MoJos, VJs Are The New Reality Of TV News

The GSM of Media General's NBC affiliate in Savannah, Ga., has been named VP and GM, the replacement for Brad Moses, who is moving to WNCN, the group's NBC affiliate in Raleigh-Durham, N.C.

Without at least a buck a sub, broadcasters will continue to watch the best programming drift away to cable as Oprah, a cornerstone of broadcast TV for the past two decades, may well do after the 2010-11 season. As News Corp.'s Chase Carey said last month: "It doesn't make sense that broadcast is only ad-supported. It competes against other channels that are dual-revenue businesses that are getting $1, $2, $4, while a network like Fox sits there with truly the best programming in sports and entertainment."

Fisher Communications CEO Colleen Brown says, "We need the bandwidth to fulfill the promise to viewers and support our future growth plans including the expansion of high-definition, multichannel and mobile television."

ABC held its lead on Thursday night, though not by much. The network won its fifth Thursday in six weeks after placing second to Fox and baseball last week to open the November sweeps. ABC averaged a 3.7 adults 18-49 rating and 10 share, 6% ahead of No. 2 CBS at 3.5/9.

Oprah Winfrey is nearing a decision on whether to continue her daily talk show on broadcast TV or move it to the new cable channel that she will own with Discovery Communications, executives from her production company and CBS, which owns the rights to the show, said Thursday. Winfrey, who in the past has taken advantage of speculation about possibly leaving her show to enhance renewals, is also negotiating with syndicators other than CBS, several executives aware of the discussions said.

New NAB President Gordon Smith responds to CEA President Gary Shapiro's letter to the editor regarding the "cash-for-spectrum" proposal. Smith says that in today's blended digital-rich media environment, where consumers expect program content in the home and on the go, the inherent value of a locally based broadcast business model will be critical to its overall success. "With open minds, I'm confident that we will find more agreements than differences with our friends in the consumer electronics business."

CBS Television Distribution has a definitive answer to one of syndication's most important questions: It has renewed Dr. Phil through the 2013-14 season in 70% of the country, on stations from the CBS, Gannett, Belo, LIN Television, Cox and Media General groups.

The Tribune station group has renewed NBC Universal's trio of talk shows -- Maury, Jerry Springer and Steve Wilkos -- for two more years, through the 2011-12 season. The group-wide renewal guarantees that all three shows will continue for three more years. It also means that some timeslots that rival syndicators were eyeing will not open up anytime soon. Tribune also renewed several shows distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution through 2012.

Thursday afternoon entertainment programming abruptly gave way to the shocking events at Fort Hood, where 12 people were killed and 31 wounded in shooting that broke out shortly after 1:30 p.m. The early going is the truest test of a news operation's ability to mobilize its reporters, get to the scene, line up interviews and gather information. In that respect, KDFW Dallas lagged well behind KXAS, WFAA and KTVT.

Retransmission fees in 2010 are expected to nearly double what they were in 2009 based on contracts already in place, according to CBS Corp. CEO Leslie Moonves, sounding more bullish than he's been in some time on a third quarter earnings call with analysts.

It totals $2.27 billion, with the boost coming primarily from higher television license fees and affiliate revenues partially offset by lower local advertising sales.

According to Avid's Jim Frantzreb, production asset management (PAM) systems allow producers, editor and reporters to work together easily, streamlining the overall content creation process and, at the same time, lowering expenses and creating increasingly flexible workflows

Twitter Lists created by major news brands provided some of the best coverage of yesterday's Fort Hood shootings, as they offered a real-time view of what multiple sources -- both local and national -- were reporting. Here's a look at what a few news orgs did.

After more than a decade of dithering over how to release film and TV content over the Internet and other new platforms -- and how aggressively to do so -- the industry remains tentative in its approach to digital distribution.

Grover Tadlock, managing editor of the Gray NBC affiliate in Huntington, W.Va., is promoted to lead the department.