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Time Warner and Comcast lead the pack in AdAge’s pick of top 100 media companies. Viacom took a hit, but still managed to make #9 on the list.

I can’t remember the last time I was actually excited about a TV show from one of the big networks.  I guess this one is kind of cheating I mean come on, ABC borrowed the concept from Latin television.  Ugly Betty is one of the most anticipated shows for the 2006 season, produced by Salma Hayek.  And this week it was announced that ABC is going to make the show available on abc.com the day after it’s series premiere Sept. 28th. 

ABC has found a fan in me.  Not only did they recreate one of the best telenovelas in, well telenovela history, and my personal favorite.  But right now I don’t have a TV nor the time to sit and watch it Thursday, so having the option to watch it on the web will have me tuned in.  I LOVE IT! 

Yeah I’ll admit it, I used to watch Yo Soy Betty La Feya, a Columbian telenovela back in 2000-2001.  Even though I didn’t understand a word, I was hooked on every minute, and I was so in love with Armando Mendoza, but that’s another story. 

Since we’re on the subject of love and ABC.  Thanks to thier quick turnaround with packaging and releasing Gray’s Anatomy season 2 on to DVD I am almost up to date and ready for the season 3 premiere Sept. 20th.  This too will be available on ABC.com

CAN’T WAIT!

I can’t remember the last time I got to lounge around reading my Television Weekly magazine from cover to cover.  I recently graduated, moved, had a couple job interviews, still pushing the resume, and working full-time.  No lazy, hazy, crazy, days of summer for me.

Today I got to sit back and soak in what the industry’s been up too.  Some same old same old.  But also some new stuff as well.  NGT, the prodcution unit of National Geographic Television, is having a growth spurt.  Where there’s growth there’s jobs.  E.W. Scripps is doing some fun and exciting stuff with VOD.  And Marianne Paskowski wrote a fun little article celebrating Betty Cohen’s first year as head of Lifetime. 

Thanks to a fan, wet hair, my recent copy of TVWeek, and 2 more hours before I have to go to work, today is feeling pretty cool.  It’s good to be back.

Today I was able to attend the Golden Gate Chapter’s 2006 AWRT Annual Luncheon and Kudos Awards. What is AWRT you ask? American Women in Radio and Television is one of the largest non-profit professional associations advancing women in the industry by educating, advocating and acting as a resource to it’s members. I became a member this past March, and I’ve already met some incredible women.

In May, I was honored to interview Leslie Smith, 2005/06 President of the Golden Gate Chapter, for a class assignment. She was increadible! Not only did she take time out of her busy schedule, she was very encouraging of me getting involved.

So I volunteered at the luncheon, which was awesome, cause I worked the check-in booth and got to see the who’s who list for the luncheon. You know me, I’m horrible with names, so having a list was great. Plus, there were so many people there, men and women. I won’t list them all but Belva Davis, the Honorable Willie Brown (yeah, that’s right), Cheryl Jennings, and Dana King. And I can’t forget to mention the organizations who not only supported but attended like Clear Channel, Telemundo, Bonneville, the ABC/NBC/CBS affiliates, PGE, and actually way more then I can remember.

I won’t bore you with the blah blah blah details but I just wanted to reiterate that getting involved does has it’s perks.  Especially when you’re a recent grad starting out (again) in the industry.  I can’t wait to see what happens this coming year.

PINKY: Hey Brain, what we going to do today?

BRAIN: We’re going to take over the world!

PINKY: Gee Gahtz!  How we gonna do that Brain?

BRAIN:We are going to buy and sell fruit to small European children.  All we have to do is put these Disney stickers on the fruit and we’ll have every child in the world eating out of our hands.  The world will be ours Pinky! Hahaha, ha ha, ha ha ha!

STUDIO SINGERS: They’re Pinky, they’re Pinky and the Brain Brain Brain Brain Brain!  FADE MUSIC OUT

Yep, it’s offical, I’m educated. I now have a B.A in Radio and Television from SFSU. So, who wants to hire me? Anybody?

Now that I will have all this free time during evenings and weekends, you should see an increase in posts. So visit often!

Things I have in mind…
-Soon I’ll post my updated resume (I wasn’t joking, I’m for hire).
-I’ve also been keeping track of some great links to add to my resource page.
-And I promise more posts to stir the pot of debate.

Until then, I’ll give you a topic. iTunes makes headlines, Television makes money, true or false? Talk amongst yourselves.

A new study came out stating that only one in four teens can list by name the Big 4 broadcast networks.  What does it all mean?  I’m not totally sure, but I think I have an idea.  Please share your idea, let me know what you think. 

I’m not totally shocked by this.  Yeah, I’m old enough to say, when I was a kid ALL we had was the Big 4.  It would have really aged me if I said the Big 3.  But no we had 4 and at that time cable was also coming into play.  We never had cable, well cable the way we think of it today, and the majority of my friends didn’t either, it was still a new fangled thing that parents didn’t really trust.  What we had was the basic cable that allowed us to have the PBS channel from Seattle, and Idaho.  I do remember when certain cable channels had their special free weekends and you could watch the Disney Channel, MTV, or the Family Channel for free from Friday night to Sunday night.  They would air movies like the Lost Garden and the classic movies such as Bambi and Dumbo.  One year, there was this huge special, the local MSO was practically giving it a way, so we had it, I was in heaven.  But as soon as the rates went up, the cable moved out.  Still there was only 15 maybe 20 channels.

The other week, my sister was telling me about how her family (Hubby and 4 kids) just love their PVR (Personal Video Recorder, also known as a DVR or TiVo).  The only issue was, even though it can record up to 100 hours of programming, it wasn’t enough for 6 people who have 120+ channels to choose from.   The Big 4 suddenly don’t seem so…well, big.

Another angle we could approach this, is looking at the the network’s target demographics.  With the misconception that childrens programming is not profitable none of the big 4 make an effort to reach these kids with programming.  So why should teens know them, or even care for them when the Big 4 obviously doesn’t care for them. 

Yeah kids spend a lot of time online, because there is a lot online to entertain them.  One way to draw attention to the kids would be to target them for one, and secondly invest in some viral marketing to get their attention and hopefully move it back to the not so Big 4. 

Just my thoughts!  Oh by the way, sorry I haven’t been posting a lot lately.  I haven’t gotten tired of this yet, it’s just I have one week left of school (Thank You God) and well they’re keepin’ me busy.  Trust me, after graduation, I’m going to have so much time on my hands, you’re gonna wish I had another hobby.  Until then, wish me luck!

I promise I’m not going to blog a play-by-play of Television’s May Sweeps, but there are a few points I’d like to point out.  So you’ll just have to bear with me. 

You may remember in my last post that I felt ABC might have been a little too comfortable at the top.  Well I take it back, they are still kicking, at least on Sunday.  ABC dominated Sunday nigth with their hit shows “Grey’s Anatomy”, “Desperate Housewives”, and “Extreme Makeovers: Home Edition”, taking the top three spots respectively.

Remember the controversy of ABC putting some of it’s top shows online, including “Desperate Housewives”?  Taking a look at the ratings on the fourth night in May sweeps, it doesn’t looks like cannibalization to me.  Time will tell.

Good news for CBS so far with May’s sweeps.  CBS with 20 million views blew NBC (9.4 million) and ABC (6.3 million) out of the water.  I still think it can be anybody’s game, but it does look like ABC got too comfortable in first place.

What’s up with XM?  Well, certainly not their stocks as of today.  It brings up remembrances of the Silicon Valley busts.