Pithy Title Here

I have a lot of opinions on ratings-dependent 24-hour news channels. It's an election year and you'll be able to read any number of blog posts about how one network or another is biased toward the left or right. This post isn't one of them. At least there are several 24-hour news channels. In sports, it took the launch of NBC Sports Network (the converted Vs.) in January to provide the latest alternative to ESPN. I say alternative here because it really wouldn't be accurate to say "competitor." ESPN is not a cable network anymore. It is a brand name (it licenses lord knows how many products, a smart business move that probably rakes in millions every fiscal quarter). It's branding was so strong it was enough to eliminate ABC Sports in favor of ESPN on ABC. The Sportscenter theme is probably more recognizable to the population than any Bon Iver song. You cannot compete with ESPN. But, if you're a sports fan, at least one that doesn't focus on ...

We could sit here and discuss The Wall Street Journal , but any conversation will likely devolve into some nonsense about the merits (or lack thereof) of its editorial page. The paper's business reporting is top-notch. In our complicated economy, you would do well to read it. I really love how they cover every sector in great detail. I never went to business school, or really took business classes, so I made following the airline industry news in the WSJ my own business program. I tell PR students they should pick an industry they can geek out over and follow in the WSJ and the New York Times . You think I'm kidding? Let's just say the whole argument in congress over the Essential Air Service Program has a completely different feel to it if you understand the basic ways the airline industry works. Regardless of industry, story after story shows the complexity of nearly every industry. Which brings us to the topic at hand: believe it or not, you have a porn problem. ...

ABC has wheeled out a new show called Combat Hospital . I have not watched it. But just as CBS has made CSI spin-off after spin-off, it seems ABC is content to do this with medical dramas. Let's recap: Grey's Anatomy - Frightfully attractive hospital staff provide services to Seattle's sick and injured in between bouts of providing "other services" to each other. However, when you have good writing and good acting, this can work out. Private Practice - Doctor leaves Grey's Anatomy for sunny Santa Monica to be part of a private medical practice that serves, well... the type of people you expect in Los Angeles that are rich enough to not care if their medical insurance pays for their procedures. Off the Map - Frightfully attractive doctors (in Ecuador?) providing services to the stereotypically Latin American locals while doing some soul searching. Now, we have Combat Hospital , which, from what I can gather, is doctors on the war front in Afghanistan. This i...

Lately, several of our friends have started considering disconnecting their cable/satellite services. A couple have actually pulled the plug. Their reasoning up-front seems sound: they want to save money. They say they can stream all the network TV content they want and, for any shows they cannot catch online, they can get on DVD (or streaming) through a service such as Netflix . I'm not so sure this plan works out in the long term for them. I can say for sure my wife and I are considering ways we can cut our bill down. Perhaps cutting the Starz /Encore package? But a moment of truth: I watch way too much sports. A friend of mine admits he's "going to likely be spending more time in bars this fall" to catch his college football. For what it's worth, I have definitely spent the equivalent of a cable bill in a bar tab for a sporting event. And when you consider my lovely wife seems to have grown quite fond of the Yankees and Sounders - and since sports is best watch...

In early 2003, I worked at a PR firm that promoted BBC Video. Not a bad gig for a somewhat-recent college grad. Especially if you like British humor (oh how I still think it's a tragedy what the USA did to Coupling . And don't even start me on my thoughts on the original British version of The Office ...). There was one DVD release, though, that took me by surprise. I had never heard of The Singing Detective . Our product managers on the client side spoke well of it... very well. And, when a member of the PR firm spoke to then-TV critic at the New York Daily News David Bianculli (he's now a guest host and TV critic on NPR's Fresh Air and founded TVWorthWatching .com), the well-respected critic referred to the 1986 BBC production as one of the best bits of dramatic TV ever. He ended up writing the DVD liner notes. Most of you have likely encountered Michael Gambon in the Harry Potter films. A younger Imelda Staunton (who also made her way to Harry Potter ) has a ro...

Confession: I love the NFL. It's a perfect sport... a short season where every game is meaningful, where macho players sooner or later are felled by injury or failure, where nearly every game can turn on one great play. The funny thing, though, is that football has become much better to watch at home than in the stadium. Seeing a game in person is always fun, but you're often surrounded by strange drunken louts. At home, you can be around drunken louts you know, which is always a better option. Plus, at home the food/beer is much cheaper and there's no traffic to fight. Also: TV has football covered fantastically. Every camera angle in HD makes you feel like you've got a seat in every part of the stadium. And, with DVR , you can decide when you want a reply. The problem, friends, is a great deal of the announcers just plain stink. I'm not talking about the loudmouth studio shows. It goes without saying those are a waste of your time. I mean what we have to endure d...

If you haven't been following the news, you might not be aware that News Corporation, owner of Fox, and Time Warner Cable have been in a rather ugly shouting match that will likely result in Fox pulling its programming and channels from TWC on New Year's Day. Let me explain: In the beginning, TV broadcasters put their programming out for free to viewers. If you had a TV and an antenna, you could tune in to NBC. Networks paid locally-owned TV stations to become network affiliates. Advertisers paid networks (and local affiliates) to support free delivery of TV. This was great, unless you lived in some remote area or in a deep mountain valley and couldn't pick up a signal. Thus, the invention of community antenna TV (aka "cable"). All was well. This was a pastoral era where man loved his fellow man, the Russians were the predictable-style bad guys. Life made sense. Then, it all went to hell. Quickly. See, cable was something you had to pay for. And that meant yo...

It's my birthday and I am feeling punchy. And since I can barely look at my Twitter feed, turn on the TV or leave my house without hearing about how good SEC football is, I'm going to have my wits with people. For those unacquainted with the issue, the Southeast Conference is widely touted to be the best college football conference ever in the history of the universe. At least by ESPN, which slathers the love on the SEC like my dog does to my bare feet. I guess that shouldn't be too surprising. Much like ESPN overhypes the NBA (a league ESPN paid a lot of money to broadcast), ESPN's talkies love to hype up the SEC. Some of these idiots go as far as to say a team that loses a game in the SEC might still be better than an undefeated team from, say, the Big 12, another major football conference. You would think ESPN signed a deal to televise SEC games... oh look: they did ! Beyond this, though, annoying fan after annoying fan is happy to remind me about how much bett...

CNN analysts are going on and on about the New Jersey governor's race, extrapolating what it means in the national scheme of things. One analyst talked about how big an indicator Chris Christie's election is... the fact that a Republican could win the governorship in a liberal state like New Jersey! One analyst even called it "shocking." Friends, here are the governors of New Jersey since 1982: 1982-1990 - Tom Kean (Republican) 1990-1994 - Jim Florio (Democrat, lost in 1994 in a landslide) 1994-2001 - Christie Whitman (Republican) 2001-2002 - Don DiFrancesco (Republican) 2002-2004 - Jim McGreevey (Democrat, resigned) 2004-2006 - Richard Codey (Democrat) 2006-2010 - Jon Corzine (Democrat) So, since 1982, in New Jersey, the "unlikely" party managed to hold the governor's office for only 16 years, with no democrat serving two terms. If Christie winning tonight is "shocking," I can only assume the person - or anyone - saying it has never been to ...

Today, folks, we learned that an afraid 6 year old can control the national media by hiding in an attic. A quick note... A few weeks ago, someone asked me which reality TV star I'd like to wish ill on. I chose a certain cable news pundit. The point being: the news shouldn't be called "the news"anymore. News is boring. But people don't tune in to see boring. And, today shows me we've reached the point where broadcasting the drama of the day - in many cases endlessly debating the drama of the day, if the issue at hand is political - is the key interest vs. informing the public. Seriously, think about it. A prototype balloon is released accidentally from a home near Ft. Collins, Colo. Would that normally interest you? Granted, the thought of a child in the balloon, helpless up in the Rocky Mountain air... sure, that's scary. But to broadcast the entire incident live - and psyching up viewers with statements along the lines of "what's going to...

Like many of you, dear readers, I am excited for the start of the annual NFL season. Let's be honest, of all of America's professional games, this is the one people really wouldn't want to do without. It's compact 17 weeks of regular season play. The regularity of its schedule. It's easy to plan around and, almost always, filled with the kind of drama that you don't need ESPN to point out... the season is that good. This means Kissing Suzy Kolber will kick into high gear, fantasy teams will be selected and then bitched about... but it also means (gulp) advertisements. With the economy in a rut, it's likely fewer ads will be made, meaning we're bound to see the same ones over and over again. Heaven. Help. Us. I yearn for the day when games go commercial-free, a la international soccer. Until that fine day, I am stuck. Now, some ads, I can tolerate. Like Coors Light's ads where they take old coaches press conferences and splice in new questi...

Since I prefer to get my news from online or print outlets (how droll!), I missed this: Mike Huckabee , former governor of Arkansas and former presidential candidate, has his own TV show on Fox News. I have to admit, I think I would probably enjoy hanging out with Gov. Mike listening to music and such. Seems like an affable guy even though his social views scare the dickens out of me. But, I have to object to him having his own talk show. It has nothing to do with his politics, too. See, like it or not, Fox News (like CNN, MSNBC , etc.) aren't nearly as concerned with news as they are with ratings. Ratings are the name of the game in TV land... the better to sell ads with. And when ratings tank, ad dollars go south, too. To that end, Mike Huckabee is exactly the kind of person Fox should have on TV. Not only is he engaging to watch, he is the kind of person who would capture Fox's key audiences and deliver big ratings. And to do that, he has to entertain. And he has t...

Around here, we've got DirecTV . DirecTV's insistence on treating customers like human beings as apposed to other digital TV providers sets it apart. Thems the facts. One of the bonuses with DirecTV is that you get all kinds of XM channels, which, believe it or not, we use often. I don't think I would ever purchase satellite radio on my own for, say, my car, but it's nice to have in the house. Doing housework? I always turned to Lucy, the "classic alternative" option. Or I could have put on "Ethel," Lucy's edgier younger sister. Sophisticated dinner? Jazz channel. This morning, however, was the first time I'd dialed up our music all week and... remember those news reports about the Sirius / XM merger? And how you didn't care because you didn't have satellite radio and it doesn't affect your life? Yeah. Apparently it affects mine. ALL my stations (and their corresponding channels) are different. Like, now I'm lis...