Finance Matters

Archive for April 13th, 2010

From Media Memo: Will Twitter force publishers and app developers to use its ad platform exclusively?

No, says COO Dick Costolo.

In theory, he says, it would be possible for someone like TweetDeck or Seesmic to use Twitter’s “Sponsored Tweets” offering along with something like TweetUp, which will also place ads, in the form of Tweets, into user’s streams.

After all, conventional Web publishers can use Google’s AdSense (GOOG) products and competing ad networks. Why shouldn’t the same thing work for Twitter?

But Costolo also has a warning for anyone who does sell ads in the streams: Tread very, very carefully.

Continue reading on Media Memo >

Join the conversation about this story »

Here’s a big vote of confidence from HBO: Their new show “Treme” is being picked up for a second season.

Although Treme is picking up good reviews from critics and fans (the LA Times already called it an “Emmy juggernaut“), HBO (TWX) will mainly be concerned with the show bringing more subscribers to the pay channel.

As Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes told analysts in a recent earnings call, that HBO has an eagle eye on investing in quality TV shows for a higher revenue payoff.

Read more from the Associated Press:

NEW YORK — HBO says its new drama “Treme” (truh-MAY’) has been picked up for a second season just days after its series premiere.

The show is set in New Orleans in fall 2005, three months after Hurricane Katrina. “Treme” tracks the lives of a diverse group of residents as they rebuild their lives and the neighborhood that lends the show its name. Cast members include Wendell Pierce, Kim Dickens, Melissa Leo and John Goodman.

The series was co-created by David Simon, whose past credits include HBO’s acclaimed “The Wire,” “Generation Kill” and “The Corner.”

HBO announced Tuesday that production will resume in New Orleans this fall.

“Treme” attracted 1.4 million viewers for its debut. It airs at 10 p.m. Sunday.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• HBO’s New Pitch For Subscribers: A Show About Post-Katrina New Orleans
• HBO GO Launches Live On Verizon FiOS Thursday, Links With Fancast
• Fantasy Fans Drool Over HBO’s ‘Game Of Thrones’

Greece raises 1.56bn euros in an over-subscribed bond issue that was being seen as a key test of investor confidence.

TBS landed the final TV show deal with Conan after just 10 days of negotiations. Despite months of talks, Fox’s top dog executives Peter Rice and Kevin Reilly couldn’t make it happen.

So what happened?

Fox’s affiliates are the main culprits.

The stations already have 11 p.m. shows in what would be Conan’s late night timeslot. They air their own news broadcasts or are tangled up in syndication deals to air shows like The Office, Seinfeld, 30 Rock, or others.

The stations also sold advertising against those shows and were ushering in decent ratings for their evening newscasts.

Those shows in Fox’s 11:30 p.m. timeslot bring in ratings on par with NBC’s Tonight Show numbers in the same hour, as Broadcasting & Cable tells us. What’s more:

From B&C: The stations keep far more ad inventory in that hour now than they would if they were forced to give it up to Fox. Every half-hour syndicated show offers stations as much as six minutes of advertising inventory to sell, while a half-hour of network inventory typically offers only about a minute.

Affiliates said they could lose millions if they took on Conan.

The New York Times reported that Conan’s show would only be on about 60% of Fox channels for several years because of the syndication issues.

But insiders told Deadline.com that Fox was trying to find other ways to bring Conan into News Corp. Fox’s sister cable station FX was working on a presentation to Team Conan the day the TBS deal was announced, according to Deadline.

But Fox simply couldn’t make the deal happen as fast as TBS did.

TBS was in constant contact with Conan’s team, offering him face time with almost every market in the country, tons of ad and marketing money and deep support from top to bottom.

Although Fox executives might be upset about the news, not everybody is crying over red hair. B&C’s Michael Malone heard one exec at a Fox affiliate utter a hearty ‘Amen!’ upon hearing the news.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Conan O’Brien Gets Ownership Of His TBS TV Show While Fox Loses Out
• BREAKING: Conan O’Brien Signs TV Show Deal With TBS
• Conan O’Brien, Fox Plan a Show On FX First, Then Broadcast

Here’s an important heads up.

Tomorrow at 10:00 AM Ben Bernanke will attending a hearing on “The Economic Outlook.”

There’s always some nervousness before he speaks (will he all of the sudden sound more hawkish?).

Let us give you a preview of some things that might come up:

• On the deficit, Bernanke will say it’s a serious issue, but that it’s too soon to do anything about it. At some point it will have to be dealt with. You know, after everyone that’s in office now is out office.
• On entitlements, Bernanke will say they have to be fixed. At some point.
• That may involve some discussion or raising taxes (not his problem).
• He’ll say the economy is strong…
• But not so strong that we’re out of the woods yet (this will be the money line, when stocks will go nuts, because investors will know that this is a code word low rates).
• If Ron Paul is there, that will produce something YouTube-worthy.

Join the conversation about this story »