The Morning Fix: More Hulu hoops! Oscars in January? Hyping 'Knight and Day.' Disney's real estate plans.

After the coffee. Before getting back to the World Cup. 

Jumping through Hulu hoops. Bloomberg reports that Hulu, the online video site owned by News Corp., Walt Disney Co. and NBC Universal is in talks with CBS, Time Warner and Viacom about getting their content on the site. Bloomberg says the talks are revolving around Hulu's plans to offer a subscription service. Such a service would likely offer a wider array of content and not just new shows. However, we did some probing too and there might be a little more smoke than fire at this point with these three companies and Hulu. There are always lots of talks between Hulu and the big content providers they don't have on board. Viacom, Time Warner and CBS already offer their content online, so the actual issue is about when shows would run on Hulu, revenue sharing and how much content would be made available to the service.

Trying to see light in "Knight and Day." Time for the New York Times to check in with a short piece on 20th Century Fox's "Knight and Day," the action adventure/romantic comedy starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. While most reviews have been positive (although Wednesday's New York Times panned it), the tracking is not good and Fox has since gone into sneak peek mode (the Los Angeles Times wrote about this on Saturday). One problem, in my humble opinion, might be the rather lame marketing campaign, those awful posters, and a title that sounds like a 1970s TV cop show. 

And the award for most difficult producing gig goes to ... Veteran awards show producer Don Mischer is being teamed up with producer Bruce Cohen ("American Beauty") to helm the 83rd annual Academy Awards telecast. Variety reports on that while Deadline Hollywood says the show may be moved from the end of February to January, which is when the Golden Globes run. Maybe the Academy and ABC don't want the awards show to bump up against the Super Bowl. That's a joke, see, because the Super Bowl keeps getting pushed further and further into winter.

Disney's winter home. Walt Disney Co. is getting into the residential real estate business. Yeah, there's never any uncertainty in that world. The Wall Street Journal scoops that Disney is creating a development in Florida, home of Walt Disney World. The homes, according to WSJ, will go for between $1.5 million and $8 million, which is a slight markup from the $243,000 that the article says is the average price of new homes there (per Realtor.com).

Dish vs. Disney. Another day, another battle between a programmer and a distributor over money. This time, satellite broadcaster Dish Network has stopped carrying some Disney cable channels. The networks in question include high definition channels for Disney's ABC Family, ESPNews. Details from Dow Jones.

End of an era. Mark Mays, chief executive of CC Media, the parent of the big radio owner Clear Channel, is stepping down. Mays, who will remain as chairman, is the son of the company's founder Lowry Mays. Of course, Clear Channel stopped really being a family run company when it was sold to private equity firms Thomas Lee and Bain. More from the Financial Times. 

Inside the Los Angeles Times: Even if a law floating around in Congress passes and bans a box office futures trading market, the fight will go on. The White House unveils its strategy to fight piracy. Griffith Park is the go-to spot for the movie industry. Kenneth Turan on "Knight and Day."

-- Joe Flint

Get over hump day faster by following me on Twitter at: Twitter.com/JBFlint

Comments

[Craig]

You guys have the shooting information in there but where is the blurb I saw in my print edition about LA Live and the economy? I wanted to share that with others but I cannot find it using the SEARCH feature. Come on, that is news and should be online in LA. And, I shouldn't have to post a comment to communicate with the LA TIMES!

Thanks.

[Deskjob007]

Dish vs. Disney
My answer to Dish: No money, no honey, no content. We'll deliver our own on Hulu and over the air with our own Digital Channels.

The broadcasters have the better system, Over Air Digital TV, with the top 20% of the TV market crosses 80% of the available audience. In LA alone, CBS has Channel 2 & 9, with digital, that comes to 20 digital outlets.

Therefore Nickelodeon, MTV, etc., can be offered directly to the consumer without a middle man, cable. NBC still has its one channel but that is 10 outlets and with a Spanish channel, that is another 10 outlets. With Comcast taking over, the layover markets are all in house. Disney has Channel 7, 10 outlets which would better serve their Disney Channels & ESPN to increase coverage than depending on local cable customers. Keeping in lower channel numbers, makes easier for the audience to find programing.

Also, sometimes our Direct TV has drop out of a local station, we switch to Over Air Digital and the picture is great.

I have friends that have cable for Disney Channels only and would cut cable if Disney Channels were offered Over Air Digital TV.

A good example of usage is Channel 18, Los Angeles, using all of their digital channels for a variety of programing and not depend on cable to deliver.

Any broadcaster can apply for an open UHF channel in the LA market to increase their outlets if need be. This covers 5 million plus in LA alone. That coverage and easier audience access appeals to advertisers.

Once I have Hulu tv connected to my big screen and I already have Netflix, Direct TV is gone for a saving of $75 a month. And Netflix offering unlimited online for about $20, I'll save $95 at a total entertainment cost of $30.