Week of June 23-27, 2014
Cynopsis is introducing a new web feature called “In Case You Missed It,” which is a quick roundup of the top stories of the previous week in each of our four daily editions. So if you skipped a newsletter, this is where you want to go to make sure you’re up on the latest news, Cynopsis-style, in the worlds of linear, digital, sports, and kids television. Enjoy!
Flagship
Diane Sawyer is leaving her lead anchor role at ABC News.George Stephanopoulos has been named Chief Anchor of ABC News, covering major special events and breaking news; starting September 2, David Muir will step in as anchor and managing editor of the evening newscast. Sawyer remains at the net to “devote her boundless energy full time to a team which will create and commission original reporting, big ideas and interviews for all platforms,” said ABC News president James Goldston. Tweeted Sawyer, “We have an exciting new adventure ahead.
Winners of the Daytime Emmy Awards, presented Sunday night in LA, included Outstanding Morning Show Good Morning America (ABC), Drama Series, The Young and the Restless (CBS), Talk Show/Informative Steve Harvey (syndicated), Talk Show/Entertainment The Ellen DeGeneres Show (syndicated), Game Show Jeopardy (syndicated), Court Program The People’s Court (syndicated) and Morning Program in Spanish Un Nuev Dia (Telemundo). For a full list of winners go here.
Sports
In the end, Tim Brando is heading to FOX Sports, stunning some pundits who thought he was destined for SEC Network. The veteran broadcaster is officially joining FOX Sports’ roster of college sports personalities and contributors where he will help cover college football and college basketball on FOX and FOX Sports 1 beginning this season. Brando’s broadcast partner, as well as the full FOX Sports college football announce teams, will be released at a later date. Brando joins after roles at the likes of CBS Sports and SiriusXM.
120 Sports went on Wednesday, and announced that GEICO, Nissan, Transamerica and Verizon Wireless have joined as the official launch partners. “120 Sports is thrilled to work with such a robust team of forward-thinking creative brands as we join forces to introduce a new, never before seen, all-digital sports network,” said Jason Coyle, president of 120 Sports. Branded messaging for each launch partner will be “created in real time and organically integrated into the hot topics of the 120 Sports viewing experience each day.” Original branded features will also be intuitively published at contextually relevant times throughout the programming.
Digital
The Supreme Court sided with TV networks against Aereo on Wednesday, ruling in a 6-3 decision that the streaming service violated copyright laws by using antennas to transmit broadcast networks over the Internet for a fee. “Blocking this technology is a big loss for consumers,” said Aereo backer Barry Diller, who told CNBC the company “is over.” The National Association of Broadcasters maintained the ruling “sends an unmistakable message that businesses built on the theft of copyrighted material will not be tolerated.”
CBS CEO and President Les Moonves, who has been vocal throughout the court hearings leading up to the SCOTUS case, told Bloomberg TV yesterday: “What Aereo was doing was not about technology: it was about theft. Yes, it was a new technology and there’ll be others, but right now because of the Supreme Court ruling, people will have to pay for our content.”
NBC’s statement from Paul Clement, the attorney for the petitioners (CBS, Disney/ABC, Fox andNBCU), said “Today’s decision is a victory for consumers. The Court has sent a clear message that it will uphold the letter and spirit of the law just as Congress intended.”
The Walt Disney Company (owner of ABC) told Cynopsis, “We’re gratified the Court upheld important copyright principles that help ensure that the high-quality creative content consumers expect and demand is protected and incentivized.”
Omnivision Entertainment and MyDamnChannel CEO and Founder Rob Barnett, who said in April that he thinks Aereo’s technology will eventually be acquired by one of the major broadcasters, today told Cynopsis: “The best innovations will continue to come from entrepreneurs and visionary new companies who move with speed, smarts and passion to deliver the best content to fans at a fair price. The new explosion of mergers and acquisitions in digital media proves that Goliath is hard at work, figuring out how to best deal with David.”
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ABC News is the first major news broadcaster to launch on the Apple TV, which will include free live hourly updates with no pay-TV subscription required. Live content will come from some of the network’s big players like Good Morning America, Nightline, 20/20 along with streams of breaking news, the daily White House press briefing and nine local news affiliates. Variety reports ABC News is skipping the authenticated step in order to reach a larger audience. “The idea of this is to put users in control of their news,” said Joe Ruffolo, SVP of ABC News Digital. Apple TV also updated to include apps from AOL On, PBS Kids, Flickr and Willow TV.
Kids
“An emotional pickle and a freewheeling peanut” are the stars of new buddy comedy series Pickle & Peanut, being cooked up by Disney Television Animation. The series, voiced by Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite) and Johnny Pemberton (21 Jump Street) will premiere in fall 2015 on Disney XD and mixes 2-D animation and live-action clips to tell the small-town adventures of two underdogs who dream up plans to be anything but ordinary. The series was created by Noah Z. Jones (Fish Hooks) and developed by Joel Trussell (Yo Gabba Gabba!), who also serve as exec producers. “We see very few pitches that are as funny and original as ‘Pickle & Peanut.’… Noah and Joel have built a world with a visual style and sensibility unlike anything on TV,” said Eric Coleman, SVP, Original Series at Disney… In other Disney animation news, the studio got a third season order of Mickey Mouse cartoon shorts and a second season order of Craig McCracken’s Wander Over Yonder for Disney Channel. The Mickey shorts have reached more than 135 million unduplicated viewers worldwide, in 34 languages.
Mobile tech company Fingerprint, creator of kids mobile play-and-learn networks, secured a Series B funding round totaling $10.85 million, and added DreamWorks as newest investor, along with long-time investors Corus Entertainment and Reed Elsevier Ventures. Fingerprint operates its own network, Fingerprint Play, as well as the newly launched Samsung KidsTime, Sylvan Learning (SylvanPlay) and Astro (AstroPlay). The company will be building a new network with Cricket Media. In less than two years, Fingerprint revenues have grown ten-fold. By the end of 2014, the company expects to have launched seven new networks with a global footprint that will span the US, Canada, SE Asia, Australia and Europe. “Mobile has changed children’s viewing and playing habits, and as a result the growth in the mobile kids’ entertainment and edutainment industry is taking off,” says Fingerprint CEO/co-founder Nancy MacIntyre.
Sesame Workshop and the Ounce of Prevention Fund are creating a digital platform in collaboration with the National Head Start Assn. for early learning family involvement, designed to strengthen parents’ understanding of the importance of early education and nurture social-emotional development in their children. The partners are developing resources for low-income communities to link families’ experiences in the classroom with parent-child learning interactions at home in support of school readiness. “Parent and family engagement is a cornerstone of Head Start’s comprehensive early learning model,” said National Head Start Assn. executive director Yasmina Vinci. “Commitments like this have the power to transform the earliest learning years for thousands of our nation’s most vulnerable children and families by offering them leading-edge platforms to help get them fully prepared to succeed in Kindergarten and life.” The project, slated to launch in early 2015, has three key components:
* A mobile platform that will deliver parenting information, tips and ways to connect with children via media content.
* A social network that will offer parent-to-parent contributions, connections and encouragement.
* A toolkit to complement the digital components that will support educators in strengthening relationships and building connections among parents.
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