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Dec
31

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Duh, NFL! Dolphins-Jets top Orlando TV ratings

Category: Orlando TV, WKMG-6 Tags: Leave a Comment

Now you know why WKMG was scrambling to try to get the NFL to let it show the Dolphins’ season finale against the New York Jets. Our buddy Jerry Greene reports on his blog that the last quarter of the Dolphins-Jets game — the only part of the game the NFL would allow Local 6 to show in Orlando — was the top-rated show of the week. Not the top-rated game — the top-rated show … the thing that was watched by more people in the Orlando TV market than anything else!

Jerry reports, “It got a 13.6 rating (more than 190,000 households) and a 22 percent share of the sets in use.” And he rightly asks, “What kind of numbers would the entire game have produced?”

As any long-suffering Dolphins fan can tell you, the Jacksonville Jaguars claim the Orlando market as part of their territory. And, WKMG is forced to show all Jaguars road games broadcast by CBS and home games that sell out. This wouldn’t be so bad if there actually were Jaguars fans in Orlando — or at least in the neighborhood of the number of Dolphins fans.

Perhaps the latest TV numbers will help convince the NFL to remove the Jaguars’ claws from O-Town territory … but my guess is don’t bet on it.

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Dec
31

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Viacom ready to yank channels off Bright House

Category: Orlando TV Tags: Leave a Comment

I suspect this isn’t how Bright House Networks subscribers planned to start 2009 — with a bunch of popular channels missing from their cable lineup.

But that’s what may happen because of a dispute with Viacom over extra money the media company wants for its channels. According to The Associated Press, Viacom has asked for fee increases of between 22 percent and 36 percent per channel — which Viacom says would total about an extra 23 cents a month per subscriber. Viacom points out that Americans spend a fifth of their TV time watching Viacom channels but its fees make up less than 2.5 percent of a typical cable bill.

The channels Viacom plans to pull off Bright House — and Time Warner systems nationwide – are: Comedy Central, CMT: Pure Country, Logo, Palladia, MTV, MTV 2, MTV Hits, MTV Jams, MTV Tr3s, Nickelodeon, Noggin, Nick 2, Nicktoons, Spike, The N, TV Land, VH1, VH1 Classic, and VH1 Soul.

That means no Daily Show, no Cobert Report and no Sponge Bob (well, that last one is actually good news.) It’s all set to go down at 12:01 a.m. Thursday if a deal is not reached before then.

In a posting on its Web site, Bright House says, “MTV Networks wants our customers to pay millions more. They are currently demanding price increases that are nearly triple the rate of increase under our current agreement. These increases would be excessive even in a strong economy, but given the current conditions, it’s simply not fair to our customers.”

If or when the channels go away, what should you do? Bright House offers this solution: “While we work towards reaching an agreement, many popular TV programs from MTV Networks are also available at www.hulu.com or by going to the channel’s own website.”

Ahhh, so stop watching TV and spend more time on the Internet. I can support that.

If you have questions or concerns, you can contact Bright House at this link.

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Dec
30

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Cabrera leaves WESH, Garofalo and Longo come to town

Category: Orlando TV, WESH-2, WFTV-9, WKMG-6, WOFL-35 Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a Comment

It’s been a good, long while since I’ve blogged about anything. Buy my resolution for 2009 is to write more — so I’m getting an early start. Here’s some of the stuff that’s been going on recently in O-Town’s TV Land …

Meteorologist Ivan Cabrera has left WESH. Cabrera’s agent, Rob Jordan, told Sentinel TV Guy Hal Boedeker, “He signed a confidentiality agreement and is not commenting. It was all very amicable.” According to Boedeker, WESH space reporter Dan Billow — who has a meteorology degree — may be helping out with the weather now that Channel 2 is down to just four mets. Cabrera had been with WESH since May 2006, but what’s next for him? Well, he is doing voiceover work. He has a Web site where you can hear some of his samples.

Is Bob Frier getting pushed out at WKMG? We hope not, but it sure looks suspicious over at Local 6. The station has brought in Mike Garofalo from KOAT in Albuquerque to anchor the 4 and 6 p.m. newscasts with Jacqueline London. Frier will now co-anchor the 5 and 11 p.m. shows with London, and Garofalo will report for the 11 p.m. show. There is an O-Town connection with Garofalo. Back in New Mexico, working with Garofalo at KOAT was former WOFL-Fox 35 anchor Shelly Ribando.

Do you realize that as we head into 2009, the only news director who started 2008 with an O-Town station and is finishing the year is WFTV’s Bob Jordan? Bob Longo at WESH is the newest ND in town, coming from WTAE in Pittsburgh to replace Barb Maushard, who took a corporate job with Hearst-Argyle. WOFL-Fox 35 brought in Gavin Maliska in November to replace Bob Clinkingbeard, and in February WKMG hired Steve Hyvonen from WEWS in Cleveland in replace Susan Forbes.

 

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