TV Marketing News

I Love Television

2006-11-23T02:45:00.000-08:00

Don't you kind of feel sorry for Fox TV? In the olden days (back when it was the fourth-place network out of four networks), Fox was like a 5-year-old kid jacked up on Mountain Dew and Pixy Stix—it'd do ANYTHING to get your attention. I particularly enjoyed its guerrilla-style (and super-offensive) reality shows, such as Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire, Man vs. Beast, and my favorite, The Littlest Groom (in which it tried to hook a dwarf up with a hot, normal-sized babe). However! Nowadays it seems like Fox has "grown up" and can no longer find room in its schedule for shows about such important topics as When Animals Attack. Apparently dwarfs, bimbos, and ass-ripping lions are no longer a concern to Fox executives. And that's too bad, because now that Fox has grown into a self-absorbed teenager (who in order to look more like an adult has been seen wearing a coat with elbow patches and smoking a pipe), it has been receiving some of its worst ratings ever.

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Marketing a TV Pilot to Success

2006-11-21T02:49:00.000-08:00

BrandIntel's lead media analyst takes a close look at this TV season's biggest hits-- and reveals how online research and marketing may have put them at the top. With Halloween officially in the rearview mirror, TV watchers have had more than eight weeks to decide on new shows to fit into their busy viewing schedule. With each new season comes difficult choices-- stick with the reliable show that's been around for years ("ER"), try a sexy new one ("Shark") or wade through ratings death row to sample a surefire turkey ("Twenty Good Years"). Since the line between a full season pickup and unemployment has become thinner than an "OC" plotline, the research and marketing brains behind new shows often turn to internet research for help with pre-launch strategy.

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24-hour i2 TV on air beginning today

2006-11-19T02:44:00.000-08:00

Dubai: i2, the largest mobile provider in the Middle East and Africa (Mena), launched the first 24-hour television station in the world dedicated to mobile technology for mobile users across the region. i2 decided to begin its one of a kind touch point as part of its customer focused expansion plan. i2 TV airs today on Nile Sat 103 and is accessible by all mobile users in the Middle East. "i2 TV is the first television station in the world that is dedicated completely to mobile telecommunication and technology. "We have state of the art production equipment, making us the first TV station in the region to run without the use of tapes" stated Izzat Kittaneh, Managing Director of i2 TV. Positioned as an Arabic "infotainment" channel, i2 TV will give mobile users access to the latest information for all their mobile needs.

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Hot Box: Television to talk about

2006-11-17T02:54:00.000-08:00

Crossing Over: Tonight's Las Vegas plays suspiciously like a crossover with Crossing Jordan, as CJ's Jill Hennessey and Jerry O'Connell investigate a murder and missing rare violin (NBC, Global at 9). Politics Now: On Royal Canadian Air Farce: Larry King and Paul McCartney compare divorce scars while Don Rumsfeld meets Jerry Seinfeld (CBC at 8). Vanishing: Hang in there Vanished fans. Tonight agents Eddie Cibrian and Ming-Na encounter a death row killer linked to a conspiracy even larger than the one they're trying to unravel (Fox at 8). Hey You: People keep telling me they'd like to watch CBC's Intelligence Tuesdays at 9, but not if it means missing House or The Unit. CBC has a well-positioned rerun Friday nights at 11.

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Court TV and Barnes & Noble in Joint Marketing Promotions for New ...

2006-11-15T02:51:00.000-08:00

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Court TV and Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS) have joined forces to promote the network's upcoming series, Murder by the Book, featuring James Ellroy, Michael Connolly, Faye Kellerman, Jonathan Kellerman and Lisa Scottoline. The series will premiere on November 13th at 10pm, and takes viewers through the real-life cases that most captivated these best-selling mystery writers. Court TV will implement a national TV, print, and online marketing campaign. The series will also be featured on Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com). Barnes & Noble.com commercials will appear on Court TV throughout the holiday season. In addition, there will be extensive placements throughout the Court TV Web site (www.courttv.com) with links to Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com/murderbythebook), so visitors can purchase books written by authors appearing on Murder by the Book.

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Last night's TV

2006-11-09T03:51:00.000-08:00

The image of an old man gambolling in a Russian lake with a bear cub was pure fairy tale. Like the blue of the lake or the volcano behind them, so symmetrical it looked edible. This was Natural World: The Bear Man of Kamchatka (BBC2), who has raised orphaned grizzly cubs in this wilderness for 10 years to prove that bears are neither ferocious nor unpredictable. The cubs were orphans because their mother was shot defending them. That, as it happens, is how the first Teddy Bear was born. .

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TV Networks Hope YouTube Mocking Stays As Marketing

2006-11-05T02:40:00.000-08:00

Now part of the Google team, YouTube is trying to go legit. Some content providers are demanding it. But TV networks should be careful–they could be shooting themselves in their marketing feet. Viacom demanded early this week that all that illegal copyrighted content of Comedy Central video like that of "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report," as well as from networks like MTV and BET, be taken off the site. Interestingly, at the same time Viacom is demanding this, it is negotiating a content deal with YouTube. YouTube recently made content deals with CBS and NBC. YouTube is getting its ducks in a row–something you figured it would have done before striking a $1.65 billion deal to be bought by Google. Last week, YouTube took off 30,000 clips of TV shows, movies and music videos after the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers cited copyright infringement.

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Court Cancels Direct Marketing Restriction for TV Slovenija

2006-10-30T03:08:00.000-08:00

The Constitutional Court has annulled a part of the act on the public broadcaster that prohibits the sales of advertising time available for telesales on RTV Slovenija. The court was petitioned to examine the 2nd paragraph of Article 15 of RTV Slovenija act by Studio Moderna, a Ljubljana-based company specialised in direct marketing on television. The petitioner claimed that the stipulation in question infringed on freedom of expression for commercial purposes, something that is granted by the Constitution in the right to freedom of expression. The contentious paragraph forbids the marketing of broadcasting time for direct marketing on the programmes of RTV Slovenija, except during available time slots on a special parliamentary channel at night time, at weekends, holidays or when parliament is in recess.

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Cuboglass Hides that Old, Crappy TV

2006-10-28T06:55:00.000-07:00

The Cuboglass is a black box that will hide the TV and give people the impression that you have a taste for lame contemporary artwork. Turn the TV on and it works like normal, displaying your favorite cartoons and reality shows, therefore proving to the world that you aren't a hipster doofus and really just another lazy TV-watching bum. I'm trying to decide what is worse: being ashamed of owning a TV, or paying $1,191 for a box that can make it look like you don't own a TV? – Travis Hudson Product Page [Via SCI FI] .

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TV crime busters

2006-10-26T04:05:00.000-07:00

THIRTY CCTV cameras will be placed in crime hot-spots throughout Islington in a new £1million crackdown on prostitution and anti-social behaviour.The location of the cameras has already been decided with advice from police and local groups. Most will be at the Angel, and in Archway and Holloway where crime is at its highest. All the sites are currently being surveyed to find the best possible position for the cameras. All cameras will be able to rotate 360 degrees and engineers hope to have them installed before the end of the year.Councillor Marisha Ray said: "These cameras will be effective as a deterrent for crime as well as helping to gather evidence."Islington is about more than just the Angel and the A1 centre, so new cameras will be spread right across the borough from Lever Street to Stroud Green Road."We will monitor the effect they have on areas outside of their reach to make sure that problems are not moved to other places."Islington police say they are delighted with the new cameras.

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On TV: TGIT: TV race has us on the edge of our couches

2006-10-26T04:04:00.000-07:00

We're all a lot like the kid on that snack cracker commercial, forgoing the simple explanation of why things are the way they are. The thought of an enormous cheddar wheel smashing flavor into a flavorless square is infinitely more entertaining. For the most part, everything circles back to the notion that the simplest explanation is usually the best one. Funny, even this idea is known by a fancy name -- Occam's razor. It suits our slicing to the heart of Thursday night's battle between ABC and CBS. Lots of people pegged it as one to watch, but not a soul expected it be as heated as it is so early in the season. "Ugly Betty," everyone thought, would be the underdog, scratching for its life against the stalwart "Survivor." Think about it -- a show about a young woman beyond the help of makeover miracles working at a fashion magazine? Wide reaching, cross-gender appeal didn't look possible.

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Pay TV operator earnings top $100m

2006-10-26T04:03:00.000-07:00

AUSTAR United Communications has said it is growing at an impressive pace and is committed to building on the current growth momentum. Austar has said its unaudited earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 8 per cent to $101.9 million for the nine months to the end of September, compared to the same period last year. Total television subscribers were 590,987, following a net subscriber gain for the third quarter of 20,109, the second successive quarter of more than 20,000 additions. "These operating cost increases are due to the ongoing success of Austar's aggressive subscriber growth strategies and ongoing investment in new activity which are important to the ongoing growth," the company has said. Chief executive officer John Porter has said Austar is growing at an impressive pace.

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TV Highlights for the Week Ahead

2006-10-26T04:01:00.000-07:00

Electronic voting machines count more than three-fourths of the votes cast in America. But are these devices reliable? Or safe from tampering? Concerns about the integrity of electronic voting are growing, as is this realization: If the voting process isn't secure, neither is America's democracy. "Hacking Democracy" sheds light on the potential security flaws of electronic voting machines while warning that many of the problems from 2000 remain unfixed — and could affect next week's midterm elections. The HBO documentary tells the story of writer-turned-voting-activist Bev Harris, who, four years ago, made some dire discoveries. The film reports on how voting machines can be reprogrammed to add or subtract votes; how a computer security expert proved that a system used in the 2004 presidential election could be hacked; and how in a mock election in Florida witnessed by the county's supervisor of elections, the vote totals were altered — undetectably.

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Canada's TV guide joins move online from print

2006-10-26T04:00:00.000-07:00

TORONTO (Reuters) - The days of magazine-style television guides and newspaper listings could be numbered with Canada's TV Guide the latest in a string of publications to move out of print and go online with daily viewing lists. With increasing numbers of people going straight to the Internet or their television screens for their TV listings, magazines and newspaper pullouts dedicated to TV programing are becoming redundant, media commentators said. .

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Project Runway: Good TV, not so fabulous fashion

2006-10-26T03:59:00.001-07:00

NEW YORKThe fashion crowd is a blas bunch. So on the final day of Olympus Fashion Week in New York, it was refreshing to hear an audience buzzing before the start of a designer show. But they weren't breathless over Ralph, Calvin or Donna. It was all about Jay. In his first solo runway show, Jay McCarroll, the quirky Pennsylvania designer who won Project Runway's first season, sent out a mod collection of balloon-print turtlenecks, V-neck balloon dresses and patchwork gowns worn by models with beehive hairdos. The audience loved it, but it wasn't very good. Which made me wonder, do McCarroll or any of the hit reality series' other designers have a lasting future in fashion? There's no question that high fashion has gone mainstream.

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Florida-Georgia rivalry to lose moniker on TV

2006-10-26T03:59:00.000-07:00

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Florida tight end Tate Casey grew up in Texas, far away from the Florida-Georgia rivalry. He was much more familiar with the Red River Shootout, the annual showdown between Oklahoma and Texas. What did he know about Gators-Dawgs? "I always knew the nickname," Casey said. "A lot of things change, but The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party will always stay the same." Maybe not. The moniker might be lost if school officials have their way. They believe the famed nickname conjures up images of drunkenness - not what they want to promote, especially after the deaths of two Florida students the past two years. And beginning Saturday - when the ninth-ranked Gators (6-1, 4-1 Southeastern Conference) and the Bulldogs (6-2, 3-2) meet for the 74th time in Jacksonville - television networks will try to avoid using The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party altogether.

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Bracks defends TV ad

2006-10-26T03:58:00.000-07:00

Victorian Premier Steve Bracks has defended television advertisements personally targeting Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu in the lead-up to next month's state election. The advertisements, which began earlier this week, start with a close-up of Mr Baillieu's eyes and pan out as a voice tells viewers: "No-one has forgotten the Liberal years, but do you remember who backed each closure and cut? It was then Liberal president Ted Baillieu." Mr Bracks rejected suggestions the ads were grubby and said they were accurate. "They reflect on a period in which we had schools close, hospitals close, police stations close right around Victoria," he told reporters today. Mr Bracks said both the Liberal Party and The Nationals had released advertising material attacking the Labor Party and him personally.

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MPs to probe TV phone-in quiz shows

2006-10-26T03:57:00.001-07:00

TV quiz shows which ask viewers to call premium rate phonelines for the chance of winning a big cash prize are to be investigated by an influential MPs' committee, it was announced. A rash of channels devoted to phone-in quizzes have appeared since the appearance of digital TV, and mainstream organisations like ITV have even got in on the money-spinning game. But there have been concerns over viewers allegedly racking up three-figure phone bills trying to get through to the studio to answer what appear to be easy questions. Questions were asked in Parliament about whether the shows should be classed as lotteries, rather than competitions, which would force them to apply for licences and donate 20% of their profits to charity. The inquiry by the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sports Committee will see TV bosses grilled over the cost of calling quiz shows, which can reach as much as 75p a time.

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NHK TV broadcasting may be subject to government order

2006-10-26T03:57:00.000-07:00

Japan Broadcasting Corp.'s (NHK) international television service may be subject to a possible government order seeking a greater coverage of Japanese abductees, Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Yoshihide Suga said Thursday. Speaking before the House of Representatives Internal Affairs and Communications Committee, Suga said it is natural such an order will cover NHK's international TV service, as well as its international shortwave radio broadcasting service as noted before. Such an order to the international service will become possible if the government can secure outlays in the fiscal 2007 state budget, Suga said. The requested outlays reach 300 million yen. Suga has repeatedly expressed his intention to order the public broadcaster to increase its coverage of the Japanese citizens kidnapped by North Korean agents to beef up an international awareness of the issue.

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Watching too much TV may trigger autism

2006-10-26T03:56:00.000-07:00

New York: Toddlers who watch too much television may suffer from autism, a neurological disorder that affects the functioning of the brain, says a new study. Autism impacts development in the areas of social interaction and communication skills. It is a complex developmental disability that typically appears during the first three years of life. Over the past few decades, there's been an increase in the number of children diagnosed with this disorder. Michael Waldman and colleagues at Cornell University looked into the statistics compiled by the US Bureau of Labour Statistics, on when families watch TV, and on how much TV they watch, reported the online edition of health Magazine WebMD. These statistics show that toddlers watch more television when it's raining outside than when it isn't raining, the researchers said.

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