network news stories on Newser

Shame on Showtime for Ditching Gay Shows

Harry Kimball — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 11:38:06 CST

Showtime, which has an openly gay president and used to be the home of “the two most sexually explicit gay dramas ever,” has failed its queer audience completely, Aymar Jean Christian writes. Sure, networks in general have backed off gay-centric programming after realizing “they could get a gay audience by...

UK Network: Dropped Calls? Blame iPhone

Matt Cantor — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 16:40:59 CST

Slammed for poor signal and dropped calls, AT&T has blamed its troubles in part on the iPhone’s heavy data usage—and now UK provider O2 is also pointing a finger at the gadget, PC World reports. O2 users have been plagued by similar problems, and “where we haven’t met our...

AT&T Resumes Web Sales of iPhones in NYC

Nick McMaster — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 17:40:49 CST

AT&T has lifted its ban on selling New York City residents iPhones online, but the reason for the shutdown remains unclear. Customer service reps at first said New York was not "ready for the iPhone," then offered nebulous explanations about "increased fraudulent activity" in the area. But a statement on...

iPhones Plod Along on Crowded Network

Matt Cantor — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 11:04:45 CDT

The iPhone has a slick package and a supercool image--but when it comes to speed, the gadget can be a clunker, the New York Times reports. Customers are fed up with the long waits that stem from heavy traffic on the AT&T network, currently the only one available to iPhone...

Worldwide Outage Stymies PayPal Customers

Will McCahill — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 19:00:59 CDT

Online pay service PayPal was down for about five hours today, the Wall Street Journa l reports, potentially derailing millions of transactions. A rep for parent eBay attributed the outage to an “internal network hardware issue,” and couldn’t say how many customers were affected; PayPal has previously said it processes...

NBC, CBS At Odds on How to Survive

Matt Cantor — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:45:02 CDT

America’s oldest TV broadcasters see very different roads ahead as they navigate today’s world of splintering audiences, Advertising Age reports. NBC is carving a new path, dropping five hours of potential scripted shows a week for a nightly Jay Leno show, and banking on its cable channels. CBS, meanwhile, is...

Kimmel Rips ABC to Shreds

Matt Cantor — Wed, 20 May 2009 09:44:10 CDT

Jimmy Kimmel took the stage yesterday at a network presentation for advertisers, and promptly bit the hands that feed him—ripping into ABC, its advertisers, and even Jay Leno, writes Dave Itzkoff in the New York Times reports. “All of ABC’s late-night comedy talent is assembled here on one stage,...

ESPN, Discovery Rank as Favorite Cable Channels

Nick McMaster — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 17:09:27 CST

US viewers see ESPN and the Discovery Channel as the most indispensable cable networks, Multichannel News reports. A poll by Solutions Research Group asked 1,200 TV viewers which channels they thought of as “must keep.” The results: The top four spots went to the big networks. In order: ABC,...

CBS 'Comfort Food' Wins Over Younger Viewers

Kevin Spak — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 12:39:09 CST

CBS isn’t supposed to jockey for the much-coveted 18-to-49-year-old demographic—it’s supposed to be the network of cop shows starring 50-year-olds. But it’s creaming its rivals during the fall TV season, the New York Times reports, and exec Les Moonves has a theory: “comfort food.” Moonves thinks his network’s simple...