ABC News ponders
how to move forward
Other shorts: Programming notes: Fox renews 'MasterChef'
By Louisa Ada Seltzer
Sep 8, 2010
ABC News ponders how to move forward
All the buzz yesterday was not over who will be replacing David Westin, who stepped down at ABC News on Monday, but rather what that person will need to do to keep the division on track. He or she will face a huge challenge as president of a division that has suffered through recession-induced layoffs and also faces an uncertain future, with its very relevance in question in the face of new media that allows people to get the news on their own terms. Nightly news ratings have been falling for years, but whoever takes over ABC News can't very well make over the genre; we've already seen that fail with Katie Couric's underrated and ultimately aborted makeover. The biggest challenge for the person who succeeds Westin will be in finding a cost structure that makes sense, moving beyond the challenge of improving ratings, because those will probably never shoot up again. The key will be in saving money and preserving profitability while also divining what the real future of news is before the other networks do. Just don't look for a big risk taker; in this environment, that will not pay.
Programming notes: Fox renews 'MasterChef'
More "MasterChef" is on the menu at Fox. The network has ordered a second season of the reality cooking competition, with the first season averaging a 2.5 rating among viewers 18-49 through its first five episodes, according to Nielsen. There's no word yet on when the second season will air (summer or regular season). Meanwhile, in other programming, Hallmark Channel on Sept. 13 will launch Hallmark Channel Home, a daytime block of programming airing from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The block will include the sixth season of "The Martha Stewart Show." On Sept. 27 MTV will premiere "The Seven," a live daily countdown show airing from Times Square, much in the vein of the now-canceled "Total Request Live." The show will air at 5 p.m. and be hosted by Kevin Manno and Julie Alexandria. Also on Sept. 27, Nat Geo WILD will premiere the second season of "Expedition Wild," in which host Casey Anderson will explore Yellowstone National Park. CNN has named its new primetime talk show "Parker Spitzer." The show, which stars former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer and conservative columnist Kathleen Parker, will debut Oct. 4 at 8 p.m. On Oct. 6 A&E will roll out the second season of "Steven Seagal Lawman," with back-to-back episodes beginning at 10 p.m. The second season includes just eight episodes. Finally, "Hannah Montana" co-star Billy Ray Cyrus is teaming up with another one of his children for a TV project. Cyrus and his son Trace are set to star in "UFO: Unbelievably Freakin' Obvious," which is being developed at Syfy. In the show the father-son team will investigate conspiracy theories.
CEO offers preview of soon-to-launch Google TV
Google TV is coming, and it will be available all over the world, not just in U.S. households. Google CEO Eric Schmidt told a crowd at the IFA technology trade fair in Berlin yesterday that Google TV will roll out its new service domestically this fall and expand it to a global platform in 2011, potentially revolutionizing the way TV is consumed, if you believe the hype. Usually such hype proves unwarranted, but it's difficult to underestimate Google, which seems to find success in whatever it does. Google TV will incorporate a search bar into the TV screen, allowing interactivity with TV listings and giving viewers the power to surf the net as they watch TV. It will also allow users to switch channels by using their voice rather than their remotes.
Report: Craigslist losing $44M from adult services section
Craigslist has been heavily criticized for running ads in an adult services section, especially in the wake of the so-called Craigslist killing last year in which the murderer allegedly met his victim through one of those ads. That led to the decision last week to remove its adult services section, which will cost the web site millions of dollars in revenue. It was on track to generate $44.4 million in adult-services revenue this year, according to the AIM Group, which has tracked Craigslist's revenue since 2003. Back in April the company projected that Craigslist would generate $36.3 million in revenue from the adult services section, but a 9 percent increase in the volume of adult-services ads since its initial research caused AIM to bump its forecast up. Craigslist last week shut down its adult services listings and replaced the link with the word "censored" after 17 state attorneys general signed an open letter requesting that the section be removed. AIM says the section was used mainly for thinly disguised ads for prostitutes, but Craigslist isn't the only company with such listings; the company says Village Voice Media's Backpage.com is expected to generate $17.5 million in advertising revenue this year.
What a gas: Fight breaks out between pump networks
GSTV has filed suit against one of its competitors, but is the whole thing just a bunch of gas? At issue is whether rival Outcast and Michael Mongelluzzo, a former NBC executive who joined the rival gas pump TV company, used knowledge he gained at NBC for an unfair advantage. GSTV claims that Mongelluzzo, when he worked for NBC, received confidential access to GSTV trade secrets during negotiations, and that he has attempted to trade on that knowledge in his new capacity as vice president of sales at Outcast. Reads a complaint filed in Los Angeles Superior Court: "Outcast and Mongelluzzo used GSTV's confidential and proprietary data to repeatedly misrepresent to GSTV customers and partners that GSTV was lying to customers and fabricating key metrics about the GSTV Network. Specifically, Outcast publicly and falsely claimed that GSTV has substantially fewer actual impressions than reported by Nielsen, and that GSTV reports impressions from fuel dispensers on which GSTV Network screens have not been installed." Outcast and Mongelluzzo have denied the charges.
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