Fore! ESPN tees up 2010 coverage of British Open.
It’s still unclear whether the Bowl Championship Series is moving to ESPN, but another major sports franchise is. The all-sports cable network has gained custody of the British Open, after longtime carrier TNT declined to renew its contract last week. Financial terms of the deal weren’t revealed, but it is an eight-year contract beginning in 2010. The Open will be televised entirely on cable for the first time, with ESPN carrying 34 hours of live play for the year’s third major event. ABC will air a six-hour highlights package on the weekend. ESPN will also get video on demand, mobile and live streaming rights in the deal, which also includes U.S. rights to the Senior Open Championship and next two Walker Cups.
Programming notes: CBS supports 'Gary' and 'Week'
It appears actor and comedian Jay Mohr will be employed at least through the end of this TV season. CBS has ordered seven more episode of Mohr’s first-year comedy “Gary Unmarried,” bringing the total to 20, as well as three more episodes of the new Monday night comedy “Worst Week.” The latter has averaged 9.9 million total viewers this season to “Gary’s” 7.4 million, but its “Two and a Half Men” lead-in is much stronger than “Gary’s,” which follows “The New Adventures of Old Christine” on Wednesdays. Meanwhile, in other programming, NBC has upped its order of “Medium” to 19 episodes this season after picking up an additional six. The network is looking to premiere the show’s latest season in January, most likely in the Monday 10 p.m. timeslot recently vacated by the canceled “My Own Worst Enemy.” Also at NBC, the network early next year will launch “Superstar Dancers of the World,” a reality dance competition featuring contestants from eight different countries. The show will be produced by “American Idol” creator Simon Fuller and former “Idol” producer Nigel Lythgoe.
Wall Street Journal pushes some listings to the web
There’s more media consolidation afoot: The Wall Street Journal will be printing shorter data tables, including the stock prices listings, in its print edition, but will continue to run the longer tables online. With more and more folks accessing the WSJ online, the idea is to provide just the most relevant news in the print edition. As such, the print edition will restrict its stock price table to the largest 1,000 companies, 500 fewer than previously during the week and 3,000 fewer than on Saturday. However, on Saturday the print edition will now add the 52-week high and low prices for the stocks it lists. The print edition will also carry information on 100 exchange-traded portfolios. Furthermore, the number of mutual funds that it shows in the print edition will be slashed to 250 and its weekly listing of close-end funds will be limited to 300 funds. The print edition is also making several other changes. The table showing the world value of the dollar is shifting from Monday to Saturday, and Patent Scorecard, a weekly intellectual-property rundown, will be restricted to the online edition.
The word: 'Daisies' has been canceled. Or has it?
Has “Pushing Daisies” been canceled? It apparently depends who you ask. While word broke Friday that the comedy will be axed after its 13th episode, there’s been no confirmation from ABC nor the show’s creator, who is apparently holding out hope for a reprieve. Bryan Fuller told E! that ABC is waiting to make a decision after seeing ratings for the next one or two episodes, since the show has been preempted two straight weeks for “Dancing with the Stars” and the “CMA Awards.” In its last episode, airing against Barack Obama’s ad on the other Big Four networks, the show’s ratings did rise a bit, but they were still way off what the quirky comedy averaged in its first season. As always seems to happen with such shows, fans are organizing email and letter-writing campaigns to the network in an attempt to save the show, though ABC certainly has a lot of midseason inventory waiting to take its place.
Don't believe those rumors: Miley Cyrus is not dead
The latest celebrity death story to worm its way across the web seemed to carry some credibility. It was posted on Miley Cyrus’ YouTube page, and it supposedly carried a message from Cyrus’ best friend and YouTube cohort Mandy Jiroux, saying that her pal had been killed after being hit by a drunk driver. Turns out it was the work of hackers. The video was posted on Sunday, and shortly thereafter Jiroux posted a message on her MySpace page warning that the video was false and that she and "Hannah Montana" star Cyrus had been unable to get back onto their YouTube account. She assured readers, “MILEY IS OK!!” The fake video, set to Cyrus’ single “Goodbye,” seemed a little too flip to be real – even a teenager wouldn’t deliver news of their best friend’s death via emoticon. The message read in part, “Hey guys, this is Mandy and I have some very sad news :( ...We're very hurt to tell everyone this, but Miley died this morning after being hit by a drunk driver. ...R.I.P. honey, we will miss you so much.”
Silicon insider's out: Valleywag is folding into Gawker
Nick Denton’s recent online essay on the dire future of online advertising was apparently a bit of foreshadowing as well. The Gawker publisher is shutting down Valleywag, his influential Silicon Valley blog. Next month, Valleywag will become part of Gawker, with only Owen Thomas staying on as a contributor. Thomas apparently had an inkling this might happen. Following Denton’s downbeat prediction of coming ad revenue declines of up to 40 percent, Thomas joked on the blog that, “I will soon be writing Valleywag as a column for Gizmondo or Gawker, whichever will take me.” Denton also put Consumerist on the block last week.
Harvard Law professor takes on RIAA lawsuit logic
Someone is finally standing up for online users who swap music files. A Harvard Law School professor is fighting the Digital Theft Deterrence and Copyright Damages Improvement Act of 1999, saying that it’s unconstitutional. Since the act went into effect, it has resulted in numerous lawsuits by the Recording Industry Association of America against users who share songs online. Professor Charles Nesson is defending a Boston University graduate student targeted in one of the music industry's lawsuits. Nesson says the music industry group has been intimidating online music swappers into settling out of court to avoid lengthy and costly lawsuits. He hopes to change the RIAA’s strategy, which has resulted in thousands of settlement payments from those who swapped songs online in the past five years.
Facebook removes pages advocating racial violence
Hate-related materials aren’t welcome on Facebook. The popular online social-networking site made that clear by removing several pages from a user based in Italy that supported violence against gypsies. Reuters reported that seven neo-Nazi group pages had been created on the site. Following complaints by the European Parliament, among others, Facebook took the pages down because they violated the web site’s terms of use. Facebook said in a statement that while it supports the free flow of information and groups that provide a forum for discussing important issues, the company will remove any groups that are violent or threatening. Facebook isn’t the only web site to ban hate-related material. Online auction giant eBay has a policy that prohibits the sale of hate-related items, as does Yahoo. A French court ordered Yahoo in 2000 to stop the sale of Nazi items or face a fine of $13,905 per day.
In Second Life, virtual cheating leads to real-life split
If you have virtual sex, is it really cheating? At least one woman thinks so. A British woman is ending her real-life marriage after seeing him have sex with other virtual women in the online fantasy world of Second Life. Amy Taylor, who is 28, met David Pollard, who is 40, in an online chatroom in 2003. The British couple not only married in the real world three years ago but also in Second Life, complete with a romantic tropical setting. Taylor says she walked in on her husband while his Second Life alter-ego was having sex with other women in the virtual world. It’s not the first time the virtual world, which allows players to create avatars who can start businesses, buy property and develop relationships online, has caused a real-life divorce. Taylor’s attorney claimed it was her second divorce case involving Second Life in a week.
