»
Friday night TV ratings have been so poor that industry speculation has it that the networks may consider making Fridays a night for repeat programming rather than original programming, as they did with Saturday nights in recent years, Mediaweek reports. Through the first two weeks of the season, only CBS and ABC had cumulative 18-49 ratings above a 2.0. NBC managed a cumulative 2.0 through the third week by replacing a new drama, Inconceivable, with a repeat of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Across the six networks, the cumulative average was a 1.8 in the 18-49 demo, throughout the first three weeks.
Network executives, such as Fox’s executive vp of strategic program planning, Preston Beckman, claim Friday will remain a night for original programming, but Fox and other networks have broken pledges in the past. One network executive, who asked to remain anonymous, said, “We were losing money on Saturday nights for years. Now we are essentially putting on programming [repeats] that cost us nothing, and we are solidly in the black on the night.”
Media buyers are worried. “To see the networks give up another night would be disheartening. And if they do it, there is a definite possibility that we would consider moving more ad dollars to original programming on cable on the night,” said Kris Magel, senior vp and account manager for Zenith Media.
CBS Radio and Yahoo, two of the largest online radio providers, are combining their online radio stations, beginning early next year.
CBS Radio’s 150 stations and LaunchCast’s 150 online stations will be integrated into Yahoo’s music site, powered by CBS…
Cox Enterprises, Inc. announced today that the company is bringing together its three media units - Cox Newspapers, Cox Television and Cox Radio - under a new organization named Cox Media Group, Inc., effective January 2009. The subsidiary will be headquartered…
Target is one of the first brands to create an iPhone application. The Target “gift globe” allows iPhone users to shake their phones to launch a snow-fall effect.
When the snow clears, a gift idea from Target is revealed. Users…
ABC is set to launch a slew of new series in a midseason shuffle. Primetime: What Would You Do? returns Tuesday, Jan. 9, in the 10pm time slot. The show is a hidden camera experiment in which actors stage scenarios…
Only 28% of the audience of an average news program, website or magazine gets valuable information about products and services advertised there, making news venues less effective at conveying ad messages than all forms of media combined (see chart), according…
Effective immediately, any telemarketing call that delivers a prerecorded message must include a quick and easy way to opt-out of receiving future calls. The opt-out must work both for consumers who answer these calls in person and for those whose…
