One of the things that drives me most crazy is when people’s unfounded suspicions, superstitions, magical thinking and faulty logic is confirmed by real world events. These coincidental alignments of fantasy and reality are often responsible for this country’s voodoo culture which encourages bad science, prayer in place of study, misappropriated authority, litigiousness and the […]
Here comes 3D
May 18, 2010 by
Comcast is the first MSO to buy ESPN’s 3D sports channel that’s supposed to launch in June for the World Cup. The channel will be both on demand, and receive a regular channel assignment too – most likely on the premium side of the house – although I think giving it away with the basic […]
Eye on up front
May 17, 2010 by
It’s “Up Front” week at the major networks. No, they are not appearing on KING5′s weekend issues show, it’s up front buying. Even though just about EVERY TV show I watch has jumped the shark this season, the nets are going to pitch their new and fresh (in quotes) ideas to advertisers who are apparently […]
Size doesn’t matter
May 14, 2010 by
Independent stations work double time trying to prove they are not the “off brand” choice for news, and then @#$% like this happens. To catch you up, Q13 had the video of the recent Seattle cop-versus-innocent suspect incident but sat on it. The freelance photog who shot it, saw what was happening, and sold it […]
Belo hits a big one
May 3, 2010 by
KING’s parent, Belo, is reporting some strong earnings news – following a recent and welcome trend among broadcast groups. Belo is up 17% in the first quarter over last year. Now remember, last year the bottom fell out, but still – the trend is in the right direction. A local station’s life blood, automotive advertising, […]
Get interested already
April 7, 2010 by
Comcast won a little victory in court allowing it to continue to throttle high-demand services like Bit Torrent without the FCC being able to get involved. Comcast loves the ruling and promises to keep the net available and fast for most customers. Net neutrality advocates say the FCC had better jump in right now to […]
Our dying professions
March 30, 2010 by
A lot of troll bloggers like to jump on the print version of the PI’s grave thinking that its collapse is some kind of a political triumph. They would be wrong. Mostly, it’s about economics – and the commoditization of a lot of “products” that used to require professional creation. Today, “good enough” is good […]
Google TV – seriously
March 29, 2010 by
Google TV is what’s coming. It will come in dribs and drabs and there will false starts and dry holes, but eventually, the computer and the television set will be one device used to select and view content that is aggregated by the user with no intermediary and no restrictions on what can be watched, […]
Upload Shmupload
March 22, 2010 by
The National Broadband Plan is hailed as 21st century’s Interstate Highway construction program. I agree it is. What I don’t agree with however is the thinking that is behind it. The philosophical underpinnings used to set the plan’s goals are 180 degrees wrongheaded in my opinion, and here’s why. If you do a little reading, […]
Kable Town
March 16, 2010 by
Disclaimer: I love my Comcast service, I do shows for Comcast – a fine and generous company, I shop at WalMart, have owned a broken-down mini-van, admire the engine building involved with tractor pulls and may wind up in a double-wide trailer. Thanks to the miracle that is the DVR attached to my cable TV […]
Give Diane Sawyer a camera?
February 24, 2010 by
ABC is swinging the axe and taking about 3-400 people in its news division. It’s been death by a thousand cuts at all the networks, and most local affiliates around the country too. The trades I read are filled with the stories of people in the TV news business either getting canned, or hitting the […]
Tiger Tech: FAIL
February 19, 2010 by
Nice apology – he owned it – it was heartfelt and it will satisfy those who can be satisfied. The media wanted a dogpile press conference, but they still wouldn’t have been satisfied, so there’s really no loss associated with not doing a Q-and-A. There is however a loss associated with having 50% of the […]
Death on the luge
February 17, 2010 by
As you might imagine, there has been quite the tempest in a teapot over the airing of the fatal luge accident at the Olympics. I have no inside information on this, but Iím sure the phones were pretty active at KING after the footage aired. But frankly, I wonder about that too: The viewership is […]
Hooter’s solution is PR
February 16, 2010 by
Good God. Did anybody watch Hooters CEO Coby Brooks humiliate himself on TV last night? And do we really buy this crap? Undercover Boss is a Olympics counter-programming hit, but it serves up plastic souls on paper plates and I hope the viewing public can see through it. Brooks thought a sexually abusive manager’s problems […]
Sharify Shining
February 15, 2010 by
We have a few master storytellers in the Seattle market. They wouldn’t make it anywhere else because they’re probably too old, or too stubborn, or too opinionated, or too old school for management’s current taste for cheap and malleable pawns who think it’s cool just being on TV – even if you’re working in a […]
YouNews: It’s Coming
February 10, 2010 by
Guess what the hot new gadgets are for local TV stations? Answer: Devices that allow the quick and easy ingestion (non indigestion) of viewer-generated content. Why in the world would a TV station fill its newscast with poorly shot video? Because it’s cheap. In fact, think about carving out a YouNews space in your market […]
