cable

For decades, the biggest star at ESPN was ESPN. That’s changing as it transitions from cable dominance to a much less certain streaming future.

Rodgers returned to ESPN’s The Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday for his weekly appearance and addressed comments he made the week before that appeared to suggest Kimmel’s name might appear on a list of associates of Jeffrey Epstein, a millionaire accused of sex trafficking involving underage victims before he died by suicide. “Any type of name calling is ridiculous and I’m not calling him (a pedophile), and neither should you,” Rodgers said on the show Tuesday.

After setting the stage with its robust line-up of holiday programming, Great American Family is ready to get into the scripted series business. The channel is launching County Rescue, an action-adventure medical drama starring Julia Reilly (Stranger Things) as an EMT in training who is vying for one of three openings on the team.

Kevin Negandhi may not be the most controversial sports host at ESPN — no one’s heard him slam executives on air or suggest he needs a higher salary — but he is making a name for himself as one of the show-iest. There may be no format or program that Negandhi cannot handle. He may get the chance to try his hand at a few more things in months to come. ESPN has extended Negandhi’s contract so that he will celebrate more than 20 years at the Disney sports-media giant under his next term.

Cox Communications is set to pay $13 million to settle an Arizona lawsuit that alleged the cable TV company disguised price hikes as “routine fees.” The lawsuit accuses Cox of deceiving Arizonans who bought TV services from the provider to enter long-term contracts by promising a “price lock guarantee” and other fixed pricing “deals,” according to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.

Regional cable company Breezeline is no longer carrying CBS affiliate WBOC in Salisbury, Md., but the TV station is insisting it is not engaged in a classic carriage dispute like the one going on between Tegna and DirecTV. “Please understand this is not a carriage dispute,” WBOC says on its website. “Breezeline stated it dropped WBOC because we are an ‘out of market’ station to the communities they serve, which are in the Baltimore viewing area as defined by Nielsen Media Research.”

The group has been key in developing the studio’s original programming, highlighted by the Anne Rice and Walking Dead universes.

ACA Connects has named three new members of its leadership team, including staffers from both sides of the political aisle and one longtime top communications executive from the National Association of Broadcasters. L-r: Zamir Ahmed, VP of external affairs; Olivia Shields, VP of public affairs and communications; and Max Staloff, VP of regulatory affairs.

MSNBC is seeking approval from the FCC to skip providing audio descriptions for the blind during the Rachel Maddow Show and other live network programming. The commission has rules pursuant to a 2010 law that require some cable networks to furnish audio descriptions, but MSNBC says that because so many hours of its programming are live, the network met the criteria for an FCC exemption.

A 32-year veteran of ESPN, Krulewitz will assume his new role as senior VP of communications Dec. 31, and will jointly report to ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro and Walt Disney Co. chief communications officer Kristina Schake. He succeeds Chris LaPlaca, who is retiring at the end of the year after 43 years with ESPN, making him the longest-tenured behind the scenes employee in the channel’s history.

Signaling a major thaw in the icy relationship between Major League Baseball and bankrupt regional sports networks operator Diamond Sports Group, lawyers for the league on Friday said they’d agreed on a framework through mediation to keep 11 MLB clubs on Bally Sports channels through the 2024 season.

The monthly sports magazine helmed by Bryant Gumbel is calling it quits in its 29th year. The final, 90-minute episode premieres Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET. Gumbel is 75, at the end of a contract, and HBO is now controlled by a company, Warner Bros. Discovery, on the hunt for cost savings. While the show’s exit makes sense, the fear is that a form of sports journalism is leaving for good, too.

USA Network’s “blue sky” series of the 2000s and early 2010s are having a moment this year between Suits‘ blockbuster run on Netflix, which broke streaming records and led to a potential offshoot series at NBC, and the Monk reunion movie, which premieres today on Peacock and already is getting awards recognition. Now the brand is making its way back to where it started, on the USA Network. NBCUniversal’s ad-supported cable net is plotting a return to original scripted programming with light, frothy character-based procedurals in the mold of the lineup from the “blue sky”era that included Monk, Burn Notice, Psych, Royal Pains, White Collar and Suits.

Many of the most popular channels have largely ditched original dramas and comedies, morphing into vessels for endless reruns.

A cable TV company serving several small towns in Mississippi and Louisiana has abruptly shut down service in recent days and failed to provide appropriate notice to customers and local governments. Bailey Cable TV reportedly closed its doors on Nov. 30, causing customers who lost pay TV service to call various town officials seeking an explanation. Bailey officials were unreachable because calls placed to contact numbers on the company’s website resulted either in disconnections or automated messages saying the mail box was full.

Comcast started to inform customers in some markets of an upcoming price hike. Customers will see their bills go up on their base package plus fees like broadcast TV fees and regional sports fees will also be going up. The price of TV service will go up around $6 per month. There will also be about a $4 price hike on Comcast’s broadcast TV fees. Regional sports fees will go up about $1 a month. Bundles of premium channels will see prices rise between $2 and $4 a month, depending on the package. The price of internet will also be going up on average $4 a month across all of its internet packages. And home protection customers will see their bills rise by $5 a month.

HBO is extending its long-term relationship with John Oliver. The premium cabler has picked up three more seasons of Last Week Tonight With John Oliver. The renewal will take the weekly latenight show through its 13th season in 2026.

Warner Bros. Discovery cable warrior Kathleen Finch is heading into her Super Bowl: the holiday season at Food Network. “Fans come and we supersize them and super serve them with all this holiday content, daytime content, and primetime stuff,” she says.

Newsmax is clashing with the Republican National Committee after the conservative, Trump-friendly channel wasn’t able to co-sponsor one of the first four GOP presidential primary debates. The dispute is a view into the delicate and at times fraught negotiations over the debates, which can propel or depress a candidacy — and add prestige and viewers to networks that sponsor them.

DirecTV is looking to establish a new regime for the distribution of TV stations, one it says would arrest the tide of TV station-caused price hikes and consumer anger over blackouts before the big game. The satellite TV provider with 11.8 million subscribers nationally is proposing a new a la carte model for the industry. The company wants to jettison the “retransmission consent” requirement in current law that says DirecTV must negotiate carriage with TV stations, even if it means losing stations in the absence of a mutual deal.

A new report from GlobalData says the drop is due to cord-cutters and cord-nevers. Expected household penetration for 2023 is estimated at only 42%, which will drop even further to 32% in 2028.

Comcast, Charter, Altice USA, Dish, Verizon Fios shed 1.16 million subscribers in Q3, while streamers Hulu + Live TV, Sling TV and Fubo added 727,000.

This fresh pact means that Fieri retains his title as the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned cable channel’s highest-paid talent and bests his most recent multiyear deal, which closed in 2021 for $80 million. This fresh pact means that Fieri retains his title as the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned cable channel’s highest-paid talent and bests his most recent multiyear deal, which closed in 2021 for $80 million.