The company faces a double whammy: challenges in its legacy products and customers looking for alternative ways to measure streaming viewership.
Fox got strong ratings from its kickoff to the college football season last Thursday, leading primetime in both total viewers and adults 18-49. The network’s broadcast of Ohio State’s 45-31 win over Minnesota averaged just under 6.3 million viewers — Fox’s best opening week game ever, and bigger than all but one regular season game on the network last season.
A group of 34 trade groups, labor unions and consumer activist organizations jointly sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission last week, asking it to block the Amazon’s proposed $8.45 billion acquisition of MGM. “We urge the FTC to block Amazon’s purchase of MGM Studios in order to slow Amazon’s growing dominance,” said the groups, which included The Writers Guild of America West, the Center for Popular Democracy Action and Public Citizen.
NEW YORK (AP) — Actor Michael K. Williams, who as the rogue robber of drug dealers Omar Little on “The Wire” created one of the most beloved and enduring characters […]
The league reached an agreement with the International Ice Hockey Federation to pause its schedule in February to allow skaters to represent their countries in Beijing.
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News that The Media Rating Council would be suspending accreditation of Nielsen Holdings’ high-profile national TV ratings service has had little effect on the media research company’s stock price so far. Through Thursday, Nielsen’s stock closed virtually flat for the week, down 0.2% to $21.21. The reaction of the MRC decision on Wednesday pushed the stock down slightly, to 1.6%. This isn’t to say that investors are not concerned about the research company. Since May 17, the company’s stock was at $28.10, and has since fallen 25%.
Cartoon Network’s nighttime adult programming block, which turns 20 this week, was built on lo-fi animation techniques that were as much a no-budget necessity as an aesthetic choice.
The CW has canceled its first-year drama The Republic of Sarah. Series creator Jeffrey Paul King broke the news in an Instagram post Thursday afternoon. The series was at the lower end of The CW’s Nielsen rankings for the summer. It averaged just under 450,000 viewers including a week of delayed viewing.
Lisa Hamilton Daly has been named EVP of programming at Crown Media Family Networks. She will report to Wonya Lucas, president and CEO, Crown Media. She was previously EVP, creative affairs and executive producer at Bedrock Entertainment.
Because Generation Z and a slice of millennials are more likely to drop and add streaming services in pursuit of tempting new shows, media companies are striving to give those restless customers what they want this fall. The apparent answer: sci-fi and fantasy. With broadcast and cable outlets eager to keep pace, get ready for a galaxy of shows including a saga based on the venerated work of Isaac Asimov (Foundation), one with a Lost echo (La Brea), and additions to the Disney+ Star Wars family.
American Ninja Warrior personality Akbar Gbajabiamila is joining the CBS talk show as a permanent co-host for Season 12. Gbajabiamila is essentially replacing Elaine Welteroth, who stepped down from the dais on Tuesday. (Or maybe he’s replacing Carrie Ann Inaba, who, following a lengthy hiatus, officially left The Talk earlier this month.)
Big Brother on CBS drew 3.9 million total viewers and a 0.9 rating, ticking down in the demo week-to-week yet still dominating Wednesday in that measure. Over on NBC, America’s Got Talent (5.9M/0.6) delivered the night’s largest audience while dipping in the demo week-to-week.
Outer Banks topped the Nielsen U.S. streaming chart for the week of Aug. 2-8 with nearly twice the viewing of its closest competitor. The Netflix original was in its first full week of streaming after its second season hit Netflix in late-July. It delivered 2.1 billion minutes of viewing across its 20 episodes. It joins an elite club of shows north of the 2 billion mark in a single week since Nielsen began reporting streaming numbers in mid-2020.
TV viewers can watch their favorite programs any way they want. If media executives aren’t careful, the industry will soon be counting those people in equally chaotic fashion. A suspension of Media Rating Council backing for Nielsen’s venerable national and local TV ratings service, announced Wednesday, offers the clearest signal yet of the breakdown of the industry’s ability to measure the audiences that watch comedies, dramas, news broadcasts and sports matches. The problem is not likely to be solved anytime soon.
YouTube’s vice president of content partnerships, Kelly Merryman, a key executive who helped smooth relationships with Hollywood networks and studios, has left the company.
A TV series inspired by a chapter in Amy Chozick’s Chasing Hillary bestseller has taken a detour to The CW, after Netflix dropped out of the politically themed project.
The Ellen DeGeneres Show returns for its 19th and final season on Monday Sept. 13. The show comes back for its last run with a fully vaccinated studio audience and a plethora of celebrity guests set to wave the veteran talk show off. Jennifer Aniston, who was the show’s very first guest in 2003, will kick off the show with Jimmy Kimmel.
The former Tonight host navigates the new social standards for comedy in a game show revival.
A brand refresh for TCM, the cable home to countless vintage films, raises questions about its future within an increasingly streaming-centric TV world.
John Weiser, president, first-run television at Sony Pictures Television, is leaving the studio after more than 30 years. Weiser, who has been responsible for successfully negotiating multiple cycles of Seinfeld syndicated sales in the U.S. among a plethora of deals, will exit in September. Sources say he’s unlikely to be replaced directly, with his responsibilities taken over by other execs.
As the executive producer is ousted at Sony’s quiz show (and Wheel of Fortune), more than a dozen former staffers on the CBS and Fremantle show describe a “dismantling” of a workplace culture that preceded him.
