Comcast targets Netflix
with streaming service
Other shorts: NBC slates 'Community' and three comedies
By Louisa Ada Seltzer
Feb 22, 2012
Comcast targets Netflix with streaming service
The number of ad-free content streaming options targeting consumers is about to grow by one. Or, more simply put, Comcast is taking aim at Netflix, right down to the name of its new offering. The country's largest cable company is launching an internet streaming service this week that will allow subscribers access to movies and old TV shows, much like Netflix does. Streampix, the new service's name, will cost $4.99 per month for most Comcast subscribers, several dollars cheaper than Netflix' streaming-only service, though subscribers to Comcast's top-tier digital packages will get the service for free. Comcast joins a variety of competitors to Netflix that have popped up in recent years, including Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime and a soon-to-launch Redbox streaming offering. All offer ad-free content in exchange for a monthly fee, but Netflix remains the dominant entity in this arena. It has more than 24 million subscribers, 21 million of whom subscribe to the streaming service.
NBC slates 'Community' and three new comedies
NBC will be laughing it up in March. In addition to the much-speculated-about return of "Community," whose fate seemed in question after
NBC initially left it off the midseason schedule, the network will have three new comedy series premiering. "Community" will return on March 15 in the 8 p.m. timeslot now occupied by "30 Rock." "Rock" will scoot back to 8:30, bumping "Parks and Recreation" from the schedule until April 19, when it will return in the 9:30 p.m. timeslot, taking the place of "Up All Night," which will be done for the season. During that span, the first new series will premiere on March 21. "Bent," starring Amanda Peet as a lawyer with a womanizing contractor, will air back-to-back episodes at 9 p.m., pushing current timeslot occupant "Rock Center with Brian Williams" to 10 p.m. The Betty White senior-citizen hidden camera show "Off Their Rockers" will debut April 4 at 8 p.m., following a solid preview last month. It will be followed at 8:30 p.m. by "Best Friends Forever," about a woman who lives with her boyfriend and her BFF. Those two shows will replace "Whitney" and "Are You There, Chelsea," which air their season (and likely series) finales next month.
Comcast picks up four minority-owned networks
When Comcast acquired NBC Universal last year, it promised the Federal Communications Commission that it would do a better job supporting minority-owned networks to encourage diversity on cable. It took the first step yesterday, announcing carriage deals for four such channels launching over the coming months and years. One,
Revolt, is a music-focused network owned by hip hop mogul Sean "P. Diddy" Combs that will launch in 2013. A second, Aspire, will focus on positive programming for black families and will be led by former NBA player Magic Johnson. It will bow this summer. The other two channels, which are owned by Hispanics, are El Rey, an entertainment network with English-language programming aimed at Latinos, and BabyFirst Americas, a kids' network aimed at Hispanic infants and toddlers. El Rey will launch in 2014 while BabyFirst will be on the air in April.
Study: Hispanics most engaged with social media
If you're looking to target Hispanics, you almost can't miss on social media sites. On average 60.7 percent of Hispanics log in to
Facebook once a day or more, according to a new American Pulse survey from BIGinsight, compared to 60.3 percent of African Americans and 53.7 percent of Caucasians. In fact, Hispanics were the ethnic group most likely to log in to each of the six social media sites included in the survey, including
Twitter (35.4 percent of Hispanics), Google+ (27.1 percent),
LinkedIn (15.5 percent), Foursquare (13.2 percent) and Pinterest (13.2 percent). Overall Facebook remains the most popular social networking site on the web, with more than half, 54.5 percent, of adults logging in to the site at least once a day. To download a complete copy of the survey,
click here.
Programming notes: Lifetime slates 'Client List'
Former "Ghost Whisperer" star Jennifer Love Hewitt is making her TV return in April. On April 8 Lifetime will premiere "The Client List," a new series starring and produced by Hewitt and based on
the network's 2010 movie of the same name. Cybill Shepherd, Loretta Devine and Colin Egglesfield also star in the series, about a married woman who turns to prostitution. Meanwhile, in other programming, Discovery Channel on March 18 will roll out the series "Frozen Planet" with two episodes, one titled "The Ends of the Earth," the other "Spring." Alec Baldwin narrates the seven-part series. On March 21 ReelzChannel will air the TV premiere of "The Undefeated," a documentary about the rise in popularity of former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. The movie was released in theaters last July and brought in just over $116,000, according to the web site Box Office Mojo. Finally, on broadcast, Fox is close to picking up the game show series "Take Me Out," according to Entertainment Weekly, in which a single male contestant tries to impress 30 women. Each woman has a lighted podium that they turn off if they're, well, turned off. If the man avoids a blackout in the initial rounds, the remaining women compete to go on a date with him.
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