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  • NAB 2012: Getting The Shot Cheaper, Easier, Faster

    JVC%27s+GY-HM150
    JVC's GY-HM150
    As more and more stations adopt the one-man band approach to newsgathering, the camera manufacturers are turning out new units that are small enough and light enough to be managed easily, and big enough and heavy enough to be balanced for a steady shot. Plus, they’re inexpensive enough that any station's budget can handle them, too. Among the options that will be featured at NAB 2012 are the Sony NX5, the JVC 150 and the Panasonic 250. More | Comments (7)

  • Commentary: Broadcasters Must Wise Up About Smart TV

    At last month's CES, three technologies showed significant progress: connected TV, smart TV and TV Everywhere. It's likely the three will converge. If so, they’ll arrive in one massive wave that could completely disrupt the way people watch TV — and threaten the way broadcasters do business. Broadcasters must figure out how to catch the wave. More | Comments (16)

  • Air Check: Mike Cavender Is A Strong Voice For RTDNA

    After a relatively quiet few years, the organization is hoping to raise its visibility with its new executive director, an experienced broadcast news veteran who can speak out on the First Amendment and other issues affecting electronic journalists and perhaps restore the annual conference to its former stature. More | Comments (1)

  • Focus: Another Spanish Network? Crazy Like A Fox

    In what it hopes will be a reprise of its success in taking on ABC, CBS and NBC, Fox is setting its sights on the rapidly growing Hispanic population in the U.S. with MundoFox. Media agencies, Spanish-language broadcasters, analysts, program producers and even rival networks believe that News Corp. can pull it off if it is smart about the proposed broadcast network’s programming and can assemble a solid lineup of affiliates. More | Comments (3)

  • Jessell: A Year Later, Comcast Walked Its NBC Talk

    When Comcast first announced its plans a year ago to buy NBC Universal from General Electric, the experts felt it was the cable networks, not NBC and its television stations, that Comcast really wanted. There was across-the-board gnashing of teeth about what would happen to NBC. But Comcast executives assured regulators and tried to persuade the experts that that wasn't the case. And over the past 12 months, Comcast has shown that it meant everything it said. More | Comments (7)

Special Reports

  • 2011—Year In Review: Revisit the year’s top developments in business, programming, journalism, technology, regulation and more.
  • Audience Measurement: The state of ratings is examined in three parts: an interview with the head of the Media Ratings Council; the growing presence of Rentrak; and the search for a better local ratings currency.
  • Traffic Reporting: This four-part TVNewsCheck Special Report focuses on what it takes to stay on top of the growing commuter gridlock across the country.
  • Remembering 9/11: TVNewsCheck looks back 10 years after the attacks with a series of five articles.
  • Severe Weather News: This five-part TVNewsCheck Special Report focuses on the changing technology used to stay ahead of storms.
  • TOP 30 TV STATION GROUPS: TVNewsCheck's exclusive ranking by coverage with a summary of each group's holdings and top executives.

Industry Calendar

3月 2012
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13-15
American Cable Association
ACA’s 19th Annual Summit
Washington, D.C., DC
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21-22
Borrell Advertising Associates
The Borrell Local Online Advertising Conference
New York, NY
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21-23
BIA Kelsey
ILM EAST
Boston, MA
4月 2012
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14-19
National Association of Broadcasters
NAB Show
Las Vegas, NV
6月 2012
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12-14
PromaxBDA
PromaxBDA: The Conference 2012
Los Angeles, CA

Station Directory

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AP Breaking News

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Latest News

Sat, Feb 4, 2012

RSS
FCC: TV Can Nix Super Bowl Abortion Ad
Politico, Feb 3, 2012, 5:50 PM EST
The FCC ruled Friday that anti-abortion activist Randall Terry can't force a Chicago TV station to air commercials featuring graphic images of aborted fetuses during the Super Bowl. Link | Add comment
closing bell
Dow Climbs 157, Nasdaq Finishes Up 46
Associated Press, Feb 3, 2012, 5:08 PM EST
Before the market opened Friday, the Labor Department said the economy added 243,000 jobs in January. It was the strongest job growth in nine months. The increase in hiring pushed the unemployment rate down to 8.3%, the lowest since February 2009. The surprising data gave financial markets a morning jolt that lasted throughout the trading day. Full Story | Add comment
Jessell at Large
Disclosure Rule The First Step Toward Quotas
TVNewsCheck, Feb 3, 2012, 3:39 PM EST
The FCC's proposed disclosure rules, which would require stations to detail the kinds of programming they air and post the info on their websites, should be fought tooth and nail by broadcasters. What the regulators want are statistics that they can use to hang over stations in the form of a programming quotas at license renewal time. And a quota is nothing but a mandate. It's the federal government telling stations what programming they must air, and that slams right into broadcasters' First Amendment rights. Full Story | Comments (4)
SNL Kagan Tallies 81% Rise In Multicast Chs.
SNL Kagan, Feb 3, 2012, 1:44 PM EST
The media and communications business research firm's U.S. TV station database shows the total number of live over-the-air broadcast channels for the 1,726 full-power digital stations jumped to 4,552 at the end of 2011 from 2,518 at year-end 2010. Link | Comments (1)
NBC Sets 'Awake' Debut, Moves 'The Firm'
Hollywood Reporter, Feb 3, 2012, 2:42 PM EST
The dual reality drama starring Jason Isaacs will launch on Thursday, March, 1 at 10 p.m., taking over for struggling series The Firm, which will move to Saturdays at 9 p.m. beginning Feb. 11. Link | Add comment
dma 25
WTVI Charlotte In Merger Talks With College
Charlotte Observer, Feb 3, 2012, 12:42 PM EST
Charlotte, N.C.'s struggling public TV station and Central Piedmont Community College are in preliminary talks about joining forces to keep WTVI on the air. Last year, the station — whose financial condition has turned perilous since the recession began to grip Charlotte in 2008 — ran a deficit of about $300,000. Fundraising is lagging by a couple hundred thousand dollars at the midpoint of this fiscal year, WTVI President Elsie Garner said Wednesday. Link | Add comment
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overnights
'Bang' Beats 'Idol' In Shared Timeslot Again
Media Life, Feb 3, 2012, 12:18 PM EST
For the second straight week CBS's The Big Bang Theory outdrew Fox's American Idol in their shared half hour, though Idol surged in its second half hour in order to tie Bang as the night's top show. Bang averaged a 5.4 at 8 p.m., while Idol averaged a 5.0 in that half hour. It was the second week in a row that Bang has beaten Idol in the slot, though its winning margin was smaller. Link | Add comment
Open Mike by Matthew Polka
Super Bowl Spoiler: NFL TV Deals Blitz Public
TVNewsCheck, Feb 3, 2012, 7:19 AM EST
I am quite troubled by the soaring price of monthly cable and satellite TV bills fueled by hyperinflationary increases in TV rights fees won by the NFL and many other sports organizations. Non-sports pay TV subscribers are massively subsidizing sports viewers by an estimated $3 billion annually. A sports tier designed to reflect actual consumer demand for NFL games, golf tournaments, and baseball doubleheaders has the potential to allocate programming expenses more fairly within the pay TV universe. Full Story | Comments (4)
M.C. Alcamo research
Value of TV Firms Down A Third Since 2010
TVNewsCheck, Feb 3, 2012, 7:45 AM EST
As of Jan. 31, shares of the six pure-play groups were trading at a multiple of 7.3 times trailing 12-month EBITDA, down 32% from the 10.7 times from two years earlier, according to a study by M.C. Alcamo & Co. Investors remain "cautious" despite positive signs, says Alcamo President Michael Alcamo. Full Story | Comments (1)
Front Office by Mary Collins
Gen Y’s Latest Trend: Cord Cutting
TVNewsCheck, Feb 3, 2012, 8:23 AM EST
A growing number of young adults born between 1980 and 1995 — Gen Y — are purchasing over-the-air antennas to watch television programming. Gen Ys are inherently more adept at, and prone to, experimenting with alternative forms of viewing TV content; they are less likely to accept the need to subscribe to subscription-based pay TV once they’re free to make their own decisions about it. Full Story | Comments (11)
dma 10
KUHT Houston Lays Off 12 Employees
Houston Chronicle, Feb 3, 2012, 7:30 AM EST
The University of Houston's noncommercial station made the move as part of cost-cutting by the new general manager. Affected were personnel in production, programming, development, technology and administration. Link | Comments (1)
dma 11
WJBK Detroit GM Jeff Murri Dies At 50
WJBK, Feb 2, 2012, 5:44 PM EST
The Fox O&O reports: "We knew him as a wonderful, energetic and giving person.  We are deeply saddened and shocked by his loss." The cause of death has not been released. Link | Add comment
DMA 1
NRJ Asks FCC To OK $22.8M Buy Of WSAH
TVNewsCheck, Feb 3, 2012, 8:08 AM EST
The spectrum speculator outbid two others for the bankrupt New York independent station last November, but the auction was contested, delaying the filing of the FCC sale application. NRJ has purchased three other underperforming stations in recent months with an eye on the FCC's spectrum auction. Full Story | Add comment
Manufacturing Concerns Delaying Apple TV
DigiTimes, Feb 3, 2012, 7:35 AM EST
The chance is low for Apple to launch so-called iTV products in the second quarter of 2012 as there are no signs indicating that Sharp is ready to ship IGZO (indium gallium zinc oxide) panels to Apple, according to industry sources. Link | Comments (1)
Seeing Super Bowl Ads Before The Coin Toss
New York Times, Feb 3, 2012, 6:07 AM EST
Advertisers placed many Super Bowl spots on YouTube or social media well ahead of the game, hoping to start a conversation and generate follow-up interest. Link | Add comment
A Super Bowl Ad To Rile Abortion Politics
Politico, Feb 3, 2012, 7:16 AM EST
Anti-abortion crusader and would-be Democratic candidate for president Randall Terry expects the FCC to decide as soon as today if TV stations must run his graphic ads — featuring aborted fetuses — during Sunday’s Super Bowl. Link | Add comment
Internet TV Faces Some Big Obstacles
Kansas City Star, Feb 3, 2012, 6:53 AM EST
Technology increasingly blurs the lines between computer, television, phone and tablet. Online video options grow almost by the hour. A screen, in the era of cyber choice, is a screen is a screen. Still, to fill your screen with popular sports, comedies and dramas from the brands that dominate your television, generations-old economic models will have to be rearranged for the wild, wild Web. Link | Add comment
NBC Is Hoping 'Smash' Is A Smash
Los Angeles Times, Feb 3, 2012, 6:39 AM EST
The network is gambling big that the drama about turning Marilyn Monroe's life into a musical will resonate with viewers and help pull it out of its ratings slump. Link | Add comment
Golden Globes Court Fight
HFPA's Berk Testimony Contradicts Moonves
Los Angeles Times, Feb 3, 2012, 6:35 AM EST
Philip Berk, the current chairman and former president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. and a key witness in the organization's legal battle against Dick Clark Productions over who controls the television rights to the Golden Globes said in court Thursday that he's "never really been interested in contracts." Link | Add comment
Feds Blitz Illegal Sports Streaming Sites
Los Angeles Times, Feb 3, 2012, 6:33 AM EST
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other agencies announced Thursday that they had seized 16 websites and brought criminal charges against a Michigan man who operated nine of them. Link | Add comment

More News

NFL Network Ups Thurs. Night Games To 13
Associated Press, Feb 3, 2012, 2:47 PM EST
Robert Halmi Sr. Exits RHI Entertainment
Hollywood Reporter, Feb 3, 2012, 2:46 PM EST
ABC Orders Pilot For Ellen DeGeneres' 'Smart One'
Hollywood Reporter, Feb 3, 2012, 2:41 PM EST
dma 13
KPHO Phoenix Renovating Studios
Phoenix Business Journal, Feb 3, 2012, 7:30 AM EST
dma 76 (Omaha, NE)
KETV Anchor Adrian Whitsett Arrested For DUI
Omaha World-Herald, Feb 3, 2012, 7:27 AM EST
dma 3
WLS Chicago Still Rules At 10 P.M.
Lewis Lazare, Feb 3, 2012, 7:16 AM EST
dma 27
WJZ Tops Baltimore's Major Newscasts In January
Baltimore Sun, Feb 3, 2012, 7:00 AM EST
Snooki aad JWoww Wanted In Jersey Shore ... Pa.
Associated Press, Feb 3, 2012, 6:43 AM EST
quarterly report
Harmonic 4Q Revenue Rises 4%
Devoncroft, Feb 3, 2012, 6:12 AM EST
SeaChange President Leaves, Won't Be Replaced
Devoncroft, Feb 3, 2012, 6:10 AM EST
Roseanne Barr Seeks Green Party Presidential Nod
Associated Press, Feb 3, 2012, 6:04 AM EST

Today's Top Stories

Classifieds

The Market

Symbol Last Change (%)
Nasdaq 2905.66 +45.98 (+1.61%)
NYSE 8060.43 +115.00 (+1.45%)
S&P 500 1344.90 +19.36 (+1.46%)
Updated 02/04 4:37a ET Quotes delayed at least 20 mins.
Source: Financial Content

Ratings

Overnights, adults 18-49 for February 3, 2012
  • 1.
    3.9/11
  • 2.
    3.5/9
  • 3.
    2.5/7
  • 4.
    1.5/4
  • 5.
    1.5/4
  • 6.
    0.9/2
Source: Nielsen
Reviews
Opinions
Features
  • Robert Lloyd

    Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, veterans of Fox's sketch comedy MADtv, have a new series of their own, Comedy Central's Key & Peele. It is a genial, at times almost genteel, half-hour in which the pair's obvious niceness shines through even their more pugnacious characters. (Key's version of road rage is to shout, "Selfish!") In a roundabout way, that's the point. The sketches are consistently smart and smartly acted and flow easily from ordinary premises to weird conclusions.

  • Hank Stuever

    Discovery's Bering Sea Gold doesn’t seem at first like it has crossed any new reality TV frontier, relying on elements and structure familiar to the form. Enticingly (to the network), it combines the ocean and the gold and the cold and the reactive testosterone among bad-tempered desperados. To which I am surprised to cry: Eureka, they’ve found it! Bering Sea Gold is a testament to how thoroughly absorbing the genre can still be, when it’s done right.

  • Neil Genzlinger

    All Star Dealers, Discovery Channel's sports-memorabilia addition to the bloated auction/pawnshop/storage locker subgenre of reality television, should have been a winner, with endless stories to draw on and a built-in fan base. But rather than find its own formula, it was content to borrow from existing shows, and it borrowed all the wrong things.

  • Joanne Ostrow

    Kiefer Sutherland displays his softer side in Fox's Touch, a touchy-feely drama merging paranormal, spiritual and sweetly familial elements. shows off his acting chops, long forgotten, in scene after scene. It's heavier lifting than usual for the actor who was often reduced to caricature in 24. Sutherland is all about vulnerability in a show whose goal is nothing short of proving the interconnectedness of human life. We'll see if audiences can tolerate the notion of profound interrelatedness as weekly entertainment.

  • Tim Goodman

    Let's jump right to the most obvious of all sentiments when it comes to HBO's new horse racing/gambling series Luck: Do not bet against David Milch in this one. Like a lot of HBO series, Luck will require patience. It's telling a dense story with nuanced characters and it doesn't feel the need to rush in, like a network series, and hammer home the main themes. But each episode is more enriching, more engrossing than the last and there's Hoffman's superb turn at the forefront, even though his story unfolds with the least rush. Luck is a smart and ambitious series that looks to truly pay off in the home stretch.

  • Mike Hale

    The timing of FX's animated series Unsupervised is unfortunate. A kind of reversed Beavis and Butt-Head — in which the teenage heroes, while losers in just about every way, are also social strivers yearning for suburban domesticity and dispensing Oprah Winfrey-style affirmations — it has the bad luck of coming along three months after the original was revived by MTV. The new show looks awfully pale by comparison.

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