Ever since the first 3-year-old became obsessed with whatever Tetris knockoff was on their cool aunt’s Blackberry, mobile software developers have seen the potential for real gold in kid-targeted games and apps. But two of the biggest names in children’s entertainment, Disney and Viacom, are each being accused of breaking child-specific privacy laws by allowing young users’ data to be collected and mined. [More]
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Cable Nets May Sell $20 Streaming Bundle; Hulu To Charge $40 For Live TV
By 4.14.17
The TV rumor mill is whirring with news that some of the biggest cable networks may follow Hulu’s lead, joining together to sell streaming content directly to viewers. And speaking of Hulu, we’re finally getting some vague idea of what its entry into live-TV streaming will cost. [More]
PlayStation Vue Ditches Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Spike, BET, CMT & Many More
By 11.9.16
Sony’s PlayStation Vue live-TV streaming service has been marketed as a true cable-replacement option for cord-cutters, but the company just announced changes to its channel lineup that will see the removal of several big-name cable networks. [More]
Mattel, Viacom, Hasbro Accused Of Tracking Kids’ Online Behavior
By 9.13.16
When your child uses a kid-targeted website for Barbie, Dora the Explorer, Neopets, Nerf, or Nickelodeon, federal law limits what information can be collected. But an investigation by the New York state attorney general found that some of the biggest names in toys and kids’ entertainment were violating that law by collecting information from their young users without authorization, and by allowing third parties to track users’ behavior across the internet. [More]
Comedy Central, MTV, Nick Jr. Coming To Sling TV Streaming Service
By 4.21.16
This morning, Dish Network and Viacom announced a contract multi-year renewal that keeps Viacom channels like Comedy Central, MTV, BET, and Nickelodeon on the satellite service, and will also add a number of Viacom-owned channels to Dish’s Sling TV streaming service. [More]
Viacom Will Try Running Fewer Ads During Prime Time TV
By 9.21.15
Advertisers pay a lot to air commercials, and the price they pay is based on the projected popularity of the show being interrupted. When a TV network’s ratings are great, it might try to cash in by airing as many top-dollar ads as its viewers can take. But when ratings sag, that network has to contend with both annoyed viewers and shortchanged advertisers. That’s why, according to a new report, after years of cramming ads into every nook and cranny, media giant Viacom (MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon) is going to try shaving a few minutes of ads during prime time. [More]
Nickelodeon Announces Plans For Stand-Alone Subscription Service
By 1.29.15
If you’ve ever tried to withhold a tablet full of cartoons from the grasping clutches of a five-year-old intent on mainlining Dora the Explorer, then you know that children’s TV content is a pretty big deal. Often it’s the only thing that can prevent a total, shrieking, screaming, flailing and hysterical meltdown. Viacom will be trying to cash in on that need for kid fodder with a new stand-alone subscription service for Nickelodeon. [More]
FCC Fines ESPN, Viacom $1.4M For Improper Use Of Emergency Alert Tones
By 1.21.15
Hearing the emergency alert warning tones blaring from your television typically makes you take immediate notice (and immediately hit the Mute button). So when a broadcaster allows a commercial or program to air similar sounds without an actual emergency occurring, they could be on the receiving end of a pretty big fine from federal regulators. [More]
Broadcasters Get Court To Stop Consumers From Seeing How Much Cable Companies Pay For Content
By 11.14.14
The FCC is currently mulling over whether to give its stamp of approval to two huge mergers — Comcast/Time Warner Cable and AT&T/DirecTV — and is intending to make information available to third parties about the deals that that these pay-TV giants make with broadcasters. But even though you and every other cable subscriber wants to know exactly how much Comcast pays for access to channels like ESPN, MTV, and the major networks, the broadcasters want that info kept under lock and key — and they’ve asked the court to stop it from possibly going public. [More]
Some Small Cable Companies Are Dropping TV, And Customers Don’t Seem To Mind
By 10.1.14
Plenty of people have cut back on pay TV — cable and satellite — and gone to internet-only subscriptions in order to save some cash. But the individual cord-cutters aren’t the only ones realizing how expensive programming can be, and how they can live without it in the broadband era. Some small-scale cable companies are also taking the plunge, and cutting out TV service altogether. [More]
Sony’s Online Pay-TV Service To Launch With Channels You Might Actually Want To Watch
By 9.10.14
After what seemed like an eternity of news leaks, rumors, and promises of an online-only pay-TV service from Sony, the company has finally announced that it will indeed be launching that cloud-based service, and that it will start with a slate of channels including some that humans actually watch. [More]
Court Won’t Let Viacom Stop Cablevision’s Anti-Bundling Lawsuit
By 6.23.14
Sick of being forced to accept Viacom’s massive bundle of barely watched cable channels — Palladia and MTV Hits, anyone? — just to get the handful that its subscribers want to watch (MTV, Comedy Central, BET, Nickelodeon), New York-based Cablevision sued Viacom in early 2013, alleging the broadcaster was violating federal antitrust laws. Viacom has since tried to have the case dismissed, but a U.S. District Court has ruled that the case can move forward. [More]
FCC To TV Companies: You Can’t Broadcast Emergency Alert Tones If It’s Not An Emergency
By 3.3.14
The thing about the Emergency Alert System is that it’s only supposed to be used to alert people when there’s an actual emergency. So anyone viewing the trailer for 2013’s Olympus Has Fallen might’ve been alarmed to hear those telltale tones along with “This is not a test” — at least until Gerard Butler’s face hits the screen. [More]
New Nickelodeon Channel Will Let Parents Customize TV Programming
By 1.15.14
Streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime owe a good deal of their success to parents of young children, who love that they can dial up one of their kids’ favorite shows or movies instantly and without commercials. The folks at Viacom and Verizon are hoping to replicate some of that experience with a new customizable cable TV channel aimed at youngsters. [More]
Sony & Viacom Closing In On Deal To Make Networks’ Content Available Via The Internet
By 8.16.13
I’m no weathervane (or AM I?!?) but it seems the wind is shifting in the land of TV content and Internet streaming. Sony and Viacom are reportedly close to a deal that would allow network programs from MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and the like to be carried on a system Sony’s working on. [More]
Time Warner Cable CEO Warns Price Hikes May Come Back To Bite Industry On The Derriere
By 6.12.13
Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn “Two Ns, Two Ts” Britt has been an outspoken critic on broadcasters who package desirable, high-viewership channels with niche-market offerings and tell cable companies to pay for them all or get access to none, which results in the cable providers passing these bundles (and the price tag) on to customers, many of whom only watch a handful of the hundreds of available channels. It’s a model, says Britt, that could have dire consequences. [More]
Viacom Goes Running Into Amazon’s Streaming Arms After Split With Netflix
By 6.4.13
Now that Viacom and Netflix are over, done with, broken up, splitskies, never ever getting back together, don’t think the cable programming giant is crying into its pillow every night, soaking it with the desperate tears of the unloved. No, it’s moving on — straight into the loving arms of Amazon’s streaming video service with a new, multiyear licensing deal. [More]
Verizon FiOS Wants The Fees It Pays Tied To How Many People Actually Watch A Channel
By 3.18.13
Seems like ever since Cablevision sued Viacom over its process of bundling less popular channels in with the ones people actually want, things have heating up in the pay-TV world. But instead of suing anyone, Verizon says it’s working on an entirely new model of TV programming: It wants to pay fees to media companies for their TV channels depending on how many people actually watch them. [More]
