34 posts in the Business CategoryMore on Modern Family Addressing some arguments raised in defense of the Modern Family cast, and comparing the ratings of MF, Two and a Half Men, and Desperate Housewives for context. Desperate Housewives, Modern Family, Two and a Half Men "Modern Family" cast delays S4 production, sues 20th Century Fox The cast of Modern Family -- already earning over $1.4 million per year -- have delayed production of the fourth season and sued their own studio for more money, after rejecting a raise proposal to $4.4 million per year. 20th Century Fox, Modern Family Netflix lost 800,000 subs in the past 90 days Netflix lost $1.44 billion in market value this afternoon after reporting 800,000 customers fled the service in the past three months. Netflix Netflix CEO pledges to screw up even more Netflix CEO Reed Hastings admits he screwed up in a message to customers and the public on the company blog, then promises to make things even worse. Netflix Netflix raises prices, loses customers, stock price plummets The results are in: after raising prices as much as 60%, Netflix lost $2 billion in value this afternoon after announcing a loss of 600,000 subscribers as its stock dropped almost 19%. Netflix Apple's next move: ruin the online TV market Apple's attempts to muscle into the online TV market will result in higher prices and represents a step back in innovation. Apple Is HBO saying no to Netflix, but yes to piracy? HBO is going it alone in the streaming world, saying no to Netflix and possibly restricting online delivery so much that potential customers find piracy a more ideal solution. HBO, Netflix, Piracy Is this how the long struggle ends for MGM? MGM's creditors are nearing a deal with Spyglass Entertainment to run the studio after converting a majority of the $4 billion in debt to equity. MGM, Stargate Is Hulu Plus vs. Netflix even a meaningful comparison? NewTeeVee asks who has the advantage in Netflix vs. Hulu, but here's why it's not a fair fight to begin with. Hulu, Netflix The sad state of MGM The failed auction-sale of MGM has left its creditors desperate for a quick fix. MGM, Stargate Google's coming set-top box may run Android apps Google's push into home entertainment may involve a TV set-top box that will stream from flash drives, the Internet, open the floodgates for new Android applications to run on your television. Comcast and Cablevision lose appeal over channel sharing rules Comcast and Cablevision have lost an appeal in a lawsuit against the FCC over rules forcing them to make channels they own available to their competitors. Cablevision, Comcast, FCC MGM is screwing Stargate fans MGM is charging more for half a season of Stargate Universe on DVD than the most recent full season of House costs. DVD, MGM, Stargate Michael Shanks is wrong - SG-1 is not dead Michael Shanks thinks Stargate SG-1, even in the form of DVD movies, is dead. He's wrong. MGM, Michael Shanks, Stargate, Stargate SG-1 USA would be a good fit for Conan; forget HBO Rumors abound and shallow hacks take cheap shots. Conan O'Brien MGM's problem is Stargate's problem The delay on the anticipated Stargate movies can be traced back to a single road block: MGM's financial woes. MGM, Stargate Netflix/Warner Brothers deal is a de facto price increase Netflix has struck a deal with Warner Brothers that will force Netflix customers to buy new releases or rent them from a store if they want to see them in the first 30 days of release. Netflix, Warner Brothers FBI captures movie pirates now, instead of terrorists The FBI has arrested a man for leaking an early copy of Wolverine online, rather than, say, hunting terrorists, serial killers, or fraud and identity theft rings. 20th Century Fox, Wolverine Variety's pay-wall will create opportunity for bloggers Variety will go behind a pay-wall similar to the Wall Street Journal in 2010, without anything worth paying money to read. pay media, Variety What will Disney do when Marvel runs out of gas? Even Marvel's extensive collection of characters can't last forever; what will Disney do when the best material has been mined, and will their $4 billion deal be worth it looking back? Disney, Marvel Will Smith defending champ of July 4th Who owns the 4th of July box office? Will Smith does, and I've got the numbers to prove it. Hancock, I Am Legend, Will Smith In Brief Viacom starts own pay-cable channel; NBC blurs the line between entertainment and paid programming; Lohan falls off the wagon, more.. Avatar, Avatar The Last Airbender, Deadliest Catch, Linsday Lohan, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Uwe Boll, Viacom Oprah made 10x more than Alex Rodriguez did last year A list you deplore but can't stop looking at: the richest celebs in 2007. Oprah, Steven Speilberg Money, baby. Most successful shows go off the air because their costs inevitably exceed revenue. Stargate Atlantis, The West Wing "Fair market value" bill advances in CA Senate Bill that would force studios to sell programming at "fair market value" to networks owned by the same parent advances in CA Senate. AMPTP, MPAA Jeff Zucker says a SAG strike will end Hollywood Jeff Zucker is telling advertisers that Hollywood will end if SAG strikes, nuking television while films will magically survive unscathed. Hollywood, Jeff Zucker, NBC Big Content Still Doesn't Get It Eric Bangeman writing for Ars Technica wrote yesterday about a change coming in April in the way DirecTV's satellite receiver/DVR combo will treat pay-per-view recordings. As has been feared ever since a bug in a TiVo software update triggered a "lockdown" of sorts on programming that would only remain on the system for 24 hours before being automatically deleted -- whether you wanted that to happen or not -- it seems that DirecTV has caved to outside pressure and implemented precisely this type of content control, effective April 15th.... DirecTV, DRM Voices from the strike Many apologies for not posting anything since Thursday; there hasn't been any real "reportable" progress on the talks between the AMPTP and the WGA, which is kind of what I had expected would happen. The chances that the DGA's deal with big media was going to be close enough to settle on something similar within a few days were nearly nonexistent. There probably is a lot of good stuff in that pact, but as SAG has recently said, without actually seeing the contract in all its glory, nobody can really say for sure.There are enough areas of concern that were not adequately addressed in the press releases to foresee a less combative, yet still contentious negotiations going forward. Regardless... AMPTP, DGA, WGA NBC wins a little, losses a little with the writers strike Here's a thought: NBC seems like it has benefited the most from the writers strike, and is also suffering the worst of it. How funky is that? They won Monday outright, and came in second on "American Idol Tuesday." Without Idol, NBC may have won that day, too. And yet here is a network that has be stuck in fourth for the past few years after the demise of its extremely popular sitcoms, giving money back to advertisers because it knew it couldn't meet its ratings promises.A recent earnings report showed that for parent General Electric, USA out-earned NBC by a ratio of nearly 6:1, and the once great broadcast net is not doing any upfront sales this year and... Fox, NBC Why Blu-Ray is losing I must either be stupid, or a HD-DVD loving (and owning) fan boy. No other possible explanation will be accepted, I will be insulted, dismissed, and ultimately ignored for daring speak out against the golden cow idol that is Sony.Sorry, I don't play that game.... Blu-Ray, HD-DVD AP strike FAQ is full of nonsense The Associated Press released a FAQ (frequently asked questions) on the writers strike yesterday, and based on how the first answer looks, I'd say it was written by someone taking notes directly from the AMPTP. Glenn Greenwald has written a lot recently on how the mainstream press believes its job to be writing down what one side says and then publishing it -- and then if the other side disgrees -- publishing a "correction" stating that the "others disagree."Pretty much like I said, our vaunted investigative free press thinks its job is to dictate memos rather than finding and publishing the truth between two or more conflicting positions. Since both sides can't possibly be right, the press has basically resorted... New AMPTP adivsor hemoraging union clients Have you had enough of the strike crap? Soon my friends, soon. Before we move on to more interesting things, it was reported sometime within the past couple of days that two former Democratic strategists that deep-sixed Senator John Kerry's campaign in 2004 were recently hired by the AMPTP to help them win the PR war against the writers. What wasn't reported until today is that, according to Jane Hamsher writing for Firedog Lake, a rather predictable result in hindsight has come into being.Namely, Chris Lehane - one of the two advisers - is losing all his union contracts for siding with multi-national corporations against a union in the middle of a strike:SEIU Local 99 in Los Angeles -- education... AMPTP NBC is feeling the cash crunch The studio and network bigwigs tried selling the tale about a month ago that they didn't care if the strike put a premature end to the fall television season - in fact they seemed downright relieved not to have to deal with the consequences of green lighting a large crop of mostly bad shows. Nobody really believed that particular piece of fiction, at least nobody that could do the math:Fourth-ranked broadcaster NBC has quietly begun reimbursing advertisers an average of $500,000 each for failing to reach guaranteed ratings levels, the first time a network has taken such a step in years, media buyers said.NBC was the first because they've had the worst ratings and the biggest cash crunch of any... NBC This strike was always about power, not money Apparently I'm not the only one who noticed that Nikke Finke reported that a trusted and accurate source had told her that a deal was mostly already in place between the WGA and AMPTP, when later just days after it became obvious that not only was a deal not in place, but that both sides hadn't even gotten on to new proposals yet and were still rehashing their old ones to get caught up for the first time in over three weeks.... AMPTP, WGA |
