Election Week Boosts NBC News Numbers
Nightly News averaged 8.7 million viewers last week. It opened up the largest weekly gap between NBC and the second-place ABC’s World News since last winter’s Olympics, which NBC aired with Brian Williams on the scene.
ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC have asked a federal court to stop the Internet video service FilmOn.com from offering TV channels over the web and on Apple Inc.’s iPad for free.
Exclusives
NBC’s Bush Interview Special Sinks
NBC News scored a big get journalistically with the first post-presidency interview of George W. Bush upon the release of his new autobiography, Decision Points. But it seems few were interested in watching the ex-president talk to Matt Lauer last night. Matt Lauer Reports: Decision Points: A Conversation with George W. Bush averaged a 1.7 adults 18-49 rating at 8 p.m., down from a 2.0 last week for usual timeslot occupant Chuck.
CBS Beats NBC In Promo Success
Running a bunch of TV promos doesn’t always get you the most viewers for your TV shows. TiVo points to how NBC’s new shows performed so far this fall, versus where CBS put its efforts.
The network is declining to pick up a full season of the J.J. Abrams spy series. Undercovers will air three more episodes in the coming weeks. The additional three episodes in the can “will likely” air at some point, but there’s no date set.
YouTube wants to be the boob tube. Google is pitching YouTube not only as a popular Web destination, but as a content channel to have a place in the living room alongside TV networks like ABC, CBS and NBC. As Google targets the TV set, it is also making a play for TV-sized ad buys rather than smaller online budgets.
Nov. 2 coverage on Philadelphia’s NBC O&O will also include WCAU’s newest platform, its NBC Philadelphia Nonstop subchannel.
The Chicago NBC O&O will offer expanded coverage on Nov. 2 on both its main channel and multicast ch. 5.2 plus live streaming on its NBCChicago.com.
NBC briefly tore down the digital wall protecting its Olympics coverage on Thursday and permitted consumers without a pay TV subscription to watch live online a race starring American swimmers Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte. The move was aimed at appeasing critics of NBC’s strategy of delaying broadcasts of major Olympics events for primetime or requiring a cable subscription for online streaming — and could foreshadow how the network might handle its coverage of future Games.
