Executives from CBS, Fox Television Stations, Fremantle and Apploff Entertainment to discuss the need for cross-platform interactivity and other strategies to keep viewers more engaged in a panel at TVNewsCheck’s Programming Everywhere conference at the NAB Show in Las Vegas on April 14. Register here.
The writers and actors strikes crippled scripted television and the movie industry last summer. However, reality shows, variety series and game shows were able to continue filming thanks to operating under a different contract – the Network Television Code Contract. SAG-AFTRA is now setting the stage for renewal talks over its 2024 contract.
Two months after the Golden Globes aired on CBS for the first time in more than four decades, the network has closed a new five-year deal to continue to broadcast the awards show and stream it live on Paramount+.
As the viewing landscape continues to get more complex in the streaming era, ESPN is aiming to streamline things for sports fans by integrating video feeds from regional sports networks into its main app and website. Starting this week, subscribers to NESN, which carries Boston sports teams including the Red Sox, Bruins and Celtics, will be able to tune into games via ESPN’s app or on ESPN.com. In May, timed to the start of the WNBA season, Washington, D.C.’s Monumental Sports Network will also be integrated. SportsNet Pittsburgh, which is operated by NESN, is also part of the ESPN agreement, though its coverage will be added down the line.
Steve Harvey is joining Dr. Phil McGraw’s Merit Street Media with Harvey taking an equity stake in the new network. As part of the deal, Merit Street acquired 300-plus episodes of Harvey’s NBC-produced daytime talker, Steve, which originally aired on TV stations from 2017-19. Harvey also hosts syndicated game show Family Feud as well as a celebrity version on ABC primetime. He’s also hosted his nationally syndicated morning radio show, The Steve Harvey Morning Show, since 2000.
Hart rose from the open mics and comedy clubs of his native Philadelphia to become one of his country’s most recognizable performers — honing a signature style that combines his diminutive height, expressive face and motor-mouth delivery into an arena-packing stand-up act. He became the latest recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in a raucous ceremony at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Sunday.
SAG-AFTRA members on Friday ratified the 2023 Television Animation Agreement and the 2023 Basic Cable Animation Agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. The new three-year contracts were overwhelmingly approved by a vote of 95.52% to 4.48%.
The odds of a seismic M&A event seem to be increasing: Private-equity firm Apollo Global has reportedly offered $11 billion for Paramount’s Hollywood studios. Short of carving up the “mountain of entertainment,” as the Paramount+ tagline boasts, analysts say the overture could drive up bidding for the entirety of Paramount Global — which is what Shari Redstone, who owns a controlling stake in the media conglomerate, is understood to prefer.
Disney’s ESPN is at a crossroads. For more than 40 years, the world’s largest all-sports network has grown annual revenue by increasing cable subscription fees. ESPN first charged pay-TV distributors less than $1 per month per subscriber in the 1980s. In 2023, ESPN’s monthly carriage fee was $9.42 per subscriber, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. That business model is eroding.
The remake of the beloved Nickelodeon animated series opened at No. 1 overall on Nielsen’s streaming charts for Feb. 19-25. Avatar had 2.56 billion minutes of viewing in the United States over its first four days (it premiered Feb. 22), the second biggest week for any streaming title in 2024 so far (behind the 3.04 billion for Fool Me Once in early January).
Over the past few months, the streaming giant has aired exhibition events in golf and tennis. It is also slated to air the July 20 bout between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul. Beginning next year, Netflix will start carrying World Wrestling Entertainment’s flagship show, Raw. So there’s been speculation about whether Netflix’s recent forays into live sports are a precursor to becoming a major player for live sports rights. While having another competitor for rights would certainly be welcomed, it is unlikely to happen soon.
Nearly every commercial that runs on TV is backed by a guarantee of how big an audience will watch it. Late last year, Fox and Netflix decided to throw out that rule, one of the oldest in media economics.
Law & Order and Law & Order: SVU will be back for the 2024/25 season after NBC renewed the pair of shows but spinoff Law & Order: Organized Crime is in a slightly more precarious position. The network has renewed Law & Order for Season 24, while Law & Order: SVU will be back for Season 26.
NBC has renewed all three One Chicago series — Chicago Med, Chicago Fire and Chicago P.D. — for the 2024-25 season. Med was renewed for Season 10, Fire for Season 13 and P.D. for Season 12. The trio of shows returned in January following a long break due to the dual writers and actors strikes with shortened seasons.
GTG powers and provides Sinclair stations’ websites with Game Center, offering a menu of integrated direct-to-consumer fan engagement games.
The pop culture game show, based on iconic People crosswords, is set to return this fall with renewals on the Fox Television Stations, Sinclair, CBS, Nexstar, Gray and Scripps stations for 90% U.S. clearance.
The National Association of Broadcasters announced that Fox’s groundbreaking true crime series, America’s Most Wanted, will be inducted into the NAB Broadcasting Hall of Fame for television. The series will […]
NESN is commemorating the sports network’s 40th anniversary. The celebration will begin today, which marks the 40th anniversary of the first live game broadcast on NESN, and will continue throughout […]
Abbott Elementary and its creator and star, Quinta Brunson, are out of legal detention. A judge in New York dismissed a lawsuit against Brunson, 34, and ABC filed by writer Christine Davis in 2021, claiming the hit sitcom was a “veritable knock-off” of her show This School Year. According to the court decision, the judge found that “no discerning observer would find the works to be substantially similar.”
The BBC has acquired Suits, the smash legal drama that was the most-watched show on Netflix last year. The corporation has acquired a trio of titles from NBCUniversal Global TV Distribution for BBC iPlayer including St. Denis Medical and The Best Man: The Final Chapters.
Michelle Yeoh and Vin Diesel will lead an all-star voice cast for an animated series based on Ark: Survival Evolved.
At the company’s One24 tech showcase Wednesday, execs touted the new aspects of the streaming experience for both consumers and advertisers. Peacock will carry more than 5,000 hours of live coverage, including all 329 medal events, in Paris from July 26 to Aug. 11. Two new features of note are Live Actions and Discovery Multiview, which are aimed at helping viewers find and engage more deeply with Olympic programming.
‘FBI’ Tops Tuesday In Both Measures, Extended Family Dips Ahead Of Finale
CBS’s FBI was Tuesday’s most-watched show with 6.9 million viewers and it led the night in the coveted and 18-49 demo with a 0.5 rating.
9-1-1 is firing up the airwaves on its new home at ABC. The Season 7 premiere, which paid homage to the disaster thriller The Poseidon Adventure, has now amassed 8.85 million viewers after three days of viewing across ABC, Hulu and other digital platforms. That’s nearly an 80% increase from the live+same-day audience of 4.93 million.
TelevisaUnivision’s streaming platform ViX is firing up six new original shows during the first quarter of the year, including a comedy feature with Spain’s The Mediapro Studio.