Viacom is calling for a federal court to toss out Cablevision's $1 billion lawsuit
Read MoreAs it continues to piece together its fall broadcast schedule, NBC on Wednesday closed the books on one of its freshman dramas. NBC has elected not to renew the sudsy midseason drama Deception, making it the third new scripted series the network has canceled since the season began. Three months after putting the veterinarian sitcom Animal Practice to sleep, NBC in February put the kibosh on the Jekyll-and-Hyde psychodrama Do No Harm. Actress Meagan Good, who played the lead role on Deception (Det. Joanna Locasto), confirmed the cancelation early Wednesday evening.
Read MoreA+E Networks’ Wednesday night upfront presentation at Lincoln Center featured ad sales president Mel Berning in an aggressive mode, taking on broadcasters for “throwing over $1 billion dollars up for grabs in this year’s upfront.” Indeed, many in the cable universe have called this the year for cable to really hack off quite a bit of broadcast’s market share, and A+E is giving it a try with all three flagship networks—A&E, History and Lifetime. Berning gave the company’s ad sponsors center stage during his opening speech, aided by video of Longmire characters driving Dodge Rams, the Geico gecko in a Vikings-themed spot, and beauty brand L’Oreal. “On Lifetime, L’Oreal has been such a consistent sponsor of Runway that around the office we call it ‘L’Oreal’s Project Runway,’” Berning said. On the programming front, ratings steamroller History will roll out the new reality series Daredevils, as well as two scripted efforts to follow last year’s high-rated The Bible—Sons of Liberty, a historical miniseries along similar lines, and Houdini, starring Oscar-winner Adrien Brody as the doomed magician. Nancy Dubuc also pledged to increase the size of the three smaller nets at the company—H2, Bio and Lifetime Movie Network. “Over the coming year, our goal is to grow H2, Bio and LMN into the powerful platforms that History, A&E and Lifetime have become,” she said. Now in its fourth year under Dubuc, Lifetime continues to increase its scripted original offerings with Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry’s Devious Maids and The Witches of East End, starring Julia Ormond as the lead in a series about a family of witches. (Originally developed for ABC, Maids was picked up by Lifetime in June 2012 after the broadcaster passed on ordering the series.) One odd permutation of the network strategy will be Bonnie & Clyde, developed for Lifetime but now planned for simulcast on A&E, Lifetime and History. And of course, Dubuc (now CEO of the entire outfit) played up A&E’s hit Duck Dynasty, the finale of which outperformed even American Idol last month. New shows include Stay at Home Dads and scripted series Those Who Kill, produced by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer and starring Chlo
Read MorePopular TSN SportsCentre anchors Jay Onrait and Dan O'Toole are leaving the Canadian net for Fox Sports, according to Sports Illustrated . A year after The Wall Street Journal wrote that the two are "reinvigorat[ing] the genre," Onrait and O'Toole will lend their signature humorous hosting style to Fox Sports Live. The announcement of the pair's departure from TSN came earlier today, inspiring many YouTube tributes from loyal fans. Even Canada's prime minister tweeted that he would miss them. Fox Sports Live will compete with ESPN's SportsCenter in a nightly three-hour block of "infotainment." And with Onrait and O'Toole—who have become national treasures in Canada—Fox thinks it has a shot. They will be a major part of the show's rotating panel of anchors, analysts and former athletes. Fox is also reportedly scoping out ESPN's Charissa Thompson and retired tennis star Andy Roddick for the panel. Fox Sports Live will begin testing in June, with an official launch set for Aug. 17.
Read MoreParting is such sweet sorrow, but NBC is taking the sting out of series finale of The Office by tacking an extra 15 minutes onto the one-hour running time. The Peacock announced today that Episode 200/201 of its long-running comedy will air from 9 to 10:15 p.m. on May 16. NBC will compensate for the 75-minute closer by running fewer commercials in lead-out drama Hannibal. Along with giving fans some bonus time with the Dunder-Mifflin gang, the super-sized episode allows NBC to sell another four to five minutes of commercial inventory. With expectations of a big turnout for next week’s show, NBC has commanded unit costs as high as $400,000 per 30-second spot. Per media buyer estimates, the premium marks a nearly 200 percent uptick from the average price NBC wrote for Season 9 during the 2012-13 upfront. While that makes for a tidy increase, the price of admission is nowhere near as steep as other recent finales. For example, ABC in 2010 secured a 325 percent markup for the final installment of Lost , commanding around $925,000 per :30. Then again, the Lost capper also averaged 13.5 million viewers and a 5.8 in the 18-49 demo, numbers well beyond what anyone expects for The Office finale. That same year, Fox secured an average unit cost of around $675,000 for time in the last installment of 24, more than double the rates it charged in the preceding upfront. As series finales go, the most expensive time buy in TV history was in the May 6, 2004, installment of NBC’s Friends. Clients ponied up as much as $2.25 million for 30 seconds of air time in “The Last One,” which would go on to draw a massive 52.5 million viewers. By Nielsen’s reckoning, approximately 43 percent of TV homes watched the episode.
Read MoreImmediately after its Sunday night Season 2 premiere, three of Telemundo's advertisers expanded their commitments to include La Voz Kids. Ford, State Farm and AT&T will now buy the Hispanic spinoff of big sister network NBC's The Voice, in addition to their current deals on the network. Looking to the upfront, network president Emilio Romano said that he hopes increased awareness of the demographic gives the network an edge as it negotiates not just against other Hispanic networks but other broadcasters as well. "We’re confident that we’re going to be able to expand the Spanish dollars in the media pie," Romano told Adweek. There's significant room for growth, too. "We have just one third of the advertisers (in the general market), so we have that long way to go." The two-hour show
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