Television Networks

Kevin Weiberg's hiring as chief operating officer and deputy commissioner of the Pacific 10 Conference was a strategic move toward the goal of launching a television sports network, Commissioner Larry Scott said Tuesday. "A Pac-10 network was something that we were going to seriously explore," Scott said in a conference call with reporters. "The timing is such that now we're less than a year away from our negotiating period, our analysis and evaluation has to get more serious and more rigorous.

CBS Corp. and Lionsgate have made their first major hire for the TV Guide Network, tapping Brad Schwartz as president of entertainment and media for the recently formed programming venture. Schwartz will be responsible for programming, scheduling and marketing. Before joining TVGN, Schwartz worked as a programming executive at Fuse, the music network owned by MSG Media. The native of Toronto also has had stints in programming at CTV in Canada and Viacom's MTV. The 42-year-old Schwartz was drafted, in part, because of his "hip sensibility," Lionsgate Chief Executive Jon Feltheimer said in a statement announcing the appointment Monday.

Hollywood has a problem. He's Cole Chanin-Hassman, and he's 10. Like many other kids his age, the Los Angeles fourth-grader counts among his entertainment tools his Xbox 360 game console, his Android phone and his computer. The television is almost an afterthought. When Cole comes home from school, he turns on Cartoon Network's "Regular Show," but the characters on the TV screen compete for his attention with the world-building game "Minecraft" and a parade of YouTube videos on his computer.

CBS Corp. this week acquired 50% of TV Guide Network for a relative bargain - a little more than $100 million. Consider that Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based media company, paid roughly five times more - a reported $500 million - to buy Current TV, the channel co-founded by Al Gore. Current was available in about 50 million homes in the U.S., and Al Jazeera saw the purchase as an efficient way to increase its distribution after struggling for years to gain carriage on U.S. cable systems.

Comcast Corp. has added prime-time television series from Fox and ABC to its video-on-demand service, becoming the first pay-television provider to offer episodes of current programs from all four major TV networks: ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC. The move recognizes that consumers no longer are adhering to the old-school prime-time TV schedules that have long dictated how millions of TV viewers spend their evenings. Consumers instead have embraced digital video recorders and services like Hulu, Netflix and Apple Inc.'s iTunes so they can watch TV programs on their own timetable.

In some parts of the country, home prices are back near 2001 levels, and now so is the volume of advertising the TV networks have sold. Buckling under the pressure of a weak advertising market, the broadcast networks have cut prices for commercial time, a rare setback for companies used to commanding ever-higher prices.

ABC and CBS on Thursday selected different standards for digital television, indicating that broadcasters likely won't reach a consensus on how they'll use the new technology that promises sharper pictures and better sound. CBS said it will begin airing five hours of prime-time shows later this year with the method that allows the highest picture quality. ABC, meantime, plans to broadcast lower-resolution images, which may allow it to squeeze another channel onto the air.

The ABC, NBC and CBS television networks said Thursday they will air live coverage today of the 7 a.m. PDT start of Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on sexual harassment allegations against Clarence Thomas. CNN, PBS and C-SPAN earlier said they would provide gavel-to-gavel coverage of the hearings, as did cable's new Court TV network, which serves 5 million homes. ABC said it had not decided how long it will continue its live coverage.

American television networks were forced to make delicate decisions about the use of video footage of Middle East violence Thursday. CNN, MSNBC and Fox News Channel repeatedly aired footage of a Palestinian mob that attacked and killed three Israeli soldiers. While the scenes depicted a violent attack, what they were attacking was never made clear.

The three major television networks, which staged a walkout during contract talks in February, have reached agreement on a new three-year contract with the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

CBS Corp. has acquired a 50% stake in the TV Guide Network for about $100 million, giving the big broadcaster a larger toehold in cable television. CBS said Tuesday it had entered into a joint venture with the independent film and television studio Lionsgate, which owns the other 50% of the channel also known as TVGN.  CBS bought out the stake held by One Equity Partners, an investment arm of JPMorgan Chase & Co.  The 32-year-old TVGN is widely distributed -- it is available in 80 million homes -- but it has stumbled attempting to create an identity after the conversion to digital channels that made the TV Guide channel's once useful rolling scroll of cable channel program schedules irrelevant.  IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Your entertainment 'Morning Fix' Now cable subscribers can easily navigate an interactive channel guide by tapping a button on their remote controls.

After the coffee. Before the matzo ball soup. The Skinny: I'm in D.C. for Passover, and it snowed here. So much for seeing some cherry blossoms, lunching at an outdoor cafe near the Capitol and taking a nice long jog. Monday's headlines include a recap of the box office and yet another story on the struggles of NBC's "Today. " Daily Dose: NBC, which suffered through a brutal winter, is hoping for a spring renewal starting Monday night with the return of "The Voice" and the network's drama "Revolution," which delivered solid numbers in its fall debut.

Looking to expand its cable portfolio, CBS is in talks to acquire a 50% stake in TV Guide Network for about $100 million. Currently co-owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. and One Equity Partners, an investment arm of JPMorgan Chase, TVGN has been on the block for more than a year. CBS would acquire the stake held by One Equity Partners, people familiar with the talks said. An agreement could be announced as early as next week. Although it is distributed in more than 80 million homes, TVGN has struggled in its attempts to become a mainstream entertainment channel.

SAO PAULO, Brazil - When left-leaning President Joao Goulart was deposed by the Brazilian military in 1964, the nation's major news media, controlled by a few wealthy families, celebrated. But during the 21-year dictatorship that followed, the government censored the newspapers and television stations the families operated. Things are different now. Since 2003, Brazil has been run by the popular left-of-center Workers' Party, known as PT, which has left the news media alone. But the publications and TV stations, still controlled by the same families, have been critical of the party, despite a public approval rating for President Dilma Rousseff as high as 78%. Not a single major news outlet supports her, with some newspapers and magazines particularly harsh in their criticism.

Satellite broadcaster DirecTV is taking the next step with its in-house channel Audience Network. Best known as the channel that gave a second chance to critically acclaimed but low-rated dramas "Damages" and "Friday Night Lights," the Audience Network is now making a big push into original scripted programming with the drama "Rogue. " Set to premiere in April, "Rogue" is a gritty and dark look at a detective (Thandie Newton) who goes undercover and finds herself crossing lines and putting her career in jeopardy.

Pay-TV channel Starz is trying to chart a new orbit. Early next year, its parent company, Liberty Media, plans to spin off the premium network and its sister channel Encore into a new, stand-alone, publicly traded company. Such a move would normally be cause for celebration. But for Starz, the separation comes amid uncertainty. Its track record producing original shows has been mixed. The market is getting increasingly crowded not only from Starz's traditional competitors, HBO and Showtime, but also from new rivals including Netflix, Amazon and Redbox.

Amazon.com Inc. said its subsidiary, CustomFlix Labs Inc., had signed deals with television networks including NBC Universal that could let them sell DVDs of TV shows soon after they air. They initially call for CustomFlix to sell DVDs of archived shows with a niche audience, such as NBC's "Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show" and "Antiques Roadshow" from PBS.

The National Football League has reimbursed the three major television networks an undisclosed amount for some of the revenue lost in the 24-day players' strike, a league spokesman said Friday. Newsday reported that ABC, CBS and NBC had received $6 million each, and that the league would give back $60 million to the networks over the next two seasons to make up for the one missed weekend of play, the reduced ratings and the decline of advertising.

A Silicon Valley executive whose previous venture was synonymous with Internet piracy has found a way to play nice with Hollywood. BitTorrent Inc. co-founder Ashwin Navin is working with television networks and consumer electronics companies on a new technology called Samba that aims to deliver enhanced viewing on Internet-connected "smart TVs. " Navin said his experiences with BitTorrent and the backlash engendered by the file-sharing pioneer...

It's a small matter, I know, compared with the historic issues now obsessing the commentariat, such as the fiscal cliff and how many mistresses and admirers David H. Petraeus could keep in the air simultaneously. But before we say goodbye to Campaign 2012, I would just like to point out that the entire drama of a close election, as played out in the media on election night, is basically fake. Like broadcasters presenting baseball games in the early days of radio, the television networks know who's going to win the game and more or less how it's going to play out, inning by inning.