Fox

Brooklyn Nine-Nine, the new Fox sitcom featuring Andy Samberg and Andre Braugher, is taking all the national promo time in tonight’s primetime schedule.

Fox is seeking around $4 million for the privilege of running a 30-second spot in Super Bowl XLVIII, according to buyers and other executives familiar with the situation, a slight tick up from the average price secured by CBS — between $3.7 million and $3.8 million — in 2013.

NEW YORK (AP) — A person familiar with negotiations to bring Jennifer Lopez back as an “American Idol” judge says her return will be announced this week. The person said […]

The conservative-leaning cable news channel was reportedly going to produce a miniseries on Clinton for NBC, but a source at Fox says the negotiation fell apart over deal points. The Republican National Committee today voted to ban CNN and NBC from hosting Republican presidential primary debates in 2016 in retaliation for their plans to air the Clinton programming.

Fox has been aggressive in the early going this buying season, snapping up pitches preemptively in premium deals, including two pilot production commitments and one put pilot. That will likely continue because there is a lot more money where that came from. “We plan to invest approximately $150 million more this year, primarily driven by our acquisition and support of new series,” Fox Chairman Kevin Reilly said yesterday.

In a surprising announcement Wednesday evening, the U.S. Golf Association said it has signed a 12-year multimedia deal with Fox network and Fox Sports 1 to be the domestic broadcast partner for the U.S. Open and other USGA championships.

Fox President Kevin Reilly began his press tour session with an Oprah Winfrey-length filibuster. Given the season his network had — with the collapse of American Idol ratings ending the network’s long streak as the highest-rated network on TV — the move wasn’t a surprise. Lengthy monologues are one way for TV executives to distract us from the recent bad news at their network (or, at least, to suck away all our will to live or ask tough questions). But Reilly’s speech had less to do with trying to change the narrative about Fox than trying to change the narrative about the broadcast network business in general.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — It doesn’t debut until next month, but the Fox sitcom “Dads” is already taking heat in early reviews for being crass, sexist and exploiting racial […]

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Fox says it’s launching an American version of a popular British crime drama – and U.S. viewers will get to sample the original series beginning […]

The watchdog group thinks Fox’s raunchy new “Animation Domination Hi-Def” is a long way from funny.

The network’s Animation Domination High-Def will air from 11 p.m. to midnight on Saturdays and will feature 10-to-12-minute cartoons in an attempt to draw the attention of young men.

Fox’s SVP Marcus Wiley, who has been co-heading the network’s comedy department with Suzanna Makkos, is stepping down to segue to producing. Makkos will now run the department solo.

Glee Executive Producer Ryan Murphy says the tribute will address the death of Finn, the character Monteith played on the Fox network high school musical series. That show will be the season’s third episode, following two episodes that had already been written.

U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin issued a blistering dissent after the full 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan refused to make the Aereo Inc. case one of the rare instances when it assembles all of its judges to decide an issue. Chin dissented from that decision as well, though he went farther Tuesday, describing how the April 1 decision had damaged the financial landscape of free television. He said it “eviscerates the Copyright Act” and “upends settled industry expectations and established law.”

The broadcaster’s desire to shut Aereo down could end up at the Supreme Court. After its bid for rehearing of its copyright infringement case at an appeals court was turned down today, Fox said: “The Second Circuit’s denial of our request for an ‘en banc’ hearing, while disappointing was not unexpected.  We will now review our options and determine the appropriate course of action, which include seeking a hearing in the U.S. Supreme Court and proceeding to a full trial on the merits of the case.”

The new New Jersey-centric news show airing on Fox-owned WWOR New York and WFXT Philadelphia has taken some hits from politicians and others, but it’s just the kind of fresh, provocative approach to news that local television is in dire need of. Sure, it could stand some tweaking  — even creator Dennis Bianchi says it will evolve — but Fox should commit serious resources and promotion dollars into this promising experiment.

Barbara De Santis promoted to SVP broadcast standards, Fox Broadcasting and MundoFox, while Trae Williams named SVP broadcast standards and practices, Fox Broadcasting

The network is racing to develop new animated shows that could one day be on a par with The Simpsons and Family Guy.

Starting Saturday, Sept. 7, Fox affiliates will take control of the Saturday night midnight-12:30 a.m. time period. The network’s plan for Saturday latenight was to air new, original animated block Animation Domination High-Def from 11 p.m. to midnight, followed by encores of Fox’s primetime animated series. Those additional repeats will now be scrapped, with Animation Domination airing as scheduled.

As usual, given the number of preemptions for postseason baseball, Fox is getting ahead of the pack with early fall launches to give affected series longer uninterrupted runs. Last fall, Fox premiered The X Factor, Glee, Bonesand Mob Doctor in the two weeks leading to premiere week. The same shows (with newbie Sleepy Hollow in for the defunct Mob Doctor on Mondays) again will launch early this year, joined by Fox’s Tuesday comedy block.

TV is drawing ever closer to its streaming tipping point, with all four of the major broadcast networks beginning to launch streaming stategies that will bring their local and network programming to mobile devices. Now the networks are wading through rights issues and vendors as streaming comes ever closer to disrupting the traditional TV environment. “It’s just become so much part of the culture now in how people consume content,” Digital Rapids’ Mike Nann says. Part four of a four-part special report. Find the full report here.

The change, set for July 1, follows Fox Television Stations’ purchase of WJZY and WMYT (MNT) from Capitol Broadcasting.

The watchdog group says the network’s filing is an attempt to “re-litigate the Supreme Court cases that it lost, rather than addressing the proposal by the FCC to focus only on ‘egregious’ instances of indecency.”

The past two Super Bowls have been streamed free online, but Fox may offer a type of paywall come February. The network is considering offering next year’s big game on an authenticated basis, according to Randy Freer, co-COO of the Fox Sports Media Group.

Fox, which suffered a primetime ratings free-fall during the just completed TV season, has closed out its upfront advertising sales with its total haul falling short of last year’s auction. Despite its ratings woes, Fox was able to hike its ad rates by 5% to 7% for primetime commercials for the 2013-14 season, according to a person familiar with the negotiations. Fox secured commitments from advertisers totaling $1.75 billion to $1.8 billion, which represents about an 8% decline from its year-ago amount.

News Corp.’s Fox network expects to complete its upfront sales effort with volume about 10% lower  than it was in 2012, according to a person familiar with the situation, the result of ratings declines at the network as its flagship property, American Idol starts to show signs of wear.

Nigel Lythgoe and Ken Warwick are exiting the singing contest. Its 12th season ended in May with a record low-rated finale.The producers follow judges Mariah Carey, Nicki Minaj and Randy Jackson out the door.

Fox is turning to a trusted News Corp. hand to oversee the overhauls of American Idol and The X Factor while the network searches for a replacement for outgoing alternative topper Mike Darnell.

So far, TV Everywhere has been mostly a video-on-demand service, a way for subscribers to cherry pick their favorite shows to watch on second screens. But with CNN and a handful of others leading the way, live-streaming of linear channels is starting to get traction. Even broadcasters are getting in on the act.

Previously VP production at 20th Century Fox, Lauren Levy Neustadter will oversee the network’s comedy and drama series.

Keith Urban is the only judge remaining after Randy Jackson left the Fox show earlier this month.