Every year at the Realscreen Summit, the producers represented by our sister company, CABLEready, gather to discuss the various networks we met with during the past few days. Tons of straight talk, speculation, recommendations and – most importantly – sharing. This is the kind of relationship we like to have with and among our program [...]
Category: TV Commentary
As a self-proclaimed TV junkie and foodie, I think my heart skipped a beat when, last week, I attempted to tune into Paula Deen and, instead, was confronted with a chipper voice reading aloud Cablevision’s statement against Scripps network for choosing to pull Food Network and HGTV from its lineup.
After self-medicating in a half-gallon of [...]
Every father wants the best for his son. Good health, a great family, a big house. And, a fantastic job. My dad was no different. Corporate executive, high powered banker, maybe a lawyer. Major league ballplayer, preferably for the New York Yankees would have been great. Naval officer with a degree from Annapolis was pretty [...]

October 19, 2009
Going “Postseason” On Viewing
How understanding a team in the postseason can be applied to better understanding a television network
It’s October and Fall is upon us. From New England to the Carolinas, crimson, orange, and yellow foliage is beginning to burst out all over. Light jackets and sweaters are the norm. And for baseball fans like me, the postseason and World Series are here.

September 21, 2009
Theme Music and Program Branding
How Mad Men's own advertising team has me sold on watching a boring show
I’m writing this while watching AMC’s Mad Men thinking what I thought last Sunday at this time, “Why the heck do I keep watching this show? Nothing happened during this episode … again.”
Yeah, yeah, I know it’s “critically acclaimed.” In fact, it just picked up its second Emmy for best drama last night. But drama?! [...]

September 14, 2009
Behind The Ratings
Finding the important stories beneath the surface of the Nielsen ratings
Ratings. They’re the universal figures by which we determine so many things in our business. Success. Failure. Ranking. Advertising. Renewal. Cancellation. For some it’s a daily report card. Others, it comes weekly or monthly. Some live and die by the numbers. Others isolate them [...]
I have two different types of relationships with cable networks: There are the networks I turn to for one hour a week to watch the one show I love, like my new fave MAD MEN on AMC or the classic PROJECT RUNWAY on Lifetime. Then, there are the networks I can watch no matter [...]
You’ve just retired a series which has been successful for your network. You could take your chances on a completely new, original series or hey, you could reduce your risk by leveraging the the success you’ve had with the series you just retired with a clever spin-off?
It happens often, and has been going on for [...]
This is an EXTREME blog post! It’s also RAW, UNTAMED, UNCUT and THE DEADLIEST! So read on … if you dare!
An intro like this would seem more outlandish if we weren’t deluged with promos and show titles that employ dramatic language like this every- day. In a time with more content than ever, producers and [...]
MSG, a Cablevision-owned regional sports network has a little challenge during the summer. Their sweet spot is New York sports (hockey’s Rangers and basketball’s Knicks – Cablevision owns them, too). NYC is a 3-sports network town … (locally speaking … not including ESPN and Fox, of course). There’s YES – a Yankees network [...]








