Viacom

Balloon Boy|HuffPo Passes WaPo In Unique Views|Redstone To Sell $1B In CBS, Viacom Shares|MPA Conference Snap Shot|Tina Brown - Posted October 15, 2009
TVNewser: The saga of a six-year-old boy in a hot air balloon (or not) captivated the network news channels this afternoon. Editor & Publisher: The Huffington Post has surpassed WashingtonPost.com in terms of unique visitors for last month, according to numbers tracked by Nielsen Online. New York Times: Sumner Redstone will sell nearly... [FishBowlNY]

Is Ebony For Sale? - Posted September 28, 2009
Is Johnson Publishing, the owner of Ebony shopping around its flagship publication? That's the news coming out of Newsweek today. Citing "media and investments executives familiar with the developments," Johnnie L. Roberts reports that Linda Johnson Rice, chairman and CEO of Johnson Publishing and daughter of its founder John H. Johnson,... [FishBowlNY]

Nickelodeon Promotes Mullen To Head On-Air Creative Strategy - Posted July 22, 2009
Kids network Nickelodeon today promoted its vice president of preschool production, Anne Mullen, to senior vice president overseeing on-air creative strategy for the whole network -- from preschool programming to Nick at Nite. It's an intense promotion that puts Mullen in charge of all on-air promotion and brand communications, Nick's COO... [FishBowlNY]

Breaking: More Layoffs At MTV - Posted June 23, 2009
Broadcasting & Cable is reporting that MTV Networks laid off a big group of staffers today -- with possibly as many as 75 employees getting the axe. According to B&C, the cuts mostly affected "mid-level executives in the program development department, digital division and scheduling at the company's music and logo group... [FishBowlNY]

Breaking: More Layoffs At MTV - Posted June 23, 2009
Broadcasting & Cable is reporting that MTV Networks laid off a big group of staffers today -- with possibly as many as 75 employees getting the axe. According to B&C, the cuts mostly affected "mid-level executives in the program development department, digital division and scheduling at the company's music and logo group... [FishBowlNY]

Media Stocks Rallying - Posted April 27, 2009
Reuters took a page out of our playbook and looks at the state of media stocks in today's economy. What did it find? Good news, actually, at least in the short-term. The article notes that Time Warner Inc. and News Corp. are up almost 20 percent in the past month while... [FishBowlNY]

Media Stocks: The State of the Top 13 - Posted April 24, 2009
Gannett Co.'s in serious, serious trouble. The company's stock dropped to barely more than $3.00 per share before recovering with a late Friday rally back to $3.45. Still, that's a decline of $0.31 on the week, and it continues to trend towards zero. Elsewhere, only Viacom and DirecTV Group gained ground... [FishBowlNY]

Media Stocks: The State of the Top 13 - Posted April 24, 2009
Gannett Co.'s in serious, serious trouble. The company's stock dropped to barely more than $3.00 per share before recovering with a late Friday rally back to $3.45. Still, that's a decline of $0.31 on the week, and it continues to trend towards zero. Elsewhere, only Viacom and DirecTV Group gained ground... [FishBowlNY]

Paramount Pulls A Fast One With Its Layoffs - Posted December 15, 2008
Paramount Pictures, in compliance with parent company Viacom's edict for 7% layoffs, gave some pink slips, Variety reported. But the marketing staffers were given a week respite. Maybe they were scared of marketing staffers gone amok.... [FishBowlLA]

MTV Hit Hard By Viacom Layoffs - Posted December 5, 2008
More information about the bloodbath that took place over at Viacom yesterday — to the tune of 850 layoffs — is beginning to trickle down. We heard a rumor from an insider yesterday who said that most of the MTV News department had been let go, which appears to concur... [FishBowlNY]

Sad But True, Viacom Lets 7% Go -- And We Mean Employees, Not Films - Posted December 5, 2008
The hits just keep on comin'. Viacom succumbed to the cost-cutting measures with a seven percent shave that included Paramount Vantage chief Nick Meyer (pictured at right) and 500 more at MTV Networks, Variety reports. "Like all other divisions of the company, Paramount too is adapting to the changing conditions and, as... [FishBowlLA]

Viacom to Slash 850 Jobs - Posted December 4, 2008
Rumors about this have been floating around for a while now and looks like they are coming to pass. The AP is reporting that Viacom, owner of MTV Networks, BET Networks and Paramount Pictures, has announced it will slash 850 jobs or 7% of its workforce. In addition to... [FishBowlNY]

Viacom Having Issues -- No Party, Fire Sale - Posted November 4, 2008
Viacom domo Sumner Redstone hates to admit it, but he's having some troubles with his flagship National Amusements Inc. Not only is he canceling the Christmas party, but he's also looking to sell some theaters to make up for National Amusements debt. Next thing to go might be Paramount, which has had its... [FishBowlLA]

DHD: MTV Hiding Layoffs - Posted October 31, 2008
Deadline Hollywood Daily is reporting that "Viacom's MTV Networks is planning a lot of layoffs." Which it is planning to announce on, um, Tuesday. As DHD puts the election day hide-and-seek: ""Dontcha just love Big Media's sensitivity?"... [FishBowlLA]

LAT In 90 Seconds - Posted July 16, 2008
50 Cent: Not the rapper, the price tag. In the face of cuts and other awful things, Steve Lopez reminds readers what they're getting for 50 cents: "Although that money doesn't buy you the same-size staff that was in place when I arrived seven years ago, those two quarters still buy... [FishBowlLA]

Breaking: Dan Rather Ruling: Let the Spin Begin! - Posted April 10, 2008
A judge has issued a ruling on CBS's motion to dismiss Dan Rather's $70 million lawsuit. In short, some aspects (and defendants) of the suit were thrown out, but the suit will proceed. Sounds like, in essence, not a lot has changed -- but that hasn't stopped both sides from proclaiming victory: "We... [FishBowlLA]

LAT In 90 Seconds - Posted December 11, 2007
The Internet Is For Porn: Pity poor Vivid Entertainment Group which is seeing too much of its skin being shown for free -- and without consent -- on YouTube knockoff PornoTube. Echoing the Viacom lawsuit, the porn giant is suing the little guy, and, we're guessing, they're going to try to... [FishBowlLA]

LAT In 90 Seconds - Posted December 10, 2007
South Central Days: Reporter John Mitchell makes much of the art-kinda-sorta-imitating-life aspect of this tale about a gang member who made a film about his violent demise. But we're much more fascinated by the fact that the former thug, Marquis Calhoun, got an audience Frank Biondi, former head of Universal Studios... [FishBowlLA]

LAT In 90 Seconds - Posted October 18, 2007
More ink on Iggy: A sobbing Ellen DeGeneres tells Ryan Seacrest that she arrived "five minutes too late" to reclaim the Brussels Griffon mix terrier from Mutts & Moms, a rescue group that has been getting arson and death threats since first crossing DeGeneres. Bitches, man. If I Paid It: The State... [FishBowlLA]

LAT In 90 Seconds - Posted September 21, 2007
More Sumner Madness: Getting sick of Hollywood's least-lovable codger, David Geffen and Steven Spielberg will likely be splitting from Paramount Pictures, less than two years after selling DreamWorks SKG to the Viacom outfit. SAG Elections Results: Incumbent Alan Rosenberg narrowly won a second term as president of the Screen Actors Guild. 72-year-old... [FishBowlLA]

LAT In 90 Seconds - Posted August 24, 2007
Funny Or Offensive? Online critics praise and skewer BET's "Read a F@&%ing Book" campaign. Greg Braxton does a nice job of pointing out that the campaign's coarse langauge is "bleeped out when it is broadcast on BET, which is part of Viacom, the owner of CBS, which earlier this year fired... [FishBowlLA]

Dog Days of Sumner - Posted July 23, 2007
Following a NYT story last week about Sumner Redstone's squabbles with his daughter Shari (and everyone else on the planet, really), the LAT hits the ol' man with a profile that leads with the ageist and jaw-droppingly presumptuous sentence: "In his twilight years, Sumner Redstone should be relaxed, fulfilled and enjoying the... [FishBowlLA]

Off the Media: Gates v. Garfield v. Blogosphere - Posted March 22, 2007
"On the Media" co-host Bob Garfield this week asks America's-richest-man, philanthropist and future thinker Bill Gates what we've all wanted to know: What do you think of those Mac ads on TV that make you look really doofy? "But it's you!" Garfield quips, when Gates refuses to talk about "another... [FishBowlNY]

In The Trades: So Old It's New! - Posted March 14, 2007
Viacom is suing YouTube for unauthorized use of some 160,000 video clips from MTV, Comedy Central and VH1. Viacom thinks that $1 billion is fair recompense for the 1.5 billion times the clips were viewed. Viacom's argument included this: This is value that rightfully belongs to the writers, directors and... [FishBowlLA]

YouTube Nabs Chilling Effects Prof.: Coincidence or Deep Chill? - Posted February 5, 2007
In the rush to nab video pirates, YouTube purged user-content that had nothing to do with Viacom, except sharing some key words. Harvard's Jim Moore complained this weekend that Viacom removed a video of him having dinner with friends (Laszlo Kovacks, he's not). He ate at Redbone's in Somerville, MA, and... [FishBowlLA]

YouTube Nabs Chilling Effects Prof.: Coincidence or Deep Chill? - Posted February 5, 2007
In the rush to nab video pirates, YouTube purged user-content that had nothing to do with Viacom, except sharing some key words. Harvard's Jim Moore complained this weekend that Viacom removed a video of him having dinner with friends (Laszlo Kovacks, he's not). He ate at Redbone's in Somerville, MA, and... [FishBowlLA]

FBLA Writes A Job Posting For Viacom, Hopes They Don't Make Us Take it Down - Posted February 5, 2007
Viacom doesn't know it, but it needs fact-checkers. So allow us to list a job posting on the company's behalf: WANTED Fact-checker who knows how search YouTube for video clips that Viacom actually owns. Ability to save company from the embarrassment of purging legitimate, user-generated content a MUST. Knowledge of when a video... [FishBowlLA]