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Three new Oxygen original series with premiere dates:

Oxygen’s new series in development:

Oxygen returning series:

What do you think about what’s to come from Oxygen?

Bravo Media boasted continued ratings success with its programming and the gain of 150 new advertisers in 2010. According to IAG Research, Bravo delivers the most affluent, educated and engaged audience in the cable entertainment realm as well as being the top cable network in brand recall. For 2011, Bravo will add 20% more in original programming hours. For its 2011-2012 schedule, Bravo unveiled details on 11 new series pick-ups and 5 returning series.

New series include:

Bravo further is renewing five series offering second season renewals to Top Chef Just Desserts and The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills; a third season pick up of Bethenny Ever After; and season four nods to The Real Housewives of Atlanta and Tabatha’s Salon Takeover. Additionally, Bravo’s Rocco’s Dinner Party is set to launch this summer.

Are you interested in what’s to come from Bravo?

The president’s WHCD video has already gone viral. In less than 24 hours it has more than 1 million online video views on YouTube.
If you missed it last night or just need to watch it again…

The ABC Television Network’s contract to carry the annual Academy Awards presentations has been extended for six more years, though 2020, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ President Tom Sherak and Anne Sweeney, President of the Disney/ABC Television Group, announced today.

“This contract ensures that the Oscar show will be an ABC tradition for 45 consecutive years,” said Sherak. “ABC is absolutely the very best place for the Academy Awards, a television event that is beloved and watched by millions of movie lovers all over the world.”

“ABC has been home to the Oscars for many years, having aired a total of 46 of the annual telecasts, so we’re thrilled to announce that this tradition will continue,” said Sweeney. “During that time, we’ve enjoyed a tremendous partnership with the Academy, pairing the best in movies with the best in television, and look forward to a long and successful collaboration in the years to come.”

Academy Executive Director Bruce Davis added, “The Oscars remain the most-watched non-sports program in America, and we’re delighted that ABC will continue to be the setting for that jewel. The network has consistently demonstrated an understanding of what makes us unique, and has energetically supported those qualities.”

The new agreement for the domestic broadcasts of the Academy Awards adds six years to the existing contract, which was scheduled to expire in 2014. International rights are covered by a separate agreement with Walt Disney International which runs through 2014.

The 83rd Academy Awards, which will air live on Sunday, February 27, will be the 36th consecutive ceremony to air on ABC.

I was shocked, alarmed then frightened to learn that Keith Olbermann has left MSNBC. His final sign-off damn near brought me to tears. On a personal note, Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow-and sometimes Chris Matthews kept me sane through the 2008 presidential election.

This is scary because now it seems like any voice that opposes the views of Comcast can easily be taken away from the general public. This could lead to biased, tainted and unfair/unbalanced reporting. While we don’t know for sure why Olbermann left MSNBC, it is suspiciously coincidental that he was let go immediately after the merger was approved by the FCC. Damn shame too because I didn’t think we would see any effects until at least after January 28th. Countdown with Keith Olbermann would have called that BS from a mile away, but now we have no one as vigilant as Olbermann to call out the BS, state the obvious when the obvious has been ignored.

Some critics such as John Silver, President of the Free Press, are outraged at this merger saying:

You should be afraid and mad as hell.

The new Comcast will control an obscene number of media outlets, including the NBC broadcast network, numerous cable channels, two dozen local NBC and Telemundo stations, movie studios, online video portals, and the physical network that distributes that media content to millions of Americans through Internet and cable connections.

While even some politicians like Senator Al Franken are fighting against this push with a call to action:

This deal would mean higher cable rates and less freedom of choice for American consumers, and it would give a single media conglomerate unprecedented control over the flow of information in America. Whenever the same company owns both the content and the pipes delivering that content, consumers lose.

Already, we have seen that Comcast is not operating in good faith. By imposing a new fee on the company delivering Netflix’s online video streaming, Comcast is trying to kill off a competitor. Comcast has also refused to provide the FCC with documents necessary for the review process, and has already named the 43 executives who will take over NBC Universal.

As American consumers, we know a bad deal when we see one. Allowing this merger to proceed could lead to subsequent deals, leaving Americans at the mercy of a few powerful media conglomerates.

Sign Al Franken’s petition HERE!

Even Bloomberg has filed papers against the ruling stating the specifics:

Comcast is to pay GE $6.5 billion in cash and to contribute cable channels valued at $7.25 billion to a joint venture that will own the entertainment company. The joint venture is to include NBC Universal businesses and Comcast properties including E!, Versus and Golf Channel, the companies said in announcing the deal.

GE said in a statement today it expects about $8 billion in proceeds from the sale and a “small” after-tax gain when the transaction closes. The sale marks the end of more than two decades of ownership after GE acquired the NBC network in 1986 via its purchase of RCA Corp.

Paris-based Vivendi SA is to sell its 20 percent stake in NBC Universal as part of the deal.

Comcast was advised by Morgan Stanley, UBS AG and Bank of America Merrill Lynch, with Davis Polk & Wardwell as legal counsel. GE was advised by JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Weil, Gotshal & Manges acted as legal advisers.

Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News, has filed documents opposing the Comcast-NBC Universal combination as it was proposed.

by Georg Szalai from The Hollywood Reporter

Study: Comcast-NBC Universal Merger Will Cost Consumers $2.4 Billion
The American Cable Association unveiled an economic study Monday that argues that consumers over the next nine years will pay at least $2.4 billion more for pay TV services if regulators don’t place conditions on the planned Comcast-NBC Universal deal to curb the combined entertainment giant’s pricing power.

The organization, which represents small cable operators and has opposed the proposed merger – at least without conditions, said Monday that $204 million in estimated financial benefits from the deal claimed by the merger partners will be outweighed by “consumer harm” of the transaction of $2.566 billion.

Comcast in a statement called the analysis flawed and said the issues raised in the report have been examined by the FCC in  previous transactions. The commission “in each case rejected imposition of a condition on national cable networks,” it said. “There is no reason for the FCC to treat Comcast and NBCU worse than it treated Fox, DirecTV and Liberty [Media] in those recent deals.”

The ACA study, conducted by Dr. William Rogerson, professor of economics at Northwestern University, who served as the FCC’s chief economist 1998-1999, estimates vertical harm of the deal at $1.43 billion and the horizontal harm at $1.14 billion over the next nine years.

Vertical harm stems from the combination of programming assets and distribution, which will permit Comcast-NBC Uni to raise the fees it charges for programming to other distributors, including ACA members, such as RCN and WOW!

The horizontal effect stems from the merged firm’s control of key programming assets from both companies, which will allow it to negotiate prices for a broader portfolio, the group said.

“It is clear that the Comcast-NBCU deal will send monthly cable bills higher by billions of dollars over the next decade, underscoring ACA’s view that regulators must protect consumers and competition from a transaction whose benefits are vastly outweighed by its harms,” said ACA president and CEO Matthew Polka. “Without meaningful and cost effective conditions on the Comcast-NBCU transaction, regulators also run the risk of crippling effective competition in the pay-TV distribution market.”