cable

Comcast says churn and disconnects haven’t increased, it’s more a matter of fewer broadband “connects” leading customers back into the pay TV ecosystem.

The longest-running live-action comedy series in television history will launch its 16th season on Wednesday, June 7, at 10 p.m. ET/PT on FXX and streaming next day on Hulu. The upcoming season also will be available on Star+ in Latin America and Disney+ under the Star banner in all other territories.

Three years after Denise Richards walked away from The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills amid a storm of gossip and drama, the actor has confirmed she is returning to the franchise in a guest capacity.

Charlamagne Tha God, Michelle Wolf and Desus Nice are among the next wave of guest hosts coming to Comedy Central’s The Daily Show in May.

With traditional pay TV experiencing industry declines some service providers are forgoing video and related advertising businesses to focus on high-speed internet customers, however it’s a move that Viamedia CEO and President David Solomon categorizes as a “massive mistake.”

The Cleveland Guardians and Minnesota Twins appear to be the latest Major League Baseball teams forsaken by Bally Sports, as the bankrupt regional sports network owner restructures and seeks to walk away from its most unprofitable TV contracts with pro sports teams.

Larry David is pretty ready to say goodbye to TV’s Larry David. HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm is likely to end with the already announced 12th season, sources say. The forthcoming season, which does not yet have a premiere date, wrapped filming this week and the final episode felt like a homecoming, according to a source.

FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel wants cable and satellite TV subscribers to know just how much they are paying to defray the broadcast-TV retransmission and regional sports net fees their providers must pony up for programming, and to help them compare traditional video costs with those of streaming services. Rosenworcel has proposed an item to the other commissioners that would require cable and satellite providers to “specify” an “all-in” price for video service both in promotional materials and on subscribers’ monthly bills.

Celebrating “the stuff that dreams are made of,” Warner Bros. Discovery’s TCM cable network will mark the 100th anniversary of the Warner Bros. studio with 30 days of special programming. Beginning April 1, the channel will screen legendary films from every decade of the studio’s existence, including 10 films being shown for the first time since being restored. (Some of the films will also be available on the Classics Curated by TCM Hub on HBO Max.) Pictured, TCM host Ben Mankiewicz on the Warner Bros. lot.

ESPN’s latest round of layoffs will have “no sacred cows,” meaning everybody from top on-air people to big-time executives are being scrutinized with the cuts expected to be finalized in the next four to six weeks. The moves are a part of layoffs that Disney’s CEO Bob Iger announced were coming across all of the company’s units. Last month, Iger said that 7,000 jobs would be eliminated across the board.

Mediacom Communications is grappling with Google Fiber, upgrading networks to 10G and exploring its entrance into mobile. But the status and future of the rural-focused cable operator wasn’t the central attraction of Sunday night’s 60 Minutes profile of Mediacom Founder, Chairman and CEO Rocco Commisso. Billed as an “only in America” story, the profile traces Commisso’s move from southern Italy to the Bronx as a young boy and the tenacity and “hustle” that drove him to become a top exec in the U.S. cable industry with a net worth of about $8 billion. More recently, Commisso reconnected with his roots and the owner’s box of ACF Fiorentina in Florence, the Italian pro soccer team Commisso acquired three years ago for a reported bargain price of around $170 million.

Paramount is exploring a potential sale of a majority stake in its BET business, which includes BET, VH1, and the BET+ streaming service, a source familiar with the matter says. The source cautioned that the discussions are still in the early stages, and there is no guarantee of any transaction taking place. They added that if a deal closes, Paramount expects to maintain a minority stake in the business, as well as a commercial relationship. Scott Mills is BET’s CEO.

Comcast is not interested in running the regional sports networks Warner Bros. Discovery is planning to shut down, according to a published report. Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League all have teams whose games are carried by WBD’s AT&T Sports Nets in Pittsburgh, Houston and Denver. Rather than seeing those networks shut down — and stop paying right fees — the league reached out to Comcast, which has TV stations in those markets and operates its own constellation of five regional sports networks, according to Sports Business Journal. Comcast a year ago sold its majority stake in another RSN, NBC Sports Washington, to Monumental Sports & Entertainment. Comcast declined the new overture, according to SBJ.

ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro handed oversight of content and newsgathering to Burke Magnus as president of content, supervising studio shows, live events, newsgathering, investigative journalism, original content/ESPN Films, talent, audio, digital, and social media. Meanwhile, Rosalyn Durant, a Disney veteran who has been overseeing Disney facilities in its parks division, will return to ESPN as EVP of programming and acquisitions, the ESPN position that negotiates for the rights that keep a significant chunk of live sports on Disney’s media portfolio.

After a record year in 2022, look out because cord cutting is expected to accelerate in 2023, according to Wells Fargo analyst Steven Cahall. Cahall calculates that the pay TV universe lost 5.175 million subscribers in 2022, a 6% drop. And he says it will get even worse in 2023 and beyond. Previously the industry’s biggest losses came in 2020 when 4.651 million consumers dropped their subscriptions.

Succession, the Emmy-winning HBO drama that helped redefine the premium cable network following the end of Game of Thrones, is ending. Creator and showrunner Jesse Armstrong revealed that the upcoming fourth season will indeed be its final run on the Warner Bros. Discovery-backed premium cable network.

Otto Bell is taking over CNN’s creative unit as senior vice president and chief creative officer. Bell was the founder and chief creative officer of Courageous, CNN’s commercial brand studio, prior to his new role. In his new role, Bell will be responsible for all the on-air and off-channel brand and marketing for all CNN Worldwide businesses, including CNN, CNN International, CNN Digital, and CNN en Español.

AMC Networks posted good fourth-quarter results, with total revenue rising 20% over the prior-year quarter to $964.5 million, while earnings per share jumped almost fivefold to $2.52. Wall Street analysts had expected revenue of $947.8 million and EPS of $1.20. Ad revenue in the U.S. fell 12% to $206 million, with the company blaming the slide on lower linear ratings, softness in the broader ad market and fewer original programming episodes during the quarter.

Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh, fell short of paying its full obligation to the local baseball team this week, amid industry-wide issues with the regional sports network model.

AMC Networks named Kristin Dolan, wife of Executive Chairman James Dolan, as the media company’s new CEO. Kristin Dolan, 56, was chief operating officer at Cablevision Systems before the family sold it in 2015 and has served as a director of AMC Networks, which was spun off from Cablevision and is still controlled by the Dolan family. Most recently, she has been CEO of 605, an audience measurement and data analytics company.

Fox News dominated the weekly cable primetime and total day charts, led by its coverage of President Biden’s Feb. 7 State of The Union address.  Fox News averaged 2.5 million viewers during the week of Feb. 6-12, easily besting second place MSNBC’s 1.3 million viewers, according to Nielsen. Fox News’ State of the Union address coverage averaged 4.7 million viewers, topping all broadcast and cable networks.