Platform provider Edgio Inc., announced a partnership with Vermantia, a global provider of omni-channel content solutions for gaming and betting operators worldwide. The collaboration will support Vermantia’s custom-built, end-to-end streaming solutions […]
Netflix next year will make its first foray into live events, disclosing plans to stream a new Chris Rock stand-up comedy special in early 2023. Rock’s special — the comedian’s second for Netflix — will be streamed as a massive global live event, the company said in a blog post.
Harmonic says that DirecTV GO, a Vrio company, is streaming more than 100 linear channels with Harmonic’s VOS360 cloud SaaS platform. The Harmonic SaaS platform is deployed by leading providers […]
Harmonic and NAGRA are teaming up to improve content protection for live sports streaming with a new watermarking-as-a-service offering. NAGRA NexGuard forensic watermarking, a key solution within the NAGRA Active […]
ABC is looking ahead to its next live-action TV adaptation of a beloved Disney property. Hamish Hamilton will direct a live-action/animation hybrid production of Beauty and the Beast. Jon M. Chu, director of the upcoming Wicked movie, has been tapped to executive-produce. The event — which will air Thursday, Dec. 15, on ABC, then will be available to stream on Disney+ the next day — is in celebration of the film’s 30th(ish) anniversary.
Broadcasters Must Up Their Live Highlights Game
Live events viewers have shown they want fast access to highlights and clips on multiple platforms. Broadcasters need to be able to meet that demand.
Exclusives
Despite the increase in cordcutting, drawing viewers away from pay-TV, interest in live news and sports — a staple of traditional linear TV — remains high among older, wealthier viewers, according to a recent study from Leichtman Research Group. When asked the importance of various programming genres, overall, 49% of adults rated news as very important (8-10) and 41% rated sports as very important, LRG said. While neither of these are the highest rated genre overall — that distinction goes to movies at 69% — there are significant differences in the importance of news and sports to pay TV subscribers versus nonsubscribers.
Norman Lear is heading back to the Sony lot. The television veteran and Jimmy Kimmel will revive their Emmy-winning Live In Front of a Studio Audience series on Dec. 7 with live episodic reenactments of the classic sitcom Diff’rent Strokes and its spinoff The Facts of Life.
CBS is throwing its hat into the New Year’s Eve concert special ring after two decades on the sidelines with New Year’s Eve Live: Nashville’s Big Bash headlined by some of country’s biggest stars. The special will air live from downtown Nashville Dec. 31 (8-11 p.m. ET/PT, 11:30 p.m.-1:30 a.m., ET/PT) on CBS and available to stream live and on demand on Paramount+.
ABC on Thursday announced that the cast of The Conners will perform Season 4’s Sept. 22 premiere live for both the East and West Coasts. This marks the veteran sitcom’s second live episode, following Season 2’s New Hampshire Primary-themed event.
NBC has found its Little Orphan Annie: 12-year-old Celina Smith will headline the network’s forthcoming musical event Annie Live!, it was announced Tuesday. Smith — who is best known for her supporting role as Rebecca Wilson on Tyler Perry’s Nickelodeon sitcom Young Dylan — won the role after a nationwide search
TVNewsCheck‘s Michael Depp and Paige Albiniak discuss the pandemic’s blows to live television and why advertisers still prize it. Read Albiniak’s story here.
TVN Focus On Programming | Will Live TV Bounce Back Post-Pandemic?
Events that audiences can watch collectively — such as major sporting events and awards shows — increase in value as advertisers have fewer opportunities to reach large audiences all at once. Note: This story is available to TVNewsCheck Premium members only. If you would like to upgrade your free TVNewsCheck membership to Premium now, you can visit your Member Home Page, available when you log in at the very top right corner of the site or in the Stay Connected Box that appears in the right column of virtually every page on the site. If you don’t see Member Home, you will need to click Log In or Subscribe.
In a world where we are all programmers with thousands of hours or shows available on demand with just a few clicks of our remotes, there is nothing quite like the power of a shared live TV moment. Whether it’s live footage from hurricanes, or protests or sports bubbles, it’s hard to forget those images that cause you to call or text a friend saying, “You have to put this on right now.”
Amazon is looking to add 24/7 live programming to its Prime Video service, according to multiple job listings posted over the past several weeks. The new channels could include live news, music and sports as well as scheduled movies and TV show showings.
A live episode of ABC’s The Conners airing 8 p.m. ET Tuesday that will incorporate, in real time, the Democratic primary in New Hampshire. In the episode, which will be performed live twice for different time zones, Darlene’s children Mark (Ames McNamara) and Harris (Emma Kenney) are watching news reports on the primary.
The network said Wednesday it will air Young Frankenstein Live!, the stage version of Mel Brooks’ 1974 film classic. The cast and air date were not revealed.
ABC has firmed up its next live comedy event from Norman Lear and Jimmy Kimmel. The duo behind the Live in Front of a Studio Audience franchise will next team for the Dec. 18 mashup of All in the Family and Good Times as the sequel to May’s All in the Family–The Jeffersons.
Amazon Fire TV is introducing a new enhancement to its platform. The “Live” tab, which is currently rolling out on Fire devices and smart TVs, is next to “Home” in the main navigation menu. It highlights live offerings from free services, subscription bundles and Prime Video Channels outlets including MLB.TV, NBA League Pass, PGA Tour Live, HBO and Showtime. Programs pulled in over the air with an antenna are also included.
After Fox’s Rent underperforms, NBC scraps a staging of Hair as the format loses luster over high costs (up to $20 million) and low rerun value: “It’s a very tough business.”
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Golf Channel is interested in live programming from Monday to Wednesday, and the answer might be found in college tournaments. It is adding another prestigious event […]
NBC is no longer moving forward with its planned live version of the musical Hair. “Live musicals are a part of this network’s DNA and we are committed to continuing that tradition with the right show at the right time,” said Paul Telegdy and George Cheeks, co-chairmen of NBC Entertainment. Hair was originally set to air on NBC on May 19, which would have put it up against a number of other television events, including the series finale of Game of Thrones.
On Group CEOs Minds: FCC Cap, 3.0, Live Programming
Not all broadcasters believe that the cap should go away completely. Graham’s Emily Barr: “The problem is, 39% seems wrong and 100% seems wrong.” Other topics at the TV2020 conference Wednesday: The panelists were extremely bullish on how much live programming will play into the overall health of the broadcast industry. And they expressed enthusiasm for ATSC 3.0, saying that there is no need for a solid business 3.0 business plan to make sense of the massive initiative. L-r: TVNewsCheck’s Harry Jessell, Graham Media’s Emily Barr, Nexstar’s Perry Sook, Fox Television Stations’ Jack Abernethy and Gray’s Hilton Howell. (Photo: Wendy Moger-Bross)
“The show is immediate,” says Executive Producer David Perler. “She is talking about the same things we all are talking about that morning in the office. What makes our show so special is that Wendy can comment on something that happened that morning.”
With the addition of eight Thursday-night games this season on CBS, there are now four principal time periods each week in which to watch the NFL on a national network: Thursday evening, Sunday afternoon on CBS and Fox, Sunday night on NBC and Monday night on ESPN. But it’s in primetime on both Thursday and Sunday — when CBS and NBC, respectively, air games with no other game being played anywhere else — that the NFL packs its most powerful punch.
The network announced today that the 26-year-old actress-comedian, star of Girls and daughter of NBC News anchor Brian Williams will play the boy who refused to grow up in NBC’s new staging of Peter Pan Live! The live telecast of this musical classic will air Dec. 4.
Don Mischer: Riding The Revival Of Live TV
His career in shepherding live, high-octane events began decades ago and has survived the downturn in popularity of such fare. Now, live is back in style and, Mischer says, is being driven to new heights by social media that are boosting the ratings as they make viewing an even more powerful shared experience. He explains why we love these big live-event shows, what it’s like to produce them, how that has changed and what he sees ahead.
Fox has jumped into the live musical business with Grease Live, a three-hour production of the popular musical to air live next year. The project, which drew interest from multiple networks, comes from Paramount Television and marks the first official network green light for the recently relaunched TV division of the movie studio that was behind the blockbuster 1978 movie starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John.
Broadcast Television’s Screens Are Alive
With the help of Twitter and other social media, live TV is experiencing
a renaissance — in both local broadcasting and at the networks. This story originally appeared earlier this month in the Spring 2014 edition of TVNewsCheck‘s Executive Outlook, a quarterly print publication devoted to the future of broadcasting.
