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‘Under the Dome,’ Reality Vets Lead Week While Univision Stays on Top in Demo
4 hours ago
While Univision made it five straight weeks as television’s primetime network leader in young adults, English-language program rankings were dominated by reality shows …. and “Under the Dome.”
Nine of the top 10 ad-supported shows in the adults 18-49 demo last week were installments of veteran unscripted series, led by “America’s Got Talent.” The 7-year-old NBC show tied with CBS drama newcomer “Under the Dome” at No. 1.
CBS also saw a decent start for the return of once-cancelled crime drama “Unforgettable” on Sunday, as it teamed with “Dome” to give CBS the week’s top two ratings for scripted originals on broadcast and basic cable. By adding the two scripted shows to a summer lineup that includes staple “Big Brother,” the Eye was able to show year-over-year weekly gains — the only major net to do so.
Overall, according to Nielsen, Univision led in adults 18-49 with a 1.5 rating/5 share, and »
- Rick Kissell
Univision to Big Four: We’re No. 1 and Rising
7 hours ago
While the Engish-language broadcast and cable nets sought to up their games this summer, Univision proved to be a major scene stealer by notching a ratings milestone that underscores the increasingly multicultural makeup of the U.S. population. Univision ranked No. 1 among all networks in the adults 18-49 and adults 18-34 demographics during the July sweep period (June 26-July 24), according to Nielsen, a first for the Spanish-language titan in any sweep period.
Granted, July is not a month when the Big Four are at full strength in terms of programming (unlike Univision’s year-round telenovela-driven primetime lineup), and sweeps in general have been made essentially obsolete due to improvements in local rating-gathering techniques. But it was a handy hook for Univision to hang a headline on at a time when the net was flush with a hot novela (“Amores Verdaderos”) and had a bounce from a July 18 youth-centric kudocast (“Premios »
- Anna Marie de la Fuente
How to Build a Better Telenovela
7 hours ago
Producing six telenovelas a year requires the coordination of a not-so-small army of actors, writers, producers, directors and crew members to turn out episodes at a pace that even English-lingo soap opera vets would find dizzying.
Telemundo’s field marshal in this battle is Joshua Mintz, exec veep of scripted programming and g.m. of Telemundo Studios.
“It’s a big train that’s hard to stop once it gets going,” Mintz says. “It is a never-ending story for us.”
With its ramp-up of production, Telemundo now has 300 full-time employees dedicated to novela production at its studios in Hialeah, Fla., and Mexico City. And that doesn’t include other talent and crew members hired as freelancers.
Actors are often brought in under long-term contracts because of the heated competition between Univision/Televisa and Telemundo. A thesp who stars in a novela for one isn’t usually welcome at the other »
- Cynthia Littleton
Fox’s Spanish-Lingo Network Mundo Needs Mojo
7 hours ago
It’s the best of times and the toughest of times to launch a Spanish-language network in the U.S.
MundoFox, the joint venture of Fox International Channels and Colombia’s Rcn Television, will mark its first anniversary Aug. 13. Like any newborn, the broadcast net has experienced growing pains, facing an uphill climb in drawing viewers and gaining distribution in key Hispanic markets.
“We feel like a precocious 1-year-old, speaking fluently — in Spanish of course — but still a baby,” says MundoFox prexy Emiliano Saccone.
MundoFox has fallen short of its stated goal last year to reach 70% of Hispanic homes by May; the new network is available to less than half the nation’s 14.1 million Hispanic TV households, though it expects to surpass the 50% threshold soon.
New York has been a particular problem for the network, which has only a weak station affiliate in the nation’s No. 1 media market. MundoFox »
- Anna Marie de la Fuente
NBCUniversal Bets Big on Original Spanish-Lingo Productions
7 hours ago
From the outside, Telemundo Studios looks like a nondescript warehouse on a side street in Hialeah, Fla.
Oh, but what happens inside: Dreams come true, plucky girls from poor families marry millionaires, love triangles tear marriages apart, evil drug lords meet justice and plumbers court princesses, all on a daily basis.
The production facilities hum nearly ’round the clock, thanks to the mandate to turn out hundreds of hours of telenovelas a year for the Spanish-language network owned by NBCUniversal. It’s a sopa-to-nuez operation, with everything from writers rooms and casting offices to miles of wardrobe racks and post-production equipment housed within two-story buildings.
Perhaps the most telling resource on the Telemundo lot these days is tucked away in an alley that runs between the stages. It’s small but significant: a New York street set built for the production of the 2012 novela adapted from the 2002 Jennifer Lopez movie “Maid in Manhattan. »
- Cynthia Littleton
MiTu Aims to Capture Hispanic Aud Online
7 hours ago
On the set of “Beauty Coach,” a show on Latino digital streaming network MiTu, one may hear a surprising thing: English.
“Beauty Coach,” one of several original productions on the multi-channel network, features a Latina stylist who gives makeup and hair lessons to different women each week. But unlike most of the programming on the U.S.’ top two Hispanic networks, Univision and Telemundo, “Beauty Coach” alternates between Spanish and English.
“Everything is Latina because she is Latina,” said Beatriz Acevedo, one of MiTu’s three founders. Acevedo recalled an incident during her time as a consultant for Discovery’s Spanish programming when TV executives were surprised to learn that Giada De Laurentiis’ cooking show ranked highly among Hispanic audiences. “People think if it’s Latino you have to have the mariachis, the sombreros, (but) because it’s Latina, we never do it over-the-top … it’s just real. That’s what connects with people. »
- Rachel Abrams
TCA: Showtime’s David Nevins Addresses ‘Borgias’ Protesters, Netflix, ‘Dexter’ Spinoff
7 hours ago
Showtime’s summer TCA session kicked into gear with a “Dexter”-themed lunch at the Beverly Hilton Tuesday, but not without a heavy dose of “The Borgias” flying overhead.
Protesters stood outside the confab in an effort to persuade the pay TV execs to bring back the period drama, which Showtime cancelled this summer after three seasons. A plane also flew above the lunch with a banner reading, “D Nevins: Sho Fans You Care! SaveTheBorgias.com.”
The showing had little effect on Showtime prez David Nevins, who addressed the issue at the network’s exec session after lunch.
“I know we all got buzzed at lunch by the airplane,” the topper joked. “I feel bad about the money that’s being spent. As I was pulling in today, there was one protester out there and I rolled my window down and asked with he thought of ‘The Borgias’ finale and he said, »
- AJ Marechal
VH1′s ‘Love & Hip Hop Atlanta’ and ‘Hit the Floor’ Finish Big
7 hours ago
Ratings for VH1′s “Hit the Floor” went through the roof on Monday as the cheerleader drama wrapped its rookie season with best-yet scores. It held onto a good chunk of its lead-in from the strong “Love & Hip Atlanta 2,” summer’s top cable series in young adults.
Just the second scripted series ever for VH1, “Hit the Floor” averaged a 1.4 rating/4 share in adults 18-49 and 2.62 million viewers overall in Monday’s opening hour. This marked the show’s third straight week of gains and represents a roughly 70% improvement from its Memorial Day premiere.
The already-renewed “Hit the Floor” is neck and neck with USA’s “Graceland” as the summer’s top new scripted series on cable in adults 18-49, but its real strength lies in the young-female demos. In women 18-34, its 2.8 rating/8 share was a competitive second to ABC’s “The Bachelorette” (3.4/10) on all of television for Monday. »
- Rick Kissell
Tom Wheeler Gains Senate Committee Approval for FCC Chair
10 hours ago
The Senate Commerce Committee on Tuesday approved the nomination of Tom Wheeler as the next chairman of the FCC, although questions remain as to how quickly his selection will gain a floor vote.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-w. Va.), chairman of the Commerce Committee, urged members to approve the nomination, but said it would be left up to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to work out when it would get a vote of the Senate.
Republicans want Wheeler’s nomination paired with a Republican nominee for another vacancy on the commission, but so far none has put forward. Sen. John Thune (R-s.D.) said that the White House would be making the nomination “very soon,” while Rockefeller vowed to move the Republican nominee through committee quickly.
Meanwhile, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) vowed to use “procedural means” to delay Wheeler’s nomination if he does »
- Ted Johnson
NBC Wraps Upfront With Increase In Volume
10 hours ago
Does the Peacock have more wind under its feathers?
NBC has wrapped its upfront sales process with an increase in the advance advertising commitments it has secured from sponsors for its coming programming season, according to a person familiar with the situation.
Including football, NBC secured around $2.1 billion for its prime-time schedule, The network has in years past typically secured around $100 million in sports-programming inventory, which would leave approximately $2 billion for its prime-time entertainment programming alone. NBC secured between $1.72 billion and $1.74 billion in last year’s market.
If that’s the case, NBC would be the only one of the five English-language broadcast networks so far to accomplish the feat in what is expected to ultimately be a flat to down year for ad dollars committed to ABC, CBS , Fox, NBC and the CW overall. ABC has not unveiled completion of its upfront process.
This is the second year NBC »
- Brian Steinberg
ABC Family Renews ‘Switched at Birth,’ Offers Pickups to ‘Fosters,’ ‘Twisted’
11 hours ago
ABC Family has ordered a third season of “Switched at Birth,” and plans to bow the new episodes in January.
Cabler has also offered back order pickups to frosh series “Twisted” and “The Fosters,” which debuted on the Disney-owned net earlier in the summer. ABC Family will roll those back orders out in January, alongside the new season of “Switched at Birth.”
While the net would not disclose how many episodes constitute the back orders, ABC Family typically offers an additional 10 segs to be tacked onto the initial first-run order.
“ABC Family has always been a home for groundbreaking storytelling with iconic characters and families and we’re thrilled to have ‘The Fosters’ and ‘Twisted’ join our line-up as breakout summer hits,” said Michael Riley, prez of the net. “We are very proud of the original series we continue to foster, bringing real and relatable characters to life for our »
- AJ Marechal
Mediaset Shares Rise As Berlusconi Awaits Verdict
11 hours ago
Rome – Shares in Silvio Berlusconi’s Mediaset rose more than 3% Tuesday, signalling markets don’t expect major repercussions on the TV company as Italy’s supreme court begins ruling on the final appeal in a highly sensitive tax fraud case involving multimillion-dollar Hollywood deals.
TV crews from around the world are gathered in front of Rome’s gigantic Palace of Justice for a verdict which could mark Berlusconi’s first final conviction in Italy’s lengthy legal system.
Speculation is swirling that a political crisis could ensue if the media-mogul-turned-pol is found guilty. And also that a conviction would mark the end of Berlusconi’s political career.
Berlusconi’s lawyer Franco Coppi told reporters outside the courtroom that the verdict is expected Wednesday or possibly Thursday.
Meanwhile Mediaset shares closed up 3,27 on the Milan bourse Tuesday, driven largely by the fact that on Monday Mediaset’s paybox Mediaset Premium inked »
- Nick Vivarelli
TV and Movie Biz Support Rockefeller Plan to Study Violent Content (Updated)
12 hours ago
The cable, movie and broadcast lobbies are throwing their support behind Senate Commerce Committee chairman Jay Rockefeller’s proposal for a comprehensive study of videogame and video violence, introduced in the wake of the Newtown massacre in December.
The Commerce Committee voted on Tuesday to move forward with the legislation, which calls for the National Academy of Sciences to conduct a comprehensive investigation into whether childhood exposure to violent videogame and video is harmful. The legislation also singles out videogames in calling for an investigation into whether its interactive nature “have a unique impact on children,” but it also identifies video, a broad category that could include everything from TV to Internet streaming.
“We welcome further academic examination of the reasons behind societal violence, as proposed by Senator Rockefeller, and will continue to be productive partners in the conversation about culture in America,” the MPAA and the National Cable and Telecommunications Assn. »
- Ted Johnson
TCA: CW’s Mark Pedowitz Confirms ‘Flash,’ Admits Ratings ‘Naivete’
12 hours ago
A new DC Comics character is being eyed at the CW.
At the network’s TCA session Tuesday, CW prez Mark Pedowitz confirmed the development of “Flash,” a drama project based on the DC character that will be seeded into the CW’s sibling superhero drama “Arrow.”
“We do want to expand upon the DC universe,” Pedowitz explained to the room of journalists. “We think they’re rich characters we can use, and this is an organic way of doing it.”
The introduction of a new superhero to the CW’s lineup offers the net another opportunity to draw in male auds that departed the CW once “Smallville” was canceled in 2011. Pedowitz remarked he is still looking to “broaden the adult 18-34 demo,” and bringing in shows like “Arrow” has helped slowly bulk up the male viewership for the CW once again.
“Flash” would be the umpteenth time the CW »
- AJ Marechal
Starz, 20th Century Fox Strike Vast Library Film Deal
12 hours ago
Starz and 20th Century Fox Television Distribution announced a massive library deal for hundreds of film titles Monday, marking the largest such deal between the companies.
Pact is not to be confused with an output deal, which the studio currently has with HBO as of last year that covers much more recent titles. While output deals cover releases that are just 10 months out of theaters for an 18-month period, library titles are nearly a decade old.
Still, a library deal of this size is something of a rarity given they typically cover a handful of titles at a time. This multi-year pact will steer some major Fox franchises to Starz including the “Ice Age,” “X-Men” and “Home Alone” franchises. Nearly 40% of the titles covered under the deal have never been on Starz before.
With all major-studio output deals locked up in the long term, the premium cabler doesn’t have »
- Andrew Wallenstein
‘Bachelorette’ Hits Season High, But ‘Dome’ Still Tops Monday
12 hours ago
ABC’s “The Bachelorette” picked up steam Monday one week from its conclusion, hitting season highs and teaming with drama “Mistresses” for the net’s best summer showing on the night in more than a year. CBS still claimed Monday’s top show with “Under the Dome,” which was just about on par with last week.
According to preliminary national estimates from Nielsen, a teary episode of “The Bachelorette,” which saw one of the three finalists bow out of the competition before the rose ceremony, surged to a 2.3 rating/7 share in adults 18-49 and 7.8 million viewers overall, up 21% (0.4) from last week and winning each half-hour from 8 to 10. It was followed by rookie drama “Mistresses” (1.3/4 in 18-49, 4.1 million viewers overall), which appears to be up for a second straight week and hit a best-yet 1.1/3 in adults 18-34; and it again provided the net with nice time-period improvement over last year.
ABC »
- Rick Kissell
Jonathan Lisco Signs Overall Deal with AMC
13 hours ago
“Southland” alum Jonathan Lisco has inked a two-year overall deal with AMC.
Under the pact, Lisco will showrun AMC’s “Halt & Catch Fire,” which the cabler ordered to series last week. He will also develop original projects for the net, and supervise and showrun other series.
“We are thrilled to be in business with Jonathan and excited to have him create here at AMC, starting with showrunning ‘Halt & Catch Fire,’” said Susie Fitzgerald, AMC’s senior veep of scripted development. “He has a unique perspective on characters that is really in line with ours – they are deep, layered and do very unexpected things.”
Along with exec producing “Southland,” Lisco was the creator and exec producer of John Wells pilot “Animal Kingdom.” Under a past overall at 20th Century Fox TV, Lisco created Fox pilot “Damages” and series “K-Ville.”
He is repped by UTA and attorney Ken Richman. »
- AJ Marechal
ABC Snaps NBC’s Lengthy Evening News Demo Win Streak
13 hours ago
ABC’s “World News with Diane Sawyer” ruled as the top-rated evening news program in the key demo for advertising last week, putting an end to a nearly five-year streak by NBC’s “Nightly News with Brian Williams.”
According to Nielsen estimates for the week of July 22-26, “ABC World News” averaged 1.917 million adults 25-54 to 1.879 million for “NBC Nightly News” and 1.506 million for “CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley.” The Alphabet program, which was boosted by Sawyer’s exclusive interview with Juror B29 in the George Zimmerman trial, was up vs. the comparable week a year ago, while NBC and CBS were both down.
The first evening news demo victory for ABC since October 2008 capped weeks of momentum for the Sawyer-fronted broadcast, which recently beat the NBC show twice in the same week in adults 25-54 for the first time in more than three years.
NBC remained on top in total viewers with 7.536 million, »
- Rick Kissell
Yuliana Slashcheva to Lead Russian Network Ctc
14 hours ago
London — Russian broadcaster Ctc Media, which operates free-to-air channels Ctc, Domashny and Peretz, has tapped Yuliana Slashcheva as CEO.
She replaces Boris Podolsky, who leaves the company to pursue other interests, the company said Tuesday.
Slashcheva was most recently the prexy and CEO of Mikhailov and Partners, which is Russia’s largest strategic communications company. She was previously a partner at Bbdo Marketing.
Slashcheva was ranked as one of the top 20 most influential businesswomen in Russia by Kompania magazine earlier this year, and Kariera magazine selected her as the top ranked manager of a communications company last year.
Angelo Codignoni, who is co-chairman of Ctc Media alongside Lorenzo Grabau, commented: “Yuliana has the leadership experience, management skills and strategic vision to lead the company to even greater success in the future.”
Ctc Media stock is traded on the Nasdaq, with Modern Times Group owning a 38% stake, and Telcrest Investments holding »
- Leo Barraclough
Discovery Earnings: 2Q Net Income Rises, 2013 Guidance Reduced
17 hours ago
Discovery Communications said net income rose slightly in the second quarter as its cable networks in the U.S and abroad continued to generate more revenue from advertising and distribution. Even so , Discovery reduced its guidance for the year, citing its recent purchase of the Sbs TV and radio networks in Europe.
The Silver Spring, Md., owner of the Discovery Network, TLC and Investigation Discovery cable networks, said net income in the period rose about $7 million, to $300 million, or 82 cents a diluted share, compared with $293 million, or 76 cents a share.
Revenue in the period rose $341 million, or 30%, to about $1.47 billion from $1.13 billion, due to 62% revenue growth at its international TV networks and 13% revenue growth at its U.S. networks.
During a conference call with investors, Discovery CEO David Zaslav cited ratings performance at its Animal Planet cabler and said cash flow at Own, the joint-venture it holds with Opran Winfrey’s Harpo Productions, »
- Brian Steinberg
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