Light Sabers and Flowers? Comic-Con Reaches Beyond Usual TV Suspects

The San Diego Comic-Con is rapidly becoming a must-attend event for all TV nets. HGTV is joining forces with Disney for an exhibit inspired by the upcoming Oct release of Tim Burton’s new film, “Frankenweenie.” HGTV hopes to extend its reach to a younger audience, gain qualified consumer leads and attain a “wow” factor. HGTV will be joined by its sister net Travel Channel for its show “Toy Hunters,” which will return for a 2nd year. [For more on what cable nets are doing at the event, visit cablefax.com]

Also in the July 5 issue of CableFAX Daily:

Service outages continue 4 days after severe storms hit Mid-Atlantic states. A Comcast rep said service should be restored as power comes back on but more extensive damage caused by falling trees and poles would take longer to repair. Field forces are responding to 130 downed utility poles and 762 downed copper or fiber cables in the DC, MD and VA region. The Alexandria, Arlington and Fairfax County areas of northern VA were particularly hard-hit. Verizon expects repairs to continue for several more days.

With more than 4mln viewers, the UEFA EURO ’12 final on ESPN, a 4-0 victory by Spain over Italy, is the most watched ever for the event in the U.S. The 2.4 HH rating was up 4% vs. the previous high, Spain vs Germany in EURO ’08 final on ABC.