There's nothing more powerful in this country than the NFL. So, it's no surprise that DirecTV had to give more than they probably would have liked, and 'make up' with Raycom.
Raycom pulled 43 stations from DirecTV's line-up over a dispute involving retrans fees.
Anyone who's been in TV for a second, knows you don't try to play hardball in a negotiation if viewers losing the NFL are involved.
Raycom 1 - DirecTV 0
If you've been on pins and needles wondering who's going to replace Craig Ferguson, rest easy.
CBS says British actor/comedian James Corden will take over in 2015.
Corden hosts a sports/comedy game show called, "A League Of Their Own" in the U.K. Here in the USofA, that was a movie starring Tom Hanks and Madonna.
Sounds like a potential 'yawner' to this Millennial.
After this morning's updates, FTVLive is hitting the road and headed to the exciting city of Tallahassee. I'm playing in a Mid-Am Golf Qualifier on Tuesday.
But, before you get to worried that your favorite TV website will not be updated, that me calm you down.
We are handing it off to our very capable FTVLive Intern for the rest of today and tomorrow. The Intern has proven that he can do more than just keep our ice tea cup full.
I'll be back in the World Headquarters on Tuesday night.
So, let's give it up for the FTVLive Intern.
The Cox owned duopoly starts over from scratch Today and it will be interesting to watch what happens.
As FTVLive FIRST told you, the stations had basically blew out all their main anchors and replaced them. Then both stations changed their call letters.
It is all part of a massive overhaul to try take Action News Jax to number one in the market.
Both WTEV and WAWS changed their call letters officially yesterday. WTEV has become WJAX and WAWS is now WFOX.
The stations used Sunday football to run promos of their new Anchor team of John Bachman and Tenikka Hughes. Both were hired from other Cox stations and are newcomers to the market.
The new era begins Today and Cox is out to prove that you can change the Anchors, the call letters, the graphics and start over from scratch and become number 1.
Time will tell if they can pull it off.
New research is showing some more bad news for the TV business.
Research done by media analyst Michael Nathanson of Moffett Nathanson Research, shows that TV is for old people and the Internet is for the young.
The median age of a broadcast or cable television viewer during the 2013-2014 TV season was 44.4 years old, a 6 percent increase in age from four years earlier.
Audiences for the major broadcast network shows are much older and aging even faster, with a median age of 53.9 years old, up 7 percent from four years ago.
These television viewers are aging faster than the U.S. population, Nathanson points out. The median age in the U.S. was 37.2, according to the U.S. Census, a figure that increased 1.9 percent over a decade. So to put that in context of television viewing, he said TV audiences aged 5 percent faster than the average American.
The research shows a sharpening age divide in the entertainment industry that has traditional media scrambling and newcomers such as Vice and Netflix establishing their own online empires.
“The shift in demographic viewing is caused by a combination of factors ranging from lower TV penetration rates of under-25 year old households to increasing use of time-shifting technologies in most under-55 year old households,” Nathanson wrote in a research report earlier this week.
For younger audiences, control over when and where they watch has driven the trend away from traditional television. Live television viewing was down 13 percent for all ages except for viewers 55 years and older, who are steadily watching their shows at their scheduled broadcast time.
The question now is how the most valuable companies in traditional television will respond. ESPN, which is slowly putting some of its content online, hopes millennials will eventually see the value in paying for their sports programming.
The bigger question is how will local stations figure out a way to lure the young people to watch the news.
TV consultants have been pushing weather and health reports for years. But, young people get the weather forecast from their phone and don't give a flip about health news.
TV stations need to wake up, before their audience dies off.
H/T Washington Post
Heidi Voight is a former Miss Connecticut and also a freelance Reporter for WVIT in Hartford.
So, it might seem odd to see a Reporter for a local news station also pimping a cash for gold shop in a commercial.
But, this YouTube video shows that Voight was doing just that.
Here's a tip, if you want to be taken seriously as a Reporter, you might want to turn down the easy buck to be a shill.
Just saying.....
Let's go to the video:
While most people were looking forward to the first Sunday of the NFL season, NBC's Chuck Todd also had a big day.
Todd hosted his first show as the new moderator of NBC's Meet The Press.
Todd took over for David Gregory, who drove the show and its ratings into the ground since taking over.
Todd came out swinging with a sit down with President Obama. The interview was fine, but with the President's long drawn out answers it was a bit boring as well. The Obama interview is sure to raise the dismal numbers for MTP, so having POTUS on was a smart move.
The show had other changes as well. There were changes in the format and new panelists, notably Joe Scarborough. Luke Russert is also supposed to appear on MTP as a regular, but he was wisely kept off the first show.
As for how Todd did on his first crack? It was a solid show and Todd seems to be much less arrogant than Gregory was.
But, can he turn the show ratings slide around?
As one network suit said to FTVLive, "he can't make it any worse."
Not exactly a ringing endorsement.
Stay tuned....
Nobody dishes more real TV advice then our buddy Gary Vosot. Just like EF Hutton (Google it kids) when Gary talks, everyone listens.
Mr. Vosot took time out from polishing his Emmys to give some advice to TV Reporters and wannabes.
Let's see what he had to say:
KXAS is turning to the dying newspaper industry for their latest hire.
Later today, the station will announce that it has entered into a partnership with the Dallas Morning News to bring columnist Dave Lieber to KXAS for his own segment.
Lieber writes The Watchdog column for the Dallas Morning News, he’ll be getting two to three minutes each Monday to discuss his column that ran in the Sunday paper.
“Only waited 40 years for this,” Lieber says.
H/T Ed Bark
The opening weekend for the NFL kicked off and part of CBS's coverage was the Miami/ New England game.
CBS showed the Miami fans that were happy to have football season back. The fan on the right showed his pride with his "Miami Fuckin' Florida" T-shirt, which CBS seemed more than happy to put on air.
This guy's mom and Les Moonves must be so proud.
NBC News President Deborah Turness has finished up her first year as the head of NBC News. On Friday, she marked the occasion by sending a long memo to the staff:
rom: Deborah Turness (NBCUniversal)
Date: September 5, 2014 at 4:46:37 PM EDT
To: @NBC Uni NBC News All
Subject: A Note of Thanks
Dear All,
It’s been a great week at NBC News and a great way to start the “new term.” Brian and the Nightly News team scored a decisive win both in total viewers and in the demo on Tuesday night. The broadcast featured Matt Lauer’s powerful exclusive interview with Dr. Kent Brantly and his wife Amber. The next morning on TODAY, Matt broadcast from inside the isolation unit where Dr. Brantly was treated. This was yet another shining example of the great journalism, tenacious booking and creative thinking that sets NBC News apart. It’s also a wonderful example of collaboration across TODAY, Nightly and NBCNews.com that will culminate in a network special tonight at 10pm ET, “Saving Dr. Brantly: The Inside Story of a Medical Miracle,” produced by the NBC News primetime team who worked through the night to make deadline. Congratulations to Lexi Rudolph, who invested so much to secure the interview, to Matt Zimmerman and to Matt Lauer.
Within 24 hours Richard Engel delivered another exclusive — an interview with an American citizen with a quest to join ISIS. Thanks to his team who worked for months to secure the interviews and to deliver a powerful piece of original journalism.
Read the rest after the jump.
Read MoreTom Brokaw (pictured) and Meredith Vieira are returning to host NBC's Today Show. So is Brian Williams and Maria Shriver.
NBC is calling the stunt "homecoming week," but really it's just filling in for Savannah Guthrie, who is on maternity leave.
Vieira hosts Monday.
BriWi will be there on Tuesday.
Brokaw will be there Thursday (anniversary of 9/11)
And Shriver will be in the seat on Friday.
If you're holding your breath to see Ann Curry, Deborah Norville or Katie Couric....you will soon pass out. That ain't happening.
So, really it should be called "Today Show Homecoming Week, with the people will still like."
Guess that title was a bit long.
Maybe the person that is in charge updating Fox News Fox and Friends website is a Gretchen Carlson fan.
But, whoever is doing it, has a big problem spelling Elisabeth Hasselbeck's name correctly:
Hello web department...I have Roger Ailes on line 1.
H/T Johnny Dollar
MSNBC's Joe Scarborough had hoped that when NBC kicked David Gregory to the curb, that he might land the moderator job at Meet The Press.
He did not.
That job went to Beltway Boy Chuck Todd, but NBC did throw Scarborough a bone. This morning NBC announced that Scarborough has been named a senior political analyst for NBC News and a regular contributor to "Meet the Press".
In a statement, new "Meet the Press" moderator Chuck Todd called Scarborough "one of the best political minds in the NBC family."
“His love of politics and passion for debate will guarantee the kind of robust conversation that has always been a hallmark of Meet the Press, and I look forward to the reported analysis he'll bring to the table," Todd said.
“This is a guy who is on the phone a lot. If I thought Joe was just pontificating, I wouldn’t have him on," Todd said.
H/T Politico
While the rest of the media is busy reporting and remembering Joan Rivers and her death. FTVLive wants you to know that Dick Butt has also died.
He won't get the same amount of play in the media as Rivers, but FTVLive likes to be a voice for the little guy.
RIP Dick Butt.....
In a media obsessed world, where being first is much more important than being right. We give you this screen grab from ABC News website yesterday:
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