The Inquisitr » nbc

Sunday Night Football extended until 2013

Joshua Lobdell — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 00:30:59 +0000

The NFL and NBC have extended the contract for Sunday Night Football until 2013. The original six year deal will now go two more years. This should be considered a big one for NBC, since the departure of NFL broadcaster John Madden, the future of Sunday Night football was anything but guaranteed.

NBC will now have the broadcast rights for 16 regular season Sunday Night games, both Saturday Wild Card Round games and the Thursday night game that traditionally kicks off the NFL season. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but whatever the price it is worth for NBC. In 2008 the Sunday night games were a ratings winner for the peacock network.

The new contract for Sunday Night football was approved by the NFL team’s at an ownership meeting in Chicago. One of the key points to this deal is the flexible scheduling allowed over the final seven weeks of the season. While the league will try to feature key games for Sunday night sometimes teams fail or other teams step up and need to be given a big national audience. Given the return of Brett Favre NBC might want to air a few key Minnesota Vikings games down the stretch to the NFL playoffs.

Since Monday Night Football has been moved to ESPN, and there is still a good number of NFL fans without access to cable TV, having a national game on a generally strong TV night is of vital importance to the league.

AFL to cease operations file chapter 7 bankruptcy

Joshua Lobdell — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 18:41:46 +0000

The Arena Football League had already cancelled there 2009 season which was set to run over the summer months and be aired on ESPN. However this league had a lot of big problems, an out of control spending spree on players in certain cities, and a low fan turnout in most cities not named Chicago. Now word has leaked out that the AFL will cease all operations and file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy which is a liquidation of assets.

Many would have Arena Football fans believe that this is the end of the Arena football style game, however nothing could be farther from the truth. The AFL2 is yet another arena league run by the same masters of the AFL but with an updated business model. AFL 2 teams are placed in mid market cities that have no NFL representation, and have little other live sports choices. For example the City of Toledo, Ohio recently built a new arena to house a minor league hockey team, and an AFL 2 franchise. Since Toledo is an hour from Detroit, and two hours from Cleveland it is close enough to population centers to be a draw.

The AFL is now a defunct football league with a very rich history of over 20 seasons. They survived so long by not competing directly with the NFL, and by offering a different kind of football product. The NFL even went as far as to allow it’s owners to purchase and market AFL teams within their own markets. The NFL has rules against majority owners owning other professional sports teams.

In the end though it was these things that killed off the league. The game was so different that many hard core NFL fans didn’t like it. When the NFL owners stepped in to own AFL teams that spent money as they did in the NFL and this led to a massive overspending on talent. On top of that this league had a hard time getting a team going in New York City, Detroit, and other big football markets. that made it an unattractive to TV executives and even with stints on NBC and ESPN the league couldn’t get his business model to produce profit.

Another who cares Hulu post – this time get your wallet ready

Steven Hodson — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 03:22:10 +0000

Over the last couple of days I’ve been seeing a couple of posts showing up suggesting that people get ready to open their wallets soon if they want to keep using Hulu. Now for the rest of the world this won’t matter one bit because well besides the US and soon (as of September) the UK no-one else can use the service because it’s geotarded.

That hasn’t stop the newly installed head honcho of News Corp, one of the players involved with Hulu, Mr. Jonathan Miller from suggesting that he envisions a time where at least some of the TV shows and movies would only be available through subscription.

Miller, whose last job was running AOL (parent of Daily Finance), prefaced his remark by noting that he won’t attend his first Hulu board meeting until Monday, so the scenario he foresees is merely his own speculation. But, he continued, "in my opinion the answer could be yes. I don’t see why over time that shouldn’t happen. I don’t think it’s on the agenda for Monday [but] it seems to me that over time that could be a logical thing."

Source: Daily Finance

Now the angst over his statement hasn’t really started rolling through the tech blogosphere because everyone is still sucking up to the the Twitter teat and since what he had to say was more than a 140 characters I’m not surprised it’s been missed. That will change the moment word hits that Hulu will be seriously going down that road – which it will.

The only thing I can say is – what do you expect. Just look at who’s involved here – News Corp (Fox), NBC, ABC and Disney. The only network not involved is CBS and they seem to be the only ones by the way who seem to have a grip on how this new medium works and doing a good job at it.

Unfortunately though when Hulu starts dipping into your wallet most of the world won’t even care but that is what happens when you lock us out. So enjoy your free Hulu while it last.

Chuck not yet renewed, may be canceled

Duncan Riley — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 06:23:43 +0000

TV series Chuck may be coming to an end, with speculation that the show may be canceled by NBC.

The season finale goes to air next week, but the story line of the last episodes has seen a lot of the story lines tied up, suggesting that we could be seeing the final episodes.

NBC hasn’t helped, giving no comment so far about the show, and likewise failing to renew it. Josh Schwartz, the show’s executive producer only had this to say:

Sitting here today, I do not know. Which is a tricky place to be, emotionally. The last two episodes are certainly the best that we’ve done, and I feel like the whole season has been building. To feel this coalescing of the inter-Web forces, in support of the show, has been really remarkable.

There is an unconfirmed report that a renewal may be in the works, but it’s still really a big unknown.

Friday Night Lights renewed for two more seasons

Duncan Riley — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 00:07:08 +0000

Despite low ratings, Friday Night Lights has been renewed for two more seasons.

The series will continue to premiere on Direct TV first before going to NBC for a second run, reports AceShowBiz. The fourth and fifth season will also be shot back-to-back in order to save costs.

Audience numbers for the third season plunged from 3 million plus to an average of 2 million viewers, leading to speculation that the show would not return.

The fourth season of the cult show will go to air in the northern autumn (fall) with the fifth following next year.

ZillionTV: yet another set-top box, or game changer?

Duncan Riley — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 23:11:46 +0000

New Internet TV provider ZillionTV launched today, offering yet another set-top box that brings internet television to the lounge room.

The tech specs are reasonable. On the plus side, ZillionTV will offer High quality streams, a Wii like remote for navigation, the ability to pay or opt-in to ads for content, and the ability to pick which type of ads you see. The rest of the specs are nothing we haven’t already seen from boxes like Roku, AppleTV and numerous others.

Most sites have been quick to write the ZillionTV off as yet another player in a market that continues to offer promise, but has never really taken off in a big way. But ZillionTV has a couple of advantage that could make it a game changer.

The strongest part of the offering is the content. Yes, many boxes already offer movies and television shows on demand, but the range of content providers has often been somewhat limited. ZillionTV is backed with content and investments from ABC/Disney, Fox, NBC/Universal, Sony and Warner Bros. The only content missing is CBS, but compared to other offerings out there, this offers a deeper range, and better choice between free and paid. Consumers don’t care for content deals and who owns what; what they care about is having access to their favorite shows, and ZillionTV looks like they may well offer a superior lineup.

The other factor that may make this a game changer is how it’s distributed. ZillionTV isn’t going to appear at your local computer or electronics store, and will instead be offered exclusively via partner ISP’s. Which ISP’s haven’t been disclosed as yet, but given the strong backing by media companies, it’s not unreasonable to expect that they’ll be distributed via large ISP’s. Some have suggested that this path may come up against network neutrality; this could happen if ISP’s decide to prioritize traffic to ZillionTV users, but there’s actually a better pitch: cap exemptions.

The box costs $50, and ISP’s get a cut from the ongoing revenue on each box. These same ISP’s are currently introducing capped internet access throughout the United States, and HD video gobbles up bandwidth. A likely outcome is that partner ISP’s will offer cap exemptions to ZillionTV traffic, so that although data traffic to the box may not get a speed priority, it will allow users to consume more without breaking their data caps. A not-dissimilar setup happens in Australia today; my ISP offers unlimited “free zone” data for content from iTunes and Australia’s ABC iView TV on demand service. This could well become a game changer as users hit cap limits; you can pay $50 to get a ZillionTV with data that doesn’t count towards your cap, or a Roku or AppleTV that does. If you like to watch TV on demand, which one would you pick?

ZillionTV launches in the 4th quarter in what will likely still be a difficult economic climate. It may fail as many have before, but the approach is different and it has strong potential.

No related posts.

Hulu cuts off Boxee, Old Media takes one step forward, two steps back

Duncan Riley — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 23:39:35 +0000

Users of the growingly popular Boxee media platform will no longer have access to Hulu, after the Fox/ NBC JV decided that letting people watch programs for free where they want wasn’t part of the game plan.

Hulu didn’t elaborate on the reasons behind the move, saying only in a post that

Our content providers requested that we turn off access to our content via the Boxee product, and we are respecting their wishes. While we stubbornly believe in this brave new world of media convergence — bumps and all — we are also steadfast in our belief that the best way to achieve our ambitious, never-ending mission of making media easier for users is to work hand in hand with content owners. Without their content, none of what Hulu does would be possible, including providing you content via Hulu.com and our many distribution partner websites.

The real reason though comes back to the threat Boxee represents. In a tight market where cable subscriptions are heading down and TV networks are bleeding advertisers, services such as Boxee offer TV or cable like convenience without the same costs, and likewise the revenue streams expected by old media. Boxee was too much of a substitute for Fox and NBC to handle, and in taking one step forward with Hulu itself, and now taking two steps back by locking up that content by restricting where it can be played.

The net result is easy to predict. More piracy of content, and NBC and Fox lose even more. A short sighted decision from myopic media companies.

Google to buy NBC in ‘09 so says Glick

Steven Hodson — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 22:49:07 +0000

Oh man the funny shit just won’t quit rolling in today. First it was the porn industry looking for a few billion dollar bailout. Then comes word that Joe the Plumber is going to be a war correspondent for conservative new media PajamasMedia. Now we have Fox Business News personage Alexis Glick throwing out her business predictions for 2009 on her blog.

Number 2 on her list of 10 predictions is the one where she suggests that her previous employer NBC will get sold to Google

2. A major network gets sold in 2009. My bet is NBC.

NBC will get sold to Google in 2009. In a deteriorating credit environment, a collapse in equity valuations, a need to cut costs, shed assets and address the bleeding at GE Capital, Jeff Immelt will sell NBC to Google. Immelt will be forced to sell the one asset he has said that he had no plans of selling when NBC’s Network Television ratings continue to slide and declining advertising dollars leave little room for growth.

Look old media might be having a few problems but I just don’t see any of them; let alone NBC, going running into the arms of companies like Google. Of course she couldn’t let good enough alone with that but had to throw in a celeb prediction at number 10

10. Brangelina take the plunge and says their I do’s

It wouldn’t be a top ten predictions list without a little Hollywood glamour. Last year, I predicted Ellen Page would winner a Golden Globe and Academy Award for her performance in Juno. She did not win either but her star is still rising. This year The Curious Case of Benjamin Button will deliver Brad Pitt a new award to place on his mantle. His performance was outstanding. It was by far one of my favorite movies this year. And it’s not just because he’s cute ! Let me not forget the beautiful and wildly talented Angelina Jolie who is the envy of just about every woman. Is it possible to look that good after delivering three babies? While I have yet to see Changeling, I hear her performance was outstanding. Might they both walk away with an award for their tremendous performances? I wouldn’t doubt it. Despite claims that they would wait to tie the knot until same sex marriages were legal or until there kids requested it, the time has come for them to tie the knot. Don’t expect it to be glitzy and glamorous. I expect it will be quiet, elegant and a small family and friend affair which will make them once again the most watched couple in 2009

Maybe she should stick to doing celeb predictions because I think that has a better chance of coming true.

No related posts.

2009 Will Mark the Beginning of the End for Georetardation

Duncan Riley — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 06:01:02 +0000

Having made a number of blogging related predictions, I move on to the tech scene. While there’s probably a list to come (and its own post) there’s one area I’ve been watching very closely this year, and that’s one of my pet hates, Georetardation.

For those not familiar with the concept (so basically most living in the United States who never suffer it) georetardation is the blocking of content outside a specific geographic area. For example, folks outside of the United State can’t view content on Hulu, well at least not without using a VPN.

The reasons why companies georetard online content is simple: rights are sold outside the United States, and that usually includes online rights. Those agreements don’t allow shows on Hulu (I’d note shows, Hulu continues to georetard content (mostly clips) legally available outside the United States) to be shown in say the United Kingdom or Australia.

The problem with georetardation is that it is driving piracy. Providing content online, free or paid in the United States was meant to be a counter to illegal downloading of content. The figures as to whether this is working or not aren’t clear, but certainly the United States ranks well down lists for downloaded television content now, and the strong numbers coming out of Hulu would suggest that more people are watching content online; perhaps some of those are now doing so instead of downloading content.

My bold prediction for 2009 is that one television network will drop georetardation, maybe not completely, but across large markets, marking the beginning of the end of the system.

It’s a stretch, but only a couple of years ago so was the idea that we’d be able to buy DRM free music.

Why one will drop it

Old media, despite well justified derision as being clueless, is slowly starting to catch on to the idea that the way to combat piracy isn’t to sue everyone, but to instead see rates of piracy as unmet demand. In 2009 they will see that unmet demand as being global, or at least key areas outside the United States. US television networks don’t like their shows being pirated anywhere in the world, and one of them will clue into the fact that it’s time to force the rights holders hands and offer those shows online.

Hulu is already pushing for this, although they’ve been promising international expansion since day one, and yet they really have never done much about it.

My bet is that NBC will be the first to offer their shows online outside the United States, with Fox a close second.

NBC has arguably been the most progressive of the US television networks in offering content online, and clip content outside of the United States. While they’re blocking some content (they’ve started blocking SNL for some reason post election), they do seem to understand that international audiences offer value.

How they’ll do it.

Offering full shows internationally isn’t as easy as decreeing it to be so, and flicking a switch. Television networks have deals with providers in each country, and likely different conditions with each.

NBC will be able to renegotiate deals as they come up for renewal, but likewise they won’t want to risk the money these deals bring in.

So here’s how it will play out.

NBC will negotiate with key rights holders about internet play rights, particularly in those territories where content isn’t being offered online. Example: the UK does have a fair bit of content online (not sure on NBC content specifically) but somewhere like Australia just doesn’t.

The deal will be simple: NBC, through Hulu or directly, offers full shows online. Ads on those shows served to each country will be supplied, if available by the local rights holder. In Australia, that would be the Seven Network, who through joint venture Yahoo7 has a strong local internet presence. As is the case with all Hulu content, that content will be available on local affiliate sites (again, in Australia, Yahoo7). Ad sales may or may not be split depending on the individual agreement, but primacy goes to the local provider so they gain as well.

If local affiliates don’t want to play ball, NBC makes a song and dance about local piracy rates, and finds a clause about IP protection as a threat.

International rights are highly competitive, and the decision of an existing rights holder not wanting to sign on could easily be used by NBC as a bargaining chip in future renewals or open competition for rights.

Delayed Programming

Where the fall of georetardation gets hard is with local time delays in programming. For example, the ABC in Australia is playing the Dr Who Christmas Special January 25…and they claim they’re fast tracking it. Networks worldwide don’t work on the same schedules as the United States, and often sit on programs for months, sometimes years before playing them, and this is going to be a big issue in dropping georetardation.

A compromise could be a premium model, where shows not shown on television locally are available for purchase or rent, on iTunes or elsewhere, before shown locally. Revenue could be split with a majority going to a local affiliate. The advantage there is that everyone wins: people who want to watch shows don’t have to pirate them, and local affiliates can make money by meeting demand for shows already shown in the United States, but aren’t scheduled closely there after.

The alternative could be an ad supported model, although it’s a harder sell. I’d think that we might see a hybrid model that differs from territory to territory.

Domino effect

Like the removal of DRM on music, it only takes one big player to drop georetardation for the rest to eventually follow. The reality, sad reality perhaps is that countries such as Australia are years behind the United States when it comes to legal access to content. In a tight economic environment, US television networks will want to do everything they can to get every last cent from their content (mind you, they always have to some extent) and forcing affiliate hands on internet streaming is a logic step in the progression of online content provision.

If it doesn’t happen in 2009 (I think it might), it will happen in the next 5 years; it has to happen. The world has become a global marketplace, not one artificially defined by borders. Television content shown in the United States is available within an hour of it being shown on BitTorrent networks, and someone in Australia or the United States can watch that content within hours of it being shown in the States. This isn’t some evil conspiracy of pirated content; this is fans wanting to keep up with the latest shows, and these viewer present an opportunity, not a threat. Old media may be in trouble, but television networks aren’t dumb either, well at least not all of the time.

NBC may cut back on the hours it broadcasts programming

Duncan Riley — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 01:03:58 +0000

NBC is considering cutting back the number of hours it airs programming after a poor fall TV season.

Chief Executive Jeff Zucker told an investor conference Monday that while NBC will continue to fund the creation of pilots, NBC is considering cutting the number of hours or perhaps even the number of nights it provides programming.

“Can we continue to program 22 hours of prime-time? Three of our competitors don’t. Can we afford to program seven nights a week? One of our competitors doesn’t,” Zucker said. “All of these questions have to be on the table. And we are actively looking at all of those questions.”

Zucker also said that the NBC owned local stations needs to undergo “major change” due to the downturn in advertising, reports AP.

NBC has previously announced $500 million in cuts, and laid off 500 employees last week.

No related posts.

Obama on Meet The Press: Car Makers cannot be allowed to fall

Duncan Riley — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 23:37:31 +0000

President Elect Barack Obama’s told Tom Brokaw in an interview on Meet The Press Sunday that the American car industry cannot be allowed to fall, calling GM, Ford and Chrysler the “backbone” of American manufacturing.

Obama said that the three had made “repeated strategic mistakes” but millions of Americans rely on the big three for their jobs, directly or indirectly, so they should not be consigned to court-supervised bankruptcy as some people have suggested.

Obama did say though that he wanted the assistance to be conditioned on restructuring.

“That means we’re going to have to figure out how to put the pressure in the same way a bankruptcy court would … but do so in a way that allows them to keep their factory doors open.”

“The auto industry doesn’t have a sustainable business model and needs to develop more fuel-efficient cars…such changes should have been made decades ago.”

Full Obama Meet The Press Interview as follows:

Another day, another round of cuts: Viacom 850, CNBC 80

Duncan Riley — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 00:50:36 +0000

Media giant Viacom has announced a 7% reduction in its workforce, or 850 employees.

Viacom said in a statement that cuts would be implemented across all divisions of the company, which includes MTV Networks, BET, Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks movie studios. The restructuring and write-down will result in a pre-tax charge of $400 million to $450 million in the fourth quarter of 2008, but will deliver a result in pre-tax savings of $200 million to $250 million in 2009.

The New York Post reports that cable channel CNBC is expected to deliver 80 pink slips today. The report notes that CNBC has been spared cost-cutting efforts conducted by NBC to date.

Parent company NBCU announced a 3% across the board cut in October.

Heroes creator calls fans dipshits

Duncan Riley — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 03:14:25 +0000

Heroes series creator Tim Kring made some interesting comments at a presentation at the Heroes panel at Creative Screenwriting’s 2008 Screenwriting Expo. Via IGN, the full block:

Going back to the origins of the show, Kring explained how he had recognized that NBC did not have any sort of ensemble, serialized drama, in the wake of the success of shows like 24 and Lost. Having come from procedural series, including his own Crossing Jordan, Kring said he saw an opportunity there when he conceived of Heroes, which was “a completely different animal” from his previous work.

He joked that quickly he wondered, “What was I thinking?” noting that a serialized show is “an absolute bear to do.” Kring said he’s also finding, “It’s a very flawed way of telling stories on network television right now, because of the advent of the DVR and online streaming. The engine that drove [serialized TV] was you had to be in front of the TV [when it aired]. Now you can watch it when you want, where you want, how you want to watch it, and almost all of those ways are superior to watching it on air. So [watching it] on air is related to the saps and the dipshits who can’t figure out how to watch it in a superior way.“

Charming. James Poniewozik at Time has some fun in response here.

Hilary Duff signs with NBC for new TV show

Duncan Riley — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 03:41:30 +0000

Hilary “Lizzie McGuire” Duff is returning to television in her own series on NBC.

Hillary has signed a one-year development deal with NBC that will see her getting her own series and appearances in other NBC shows. Details of the show are yet to be worked out.

Teri Weinberg, executive vice president of NBC Entertainment quoted by Reuters said Duff was “an incredibly versatile talent with a huge following.”

TV Briefs: Gary Unmarried, Worst Week, Medium and Monk all renewed

Duncan Riley — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 02:53:00 +0000

Renewal season is in full swing, with some shows being axed, and others being renewed.

Fresh off the renewals list today:

CBS gave an additional seven-episode to “Gary Married” which starts Jay Mohr, Paula Marshall and Jaime King. The new order is on top of a previous 13 episode order.

CBS also extended situational comedy Worst Week, the American version of the UK sitcom The Worst Week of My Life. The show only has a short reprieve, getting only a 3 episode order, after initial strong ratings have fell away mid season.

NBC has ordered a half dozen more episodes of Medium according to THR. The show is being positioned as a mid-year replacement. More episodes may be ordered.

USA Network has picked up the eighth, and what it calls the final season of “Monk.”

USA has ordered 16 episodes of Monk for its eight seasons, but is billing the order as the final season.

(in part via Variety)

Like Meatloaf through a straw, Days of our Lives gets another 18 months

Duncan Riley — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 05:11:51 +0000

Perennial daytime soap opera favorite Days of our Lives will live on for another 18 months.

NBC signed the with Sony Pictures TV earlier this week, so the soap will remain on air until September. But it’s not all great news for Days fans: the previous deal was for 5 years, showing some waning faith in the product.

Variety reports that it’s unclear whether NBC also negotiated a reduced license fee for the show.

Days of our Lives has aired every weekday on NBC since launching in November 1965.

“Traditional Media 2.0″ Still Doesn’t Add Up

JR — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 15:53:25 +0000

The traditional media industry is taking a Web 2.0-style step as it attempts to maintain relevancy in the changing information era.

NBC is rolling out a “link out” policy with its owned affiliate stations starting today, The New York Times reports. Starting with Chicago station WMAQ, the network will attempt to recreate its local Web sites as “city guides,” with ample links to third-party sites. A beta version, The Times says, featured links to local papers as well as USA Today and TMZ — and, perhaps most notably, there’s no difference in branding between the internally created and externally created content. As an executive explained to The Times:

“If we can provide them great content, that’s wonderful. If it comes from somebody else, that’s fine, too.”

Spin Zone

While the stations are working hard to spin the shifted focus as a fresh change that’ll “provide a destination” for its audience, we here in the modern Web community know the concept is far from new; it’s just thus far been resisted (or ignored) by traditional media. There’s another side of the equation not being touted, too: cost-cutting. Local television stations are scaling back like you wouldn’t believe. Smaller staffs are doing more than ever, and typically, these added online duties are being done by the same people already performing the equivalent of two jobs for the on-air product.

A Matter of Math

Now, to be fair, in NBC’s case, the network says it’s hired about 50 people to help power the expanded online operation. But what it doesn’t say is how many others it laid off in the time leading up to then. At Gannett, for another example, the nauseatingly overpromoted “Information Center” notion attempts to give viewers the impression that TV stations are a central source of information flow in and out, and that the news teams are everywhere, bringing you the latest information on whatever medium you need.

The impression you don’t see is that within the same company, producers — who are responsible for shaping a newscast, writing its content, and conceptualizing all of its graphics and visual elements, among other things — are also about to start having to edit video for their shows as well. (That’s something that one or two dedicated and trained video editors used to do.) Many of them are also now finding themselves overseeing two newscasts rather than one, as positions are being eliminated. Oh yeah, and those are the same people bringing you those “24/7 information updates” online at the same time, too. And that’s just one example.

The Final Word

The efforts to evolve, even if overdue, are a positive step. The underlying problem, however, remains constant. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: The broadcast news industry cannot grow and expand into new media while concurrently cutting back its staff and resources in record numbers. The math just doesn’t add up.

Ze Frank is back…maybe

Duncan Riley — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 01:50:28 +0000

Popular online video celebrity Ze Frank is back, staring in the pilot episode of a new web series being considered by NBC Universal.

Ze Frank stars alongside Justine Bateman, Michael Cassidy, Ben Falcone, Ernie Hudson, and Amanda Walsh in The Remnants, a “comedy about a group of squabbling survivors in post-apocalyptic Los Angeles.”

The show was filmed during the writers guild strike earlier this year, and hasn’t been picked up yet, so all we may get to Frank is in the clip above, but for many fans, it will be a welcome return to the screen.

Show writer John August has more details on his blog here.

(via NewTeeVee)

Hulu’s georetardation policies now officially beyond a joke

Duncan Riley — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 05:26:28 +0000

Hulu is to enter the live streaming space for the first time, offering the remaining two Presidential debates live as part of its new Hulu Election ‘08 portal.

The new portal features clips and full replays of major political stories (such as previous debates) and topical clips, such as last weekends Saturday Night Live send up of the Vice Presidential debate. It sounds like a good service, and I would have tested it before writing this post, but like everything else on Hulu it’s georetarded, so nothing on the page can be viewed outside of the United States.

Hulu has long blamed its content partners for its georetarding policies, and until now, as much as many of us outside of the United States hate it, the argument has had some level of validity. For example, I’m unable to stream shows directly off of most rights holders websites, so it’s a uniform decision that drives the rest of the world to Chinese hosted streams, YouTube or bittorrent.

But the election material is very, very different. There’s absolutely nothing I could find on the Hulu Election site I can’t already watch outside of the United States legally from content providers. Among the key providers of footage for Hulu are NBC/ MSNBC and Fox, and guess what: videos from both can be watched on demand outside of the United States (at least they played for me in Australia), and that’s direct on the site, and through embeds popular on other sites. And it’s not just the strictly political news content either: I can play the Saturday Night Live clip on an NBC embed as featured here on The Huffington Post.

So what exactly is Hulu’s excuse now? That it’s too hard perhaps to drop georetardation for some videos and not all of them perhaps? hardly seems a challenge when you consider that NBC can block full shows, but display clips. One can only presume that simply Hulu doesn’t care. If Hulu’s georetardation policies were a joke before, they are now officially beyond a joke. EPIC FAIL.

NBC throws Google TV ads a life line

Duncan Riley — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 02:02:51 +0000

Google and NBC Universal have signed a deal that will see Google sell advertisements on some of NBC’s cable channels including MSNBC, Oxygen and the Sci Fi network.

NBC said that the deal was an attempt to reach advertisers who currently advertise online using Adwords but don’t advertise on television. For Google, it’s a shot in the arm for its struggling TV advertising division, that started with a world of good intentions, but suffered from a serious lack of inventory as established players weren’t willing to share their diminishing spoils.

From a Google watching you perspective, the deal comes with a data gathering element. Google already has a deal in place with Dish, so as viewers consumer Google TV ads, Google will also be able to track which ads are more popular, allowing advertisers to refine their pitch.

(via AP)

Google