Media Bites-April 23 2010

According to a recent mediabuyerplanner.com article, Magna states newspaper advertising will continue to decline an additional 11% through the end of this year. Just when I thought there was no hope left for print advertising, along comes Mediabids.com; a newspaper and magazine auction marketplace. This portal allows buyers and advertisers to search for the publication they need, with the size the require and pay for it easily and efficiently. No need to call up a newspaper, find the right account executive, play phone and email tag, not have the right sizes listed, have to set up a billing address and send an insertion order. All of those barriers are removed. Additionally mediabids.com offers a pay per performance function similar to most digital properties- the publisher ONLY gets paid when there has been recorded activity.

Media Bites-April 15 2010

Broadcast companies are finally learning to work together to develop mobile TV technologies that will benefit consumers. A consortium 0f 173 stations representing over 150 million people will work to distribute news, weather and entertainment via mobile devices using freed up unused spectrum space, rather than the internet.

We still come back to the same questions: Will consumers be willing to pay a fee to access content on handheld devices? How will ratings delivery be tracked as it would now be considered out of home viewing? Will the quality and speed of the downloaded content be worth watching?

It still feels very disjointed and segregated. Wouldn't it make more sense to have a one stop shop where consumers can pay ONE monthly fee from ONE website and access programming anywhere, anytime?

Media Bites-April 12 2010

I guess that using your kids generates much more revenue than nursing these days. Just read that Kate Gosselin will now star in not one, but two new shows on TLC: 'Kate Plus 8 Specials' to focus on her life as a single mother and 'Twist of Kate', where she will respond to comments and letters of inspiration written by other women. Really? Is this what unscripted TV programming has now come to? Next on the list is a movie deal with Lifetime where Kate will play herself, the kids will play themselves and John Cho will play her ex-husband Jon.

Of course none of us really knows what's going on her head or behind the scenes; as she continues to make the argument that she is doing what's best for the kids and needs to provide for them. Who wants to take bets that most of the kids will need some kind of therapy or Hollywood de-tox to move on with their lives.

Media Bites-April 5 2010

TV Pilot Update:

Tiffany (CBS) Network profiles:

Cops. FBI, medical dramas and and a 70's re-dux

ATF
Sony Pictures TV/CBS Studios
Michael Dinner (w, d, ep), Sarah Timberman (ep), Carl Beverly (ep)
An ATF agent hunts down criminals while trying to balance life as a father to his teenage daughter.
Dylan Walsh

Chaos
20th Century Fox TV
Tom Spezialy (w, ep), Brett Ratner (d, ep), Martha Haight (ep)
Rogue CIA operatives combat bureaucratic gridlock, rampant incompetence and political infighting.
Freddy Rodriguez, Eric Close, James Murray, Tim Blake Nelson, Carmen Ejogo

Criminal Minds spinoff (planted spinoff)
ABC Studios/CBS Studios
Chris Mundy (w, ep), Mark Gordon (w, ep), Ed Bernero (exec consultant), Deborah Spera (ep), Richard Shepard (d)
Revolves around profilers who work outside the FBI bureaucracy.
Forest Whitaker, Matt Ryan,
Beau Garrett, Michael Kelly

Defenders
CBS Television Studios
Niels Mueller (w, ep), Kevin Kennedy (w, ep), Carol Mendelsohn (ep), Joe Gantz (ep), Harry Gantz (ep), Davis Guggenheim (d)
Two fiery Las Vegas defense attorneys go to the mat for their clients.
>Jim Belushi, Tanya Fischer, Jurnee Smollett

Hawaii Five-o
CBS Television Studios
Roberto Orci (w, ep), Alex Kurtzman (w, ep), Peter Lenkov (w, ep), Len Wisman (d, ep)
Updated take on the original series revolving around an elite branch of the Hawaii State Police.
Alex O'Loughlin, Daniel Dae Kim , Grace Park, Taryn Manning

I Witness (rollover from last year)
CBS Television Studios
Trey Calloway (w, ep), Pam Veasey (w, ep)
A detective/professor uses her psycho-physiological skills to solve crimes.

The Odds
Warner Bros. TV/Silver Pictures
Jeff Wadlow (w, ep), Joel Silver (ep), Ian Biederman (ep), Ken Fink (d)
Buddy-cop show set in Las Vegas.
Sullivan Stapleton, Donald Faison, Jacob Vargas, Kelly Hu, Emily Swallow

The Quinn-Tuplets (presentation)
CBS Television Studios
Mike Kelley (w, ep), Giyora Yahalom (ep), Oren Jakobi (ep), Yona Wiesenthal (ep), Eilon Ratzkovsky (ep), Arik Kneller (co-ep), Chris Kelley (w, p), Mimi Leder (d)
Follows the personal and professional lives of the Quinn quintuplets -- five adults whose lives were documented and broadcast since birth.
Amber Tamblyn, Kenneth Mitchell, Sam Witwer, David Giuntoli, Juliette Goglia