I had to wait until I got home to post this because I wanted to see it first and a firewall prevented that from happening.

Variety’s Cynthia Littleton writes about NBC and CNBC’s presence at CES next week…

NBC U has signed on as CES’ first “official broadcast partner,” with plans to blanket the confab with coverage on the conglom’s various TV shows and Web properties, from “NBC Nightly News” and “Today” to various CNBC, MSNBC and Telemundo news programs to the syndicated “Access Hollywood.”

NBC U’s edifice on the CES exhibit floor will be equipped with broadcast facilities for the shows and offer an “interactive” display of the breadth of brand names, programs and pics NBC U has in its larder for digital slicing and dicing. “Today’s” Al Roker and CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo will be on duty for the Peacock during the four-day confab, as will other NBC U TV talent.

“We want to be talking about ourselves as a content company in the middle of what is one of the biggest technology shows in the world,” says Beth Comstock, NBC U’s prexy, Integrated Media. “Great content goes with great technology.”

This has been making the rounds on the internet the past couple of days. I don’t know. I think the emailer has O’Reilly dead to rights on this one. The Constitution doesn’t specifically guarantee any of that. O’Reilly’s response/explanation seems weak to me.

CNN’s release on its pre-New Hampshire primary weekend coverage plans…

Following the success of its “Ballot Bowl” on New Year’s Day, CNN will again air long-form, uninterrupted coverage of Democratic and Republican presidential candidates’ significant live and recent events on Saturday, Jan. 5 and Sunday, Jan. 6. “Ballot Bowl” gives CNN viewers from around the country a chance to learn about the candidates’ plans from the contenders themselves and to experience the political campaign from the perspective of New Hampshire voters by airing events in their entirety rather than in sound-bite form.

“Ballot Bowl” will be anchored by CNN chief national correspondent John King and other political correspondents in the field. “Ballot Bowl” will air Saturday from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. (ET) and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. (ET).

This distinctive live coverage leads up to CNN’s special programming for New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary on Tuesday, Jan. 8. Special primary coverage, which will led by Wolf Blitzer and CNN’s political team, will begin at 8 p.m. (ET) and will continue with a special midnight edition of Larry King Live hosted by Larry King.

Latina has an interview with FBN’s Rebecca Gomez…

So what are the most important things young Latinas who are trying to better their lives should keep in mind?

Education—even if you can’t do the four years of college, go to community college, it’s affordable and you can transfer after two years.

Confidence—regardless of where you came from, or how modest of a background, use it as a source of empowerment. Don’t play the victim.

Keep up with the news—watch the news, go online, read the newspaper, have a sense of what’s going on in the world. It helps you draw your opinions, and it makes you more educated. It’s the life education.

Don’t forget your personal life—if I were to do things over again, I would focus more on that. Don’t put off getting married or getting engaged, don’t sacrifice your personal life.

1440 Wall Street blogs about the FBN ratings story…

The Fox Business Network is not even three months old, but has been catching flak from the CNBC faithful for not attracting low numbers of viewers. Of course, until they can expand their distribution, eyeballs might be slow to grow:

“Getting into more homes is going to make all the difference in the world,” Mansell said. “Once they get into those homes, there’s no reason to believe Fox Business news will be any less successful than Fox News was when it took on CNN. … Fox has demonstrated clearly that it’s a very deft and savvy programmer. It has Dow Jones now. They’re getting good people and have a proven track record in management.” Chicago Tribune.

Roger Ailes has not begun to tinker with the channel yet; few people criticizing the channel remember what CNBC was like before they came up with Squawk Box and tinkered with the lineup in the 90’s. Fox has built a solid team, although truth be told we are not sold on Cody Willard’s hair yet. However, Dagen McDowell is another story.

I agree and I dissagree. I agree that FBN is getting beat up by a bunch of armchair TV executives in the press who apparently have no clue about the expectations game for a new channel with a relatively low subscriber base in a market with a well established player ruling the roost. What did they expect? FBN to come out like gangbusters? Under those conditions? I didn’t. And here’s why.

Look at these numbers from July of 1997…
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FishbowlDC scoops that CNN’s Dana Bash and John King are engaged…

TVNewser talks some more about the FBN ratings story. This part intrigues me…

From CNBC which is within its rights to pay Nielsen for the FBN data? (which insiders tell me can cost up to $20,000/week)

$20,000 a week? Wow. Let’s do the math on that. Say, FBN stays under the radar screen and off Nielsen’s official books for half a year. That means CNBC if it wants to keep tabs on FBN is going to have to cough up over half a million dollars (this assumes that CNBC is buying data every week of course). If FBN takes longer to get to Nielsen’s public threshold the cost rises higher.

CNBC is untouchable as far as NBCU is concerned. All the cuts raining down on NBC News and devastating MSNBC’s morale have absolutely no impact on CNBC. And CNBC is a big profit generator so maybe it can afford to burn half a million tracking FBN. But, in any case, it’s yet another example of that “not concerned” quip coming back to haunt the network.

Correction: I was doing some wild speculating in the first paragraph which turned out to be…oh…flat out wrong. Consequently it has been excised from this piece. And apologies to all concerned.

Donald Luskin blogs about all the FBN ratings news today. Luskin makes a claim though that I don’t know can be substantiated…

Similarly, CNBC has scooped up most of the available pool of “experts” like me willing to go on-air and give our opinions to the world free of charge. I’m told that Fox doesn’t want “experts” who appear on CNBC (they haven’t used me since my first and only appearance in their first week of existence late last year) — which means they will have to develop their own exclusive pool. That’s a tough task. As far as I’m concerned, most of the “experts” on CNBC aren’t that sharp to begin with, so at this point Fox is prospecting for talent at the bottom of the barrel.

Told? Told by whom?

This weekend on Bloomberg’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” Al interviews Senator John McCain. Also on Political Capital this weekend: Bloomberg’s Hans Nichols and Indira Lakshmananan report on the campaign efforts of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in New Hampshire and beyond. Robert Novak and Margaret Carlson also discuss the results of the Iowa caucuses and the outlook for the candidates in New Hampshire and nationally.

“Political Capital with Al Hunt” airs every Friday at 10pm ET and is repeated throughout the day Saturday and Sunday. The program is also podcast at Bloomberg.com and also on iTunes under Business News.

Assuming it’s not a mistake, the Sunday schedule for FNC on the Foxnews.com website has their A-Team on the air for most of the day starting with Fox and Friends First at 6 am and on to Fox and Friends at 7, America’s Newsroom, Happening Now, The Live Desk, America’s Pulse and Studio B. That night is the Republican Forum followed by Hannity & Colmes at 10 pm…

Update: It appears to be the real schedule. Both America’s Newsroom and Happening Now have promoted the Sunday coverage on the air.

Shepard Smith was interviewed by MTV News in conjunction with the Iowa caucuses…(via TVNewser)

But is being an exemplar of democracy truly a reason to put this much weight on a single state? According to Shepard Smith, a Fox News anchor, “Iowa is first. It all happened back in the early ’70s. There was this big anti-war thing going on with the Vietnam War, and they wanted to change the situation.”

Smith was referring to how Iowa, a state that does not have a primary, first gained the honor of kicking off the presidential-nomination process in 1972. The Democratic Party engineered an early start for the state that year, after which the Republican Party followed in step four years later. But that still begs the question, as Smith posed, “Is this the best way to do this? I don’t know.”

Regardless of whether caucusing in Iowa is the “best” way to start the presidential-nomination process, it’s extremely unique. The caucuses are not closed ballots but instead provide a place, on the Democratic side, for people to convince each other and change each other’s minds through live debate and seat-shuffling. Republicans opt for a simpler caucus process, but for them, caucus day essentially boils down to a straw poll, with votes cast in secret.

Apparently Keith Olbermann said last night that Mike Gravel had dropped out of the race. Well that was apparently news to Gravel and like any candidate who doesn’t get a lot of press, he’s going to milk it…

Once again, the Mainstream Media has not gotten the facts straight.

MSNBC pundit Keith Olbermann has incorrectly declared that Sen. Gravel has dropped out of the race following the January third caucus in Iowa. This is not true, and Sen. Gravel is still an active member in this race. We are requesting that MSNBC and Keith Olbermann retract their statement, and issue an apology to the campaign for promoting blatantly false misinformation.

Again, Sen. Gravel has not dissolved his campaign, and has no intentions of doing so.

CNBC put out a release noting its 2007 numbers…

CNBC, First in Business Worldwide, had robust ratings growth in 2007 and had its best year in Business Day programming (5 AM-7 PM ET) since 2003 in the key demographic of adults 25-54. In total viewers, CNBC had its best year since 2002.

As always, it is important to note that this reflects only measured ratings. The majority of CNBC’s affluent and well-educated audience isn’t counted by Nielsen Media Research because it neither measures out-of-home viewing nor affluent homes.

Specifically, CNBC’s Business Day is averaging 83,000 adults 25-54 for 2007, up 32% over 2006 (63,000). In total viewers, Business Day is up 21% from 210,000 last year to 254,000 this year, with its best year since 2002.

Weekday primetime on CNBC had its best year since 2001 averaging 75,000 adults 25-54 for 2007, up 14% over 2006 (66,000). In total viewers, weekday prime had its best year since 2002, up 31% from 138,000 last year to 181,000 this year.
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Media Post’s Erik Sass writes about a new kind of Upfront presentation by NBCU for a new medium…

AFTER A FLURRY OF DEALS to acquire or partner with place-based video networks in 2007, NBC Universal is leveraging its out-of-home reach with a new upfront presentation specifically devoted to the medium. The first of its kind, the out-of-home upfront presentation is scheduled for Jan. 16 in Studio 8H.

All three TV networks have been aggressively pursuing place-based distribution of their video content as a way to reach increasingly elusive consumers in “captive audience” situations. NBCU’s deals cover a variety of different venues.

Earlier this year, NBC News partnered with Channel One, an in-school video network that delivers a 12-minute news broadcast. NBCU also struck a deal with Premier Retail Networks’ “Supermarket Checkout TV,” at more than 1,000 stores, and Clear Channel Taxi Media in New York City. Another deal is in the works to display NBCU content, including ads, on PATH commuter trains running between New York and New Jersey.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Neil Justin reviews last night’s Iowa coverage…

CNN and Fox News responded by filling the hours as they often do in these circumstances: By talking to themselves. CNN had an endless supply of panelists bouncing the same ideas off each other over and over again, with master of ceremonies Anderson Cooper reminding us that he’s as solid a game-show host as he is a journalist.

And then there was Wolf Blitzer, the ringmaster of a circus of graphics and charts that looked like they were rented from some geometry fun house. At one point, the anchors introduced some sort of pop-up pie chart as though it was a new Smurf character.

Fox News also held a love fest for itself, but provided a little more beef, most notably through some in-depth interviews with Mitt Romney and John McCain. They also had the smarts to recruit Des Moines Register political columnist David Yepsen, who provided the evening’s best analysis, primarily because he doesn’t just fly into Iowa for the political season. (CNN’s MVP had to be analyst Bill Schneider, who smartly made the case that Iowa’s Democratic race came down to a “clash of generations of epic proportions.”)

For the record, Fox News called the Republican race for Mike Huckabee at 7:53 p.m., about four minutes before CNN made its announcement. CNN came out about four seconds ahead of Fox in declaring a win for Barack Obama.

Update: The AP’s David Bauder on same…
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Marketwatch’s Jon Friedman torches the media for its Iowa coverage…

Once again, TV has taken the easy way out by focusing on the candidates’ personalities instead of hammering on the issues. The pundits keep telling us that this is the most interesting, wide-open and important election of modern times, yet we keep getting the same old insufficient coverage.

The news executives must figure that the electorate is so unambitious (and plain dumb) in its viewing habits that it will accept any old drivel on the tube. The media are probably jaded and already burned out from the never-ending presidential campaigns of the 106 candidates (not to mention New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is poised to pounce). Because the media are bored, they reckon that the public must feel the same way, right?

Well, if that’s true, the news honchos have committed the biggest miscalculation of character since Rudy Giuliani recommended his buddy Bernie Kerik as a swell choice to run the Department of Homeland Security.

The New York Times’ Brian Stelter writes about the next stop in the process; New Hampshire…

On Fox News Channel, correspondent Major Garrett explained how he started the night in Iowa and expected to wake up in Hew Hampshire:

“I will be driven from here on the Obama bus. We will go to the airport, we will wait until everyone gets their luggage on, we will fly to New Hampshire, we will land in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

I’m told around 3:30 or 4 a.m. we’ll be dropped off at our hotel — I guess just to say hi to it or something, because we’ll have about half an hour there.

We’ll get back on the Obama bus. We’re got an event about 8:30 tomorrow in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, then away we go.”

The New York Times’ Allessandra Stanley writes about Chris Matthews last night…

In all that noise, cable-news talk shows function as a kind of couch potato caucus, a gathering of self-selected, not always representative opinion-shapers who push forward the media consensus. Emboldened by Fox News, cable hosts are freer than ever to hawk their own opinions; Lou Dobbs of CNN has turned into the William Jennings Bryan of the immigration debate, a nut about border crossings instead of a cross of gold.

Mr. Matthews, a former Democratic aide on Capitol Hill, is hardly neutral, but his chief passion is process. He seems pushily, happily obsessed with the art and science of politics and political drama.

There are more tempered, judicious narrators on television, like Wolf Blitzer of CNN and Charles Gibson of ABC, but few bring as much energy and flair to the complicated, volatile business of political reportage as Mr. Matthews. He is easily mocked as the ultimate Washington bloviator, but on a campaign night that required instant analysis and a lot of gab, his bluster and fondness for colorful analogies — “The Music Man,” Lexington and Concord (at least three times) and his assessment that Mike Huckabee would now have to repot his plants in Republican suburbs — worked in his and the viewer’s favor.
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Greta Van Susteren, Shepard Smith, and Susan Estrich discuss Ron Paul’s results in Iowa and whether he should be invited to the NH forum…(video via Johnny Dollar)

The New York Times’ Brian Stelter was inside CNN’s Time Warner Center control room last night as the Iowa caucuses unfolded…

Sam Feist, the political director for CNN, and David Bohrman, the senior vice president and Washington bureau chief, orchestrated the coverage, juggling caucus results, correspondents and commercial breaks. Near the end of the 8 p.m. hour, a producer alerted Mr. Feist that new vote tallies were available.

“We just got 15 percent of Republican results,” Mr. Feist exclaimed to Mr. Bohrman. “We need to cut in. It’s a dramatic change.”

Sixty seconds later on the air, Mr. Blitzer pointed to a pie chart on a billboard-sized electronic screen that displayed the updated GOP information.

The new data showed that Mike Huckabee was pulling away with the lead, prompting the network’s “Election Analysis Center” to project Mr. Huckabee as the winner of the Republican caucus. “I need Jon Klein and Rick Davis,” Mr. Feist said.

Mr. Klein, the president of CNN/U.S., and Mr. Davis, the head of the network’s standards and practices, walked over. The three men conferred briefly and agreed that a projection is warranted.

The Huffington Post’s Linda Keenan compares toddlers to anchors…

Question 1. This person breaks wind, frequently, loudly, unembarrassed. This person also, how might I put this delicately, often ‘mines for the mother lode’, usually at the same time as the aforementioned wind-breaking.

Toddler or Anchor?

Answer: Anchor. At least my toddler has some shame. He’ll say, “Excuse me, I farted”. This particular anchor just says “Welcome back to the show!” And my toddler, mercifully, still lacks the fine motor skills to flagrantly pick his nose. This double-whammy of anchor farting and picking would happen during commercial breaks, eliciting a chorus in the control room of ‘oh gross!’ and ‘he’s at it again’ and ‘is he done yet?’

And interesting set of articles came out today on FBN. There is Jacques Steinberg and Brian Stelter’s New York Times article on FBN’s ratings…

How many people are watching the new Fox Business Network?

About 6,300, on average, on any given weekday, according to early estimates compiled by Nielsen Media Research. By contrast, Fox Business’s chief competitor, CNBC, attracted about 283,000 viewers each weekday from Oct. 15 through Dec. 14, the first two months that Fox Business was on the air, according to Nielsen’s calculations.

Meanwhile, the Chicago Tribune’s Phil Rosenthal has obtained another set of numbers…
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