As viewers grow frustrated with the TV advertising experience and vote with their remotes, networks are responding with shorter ad breaks and digital tricks aimed at making brand messages palatable in an ad-averse world. But their latest experiment gets straight to the pitch: 6-second commercials. (See videos…

After 24 years of helping buy programming for Showtime and NBC, last year Pearlena Igbokwe became president of Universal Television, where she now finds, produces and sells content for a wide range of TV platforms. As the first African-American woman to run a major Hollywood production company, Igbokwe represents…

Former local broadcast television executive Robert Bennett, founding general manager of of WCVB-TV in Boston who later became president of Metromedia Broadcasting, has died following a long illness. He was 89. Bennett was the primary force behind the establishment of WCVB. The station came about after the Federal…

The good feeling about Fox after the release of its quarterly earnings was short-lived. The stock turned down about 5.8% in post market trading after COO Chase Carey, in a conference call with analysts, acknowledged that “our broadcast business is not where we expected it to be at this time” due to weak ratings and ad…

The Seattle Seahawks, as well as The Simpsons, will remain on Tribune Media’s KCPQ after it announced this morning that 21st Century Fox has extended its affiliation agreement with the station through July 2018. Last month Fox said that it would withdraw its programming on January 17. It wanted more lucrative terms…

Fox once again failed to persuade a court to stop the No. 2 satellite company from helping its subscribers stream TV shows from their home DVRs.  The U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld a 2013 District Court decision that rejected Fox’s motion for a preliminary injunction while it debates whether it’s legal…

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals may have nixed Fox again today in its efforts to shut down Dish Network's ad-zapping DVR service, but the network still sees victory down the line. "We are disappointed in the decision but recognize that preliminary injunctions are rarely overturned on appeal," said a Fox Networks…

First it was New York, then later Boston and today a new battlefield opened in the legal war between the Barry Diller-backed streaming service and broadcasters. Less than two months after its debut in Utah, Fox Broadcasting along with local stations KSTU-TV, KUTV-TV and KMYU-TV filed a copyright infringement suit (read…

For the second time in less than a week, Dish Network is claiming legal victory against one of the big broadcasters. On September 18th, it was ABC, today it’s Fox. A federal judge Monday spared the satellite provider the preliminary injunction requested by Fox against its ad-jumping Hopper DVR services. As has become…

UPDATE, 9:24 AM: Fox put out a statement today in response to the trade libel lawsuit FilmOn filed against them Thursday: Although we have not seen the suit we welcome the opportunity to let the court determine the legitimacy of Mr. David’s business practices. PREVIOUSLY, 5:05 PM: FilmOn has countersued Fox Broadcastin…

Despite its best legal efforts today, Fox didn't get a judge to shut down Dish Network's ad-skipping Autohop and Primetime Anytime features. After hearing arguments from both sides, federal Judge Dolly Gee said she would take the broadcaster's preliminary injunction request under consideration. A decision could come…

Fox Broadcasting has asked for a preliminary federal injunction against Dish Network‘s Primetime Antime DVR service with AutoHop commercial skipping feature. Fox filed a request (read it here) with the federal court for the Central District of California to block Dish “from further infringement of Fox's copyrighted…