CBS Finally Sells Shows on iTunes

CBS is making Survivor, NUMB3RS and NCIS and CSI available as iTunes downloads for $1.99 per episode. The new CBS offerings include episodes from the just-completed 2005/2006 season, and earlier for some series, as well as the upcoming season which starts in September. New episodes in the fall will be available on iTunes the day after they appear on the network.

“iTunes has proven that people enjoy viewing shows on their computer or iPod,” said Larry Kramer, president, CBS Digital Media. iTunes now offers over 100 TV shows and has sold over 30 million videos, which begs the question, what took CBS so long to realize that people like to watch video on iPods and computers?

NBC began selling shows on iTunes in December and Fox began selling shows in May. Walt Disney and ABC inked the first deal in October.

MediaPost writes that CBS sees advantages to not forging a deal with iTunes until now - months after the other three major networks started selling shows on the service - CBS shows won’t now face heavy competition from the other network programs on iTunes. “We like the idea of going up at the end of the season,” Kramer said. “The only really new shows up there are ours.”

Sharper Image Free Fall Continues

Sharper Image’s revenues for the first quarter ended April 30 decreased 26 percent to $106.8 million, DMNews reports. Catalog/direct marketing sales decreased 16 percent to $23.5 million while Internet sales decreased 26 percent to $17.2 million. Wholesale sales decreased 45 percent to $6.5 million.

In March, the company announced plans to cut advertising expenditures by 30 percent, catalog circulation by 30 percent, single-product solo mailers circulation by 40 percent, and infomercial spending by 25 percent. The company also is cutting its corporate workforce by 20 percent, and its retail workforce by 12 percent.

House Passes Pro-Telco Bill, Rejects Net Neutrality

By a more than three-to-one margin (321 to 101), the House of Representatives on Thursday passed telecommunications legislation that for the most part corresponds with the agenda of the largest telephone companies, writes the New York Times (via MarketingVOX). Lawmakers also rejected, 269 to 152, a Democrat-backed amendment to ensure Net neutrality. That is, the legislation would not prevent phone and cable companies from charging internet content providers more for carrying services that might compete with the telco’s own services, such as online video.

Four Radio Groups Sign Up for Arbitron’s PPM Ratings

Bonneville International, Emmis Communications, Greater Media and Lincoln Financial Media have entered into multi-year agreements for Portable People Meter radio ratings when the new audience ratings technology is deployed.

Sirius Signs Young Conservative Andrew Wilkow

Conservative talk show host Andrew Wilkow is leaving his daily talk program on WGY-AM/Albany and his weekend talk show on WABC-AM/New York to move to Sirius, the satellite radio company announced today. Wilkow, described by Sirius as “the next generation of talk radio,” began his radio career as an 18-year-old college student. Now in his “very early thirties,” according to the WABC website, this is the first time he will be reaching a national audience.

U.K. Newspapers Suffer in May

The Sunday newspaper market in the U.K. has sagged, with the Sunday Independent falling by 12.01 percent and The Observer slipping 8.47 percent in May, Brand Republic reports. The Sunday Mirror, The People and News of the World dropped only marginally, with 0.57, 0.55, and 1 percent falls for the month, respectively.

Aegis Asks Investors to Reject Bollore Board Candidates

Aegis made an announcement to shareholders today asking that they reject French financier Vincent Bollore’s demand for two seats on the board, Reuters writes. The company says Bollore’s candidates would have a conflict of interest, as Bollore is chairman of rival ad group Havas, and that no single minority should have such control over the company.

Upfront Update: NBC May Roll Back Pricing, ABC Inks No Deals Yet

Media executives are estimating that NBC may be rolling back pricing by as much as 6 percent during this upfront season and OMD is said to have negotiated a deal with the network at a lower CPM than last year, MediaPost reports. OMD earlier this week signed the first major deal of the cable upfront with MTV Networks for a reported $300 million.

“Dance” Glides Into First

Fox’s second-year reality show, So You Think You Can Dance, continued to grow in its second Wednesday outing and may just be the summer’s biggest hit, MediaLife reports.

H&M Dresses Up Madonna

Clothing retailer H&M has created a new campaign featuring Madonna decked out in H&M clothes that will launch in August and run through the fall in magazines and on outdoor billboards, Adweek reports. Madonna is in the middle of a much-hyped U.S. tour.