Fox

The network sent a letter to the individual affiliates saying it has made no progress negotiating a retrans sharing deal with the affiliate board. So now it wants to negotiate with the stations individually, adding that if a station doesn’t agree with its demands for a cut of their retrans dollars “Fox will have to pursue different distribution channels to receive fair value for our programming and continue to serve our viewers.” Affiliate board Chairman Brian Brady counters that Fox has failed to negotiate in good faith and is engaged in a “divide-and-conquer” strategy.

Simon Cowell’s newest show, The X Factor, is due to premiere on Fox next fall and will feature what the network says is television’s largest prize: a record contract worth $5 million.

Fox’s 10-year-old behemoth is trying to rediscover its voice, but it’s still a lesson in how a network and its affiliates can sing in unison.

Fox steamed to its third straight Thursday victory last night, kicking off the February sweeps with an easy win. Boosted by American Idol, Fox averaged a 5.4 adults 18-49 rating and 14 share, 74% ahead of CBS and ABC, who tied for second at 3.1/8. It marked Fox’s first-ever victory among 18-49s to open a February sweeps period, as this is the first year Idol has aired regularly on Thursdays.

Fox has not signed a deal to carry American Idol beyond this season and negotiations on a renewal are set to begin soon. While there is little question that Idol will be on the air for years to come, Fox may have some more leverage with ratings drops and the coming new Simon Cowell-fronted X Factor that could impact Idol producer CKX.

Twentieth Century Fox will make Super Bowl history on Sunday when a 30-second spot for 3D toon Rio becomes the first ad to air during the game with an embedded code.

The NFL collective bargaining agreement is set to expire on March 4, and as both sides remain entrenched, a lockout now seems all but inevitable. In a worst-case scenario, the entire 2011-12 campaign would be scuttled, resulting in losses of hundreds of millions of dollars in ad revenue and sending media buyers scrambling for replacements. Indeed, the NFL plays such a critical role in the TV market that even the loss of a handful of games could be catastrophic to the spring upfront.

Fox has rejected another proposed Super Bowl ad, this one from conservative comedy site JesusHatesObama.com.

“We want them both,” Kevin Reilly, Fox entertainment president told reporters. “It’s really about whether we can make a deal.”

Fox has renewed Raising Hope, the network announced at TCA Tuesday. It also confirmed the sneak preview of Steven Spielberg’s Terra Nova: Monday, May 23, and Tuesday, May 24, at 9 p.m. ET. The show will premiere in the fall.

Kathy Ramsey of The Fritts Group and Kristopher Jones of the NAB will join the Fox parent’s Washington office this month.

Million Dollar Money Drop dropped the ball on its first episode but Fox doesn’t think the mistake is worth $800,000. The Fox show’s producers admitted on Thursday that they had “incomplete information” when they told contestants Gabe Okoye and Brittany Mayti that they guessed a question wrong on Monday night’s premiere, causing the duo to lose $800,000. Fox admitted they were wrong and invited the 25-year-old and his girlfriend back to the show.

Google Inc.’s drive to bring the Internet to living-room TVs and generate fresh advertising sales is being threatened by the failure to obtain popular shows such as Glee and NCIS. CBS Corp. CEO Leslie Moonves and Chase Carey, the No. 2 executive at Fox parent News Corp., say after months of talks they’re in no hurry to let Google TV offer shows via the Web for free. They say there have been no lucrative offers and they aren’t sure of the search company’s intentions.

Janis Burklund, head of the Dallas Film Commission, reported Wednesday that The Good Guys will not return for a second season. Burklund says she learned the news from a high-ranking Fox Television Studios executive who worked on the show.

Retransmission consent negotiations may never be the same. A deal struck last January between Time Warner Cable and News Corp. included a precedent-setting condition to allow TWC to carry Fox’s network programming if retransmission negotiations with Fox affiliates break down. Many TV execs likened Fox’s move to throwing its non-owned Fox affiliates under the bus.

Fox’s No.2 programming executive Matt Cherniss will be leaving the network and the TV business. He’s in negotiations with Warner Bros. for a job on the feature side.

Just weeks after News Corp. and Cablevision agreed to terms after a bitter negotiation over program retransmission fees that cut the cable company’s subscribers off from the NFL, the World Series, Glee and other Fox network fare, News Corp. COO Chase Carey set the stage for significantly higher payments from cable operators in the future.

Give us the Big Four before we cut the cord, 300 people told a Needham & Co. survey. “We found that if folks listed one broadcaster, they generally listed them all,” said Needham’s Laura Martin. “They think of the four broadcasters as a monolith.

Fox is declining to pick up a full season of Lie to Me, but insiders caution that doesn’t necessarily mean the show will get the ax.

Fox’s Feb. 6 Super Bowl XLV broadcast will feature no fewer than 20 automotive spots, accounting for nearly one-third of the event’s 63 total avails and far surpassing that of any previous Super Bowl.

Consumer product giant Procter & Gamble is expanding its initiative for funding family friendly two-hour movies/backdoor pilots and buying primetime real estate to air them to a second network. After teaming with Walmart for three such movies on NBC, P&G has now bought time on Fox for its next family film, which the company may use as a backdoor pilot for a future series on an unspecified network.

At least 10 months out, Fox has begun plugging what it hopes will be another successful sing-off. The network started airing 10-second teasers for The X Factor on Thanksgiving night.

Four years after signing a record $4.48 billion media deal with Fox, ESPN and Turner, NASCAR has lost nearly a quarter of its TV viewership base, a four-year trend of massive viewer defections that has been punctuated by the erosion of the young male demographic.