CBS Chief: Stability is a Good Thing

CBS lacks the buzz of competitors like Modern Family and Glee, and the executive shake-ups of rivals like NBC and ABC

What it has instead are viewers — more of them than any other broadcast net, according to the Nielsen Company.

In fact, the Tiffany network rounded out another television season no. 1 in total viewers, a title it has held for seven of the last eight seasons. (For the advertiser-beloved 18-to-49-year-old demo, it ranks second behind Fox.) What its offerings lack in pop-cultural prominence they make up for in viewer loyalty. Proof: CBS is home to the top-rated drama (NCIS, 18.9 million viewers, on average), comedy (Two and a Half Men, 14.8 million), newsmagazine (60 Minutes, 13.3 million) and new series (Undercover Boss, 17.7 million).

"There is no formula; it’s not an exact science," says CBS Entertainment chief Nina Tassler to a roomful of reporters gathered for the semi-annual Television Critics Association’s press tour. "The fact that we’ve been able generate hit shows season after season would indicate we’re doing something right."

With another season mere weeks away, she says she and her team are “restless, motivated and, as I like to say, paranoid.” Seated solo on stage, the long-time executive used the time to praise the health of event programming (award shows and the Super Bowl) as well as the broadcast networks’ impressive class of soon-to-be sophomore series.

read the entire article from "Forbes.com – The Biz Blog"

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CBS Signs Early Renewal for 282,000 SqFt at 555 W. 57th St

SL Green Realty Corp. today announced that CBS Broadcasting, Inc. has signed a lease extension through December 31, 2023 covering its 281,896 square feet at 555 West 57th Street.

The 20-story, approximately one million square-foot property located on Manhattan’s West Side.

"This large lease renewal, together with Healthfirst’s new lease for 172,000 square feet at 100 Church Street and the 157,000 square feet of renewal leases just signed by corporate giants Pepsico and Citigroup in Westchester and Fairfield counties, respectively, represents over 610,000 square feet of lease commitments transacted in the past few days," said Steven Durels, Executive Vice President and Director of Leasing and Real Property for SL Green. "CBS, Citigroup and Pepsico were all renewals, confirming that large tenants are choosing to lock in favorable occupancy costs with financially stable landlords while also providing building owners with long-term stability and rent increases over and above the in-place rent."

read the entire article from "The WSJ Market Watch"

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CBS Wins its Fifth Consecutive Week in Viewers

CBS Also Places First in Adults 25-54

All Three "Big Brother" Broadcasts Post Year-to-Year Gains for the Second Straight Week

"Big Brother" Page Views and Streaming on CBS.com Soar Over the Comparable Week Last Summer

CBS won its fifth consecutive week in viewers with nine of the top 10 scripted series and all three editions of BIG BROTHER posting year-to-year increases for the second straight week, according to Nielsen live plus same day ratings for the week ending July 25, week 44 of the 2009-2010 television year.

For the week in viewers: CBS (5.90m), ABC (4.99m), NBC (4.96m) and FOX (4.49m). Summer-to-date among viewers: CBS (6.44m), ABC (6.12m), NBC (5.44m) and FOX (5.17m).

For the week in key demographics, CBS was first in adults 25-54 (1.9/06, tie with FOX) and averaged a 1.4/05 in adults 18-49.

For the week in households: CBS (3.8/07), NBC and ABC (3.2/06, each) and FOX (2.7/05). Summer-to-date in households, CBS is first (4.2/08), ahead of ABC (3.8/07), NBC (3.4/06) and FOX (3.2/06).

read the entire article from "CBS" via "The Futon Critic"

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RATINGS RAT RACE: CBS’ ‘Big Brother’ Up, ABC’s ‘Scoundrels’ Hits Another Low

We might have seen the last episode of Scoundrels on Sunday after ABC’s original scripted drama sunk to a 0.6 rating/2 rating in adults 18-49 at 9 PM last night, down 14% from last week.

by TV Editor Nellie Andreeva

That was an all-time low for the show and matched the 0.6 18-49 rating fellow ABC drama Happy Town pulled before being yanked from the schedule. ABC’s other Sunday scripted summer series, The Gates  (0.9/3) at 10 PM, seems to have leveled off after the initial decline and was flat from last week. ABC’s highest-rated program for the night was 7 PM leadoff America’s Funniest Home Videos (1.4/5 in rerun), followed by 8 PM anchor Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (1.2/4, also in rerun).

CBS’ Big Brother (2.5/8) was up 9% from last week, followed by repeats of Undercover Boss (1.4/4) and Cold Case (0.8/3).

Fox won the night with comedy reruns, led by back-to-back Family Guy episodes at 9PM (2.3/7) and 9:30PM (2.5/7). Its original Sons of Tucson at 7PM tied Scoundrels as the lowest-rated program of the night. Fox still won the night in adults 18-49.

NBC aired all-repeats, with an America’s Got Talent (1.0/3) encore winning the 9-11 PM time period.

from "Deadline/TV"

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More Cuts Coming at CBS News?

Forbes’ Dirk Smillie  reports today that additional layoffs could be coming to CBS News and sooner rather than later.

    "My understanding is that the cuts are coming this month. I’ve heard this from the highest level," says one producer. If the cuts are made, it will be the third major round of layoffs at the network since 2008. In February, 75 staffers lost their jobs. This time, though, it could be the business side’s turn under the axe. "I can’t imagine there’s another 75 people to whack on the news side," the producer said.

A CBS News spokesperson declined to comment on rumors to TVNewser.

Despite the cuts CBS News saw earlier this year, the scale-back was not nearly as large as the 350-400 reductions seen at ABC News in the months following.

Meanwhile, Smillie uses the layoff murmurings as a jumping off point to explore more on that CBS+CNN chatter we’ve been hearing.

    "CBS knows that it can’t survive without a cable platform. It needs to be part of a larger newsgathering entity," says a producer. "But there’s a wrestling match going on between CBS and CNN over who will control it." A likely bet: CNN president Jon Klein, who spent 16 years at CBS News, overseeing "60 Minutes" and "48 Hours."

If CBS did turn over management of "60 Minutes" to Klein, it would come as something of a surprise. The flagship program had been thought to be "exempt" from any partnership between the two networks.

In any case, the oversight issue has long been seen as a potential sticking point for the news orgs. Former-CBS er Dan Rather noted in May, "One doesn’t want to underestimate the internal problems of, in the end, who’s going to have the final say."

from "TVNewser"

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Who Needs an Antenna? Most Broadcast TV Shows are Online, Analysis Finds

The Internet seems to suit the suits at ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, and The CW just fine!

By David Lieberman

The broadcast networks put nearly all of their primetime, daytime, and late night shows online – and for free — in the TV season that ended in May according to a new analysis from Clicker.com.

About 90% of the broadcast TV programs made it to the Web, with The CW hitting 100%. "I thought it would be about 70%" overall, says Guilliermo Pont, Clicker’s director of product.

The online video guide site counted 4,4,20 full episodes from 127 different shows, including 109 from prime time. (NBC’s The Jay Leno Show, scrapped in February, was counted as one show even though it was on five nights a week.)

Having all those shows available online for free may gladden Web users. But it could weaken the networks’ case when they ask cable and satellite companies to pay for the right to retransmit the programs.

The tally only includes regularly scheduled shows, though: No sports or specials such as the Oscars.

And the networks didn’t post 11 shows including ABC’s Romantically Challenged, CBS’ Criminal Minds and The Big Bang Theory, NBC’s Law & Order: SVU, and Fox’s American Idol.

from "Technology Live"

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CBS Corp Initiated as a “Buy” at Davenport & Company

Broadcasting and publishing giant CBS Corporation (CBS) saw its coverage started with a “Buy” rating on Thursday by analysts at Davenport & Company.

The firm also set an $18 price target on CBS stock, which would represent a 33% upside to its Wednesday closing price of $13.33.

A Davenport analyst commented, “We forecast that CBS can consistently generate $1.2bn in annual FCF through 2014 or ~$1.84 per share, which puts the current cash flow yield at an attractive 14%.” Davenport also believes that conservative estimates (2011E EPS $1.19) and valuation provides a margin of safety. Moving forward, “A relatively modest plan, which maintains balance sheet health and flexibility could add ~20% to earnings by 2014.”

CBS shares were mostly flat in premarket trading Thursday.

read the entire article from "Dividend Dot Com Blog"

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Broadcast Viewership Hits Record Low

Americans Avoided Television in Historic Levels Over The Past Week

By David Bauder (AP)

New York – CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox together had the smallest number of prime-time viewers last week in two decades of record-keeping, the Nielsen Co. said. Given the dominance of the big broadcasters before then, you’d probably have to go back to the early days of television to find such a collective shrug.

The first week of July tends to be among the slowest weeks of the year in television, anyway, with families more engaged in barbecues and fireworks. The problem was magnified this year because July Fourth came on Sunday, largely knocking out one of a typical week’s biggest viewing nights.

Together, the four networks averaged 18.9 million viewers last week, Nielsen said. During the season, "American Idol" alone usually gets a bigger audience than that.

NBC’s "America’s Got Talent" is emerging as the summer’s most popular show, with its two original episodes last week the only programs to top 10 million in viewership, Nielsen said.

While the biggest broadcast networks are suffering, the Spanish-language Univision is stepping up. Among the closely-watched 18-to-49-year-old demographic, Univision finished second only to Fox in prime-time last week.

read the entire article from "The Associated Press via Google News"

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3-D Television: a New Device, a New Language

Let’s say you’ve started lusting for a 3-D television

By Frazier Moore (AP)

Never mind that when you get to the store to sample 3-D TV, you discover that World Cup soccer in 3-D may not grab you like a scene from the 3-D animated film "Monsters vs. Aliens." The soccer match seems disappointingly flat in its wide shots. "Monsters vs. Aliens" immerses you in its animated antics.

You’ve just learned a basic lesson of 3-D: It isn’t all the same.

But when it’s good, it’s very good. It sucks you in. It’s in your face, you’re in its face. Or so it seems. No wonder you’re picturing one of these sleek, wide-screen beauties in your own living room.

That’s what visitors to the Sony 3-D Experience at CBS’ consumer research center in Las Vegas are saying, according to preliminary polling results. Two-thirds of the visitors to this exhibition at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino say their next TV will be 3-D-capable, reported David Poltrack, president of CBS Vision.

read the entire article from "The Associated Press via Google News"

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Watch CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX, BBC Sports and News Live Streams On Pc For Free

Watch CBS, ABC, FOX, CNN Sports / News Live Streams for Free

The mobile phone, teleconferencing and laptop have one thing in common: convenience. The digital world is the perfect example of the paradigm shift that has hit the business scene with a big bang and in a world that is becoming increasingly hell bent on convenience and speed, the advent of online Satellite TV is a welcome phenomenon. Nothing appeals to businessmen and other lovers of time and space as convenience does, and the online Satellite TV is a sure addition to the ever growing list of technologies that make life easier.

Watch CBS, FOX, NBC, CNN, ABC, Sports-News

If you think sending an email is easy, rethink then think again. The online Satellite TV is easy to download and use and in a few short steps, you will find yourself enjoying your favorite movies, programs and sports, all at your fingertips, literally. With the click of a mouse, you could find yourself overwhelmed by how many channels you have to choose from. Spoiled for choice, you will realize that the Satellite TV is actually one of most convenient innovations in recent history.

read the entire article from "Global Hot News, Trends & Popular Topics "

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