Fast Track
By Staff -- Broadcasting & Cable, 8/15/2004 8:00:00 PM
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Items:
NBC Tests Chopper Security Fully Programmable Fantasia Fuels Financials Correction |
NBC Tests Chopper Security
An NBC News crew last week was handcuffed and questioned while working on an investigative story about helicopter security. A network producer and a cameraman attempted to rent a helicopter at the downtown St. Louis Airport, carrying potential weapons in their luggage, including knives, a box cutter, clear liquid and a powdery substance. The men also had maps of major cities, with landmarks highlighted. A rental-company employee alerted authorities, and the duo was detained and questioned by the FBI's terrorist task force. The crew was released without charges.
Another crew was successful in renting a helicopter in New York City. They carried a Swiss Army knife, which was taken away but given back later. NBC hasn't aired that report yet, so it would give no further details.
Fully Programmable
CNBC Senior Vice President of Prime Time Programming Bob Meyers named Doug Warshaw, who had been running John McEnroe's suffering talk show, and Susan Krakower, who has been shaping The Big Idea With Donny Deutsch, to new development positions. He also tapped veteran producer Woody Frasier (he launched Good Morning America) as McEnroe's new executive producer.
Cable net E! Entertainment Television and Kmart are teaming for a cross-promotion that will put the network's daily entertainment-news anchors in a new line of Kmart clothes. They'll also appear in Kmart print ads modeling the clothes.
Holly Jacobs has been named executive VP of alternative development at Fox Television Studios. She will oversee development of all the studio's reality, documentary and biography programs. Previously, Jacobs was executive VP of programming and development for Buena Vista Productions.
Julie McNamara has been named senior VP of drama development at Paramount Television. She will oversee development of the studio's prime time drama programming, reporting to President Garry Hart. McNamara was vice president of drama development at ABC.
TNT's experiment with The Grid proved to be a smart programming move. The six-hour counterterrorism miniseries, which concluded Monday, averaged 3.2 million viewers, almost a million more than TNT gets on a typical evening.
Time Warner Cable and Cablevision's Madison Square Garden Networks have called a temporary truce, reaching an interim agreement to get Fox Sports Net New York and MSG Network back on Time Warner's New York-area systems. This deal is only a Band-Aid; there's no long term deal.
Fantasia Fuels Financials
The success of American Idol was enough to overcome Fox Broadcasting's grimmer ratings issues. During News Corp.'s fiscal fourth quarter ended June 30, Fox's station and broadcast network increased sales 9% to $1.3 billion; operating income rose 21% to $351 million. Fox said its stations boosted profits by 15%. Cable-network revenues grew 5% to $702 million, but profits jumped 60%. That figure is inflated because Fox Cable sold the Los Angeles Dodgers and no longer has to carry the team's losses.
Correction
In the report on the Top 25 Cable & Satellite Operators (8/9, page 17), the last seven should have been in the following order: 19 Susquehanna, 20 Armstrong, 21 Midcontinent, 22 Northland, 23 Blue Ridge, 24 Knology Holdings, 25 Buckeye Cablesystem. Also in that report, Cablevision's basic-subscriber penetration should have been 66.8%.
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