Word: viacom
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...night a week to some multi-millionaire who wishes he were Dan Rather? In fact, it couldn't be more anxious-making for viewers than watching old Dan himself. Maybe that's how they should find Dan's successor - give it to the highest bidder; that might even make Viacom happy...
...well they cash in will largely be up to CBS. The first group of Survivors got a taste of post-Survivor show biz, mainly on shows from CBS or its Viacom siblings, including JAG, Becker, Nash Bridges and UPN's Freedom. But the network retains control over their availability. Jenna Lewis and Gervase Peterson had to turn down $10,000 to open a Best Buy retail store, for fear of alienating sponsor Target. Even Hatch was denied the chance to be a host of NBC's Saturday Night Live, and CBS kiboshed his plans for a Survivor book. "Basically...
...idea here is similar to what compelled Viacom to buy CBS and AOL to merge with Time Warner: joining content with distribution. In some sense, it is technology--or fear of technological change--that is driving these partnerships. Who knows in the high-speed, always-on, wireless world what is more valuable: content or distribution, programming or cable, music or the means to get the tunes to the listener...
...sparkled less than flat Champagne. Yet Bronfman stubbornly stuck to his show-biz guns. He shelled out $10.4 billion for Polygram music in 1998, making his family's 76-year-old liquor business look like a sidelight. Bronfman has since been shopping his empire to the usual mogul suspects: Viacom CEO Sumner Redstone and News Corp. founder Rupert Murdoch, among others...
Back in the States, the ratings irony was delicious. CBS, which attracts relatively few 18-to-49s, has long decried advertisers' focus on demographics rather than overall viewers. Unfair! Ageist! Fifty-year-olds buy stuff too! Then CBS merged with MTV's parent, Viacom, and started courting youth (MTV heavily plugged Survivor). Against Survivor, Millionaire drew more viewers. But CBS, which won the 18-to-34 and 18-to-49 viewers dramatically (by 1.5 and 1.4 million, respectively), claimed victory...