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Tag: CBS

  • Big CBS Love’s new ad campaign talks about STBs

    MUMBAI: Big CBS Love, the diva destination from the JV between Reliance Broadcast Network (RBNL) and CBS Studios International, is launching a new ad campaign aimed at increasing awareness about digitisation and empowering consumers with information, while parallelly enabling operators to build their brand equity.

    Titled ‘Subscribe to Love on Your Set Top Box‘, the campaign launches on the back of RBNL‘s ‘Choose Your Set-Top-Box wisely‘ campaign.

    The four week long campaign will use print, television, OOH and digital mediums.

    The message of the campaign is that viewers should not miss the Divas and subscribe to the channel. The Divas the channel is referring to are- Sarah Jessica Parker (Sex and the City), Tyra Banks (America‘s Next Top Model), Sarah Michelle Gellar (Ringer), Oprah Winfrey and Priyanka Chopra (India‘s first Glam Diva).

    Big CBS Networks business head Vishal Rally said, “Big CBS Love is all set to make the most from digitisation. Targeted at the upwardly mobile urban women audiences we have tailored our programming to offer what appeals to our audiences, making it the Diva Destination. With ‘Subscribe to Love on Your Set Top Box‘, we want to further awareness and ensure audiences are equipped to make the right choice when choosing their channels and DTH operators, so they don‘t miss out on their favourite Divas!”

    Big CBS Love is distributed as part of RBNL‘s seven channel bouquet which also includes Big CBS Prime, Big CBS Spark, Big Magic, Spark Punjabi, Bloomberg UTV, and soon to be launched Big RTL Thrill.

  • CBS claims ratings victory among US networks

    MUMBAI: CBS has announced that it has come out on top among US networks for the season. According to the most current Nielsen ratings data, Fox will finish as number one in the 18-49 demographic thanks mainly to ‘American Idol‘.

    CBS, which has a JV with Reliance Broadcast Network in India, has come out on top for nine in the past 10 years. This year the network averaged 11.78 million viewers each week, up by one per cent over last year. This is around three million more viewers than Fox.

    In the 18-49 demographic Fox finished the season with a 3.2 adults 18-49 rating and 9 share, according to Nielsen, down nine per cent from a 3.5/10 last season, when it carried the Super Bowl. NBC aired the game this year.

    In this demographic Fox placed seven per cent ahead of CBS, which averaged a 3.0/8, up three per cent from a 2.9/8 last year. 132 million votes were cast for Fox‘s music based competition show ‘American Idol‘.

    CBS is first in adults 25-54. In a statement CBS has said that it will deliver year-to-year increases among viewers on five nights (Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday) while finishing even on Tuesday and on four nights in adults 18-49 (Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday) and even on Friday.

    CBS also said that it has the season‘s number one new series in viewers ‘Person Of Interest‘ for the third time in four years and the number one new programme in adults 18-49 ‘2 Broke Girls‘ for the second consecutive year.

    CBS says that it had the nine of the 10 dramas including ‘NCIS‘, ‘The Mentalist‘ and ‘Blue Bloods‘. It had eight of the top 10 comedies including ‘The Big Bang Theory‘ and ‘Two And A Half Men‘.

    NBC says that it managed to get a 2.5 rating and a 9 per cent gain in adult 18-49 rating versus last season‘s 2.3. This it says is the biggest increase compared to ABC, CBS and Fox.

    NBC Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt said, “Not since the 2003-2004 season has NBC been out of fourth place in 18-49 viewers, so we‘re thrilled to rank in third place for this season. We‘ve taken some key first steps towards rebuilding primetime, including a great second cycle for ‘The Voice‘ and promising first seasons for shows like ‘Smash‘ and ‘Grimm‘.

    “With a largely new staff in place and a strong development season under our belts – not to mention some big promotional opportunities presented by this summer‘s London Olympics and two nights of ‘The Voice‘ in the fall – we‘re in a very good position to build on the progress of this past season. We‘re genuinely excited about the future.”

  • FCC rules TV channels to disclose political ads

    MUMBAI: US media and telecommunications regulator Federal Communications Commission has approved a controversial proposal requiring television stations to disclose details of political ads aired on their channels.

    The FCC pushed through the legislation 2-1 despite stiff opposition from broadcasters with the Democratic commissioners in favour and the lone Republican opposed to the measure.

    With the proposal through, local television stations like ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox need to publish detailed information about political advertising, including the cost of specific commercials on their websites. Starting 2014, all the TV stations will be brought under the ambit of the new rule.

    The move has come in from criticism from National Association of Broadcasters which believes the rule will jeopardize the competitive standing of stations.

    The broadcasters have criticised the FCC‘s proposal to include specific rates for individual advertisements contending that the disclose will hurt them financially and will put them at a disadvantage vis-a-vis their rivals. The broadcasters are also unhappy that the new rules won‘t apply to cable or other media platforms as well.

    The television broadcasters stand to rake in more than $3 billion in political ads this year, say media watchers.

    The commission staff spent 61 hours and incurred nearly $1,700 in copying costs to get the public file from eight stations in Baltimore, FCC chairman Julius Genachowski said before the vote.

    Earlier he had termed broadcasters who resisted the move as “against technology, against transparency and against journalism”.

  • Oscar gets a 9% drop in viewership

    Oscar gets a 9% drop in viewership

    MUMBAI: Though the 83rd Academy Awards ceremony was watched extensively around the globe, it failed to beat last year’s ratings.

    In its three-hour presentation, the Oscar ceremony drew an audience of 37.6 million. But compared to that of last year, there was a drop of 9 per cent in total viewership and another 12 per cent in the 18 to 49 demographics.

    Among the broadcasters, ABC finished on top among its network rivals like Fox, CBS and NBC. As per Oscar night tradition, the predictable bonanza of other-network repeats failed to make a dent in the recent Academy awards.

    Meanwhile, during the live telecast on Sunday, ABC Television President announced a contract extension of six additional years till 2020.

  • CBS veteran newsman Harold Dow no more

    CBS veteran newsman Harold Dow no more

    MUMBAI: Award winning CBS correspondent Harold Dow, best known for his 1986 report “48 Hours on Crack Street,” has expired. He was 62.

    Winner of George Foster Peabody Award and five Emmy awards, Dow was one of the network’s most senior correspondents, and had appeared on ‘48 Hours’ since it was launched in 1990.

    Dow was also regularly seen on ‘CBS Sunday Morning’ and contributed reporting across the entire news channels of CBS.

    Dow used to serve as an co-anchor on ‘CBS News Nightwatch’ and was also a correspondent and reporter of the CBS News Los Angeles bureau.

    Dow also worked as a correspondent for the CBS News magazine ‘Street Stories’ (1992–93) and had reported for the ‘CBC Evening News’ and ‘CBS News Sunday Morning’ since the early 1970s.

    Dow started his career with CBS as a broadcast associate in 1972.

  • ‘Around 20-25 per cent of our revenues in the Asian region come from India’ : Ricky Ow – SPE Networks Asia GM

    ‘Around 20-25 per cent of our revenues in the Asian region come from India’ : Ricky Ow – SPE Networks Asia GM

    This has been a busy year for Sony’s international channels AXN and Animax. The task has been to pace up to the market competitiveness while staying sensitive to content that the government views as being “indecent.”

     

    Realising a vacuum in the youth market segment, Animax has repositioned itself by adding live action into its programming mix.

     

    AXN, on the other hand, had to be taken off the airwaves by the government at the start of the year for its potrayal of indecent content. Since then, it has focussed on differentiating itself through original content and raising the bar on acquired shows.

     

    Indiantelevision.com’s Ashwin Pinto caught up with SPE Networks Asia GM Ricky for a lowdown on the content, revenue and digital plans for the two channels in India.

     

    Excerpts:

    India is transitioning to digitisation. What opportunities does this present for Sony Pictures Television?
    In the long run, the cost of technology will go down. It will help the overall penetration of pay television. For content providers this means that more viewers will have access to their offerings which will allow them to invest more.

     

    Digitisation gives us opportunities to launch more channels across the region. We recently launched three channels including one for women in Singapore on Singtel’s IPTV platform. English entertainment makes sense due to the great economies of scale.

    In terms of revenues, how important is India vis-?-vis the rest of Asia?
    India is a key market driver for us in the region. Around 20-25 per cent of our revenues come from here. India offers room for a lot of growth as it is not yet a mature market.

    Are you seeing growth on the advertising front?
    I would say that this year is better compared to last year. For our key partners, we will look at more branded content which will come through our original productions. On the mobile front, we are talking with a couple of firms for getting on board. We are looking to conceptualise content so that clients can be active participants and not just passive ones.

    The government has been acting against adult content. Was AXN’s late night content modified in any manner in India after the government took action earlier this year?
    We had a block called Hot N Wild which we had taken out long before the ban. We, however, still had shows on that which reflected the edginess of that time block. We air shows that offer the brand promise of action and adventure, but we are not pushing ourselves as being a sexy channel.
    Do you feel that the India should have a watershed hour like what the UK has?
    We follow the law of the land. We only ask for clearer guidelines and for more leeway. A watershed hour means that the regulator believes in the maturity of the people. The regulator believes that people can decide for themselves what is appropriate. Whether or not this happens in India is for the people to decide.

    The English entertainment space in India is getting more competitive. How is AXN improving its programming mix to maintain share?
    Our current template has been working fine for us. From abroad you have driver shows like the CSI franchise. Then we do two to three local productions. We will be doing The Amazing Race 2.

     

    This is a point of differentiation for us. We don’t just produce content for a single market. We produce it so that it can travel across the region. As Indians become more sophisticated in taste, our formula will grow in appeal over the years.

    Have you noticed any changes in viewership patterns in India and Asia over the past year?
    Earlier we used to rely more on movies to drive the channel. Then when movie channels launched, this kind of content started to play a lesser role for us. It was a blessing in disguise for us as it let us concentrate on high quality TV shows.

     

    We are seeing a trend in India where TV serials are getting more viewership than in the past where it was mostly English movies. There will an upward curve for them in the coming two to three years. While most of our viewership is male, the number of women tuning in has also gone up.

    How did the idea of doing a pan Asian version of The Amazing Race come about?
    We have been airing the US version for a number of years. Fans kept writing in, asking how they could participate. Obviously to participate in the American version you need a Green card. So we decided to do an Asian version of the show. We were the first broadcaster to do the show after CBS.

     

    The show is inspirational and we wanted to do a show that would reflect what our viewers aspire to be. This show celebrates the human spirit which is why it connects so well with our viewers. It is not just about a race per se. Luck plays a part as well. The budget for the show will keep growing as we do more editions of it.

     

    What is most interesting is that the most number of entries have come from India. Entry is not just about sending in an SMS or filling up a form. It is about shooting a video of yourself and the partner.
    ‘There is a vacuum that exists in the youth market which Animax is looking to fill. Our aim is to make it grow in popularity by having more diversity in our line up‘

    What were the key challenges and learnings from the first season?
    Getting visas for the contestants is the biggest problem. This is exacerbated by the fact that they do not know which countries they will be visiting. The Indian team needs a visa for every place they visit and this is an uphill task. For the US version, you don’t need a visa for most of the places you visit.

     

    The other learning was that some viewers preferred the Asian version over the US one. The Asian version is competitive but not ruthless. It offers good drama and touching moments. In my view the Asian contestants are more sincere. One team will not try to destroy the other. If one team is down and struggling, then you could find them being given a helping hand by other participants.

    How did you cope with logistics?
    Everyday you have to move from one city to the next. The core production team comprises 70-80 people. They travel with the contestants. When they reach the next destination, there will be another 70-80 people waiting. Sometimes you plan for the race to end at say 3 pm in the afternoon, but some teams take so long they arrive at 3 am. This means that we have to organise lighting. Some of the production members have worked on the US version as well. So they have the experience.

     

    We also work with the local players in each place we visit. The partnership really helps. We also build relationships with the airline. This way we can move equipment a lot quicker.

    What are the key attributes that AXN is looking for in participants?
    Personality is important. They must be outgoing. I remember an Indonesian couple last time around. There was talk about when they would get eliminated but they lasted till almost the last round. For each edition we look for a different relationship between the contestants. For our second edition there will be surprises.

    When does the second season kick off?
    We are looking to do it towards the end of the year. Last time around, it was more Asia focussed. The time contestants will travel outside the region as well. In fact, more than half the show will be outside Asia.

    What are the other pan Asian reality concepts that AXN has in mind this year?
    Our aim is to look at a winning formula and produce a show for a multiple number of markets. Local channels find it difficult to do this due to the comfort level and costs involved. We are doing a local version of the boxing-based reality show The Contender.

     

    The Contender is being done out of Singapore. India, though, does not have a representative in this show. This show is not as big in India as it is in some of the other Asian countries. But we are hopeful that it will grow. In Asia boxing is seen as a form of exercise like Yoga.

     

    Another show we are looking at is called Ultimate Xtreme that we are casting for. This where friends recommend that a person take part in a show without his/her knowledge. It could be that the person has been working hard without a rest and so the boss feels that this might be a good way for the employee to take a break. It will be positioned as the ultimate experience for that person.

    In terms of foreign shows, what is coming up?
    We have a major show called Damages coming up. It was done by SPTI for the US and stars Glenn Close. It is a legal thriller set in the world of New York City high-stakes litigation. The series which provides a view into the true nature of power and success, follows the turbulent lives of Patty Hewes, the US’ most revered and reviled high-stakes litigator, and her bright, ambitious, protégé Ellen Parsons as they become embroiled in a class action lawsuit targeting the allegedly corrupt Arthur Frobisher, one of the country’s wealthiest CEOs. As Patty battles with Frobisher and his attorney Ray Fiske, Ellen Parsons will be front and center witnessing just what it takes to win at all costs, as it quickly becomes clear that lives, as well as fortunes, may be at stake.

     

    Last year Sony did a magic show abroad. We are looking to bring it to Asia and India. Acquisition costs have gone up and so we have to be more clever in terms of what we buy.

    Animax recently introduced live action. Is it fair to say that Animax was forced to go this route as Indian viewers feel that animation is for kids?
    That seems to be the perception in the market. That is not true actually. This move was done for Asia as well. Last year we changed our positioning from an anime channel to a youth oriented one.

     

    We needed to add components to make it more rounded. So we have gaming, movies. In some markets there are music shows. At the same time, we are not compromising on the anime content. 70-80 per cent of the content is anime. The response to the repositioning has so far been good.

    A lot of Indian broadcasters are launching youth targetted channels. How confident are you that Animax will be able to stand out from the crowd?
    Some youth targetted genres are struggling like the music ones. We are seeing that MTV has scaled down their operations in Asia. A channel must have content that viewers really want to watch. If you are a music channel it might not be a good idea to have reality shows as that can be had anywhere else.

     

    There is a vacuum that exists in the youth market which Animax is looking to fill. Our aim is to make it grow in popularity by having more diversity in our line up. The net savvy youth are more exposed to anime content than any other TG.

    How has Animax used interactivity and on-ground events to get closer to viewers in India and Asia?
    The Animax Awards have been successful for us. This is a scriptwriting competition. Each country has a winner. The competition then reaches the next stage and competes also with Japan. An Asian panel chooses the wining entry.

     

    I am impressed with the Indian entries as one always feels that Indians are relatively less exposed to animation compared with other Asian countries. We also connect on-air and on the ground through gaming. We were one of the first channels to use gaming as a platform in India. I think that gaming will become big especially in the metros.

    As far as new media is concerned, both Animax and AXN launched mobile offerings recently. How has the response been and how many telecom partners do you have?
    It is a question of finding the right partners to work with who understand and share our vision. It is not just a question of money. Right now the money in this sector is small but with our strategy the future is bright.

     

    AXN offers customised short form versions of shows like The Amazing Race. This you will not find on the channel. Animax will have long form programming. This means that you can catch up on episodes that you have missed on the mobile. It is still a learning phase for us.

     

    What we have learnt so far is that users will use our mobile content more if it is reasonably priced. This means that the content cost and airtime cost package have to be affordable. There is no point in having low priced content if the airtime cost to download the content is high. We have to be smarter in terms of how these two costs are packaged.

  • CBS, Chevrolet to create a multi-platform ad challenge around the Superbowl

    MUMBAI: US broadcaster CBS and car brand Chevrolet have joined forces to create a multi-platform event about the final stages in the “Chevy Super Bowl College Ad Challenge.

    The campaign includes reality webisodes to be featured on CBS.com, a presence in CBS’s primetime special Super Bowl’s Greatest Commercials 2007 where the winning team from the Challenge will be announced, and culminates with the winning commercial airing during the Network’s broadcast of Super Bowl XLI on 4 February 2007.

    As part of the challenge Chevy has given students the chance to compete for the opportunity to have their idea for a Chevy ad produced for the 2007 Super Bowl which is one of the most coveted advertising spots on television with, on average, 90 million viewers tuning in to watch.
    Chevrolet GM Ed Peper says, “Consumer-generated ads, in the age of the Internet and YouTube, have truly come front and center. Chevy is proud to be a leader in this area. We were thrilled to host the finalists in Detroit and are eager to share what we taught them and what they taught us that weekend with the public through this partnership with CBS”.

    “TMarketers are looking to creatively engage audiences across multiple platforms, and this deal accomplishes that through online components, network television sponsorship and viewer interaction,” said Jo Ann Ross, President, CBS Network Sales. “This is a unique package that taps into many different audiences while delivering great value for the client, and is an exciting way to engage both viewers and advertisers.”

    The online component of the campaign is comprised of eight Chevy-sponsored webisodes which premiere on 22 January 2007 on CBS.com. The webisodes will take viewers behind the scenes of the challenge, in which more than 820 college teams registered for the opportunity to have their ad concept made into one of Chevrolet’s Super Bowl commercials.

    The webisodes, produced by Juma Entertainment, will range from three to eight minutes in length, and follow the five finalist teams as they travel from their hometowns to Detroit to make “the pitch.” The webisodes will show them driving the Chevy vehicles featured in their ads — the Aveo, Cobalt, Equinox, and HHR, refining their presentations with Chevy’s advertising agency Campbell-Ewald, and presenting their ad concepts to Chevy executives.

    The challenge then goes primetime in CBS’ annual Super Bowl’s Greatest Commercials 2007 special which airs on 2, February. The winning team of the Chevy College Challenge will be revealed during the special and viewers will be able to see more behind the scenes footage of the competition. Chevy is the exclusive automotive sponsor of the special.

    And two days after the winning team is revealed — their concept will be seen by roughly 90 million viewers during one of the commercials Chevy has created for Super Bowl XLI.

    The final two webisodes, showing the actual process of the making of the commercial, as well as other behind-the-scenes footage from the competition, will air following the primetime show and Super Bowl, on CBS.com.

  • BBC to create 3 channels on YouTube

    BBC to create 3 channels on YouTube

    MUMBAI: Google’s YouTube may be facing the heat from the likes of Viacom on copy protection issues but the popularity of the online video network continues to grow. The British Broadcasting Corp. has struck a multi-year content deal with YouTube that will make programming available via three branded channels on the search giant’s video-sharing site.

    Three YouTube channels — one for news and two for entertainment — will carry content from BBC. BBC Worldwide will air promotional trailers for new programmes and clips from its old hit series on the website.

    The aim is to bring new audiences to the proposed BBC iPlayer service, and to secure commercial revenue via BBC Worldwide, its commercial subsidiary, to supplement the licence fee. 
    While the current deal includes its promotion of its non news programming, the publicly funded broadcaster also said that news clips will be added in the near future.

    From the BBC channel there will be content based on current hits such as Life on Mars and Doctor Who, while from BBC Worldwide there will be clips from old favorites such as Spooks and Top Gear, which are sold globally.

     
    The BBC Worldwide arm also plans to offer around 30 news items a day, though the advertising-funded news clips will not be available to users in Britain who pay the license fee that funds the BBC. The news channel will be launched later this year.

    The output will include specially created video diaries such as actor David Tennant taking viewers around the sets of Doctor Who and reporter Clive Myrie on the streets of the red zone of Baghdad.

    This would mirror the type of deal that YouTube has in place with US sports organisation NHL. Under the original deals the partners have used the platform for promotional purposes. Channel 4, for example, has a branded promotional channel plugging Ugly Betty.

    Several large broadcasters in the US have similar arrangements with YouTube including CBS, which claimed 200,000 extra viewers for The Late Show with David Letterman after clips from the show were posted on the video-sharing website.

     
    BBC Director-General Mark Thompson said: “This ground-breaking partnership between the BBC and YouTube is fantastic news for our audiences. YouTube is a key gateway through which to engage new audiences in the UK and abroad.

    “The partnership provides both a creative outlet for a range of short-form content from BBC programme makers and the opportunity to learn about new forms of audience behaviour. It’s essential that the BBC embraces new ways of reaching wider audiences with non-exclusive partnerships such as these.”

    Google CEO and Chairman Eric Schmidt said,”We’re delighted to be joining forces with the BBC to bring the best TV programming available to the YouTube community. We will continue to invest in our platforms and technologies to help our partners make the most of the enormous opportunities presented by the billion people now online.”

    YouTube CEO and Co-Founder Chad Hurley said, “We’re constantly looking for innovative ways to bring the best content to our community. The BBC is a premier source for quality programming, and we’re excited that they are leading the way in enabling two-way dialogue and real engagement with an entirely new audience. We hope to open up an entirely new audience for their content, while deepening their relationship with their existing viewers.”

  • CBS posts profit of $335 mn in fourth quarter

    CBS posts profit of $335 mn in fourth quarter

    MUMBAI: US media conglomerate CBS has recorded a profit in the fourth quarter from a year ago period.

    This included a major charge to write down the value of its television and radio businesses

    CBS reported net income of $335 million, or 43 cents per share, in the October-December period. A year ago, the company reported a loss of $9.14 billion, or $12 per share. That included a charge of $9.48 billion for the asset impairment.

    Operating income for the quarter is up 14 to per cent to $759.3 million. For the year revenues were $14.3 billion. This marked an increase of one per cent from the prior year, with increases of two per cent at television, eight per cent at outdoor and six per cent at publishing. This was partially offset by a decline of seven per cent at radio.

    For the year, television revenues increased by two per cent to $9.5 billion from 2005 primarily reflecting increases in television license fees and affiliate revenues partially offset by lower home entertainment and advertising revenues. Television license fees increased by 26 per cent primarily due
    to the 2006 availabilities of CSI: Miami, Frasier, Star Trek: Voyager and Without A Trace.

    This was partially offset by the absence of license fees from the prior year second- cycle cable renewal of Everybody Loves Raymond. Affiliate revenues increased eight per cent due to rate increases and subscriber growth at Showtime and the inclusion of the results of CSTV Networks since its acquisition in January 2006. Ad revenues decreased by one per cent from 2005 as higher political ad sales were more than offset by lower revenues from the absence of UPN and decreases at CBS Network.

    Home entertainment revenues decreased by 68 per cent principally due to the switch from self-distribution in 2005 to third party distribution in 2006.

    CBS executive chairman Sumner Redstone says, “CBS’ first year out of the gate was a great one. Our strong performance in the fourth quarter and full year of 2006 is the result of strategic vision and operational excellence. Leslie and his team are building our existing businesses to capitalise on the digital revolution and to position CBS for continued success well into the future.”

    CBS president and CEO Leslie Moonves says, “CBS’ fourth quarter results capped off a strong first year as a stand-alone company, Strong fourth quarter operating results at television, outdoor and publishing helped us surpass our key financial targets for the year.

    “Looking forward, we will continue to focus on running our core operations effectively; reshaping our portfolio into better-margin, higher-growth businesses; using the interactive opportunity to deepen and broaden our relationship with audiences; and receiving compensation for our content through retransmission consent agreements and new interactive platforms.

    ” I am confident that the company is well positioned to deliver long-term growth, strong cash flow, and increased value for our shareholders.”

  • Discovery US, Intl undergoes corporate retructuring

    Discovery US, Intl undergoes corporate retructuring

    MUMBAI: After taking over the reins of US broadcaster Discovery earlier this year its CEO David Zaslav is ringing in the changes at the senior management level.

    Some key people will leave. They are Discovery US president Billy Campbell. Discovery international president Dawn McCall, Animal Planet president and GM Maureen Smith, The Learning Channel president David Abraham and senior executive VP human resources Pandit Wright.

    Campbell and Smith’s positions have been eliminated. Media reports state that Animal Planet will now be consolidated with Discovery’s other family-centric networks under the heading Animal Planet Media and Discovery Kids Media, That group will be led by Marjorie Kaplan, who is being promoted to president and gm of the new unit. She was earlier Discovery Kids GM.

    The bad news does not stop there. Reports add that broader layoffs are expected. Zaslav had said that if the broadcaster is to invest more in new media and business, then it has to invest less in infrastructure. Therefore he is taking a long look at the firm’s traditional cost basis.

    Discovery has hired Joel Berman, former president of CBS Paramount Worldwide Television, and Tom Wolzien, a veteran media analyst as consultants. Reports add that the shakup is a sign that companies are having to adjust in the face of the advent of digital media.

    Zaslav in a staff memo says that the focus is to create a lean and aggressive organization that fosters a real performance culture. “The objective is to push authority and accountability down across the company.”