Sometimes we need a super. Not a supervisor, or a super man – but some on screen labeling of what it is we’re seeing or hearing. Case in point is this past Sunday’s Up Front program with Susannah Frame following the story about Senator Pat Roach’s dustup with GOP leadership. Susannah took thirty seconds or […]
Tribal warfare
February 4, 2010 by
Word is out today that NBC affiliates are actually going to oppose the Comcast/NBC deal. The official word from the affiliates group is that it won’t oppose the deal as long as some protections are in place. But individual affiliate ownership groups won’t be so gentle – they’re reportedly going to try to get the […]
Eating each other’s lunch
February 3, 2010 by
Earnings reports are out for some media companies, and I’m talking about it on CBS radio today. My main point: the quality of earnings is pretty stinky. Beating the street through cost cutting isn’t a model for sustainability. Meanwhile, the dog fighting continues as media companies try to eat each other’s lunch which brings me […]
Betting hyper-local
February 2, 2010 by
Fisher Communications has pumped $1.5 million into Bellevue’s DataSphere Corporation placing a not-unsubstantial bet on the company’s hyperlocal neighborhood website platforms. Fisher rolled these micro sites out a couple of months ago locally as a DataSphere customer, but now has an interest in all the markets they serve – some with a Fisher presence, thus […]
What happens in Vegas
January 28, 2010 by
You might not have known it, but it was party time in Vegas for television executives this past week during the annual NAPTE event. Actually, I’m sure the mood was pretty subdued with revenues being down 20-30 percent and all. One of the dustups in the desert involves changing the way we measure audiences. For […]
I’m going off!
January 26, 2010 by
Man – there’s a lot going on – so today, I’m going to rip through some stuff in no particular order. I’ve been wondering how KING-TV fared during the Leno experiment. Looking at Harmelin Media’s comparison of average quarter hour ratings from November of last year to November of this year – the 10 P.M. […]
The cost of Leno
January 14, 2010 by
In the echo chamber that is today’s media landscape, media-on-media crime is the biggest ratings getter. Watching FOX mug MSNBC, or Jay and Conan assault NBC has become ratings gold. Heck, it’s cheaper than producing real content. While all this may entertain and delight the national audience and provide buzz to the networks, it does […]
Drama at 10
January 12, 2010 by
Well, even after opting out of producing a high-cost drama at 10pm – NBC still found a way to give us drama. With viewership down 5% and ad rates about 1/3 of what they should be, NBC pulled the plug on Jay. Affiliates took it on the chin the most not realizing any cost savings […]
RIP
January 8, 2010 by
Former Sonics broadcast Bob Blackburn died today. Lots of us remember his calls during the Sonic’s heyday. I also want to note the passing of Ron Forsell -which happened back in December. The story was in The Daily World (he was an Aberdeen native) and picked up recently in the daily Shoptalk email newsletter many […]
ABC versus the world
January 8, 2010 by
Word is that ABC is going after blood when it comes to affiliate relations. ABC is reportedly looking to collect HALF of the local affiliate’s retrans fees – AND asking for the authority to bundle affiliates together, negotiate with multi-channel operators for fat fees, and then take half. According to www.tvnewscheck.com, Fisher has already locked […]
My faulty TV predictions
January 5, 2010 by
Most people living in the Northwest really don’t understand the level of excellence to which they’ve become accustomed when it comes to the quality of our local TV stations. Frankly, that quality extends into Portland, Spokane and Boise too. There are a lot of historical reasons for this, but I’m just going to stipulate the […]
Gettin’ Paid!
December 29, 2009 by
Every business model is at risk in television. Right now, there are two major fronts on which broadcasters are fighting, and each has the potential to radically change our viewing experience going forward. The first front is the clamor over spectrum. Perhaps youíve seen the commercials on television touting the benefits of free over-the-air television. […]
Messin’ with Sasquatch
December 23, 2009 by
There’s nothing like an early Christmas present. Mine came in the form of a Samsung Blu-ray DVD player that features Internet connectivity to YouTube, Netflix, Blockbuster and Pandora. It is a study in the concept of disintermediation and a clear window into the reasons for things like Comcast’s purchase of NBC Universal. Comcast is the […]
Observation on last night’s breaking news
December 22, 2009 by
I realize this happens on a regular basis now, but last nightís tragic shooting of two Pierce County Sheriffís deputies again illustrates the power of social media – to an extent. Here’s how the news broke in the Layson house: My son received a text from a friend who has family connections with members of […]
Walter Cronkite RIP
July 17, 2009 by
I would say that anybody who went into TV news in the 70s or 80s had Walter Cronkite in mind when they began. Like the generation before him who idolized Ed Murrow, Cronkite’s time came-and-went in the TV news business, but it is with great respect and fond memories that we bid farewell to Cronkite […]
Not so live at 5
June 16, 2009 by
We’re three thousand miles away, but the times they are a-changin’ in the nation’s largest media market. WNBC, the NBC O&O in New York City is dropping its 5pm newscast and replacing it with a chatty lifestyle-based show. While it’s new and different, it really doesn’t come as much of a surprise. Channel 4’s five […]
