CBS May Create Its Own Internet-TV Service to Challenge Aereo

By Alex Barinka and Joshua Fineman

CBS Corp. would consider creating its own online-streaming television service with other networks if Aereo Inc. is allowed to continue selling broadcast programming over the Internet.

CBS may offer its shows in an Internet version of cable TV, know as an over-the-top service, Chief Executive Officer Les Moonves said on CNBC today. The Supreme Court is scheduled to rule this year on whether Aereo can resell broadcasters’ programming without their permission.

“We are going to win either way,” Moonves said.

Media companies including CBS, Walt Disney Co.’s ABC, 21st Century Fox Inc. and Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal are challenging Aereo’s practices. The New York-based startup is threatening the industry’s business model, in which cable companies pay the broadcasters for the right to distribute their programming, even though it’s available for free over the air through an antenna.

Broadcasters say a federal appeals court ruling favoring Aereo created a blueprint that might let cable and satellite providers avoid paying those retransmission fees. Such payments are estimated to exceed $4 billion this year. Broadcast companies such as Fox have said they may convert to cable channels if Aereo isn’t shut down.

read the entire article at "Bloomberg Business Week"

UniMas’ 10PM Series ‘La Viuda Negra’ Out-delivered Telemundo’s ‘Camelia la Texana’ Every Night this Past Week

Written By Amanda Kondolojy

UniMás was the #2 Spanish-Language Network Beating Telemundo During the Monday-Friday 10 p.m. Hour for the Fourth Consecutive Week

UniMás Reported Double-Digit Audience Growth Among Total Viewers 2+ (+24%), Adults 18-49 (+17%), and Adults 18-34 (+21%) vs. Comparable Week a Year Ago

UniMás Grows its Audience Season-to-Date Among
Total Viewers 2+ and Adults 18-49

UniMás Broadcast Prime Highlights – Week of March 17, 2014 to March 23, 2014

UniMás was the #2 Spanish-language network, beating Telemundo during the Monday-Friday 10 p.m. hour for the fourth consecutive week.

ü  UniMás’ 10 p.m. dramatic series “La Viuda Negra” out-delivered Telemundo’s “Camelia la Texana” on every night this past week among Adults 18-34.

ü   “La Viuda Negra” averaged more Total Viewers 2+ (1.2 Million, +8%), Adults 18-49 (624,000, +9%), and Adults 18-34 (336,000, +30%), making UniMás the #2 Spanish-language network during the Monday-Friday 10 p.m. hour.

read the entire article at "TV by the Numbers"

La Voz Kids Racks Up the Ratings for Telemundo

Gabriel Miramar-Garcia

Telemundo Media’s La Voz Kids is knocking ratings out of the park for the Spanish-language broadcast network, with the first two episodes seeing 27% and 12% growth in total viewers and adults 18-49 versus the season one premiere.

Locally, La Voz Kids outperformed Univision as the highest ranked Spanish-language television show in the time period in San Francisco, Chicago, Phoenix and Denver among adults 18-49 and total viewers.

According to Nielsen, it reached a cumulative audience of 3.47 million total viewers and 1.63 million adults 18-49 on the second season’s premiere night. Produced for the first time out of Universal Studios Florida, the Sunday night reality show averaged 2.15 million total viewers and 977,000 adults 18-49.

The multi-platform results were even more impressive. On the social TV front, La Voz Kids ranked No 1 among Hispanic networks ranked by unique audience, according to Social Guide. Social activity for the show generated 932,000 impressions and close to 40,000 tweets resulting in #LVKParty trending in the US within five minutes of the show and trending worldwide on Twitter. Across Telemundo.com, mobile Web and apps, La Voz Kids garnered more than 130,000 unique users, a 70% gain from the season one premiere.

read the entire article at "Rapid TV News"

CBS News’ FACE THE NATIONS is #1 in Viewers and Adults 25-54

by TV News Desk

CBS News’ Face The Nation posted a 2.6/07 with 3.94m viewers and 1.0/05 in adults 25-54 – the demographic most important to those who advertise in news – according to Nielsen live plus same day ratings for March 23. Editor’s Note: FACE THE NATION’s second half-hour was broadcast contiguously across 50% of the CBS affiliates.

Compared to the same day last year, Face The Nation was up +27% in viewers (from 3.09m) and +43% in adults 25-54 (from 0.7/03).

FACE THE NATION, season-to-date, is up +3% in viewers (3.33m from 3.23m) and even in adults 25-54 (0.8/04) compared to last year. Season-to-date, Face The Nation is first in these measures among the Sunday morning public affairs programs.

The March 23 broadcast of Face The Nation included reports on the missing Malaysian Air flight 370 from CBS News Correspondent Holly Williams in Australia, CBS News Aviation and Safety Expert Captain Sully Sullenberger and David Gallo of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Bob Schieffer spoke to former Republican presidential nominee Gov. MITT Romney, Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) and Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) on developments in Ukraine and President Obama’s foreign policy. Finally, Face The Nation hosted a panel with CBS News Foreign Correspondent Clarissa Ward, Leigh Gallagher of Fortune, and David Sanger of The New York Times.

read the entire article at "BWW TV"

Les Moonves: CBS Won’t Have ‘The Same Sort of Struggle’ With Comcast-Owned TWC

By Tim Kenneally

Comcast will “pay appropriately” for CBS content, Moonves predicts

Worried that Comcast’s purchase of Time Warner Cable could lead to another showdown between CBS and TWC?

Don’t worry; Les Moonves figures it will be a whole new ball game.

Moonves — whose network famously went dark for millions of customers last year during a dispute over retransmission fees — appeared on CNBC on Thursday to discuss the acquisition, which is worth in the neighborhood of $45 billion.

Aside from opining that Comcast “made a pretty terrific deal for themselves,” Moonves said that he doesn’t anticipate another butting of heads.

“Obviously as a content provider, the good news for Comcast is that they own a network that competes with us, and they own a number of cable channels, so they are a company that believes in content, and they believe in paying fairly for content,” Moonves offered. “As you may have heard, we had a little dispute with Time Warner Cable this past summer over what they felt … they didn’t want to pay what we felt was a fair share for our content. Comcast obviously thinks about it in an entirely different way.”

Asked if he felt that he would still have power in negotiating, now that Time Warner Cable will be owned by a much larger company, Moonves was confident that there would be smooth sailing in the future.

read the entire article at "The WRAP Covering Hollywood"

CBS’s Face the Nation is #1 Sunday Morning Public Affairs Show

by TV News Desk

News’ Face The Nation posted a 2.5/06 with 3.56m viewers and in adults 25-54 0.8/04 – the demographic most important to those who advertise in news – according to Nielsen live plus same day ratings for Feb. 9.

Editor’s Note: FACE THE NATION’s second half-hour was broadcast contiguously across 50% of the CBS affiliates.

Compared to the same day last year, Face The Nation was up +9% in households (from 2.3/06), +6% in viewers (from 3.37m) and +13% in adults 25-54 (from 0.8/04).

FACE THE NATION, season-to-date, is up +2% in viewers (3.33m from 3.27m) and even in adults 25-54 (0.8/03) compared to last year. Season-to-date, Face The Nation is first in these measures among the Sunday morning public affairs programs.

The Feb. 9 broadcast of Face The Nation featured interviews with Rep. Peter King (R-NY), Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL), and Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH). Bob Schieffer hosted a panel featuring Jeffrey Goldberg of Bloomberg View and The Atlantic, Mark Mazzetti of The New York Times, CBS News State Department Correspondent Margaret Brennan, and CBS News Political Director John Dickerson. Finally, Face The Nation aired a special flashback marking 50 years since The Beatles’ performance on "The Ed Sullivan Show."

FACE THE NATION is broadcast on Sundays at 10:30 AM, ET (check local listings) on the CBS Television Network. Mary Hager is the Executive Producer. Face The Nation is one of the longest-running news programs in the history of television, now celebrating its 60th year on air. It premiered on CBS on Nov. 7, 1954. The program broadcasts from Washington, D.C., where Schieffer has spent more than 40 years covering government and politics. He has anchored Face The Nation since 1991. Guests include government leaders, politicians and global figures in the news.

read the entire article at "Broadway World"

CBS Corp Hits New 52-Week High on Strong Earnings

Posted by Zach Kirkland

CBS Corp (NYSE:CBS) shares hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Thursday following a better than expected earnings announcement, Stock Ratings Network reports.

The stock traded as high as $64.90 and last traded at $64.72, with a volume of 9,878,686 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $61.85.

The company reported $0.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.76 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $3.91 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.52 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.64 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.8% on a year-over-year basis.

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which is scheduled for Tuesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.12 per share. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.78%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th.

read the entire article at "WKRB News & Analysis"

Competition for Telenovelas Increases in Spain’s TV Market

by Emiliano De Pablos

NBC U’s Telemundo pacts with Atresmedia; Mexican giant Televisa, with Mediaset Espana

Latino telenovelas are again catching the attention of Spain’s top private TV broadcasters, unleashing a new sprint for product deals with leading international suppliers.

Move comes after telenovelas had progressively disappeared from the schedules of Spain’s main TV webs to find shelter on Spain’s multi-channel DTT pltatforms.

A key driver for the sep-up in competition among broadcasters is the success of media conglom Atresmedia’s women-skewed free-to-air TV channel Nova.

On Feb. 3, Atresmedia’s main rival, Mediaset Espana, owned by Silvio Berlusconi’s Mediaset, reacted to Nova’s results unveiling a three-year strategic deal with Televisa – once a significant Atresmedia provider – to feed its TV service La Siete, which re-launches Friday as a telenovela-focused offer.

For its part, Atresmedia strengthened links with Telemundo, announcing Jan. 30 an exclusive, strategic multi-year commitment to guarantee Telemundo’s new telenovelas plus catalogue titles airtime in Spain via Nova.

Launched 2005 by DeAPlaneta’s Atresmedia, Nova has consolidated as the leading offer for Spain’s femme-orientated  DTT services. Net averaged a record 2.1% audience share in 2013, clearly surpassing rival Mediaset Espana’s Divinity (1.7%), La Siete (1.2%) and Nueve (0.7%).

Broadcast Jan. 24 in Nova’s prime-time, the last episode of Telemundo’s “The Return” scored a boffo 4.2% share and 793,000 viewers.Still airing, “Maid in Manhattan,” another Telemundo’s telenovela, has cumed an around-3% share on Nova.

“There’s a high demand for telenovelas from our viewers and they generate a very loyal audience,” said Jose Antonio Anton, Atresmedia’s programming, thematic channels director.

Re-designing La Siete, Mediaset aims to complement audience target reached by its channel bouquet, covering all women demos. It will target 18 to 35 year-olds with contempo, mould-breaking telenovelas; air thrillers and action novelas for 25-45s, plus classic productions for 45s-upwards.

read the entire article at "Variety"

NYC Politicians, Community Rallies Around Cablevision Techs

On the first day of Black History Month, more than 300 Cablevision technicians, CWA members, allies and elected officials gathered in midtown Manhattan to rally for a fair contract.

It was the two-year anniversary of the Cablevision workers vote to join CWA and the one-year anniversary of the illegal termination of 22 technicians.

"We’re going to continue to stand with you. It’s a shame that after two years of having decided you want to be represented by a union, that we’re still fighting for that to be respected. That’s a true shame," said New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito.

Speakers also included NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer, NYC Public Advocate Leticia James, Rep. Jerry Nadler, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, Rev. Al Sharpton and a host of other officials from the city council and state assembly. The Tech 22 performed and CWA was joined by our partners, including SEIU Local 32BJ, TWU Local 100, Operating Engineers, SEIU Local 1199, NYCC, Make the Road, Working Families and Occupy Wall Street.

"There’s a war being waged on unions and working people – a war! And this Cablevision is part of that war," said Nadler.

Sharpton fired up the crowd, shouting, "This is our day! This is our time! Solidarity!"

Lawrence Hendrickson, a Brooklyn Cablevision tech, vowed that workers would not give up. "This year the walls of injustice will come crumbling down at the knees of the workers," he said.

From "CWA-NABET" Newsletter Feb. 6, 2014

NABET-CWA Members Bring Olympics Home

When NBC Sports’s coverage of the XXII Olympic Winter Games begins, more than 100 NABET-CWA members will be working behind the scenes in Sochi, Russia, to bring home all of the action to viewers in the U.S.

Several members actually have been in Sochi for months now, building studios at the International Broadcast Center and setting up cameras and other video equipment in arenas and on mountain tops throughout the Black Sea resort area.

These Olympic Games will mark a number of firsts for NBC Sports. For example, coverage of snowboarding, free style skiing, and team figure skating represent the first time that a U.S. television network will broadcast events in prime time prior to the traditional Opening Ceremonies. NBC Sports will also air 230 hours of Olympics coverage on the NBC Sports Network (NBCSN), the most hours of Winter Olympic coverage ever carried on a cable network.

Throughout the sixteen days of the Winter Olympics, NABET-CWA members will be putting their skills to work on broadcasts of figure skating, ice hockey, speed skating, bobsled, ski jumping, Alpine and Nordic skiing, biathlon and more. One of the most anticipated broadcasts from the Games will be the Team USA vs. Russia men’s hockey match on Saturday, Feb. 15.

"As world class athletes gather on the Olympic stage in Sochi, world class television professionals, members of our union, will be there as well, putting their talents on display," said NABET-CWA President Jim Joyce."The contributions and talents of our members have played a significant role in NBC’s success in broadcasting the Olympics the past two decades."

In addition to sports coverage, NABET-CWA members also are working on news coverage originating from Sochi, for live broadcasts of the Today Show, NBC Nightly News, and local news coverage for NBC-affiliated TV stations. Starting tonight, broadcasts will continue through the closing ceremonies on Sunday, Feb. 23.

From "CWA-NABET" Newsletter Feb. 6, 2014