Broadcast Media

Make Way for More Media Giants: FCC Paving Way for Titans to Cross-Own Entities

The FCC may allow the media landscape in top-20 markets to resemble the one in New York City -- where media mogul Rupert Murdoch is permitted to own television stations and newspapers. The internet has been abuzz for the past month with news that FCC chairman Julius Genachowski circulated a plan to ... More >>

This Food Commercial Was Banned in South Africa

A new ad for Nando's has been pulled by the South African Broadcasting Corporation. It begins, "You know what's wrong with South Africa? All you foreigners." It goes on to list many of the country's ethnic groups, and as their names are called, they vanish. Finally the narrator says, "Real South Afr ... More >>

DANCE WITH HER

Katy B takes her mission to Drom

News Corp Earnings Call: Rupert Murdoch to Face Wall Street for the First Time in a Year

​News Corp's quarterly earnings call with Wall Street will take place today, and the media conglomerate is putting 80-year-old Rupert Murdoch on the call despite the fact that he's "famous for his off-script comments." This will be Murdoch's first time on an earnings conference call since befo ... More >>

When Rupert Murdoch Was My Boss

Rebekah Brooks, Former News International Chief, To Receive $5.6 Million Payout

​Rebekah Brooks, the former chief of News International who resigned this week in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal tearing through News Corp, has received a hefty $5.6 million buyout package, according to the Daily Mail. Others being handed a thick envelope on their way out the door: the ... More >>

Rupert Murdoch Hires PR Help, Gives Interview to Own Paper; FBI Investigating Phone Hacking

​ Rupert Murdoch finally gave an interview about the ongoing investigation into the News Corporation phone hacking scandal in the U.K. today, but he did so on safe terrain: his own. He told the Wall Street Journal, which he bought in 2007, that News Corp. has handled the disclosures of unethic ... More >>

Rupert Murdoch Hires PR Help, Gives Interview to Own Paper; FBI Investigating Phone Hacking

​Rupert Murdoch finally gave an interview about the ongoing investigation into the News Corporation phone hacking scandal in the U.K. today, but he did so on safe terrain: his own. He told the Wall Street Journal, which he bought in 2007, that News Corp. has handled the disclosures of unethica ... More >>

James Murdoch Could Face Charges in U.S., U.K. After Hacking Scandal

​Rupert Murdoch's son James could face "corporate legal battles on both sides of the Atlantic that involve criminal charges, fines and forfeiture of assets" related to the phone hacking scandal currently embroiling News Corporation. Murdoch fils, who is the deputy COO of News Corp, has admitted to ... More >>

Rupert Murdoch's Kid Coming to NYC: James Murdoch Named News Corp. COO

​It's always been the plan for one or a few of Rupert Murdoch's children to eventually take control of his vast News Corp. empire, the third largest media conglomerate in the world, which includes newspapers everywhere, 20th Century Fox, HarperCollins, Fox News, and so on. Today, Murdoch's you ... More >>

News Corp. Can't Give Myspace Away

​Myspace, the long-floundering social networking site acquired by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation for $580 million in 2005, has been planning a mid-2011 sale for some time, though interest has been decidedly low. Last year alone, ad spending dropped 37%, while they lost 15% of total users, a ... More >>

Will Rupert Murdoch's Children Use the Judith Regan Scandal Against Fox News' Roger Ailes?

​Roger Ailes could have a big mess on his hands based on court documents made available today, which allege that the Fox News chairman encouraged a former employee to mislead federal investigators. The exclusive New York Times report quotes court documents indicating a taped phone call exists, ... More >>

Girl Talk

Should We Expect More Butts and Boobs on TV After Another FCC Fine Gets Tossed?

​NYPD Blue, which ran on ABC from 1993 until 2005, is probably best remembered not as the home of Mark-Paul Gosselaar's comeback, but as the primetime place where naked butts became common. Drop-the-towel scenes (pictured) were trademark teases, as were the glistening upper-body sex scenes tha ... More >>

Myspace is Still Dying, Preps For Layoffs

Back in the day...​Myspace, the News Corp.-owned social network of yesterday, will layoff between a third and half of its approximately 1,100 employees, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, again reigniting chatter about the company's epic failure since a 2005 acquisi ... More >>

Paul McCartney

Rupert Murdoch Just Hired the "Most Important Living New Yorker"...Away From New Yorkers.

​Interesting retrospective on the resignation of Joel Klein, former NYC schools chancellor, who left his job in public service to go work as an executive vice president for News Corp. In New York magazine's recent "Who Runs New York?" issue, a flow chart of influential New Yorkers being asked ... More >>

Three Million New York Homes Cannot Watch Baseball Because Fox Blacked Out Cablevision

​Cablevision customers in the New York area lost their access to Fox 5 and My9 last night when the channel's parent company News Corp. "pulled the plug" over contract disputes, CNN is reporting. The corporate jockeying may sound boring, but has very real effects for anyone hoping to watch Game ... More >>

Amid Cablevision Confusion, News Corp. Pulls Fox From Hulu, Then Puts It Back

​We told you this morning about the dispute between Cablevision and Fox parent company News Corp., which resulted in three million homes in the New York area losing access to the television stations Fox 5 and My9. As Saturday progressed, the battle got uglier, with News Corp. blocking Cablevis ... More >>

Richard Johnson is Out at Page Six, Emily Smith to Take Over

​As pointed out by Ben Smith at Politico, Richard Johnson -- who has been working the New York Post's gossip beat for over 20 years -- just abdicated his throne for a gig in L.A.

Fox and Time Warner cut a deal

​After weeks of high-stakes brinksmanship and a last-minute extension, Time Warner Cable cut a deal Friday night to pay an unspecified per-viewer fee to transmit Fox programming from News Corporation-0wned stations broadcasting in New York, Los Angeles, and a number of other major cities. Fox ... More >>

Fox-Time Warner War Heads to Inevitable, Customer-Gouging Conclusion

​You may have seen ads in the papers and on TV -- one in the form of a ransom note -- warning you that Fox TV may go off the air, and that it's either Fox's fault or carrier Time Warner's, depending on who is paying for the advertising. Fox wants the cable company to pay a "retransmission co ... More >>

Enjoy Free NY Post While You Can: Murdoch Plans to Charge

​News Corp boss Rupert Murdoch tells the Financial Times that "we intend to charge for all our news websites," presumably including the New York Post -- and that "If we're successful, we'll be followed by all media." Murdoch already charges for some content at the Wall Street Journal. News Cor ... More >>

RAW MEAT

The WWE crew takes no prisoners

Marlene VerPlanck

Sirius Debt May Bankrupt Satellite Radio Company

Many citizens facing a worsening recession are looking at their car dashboards and thinking, "why am I paying for radio?" So Sirius XM, home to Howard Stern and a bunch of other v/o celebs, is facing bankruptcy. The Times says it has $175 million in debt payments due at the end of the month and is ... More >>

Lil Wayne on Letterman: Reasons I'm Looking Forward to the Grammy Awards

Digital TV Delay Defeated in House

Ready or not, you may still have to switch from rabbit ears to digital TV on February 17. The Obama Administration has been trying to push back the deadline established in 2005 by Congress to June, and got it through the Senate, but yesterday the House failed to reach the two-thirds majority require ... More >>

Luke Wilson Romantic Development

Seattle's KEXP Comes to New York

Mad Money

The Libertine

Sleaze, decadence, and suicide, Brecht-style

Gimme "Indie" Rock

Another payola settlement promises us better, braver radio. Let's not get too excited just yet.

So Sick

Biz bites the kids that feed it as radio battles everybody

Bubble Economy: A New Era of Narrowing Release Windows

"Laffy Taffy" is the Number One Song in the Country

'The Last Mogul'

The Other Foot

The FCC sweeps Eliot Spitzer's payola findings under the rug

No More Sopranos, No More Chris Rock

Tell President Bush and the right-wing Congress to get their hands off your remote

The Rebound of Internet Radio

The Day the Clave Stopped

New York's Latin music programming shrinks as population grows

Michael Powell's Balls

Freedom for Sudan's Slaves?

'Our Work Isn't Done. It's Just Begun.'

Pontorno's Complaint

Ex-Murdoch Employee Reveals 'Secret Society'

Thinking Inside the Box

Test-Tube Babies

Does Fox Slant the News?

Investigative Reporters Versus Murdoch

Conservatives in Drag

Fox News Wears Veil of Neutrality

Lazio Makes Industry Waves

2000 Campaign Could Affect Radio Access

Watch Your Steps

Rebel Radio

The Lower East Side's Pirate Station, Steal This Radio, Joins the Fight Against the Feds