Television Industry

That 52-inch, flat-screen television on the family room wall may have a terrific picture, but there's a big drawback: It's an energy hog. State regulators are getting ready to curb the growing power gluttony of TV sets by drafting the nation's first rules requiring retailers to sell only the most energy-efficient models, starting in 2011.

The digital switch is the end of one TV era, but broadcasters and device companies hope it's opening up another. Their vision for the future: a world in which we access live television not just on big screens in our living rooms, but also on cellphones and computers and in cars.

After years of bad blood and nearly three weeks of court testimony, Mexico's entertainment giant Grupo Televisa and the dominant Spanish-language TV company in the U.S., Univision Communications Inc., abruptly ended their four-year legal battle Thursday. The settlement averted a potentially disastrous outcome for Univision, which could have lost its pipeline of Televisa's popular soap operas, called telenovelas, that drive Univision's enormous ratings.

ABC on Thursday became the second major broadcaster to combine its television network and production studio into a single unit, an acknowledgment of troubled economic times and changing viewer preferences. Walt Disney Co.'s ABC, like all television companies, is scaling back amid a deepening recession. Networks are particularly vulnerable now because their audiences are shrinking and their advertising revenues are falling but production costs for dramas and comedies are continuing to climb.

Better make those park reservations now. Ken Burns' "The National Parks: America's Best Idea," a six-part, 12-hour documentary celebrating the virtues of the country's nearly 400 federally protected spaces, sets up camp on PBS on Sept. 27 and stays through Oct. 2. The country's most famous documentarian, who spoke Saturday during the semiannual Television Critics Assn.

Television manufacturers showed off their biggest and brightest models at the Consumer Electronics Show on Monday. And wow, were they big and bright. Panasonic lugged in the world's largest plasma TV set, at 150 inches, or 12 1/2 feet, measured diagonally. It's 11 feet tall, for those already measuring space in their living rooms. "The only plane that could carry it was the Boeing 747 jumbo jet," Panasonic President Toshihiro Sakamoto said.

Television's reigning champion, "American Idol," returns this week and the talent contest is expected to be more popular -- and profitable -- than ever. The Fox show begins its seventh season Tuesday against the walking wounded. As the strike by the Writers Guild of America grinds into its 11th week, rival networks are scrambling to stay alive.

Conceding that the current television season cannot be salvaged, four major studios canceled dozens of writer contracts Monday. The move signals that development of next season's crop of new shows also could be in jeopardy because of the 2-month-old writers strike. Typically, January marks the start of pilot season when networks order new comedies and dramas. But with writers not working, networks do not have a pool of scripts from which to choose.

NBC Entertainment co-Chairman Ben Silverman has agreed to sell his production company, which makes "The Office" and "Ugly Betty," to a London-based firm owned by Elisabeth Murdoch for at least $125 million, people familiar with the situation said Friday. Silverman put the company, Reveille, up for sale last year to deflect criticism that his dual role as a supplier and buyer of programming was a potential conflict of interest.

Television public service announcements, which convey beneficial messages and air for free, can be effective, but a new study says there aren't very many of them. And those that do make it to television are often broadcast at odd hours when few people are watching. "There continues to be very little time available for ads on public service, and nearly half of them are aired after midnight," said Vicky Rideout, a coauthor of the study.