The Morning Fix: A Super Bowl record! ABC and Univision make news.
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After the coffee. Before starting the third week of the Golden Globes trial.
The Skinny: Did you watch ‘Smash’ on NBC? Will it top 12 million viewers and a 4.0 rating in adults 18-49? We’ll see soon enough. Tuesday’s headlines include Univision and ABC News in talks about a new cable news channel, Red Box wants into the streaming business, and the Super Bowl sets a ratings record.
The Daily Dose: Once again a Super Bowl halftime performer (M.I.A.) has tried to upstage the game itself. Now NBC and the NFL are pointing fingers at each other for who goofed -- NBC says the NFL oversees the act while the NFL says the network’s delay should have worked and spared us from the performer’s middle finger. Seems logical, though, that if the NFL wants to make sure this kind of stunt never happens again, it needs to put a clause in its contract that will hit the performer with a huge financial penalty if any unscripted action mars the game or potentially puts the show in trouble with advertisers and regulators. Certainly the league has enough lawyers to come up with that. And if they did do that already, they should donate the fine to a charity to help retired players.
Gran historia. Spanish-language broadcasting giant Univision has had talks with ABC News about launching a news channel, according to the Wall Street Journal. Although the growing Latino population in the United States would lead one to think the channel would be in Spanish, apparently it will be an English-language network. ABC already has a cable news channel -- ABC News Now. Distribution for the channel is very small and one assumes it would be merged into this effort should the talks lead to fruition, which is no guarantee.
Big numbers. NBC’s telecast of Sunday’s Super Bowl thriller between the New York Giants and New England Patriots drew a record audience of 111.3 million viewers, barely topping last year’s previous high of 111 million. Does that make the $3.5 million that advertisers spent on commercials worth it? To answer that question, ask yourself how many of those ads you remembered 10 minutes after they aired. More on the ratings from USA Today.
A foot in both camps. On Monday, word emerged that Verizon was teaming with Red Box on a video streaming service that would try to take on Netflix. But Red Box, whose claim to fame is its kiosks outside supermarkets and 7-Elevens where people can rent movies on the cheap, isn’t ready to throw in the towel on that business. Red Box parent Coinstar said it would spend up to $100 million to buy up Blockbuster’s in-store DVD business, acquiring 9,000 or so DVD kiosks currently in use by the rental chain. Details from the Los Angeles Times.
Roaring again? MGM, which has struggled almost as long as the now-red-hot Los Angeles Clippers (yes, I was struggling for an analogy), is suddenly flush with cash. According to Deadline Hollywood, the historic studio has a new $500-million credit line ready to spend on new movies. Of course, this isn’t the first time we’ve read the ‘MGM is back’ story so I’ll wait a little longer before saying that the lion’s bite is bigger than its roar.
New money. Bruno Wu, a well-known Chinese media mogul whose wife, Yang Lan, is a popular TV personality there, is joining in a new $800-million fund that will invest in entertainment opportunities. Details on where Wu’s partnership is looking to spend from the New York Times.
Inside Los Angeles Times: The fastest growing digital music service you’ve never heard of is MuveMusic from Cricket Wireless, a small San Diego-based phone company. Robert Lloyd on ABC’s new drama ‘The River.’
-- Joe Flint
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