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Discovery's The Hub Ponies Up
Under her cardigan, Margaret Loesch is wearing a black T-shirt with a cartoon pony on it. The pony, eyes closed, smile wide, appears to be cheering in a moment of utter bliss. This reflects how...
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Bear Grylls Still Wearing the Pants, at Least in Dockers Ads
Discovery Channel reportedly terminated its relationship with Bear Grylls this week over a contractual dispute—which would seem to be unfortunate timing for Dockers, which is in the midst of rolling...
View ArticleDiscovery's Survival Guru Bear Grylls Fired
Man vs. Wild star Bear Grylls has been canned by Discovery, according to the network. “Due to a continuing contractual dispute with Bear Grylls, Discovery has terminated all current productions with...
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True Crime Appeal Cranks Ad Price Ask
Like most TV ad sales execs, Sharon O’Sullivan has a sheet of bragging points for her clients, which she whips out during price negotiations to illustrate how well her network, Investigation Discovery...
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Bang Bang Pow Pow: TBS Wins Quarterly Ratings Race
Mad Men may be the ultimate critical darling and The Walking Dead a relentless devourer of GRPs, but the most transformative show on basic cable is actually a broadcast hand-me-down. According to...
View ArticleDiscovery Communications Parties With James Woods, Robots, Oprah at Upfront
Discovery tends to play it big for its upfront presentation, and 2012 was no exception. If you had to pick a star of the show, it would probably be Henry Schleiff, head of Investigation Discovery and...
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The 10 Best Upfront Presentations (So Far)
The upfronts are supposed to be an opportunity for cable and broadcast networks—and now digital content providers—to unveil their slates of new programming before an audience of advertising...
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Information Diet: Thomas Sadoski
Age 36Accomplishments Stars as Don Keefer on HBO’s The Newsroom, was nominated for a Tony Award for his performance in Neil LaBute’s reasons to be prettyBase Los AngelesWhat’s the first information you...
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Discovery Already Chumming the Waters for Shark Week
Shark Week doesn't kick off until Aug. 12, but Discovery is trying to frighten you with promos well in advance. Remarkably, it's the 25th anniversary of Shark Week this year. The theme for the ads...
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VW Beetle Turned Into Underwater Shark Cage for Shark Week
Volkswagen's shark-cage Beetle, built by Deutsch and MediaCom for a recent promotional tie-in with the 25th anniversary of Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, looks aqua-futuristic in the video below...
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Discovery Gets Ready for Another Record Upfront
On the eve of the upfront strategy sessions that he likes to characterize as “actuary meetings,” Joe Abruzzese is in a particularly expansive mood. He’s just returned from Chicago, where Discovery...
View ArticleDiscovery Communications Green-lights New Series on All Networks
Once again, nonfiction entertainment juggernaut Discovery Communications is realigning to boost its smaller networks for the upfront season. Along with previously announced scripted green-lights...
View ArticleNielsen Launches Product to Measure Online Audiences
Nielsen will now measure online TV audiences with its new product, Digital Program Ratings, The Wall Street Journal reported. Broadcast and cable networks such as NBC, Fox, ABC, AOL, CBS, Univision,...
View ArticleRatings Slump Dings Broadcast Sales
Diluted prime-time deliveries and a calendar quirk that moved NCAA Final Four dollars into April contributed to a $317 million decline in first-quarter broadcast TV ad expenditures. According to a new...
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Lovely, Sweet, Innocent Seal Bites It in Discovery's Shark Week Ad
The Discovery Channel is already promoting Shark Week, which doesn't happen until August, but the first ad is a doozy. It features a fake local news broadcast about an injured seal being returned to...
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Discovery Communications Concludes Its Upfront Business
Six weeks after securing its first commitments from advertisers for the coming TV season, Discovery Communications has put a bow on the 2013-14 upfront bazaar. According to media buyers, the Discovery...
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Tide's Shark Week Twitter Vine Is Bloody Good
When oceanic imagery is already built into your brand name—as with, say, Tide—you probably don't have to worry about jumping the Shark Week. And yet marketers of the Procter & Gamble brand...
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Nielsen: 29 Percent of TV Ratings Impacted by Twitter
In a first attempt at establishing a causal relationship between Twitter activity and TV ratings, Nielsen on Tuesday released a study that suggests that the social media platform can in fact have a...
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Cable's Live Events Are Paying Off Big-Time This Summer
If you were teetering over the Grand Canyon, grinding your butt on Robin Thicke or just dueting with Charlie Wilson, you were everywhere advertisers wanted to be this summer. Event programming made a...
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Q2 TV Sales Up 6 Percent to $18.4 Billion
Favorable year-ago comps and a whole bunch of additional NBA playoff games helped lift second-quarter TV ad sales revenue by 6 percent to $18.4 billion. According to a new report from Kantar Media, TV...
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