Categories: Desperate Networks

U.S. Supreme Court Helps Future of Ad Skipping

Posted by: on June 30

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday unintentionally struck a victory for consumers who don't want their time wasted with bad or irrelevant ads. The high court declined to hear a...

ABC's Meat and Potatoes Upfront

Posted by: on May 20

It’s three days into TV networks’ upfront week and I’ve got to ask, what happened to all the web and mobile stuff? Over the past couple of years, networks always...

Fox Kicks Off Upfront Week

Posted by: on May 19

On Monday Fox kicked off 2009's upfront week, the annual event here in New York City where the major television networks present their Fall schedule to advertisers. The News Corp.-owned...

Meet The Press's Last Ad Pod: The Dead Zone

Posted by: on May 19

Memo to advertisers buying time on NBC's Meet The Press: Don't waste your money on the last commercial pod. As a faithful DVRer of MTP, I have for many...

American Idol: Ratings Down. Commercials Up. Contestants Lame

Posted by: on May 19

The Top 4 performance episode of FOx's American Idol earned 21.8 million viewers, the smallest audience for a Tuesday episode since 2003. The next night's episode was good for...

MSNBC Reverses Course on Gun Ad

Posted by: on April 21

MSNBC changed course, and has agreed to run an ad produced by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a group created by New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg. MSNBC had found the...

ABC Trying To Thwart DVR Use. The Effort has About As Much Chance of Success as a Chris Dodd Presidential Comeback.

Posted by: on February 25

When we look back at 2008 and what the stupidest idea of the year is, I’m sure we’ll be examining a deal in which the ABC network and Cox Communications’...

CW orders up the internet works for Gossip Girl. But I'm not satisfied.

Posted by: on May 17

Well, the prize for most ambitious internet tie-in at this week's television upfronts goes to the CW. During that network's presentation to advertisers this morning, Entertainment President Dawn Ostroff announced...

The WSJ's Paid Guide to the Upfronts

Posted by: on May 16

I meant to blog this earlier, but I've been plagued by computer problems all day. Who noticed this today? The Wall Street Journal has a strange five-page advertorial in the...

ABC’s Upfront: In which we see the Caveman Show

Posted by: on May 16

And it is disappointing. I really did have high hopes for this show. I found the 30-second Geico ads pretty darn funny (this will be the first time a...

ESPN's Upfront: A High School Play with Donovan McNabb

Posted by: on May 15

This morning felt more like some weird dream than ESPN’s actual advertiser presentation. Let me put you there, right in the cramped, hot, seats of the Nokia Theater, and save...

NBC: "More Class, More Mass"

Posted by: on May 14

That was how NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly summed up NBC's goals at its upfront presentation, which just concluded about 20 minutes ago. There was nothing too groundbreaking for advertisers....