Nielsen announced that its TV ratings would begin including viewers who watch shows on Internet-connected TVs, and pledged to include those who use iPads or other mobile devices in the future, Brian Stelter writes. Although the percentage of TV viewers who rely on the Internet exclusively is negligible, television executives are concerned that many consumers are being missed regularly. Most Internet viewings of TV shows are not counted in Nielsen’s ratings because they are shown without commercials or with different commercials than when they aired on television â€" and new streaming services, like Aereo and one in the works from Intel, stream shows and ads without cable. The expanded ratings will allow executives to count customers that these types of services may steal away from cable.
A lively Oscar season comes to a close on Sunday with a very tight race for best picture, Melena Ryzik says. At least six of the nine films in the category are real contenders, she writes, and audiences can expect difficult choices for best supporting actor (in which five previous winners have been nominated), best director and best original screenplay. Nearly all the best-picture nominees have had a strong year at the box office, a contrast from past seasons, which, along with a Oscars ceremony that will contain musical numbers for every age group and the winsome but impish Seth MacFarlane, will probably mean high ratings for the telecast. Here are Ms. Ryzik’s predictions (“Argo†takes best picture). Don’t forget to fill out your ballot online.
Sake is not just for sushi bars anymore, a new ad campaign wo! uld have consumers believe. Ty Ku, a sake maker, says that its new, multimillion-dollar push is the first national commercial series for a sake brand, Andrew Adam Newman reports. The spot, which will air starting Wednesday on networks like AMC, BET and the Food Network, stars the singer CeeLo Green, a part-owner of the company, and shows him passing a bottle of Ty Ku to beautiful women in different scenarios, from sushi bar to poolside to nightclub. It is intended both to show sake’s versatility and to portray Ty Ku as a premium brand, much like Patrón tequila.
CNBC has purchased “Nightly Business Report,†a pioneering public television series that has struggled in recent years, from the investment firm Atalaya Capital Management for an undisclosed price, Elizabeth Jensen reports/a>. CNBC will begin producing the show, which reaches 96 percent of television homes in the United States, from its New Jersey headquarters on March 4. The purchase is the show’s third change of hands in three years and will probably mean greater stability and certainly a stronger financial base for the program.
Mike Fayette, an engineer at the New York State Transportation Department, broke the rules by giving an interview to a reporter at The Adirondack Daily Enterprise, Thomas Kaplan writes. His supervisors moved to fire him, and he decided to retire in February. The episode, strange but small, might have gone away were it not for the bizarre reaction of a top aide to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, Howard B. Glaser, who read Mr. Fayette’s disciplinary record aloud on the radio and described him as a troubled employee. Mr. Fayette thought Mr. Glaser’s disclosure was inapp! ropriate ! and possibly merited litigation, but Mr. Glaser claimed that all of the records were public and that he was trying to correct a narrative in news reports that Governor Cuomo had unfairly fired someone just for speaking to the press.
