Programming Parity Random Notes
With the Emmy nominations for AMC‘s "Mad Men" and FX‘s "Damages" making history as the first basic network best series nods make the only thing remaining to get is parity for CPMs.
Quite the haul for "cable" shows this year. HBO led with 85! That’s nine more than runner-up ABC.
Just take a look at the so-called "major" categories… the over-the-air big four got 60 nominations; premium and basic cable got 70.
[Anomalies abound, though… "Boston Legal" is a "drama"?]
Nice to see real quality be showcased… like John Adams, Kyra Sedgwick, Holly Hunter, Michael C. Hall and so on… but no nods for "The Wire" or "The Tudors"?
All of those "cable" winners will be announced on Sun evening, Sept 21 on ABC.
* Maria & Jerry: It is old news for regular readers of BusinessWeek (7/14-21), but I just got around to reading Maria Bartiromo‘s "Facetime" with Moonview (really, that’s the name) Sanctuary’s Jerry Levin in which the once powerful mogul says about his misplaced acceptance of then AOL‘s "valuation": "For those who experienced financial difficulty, of course, I do [apologize]. I’m sorry about that. I really am." You can go to Moonview in Santa Barbara for a minimum of $15k to reflect on the experience; and you can spend as much as $175k/year! Jerry has (finally) apologized; and, I must say, I believe he really means it.
* Meanwhile, Another Online Loser? How much do you think Time Warner will have to pay another company to take AOL off its hands and books? Case closed?
* Other Media Matters: Is The Wall Street Journal worth $2/day? I suppose so, if you don’t get home, office, computer or Kindle (my preferred method) delivery, and the front page gets your attention. Love the Kindle; it goes everywhere in the US and gets the morning papers wirelessly (without all of the pix; and no ads) eliminating a lot of waste. — Is satire dead this year? Did anyone smirk at The New Yorker cartoon cover? Cringe? Get it? Deplore it? Most ink the magazine has gotten in years. — Is controversy the only thing that will save "old media"?
* "The Stock Market Is Rational": Sure it is.
* New York City "Overbuilding": Here comes FiOS; there goes CVC and/or TWC? Not so fast. We agree with analyst Tom Eagan… Verizon will have slower going than planned… unless they lay a lot of silver on the building managers in crowded Manhattan. Talk about accounting for subscriber acquisition costs…
* VOD? Many cable operators have VOD… and now so does Amazon not to mention DirecTV and DISH and Google and Apple and Microsoft and Netflix and Sony and 7 million kids in China. Anybody got an Unbox?
* Olympics… then Football: Means more HDTV set sales (and watch the prices drop a bit and then accelerate) and more demand for hi-def channels.
* Why I Can Hardly Wait Until Next Week: I’ll be in Dublin… no doubt drinking Guiness Stout, Bass Ale and playing the national symbol (a Harp, of course) while crying over the value of the dollar. Will be in that great city on the Liffey for a week… then to Galway via Cork for bicycling up the Connemara coast. Reports on TV, cable and satellite in Eire next week. Forty shades of green.
