Paul Bond

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Former Time Warner CEO Levin Returns to Media Biz

Convergent TV

Gerald Levin is getting back into the media business, though in a far more subdued manner than before. Levin, who once brokered controversial mega-deals as CEO of Time Warner, has [...]

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Facebook Game Tracks Celebrity Heat

Brand Marketing

Your ability to predict whether a celebrity’s star power will rise or fall is about to come in handy. Launching on Saturday is FanSwarm, the first game to come from [...]

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Exclusive: Twitter Ends Celeb-Tracker Partnership

Performance Marketing

Twitter has terminated its relationship with a Web site that will track the whereabouts of celebrities. On Thursday, after The Hollywood Reporter exclusively reported the planned arrival of JustSpotted, Twitter [...]

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Yahoo CEO: ‘Our Real Competitor Is TV’

Performance Marketing

In case it was ever in doubt, Yahoo’s competition is television. That’s what Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz said yesterday at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference. “The real competitor is TV,” [...]

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FCC Appeals TV Indecency Ruling

Convergent TV

The question of how far government bureaucrats should go to protect American families from profane television content has inched closer to the U.S. Supreme Court, where experts predict the issue [...]

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Saban Buys Back Power Rangers

Brand Marketing

Haim Saban is buying back the Power Rangers from Walt Disney with the hope to take the entertainment franchise that he launched to TV and toy stardom in the 1990s [...]

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‘Idol’ Ranks as TV’s Top Revenue Generator

Convergent TV

American Idol rakes in $8.1 million in ad sales each half-hour it is on the air, making it TV’s biggest revenue generator, according to the list makers at Forbes magazine [...]

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Iger Keeps Options Open for ABC

Convergent TV

At Disney’s annual shareholders meeting, CEO Bob Iger didn’t dismiss the idea of selling ABC and rebuked one of the company’s classic animated films. Calling the movie “antiquated” and “fairly [...]

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Activision Blizzard Suffers Wider Loss

Brand Marketing

Activision Blizzard posted a wider loss while tagging some of its corporate cash for a shareholder dividend. The company has $2.7 billion in cash and no debt. Activision Blizzard also [...]

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TV Unit’s Strength Boosts Disney’s Q1 Revenue

Convergent TV

Disney made it a trifecta, reporting better-than-expected quarterly financial results after News Corp. and Time Warner did similarly in recent days. While cost-cutting at the film studio and good domestic [...]