Sports and more sports will drive up cable cost and reduce non-sports options..Remembering Mike Wallace. Hunger Games sinks Titanic and eats American Pie. Alien invasion comedy "Neighborhood Watch" to change its title.
The Skinny: I went to Newseum while I was in Washington, D.C. Nice place but the $21.95 cover charge is a little steep, especially since I can visit it online for free. Get it? That's a little old media/new media humor for you. Monday's headlines include the continuing dominance of "The Hunger Games" at the movie theater, cuts coming at Sony and the passing of TV news legend Mike Wallace.
Photo: Mike Wallace in 2006. Credit: Bebeto Matthews/AP.
From the LA Times Company Town blog...click here for the latest industry news.
Missing Mike and the end of an era of journalism. Veteran broadcast journalist Mike Wallace, who found his way into the homes of millions of people through his many years on CBS' "60 Minutes," died Saturday night at the age of 93.
No cause of death has been released, but Wallace's heath had been declining for years.
"It is with tremendous sadness that we mark the passing of Mike Wallace," CBS president and CEO Leslie Moonves said in a statement on the
CBS News website. "His extraordinary contribution as a broadcaster is immeasurable and he has been a force within the television industry throughout its existence. His loss will be felt by all of us at CBS."
Already an established fixture on CBS news circuit as host of an early version of "The CBS Morning News," Wallace became a correspondent on "60 Minutes" from its premiere in 1968 and quickly earned a reputation as a dogged interrogator. His tough interview style would carry him through 38 seasons with the program until his retirement in 2006.
Click here for a look back at some of his most memorable moments.
Inside the Los Angeles Times: Pioneering television broadcaster and CBS legend Mike Wallace died at 93. An
obituary, an
appreciation of the TV newsman and a look at some of
his work.
Daily Dose. Like any airline, Virgin America is looking to squeeze every dollar it can out of its customers. That includes charging to watch some shows on its little screens. While broadcast shows are shown free and apparently without commercials (at least the episode of "The Good Wife" I watched had no ads), cable shows such as HBO's "Game of Thrones" cost a few bucks. Interestingly though, there is one cable show being offered to fliers for free -- AMC's red hot "Mad Men." Can't imagine Don Draper would feel happy knowing some money is potentially being left on the table.
'Hunger Games' sinks 'Titanic' and eats 'American Pie' reunion. "The Hunger Games" continued to dominate the competition, grossing $33.5 million and remaining in first place for the third weekend in a row. The big take was enough to push "The Hunger Games" past the $300 million mark in the U.S. alone, making it bigger than any of the "Twilight" films. Coming in second was "American Reunion," the latest in the "American Pie" franchise, which took in $21.5 million. The 3-D release of James Cameron's "Titanic" sailed to $17.4 million. Box office coverage from the
Los Angeles Times and
Movie City News. Separately, scheduling issues are a potential dark cloud over a sequel for "The Hunger Games," according to the
Hollywood Reporter.
What's in a name? 20th Century Fox has a headache on its hands. The movie studio's summer comedy about an alien invasion, starring Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn and Jonah Hill, has the unfortunate title of "Neighborhood Watch" and its first trailer showed its white stars driving around looking like tough guys. Given all the attention around the Trayvon Martin case, the studio is starting to tweak its marketing strategy and already pulled the teaser trailer. More on the eggshells 20th Century Fox is walking on from the
New York Times.
Photo: San Francisco 49er players celebrate. Credit: Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP.
From the LA Times Company Town blog...click here for the latest industry news.
Your cable bills will go up so that sports fans will no have to go premium. While subscriber growth is slowing for cable television companies, the cost of content continues to rise.
According to a new report from Nomura Equity Research analysts, the money that distributors such as Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Cable shell out for programming rose 8.2% in 2011 and is likely to jump 8% in each of the next two years.
Although the typical cable household gets more than 100 channels these days, most of those channels are owned by a handful of companies including News Corp., Time Warner Inc., Comcast, Discovery Communications, Viacom and Walt Disney Co. Overall, cable and satellite companies coughed up $33.5 billion to content providers in 2011.
Walt Disney Co., parent of ESPN and Disney Channel, two of the most expensive cable channels, accounted for almost 25% of that $33.5 billion, according to the report. ESPN, of course, spends very large sums on sports rights, including the National Football League.
Time Warner, parent of TNT, TBS, CNN and HBO, received 21% of the overall spending. Comcast, which owns USA, MSNBC and Bravo, accounted for 16%. News Corp., whose holdings include Fox News and FX, had a 14% slice of the pie. Combined, those four companies account for 75% of cable programming costs.
Cable programming isn't the only cost that is increasing. Broadcasters such as CBS, News Corp.'s Fox Broadcasting, Comcast's NBC and Disney's ABC are now getting fees from cable and satellite operators as well. Nomura said that in 2011, the big four broadcast networks took in almost $400 million in so-called retransmission consent fees, more than twice what they made in 2010. In 2012, the figure is expected to double again to $750 million. Nomura said Fox and CBS are the most aggressive among broadcasters.
Whatcha gonna do? Cops to be cut back for even more sports. Fox is cutting back on its long-running reality show "Cops" to make way for more sports on Saturday night. Looking to boost ratings on a night most of the broadcast networks long ago stopped investing in, Fox is putting a heavy slate of college football and Major League Baseball on Saturday. "Cops" isn't going away all together yet, but it will mean fewer episodes and bad boys. Details from
Vulture.
Sony making cuts. New Sony Chief Executive Kazuo Hirai is going to cut as many as 10,000 jobs over the next few years as part of a plan to give the consumer electronics and entertainment giant a makeover. Some of the cuts may come as the result of Sony spinning off some units it no longer feels are necessary. None of these cuts seem aimed at Hollywood, so breathe easy, Culver City. More from the
Wall Street Journal and
Reuters.
Epic marketing. Epix, the pay movie channel launched by Paramount, Lionsgate and MGM that has struggled to make a name for itself against bigger rivals HBO, Showtime and Starz, is launching a big promotional campaign to try to beef up subscriptions. But the
New York Post said CBS rejected one of the TV spots hyping Epix because it took a shot at Showtime, which is a unit of CBS.
Conflict of interest? Daytime TV star Dr. Phil McGraw has been busy touting a diet book. The problem: His son has a financial stake in the book. The
Daily Beast looks at Dr. Phil's conflict of interest and whether he is being less than truthful with his loyal audience.
-- Joe Flint
Follow me on Twitter. I stick up for the little guy.
Twitter.com/JBFlint
