A focus on real-time data is one reason why the 24/7 pageant of panini makers, flameless candles, anti-aging creams and ankle boots has, despite QVC’s fusty reputation, quietly outmaneuvered other retailers in remaking itself for the digital era. QVC has seen online sales soar to 45% of its total U.S. sales by trailblazing on one of the most vexing challenges in retail today: getting people to buy, not just browse, on their phones and tablets.
The likelihood that Charter Communications’ takeover of Time Warner Cable will close before the end of the year — as the companies predicted earlier — now “feels ambitious,” the chief executive of Time Warner Cable said Thursday. Federal regulators are now scrutinizing Charter’s pair of deals totaling $67.1 billion for Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. If approved, those mergers would create the country’s second-largest cable operator, with about 24 million customers in 41 states, after Comcast.
Exclusives
Nielsen said 14 million viewers watched the debate Wednesday night, down from the 24 million who saw the first contest on Fox News Channel in February and 23 million viewers for CNN’s second contest. Still, it’s an extraordinarily high bar: a 2011 debate with GOP candidates on CNBC had 3.3 million viewers, Nielsen said. This week’s debate also competed against the second game of the World Series.
The same day that the premium cabler revealed 3Q numbers below expectations, Starz has been hit with a wide-ranging and potentially explosive multi-claim lawsuit by its former SVP of Sales and Affiliate Marketing Keno V. Thomas. Pink slipped a year ago by Starz after a decade at the cable net, Thomas’ unspecified but sprawling damages and jury trial seeking wrongful termination and retaliation complaint alleges all sorts of shell games and scams by Starz.
The veteran newswoman’s nine-segment series premieres on Investigation Discovery on Monday.
The Atlanta-based cable channel is vowing to return to basics of programming focused on weather reports and meteorological sciences now that the digital half of its parent Weather Co. is to be acquired by IBM in a deal estimated at $2 billion. Weather Channel also plans to launch a customized streaming service designed to be bundled into channel packages from OTT providers such as Sling TV.
Advertising space is going to pull a vanishing act on truTV next fall, when the network plans to reduce its ad load by as much as 47%. Beginning in late 2016, the Turner cable network will significantly reduce its original programming advertising, going from 18-19 minutes of nonprogramming time each hour — including national ads, local ads and promos — to just 10-11 minutes an hour. The network says it will have the lowest average commercial and promo time in all of television.
The Republican presidential candidates repeatedly expressed frustration over the mainstream media in general and the CNBC moderators asking the questions during the third GOP debate Wednesday evening. “The questions that have been asked so far in this debate illustrate why the American people don’t trust the media,” Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said early on.
CNBC is counting on benefiting from the way viewers have gravitated to the debates — powered on the GOP side by the celebrity star-power and unpredictability of Donald Trump — in an unprecedented way.
HBO, After The Cord-Cutting
HBO CEO Richard Plepler talks about what customers really want and the future of cable in a digital age. He also ponders where HBO might go with its broader freedom, particularly in content. “I want to do a series of minimovies that ultimately aggregate into a larger story. And I want to do it on HBO Now,” he says.
As the names of the roughly 300 laid-off ESPN employees leaked though the sports industry at the end of last week, many longtime executives reacted with a sense of disbelief. The cuts sent shock waves through the sports and media industries, incredulous that a company seemingly rife with cash would have to lay off so many good people. This was not a case of cutting fat, ESPN insiders say. Many capable executives and talented producers were shown the door last week.
The 2015 MLB National League Championship Series between what had been two lovable losers averaged 7.9 million viewers, the most-watched NLCS since 2010. The Mets and Cubs series also gave TBS its biggest NLCS audience ever. TBS has aired the games since 2007.
The deal, if it is completed, would broaden Liberty Global’s presence in the Caribbean and Latin America.
The Bristol, Connecticut-based sports channel is one of the linchpins of the traditional cable bundle of hundreds of channels, which is under pressure from viewers migrating online. The job cuts are a “necessary part of our continued strategic evolution to ensure ESPN remains the leader in sports as well as the premier sports destination on any platform,” said ESPN CEO John Skipper in a memo to employees that was posted online.
Cable Experimenting With Metered Data
As of Oct. 1, Comcast customers in a few small markets are now subject to metered data use. Households that use more than 300 gigabytes of data per month will have the choice to pay $10 for an extra 50 gigabytes or $30 per month for unlimited service. The cable giant joins the No. 4 player in the industry, Cox Communications, in offering tiers that vary in price depending on data use. Metered data is good for most consumers and for the Internet. Here’s why.
The companies said in a joint statement Friday they had resolved the legal fight over carriage of channels and were “entering into mutually beneficial business arrangements.”
Donald Trump has resumed criticizing Megyn Kelly, threatening to disrupt the fragile, on-again-off-again truce between himself and Fox News. Trump took to Twitter during Kelly’s Thursday night broadcast to criticize her guests, as “dumb puppets.” He also claimed that he didn’t watch her show — which is doubtful, given his tweets — and retweeted users who disparaged the program.
