iPad Gets Its Launch With Lines in New York

And they're off! The iPad hits the streets, as Agam Shah of IDG News Service reports today:

Lines formed outside the Apple store in New York with customers eager to purchase the product, which is one of the most hotly anticipated devices since the iPhone was launched in 2007. The lines weren't as long as they were for the iPhone, but buyers seemed ecstatic after getting the iPad in their hands.

An instructor at New York University, Matthew Knell, waited in line for a few hours to purchase the device. He plans to use the it for entertainment and to read e-books to replace loads of print textbooks he otherwise carries.

"It offers the opportunity to mix music, movies and books in one good personal-sized package. It does a lot of things the laptops do well, and it has the opportunity to change the way we consume media," Knell said.

The iPads that went on sale Saturday include Wi-Fi, and are priced ranging from US$499 to $699, depending on storage capabilities, which range from 16GB to 64GB. Models becoming available later this month will include 3G mobile broadband, and will cost from $629 to $829.

The device should be available worldwide by April, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said during the device's launch event in late January.

AT&T will provide no-contract 3G service in the U.S., with a 250MB data plan costing $14.99 per month, and an unlimited plan costing $29.99. International deals for 3G services should be in place by June or July, the company has said.

The iPad has been called a supersized iPod Touch, with a 9.7-inch touchscreen and an on-screen keyboard for typing. The device runs on Apple's A4 chip and can play back 720p high-definition video. Apple's iWork productivity application is included for those who wish to create documents, spreadsheets or presentations.

Meanwhile, Serenity Caldwell of Macworld.com reports that NBC is rethinking a decision to stream full episodes to iPad users.

This weekend, developers, consumers, and companies will finally get entry to the iPad party. Unfortunately, there are still those uninterested in the affair--we've already seen companies like Random House hesitate. Now, NBC has announced its intention to keep full episodes of TV off the iPad--at least for the time being.

According to The New York Times, NBC last week showed a Times reporter an iPad-friendly version of its streaming-video site. At the end of this discussion, an NBC executive noted that full-episode streaming of popular shows was in the works and would be coming around late April.

But it was not to be. On Thursday, the Times reported that NBC had dropped all interest in full episode streaming "at this time," according to an anonymous NBC official.

Why the change of heart, especially considering the recent iPad app releases from fellow TV giant ABC and online rental company Netflix? It may be a purely financial decision, but this reporter suspects it may have more to do with NBC's involvement with Hulu, or its new parent company, Comcast. If Hulu is indeed planning on any sort of iPad paywall trial, it would be bad form to have the same content available elsewhere for free. Similarly, Comcast may want to avoid giving away content for free that it could otherwise bundle with its TV Everywhere service.

Alas, the end result: if you want to watch NBC on your iPad, you'll have to resort to alternative means such as iTunes for now.

Comcast Buys NBC From GE for $30 Billion

Comcast, America's largest cable operator, agreed on Thursday to acquire NBC Universal from the General Electric Co. for $30 billion. The move will most likely shake up the competition among television networks.

The New York Times speculated yesterday that the acquisition could be a threat to ESPN:

But Comcast’s impending acquisition of NBC Universal will certainly set off an effort to turn Versus into a viable alternative, if not a full-fledged competitor, to ESPN, The New York Times’s Richard Sandomir writes. Under Comcast’s ownership, Versus has transformed from the Outdoor Life Network to OLN, then, in 2006, into its current incarnation.

But Versus is a second-tier network whose highest-profile sports, the N.H.L. and the Tour de France, aren”t blockbusters. It lacks a studio show that would give it identity, like ESPN’s “SportsCenter,” or an announcer who is its defining personality.

Versus (and its sister network, the Golf Channel) will be turned over to NBC for an overhaul, assuming regulators approve the deal, a process that could take 12 to 18 months. Versus will probably be renamed something like NBC Sports Cable to reflect a more defined sports brand. On-air and production talent would migrate from NBC, to a certain extent, although Bob Costas would not be hosting IndyCar races.

Versus and Golf would certainly be overseen by Dick Ebersol, the chairman of NBC Universal Sports, who has never had a sports cable network to tinker with (the expanding Universal Sports channel is distributed through NBC stations and affiliates); he would no doubt quickly strip Versus of its current crop of late-night infomercials.

And, Bleacher Report says don't forget Norte Dame football ...

According to the Sports Business Journal, Comcast has its sights set on the Irish, in part because NBC's current contract with Notre Dame contains a clause that allows for a certain number of games to "mitigate to cable."

A quick glance at the 2010 schedule reveals a slate ripe with cable-caliber opponents: Western Michigan, Tulsa, Utah, and perhaps even a nostalgic neutral-site date with Army at Yankees Stadium.

Such reallocation to a cable channel would surely be perceived as a demotion and rankle a segment of the Notre Dame fan base, who are already disgruntled by ABC/ESPN's oxymoronic coverage-map approach to national broadcasts.

Fighting Irish faithful routinely combat the perception of entitlement, but the one arrogance we can't deny is the "right" to watch our team for free every Saturday during the fall.

Here is the top of today's press release announcing the acquisition. The link will take you to the full release:

Comcast and General Electric announced today that they have signed a definitive agreement to form a joint venture that will be 51 percent owned by Comcast, 49 percent owned by GE and managed by Comcast. The joint venture, which will consist of the NBC Universal (NBCU) businesses and Comcast’s cable networks, regional sports networks and certain digital properties and certain unconsolidated investments, will be well positioned to compete in an increasingly dynamic and competitive media and digital environment.

The combination of assets creates a leading media and entertainment company with the proven capability to provide some of the world’s most popular entertainment, news and sports content, movies and film libraries to consumers anytime, anywhere. The joint venture will provide consumers the broadest possible access to content, and support high-quality, award-winning content development across all platforms including film, television, and online. It will be anchored by an outstanding portfolio of cable networks and regional sports networks that will account for about 80 percent of its cash flow, including USA, Bravo, Syfy, E!, Versus, CNBC and MSNBC. The joint venture will be financially strong with a robust cash-flow-generation capability.

Under the terms of the transaction, GE will contribute to the joint venture NBCU’s businesses valued at $30 billion, including its cable networks, filmed entertainment, televised entertainment, theme parks, and unconsolidated investments, subject to $9.1 billion in debt to third party lenders. Comcast will contribute its cable networks including E!, Versus and the Golf Channel, its ten regional sports networks, and certain digital media properties, collectively valued at $7.25 billion, and make a payment to GE of approximately $6.5 billion of cash subject to certain adjustments based on various events between signing and closing.

Comcast Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Brian Roberts said, “This deal is a perfect fit for Comcast and will allow us to become a leader in the development and distribution of multiplatform ‘anytime, anywhere’ media that American consumers are demanding. In particular, NBCU’s fast-growing, highly profitable cable networks are a great complement to our industry-leading distribution business. Today’s announced transaction will increase our capabilities in content and cable networks. At the same time, it will enhance consumer choice and accelerate the development of new digital products and services. GE has provided NBCU with a great home and has dramatically and positively transformed the business. We are honored that under this agreement Comcast would take over the stewardship of this important collection of assets and are absolutely committed to investing in NBCU and ensuring that it is a vibrant, financially strong company able to thrive in a rapidly evolving marketplace by delivering innovative programming. We are particularly pleased to be creating this new joint venture with GE and Jeff Immelt and to have their continued involvement.

“For Comcast, this transaction is strategically compelling and will generate attractive financial returns and build shareholder value,” continued Roberts. “It is also expected to be immediately accretive and will also allow us to maintain our strong commitment to returning capital to shareholders– all while increasing the scale, capabilities and value of our cable distribution, content and digital assets. Significantly, it is entirely consistent with our intense focus on value creation and our disciplined strategy of pursuing profitable growth in areas complementary to our distribution business.”

GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt said, “The combination of Comcast’s cable and regional sports networks and digital media properties and NBCU will deliver strong returns for GE shareholders and business partners. NBCU has been a great business for GE over the past two decades. We have generated an average annual return of 11 percent, while expanding into cable, movies, parks and international media. We are reducing our ownership stake from 80 percent to 49 percent of a more valuable entity. By doing so, GE gets a good value for NBCU. This transaction will generate approximately $8 billion of cash at closing with an expected small after-tax gain. We have many opportunities to invest in our high-technology infrastructure businesses at attractive returns. I believe that the new NBCU will deliver value for both Comcast and GE in the future. We will give consumers and advertisers more choice and our cable and digital assets will be second to none. I am confident Brian Roberts and his team at Comcast will be great partners.”

Coulter Appears on TODAY Show, Delighted There Is No Ban From NBC

Ann Coulter and NBC made peace as she appeared on this morning's TODAY show with Matt Lauer.

Lauer told the conservative author and pundit that he was glad that she was back, and she replied “So am I” with a smile.

“You’re not banned for life,” Lauer added.

“I’m delighted to hear that,” Coulter said.

NBC's TODAYshow.com's contributor Mike Celizic reported some of the banter this way:

But if Coulter harbored any animosity, she didn’t show it. Even when she traded zingers with Lauer, with whom she once appeared on “The Greatest American,” a show on the Discovery Channel, she was all smiles.

Lauer accused her of saying, “The mainstream media hates conservatives.”

“I didn’t say that,” Coulter said. But she admitted that she agrees with the sentiment, “but I have much more colorful language.”

“We switched you for Tony Blair,” Lauer explained. “The point is, I was canceled twice,” Coulter rejoined, referring to a second scheduled appearance on Tuesday with Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford in the show’s fourth hour that was also dropped.

“Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean you don’t have enemies,” Lauer quipped with a smile.

Franken Helps Writes 'SNL' Skit Spoofing McCain Taping Ads

Al Franken took some time off this week to help "Saturday Night Live" writers pen a skit that spoofed negative ads by Sen. John McCain.

Johnathan Martin and Josh Krau Shaar of Politico reported last night that two NBC sources told them that the liberal candidate for a U.S. Senate seat in Minnesota phoned in a spoof of McCain recording campaign ads. SNL's head writer, Seth Meyers, actually wrote the skit, but it was Franken who came up with the original idea. A spokesman for Sen. Norm Coleman’s campaign told Politico that it was ironic that the Democrat had a hand in spoofing negative campaigning.

“Angry Al has run one of the nastiest, most negative attack campaigns in Minnesota history,” said Coleman spokesman Luke Friedrich. “Angry Al complaining about someone else’s campaign ads is about as funny as 'Saturday Night Live' will get this year.”

Franken's campaign was damaged earlier this summer when Republicans unearthed a racy Playboy article and even more when it was revealed that in 1995, his last year on the program, Franken had joked about rape while crafting one of the show’s skits.

Faced with a groundswell of criticism, Franken distanced himself from his past work as a comedian. In June, he apologized for some of his more controversial comedy routines when he accepted his party’s endorsement.

“For 35 years I was a writer. I wrote a lot of jokes. Some of them weren’t funny. Some of them weren’t appropriate. Some of them were downright offensive. I understand that. And I understand that the people of Minnesota deserve a senator who won’t say things that will make you feel uncomfortable,” Franken said in his nomination speech.

Grossman: Move MSNBC Away From NBC News

NBC should move MSNBC away from its news division and place it under its cable group, so says Ben Grossman of the trade publication Broadcasting & Cable.

So after watching all the drama recently, I have one solution that would allow both brands to continue as independent success stories: separate them. NBC should pull MSNBC out from under the NBC News umbrella altogether. Put it in the cable group alongside USA and Bravo and all its other money-printing brands that are carrying the NBCU portfolio. Just have NBC News program certain shows or dayparts on MSNBC, as it does on the NBC broadcast network.

With one move, MSNBC would be free to pursue the borderline-brilliant programming strategy that has elevated the network, while at the same time protecting the venerable NBC News brand, which is a bit under siege following the loss of Tim Russert and the silliness that occurred during the conventions.

I'm old-school when it comes to terms such as “television news.” I was trained by some fantastic news people like the late, great Jim Thistle in Boston University's broadcast journalism program. I still believe that the person who presents the news should be completely objective, leaving the clearly defined analysts to then weigh in with opinions.

Even then, those analysts don't necessarily need to be one-sided to provide invaluable commentary. Russert taught us all that. And that's where NBC fell down when it let Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews anchor convention coverage.

MSNBC Drops Olbermann, Matthews From Anchor Chairs

MSNBC's grand experiment of using liberal commentators Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews as news anchors during the network's election coverage appears to be over, reports Brian Stelter of The New York Times tonight on its web site.

After accusations of on-camera bias, and some animosity between the cable network and NBC, network executives decided over the weekend to replace the pair with David Gregory as the news anchor on election night and during the debates, Stelter writes. Olbermann and Matthews will appear as commentators.

“The most disappointing shift is to see the partisan attitude move from prime time into what’s supposed to be straight news programming,” said Davidson Goldin, formerly the editorial director of MSNBC and a co-founder of the reputation management firm DolceGoldin, as quoted in the report.

A portion of Stelter's report is as follows:

Executives at the channel’s parent company, NBC Universal, had high hopes for MSNBC’s coverage of the political conventions. Instead, the coverage frequently descended into on-air squabbles between the anchors, embarrassing some workers at NBC’s news division, and quite possibly alienating viewers. Although MSNBC nearly doubled its total audience compared with the 2004 conventions, its competitive position did not improve, as it remained in last place among the broadcast and cable news networks. In prime time, the channel averaged 2.2 million viewers during the Democratic convention and 1.7 million viewers during the Republican convention.

The success of the Fox News Channel in the past decade along with the growth of political blogs have convinced many media companies that provocative commentary attracts viewers and lures Web browsers more than straight news delivered dispassionately.

“In a rapidly changing media environment, this is the great philosophical debate,” Phil Griffin, the president of MSNBC, said in a telephone interview Saturday. Fighting the ratings game, he added, “the bottom line is that we’re experiencing incredible success.”

But as the past two weeks have shown, that success has a downside. When the vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin lamented media bias during her speech, attendees of the Republican convention loudly chanted “NBC.”

In interviews, 10 current and former staff members said that long-simmering tensions between MSNBC and NBC reached a boiling point during the conventions. “MSNBC is behaving like a heroin addict,” one senior staff member observed. “They’re living from fix to fix and swearing they’ll go into rehab the next week.”

The issue may have come to a head when Olbermann, acting as the Republican convention anchor, apologized for the network for broadcasting a video tribute to the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Here is a tape of that comment, along with the tribute that was aired:



"I'm sorry, it's necessary to say this and I wanted to separate myself from the others on the air about this," he said on air, looking shaken. "If at this late date, any television network had of its own accord showed that much videotape, and that much graphic videotape of 9/11, and I speak as somebody who lost a few friends there, it, we, would be rightly eviscerated at all quarters, perhaps by the Republican Party itself, for exploiting the memories of the dead and perhaps even for trying to evoke that pain again. If you reacted to that videotape the way I did, I apologize. It is a subject of great pain for many of us still and was probably not appropriate to be shown. We'll continue in a moment."

The statement was widely praised by liberal bloggers and commentators, and widely criticized by conservatives.

Olbermann told The New York Times today that that moment — and the perception that he is “not utterly neutral” — reignited the debate about his role on political nights.

“I found it ironic and instructive that I could have easily said exactly what I did say, exactly when I did say it, if I had been wearing a different hat, and nobody would have taken any issue,” he told the Times.

Tom Brady Out for Seasom With Knee Injury

Multiple media outlets are reporting that New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is out for the season with a potential torn ACL in his left knee.

Patriots officials say that there are more tests to be performed, and that he will have a MRI done on Moday. But unidentified sources have told Adam Schechter of the NFL Network, Yahoo!, and the Sporting News that it is a serious season-ending injury.

Brady left Sunday's opening day game against the Kansas City Chiefs at Gillette Stadium after being hit by Chiefs safety Bernard Pollard halfway through the first quarter. Matt Cassel replaced Brady, and the Patriots won, 17-10.

"It's bad," a team source told Yahoo!. "We're going to have to play without him."

King reported on NBC's Football Night in America show, "I've been told that Tom Brady has suffered a serious injury to his left knee that, according to this source, threatens the rest of his season."

"It has cast a pall over this league," King added.

Wide receiver Randy Moss was upset about the play. In the locker room after the game he said, "I don’t really want to get into it, but me personally, I think it was dirty.

“Like I said, I didn’t really see anything; I was running down the field. When I came back in [and watched it], it looked dirty to me. I’ve never been a dirty player. I honestly don’t even know how to play dirty. I just play the game. Any time you see something like that, that looks foul, it looks dirty, it opens your eyes. So, me personally, it looked dirty.”

Pollard told reporters, "All I heard was him scream and yell. I knew something was wrong. That (stinks) because he is a great player.

"If it was a dirty play, I wouldn't have apologized," Pollard said. "I would've gotten up and went on my way. I immediately started apologizing. As soon as he went down, I started saying, 'I'm sorry, my bad, I'm sorry.' "

Other league players and officials said the hit on Brady was clean. The NFL office has said there would be no fine.

CNN, NBC, O'Reilly Top Ratings

Hal Boedeker, writing for the Orlando Sentinel, has the TV numbers for Tuesday night in Denver. Once again, NBC, CNN and Bill O'Reilly are the winners:

NBC and CNN were the big winners Tuesday night at the Democratic National Convention, just as they were Monday.

NBC and Brian Williams were the choice of nearly 6 million viewers for the 10 p.m. hour, when Sen. Hillary Clinton addressed the convention. The Clinton coverage lasted almost to 11:15 p.m.

CNN ran second in that time frame with 4.9 million viewers. The rest: ABC with 4.8 million, CBS with 3.8 million, Fox News Channel with 3.6 million and MSNBC with 2.7 million.

The cable news networks had a tight race in prime time, from 8 to 11 p.m. CNN was the favorite with 3.4 million viewers, followed by Fox News with 3.3 million and MSNBC with 2 million.

CNN had a strong lead in the 25-to-54 age group, the demographic so dear to advertisers. CNN was the choice of 1.3 million viewers in that age category, followed by Fox News with 823,000 and MSNBC with 785,000.

The story was quite different at 8 p.m. "The O'Reilly Factor" on Fox News was the clear favorite with 3.3 million viewers. In that hour, CNN had 2.2 million viewers and MSNBC had 1.5 million.

I still find it amazing that MSNBC, the most liberal-leaning network in America, has consistently been in last place for the Democratic Convention. It should have a ton of followers as this is the shining moment for politically active liberals. In addition, MSNBC certainly has been the most entertaining network with all the on-screen fighting among its commentators. It's just plain fun to watch.

Rendell: Obama Coverage 'Embarrassing'

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, a longtime Hillary Clinton supporter, while appearing at a roundtable discussion yesterday in Denver, took a whack at the mainstream media over its lovefest with Sen. Barack Obama, calling coverage of the presidential campaign embarrassing.

"Running for the most important office in the world, Obama got basically a free pass,” he said on the eve of the Democratic convention.

James F. Smith of The Boston Globe reported the comments this way:

DENVER -- Three of the most prominent figures in television news agreed during a forum today that media coverage of the presidential campaign has been largely fair, focused on important issues and relatively free of sexism.

Then Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell spoke his version of truth to power.

After the panel discussion with Tom Brokaw of NBC News, Bob Schieffer of CBS News and George Stephanopoulos of ABC News, Rendell offered concluding remarks at a brunch hosted by the Joan Shorenstein Center of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

Rendell said that from his vantage point as a Hillary Clinton supporter, the primary-race coverage had focused more on personalities than issues; that sexism was undeniable in the coverage; and that the media’s treatment of Barack Obama during the primaries “was, ladies and gentlemen, embarrassing.”

Michael Calderone of Politico noted that Rendell and Brokaw were going back and forth about the coverage, including Lee Cowan's comments a while back.

Lee Cowan, a reporter for NBC, while discussing the media frenzy around Sen. Obama's campaign, admitted last spring that "from the reporter's point of view, it's almost hard to remain objective because it's infectious energy. It sort of goes against your core to say that as a reporter."



Finally, Rendell took a swipe at MSNBC, calling the cable network the official network of Obama's campaign.

NBC: Bayh and Kaine Are Not the Choice

MSNBC is pretty sure, at least on Keith Olbermann's show, that it's not Bayh and Kaine. So at least at this hour the most liberal network on television is leaning toward Biden.

Olbermann and Richard Wolffe are both confidant that there will be no text message tonight.

McCain Protests NBC's Andrea Mitchell's Remark

Mike Allen of Politico.com

writes this morning that Rick Davis, McCain's campaign manager has sent a letter to the president of NBC news, Steve Capus complaining about Andrea Mitchell and her remark concerning whether the senator had an unfair advantage at Pastor Rick Warren's Saddleback presidential forum.

In the letter, Davis charges that Mitchell said: "The Obama people must feel that he didn't do quite as well as they might have wanted to in that context, because what they are putting out privately is that McCain may not have been in the cone of silence and may have had some ability to overhear what the questions were to Obama. He seemed so well-prepared." (NBC's "Meet The Press," 8/17/08)

He goes on to say:

Make no mistake: This is a serious charge. Andrea Mitchell is repeating, uncritically, a completely unsubstantiated Obama campaign claim that John McCain somehow cheated in last night's forum at Saddleback Church. Instead of trying to substantiate this blatant falsehood in any way, Andrea Mitchell felt that she needed to repeat it on air to millions of "Meet the Press" viewers with no indication that 1.) There's not one shred of evidence that it's true; 2.) In his official correspondence to both campaigns, Pastor Rick Warren provided both candidates with information regarding the topic areas to be covered, which Barack Obama acknowledged during the forum when asked about Pastor Warren's idea of an emergency plan for orphans and Obama said, "I cheated a little bit. I actually looked at this idea ahead of time, and I think it is a great idea;" 3.) John McCain actually requested that he and Barack Obama do the forum together on stage at the same time, making these kinds of after-the-fact complaints moot.

Mitchell responds by saying: "I wasn't expressing an opinion. ... I was reporting what they were saying."

Live From New York, It's the Olympics!

Robert Weintraub of the Columbia Journalism Review reports that many NBC Olympic announcers are sitting in New York calling the events that are taking place 12 time zones away:

Here is where the Peacock has been honest—announcers in New York, not Beijing, are calling many of these events. An analyst and a play-by-play man sit in front of large monitors and call the action off TV, just as many of us do in the privacy of our homes. (Wait, did I just admit to that?) Although the home viewer would be otherwise unaware, NBC has nonetheless had its announcers state up front and often that the action is being called from the States.

If they make it clear upfront that they are calling the event from New York, there really isn't any conflict or deception. I haven't heard such an announcement during the coverage, but I'm not watching the Olympics wall-to-wall. In this era of cost-cutting, I'm not too surprised.

It reminds me of a practice in the 1930s and 1940s. Local baseball announcers would not travel with the team for the simple reason that the technology wasn't really in place to call a game live from a remote location. So they would work out-of-town games sitting in their studios and using reports from Western Union!