ABC, FCC argue over a naked butt

This AP story of the proposed $1.4 million FCC fine against ABC for a naked butt scene in NYPD is hilarious. Especially the last line.

11 comments January 28th, 2008

Small stations best positioned for growth?

Former AOL President and co-founder of MTV, Bob Pittman has some interesting things to say about small market television, both on TV and the web. Pittman’s Pilot investment group has been buying up smaller stations. “We have focused on small market television, where local advertising is the predominant revenue stream,” Pittman explains in an interview with VideoNuze. “We have done that because we believe national advertisers will slow down spending in economic downturns, whereas in local market when you’re dealing with a local retailer he still has to sell everything that’s on the shelf, come good times or bad. And we believe that in small markets, newspapers and yellow pages are getting wildly disproportionate share of the revenue, so we think there’s a great growth opportunity as well.” And online, Pittman says his stations have been setting up “what are in essense newspapers online.” He explains, “In our smaller markets, we’re not competing with Google or MSN, so we can get large local audiences, which allow us to better serve our advertisers.”

6 comments January 28th, 2008

Las Vegas Sun’s terrific online fire coverage

WashingtonPost Interactive’s Rob Curley breaks down how the Las Vegas Sun covered last week’s fire at the Monte Carlo. “My jaw nearly hit the ground,” Curley writes of how well the newspaper site covered the breaking story. A live blog, photos, backgrounders, video and the ability for users to upload video through YouTube and photos through Flickr. “To me, this was a nearly textbook example of how a local newspaper should cover a big breaking news story in its community in the iPhone era,” Curley writes.

Adds Don Day in comments below: “I was incredibly impressed when I clicked on to the site last week. The TV sites in the market were… not good. The Sun site was vibrant, fresh, clean and simple. I noticed they just revamped - and clearly the new architecture and design were built for this type of story. I took away several good ideas from the Sun here — and it’s one of the better local newspaper sites I’ve seen.”

Yes, that’s a massive 16×9 video player of the fire.

18 comments January 28th, 2008

Current TV files for IPO

The parent company of Current TV, Current Media, has filed for a $100 million IPO on NASDAQ. Explains PaidContent’s Joseph Weisenthal, “Reading through the management’s discussion and the risks section highlights Current’s challenge, as it attempts to pitch a cable channel to a crowd increasingly watching video online.” (Full disclosure: Current is advertising on Lost Remote right now.)

1 comment January 28th, 2008

Interview with WorldNow’s Gannaway

WorldNow President and CEO Gary Gannaway sat down for an interview with Broadcasting & Cable. Interestingly, WorldNow just closed a deal to manage the online ad inventory for the ABC reality program Supernanny.

7 comments January 28th, 2008

NBC acquires video site LX.tv

For a year now, WNBC has been airing videos from LX.tv, a New York startup that produces high-end entertainment videos about NY and LA (with plans to expand to other cities). Now NBC’s Local Media Division has purchased the company for an undisclosed amount. LX.tv was founded in ‘06 by former MTV executives Morgan Hertzan and Joseph Varet.

Add comment January 28th, 2008

Target to blogosphere: you’re irrelevant

A blog asks Target a question. Target blows it off with an email that says, “Target does not participate with nontraditional media outlets.” Then the New York Times does a story on it. Ooops.

5 comments January 28th, 2008