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October 17, 2007
360AM: Oct. 17 Programming, Online News & More
RFD-TV in running for new Don Imus show; USA renews Starter Wife; and more Wednesday news.
By Shirley Brady
• PROGRAMMING
BBC America is inviting fans to select the cover of the U.S. DVD cover for the first season of Torchwood, its sexy Doctor Who spin-off.
Bravo announced two specials hosted by programming SVP Andy Cohen: Work Out: Trainers' Day Off, a Work Out spin-off airing Oct. 24; and 20 Most Outrageous Bravo Moments, a viewer-voted special slated for February.
CBS re-upped Les Moonves's contract through 2011, lowering his salary to $3.5 million (from $5.9 million, including $2.9 million deferred) and increasing the amount he can earn through incentives and stock options.
Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert teased on The Daily Show, before announcing on his own show, that he (or at least his character) will enter the presidential race. More from AP and the New York Times.
Documentary Channel highlighted its first Emmy, for Best Documentary at the recent 28th Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards, for Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Romeo Dallaire.
E!'s premiere of Keeping Up with the Kardashians on Sunday attracted more than 1 million total viewers and averaged a 1.4 rating with women 18-34 (and a 0.6 with adults 18-49).
fuse promoted Andy Meyer to VP of development and original series, and promoted Nicole De Fusco to director of development.
Hallmark Channel signed Applebee's as a sponsor for its Watch With Me original movie presentation, You've Got a Friend, which premieres Oct. 23. Also, Cable in the Classroom is offering educators free DVDs of the original movie, which features former Dukes of Hazzard star John Schneider.
HITN-TV was added to Verizon's FiOS TV lineup.
Mega TV from Spanish Broadcasting System (SBS) launched nationwide on DirecTV MAS.
NBC Universal tapped Telemundo SVP of ad sales Steve Mandala as EVP of cable ad sales for NBCU, reporting to NBCU sales and marketing president Mike Pilot. Separately, Telemundo senior EVP of network strategy Antoinette Zel will leave the company when her contract expires Nov. 15; a replacement hasn't been named.
RFD-TV is "in serious discussions" to simulcast the new Don Imus show that will start airing on New York City's WABC radio station in December, according to the New York Times. The rural-focused RFD ran a one-hour documentary over Labor Day weekend on Imus's work with sick kids.
Spike TV's Scream 2007 awards will premiere Oct. 23; more details here.
Starz' free preview (running Thursday through Sunday) on Dish Network includes a $40 rebate to new movie pack subscribers.
USA Network renewed The Starter Wife for a 10-episode run next summer, with Debra Messing once again starring.
• ONLINE
Acxiom, a data-mining company used by many cable operators, has come under fire from privacy advocates for yesterday's announcement it will use its information to help target online ads to consumers, reports the Wall Street Journal. Acxiom's global privacy officer responds, "We've made every effort" to keep Web ad targeting anonymous.
DoubleClick and Visible World are working together to expand targeted advertising from TV to online video, combining VW's intelliSpot and DoubleClick's Rich Media and Video products to target messages "to each web broswer across hundreds of websites."
eBay reported a $936 million write-down in the 3rd quarter on charges to its Skype unit; AP has more here and here. Skype and MySpace users can (starting next month) call and IM each other for free; Information Week has more. And eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, meanwhile, is investing in "participatory media" start-ups including Digg and Linden Labs, owners of the Second Life online virtual world, reports the Wall Street Journal.
A&E launched Paranormal Insider, a website to promote its Paranormal State series that premieres in December.
Apple reduced the price of its DRM-free music downloads to 99 cents each, from $1.29, responding to Amazon's DRM-free music download store launched last month.
Comcast named Scott Bailey SVP and GM of Comcast.net. He was previously with Turner Sports Interactive, where he was VP/GM of sites including NASCAR.com.
Facebook promised greater vigilance on sexual predators trolling its site, reports AP (via Crain's).
IAC's Vimeo.com says it's the first site to enable HD video sharing.
Next New Networks, the Web video start-up co-founded by MTVN alum Herb Scannell, acquired BarelyPolitical.com, best known for its Obama Girl spoof.
Radiohead's name-your-own price experiment to download its new album hasn't stopped piracy, reports Forbes, with about 240,000 copies of In Rainbows downloaded from P2P BitTorrent sites according to Big Champagne estimates. Wired puts the average paid price so far at between $5-8 per downloaded copy.
• MORE
Hollywood studios and writers appeared to be closer to a new contract, as the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producer withdrew a contentious proposal to restructure the residual payment system. Talks continue ahead of a Nov. 1 deadline that could see the 12,000 voting members of the Writers Guild of America go on strike. More in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
Akimbo hired former TVN and On Demand Media Group exec Neil Goldberg as COO; and former Sony exec Peter Chantel as CFO.
AT&T Wireless announced it will reduce early-termination fees and allow customers to change contracts without restrictions starting next month, following a similar move by Verizon and putting pressure on Sprint to follow suit.
Comcast was recognized by Frost & Sullivan for Comcast Digital Voice.
Movie Gallery received court approval on its first-day motions in its chapter 11 filing yesterday, receiving the court's OK to borrow up to $140 million to cover interim costs and continue paying employee wages and benefits.
News Corp. promoted Gary Ginsberg to EVP of global marketing and corporate affairs, from EVP of investor relations and corporate communications.
Former Discovery Communications president and CEO Judith McHale endorsed Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign proposal (announced yesterday in New Hampshire) to implement a paid family leave program by 2016 and offer $1 billion a year in grants to encourage paid family leave programs at the state level.
• Return to today's 360AM top stories >
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