cable

NEW YORK (AP) — Sketch-comedy shows are like frozen-yogurt shops: While there are probably way too many, most are good enough to stay afloat. Still, it takes a special breed […]

AMC Networks Inc. is buying a 49.9% stake in BBC America for $200 million, the companies announced on Thursday. he deal is structured as a longterm equity joint venture, with BBC Worldwide maintaining the majority 50.1% stake. That said, AMC will have operational control of BBC America, including affiliate and advertising sales.

Advertisers committed fewer dollars to national cable TV networks for the first time since before the 2009-10 TV season, according to data released Thursday.

For all those cable haters out there, sorry: Cutting the cord won’t mean cutting out your cable provider. They often own some of your favorite channels (Comcast owns NBC Universal, parent of Bravo and USA) and in most areas they are the gatekeepers to the Internet. Offering popular channels like HBO over streaming could actually help cable companies sell more expensive broadband services to customers. “The cable business is evolving from mainly selling you a pay TV package to mainly selling you a broadband Internet service,” says FBR Research analyst Barton Crockett.

CBS Corp.’s Showtime, the premium cable network that carries Homeland, is considering following rival HBO in offering its programs online to viewers who aren’t pay TV customers. “We are always looking at ways of expanding our audience and it is certainly something that we have been examining for some time,” Showtime said Wednesday. “The subscription model is ideally positioned to take advantage of developing technologies in the consumer marketplace.”

There are a growing number of Web series making the leap to TV. The phenomenon is drawing attention and cash from WPP Group, the world’s biggest ad agency conglomerate, and global media firm Viacom.

Jay Leno’s Garage will premiere next year and “will be about anything that rolls, explodes and makes noise,” says Leno. “We hope to highlight the passion and the stories behind the men and women who made the automobile the greatest invention of the 20th century.”

Chris McCarthy has been named general manager of Logo TV, the Viacom channel that aims to serve the LGBT community. Since late last year, McCarthy has helped MTV President Stephen Friedman manage Logo on an interim basis. Now McCarthy will be responsible for all of Logo’s creative functions and business dealings.

NEW YORK (AP) — Katie Holmes will once again play Jackie Kennedy Onassis in a TV miniseries. The actress has signed on to star in “The Kennedys-After Camelot,” a follow-up […]

For all the billions TV networks lavish on live sports, an AMC series about the undead outdrew NBC’s Sunday Night Football, and an FX program about sideshow freaks topped the Major League Baseball playoffs. The season premiere of the The Walking Dead broke its own record on Oct. 12, drawing the largest audience of any drama in cable TV history. The show attracted 17.3 million total viewers and 11 million in the younger, 18-to-49-year-old demo.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A federal appeals court will review a ruling that struck down parts of Utah’s anti-polygamy law and was hailed as a landmark decision removing the […]

Jay Leno is lining up his first regular television hosting gig since leaving The Tonight Show in February, and he’s staying in the NBCUniversal family. Leno is close to a deal to host a new show for cable network CNBC, sources say. The show will focus on Leno’s longtime love of cars and will air in primetime, not latenight.

GREENVILLE, S.C.(AP) — A Greer man has won a $1,000 judgment against a host of television’s “American Pickers” over a piece of antique farm equipment. The Greenville News reported that […]

It pays the NFL nearly $2 billion a year to air its games. But ESPN is also home to some of the most aggressive investigative reporters who cover the league. The cable sports network is the NFL’s largest business partner.