Dish Network used some in-show branded entertainment to sneak into Fox Sports’ Daytona 500 coverage — this in the wake of ongoing legal activities between the two companies and after Dish said Fox rejected it from buying TV commercials in Fox programming.
News Corp.’s Fox Broadcasting has asked for a court order to block new “on-the-go” features of Dish Network’s Hopper set-top boxes that allow consumers to watch live and recorded TV shows on smartphones and tablets.
The network launches a group focused on event series and multiplatform content to support its digital push and 2014 movement into the longform arena.
Exclusives
The new accord includes Fox Broadcasting and Fox Television Stations programming in major cities and provides entertainment, sports and local news to Comcast Xfinity TV customers in and out of the home.
After a decade at Fox, EVP of current programming Marcy Ross is leaving the network. Ross’ three-year contract is up this year; she opted not to renew it and plans to return to content creation.
With chatter about CBS’s broadcast of Super Bowl XLVII fading, News Corp.’s Fox has begun making early outreach to advertisers about next year’s event, according to people familiar with the situation, as part of broader talks with marketers about supporting Fox sports-oriented media outlets.
Fox’s standard affiliation contract makes clear that Fox has the right to take back an affiliation immediately when it acquires a different station in the market. “Everybody is nervous as all get out” that Fox may have other markets in its sights, said one Fox affiliate group operator, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Fox’s Jack Abernethy said the motivation behind the Charlotte buy was to get an O&O in another NFC market.
Fox is revising its two-hour Tuesday night comedy block, halting production on the freshman effort Ben and Kate just days after pulling the show from its winter schedule. After bowing Sept. 25 to 4.21 million viewers and a 2.1 rating in the 18-49 demo, Ben and Kate began taking on water. By week four, the show was drawing just 2.70 million viewers and a 1.2 in the demo.
Fox on Wednesday pulled the freshman sibling comedy Ben and Kate, which had been the weakest player, ratings-wise, in its two-hour Tuesday comedy block. B&K was averaging about 3.1 million viewers (factoring in DVR viewing).
Reilly: TV Violence Part Of Larger ‘Tapestry’
On Tuesday at the Television Critics Association press tour, Fox Entertainment Chairman Kevin Reilly was on the defensive when pressed by journalists on media violence questions that have become a hot topic in the wake of last month’s shooting rampage that left 26 people dead, 20 of them children, at a Connecticut elementary school.
The veteran procedural gets the green light for its ninth season.
TW Cable, Fox On Board With Roku
Roku today struck its first deals with a U.S. multichannel distributor and broadcast network. Time Warner Cable will make live simulcasts of as many as 300 linear channels to those who subscribe to both its video and data plans in addition to owning Roku boxes. Separately, Fox will make next-day access to episodes of its primetime series available on the streaming device to users who can authenticate their subscriptions with participating pay TV providers.
On Thursday night, Fox Networks and Suddenlink reached an agreement in principle on a global broadcast and cable carriage agreement that includes retransmission consent for the Fox O&Os and its full portfolio of networks including FX, National Geographic Channel, Nat Geo Wild, Speed, Fuel TV, Fox Soccer, Fox Movie Channel, Fox Deportes, Fox College Sports and many Fox regional sports networks. Fox said: “We look forward to finalizing the agreement and are pleased that we could come to terms without any service interruption for Suddenlink customers and our loyal Fox viewers.”
Games will air on CBS, Fox and NBC beginning Jan. 5, leading up to Super Bowl XLVII on Feb. 3.
‘X Factor’ Set To Drop Britney Spears
Looks like Britney Spears’ X Factor gig will be a one-and-done kind of deal. The Hold It Against Me singer is on her way out as a judge for Fox’s hit reality competition, which wrapped its second season on Dec. 20.
The unscripted competition show that’s been a fixture of the network’s summer schedule for nine seasons will return to Fox for a 10th.
ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox got a step closer today to shutting down Alki David’s online streaming of their shows. Judge George Wu on Thursday granted the networks their mutually desired tentative preliminary injunction against the digital entrepreneur’s Aereokiller service.
The Dodgers and Fox would launch a new regional sports network under the tentative deal, which Dick Clark Productions may manage. Major League Baseball is still negotiating for its cut of the entire $6.1 billion package.
The last four episodes of the struggling freshman’s season will air on Saturdays and Mondays around the new year, with December’s American Country Awards and Raising Hope encores filling its time slot.
