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With the sure knowledge that it’s cheaper to air something that has already been produced than to try to produce something new themselves, the networks are turning to international projects to save money.
NBC will air the BBC drama Merlin, the U.K.’s Crusoe and the Canadian drama The Listener next season, while ABC just finished airing hidden-camera show Just for Laughs which also came from Canada. And, because people are “pretty comfortable” with international casts and international settings, “we’re looking more toward this in the future,” says CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler, Variety writes.
NBC, now that it has programming chief Ben Silverman at the helm, has been the most aggressive. When Silverman was head of Reveille, he helped bring international shows like The Office and Ugly Betty stateside. Now, he’s moving into bringing over entire shows.
International co-productions divide costs, making them more affordable, while international acquisitions generally come with significantly reduced license fees.
Hyper-conservative Rush Limbaugh - heard weekly by nearly 20 million listeners on about 600 radio stations nationwide - renewed his contract with Premiere Radio Networks and Clear Channel Radio, continuing syndication of The Rush Limbaugh Show.
The deal also includes…
WSJ.com’s traffic soared an impressive 94 percent in June compared to the same month last year, according to the company’s internal traffic numbers.
Total page views ballooned 45 percent, to 150 million, compared to the same month last year, writes Mediaweek.…
Kozy Shack, maker of rice and chocolate pudding, is sponsoring the New York Mets, with tubs of the pudding being sold individually at Shea Stadium as well as being included in children’s meals. And the snacks are selling so well…
Though U.K. advertiser investment committed for 2008 is staying put, discretionary spending is becoming shorter-term, at or slightly short of budget; still, WPP’s GroupM forecasts 4 percent growth in 2008 and 3 percent in 2009 for the U.K., thanks to internet…
Email is the most popular form of direct response marketing, with 35 percent of companies using it - compared to 25 percent that use traditional direct mail - according to a new survey conducted by Direct Partners (via Adweek).
The survey…
Without spam protection, the average web user can expect to get 70 spam messages each day, according to a survey by McAfee, the BBC reports (via MarketingVOX).
For the McAfee spam test, 50 people worldwide were asked to web-surf without a spam…
