Childrens' cable television mainstay and media brand Nickelodeon is rebranding as "The Nick" with a new splat-less logo. [more inside]
posted by Servo5678 on Aug 4, 2009 - 55 comments

On April Fools Day 2009, the James Randi Educational Foundation announced the Pigasus Awards for 2008 for the worst in pseudoscientific irrationality. The Scientist award was given to Dr. Colin A. Ross for his claims that he can shoot electromagnetic energy beams from his eyes. The Funding Organization award went to Walt Ruloff and his co-producers for bankrolling the Intelligent Design documentary, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. The Media award went to cable channels such as Comedy Central that still run ads for Enzyte even though the company's owner is now serving a 25-year sentence for fraud. The Perfomer award was typically awarded in the past to cheesy psychics such as Uri Geller or Sylvia Browne, but this year the (dis)honor goes to actress/spokesmodel Jenny McCarthy for her antivaccination activism, a stance that inspired the Jenny McCarthy Body Count. Finally, a new award for "most persistent refusal to face reality" was presented to infomercial pitchman Kevin Trudeau, who continues selling his books on "natural cures" despite a judge slapping him with a $37 million fine for false claims.
posted by jonp72 on Apr 7, 2009 - 78 comments

March 19, 1979 - The United States House of Representatives goes live on television for the first time in history. Footage from the House floor aired on a network created by a consortium of American cable companies. The first member of Congress to speak? Al Gore (Sorry, only seems to be available on Real Player. Embedded video, in case weird link fails). [more inside]
posted by IvoShandor on Mar 23, 2009 - 17 comments

TCM Underground (warning: flash, sound) has been screening an excellent selection of Cult movies on late Friday nights that are worth staying up for. Upcoming films include: Terror of Tiny Town, The Swinger, Ladies and Gentlemen the Fabulous Stains, Willie Dynamite, Shack Out On 101, Two-Lane Blacktop, and The Legend of Hell House.
posted by Otis on Jan 12, 2009 - 34 comments

Mock the Vote: Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert interviewed.
posted by Artw on Sep 25, 2008 - 41 comments

Enjoy over 170,000 screencaps of your favorite cable news personalities at ReporterCaps.com.
posted by dhammond on Mar 30, 2008 - 20 comments

With Comcast, your TV watches you. Comcast is developing cable boxes with cameras to watch the room. They will know who is there to provide shows in your profile, engage parental controls, and of course, deliver targeted advertising. Ceiling Cat Comcast is watching you....
posted by caddis on Mar 23, 2008 - 44 comments

Fancast is a new site currently in beta, that tries to combine TV listings, IMDB type information, and aggregate full length episodes of TV shows from places like CBS and Hulu. It is also designed to allow you to connect you with shows and movies from iTunes, Netflix, and more. It is owned by Comcast but anyone can use it. via
posted by bove on Feb 14, 2008 - 32 comments

So you finally broke down bought that fancy 60" HDTV. Now, you need a fancy HDMI cable for the finest quality picture. BestBuy (et al) promote Monster almost exclusively. But they can cost up to $250. Meanwhile, Monoprice (and others) can be had for about 1/10th the price.

Gizmodo just finished their detailed three part breakdown (including using test machines at Monster's own HQ) and comes to the conclusion that "The only people who should buy Monster cable are people who light cigars with Benjamins."
posted by revmitcz on Jul 27, 2007 - 29 comments

The Other Side of the Wind is the lost last film of Orson Welles, a reputed unseen masterpiece, that may finally see the light of day in late 2008. The film tells the story of Jake Hannaford (played by John Huston), an aging movie director who has to film a low budget sex-and-symbolism flick to avoid getting overtaken by the Movie Brats of the Spielberg/Coppola generation. After providing voiceovers to two documentaries on the Persepolis ceremonies of 1971 and an intimate portrait of the Shah of Iran, Welles obtained Iranian financing to finish The Other Side of the Wind. Unfortunately, after the Islamic Revolution of 1979, the bank accounts of his Iranian financier were seized, which led to the negatives for the film getting locked in a French vault. After Orson Welles died in 1985, his lover/collaborator Oja Kodar had to settle his estate with Orson's estranged (but never divorced) wife Paola Mori. There the matter might have rested, if not for an unfortunate coincidence. (More inside.)
posted by jonp72 on Apr 15, 2007 - 50 comments

I pooted. Enigmatic billboard advertisements, apparently promoting a Cartoon Network show, Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends seen in several major cities.
posted by ijoshua on Jun 22, 2006 - 54 comments

If you can't get World Cup on regular cable because maybe you haven't got cable, you can try watching with this software. Schedule of American World Cup TV broadcasts here.
posted by thirteenkiller on Jun 11, 2006 - 19 comments

Newsfilter: The US House Committee on the Judiciary today approved the Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act (HR 5417) in a vote of 20-12, helping to improve the provision of equal network service regardless of who receives it, without added surcharges, along with other antitrust measures. Carriers like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon suggest no problem exists that requires this legislative solution, despite pushing their lobbyists hard to get Congress to enact opposing laws, and suggesting that prioritizing network traffic is required to develop newer products, such as high-definition video. Meanwhile, the FCC continues to encourage mergers while prices for telecommunications products continue to rise at rates manyfold higher than inflation, despite price gouging provisions enacted in the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
posted by Mr. Six on May 26, 2006 - 13 comments

The End of the Internet? "The nation's largest telephone and cable companies are crafting an alarming set of strategies that would transform the free, open and nondiscriminatory Internet of today to a privately run and branded service that would charge a fee for virtually everything we do online."
posted by allkindsoftime on Feb 4, 2006 - 32 comments

I noticed tonight that my Dish TV basic-subscription service no longer offers MSNBC and suddenly does offer FOX News. Strange indeed, but the bigger issue methinks is a potential plus in that a la carte programming may be on its way soon. Great, you say, right? Perhaps not -- because if you only pay for what you get, that means that the little guys (like Link TV, the RFD network and Free Speech TV) likely face a big honkin' challenge in being visible and thus viable. So. Given that...do we really want pay-per-channel programming? Or is this just a moot point considering that "convergence" is creeping ever so closer?
posted by diastematic on Dec 16, 2005 - 53 comments

Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession. In the late 1970s to the end of the 1980s, LA's Z Channel was a pay-TV cable channel that would play loads of esoteric films. It'd been credited with starting the trend of "director's cuts", bringing passed-over directors and films to the public's attention, and in some cases, was directly responsible for Oscar Nominations -- and was basically the work of one man, Jerry Harvey. Unfortunately, Z Channel folded shortly after Jerry Harvey killed his wife and then himself. Xan Cassavetes' film tells the story of Jerry Harvey and Z Channel through interviews with filmmakers and those involved, including an archival interview with Harvey himself.
posted by Rev. Syung Myung Me on Jul 20, 2005 - 6 comments

TiVo saved? After a grim 4Q04 conference call, focusing on bells and whistles for which there's little evidence of customer demand, it's now reported that TiVo is on the verge of striking a deal with Comcast to integrate TiVo software and services into Comcast's integrated tuner-DVRs. TiVo needs this deal very, very badly...
posted by MattD on Mar 15, 2005 - 29 comments

Trio close to being cancelled. They are one of the few good cable nets. They showed Pink Lady and Jeff fer goodness sakes. Link to how to complain here. As the poster sez: "Isn't the point of paying for hundreds of different channels to not have them be all the same?" Caveat: I killed my tv in March and have never been happier.
posted by alfredogarcia on Jan 3, 2005 - 39 comments

Shop At Home TV Network salesdroid hurts self. You take a guess at what it ensues.
posted by xmutex on Feb 6, 2004 - 41 comments

Whatever happened to Saturday Morning Cartoons? An astonishingly intelligent article about how Cable TV, dual-family households, regulations and more eliminated what more than a few of us remember quite fondly as the magical time when suddenly TV existed for our personal entertainment purposes. Anyone else remember occasionally dragging themselves out of bed at 6AM for what was ultimately five hours of really, really cool commercials? (Link from Fark!)
posted by effugas on May 9, 2003 - 71 comments

Imagine you are moving between apartments. Check out this Verizon "How do I..." page. Over 40 questions are answered, but the 2nd most obvious question one might have is strangely absent. Then try to order a basic cable service from Time Warner Cable. Do you have other examples of corporate sites that are less than helpful when what you want is less than what they would like to sell - or when you want to cancel?
posted by edlundart on May 20, 2002 - 15 comments

Time Warner/AOL to charge more for cable bandwidth hogs. No idea exactly what the bandwidth limits will be, but, according to this article, a tiered pricing structure is in the works. Grrr...
posted by shecky57 on Apr 10, 2002 - 33 comments

Anonymously rat out your thieving neighbors. Cable companies are mounting a television commercial campaign advertising cabletheft.com, where you can rat out anyone you might suspect stealing cable. Tagline of the commercial: "Sooner or later, you're going to pay."
posted by dcgartn on Mar 23, 2002 - 27 comments

Fox News overtakes CNN in viewership even though fewer people get Fox News in their households.
posted by mrbula on Jan 30, 2002 - 31 comments

eek! at+t broadband cable units to be bought by comcast. this means chicago cable service will shift to its third owner in two years (at+t broadband having purchased prime cable just last year, and having just gotten cable modems back online from the excite@home failure two weeks ago). anyone have any clues about the ramifications of this purchase?
posted by patricking on Dec 20, 2001 - 21 comments

If you're selling your multi-million dollar cable network be sure to heed Ted Turner: "My advice to younger people in the room is be real careful who you sell your company to." With regards to being fired by Gerald Levin: "Turner recalled that Levin said 'Ted, you’re my best friend. I said, ‘I’m your best friend? Jerry, I’ve never been in your home. If I’m your best friend, who’s your second best friend?’ "
posted by CosmicSlop on Nov 30, 2001 - 9 comments

Robert Johnson is the first black billionaire, and ranks #172 on the list of richest Americans after he sold BET to Viacom. Does he have a social responsibilty to show more than T&A and comedy on BET, or is he being unfairly singled out?
posted by owillis on Sep 29, 2001 - 32 comments

We're getting some new cable channels in Canada, and one of them is PrideVision, the world's first gay, lesbian, and bisexual television network. Even ten years ago, would anyone have thought we'd someday see programmes like Closeted Hollywood, Dyke TV, Queer as Folk, and Metrosexuality on North American television? And as a category 1 service, Canadian cable companies are required to make PrideVision available as part of their digital service.
posted by tranquileye on Aug 31, 2001 - 14 comments

I want my MTV. There was a time when the only ads MTV showed were ads for the network itself. These are some of them. (from the U.K. so they might differ from the slate of ads run in the U.S.) Brings back many fond memories of the animated letters M, T, and V. (link courtesy of Saima)

Please proceed directly to "MTV used to show videos!" and then continue to more forced commiseration and remembrances of media conglomerate advertising as a substitute for a rich shared cultural heritage.
posted by anildash on Apr 5, 2001 - 10 comments

Leo Laporte preannounces some major changes to TechTV. His announcement is mainly about the changes to his own schedule, but he notes that they're about to go MSNBC-live-style for nine hours during the day. Will that finally give us a useful reason to watch a network that up to now has been terminally dull and useless to anyone outside of San Francisco whenever Leo himself wasn't on the air?
posted by aaron on Mar 15, 2001 - 5 comments

Just call us Peoples' Telephone & Telegraph. [NYTimes, reg req] A federal appeals court claims that by restricting AT&T and AOLTW from expanding their cable service areas, First Amendment rights have been violated. Thus: these two companies will continue to be the only games in town.
posted by hijinx on Mar 3, 2001 - 4 comments

I guess it's their choice. Because, "they" are forcing you to watch Queer as Folk. It's kinda funny reading stuff like "I wish I had Showtime so I could cancel it." or "I dumped the Disney Channel a few years ago, over their "Gay and Lesbian" week at their park", maybe, it's just sad. [note, free-republic link]
posted by tiaka on Dec 13, 2000 - 20 comments

USA Network complies with Tylenol's request to halt production of a drug-tampering movie.
posted by gluechunk on Dec 6, 2000 - 11 comments