Belo Corp.’s Belinda Baldwin and Fisher Communications’ Randa Minkarah told atendees of a broadcaster special interest group breakfast at BIA/Kelsey ILM East that while people are still watching TV, they are no longer bound by traditional delivery methods.
Demand For Solid Syndie Fare Still Strong
Station group executives say that with growing multiplatform opportunities for stations, the need for compelling, creative syndicated programming is growing in importance. Said Post-Newsweek Stations’ Alan Frank: “No one does it like television. No one sells emotion like we do.”
A judge in the U.S. District Court in Seattle has granted a motion by Fisher Communications and other broadcasters and networks to dismiss ivi Inc.’s suit there, concluding that ivi improperly filed the Seattle suit in anticipation of being sued by broadcasters and others in another jurisdiction. The decision clears the way for a court in New York to take up the copyright infringement case against ivi for its distribution of TV station signals over the Internet. This is the same court that recently decided in favor of broadcasters and against FilmOn, another company that was retransmitting broadcast signals over the internet without retransmission consents, and claiming it was a cable system.
Another News Operation Bites The Dust
With Fisher Communication’s recent announcement that its KIDK Idaho Falls would be turning over operations to competitor News-Press & Gazette’s KIFI under a shared services and sales agreement, 27 people will be out of work and there will be one less news voice in DMA 162. The official line is the move was made to take advantage of “operating synergies and expense savings,” but executives of both companies wouldn’t say any more or take questions.
