The 21 popular local sports channels were pulled from the satellite carrier and Sling TV after Dish and Disney were unable to come to terms on carriage fees. Disney is in the process of selling the RSNs to Sinclair, which is said not to have been involved in the negotiations. No word on how the impasse might impact Sinclair’s ability to finance its $9.6B acquisition of the channels.
CBS and Fox tied for the 18-49 lead in primetime at 0.6. NBC and Telemundo each averaged 0.5, a little ahead of ABC’s 0.4. Univision drew a 0.3 for the night and The CW a 0.1. Propelling CBS was Big Brother, while Fox was led by MasterChef.
U.S. Olympics rightsholder NBCUniversal has reach as agreement with Twitter by which the social media giant will show limited live event coverage of the Tokyo games next year along with highlights and a daily show. While the overwhelming majority of the thousands of hours of Olympic coverage will remain on NBC’s TV and digital streaming platforms, the deal is the furthest the company has gone in letting some live video leave its ecosystem.
Exclusives
The 7 1/2 hours of hearings, from 8:15 a.m.-3:45 p.m. ET, drew an average of just under 13 million viewers (12.98 million) spread across ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News and MSNBC. Fox News led the field for Wednesday’s coverage with an average of just over 3 million viewers. MSNBC placed with 2.41 million.
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — The clamor from “Game of Thrones” fans for a do-over of the drama’s final season has been in vain. HBO programming chief Casey Bloys said […]
AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, speaking to securities analysts today, said the planned HBO OTT streaming service would “ultimately” be a full-service TV network with live news and sports. “Those are going to be really, really important elements for HBO Max.” The service is set to launch next spring.
The Hollywood mega-studio has struck a settlement with the creators of Home Improvement to put an end to a six-year-old lawsuit that resulted in a consequential appellate ruling and was within weeks of going to trial.
Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift each scored 10 MTV Video Music Award nominations, competing in eight of the same categories. Other nominees include Billie Eilish, Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus. The 29th annual VMAs will take place at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. on Aug. 26.
‘Judge Judy’ Tops Syndies In Strong Session
Judge Judy hit a five-week high, while five of the top six magazine shows also posted stellar results. Dr. Phil continued its 149th-week-in-a-row winning streak among talkers.
Celebrity Family Feud and ABC’s game show lineup won Sunday night, though CBS’s Big Brother had its best Sunday night of the season so far with a1.1 rating among adults 18-49 and 4.36 million viewers. ABC led among adults 18-49 with a 0.7 rating
The new entries in the works at the streamer include five animated series, one non-fiction and one live action show aimed at the two-to-six-year-old set. A CG animated expansion of DreamWorks’ How To Train Your Dragon franchise is among the offerings.
ESPN sent a reminder to all of its employees on Friday that network policy is not to talk about politics unless they intersect with sports. The reminder came after talk show host Dan Le Batard criticized racist comments from President Trump and the network’s policy on politics in his show.
The big three networks already plan to scrap their regular coverage and cover Robert Mueller’s Congressional hearings live later this week, not to mention the wall to wall coverage cable nets are preparing.
