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Leaders of SAG-AFTRA expressed optimism Saturday that they will achieve a “seminal deal” with studios, networks and streamers to avert an action like the writers’ strike that has nearly shut down scripted production. “We are having an extremely productive negotiations that are laser-focused on all of the crucial issues you told us are most important to you,” SAG-AFTRA National President Fran Drescher said in a video message to members. “We’re standing strong and we’re going to achieve a seminal deal.” Drescher told members she could not release details because “Frankly, it’s very confidential what’s going on in there.” She and...

Physicists are building neural networks out of vibrations, voltages and lasers, arguing that the future of computing lies in exploiting the universe’s complex physical behaviors.Inside a soundproofed crate sits one of the world’s worst neural networks. After being presented with an image of the number 6, it pauses for a moment before identifying the digit: zero. Peter McMahon, the physicist-engineer at Cornell University who led the development of the network, defends it with a sheepish smile, pointing out that the handwritten number looks sloppy. Logan Wright, a postdoc visiting McMahon’s lab from NTT Research, assures me that the device...

Longtime Fox News personality Bill O'Reilly says cable news networks are going to “collapse” after President Donald Trump leaves office. In an interview with Sinclair Broadcasting’s “America This Week” on Wednesday, O’Reilly said “something’s going on” already at Fox News. “NBC News, CNN, and the other networks are going to collapse almost entirely,” O’Reilly said after Trump leaves office and a Joe Biden administration begins. “They don’t have any credibility,” he said, adding “everybody knew… they were trying to destroy Trump.” “Now you’re going to tell the truth,” he scoffed. “It’s over.” Trump himself has blamed O’Reilly’s former network, Fox...

[Catholic Caucus] Experts map out US bishops’ ‘social networks’ that helped cover-up ex-cardinal McCarrick’s sex abuse The sociologists mapped out webs of episcopal influence in both US and UK. ITHACA, New York, July 17, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) ― Sociologists have published a paper illustrating social networks between bishops in two national episcopal conferences and around the former cardinal Theodore McCarrick who was laicized over credible allegations of sexually abusing seminarians and priests. “This paper presents preliminary findings, using original network data for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales (CBCEW) and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB),” the...

The cable news networks are planning to work together to pool their coverage of the Democratic and Republican national conventions to reduce the number of employees present amid the coronavirus pandemic, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday. Leaders from CNN, MSNBC and Fox News are coordinating on regular calls to figure out "pool" coverage where networks use one video feed to limit the number of workers present, Rashida Jones, senior vice president of MSNBC and NBC News, told the newspaper. Pool coverage has traditionally been used during election coverage, but Jones said coordination between the networks has increased because of...

Big advertisers from General Motors Co. to PepsiCo Inc. to General Mills Inc. are seeking to walk back spending commitments they made to broadcast and cable networks, a dynamic that is testing the industry’s five-decade-old way of doing business. TV ad spending fell in the initial weeks of the coronavirus pandemic, but was insulated from an even bigger drop. That is because the majority of the roughly $42 billion spent on national TV ads in the U.S. is bound by contractual commitments that are made well in advance of a new TV season, which starts each September. Under those “upfront”...

ViacomCBS networks in the U.S. and around the world will air One World: Together At Home, a global televised and streamed special in support of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, on Saturday, April 18th from 8:00-10:00 PM, live ET.The ViacomCBS brands airing the special include broadcast networks CBS in the U.S., Channel 5 in the UK, Network 10 in Australia, and Telefe in Argentina; BET and MTV globally across 180+ countries; and CMT, Comedy Central, Logo, MTV2, Paramount Network, Pop, TV Land and VH1 in the U.S. This historic broadcast will be hosted by Jimmy Fallon of The Tonight Show, Jimmy Kimmel of Jimmy Kimmel...

President Donald J. Trump today announced a major partnership with the Ad Council, major media networks, and digital platforms to effectively communicate accurate and timely information directly to the American people. This partnership is another important component of the all-of-America response to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and will benefit high-risk populations and the general public with public service announcements (PSAs) around social distancing, personal hygiene, and mental health.As a result of this announcement, the following products are created as a result of this partnership: First Lady of the United States Melania Trump, Surgeon General Jerome M. Adams, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Dr. Deborah Birx, and other Administration...

Several TV networks have agreed to air an underwear commercial portraying a surreal world where men and boys menstruate. The ad opens with an anguished young teenage boy sheepishly telling his dad, “I think I got my period.” Dad later hugs him and tells him, “It’s just part of growing up.” Many of the nine rapid-fire vignettes in the one-minute, 20-second ad are jarring: a man rolls over in bed, revealing blood-stained sheets; in a public bathroom, a man passes a tampon to another beneath a toilet stall partition; and a man walks through a locker room with a tampon...

In just ten days (September 20 through September 30) the broadcast networks overwhelmed their evening and morning shows with more than 7 hours of coverage devoted to a whistleblower’s complaint about President Donald Trump’s phone call with Ukranian president Volodymyr Zelensky and the ensuing calls for impeachment. Only 46 minutes of that coverage referenced Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden’s sweetheart deal with a Ukranian company. Even when networks mentioned Trump’s concern about Hunter benefiting from his father’s status as Vice President, they were quick to dismiss the allegations with the refrain: “no evidence of any wrongdoing.” See montage video below:On the September 23 edition of ABC’s World News Tonight correspondent Jon...

CBS is warning viewers that its stations could be blacked out on AT&T’s DirecTV and Uverse pay-TV services on July 19 and that the network could be pulled from streaming service DirecTV Now because of a dispute over programming fees. CBS Logo “CBS would like to avoid being dropped, but unless an agreement is reached, our viewers should be prepared for DirecTV and AT&T Uverse TV to remove CBS-owned television stations,” CBS said in a statement Tuesday. AT&T is currently in a retransmission consent fee dispute with Nexstar that has resulted in about 120 stations being blacked out for nearly...

Here we go…. President Trump is laying the groundwork to ban telecommunication companies based on identified risk to national security (ie. Huawei). Nations who engage in 5-G technology agreements are on notice they may be cut-off from communication partnerships with the U.S.A. [I think Wall Street just pee’d their pants a little..] [Executive Order] By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), and section 301 of...

Amid a deepening trade war with China, President Trump on Wednesday declared a “national emergency” to protect U.S. communications networks in a move that gives the federal government broad powers to bar American companies from doing business with certain foreign suppliers — including the Chinese firm Huawei. Trump declared the emergency in the form of an executive order that says foreign adversaries are exploiting vulnerabilities in U.S. telecommunications technology and services. It points to economic and industrial espionage as areas of particular concern. “The President has made it clear that this Administration will do what it takes to keep America...

The NFL’s TV ratings are being monitored on Wall Street, with some financial analysts saying that another big ratings drop could affect the standing of some broadcast companies. “We continue to believe the NFL is the single biggest swing factor for media earnings and valuation,” read a research note released this morning from MoffettNathanson. “Any sign of continued NFL ratings weakness could pose a long-term risk for broadcasters who may be forced to bid up for rights.” The most interesting part of the report looks into the next round of rights negotiations, with the report suggesting that ESPN should drop...

Disney/ABC TV has begun making long-feared layoffs as part of a broader restructuring of its broadcast business, with rumors swirling that bigger moves—including a possible sale of ABC—are coming. Deadline first reported the staff reductions on Thursday, saying they could impact up to 200 employees across Disney and ABC properties. An ABC source with knowledge of the situation said that the cuts will hit upward of 40 of its employees on the East Coast and still more out west. Multiple people at ABC told Splinter that there is a widespread belief at the network that the belt-tightening could be tied...

Trump should revisit all Network contracts between them and the FCC to ensure America is getting its fairshare of profits to fund critical infrastructure. Areas to be helped include: building the Wall, defense spending, etc. No more "million-dollar" 30 second commercial spots! All sporting activities that support anti-American activities will pay a special penalty on top of their fees.

The year 2017 hasn't been forgiving to the broadcast networks. With a whopping 17 scripted launches since Jan. 1, nearly all new series are languishing with low ratings, even by today's modest standards. But that may not be entirely the new shows' fault: The root of midseason's problem, some say, is the middling fall that preceded it. "In the past, midseason success was typically built on the foundation established in the fall," says Sam Armando, lead investment director at MediaVest-Spark, noting all but NBC (and sports-lifted Fox) are down this year. "Since only This Is Us popped in the fall,...

“USA [Network’s] gay-murder mystery Eyewitness was canceled, and CBS’s Doubt—the first network television show to feature a trans actress (Laverne Cox) as a trans in a lead role—was dropped after just two shows. But the far more visible failure is ABC’s over-hyped gay agenda mini-series When We Rise, which crashed like a cheap Pride Parade float last week.

Watching the Packer vs Falcons game on whatever network and listening to the WTMJ (Milwaukee) announcers.

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