The Senate Commerce Committee heard varying angles on the impact technological convergence has had on competition, during the final hearing the committee will hold before it revamps the communication regulatory policy by revising a bill that might update the 1996 Telecommunication Act, writes Broadcasting & Cable.
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Broadcaster NBC and Touchstone Television have made the TV show Scrubs available for download from iTunes, for $1.99 per episode, Media Life writes.
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The specialist in equine gifts and supplies, SmartPak, entered the world of dogs at the beginning of March with the launch of its 40-page SmartPak Canine catalog and internet store SmartPakCanine.com, Multichannel Merchant writes.
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According to auto dealers, while the satellite radio option is not a defining factor for closing most sales, more customers now expect it as part of the package, reports Auto News.
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In an effort to calm fears concerning young users’ safety, the networking website MySpace.com - which has over 66 million users and is growing rapidly among American teens with 250,000 new users signing up daily - has taken 200,000 “objectionable” profiles off of its website, reports the Financial Times.
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Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim is planning five new series, two pilots - still in development - and several anime acquisitions for its 2006 and 2007 programming, Mediaweek writes.
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Comcast’s ad-supported video-on-demand lineup now offers several buzzworthy NBC Universal properties, writes Mediaweek. The programs include Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Las Vegas, Conviction, The Office, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, and Passions.
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NBC needs to do something quick about its Wednesday night programming, before the it ends up killing the new promising show, Heist - whose Nielsen overnight ratings fell 17 percent to 2.5 in its second week - and the 15-year-old favorite, Law and Order - whose ratings continue to fall short of its season-to-date average in its new time slot - writes Media Life.
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Nearly one in four web users (24 percent) watch online video at least once a week and nearly half (46 percent) do so at least once a month, according to a new study by the Online Publishers Association conducted by Frank N. Magid Associates, reports MediaPost (via MarketingVox). Some 69 percent of respondent said they have viewed video online at least once; 5 percent said they watch video daily.
Cox Radio, Inc. announced today the launch of The New 96.7 The Coast, a format developed by residents of the affluent Fairfield County, Conn.’s coastal region, including Greenwich, Stamford, New Canaan, Darien, Norwalk, Westport, Weston and Wilton.
Media buyers would do well to stop ignoring the 40- to 60-year-old age group, said demographer Ken Dychtwald yesterday at a meeting of media buyers and marketers sponsored by Viacom’s TV Land, AdAge reports. The older demo comprises $2.1 trillion in spending power and lead spending in the categories of movie tickets, computer hardware and software, cellphones and home electronics.
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According to the data concerning the first quarter of 2006 released by Nielsen Media Research, USA Network was the highest-rated ad-supported cable network, topping the 18-34 demo, the 18-49 demo, and its target 25-54 demo. The network posted a 2.2 household rating and averaged 2.64 million total primetime viewers, up 12 percent over the same period last year, Mediaweek reports.
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A looming General Motors strike could accelerate the automaker’s shift from traditional media to online media and create a ripple effect across most media, warned Merrill Lynch ad industry analyst Lauren Rich Fine in a report released today, Mediapost reports. Fine said that Interpublic Group might be further destabilized by a strike, but that digital shop Digitas could benefit: “GM accounts for 22 percent of Digitas’s revenues. We believe the move to more cost effective advertising essentially means that Digitas will likely benefit since online advertising is deemed a more cost effective medium than traditional mediums such as TV and print.”
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The U.S. Postal Service has yet to give a clear answer as to why slower deliveries have resulted from its attempts to reduce costs and become more efficient, Multichannel Merchant writes. Mailers are coming forward with complaints of slow delivers - some in Texas were reportedly up to two weeks late - but wish to remain anonymous as to not draw too much attention to the problem, hoping to see the Postal Service’s consolidation succeed.
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On Monday, for the first time in its 83-year history, toy and game manufacturer Hasbro issued its first direct-to-consumer 68-page, full-color catalog - which it plans to issue again in the fall for the holiday season and to continue mailings twice a year - writes Multichannel Merchant.
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As a testament to the increasing demand for ethnic media, three new Vietnamese-language newspapers and one online news site have launched since the November closing of the Mercury New’s Vietnamese-language publication Viet Mercury, the San Jose Mercury News reports.
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With the high success garnered by quick-and-easy food publications - like those put out by Martha Stewart (Everyday Food) and Rachel Ray - Meredith Corporation launched Eat, a magazine that targets busy families, Media Life writes.
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A new study released yesterday by radio consulting firm Jacobs Media found that of the 25,000 rock station listeners surveyed in February, 19 percent of Stern listeners admitted to buying a Sirius subscription after the shock jock moved to satellite in January, and 9 percent have plans to do so, Media Life writes.
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Turner Broadcasting has lowered its subscription rates for users of GameTap - an online repository for old video games that Turner debuted last October - and has launched GameTap TV - five original channels consisting of over 250 on demand video clips targeting gamers, Mediaweek reports.
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Despite enthusiasm for the show before its launch, Tuesday’s debut of CNBC’s bimonthly interview series, Conversations with Michael Eisner, drew a total 95,000 viewers, only 39,000 of which were in the 25-54 news demo, according to Nielsen Media Research, suggesting the show may be another celebrity flop for the network, Mediaweek writes.
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