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After losing its ratings lead and falling to last in primetime, the once-dominant CNN stands to lose the last piece of top-shelf value still attached to its business side: premium pricing. Time Warner-owned CNN, while getting beaten handily in the ratings race and having fallen to fourth place in rankings, still commands higher ad rates than rivals -- in some cases double those of Fox News and MSNBC. But perhaps not for long. While advertisers have been willing to shell out more for CNN's venerable brand, broad audience reach and less-opinionated programming, media buyers said the network's ratings slide is...

2:15 PM UPDATE: I've learned that 100 people are being laid off across "several divisions" of the A&E Television Networks yesterday and today "as a direct result of the merger". It will make those employees feel so much better that management tells me it's "no one in a decision making role." A&E Television Networks in August acquired Lifetime Entertainment, and everything is now owned by the Disney-ABC Television Group, Hearst and NBC Universal. Big Media = Big Mergers = Big Mistakes.

Time Warner (TWX Quote) said second-quarter earnings fell 34% to $519 million, or 43 cents a share, from $792 million, or 66 cents a share, a year earlier. Adjusted earnings of 45 cents topped the estimates of analysts of 37 cents a share as surveyed by Thomson Reuters. Revenue in the quarter fell 9% to $6.8 billion. At Time Warner's content group, which is made up of the networks, filmed entertainment, publishing and corporate segments, revenue declined 6%. The content division saw adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization rise 4% in the period. The company said it's "on track"...

Viacom's second-quarter profit tumbled 32 percent as revenue fell amid a weak advertising market, slower video game sales and fewer movie releases. The media conglomerate controlled by billionaire Sumner Redstone earned $277 million, or 46 cents per share, compared with $407 million, or 65 cents per share, in the same quarter last year. Excluding 3 cents per share in severance charges, adjusted earnings were 49 cents in the latest quarter. Revenue slipped 14 percent to $3.3 billion. Analysts projected income of 48 cents per share on sales of $3.5 billion. New York-based Viacom Inc. owns a wide range of media...

On day one, CNN ruled cable news. But while viewers may flock to the network for election day or the Inauguration, day 130 is a different story. CNN, which just took home a Peabody Award for its 2008 election coverage, and dominated cable-news ratings on days when politics took center stage, is having trouble getting those viewers back on other nights. Since Obama took office, CNN’s prime-time audience has dropped sharply, raising doubts about whether the network’s middle-of-the-road strategy can be effective against more opinionated programming on Fox News and MSNBC. CNN President Jon Klein is quick to brush aside...

Time-Warner Cable will no longer carry Mark Cuban's HD Net, which broadcast Ring of Honor, beginning on or around May 31 in the New York City area. There had been talk of the cable provider pulling the channel its lineup a few months ago, but those plans were temporarily but on the back burner as talks between Time Warner and HD Net progressed.

Time Warner Inc.'s first-quarter net income fell 14% on weakness at its America Online and publishing businesses, but results topped analysts' expectations. Media companies continue to be hurt by worries about declining advertising sales and uncertainty over the transition to digital content. With its spinoff of Time Warner Cable Inc. complete, Time Warner's next challenge is deciding what to do with AOL, the struggling Internet unit. Time Warner cleared another hurdle earlier this month by winning approval from bondholders of $12.3 billion in debt to adjust covenants that limit the media giant's ability to dispose of AOL's assets. snip Time...

Media company Viacom(VIA Quote - Cramer on VIA - Stock Picks) said fourth-quarter earnings fell 69% to $173 million, or 28 cents a share, as revenue remained flat at $4.24 billion. Excluding restructuring and other charges, Viacom said earnings from continuing operations were 76 cents a share compared with 84 cents a year earlier. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected fourth-quarter earnings of 77 cents a share on revenue of $4.24 billion. The company said operating income in the quarter fell 51% to $475 million, including the impact of $454 million in restructuring and other charges. "Our fourth-quarter results reflect...

Cable cancellations Scripps Networks Interactive, which operates the Food Network and other cable outlets, said Feb. 5 that the percentage of upfront cancellations is running in the low double digits, as opposed to cancellation rates of 2% to 5% in the first quarter. Speaking to investors on a conference call held by investment-bank Credit Suisse First Boston on Feb. 6, Mel Berning, A&E Networks exec VP-national ad sales, said second-quarter option cancellations could come in at about 10% across cable. Top-tier outlets have been able to maintain scatter pricing, he said, but scatter at other places is down by percentages...

Time Warner Inc. on Wednesday reported a $16 billion loss in the fourth quarter after writing down the value of intangible assets held by the company's cable operations, AOL and Time Inc. Time Warner (TWX) lost $16 billion, or $4.47 a share, compared with a profit of $1.03 billion, or 28 a share in the year-earlier quarter. Excluding the charges, Time Warner would have earned 23 cents a share in the latest three months. Revenue fell 3% to $12.3 billion. The company was expected to earn 27 cents a share on revenue of $12.7 billion, according to a poll of...

A judgment against Turner Broadcasting System in December following a trial related to the 2004 sale of its winter sports teams, resulting in an aggregate charge of approximately $280 million... The restructuring of a lease for space in the Time & Life Building, held by a lessee who recently declared bankruptcy, that will require a charge of $50 million to $60 million. An increase of approximately $40 million in reserves for potential credit losses related to several customers of Time Warner who have recently declared bankruptcy. The economic environment has proved somewhat more challenging than the Company previously expected, particularly...

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- There's nothing new about fee disputes between TV networks and cable and satellite operators, but now they've got an added wrinkle: Cable operators contending that TV networks should forfeit big fee increases when they put shows online free on their own sites and third-party distributors such as Hulu, Joost and Veoh. That's one of the central arguments being made by Time Warner Cable executives in their dispute with Viacom, which threatens to remove a group of 18 networks that includes MTV, Comedy Central, Noggin and Nickelodeon from Time Warner's 13.5 million subscribers in big markets such...

An important National Football League game on a recent Saturday night was dark on millions of television screens, but it lit up an untold number of laptops. The game between the Baltimore Ravens and Dallas Cowboys was pivotal in determining playoff teams, and it was the last home game ever for the Cowboys before they move to a new stadium. But because of a long-lasting feud between the NFL Network and many cable companies, many millions of fans could not watch the game on television. Yet they could watch any number of illicit live streams on the Internet. After years...

Editor's note: This is part of a series of stories about the recession's effect on the tech industry. A year before the U.S. economic crisis came to a head, Debra James of Oakland said she saw the writing on the wall and decided to trim the household budget. Topping the list were things like satellite television. I could tell the economy was getting sluggish in the summer of 2007," she said. "So I decided we needed to make some cuts, so that if things got worse, it wouldn't be so painful." Indeed, things did get worse. The U.S. economy has...

Instapundit points out an article about a family that ditched their satellite TV: You don’t need satellite TV when times get tough After a few Google searches, James said she found a wealth of legitimate sources for TV programming online. Sites such as Hulu, Fancast, Joost, YouTube, and most major TV networks’ Web sites offer TV shows and other video content for free. Using an existing rooftop antenna, James plugged her TV into the hook-up to get more than 50 high-definition TV channels over-the-air. The cost for these HD channels: zero. And instead of spending an extra $20 a month...

General Electric Co expects profit at its NBC Universal media business to be flat to down slightly, Chief Executive Jeff Immelt told investors on Tuesday.

EW YORK (Reuters) - Time Warner Cable Inc will likely sell fewer than expected video, Internet and phone subscriptions this year, and expects a further decline next year due to the worsening U.S. economy, Chief Financial Officer Rob Marcus said on Monday. "In 2008, we're on track to deliver less than 2.5 million additional revenue-generating units," Marcus told the Reuters Media Summit in New York, adding that that was less than what the No. 2 U.S. cable company had originally anticipated. Revenue-generating unit, or RGU, is a cable industry term used for each video, Internet and phone subscription sold. Time...

Utility’s cable television and Internet service has been sold to Comcast by the city council of Alameda, California. The reason for the sale was due to a listless growth of the company due to decline in cable subscription. The sale will help to clear off the Alameda Power & Telecom’s debt of $33 million.

Choosing & Installing an Antenna for HDTV TV antennas may seem like relics from the last century, but a growing number of viewers are finding them to be indispensable in getting the best picture from their HDTVs. In this article, we'll discuss the advantages of over-the-air (OTA) reception and explain how to find digital TV signals in your local TV market and in nearby cities. We'll introduce the different types of TV antennas and tell you which ones perform best under various reception conditions. And we'll offer tips on how to install larger attic- and roof-mount antennas. To learn about...

Viacom, Inc. will weather the economic downturn by focusing on “organic growth” instead of any “significant acquisitions,” according to president and CEO Philippe Dauman. Speaking at the annual UBS Media and Communications Conference in New York, Dauman downplayed the company’s announcement least week that it would cut 850 jobs, or 7% of its workforce, and instead focused on the company’s positioning as a content provider with multiple revenue sources across each of its television, movie and digital divisions. Dauman was bullish on Nickelodeon, VH1, MTV and BET, which recently underwent a shift in programming leadership. He conceded that MTV has...

NBC's sweeping shake-up of its entertainment division last week highlights the deep problems it and other networks face in continuing to produce high-quality shows as advertisers slash spending and viewers find alternate ways to watch TV. The General Electric Co.-owned network, which has seen its ratings plunge 14% this season, plans to announce this week that it will merge its two programming groups -- one at the NBC network and the other at its television production studio -- into one unit. The restructuring, which could save the company millions of dollars a year in overhead, comes as the TV industry...

Call it the big shrink. Citing the effects of a recession that's prompting marketers to trim budgets and the number of media outlets they work with, media companies are shedding jobs at a furious rate. But the deep cuts they're making are as much about these conglomerates shedding their old media models as they are about the economy. Viacom and NBC Universal swung the ax last week, eliminating 850 and 500 jobs, or 7% and 3% of their work forces, respectively. Add that to 600 job cuts at Time Inc., 1,500 at Yahoo, 1,800 at Gannett, hundreds at CBS's radio...

Amid an ongoing debt crisis at controlling shareholder Sumner Redstone's movie theater company, Viacom Inc. plans to slash about 850 jobs -- 7 percent of its work force -- and freeze some senior-level salaries. Viacom, which owns MTV Networks, BET Networks and Paramount Pictures, said the cuts are a response to the global economic downturn. The company said, without specifying, that it also plans to write down the value of some programming and other assets. But it maintained it has a "strong balance sheet and substantial cash flow." The job cuts, write-offs and suspension of some raises in 2009 are...

UPDATE: I hear the layoff announcements could come as soon as Thursday... Another hour, another source telling me about layoffs and cutbacks. I've already told you about Viacom's and CBS Inc's. And at Disney/ABC, don't dare include alcohol in your expense account meal. Now hundreds of layoffs are planned at NBC Universal. In the meantime, NBC has issued new draconian network and studio budget parameters, a second wave of cost-cutting following up on Jeff Zucker's promise a month ago to tighten belts across the board. Staff inside the company are outraged at these new measures, after already being told two...

This can't be good: I am told that CNN has eliminated its science unit, affecting seven staffers. It's not good for many reasons but the network's science unit is one of the best in television and probably has a few dozen Emmys to prove it. Here's a statement from CNN: " We want to integrate environmental, science and technology reporting into the general editorial structure rather than have a stand alone unit. Now that the bulk of our environmental coverage is being offered through the 'Planet in Peril' franchise which is produced by the 'AC360' program, there is no need...

They're just around the corner, with 100 personnel at Paramount and 300 staffers at MTV to be fired. (See my previous, MTV Networks Hiding News Of Layoffs)

SAG Strike Could Spell Disaster for TV (Cable Networks DeathWatch™) Nov 25, 2008 -By Nellie Andreeva, THR.com LOS ANGELES Already engaged in deep soul searching following a dismal fall TV season and flatlining ad market, broadcast networks are facing another blow: a potential Screen Actors Guild strike early next year. SAG's decision during the weekend to seek a strike authorization from its membership following the breakdown of its negotiations with the Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers has shifted the once-remote possibility of a SAG walkout much closer to reality. While its effect would not be as far-reaching as...

Someone really has it in for Sumner Redstone, the 85-year-old media tycoon who is restructuring his debt-plagued empire. An extraordinary piece appears on TheFirstPost.co.uk and is picked up elsewhere. “His demons have come home to roost. He lives alone in his mansion, famously miserly, shaving naked in the hot tub and obsessively feeding his tropical fish, his only constant companions since the collapse this year of his five-year marriage . . .” All very Citizen Kane. And yet . Redstone is not universally loved, and is, indeed, known for his interest in tropical fish and credited with starting a fashion...

In an effort to stave off the dismantling of his media empire, Sumner M. Redstone, the controlling shareholder of Viacom and CBS, recently proposed to sell his family’s 1,500-screen theater chain in an effort to restructure his large debt load. The proposal was made in a plan submitted to his bankers, according to two people briefed on the negotiations who spoke on condition they not be identified. But the proposed sale may not be enough to placate bankers, not least because no one can seem to agree on what the movie theaters are worth. Here is what just about everyone,...

It's D-Day for the broadcast networks. They've been living on borrowed time for the better part of two decades, thanks to advertisers willing to toss in more cash each year even as ratings slowly trended ever lower. But with the economy in a tailspin -- and the Big Three auto manufacturers, some of TV's best advertisers, near ruin -- the biz may finally have to pull the emergency cord. "This day was going to come," says one conglom bigwig. "I don't think the business can be sustained without real change at this juncture. ... We have a gun to all...

It looks like the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) is heading for a strike. Talks have broken down, attempts at mediation are being rejected, and the mogul's group, the AMPTP has been crowing about how their last offer was their last, best offer, and that nothing will get SAG a better deal. SAG doesn't think it has much choice, even if they wanted to accept the AMPTP's last offer, they just have to look at the Writers Guild of America and how the AMPTP has failed to live up to the contract that ended the Writer's Strike. Now this can end...

MATTHEW BOWERS, of Chicago, has been paying to have HBO piped into his home every month for nearly two decades. He tunes in for the occasional episode of “Entourage” and every couple of months orders a movie on demand. Recently, the whole family watched “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.” But when his company laid him off in September, he started to think about the value he was getting out of the premium cable channel. “It’s ridiculous to pay for this service I rarely use when I can get the same stuff online and save a lot of...

The Screen Actors Guild said Saturday it will ask its members to authorize a strike after its first contract talks in four months with Hollywood studios failed despite the help of a federal mediator. snip

Conventional wisdom holds that Hollywood’s fortunes go up when the economy goes down. People still crave entertainment, particularly of the escapist variety, and movies remain within the budgets of most people. That may prove true this time around, too — ticket sales have been particularly robust in recent weeks — but studio prosperity stopped depending on box-office results a long time ago. DVDs propel profits these days, and there is a creeping dread in the movie capital that buyer interest is plummeting as the global economic crisis worsens. “Every studio is claiming, ‘We’re O.K. so far, but we’ve looked at...

By all accounts, except maybe his own, General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt has been a failure. I mean, the stock is down at 16, down from 40 just two years ago. But things might be looking up for the I-man, thanks to Uncle Sam. As first reported in The Wall Street Journal, as as noted here at TCG two weeks ago--and now all over--GE is now lining up to receive the benefit of a $139 billion federal loan guarantee for its subsidiary, GE Capital--which is to say, GE is getting a subsidy. And of course, if GE gets a subsidy,...

If the people running it think this is a good idea, then no wonder GE Capital is in such a mess that it has to tap into the $700 billion government bailout of financials: NEW YORK (20 November 2008) -- The Peacock Equity Fund, the joint venture between GE Capital’s Media, Communications & Entertainment finance business and NBC Universal, today announced that Ben Silverman has joined the fund’s Board of Directors. Silverman, the Co-Chairman of NBC Entertainment and NBC Universal Television Studio, brings his experience in media, production, and advertising to help identify media investment opportunities for the $250 million...

Paul Rodriguez :: November 17th, 2008 For some time, I’ve been noting on my Twitter account the rising tide of people who have decided to cut the cord that ties them to servicing their television needs through cable, satellite or other wired means, instead turning to the Internet to be informed and entertained. The topic is blowing up now, with Washington Post tech columnist Mike Musgrove now examining the issue in his column this past weekend (”TV Breaks Out of the Box“). And I don’t even really need to respond, because Adam Thierer has given it the one-two punch at...

Online video chips away at TV (Cable Networks DeathWatch™) IBM: New media may be affecting 'couch-potato behavior' Nov 17, 2008, 03:01 AM ET More evidence that online video is cannibalizing television consumption is due Monday, courtesy of an IBM study. Plus, online viewers don't mind the commercials too much. After polling 2,800 people in six countries, IBM says 76% have viewed video online and 45% do so regularly. Of those who have watched online video, 15% say that as a result they watch "slightly less" TV, while 36% said they watch "significantly less" TV. "Place-shifting alternatives may be changing consumer...

Conventional wisdom dictates that Hollywood could always shrug off economic downturns because worried consumers spend more on entertainment when times are tough. Not this time. Everywhere one looks, the entertainment business is in a world of hurt. The downturn is slamming the balance sheets and stocks of major media companies. Banks and hedge funds are cutting or eliminating movie financing, putting projects at studios and independents in peril. TV networks, reeling from an advertising decline, are slashing costs and trimming staffs. "Every single source of capital has suffered a seismic shock that we haven't seen in our lifetimes," said Nigel...

The downbeat mood of business in the U.S. is pervasive, penetrating even Hollywood's cloistered community. The entertainment biz seems to be battling the psychological effects of the worsening downturn almost as much as it is facing the knife of budget cuts, staff layoffs and general austerity initiatives. Hollywood's output is measured largely in creativity; dour moods do not stimulate creative juices. For sure, Hollywood is not immune to the pain and suffering other industries are experiencing. In the past few weeks, Lionsgate announced plans to lay off 8% of its staff, Disney's TV production division confirmed a 2% cut in...

Will Shari and Sumner Redstone Split? (Cable Networks DeathWatch™) By Ronald Grover BW Exclusives Redstone's 80% stake gives him clout in any deal Shari offers Sean Gallup/Getty Images Shari may seek an equity infusion from private investors Phelan M. Ebenhack/National Amusements/AP Photo Story Tools As family feuds go, few have been more intractable than the one that has simmered between media mogul Sumner M. Redstone and his daughter, Shari. For two years the pair has battled over the direction of National Amusements, the family company that owns a national chain of movie theaters and controls the media giants CBS (CBS)...

By Heidi Dawley Nov 13, 2008 As in the U.S., so in Britain. As the weather turns cold, the economy here turns even colder, with yet more news of sinking revenues and cutbacks, and the cost is being felt directly by UK media. Just yesterday, it was reported that unemployment has reached an 11-year high, that Virgin Media, a major cable operator, was axing 2,200 jobs, that Yell, a yellow pages company, was chopping jobs as well, and that a string of regional newspapers was reporting a 15.5 percent falloff in ad revenue through the first 10 months of the...

At $8.61 a share, Time Warner has a stock-market value of $30.9 billion. Yet, according to the media giant's balance sheet, just one of its assets, goodwill, by itself is worth $42.5 billion. "Those asset values can't be right," said one observer. "Time Warner execs just won't admit it."

A Hulu for Cable Networks? Not Any Time Soon How Free Online Video Threatens Pay-TV Model By Andrew Hampp BOSTON (AdAge.com) -- Now that Hulu is an out-of-the-box success story for broadcast TV, when will cable get its one-stop online video site? If two panels at the Cable Telecommunications Association of Marketing Summit in Boston on Tuesday are any indication, not any time soon. he prospect of major cable groups such as Viacom, Discovery and NBC Universal following the likes of NBC, Fox, ABC and CBS to streaming full-length episodes of current shows online has always seemed like a long...