inc., Hulu and ABC, trying to catch the attention of a new generation of consumers, looking for content they can stream from the Internet to their new portable media devices. 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 »
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 »
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.”
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 »
By Steve Cavendish | AT&T’s U-verse service dropped Food Network, HGTV, Cooking Channel and other Scripps networks from its lineup Friday morning after the two sides could not reach a carriage agreement.
The channels were immediately replaced on thousands of U-verse customers’ receivers in the Chicago area.
Food Network and HGTV are among the most popular niche networks on cable, with their most popular shows reaching millions of viewers. Get the full story »
