Tag: Cable Television

In Saga of NBC and Ronna McDaniel, Perks and Perils of Partisan Talk on TV

Trying to juice ratings in an election year, a major TV network hired a pair of provocative commentators from the political establishment to inject some spiky opinion into its otherwise-staid campaign coverage. The result — the Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley Jr. debates of 1968 — was a hit with viewers and an unexpected […]

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Sean Combs’ Cassie Lawsuit Settlement Was Only the Beginning of His Troubles

It took just one day for Sean Combs to settle a bombshell lawsuit in November that accused him of rape and physical abuse. For a moment, it may have seemed that the hip-hop mogul’s lawyers had managed to quickly contain the reputational damage he faced. But it turns out that Mr. Combs’s problems were only […]

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Gerald M. Levin, Time Warner Chief in a Merger Debacle, Dies at 84

Gerald M. Levin, a “visionary” media executive, as he was often described, who became C.E.O. of the world’s largest media company, Time Warner, and an architect of its merger with America Online, widely considered the worst corporate marriage in American history, died on Wednesday. He was 84. Jake Maia Arlow, a grandchild of Mr. Levin’s, […]

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Hollywood Made 14% Fewer Shows in 2023, Marking the End of Peak TV

It’s official: Peak TV has peaked. Last year, 516 scripted television series aired or streamed in the United States, a 14 percent decline from 2022, the FX cable network said on Friday. That was only the second drop in at least 15 years, and the biggest, according to FX’s research. The total is the most […]

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CNN’s New Morning Strategy: More News, Less Banter

CNN spent years trying to compete in the cutthroat realm of chatty morning TV, cycling through formats in the hopes of catching up to breakfast-time staples like “Morning Joe” and “Good Morning America.” That experiment never quite caught on with viewers — and now it is coming to an end. In his first significant programming […]

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Netflix is Said to License ‘Sex and the City’ From HBO

HBO is renting out one of its most valuable series to Netflix. Every season of “Sex and the City,” the HBO comedy that aired from 1998 to 2004, will begin streaming on Netflix for the first time in early April, according to three people familiar with the deal. HBO had a longstanding policy of not […]

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Americans Might Tune Out the Trump Show Reboot

In crude material terms, Donald Trump’s presidency benefited the media, with subscriptions, ratings and clicks all soaring. It’s therefore not surprising that lots of people believe his return to the center of our politics will once again generate obsessive interest. “When Trump Wins, So Does the Media,” the center-left writer Matthew Yglesias wrote in October. […]

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Vivek Ramaswamy Stops TV Ad Spending

Vivek Ramaswamy, the wealthy entrepreneur seeking the Republican Party’s presidential nomination, has stopped spending money on cable television ads, a campaign representative said on Tuesday. With just weeks to go until the Iowa caucuses kick off the voting for the nomination, Mr. Ramaswamy’s campaign is maintaining its total advertising outlays, Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for […]

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Studios Are Loosening Their Reluctance to Send Old Shows Back to Netflix

For years, entertainment company executives happily licensed classic movies and television shows to Netflix. Both sides enjoyed the spoils: Netflix received popular content like “Friends” and Disney’s “Moana,” which satisfied its ever-growing subscriber base, and it sent bags of cash back to the companies. But around five years ago, executives realized they were “selling nuclear […]

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Zombie TV Has Come for Cable

In 2015, the USA cable network was a force in original programming. Dramas like “Suits,” “Mr. Robot” and “Royal Pains” either won awards or attracted big audiences. What a difference a few years make. Viewership is way down, and USA’s original programming department is gone. The channel has had just one original scripted show this […]

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Ignore Trump? Democrats Now Want Him Plastered All Over the News.

When Donald J. Trump left the White House, Democrats didn’t want to hear another word from him. President Biden dismissed him as “the former guy.” A party-wide consensus held that he was best left ignored. Three years later, Mr. Biden’s re-election campaign and Democratic officials across the party’s spectrum have landed on a new solution […]

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Behind CNN Turmoil, a Series of Shattered Friendships

When Chris Licht faced criticism for his management of CNN, from both inside the newsroom and beyond, he had every reason to believe that his close personal relationship with David Zaslav, the chief executive of the network’s parent company, would protect him. He was wrong. He was also not alone. Mr. Zaslav, who took over […]

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Megyn Kelly Will Moderate the Next G.O.P. Debate, on NewsNation

Megyn Kelly, whose high-flying career as a Fox News anchor fell to earth after an ill-advised move to NBC — and then remade herself as a conservative podcaster and radio host — is set to return to the political spotlight next month as a moderator for the next Republican primary debate. The event, set for […]

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Interview: Natalee Holloway’s Mother Talks Joran van der Sloot’s Confession

It was May 31, 2005, at 4 a.m., when Beth Holloway first confronted Joran van der Sloot, a Dutch student who was one of three people who had been seen, just hours earlier, leaving a nightclub in Aruba with her daughter, Natalee Holloway. Standing outside the Holiday Inn where Natalee, 18, had been staying with […]

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How Phoenix Fans Watch Their Teams May Change How You Watch Yours

Days after Mat Ishbia reached a deal in December to buy majority stakes in the N.B.A.’s Phoenix Suns and the Phoenix Mercury of the W.N.B.A., he met with top executives to learn more about the teams’ business operations, including how local fans were able to watch their games on TV. The executives detailed three possibilities […]

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Cable TV Is on Life Support, but a New Bundle Is Coming Alive

A funny thing happened in recent weeks, as the media industry wrung its hands over the long-anticipated death of the lucrative cable-TV bundle: Hundreds of thousands of people turned to a different bundle. Take Christopher Antoniacci of Anna Maria, Fla. When the standoff between Disney and the cable giant Charter left him among nearly 15 […]

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