Stories related to: cable TV

Having lost a game of chicken with the nation’s cable operators, the National Football League is in talks with ESPN to carry prime-time games that were unavailable to most American households last season, the Wall Street Journal reports. The NFL’s channel, charging lucrative fees, is available in only 40 million homes; major cable companies refused to carry it on the league’s terms. More »

Early word on Tim Russert's Meet the Press successor focused on in-house candidates, like Chris Matthews, David Gregory, or Joe Scarborough. But one insider now tells Variety that there’s “no way” a cable personality will land the gig. NBC’s broadcast division would rather stay “pristine”—free from the punditry that hovers around MSNBC. More »

Now that Hillary Clinton has suspended her presidential campaign, her most ardent supporters are hitting out at television news, proposing boycotts and setting up websites in response to allegedly sexist coverage. But as the New York Times reports, many in the media see little evidence of sexism. Rather, they accuse the ex-candidate of having used a few glaring examples to drum up support for a faltering campaign. More »

The days of set-top cable boxes are surely numbered, thanks to Sony, the first consumer electronics company to close a deal to produce TVs that need no accessories to receive digital cable signals. The memorandum of understanding, signed by all the major cable companies, doesn’t just apply to Sony; other electronics companies have been invited on board too, Reuters reports. Sets should be available by Christmas. More »

Apple and HBO are close to an agreement that would let iTunes sell episodes of HBO shows, Portfolio reports. Sources say HBO has cut a good deal—either by breaking iTunes' $1.99 video price ceiling or getting a bigger share of the same rate. But at least one HBO source is still grumbling: "We should have done this a long time ago," the insider said. More »

Barack Obama will appear on "Fox News Sunday" this weekend, ending a two-year disagreement between the candidate and the right-wing channel. Obama had promised to appear on the program in 2006, but his campaign has repeatedly cited scheduling conflicts to avoid an appearance. Fox News is crediting its "Obama Watch," which will hit 772 days on Sunday's episode, with changing the senator's mind. More »

Eric Cartman—the foul-mouthed fat kid in the "South Park" foursome of misfit boys—has ridden his ability to do the unthinkable to No. 10 on TV Guide's top 50 cartoon characters of all time. What's the appeal, exactly, of a malicious, mean, lying, selfish 8-year-old? "I'd say within the first season, we kind of realized Cartman's like a little Archie Bunker," creator Trey Parker told NPR. More »

NBC is splitting its TV production unit into two companies. The units will share the same resources, but will be divided into separate cable and broadcast operations, according to the Hollywood Reporter . NBC's cable channels have been reaping the profits of hits like Battlestar Galactica and Monk , while its broadcast network has has been struggling in fourth place in recent years. More »

HBO, at 36 years old no longer a bold young upstart of a network, is struggling to come up with hits to match The Sopranos and Sex & The City, the Wall Street Journal reports. Changes in the top ranks have meant shifts in direction: The Texas-set Lily Tomlin drama 12 Miles of Bad Road HBO was ditched after execs saw the first few episodes. More »

MSNBC today picked rising star David Gregory to helm a new political show in place of Tucker Carlson's low-rated "Tucker", TVNewser reports. Gregory's "Race for the White House" will air at 6 p.m. weekdays while he continues to report on the White House for NBC News and fill in for Matt Lauer on "Today", the New York Times reports. More »

Closing Liberty Media’s $12 billion deal for a 41% share of DirecTV took more than a year, but positioning the satellite-TV service to rival telcos and cable companies offering triple-play packages of TV, phone, and broadband could be a bigger test, reports the Wall Street Journal today. The deal with News Corp was finalized yesterday after the FCC OK’d it. More »

Current Media will soon become even more public: The viewer-created cable TV network, co-founded by Al Gore in 2005, filed an IPO today. The young adult-oriented company registered to sell up to $100 million in class A common stock, but the price range and number of shares weren’t disclosed—and don’t necessarily correlate with the registration fee, the Wall Street Journal reports. More »

Comcast will offer more than 3,000 hours of film and television titles on a new online venture called Fancast. Users will also be able to use the hub to tap into the vast IMDB database, seek TV listings, and find their way to TV shows and theatrical releases available elsewhere. Agreements with several large content providers allow for comprehensive offerings. More »

The Patriots' pursuit of perfection will be on national TV after all. The NFL relented to widespread complaints today and announced that Saturday night's game will be broadcast on CBS and NBC along with the NFL Network, the Boston Herald reports. Original plans to air the game only on the latter network rankled fans who didn't want to miss a chance to see the Patriots beat the Giants to finish 16-0. More »

Monday’s Patriots-Ravens showdown was the most-watched program in the history of cable television, Variety reports, as 17.5 million tuned in to ESPN to watch New England pursue an unbeaten season. The broadcast of the Patriots' down-to-the-wire victory beat out the Disney Channel's August airing of High School Musical 2, which garnered 17.2 million viewers. More »

Comcast believes its business will fall short of predictions as a declining economy and strengthened competitors slow the cable giant’s growth. The Wall Street Journal reports the firm will add 500K fewer subscribers than it had previously expected, and expects to pay out 5% more in capital spending than predicted by earlier forecasts. The firm's shares have fallen 30% this year. More »

The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Kevin J. Martin, is facing a Congressional probe over abuses of power, Variety reports. The head of the House Commerce Committee sent the FCC head a letter alleging "a larger breakdown in the agency." Members of both parties in Congress have criticized Martin's policies, particularly his plans to relax cross-ownership between newspapers and broadcast media. More »

FCC boss Kevin Martin has lost a big battle in his attempt to tighten up regulation of cable TV, reports the New York Times . After strenuous efforts by cable lobbyists leading up to a heated meeting last night, Martin agreed to push back until next year a vote on expanding the FCC's powers to regulate the industry. Haggling with opponents on the commission over a compromise had delayed the meeting twelve hours. More »

FCC chief Kevin Martin may not have the votes he needs to initiate regulation of the cable industry, reports the New York Times . Martin has scheduled a vote for tomorrow to approve a formal finding that the cable industry has grown too big, which would give the commission power to step in. Democrat Jonathan Adelstein, one of the commission's five members, has switched sides, saying more time is needed before the vote. More »

Republican lawmakers have attacked FCC chairman Kevin Martin's plans to step up regulation of the cable industry, the Wall Street Journal reports. All but two of the 26 Republicans on the House Commerce Committee have signed a letter calling the plans "misguided and harmful." The FCC boss has been trying to rein in cable companies in the last two years. More »