Comcast and CBS Post Strong Results, Aided by Web

Judging by the second-quarter earnings reported by two major media companies on Wednesday, the good times are still rolling in the television business.

Comcast reported that its earnings rose to $1.7 billion from $1.35 billion, or to 65 cents a share from 50 cents a share, in the period a year earlier. The results surpassed analysts’ already sunny earnings projections of 63 cents a share.

Comcast’s strong quarter was spurred by its broadband Internet business and by a rebound, albeit a tepid one, of the NBC broadcast network. This was the first quarter in which Comcast owned 100 percent of NBCUniversal, the network’s corporate parent; it had previously held a 51 percent stake.

The earnings release was celebrated by Wall Street on Wednesday morning, sending Comcast’s stock up more than 5 percent. It closed at $45.08, almost achieving a record high.

After the closing bell, Comcast was joined by the CBS Corporation, the owner of the CBS broadcast network, which reported its highest quarterly profits ever. Earnings there rose to $472 million, or 76 cents a share, from $427 million, or 65 cents a share, in the period a year earlier.

“Double-digit revenue growth â€" and the best quarterly profits we’ve ever had â€" add up to a phenomenal quarter for CBS,” the company’s chief executive, Leslie Moonves, said in a statement. On a Wednesday afternoon conference call, the company’s executive chairman, Sumner M. Redstone, who comes up with new ways to praise Mr. Moonves to investors seemingly every quarter, used the term “supergenius.”

CBS’s performance was attributed in part to content licensing deals with online streaming services like Amazon, which has been running repeats of the network’s newest program “Under the Dome” this summer. The company, which has historically depended more on advertising revenue than its peers have, said it had a 22 percent increase in revenue from content licensing and distribution; Mr. Moonves’s statement mentioned that “our non-advertising revenue sources are having a bigger impact on our results all the time.”

The healthy results from both companies may augur more good news when other networks report in the weeks to come.

At Comcast, revenue for the NBCUniversal division â€" which includes the NBC network, a wide array of cable channels, a movie studio and other assets â€" was up 8.9 percent year-over-year, to almost $6 billion. Michael McCormack, a media analyst for Nomura, said in a note to investors that NBCUniversal’s performance exceeded expectations, “with filmed entertainment and broadcast television revenue offsetting weaker-than-expected theme parks revenue.”

NBC’s cable channels, including USA, Syfy and Bravo, posted a 7.7 percent increase in revenue, to $2.41 billion in the quarter. Its somewhat smaller broadcast business, which has been undergoing a reorganization, had a 11.6 percent increase, to $1.73 billion. Mr. McCormack attributed the broadcast unit’s gains to “better ratings and higher retransmission consent fees.”

Comcast executives specifically credited “The Voice,” the singing competition on NBC that has given the network some much-needed momentum.

Distribution, not content, remains the biggest part of Comcast’s business. Revenue for the distribution business, called Comcast Cable, was up 5.8 percent year-over-year, to about $10.5 billion, partly because it added 187,000 broadband subscribers in the second quarter.

Comcast has been losing television subscribers to DirecTV and Verizon FiOS for years, and it lost another 159,000 in the second quarter. But the rate of loss has slowed lately, a point the company emphasized again on Wednesday. The company squeezed a 2.7 percent revenue gain from its TV business, largely through rate increases and from subscribers who chose more expensive packages.

“Cable had outstanding growth, particularly in high-speed Internet, and NBCUniversal had strong performance across all of its businesses,” Brian L. Roberts, the chief executive of Comcast, said in a statement.

A version of this article appeared in print on August 1, 2013, on page B3 of the New York edition with the headline: Comcast and CBS Post Strong Results, Aided by Web .

Comcast Profit Jumps 26% on Growth of Broadband

The distribution business continues to look bright for Comcast, which reported profit and revenue increases on Wednesday that surpassed analysts’ already sunny projections.

In the second quarter â€" Comcast’s first full quarter owning 100 percent of NBCUniversal, in which it had previously held a 51 percent stake â€" earnings rose to $1.7 billion, or 65 cents a share, from $1.35 billion, or 50 cents a share, in the period a year earlier. Wall Street analysts had been expecting earnings of 63 cents a share.

Total revenue rose 7 percent, to $16.3 billion, from the second quarter of 2012, lifted by the continued growth of the company’s broadband Internet and business products. Free cash flow increased 25 percent, to $1.9 billion. Comcast was the first major television and Internet provider to report quarterly earnings, so its healthy results may augur more good news when others report in the weeks to come.

It is broadband, not cable television, that is generally bolstering cable companies’ results these days, because nearly nine out of 10 American households already subscribe to some sort of TV, but only two-thirds subscribe to broadband.

Comcast has been losing TV subscribers to DirecTV and Verizon FiOS for years. It lost another 159,000 in the second quarter, but the rate of loss has slowed lately. The company squeezed a 2.7 percent revenue gain from its television business, largely through rates increases and subscribers who chose more expensive packages.

Its revenue gain on the broadband side, however, was 8 percent.

“Cable had outstanding growth, particularly in high-speed Internet, and NBCUniversal had strong performance across all of its businesses,” Brian L. Roberts, the chief executive of Comcast, said in a statement. He credited the company’s “focus on delivering innovative products and a superior customer experience is driving our success, including stronger video, voice and business services results in cable.”

Comcast Profit Jumps 26% on Growth of Broadband

The distribution business continues to look bright for Comcast, which reported profit and revenue increases on Wednesday that surpassed analysts’ already sunny projections.

In the second quarter â€" Comcast’s first full quarter owning 100 percent of NBCUniversal, in which it had previously held a 51 percent stake â€" earnings rose to $1.7 billion, or 65 cents a share, from $1.35 billion, or 50 cents a share, in the period a year earlier. Wall Street analysts had been expecting earnings of 63 cents a share.

Total revenue rose 7 percent, to $16.3 billion, from the second quarter of 2012, lifted by the continued growth of the company’s broadband Internet and business products. Free cash flow increased 25 percent, to $1.9 billion. Comcast was the first major television and Internet provider to report quarterly earnings, so its healthy results may augur more good news when others report in the weeks to come.

It is broadband, not cable television, that is generally bolstering cable companies’ results these days, because nearly nine out of 10 American households already subscribe to some sort of TV, but only two-thirds subscribe to broadband.

Comcast has been losing TV subscribers to DirecTV and Verizon FiOS for years. It lost another 159,000 in the second quarter, but the rate of loss has slowed lately. The company squeezed a 2.7 percent revenue gain from its television business, largely through rates increases and subscribers who chose more expensive packages.

Its revenue gain on the broadband side, however, was 8 percent.

“Cable had outstanding growth, particularly in high-speed Internet, and NBCUniversal had strong performance across all of its businesses,” Brian L. Roberts, the chief executive of Comcast, said in a statement. He credited the company’s “focus on delivering innovative products and a superior customer experience is driving our success, including stronger video, voice and business services results in cable.”

Cheryl Boone Isaacs Chosen to Head Film Academy

LOS ANGELES â€" Cheryl Boone Isaacs, a veteran film marketer, was named president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Academy said on Tuesday. Ms. Isaacs is the first woman to hold the Academy's presidency since Fay Kanin, who was president from 1979 to 1983, and is the first African-American to serve as president in the group's 86-year history. She previously held various Academy offices, and was most recently the group's first vice president.

Ms. Isaacs succeeds Hawk Koch, who served for only one year but was precluded by an elaborate term-limits system from running again. A president may serve for four successive terms, but must come from the governing board, and may not run again if â€" as with Mr. Koch â€" the permitted period as a governor has expired.

As she steps into the presidency, Ms. Isaacs, who may serve for as many as four years, faces decisions that include those surrounding the renewal of contracts for the Academy's top staff executives. Those are Dawn Hudson, the chief executive officer, and Ric Robertson, the chief operating officer. She is also expected to oversee the opening of a Los Angeles movie museum, which promises to become the Academy's largest venture to date. The Academy, which includes about 6,000 film professionals, is best known for its annual Oscar ceremony. Custom precludes active campaigning for its top office, though Ms. Isaacs and Robert G. Friedman, the co-chairman of Lionsgate's movie group, were widely considered to be the leading prospects for the presidency.

The election of Ms. Isaacs by the group’s governing board was announced via Twitter, even as the governors continued meeting to elect other officers on Tuesday.

N.F.L. Television Pioneer to Step Down Next Year

Steve Bornstein, a pivotal figure in televised sports for more than 20 years, will step down as president and chief executive of the NFL Network when his contract expires in the spring of 2014.

Joe Namath, left, with Steve Bornstein, the president and C.E.O. of the NFL Network.

He will be succeeded by Brian Rolapp, the chief operating officer of NFL Media since January 2011.

Bornstein, 61, joined the N.F.L. in 2002 and laid the groundwork for the growth of the league’s media operations, in part by establishing the NFL Network, which made its debut in 2003.

Much of Bornstein’s time was spent securing full distribution for the new network on cable systems throughout the country. Known throughout the industry as aggressive, Bornstein engaged in sometimes contentious negotiations with cable operators. When deals finally closed with Cablevision and Time Warner in 2012, the NFL Network was available in more than 70 million households in the United States.

“Steve was great making sure we understood it was not going to be an easy road,” N.F.L. Commissioner Roger Goodell said .

Rolapp was also involved in the negotiation with the cable operators, as well as in the talks for the eight-year deal that will keep “Monday Night Football” on ESPN through 2021. Before joining the N.F.L., Rolapp worked in acquisitions and strategy for NBC Universal in New York.

“Technology is a great opportunity for the N.F.L., and Brian understands that,” Goodell said. “He’s been at the center of what we’ve been doing in technology, and that’s going to be his focus now that we have our broadcasting agreements in place.”

Before it was NBC Universal and when it was still owned by General Electric, NBC figured in one of Bornstein’s biggest accomplishments with the N.F.L. â€" persuading Dick Ebersol, then the chairman of NBC Sports, to bring the N.F.L. back to the network in 2006. The negotiations involved switching the league’s cable TV package from Sunday to Monday nights so NBC could have marquee games for its new “Sunday Night Football” lineup and could take advantage of flexible scheduling late in the season.

In 2006, Bornstein also presided over the first season of games on the NFL Network â€" eight games in prime time, which echoed the first season of eight Sunday-night N.F.L. games carried by ESPN in 1987, when Bornstein was the sports network’s programming chief. Securing N.F.L. games was a breakthrough for ESPN, enabling it to increase the fees it charged cable systems.

Bornstein joined ESPN in 1980, during its first year of existence, and in 1990, at 38, became the network’s president. He stayed through 1997, when he was named chairman of ESPN and president of ABC, its broadcast-network counterpart. In 1998, ESPN began broadcasting its first full season of N.F.L. games.

Bornstein, who will also give up his title as the N.F.L.’s executive vice president for media, said he had not decided what he would do next.

“If you want to talk about what’s on my tombstone, which I hope is far away, both the NFL Network and ESPN would have to be mentioned,” he said. “The difference is, the N.F.L. was going to thrive with or without me. At ESPN, we were faced with a touch-and-go situation. There were no guarantees that business was going to survive.”

Trying to Spice a Recipe for Cinematic Popcorn

With ‘Elysium,’ Sony Hopes to Break a String of Failures

Stephanie Blomkamp/Tristar Pictures

Matt Damon, left, and Sharlto Copley in “Elysium.” The film’s backers are promising that it has taken an imaginative detour from the familiar.

LOS ANGELES â€" It’s been a dismal season at the box office for Hollywood blockbusters billing themselves as creative, original â€" anything but the standard summer sequel.

Matt Damon and Alice Braga in “Elysium.” Sony needs the new film to deliver fat profits and send a message that its moviemaking operation is not broken.

Big-budget washouts like “R.I.P.D.,” “After Earth” and “White House Down” were promoted as imaginative and new. But critics mostly panned them, and audiences stayed away, apparently recognizing that the films’ plots and themes were simply reassembled parts from blockbusters past.

Now comes another film promising to take an imaginative detour from the familiar formula: “Elysium,” starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster, from the director of “District 9,” Neill Blomkamp.

On its surface, at least, “Elysium” sounds awfully familiar: a world-in-ruins story, lavish computer-generated visual effects, robots and production and global marketing costs of more than $200 million.

But the film’s backers and stars vow that it is different. Really.

“Ours is not a film that goes down the middle,” said Sharlto Copley, who plays a maniacal South African assassin in “Elysium,” which arrives in theaters on Aug. 9. “When you do that, it weakens everything.”

“Our movie is a political statement,” Mr. Copley added. “It doesn’t shy away from controversial ideas. No studio person was saying, ‘Oh, people won’t understand that accent you’re doing, so you had better do half of that.’ Or if there was, we didn’t listen.”

Despite its surface similarities to the pack, “Elysium” indeed works hard to veer into more creative terrain, starting with the fact that it aims to make audiences think. “Elysium” comments on present-day socioeconomic inequality by spinning a futuristic tale about a squalid Earth and a glorious space habitat where the superrich have retreated.

There is no sex. There is no goofy sidekick. It will not be released in 3-D. It is rated R. And the screenplay leaves questions unanswered, like how Mr. Damon, as an injured factory worker on Earth, survives a brutal back-alley operation to affix an exoskeleton to his spine and head. Don’t expect to see the obligatory camera shot of a ruined New York City.

“There were certain factions on the movie pushing for those global shots,” said Simon Kinberg, who produced the film. (Yes, “Elysium” has only one fully credited producer; “White House Down,” by comparison, had six.) “Neill ignored them.”

Mr. Blomkamp, who also wrote the script, does tend to do exactly what he wants â€" a right that he earned, Mr. Kinberg contended, with his first feature film, “District 9.” That R-rated alien movie, made for about $30 million, took in about $211 million in 2009 and was nominated for four Academy Awards, including best picture.

“ ‘Elysium’ was definitely allowed to be as original and provocative as it is because of the success of ‘District 9,’ ” Mr. Kinberg said.

Mr. Blomkamp, 33, who declined to be interviewed for this article, may have also been able to execute his vision fully because of the involvement of Media Rights Capital, or MRC, a production and financing company that split the expense of “Elysium” with Sony Pictures Entertainment. MRC has a history of finding success through creative risk; it backed Universal’s “Ted” and Netflix’s “House of Cards,” which both met resistance from entrenched studio and network executives but ended up as home runs.

“The only way to be successful is to be original,” said Mordecai Wiczyk, MRC’s co-chairman. “Playing it safe is the fastest way to ruin.”

Sony has learned that the hard way this summer. While other studios have suffered bigger misfires â€" Disney’s “Lone Ranger” was the most expensive single dud, by far â€" Sony is the only movie company to have two big-budget films fail to connect. “After Earth,” starring Will Smith and his son, and “White House Down,” with Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx in the lead roles, both fizzled at the box office.

A version of this article appeared in print on July 31, 2013, on page C1 of the New York edition with the headline: Trying to Spice a Recipe For Cinematic Popcorn .

ABC’s Evening News Bests NBC in Coveted Age Group

ABC’s evening newscast, “World News With Diane Sawyer,” bested the longtime leader, “NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams,” among 25- to 54-year-old viewers last week, ending a nearly five-year-long streak by NBC and renewing interest in the once-predictable ratings race.

“NBC Nightly News” remained No. 1 among total viewers, which is traditionally the bragging rights category in television. But ABC’s win is significant because television ads on news programs are bought and sold based on the coveted age group of 25- to 54-year-olds. Ms. Sawyer has been seeking to snap Mr. Williams’s streak in that category for years.

For ABC, it was a narrow victory: just 38,000 viewers ages 25 to 54 separated the two shows. Partly for that reason, people at NBC News cautioned that ABC’s evening show victory could be a one-time aberration. Last spring and summer, though, those same people saw their prized morning show “Today” fall to second place behind ABC’s “Good Morning America,” first in total viewers and then in the 25- to 54-year-old demographic. The “G.M.A.” streak is now nearly one year old.

As is the custom in these bitterly contested ratings competitions, NBC’s news release about the ratings made no mention of ABC’s gains; it simply excluded the 25- to 54-year-old viewership totals and emphasized that “Nightly News” has been winning among total viewers for years. “We are grateful for another consecutive win in total viewers and are focused on producing the best newscast for our audience,” an NBC News spokeswoman said Tuesday morning.

Among total viewers, “Nightly News,” which had an average of 7.54 million viewers last week, beat “World News” by about a quarter of a million. Among viewers ages 25 to 54, “Nightly” had about 1.88 million, 38,000 fewer than “World News.”

ABC said this was its first win since the week of Nov. 17, 2008, shortly after the election of President Obama.

The victory is shared between Ms. Sawyer, who has been the anchor of “World News” since 2009, and David Muir, one of her principal fill-ins. Last week Ms. Sawyer anchored on Monday and Tuesday while Mr. Muir anchored the rest of the week. Mr. Muir and another ABC anchor, George Stephanopoulos, are widely seen within the television industry as the two possible successors to Ms. Sawyer.

OWN, Winfrey’s Cable Channel, Turns Around Financially

After several grueling years, Oprah Winfrey’s cable channel OWN has turned the corner toward profitability, her business partners at Discovery Communications said on Tuesday, six months ahead of a previously stated goal.

In the second quarter, OWN was cash-flow positive for the first time, said David M. Zaslav, Discovery’s chief executive. He credited investments in programming, including two new shows from Tyler Perry, and increases in subscriber fees from cable and satellite providers.

OWN, which is a joint venture between Ms. Winfrey and Discovery, is now “starting to pay down the investment Discovery has made in the venture,” Mr. Zaslav said.

When the channel was announced in mid-2008, Discovery said it would provide the cable shelf space for Ms. Winfrey (by converting the Discovery Health Channel into OWN) and $300 million in loans.

Amid the hoopla that accompanied its debut on the first day of 2011, Discovery briefly predicted that the channel would make a profit in its first year. But the ratings soon sagged, resulting in lower-than-expected advertising revenue and no small amount of soul-searching by Ms. Winfrey and Mr. Zaslav. Discovery repeatedly chipped in more money; its loans now total $510 million.

Throughout 2012, industry analysts described OWN as a flop or an outright failure. Some predicted that Discovery would have to write off some of its investment.

But a series of changes that year, including the layoffs of some staff members and the scrapping of an expensive talk show by Rosie O’Donnell, helped lay the groundwork for a turnaround. Shortly after those steps were taken, Mr. Zaslav started predicting that OWN would break even sometime in the second half of 2013.

On Tuesday, he noted that the channel’s breakthrough was “ahead of the originally anticipated second half of the year goal of cash flow break even.”

“I want to congratulate Oprah and the entire team at OWN for this significant milestone,” Mr. Zaslav said. “We remain very bullish on its long term trajectory and our ability to drive continued asset appreciation in the future.”

The addition of Mr. Perry’s sitcoms was particularly important. Mr. Perry agreed last fall to direct all his future television production to OWN, in exchange for a small equity stake in the channel and other undisclosed payments.

His first two shows, “The Have and Have Nots” and “Love Thy Neighbor,” had their debuts in the second quarter. Mr. Zaslav called them “bona fide hits” and said that they, along with new seasons of existing shows, had helped improve ad revenue at OWN.

As always in cable, subscriber fees were also crucial. In January â€" shortly before Ms. Winfrey’s biggest interview in several years, that of Lance Armstrong, who confessed to use of performance-enhancing drugs â€" OWN started receiving higher per-subscriber fees, 20 cents a month in some cases, thanks to long-term contracts with cable and satellite providers.

A Discovery spokesman declined to say how much OWN earned in the second quarter, making it difficult to predict how long it might take the venture to repay its loans. But one person with direct knowledge of the business, who insisted on anonymity to share closely held financial information, projected that OWN would come out “tens of millions of dollars” ahead for the full year. The person acknowledged that it would take “a few years” for Discovery’s full investment to be recouped, and noted that it was earning interest in the meantime.

The positive earnings announcement for OWN came amid a somewhat disappointing quarter for Discovery over all. While its earnings â€" $300 million in the quarter, 82 cents a share â€" were up 2.4 percent from the period a year earlier, analysts were expecting profit of $328 million and 90 cents a share on average. The company also trimmed its full-year outlook.

Time Warner Temporarily Removes CBS in Major Cities

CBS stations were temporarily removed from cable systems in millions of homes in major cities â€" including New York and Los Angeles â€" about midnight on Monday, after protracted negotiations between CBS and Time Warner Cable over fees collapsed.

But after an exchange of recrimination-filled statements, and less than a half-hour of cable interruption, the cable company announced that it had halted the blackout of the stations at CBS’s request.

The mercurial series of events followed a daylong negotiation, which was full of fits and starts. The two sides negotiated all day and night Monday, after weeks of public posturing over which side was being more unreasonable in its demands over what are known as retransmission fees. Throughout Monday night, a series of one-hour extensions in the talks seemed to portend that an agreement was near.

But at about midnight Eastern time, the talks broke down, and Time Warner announced it would drop CBS shows, like its summer hit “Under the Dome,” from the homes of millions of Time Warner Cable subscribers. In addition, Time Warner Cable said it would remove the Showtime pay cable channel, home of series like “Homeland,” along with the other cable channels owned by CBS, including TMC, Flix and Smithsonian.

In statements, each side blamed the other. Time Warner Cable said, “The outrageous demands for fees by CBS Corporation have forced Time Warner Cable to remove several of its networks and broadcast stations from our customers’ lineups.” It called CBS’s fee demands “out of line and unfair,” and added, “Sooner or later CBS will threaten others and go dark.”

In its early statement, CBS said, “In spite of all our efforts to hammer out a fair agreement, Time Warner Cable has dropped CBS and Showtime from its channel lineup effective midnight. Meanwhile, they continue to engage in a public campaign of disinformation and voodoo mathematics (featuring wildly inflated percentages) while doggedly restating their positions.”

CBS predicted a settlement would eventually be reached but noted the steps it would take to put pressure to make an agreement. “CBS remains resolute in the pursuit of fair compensation for our programming and will use the full resources available to us to make sure that Time Warner Cable subscribers are aware of its shortsighted, anti-consumer strategy.”

Time Warner Cable also stressed that CBS shows could still be seen on TVs with antennas, and at cbs.com.

About 12:30 a.m. E.D.T., the decision to remove the channels was rescinded and CBS programs appeared as normal in the Time Warner Cable homes. CBS released a one-line statement: “CBS and Time Warner Cable have agreed to continue discussions.”

The move to drop the CBS stations was unusual because in numerous recent cases, warring sides from cable and broadcasters have struck last-minute deals to avoid any interruption of service.

But Time Warner Cable had made clear it intended to limit the fee increases to substantially less than what CBS was demanding. Time Warner Cable has put the increase at 600 percent, a figure that CBS executives described as laughably inflated and wrong. Though no official numbers were publicly discussed, one executive familiar with CBS’s negotiating position put the increase that CBS was demanding at 20 to 25 percent.

The retransmission fees are actually tied to local stations. Cable systems are being asked to pay for the right to carry those stations on their systems. In the past, broadcast networks were content with only guarantees of carriage by cable companies.

But broadcasters, with the CBS president, Leslie Moonves, a leading figure, have in recent years pushed hard to create the same kind of secondary revenues stream - subscribers’ fees - that cable networks enjoy. And the broadcasters have had increasing success.

With that success has come more opposition from cable outlets, which have balked at paying similar fees to broadcast stations that they pay to cable networks, even though in most cases, the broadcast stations are far more watched by their customers.

In a few cases, these showdowns have resulted in extended blackouts of stations in homes where viewers pay cable fees for their television service. That occurred three years ago, in a standoff between Cablevision and the Fox network.

CBS has never before had such an impasse result in the displacement of its stations off a cable system. Mr. Moonves said earlier on Monday in Los Angeles that he was reluctant to take that step but would if necessary.

Time Warner Cable is taking a risk in suspending CBS stations, but it is counting on being able to convince customers that their monthly fees will rise if the broadcaster wins on its demands for hefty increases.

CBS’s timing in this dispute leaves the network in a somewhat more vulnerable position, because other than “Dome” and the reality program “Big Brother,” it does not have a deep store of shows vital to viewers this summer.

But if the dispute were to drag on, the prospect of viewers’ losing access to N.F.L. games may become a crucial source of leverage for the network.

Dispute Blocks Hollywood’s Share of Chinese Box Office

LOS ANGELES â€" As box-office sales for American films soften in China, Hollywood studios are running up against a new problem: they haven’t been receiving payments for the Chinese screenings of their films, according to reports in Variety and The Hollywood Reporter on Monday.

The payments problem, according to the trade publications, stems from a dispute over a new 2 percent value-added tax in China.

When the tax was applied to theater tickets, American studios and their Chinese distribution partners disagreed about whether the money could be taken from the American share of sales, under the terms of an international agreement that had earlier promised the studios 25 percent of the take from films shown in China.

In April, The Wall Street Journal reported that Fox had refused to accept payments from its screenings in China while the dispute was unresolved. Variety and The Hollywood Reporter said that all of the major American studios had become involved, and payments for films like “Skyfall,” “Man of Steel” and “Star Trek Into Darkness” had been held up.

The Motion Picture Association of America, which represents the major studios, had no immediate comment.

Advertising: Merger as a Career Capstone for the Chief of Publicis

Merger as a Career Capstone for the Chief of Publicis

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Maurice Lévy, the Publicis chief, right, and John Wren, Omnicom’s chief, on Monday at the New York Stock Exchange.

In 1972 a fire tore through the Paris headquarters of a small French ad agency named Publicis. Rather than destroying the firm, it laid the foundation for the creation of what could soon be the world’s biggest advertising company.

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Publicis averted disaster because a young executive who ran the firm’s computer system, Maurice Lévy, saved the agency’s files on magnetic tape, helping it to get up and running again within days. That act of forward thinking caught the attention of the agency’s founder, Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet, who picked Mr. Lévy as his successor, putting Publicis on a path of technology-focused growth.

That process culminated over the weekend when Mr. Lévy, now the 71-year-old chief executive of the Publicis Groupe, joined the head of another agency company, John D. Wren of the Omnicom Group, to announce plans for a $35 billion merger.

Though the creation of the Publicis Omnicom Group, as the new company is to be called, is billed as a merger of equals, it has been widely seen as a coup for Publicis and a career capstone for Mr. Lévy, given that Omnicom is significantly bigger, with $14.2 billion in revenue last year, compared with $8.5 billion for Publicis.

With blow-dried hair fixed permanently in place and a fitting bon mot usually at the ready â€" in French or English â€" Mr. Lévy exudes a courtly air rather than street smarts. Indeed, Mr. Lévy’s diplomatic skills have elevated him into the inner circle of business advisers to a succession of French presidents.

But he has a “Mad Men” flair for showmanship, in a stark contrast to the accountant-like demeanor of Mr. Wren, who has preferred to let his company’s agencies, and Omnicom’s steady profits, do the talking.

Aides to Mr. Lévy, who was born in Morocco in 1942 after his parents had fled fascist Spain and Vichy France, say he has also been driven by an outsider’s desire to prove himself to the French establishment and to the British and American advertising companies that have long dominated the business.

“It’s ingrained in Maurice’s whole psyche that if you were a Jewish immigrant in France in the 1940s and 1950s, you had to fight like hell,” said Richard Pinder, a former top executive of Publicis who now runs an advertising venture called the House Worldwide. “He’s kicked, fought and scrabbled his way up with a tenacity and energy that is amazing.”

Well into the 1980s, when firms like Saatchi & Saatchi in Britain were pioneering the concept of housing groups of agencies in holding companies, Publicis was still focused on the domestic French market.

After Mr. Lévy took over as chief executive in 1987, his initial efforts to spur international growth did not go well. An unsuccessful partnership between the company and Foote, Cone & Belding, a leading American ad agency, quickly led to disagreements over strategy and a failed hostile takeover.

Not until 2000 was Mr. Lévy finally able to land his first big prize: Saatchi & Saatchi, whose founders, the brothers Maurice and Charles Saatchi, had been ousted in a shareholder struggle several years earlier. In 2002, Publicis crossed the Atlantic Ocean, snapping up the parent company of Leo Burnett, the Chicago-based, agency famed for creating the Marlboro Man.

Having turned Publicis into one of the four biggest advertising holding companies, alongside WPP Group, Omnicom and Interpublic Group, Mr. Lévy turned his attention to two areas that he was increasingly convinced would provide the future growth of the industry: emerging markets and digital media.

Publicis raced against WPP, led by Mr. Lévy’s archrival, Martin Sorrell, to snap up agencies in China and other fast-growing markets, as well as picking up firms that focused on online data and Web-based marketing campaigns, including Digitas in 2007, Razorfish in 2009 and Rosetta in 2011.

“We looked at digital and we invested in digital early on,” Mr. Lévy said in an interview two years ago. “We then decided that the shift would be huge, so we invested massively. It happens that we were right.”

Liz Alderman contributed reporting.

Odd Fox News Interview Lifts Reza Aslan’s Biography on Jesus

Reza Aslan, the author of “Zealot,” a provocative new biography of Jesus, has found an inadvertent ally in generating book publicity: Fox News.

In an interview on Friday that was by turns bizarre and uncomfortable, Lauren Green, a host from “Spirited Debate,” a weekly Fox News webcast, pressed Mr. Aslan on the question of why, as a Muslim, he would choose Jesus as his subject.

“You’re a Muslim, so why did you write a book about the founder of Christianity?” Ms. Green asked.

“Well, to be clear,” Mr. Aslan said, his eyebrows lifting up in surprise, “I am a scholar of religions with four degrees, including one in the New Testament, and fluency in biblical Greek, who has been studying the origins of Christianity for two decades, who also just happens to be a Muslim.”

The nearly 10-minute video clip quickly entered the Internet bloodstream on Saturday after it was posted on Buzzfeed with the irresistibly clickable headline, “Is This The Most Embarrassing Interview Fox News Has Ever Done?”

Since then, the Buzzfeed page featuring the video has been viewed nearly four million times. Mr. Aslan quickly amassed an additional 5,000 Twitter followers. On Monday, Random House, Mr. Aslan’s publisher, said the interview had clearly helped book sales: in two days, sales increased 35 percent.

On Friday, “Zealot” was in the No. 8 spot on Amazon.com, the nation’s biggest seller of books; by Sunday, it had hit No. 1.

Random House is rushing to meet the surge in demand for the book. On Monday, the publisher ordered 50,000 copies, bringing the total to 150,000 copies in print by the end of the week.

An investigation of the historical Jesus, “Zealot” has been praised by many reviewers since its publication on July 16. In a review in Tablet magazine, Adam Kirsch called “Zealot” a “coherent and often convincing portrait of who Jesus was and what he wanted.”

But some conservative critics have suggested that the book is not a work of scholarship, but merely “an educated Muslim’s opinions about Jesus and the ancient Near East,” as John S. Dickerson, an opinion columnist, wrote on FoxNews.com last week.

The reaction to the book has spread to Mr. Aslan’s Amazon page: on The Atlantic Wire, Alexander Nazaryan pointed out that browsing through dozens of one-star reviews on Amazon revealed that “plenty of readers of what seems to be a fundamentalist/Evangelical persuasion are furious that a Muslim published a book about Christianity’s origins.”

The book was already selling steadily before the FoxNews.com interview on Friday. Since the release of “Zealot,” Mr. Aslan has hit the publicity circuit, discussing the book on “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central, “Morning Joe” on MSNBC and “Weekend Edition” on NPR. “Zealot” had its debut at No. 4 on the New York Times print hardcover best-seller list that will appear in print on Aug. 4.

In a telephone interview, Mr. Aslan said that in three weeks of his book tour, he had received an “overwhelmingly positive” response to his work, and that it was anything but an attack on Christianity.

“I hope that people recognize that your faith, as Jesus said, is supposed to be built on a rock, not on sand,” he said. “I guess my message is: Relax.”

Mr. Aslan was born in Iran, moved to the United States with his family as a child and later earned degrees from Santa Clara University, Harvard and the University of Iowa. He is an associate professor of creative writing at the University of California, Riverside.

Book Passage, a bookstore with two outlets in the Bay Area, hosted Mr. Aslan for a signing last week. Karen West, the director of events, said more than 250 people attended it. But the Fox News interview, she said, has exposed the book to consumers who aren’t regular book-buyers.

“It’s moved now out of the NPR realm and it’s gotten into the broader culture,” she said.

A spokeswoman for Fox News did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

Mr. Aslan said that after reading Mr. Dickerson’s essay on FoxNews.com, he was prepared for a similar line of attack from Ms. Green.

He was so eager to promote the book on Fox News that his publisher tried â€" in vain â€" to secure an interview spot on “Fox & Friends,” a morning show.

“I’ll be perfectly honest â€" I’m thrilled at the response that people have had to the interview,” Mr. Aslan said. “You can’t buy this kind of publicity.”

Wendi Murdoch Hires a New Lawyer, Suggesting a Divorce Is Getting Messy

Peter Foley/European Pressphoto Agency

Despite Mrs. Murdoch's prenuptial and two postnuptial agreements with Rupert Murdoch, some areas remain unsettled.

Just over a month after Rupert Murdoch surprised his wife of 14 years with divorce papers, Wendi Murdoch has switched lawyers, a move signaling that the separation could take an acrimonious turn.

Mrs. Murdoch has hired William D. Zabel, a well-known New York trusts and estates lawyer who has represented several women in their divorces from wealthy businessmen, including Jane Beasley Welch during her contentious split from John F. Welch, the former chief executive of General Electric.

A spokesman for Mrs. Murdoch, Christopher Giglio, confirmed the hiring of Mr. Zabel, but otherwise declined to comment.

Mrs. Murdoch had been represented by Pamela M. Sloan, who advised Mrs. Murdoch on her prenuptial agreement with Mr. Murdoch in 1999, when the couple married in front of 82 guests on board his 155-foot sailing yacht, the Morning Glory.

But since then, Ms. Sloan had become friendly with the Murdochs, and Mrs. Murdoch decided that she wanted more independent counsel, said a person with direct knowledge of the case who like many people declined to be identified discussing personal matters.

Ms. Sloan did not return a request for comment.

Although the Murdochs signed a prenuptial agreement and two postnuptial agreements delineating the separation of assets in the event of a divorce, there are a number of areas that remain up for negotiation, said people with knowledge of the case who spoke only on the condition of anonymity.

For one, there are the custody arrangements and child support for their daughters, Grace, 11, and Chloe, 9, these people said. Because they are not binding on the court, custody arrangements and child support are rarely part of prenuptial agreements, and are often used by the less-moneyed spouse as leverage in negotiations.

Other issues that could be contended include the division of certain assets, like their Fifth Avenue penthouse and the yacht, on which Mrs. Murdoch, 44, and her daughters are currently vacationing in the Caribbean.

There is also the contentious issue surrounding the Murdoch family trust. Mr. Murdoch surprised his wife in 2006 when he announced during a television interview with Charlie Rose that Grace and Chloe would have the same economic interest in the family’s trust but not the same voting rights as his four children from his previous two marriages.

The slip almost created a separation, and prompted Mrs. Murdoch to negotiate more favorable terms for her daughters, according to people close to the couple.

Mr. Zabel, an expert in trust law, is expected to examine the soundness of the trust structure.

“Even with the most sophisticated couple, unless you have perfect 20/20 foresight often some issues can arise that weren’t taken into consideration and are prime for negotiation,” said Paul M. Talbert, a divorce lawyer at Donohoe Talbert in New York, who is not involved in the Murdoch case.

Representing Mr. Murdoch, 82, in the divorce proceeding is Ira E. Garr of the law firm Garr Silpe. But Mr. Murdoch is also relying heavily on the advice of Gerson A. Zweifach, the general counsel of both News Corporation and 21st Century Fox, as the newly separated companies are now known. Mr. Murdoch’s 1998 divorce from his second wife, Anna, cost more than $110 million in cash.

A company spokeswoman has said the divorce will have no effect on either company.

Shortly after a visit to the couple’s Northern California home in June, Mrs. Murdoch returned to New York to learn that Mr. Murdoch had served her with divorce papers, a decision he did not take lightly, according to several people close to the couple who would not discuss their private matters for attribution.

Mrs. Murdoch, after interviewing about eight different lawyers, including leading members of the matrimonial bar like Robert Stephan Cohen and Peter E. Bronstein, chose Mr. Zabel. Initially, Mrs. Murdoch did not have time to screen potential divorce lawyers and turned to Ms. Sloane, a trusted confidante, by default.

The core of Mr. Zabel’s practice at the law firm Schulte Roth & Zabel is advising wealthy clients like George Soros and the Lehman family, drafting their wills and trusts and advising on estate planning. But he also handles messier matters for his clients; in 2010, for instance, he represented the estate of his longtime client, the Palm Beach philanthropist and investor Jeffry M. Picower, in a $7.2 billion settlement with the federal government over claims related to money that he received from Bernard L. Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.

There is also the occasional divorce assignment. Much of the time, Mr. Zabel will play the role of mediator, and has peaceably settled the divorces of the late author Michael Crichton, the radio host Howard Stern and the New York Jets owner Robert Wood Johnson IV.

But at times, he has been involved in nasty marital spats, like that of Ms. Welch, whose marriage collapsed after she discovered her husband’s dalliance with the journalist Suzy Wetlaufer. The divorce was fiercely litigated and settled on the courthouse steps in 2002 only after Mr. Welch agreed to pay Ms. Welch several hundred million dollars.

More recently, he represented Christina Lurie, the former wife of the Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie, who divorced after 20 years of marriage. Ms. Lurie remained a part owner of the team.

Because he keeps divorce representations to a minimum, Mr. Zabel often refers cases to his former wife, Eleanor B. Alter, herself a prominent matrimonial lawyer in New York.

Herb Kaplow, Voice of ABC and NBC News, Dies at 86

Herb Kaplow, a longtime Washington correspondent who for more than four decades brought an authoritative voice to his reporting from all 50 states and more than 50 countries for NBC News and ABC News, died on Saturday in Arlington, Va. He was 86.

Herb Kaplow of NBC, in January 1962 at Cape Canaveral, Fla.

The cause was a stroke, his family said.

Mr. Kaplow’s resonant voice and craggy face were familiar to generations of viewers of the nightly news broadcasts, and he seemed to be present wherever the action was, first for NBC and then for ABC, spending about 20 years with each.

He covered the White House and 10 presidential campaigns, including 19 nominating conventions from 1956 to 1992. He reported on major moments of the civil rights movement, including the Supreme Court’s 1954 ruling to desegregate schools, and the Freedom Riders’ fighting to integrate buses in the early 1960s. He reported extensively on the United States space program.

He covered the Cuban revolution that culminated in the victory of Communists led by Fidel Castro in 1959. After the disastrous invasion of Cuba by American-backed Cuban exiles at the Bay of Pigs in April 1961, he was the first American reporter to interview Mr. Castro.

Mr. Kaplow covered Richard M. Nixon for decades. He was in Venezuela in 1958 when an angry crowd pelted Vice President Nixon’s limousine with rocks. He was also in China in 1972 when President Nixon made his historic trip there.

In 1965, Mr. Kaplow, then working for NBC, was the only network correspondent to accompany Mr. Nixon on a trip to Asia for Pepsi-Cola, which Mr. Nixon’s law firm represented. Erik Barnouw, in his book “Tube of Plenty: The Evolution of American Television” (1990), wrote that Mr. Kaplow’s coverage helped keep Mr. Nixon in the public eye, speaking about Vietnam and other issues, as the Republican Party began looking ahead to 1968. Mr. Nixon went on to win the presidential nomination that year.

Herbert Elias Kaplow was born on Feb. 2, 1927, in Manhattan and grew up in Queens. His father, a garment worker, and mother, a seamstress, were Jewish immigrants from Europe. While a student at Queens College, he was drafted into the Army and eventually assigned to the American Forces Radio Service. He read scripts reporting on the Nuremberg trials and covered a Wimbledon tennis championship.

After his discharge, he returned to Queens College and earned a degree in history. After a stint as an announcer at WCTC radio in New Brunswick, N.J., from July 1948 to January 1950, he earned a master’s degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

Mr. Kaplow then went to Washington to work for WRC, an NBC radio affiliate, before taking an editing job on the NBC network program “News of the World.” About two and a half years later he became an NBC news correspondent for radio and television. He became White House correspondent in 1968. He moved over to ABC in 1972 and retired in 1994.

Mr. Kaplow, who lived in Falls Church, Va., is survived by his wife, the former Betty Rae Koplow; his sons Steven, Bobby and Larry; his sister, Naomi Mitchell; and six grandchildren.

Mr. Kaplow was known for tough, incisive political reporting. But as a correspondent who had seen it all, his touch could also be light, if not sardonic. In an essay in The New York Times in 1972, Eugene J. McCarthy, the former senator and presidential candidate who was known for a dry wit himself, quoted admiringly a “profound statement” made by Mr. Kaplow: “No two campaigns are different.”

Weinstein and Disney, Together Again

LOS ANGELES â€" Time apparently does heal all wounds: Harvey Weinstein, who bitterly parted ways with the Walt Disney Company in 2005, leaving behind his Miramax Films, will produce a movie adaptation of “Artemis Fowl” for Disney.

Disney made the announcement late Monday, saying that it had decided to move forward with a live-action movie based on the first and second installments of the best-selling children’s book series “Artemis Fowl,” about a 12-year-old boy who is a millionaire, a genius and a criminal mastermind. Mr. Weinstein â€" but not his Weinstein Company â€" will produce the movie.

“If you would have told me five years ago I would be producing a project with Disney I would have thought you were crazy,” Mr. Weinstein said in a statement. “This is a special project for me because my children absolutely love this book.”

For its part, Disney heaped praise on Mr. Weinstein. Alan Horn, chairman of Walt Disney Studios, said in a statement, “Harvey is one of the pre-eminent producers in the industry, with impeccable taste and creative instincts.”

Don’t expect to see young Artemis on the big screen anytime soon. The project is in the early stages. And movies announced as “in development” frequently fail to make it to theaters. But Disney also said that Michael Goldenberg, whose credits include “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” is working on a screenplay.

The eight books in the “Artemis Fowl” series, written by Eoin Colfer, have sold 21 million copies in 44 languages. The series is now part of Disney Publishing, but it started its life in 2001 under Miramax Books, which Mr. Weinstein formerly ran as part of Disney-owned Miramax.

After selling his Miramax Films to Disney in 1993, Mr. Weinstein released 300 movies, including “Chicago” and “Shakespeare in Love.” But Mr. Weinstein and Michael Eisner, Disney’s chief executive, ended up arguing bitterly over ballooning Miramax budgets and Disney’s refusal to release “Fahrenheit 9/11,” among other matters. Mr. Weinstein was ultimately forced to leave behind Miramax and start a new independent studio, the Weinstein Company, from scratch.

Disney sold Miramax Films in 2010.

Pivot TV Pitches to Young Viewers

Jason Decrow/Pivot, via Associated Press

Meghan McCain and her brother Jimmy in “Raising McCain,” which will be shown on Pivot.

Toward the end of Evan Shapiro’s semester-long course on television management at New York University, he spends an hour on the topic “Building a Post-Network Channel from the Ground Up.” For the 19- and 20-year-old students â€" the fickle viewers that advertisers and programmers so desperately want to reach â€" the final assignment is to pitch some sort of TV innovation, be it a new way to schedule shows, a distribution strategy or even a brand-new network.

Evan Shapiro, the president of Pivot.

The question is more than academic for Mr. Shapiro, a former president of IFC and the Sundance Channel, who is honing his own plan for something new, a channel for young people called Pivot that will become available in 40 million homes on Thursday. Being around students has reminded him again and again how hard it will be to keep their attention.

“There are a bajillion media choices out there,” said Mr. Shapiro, now the president of Pivot, probably slightly underestimating how many options there really are. “This generation has information and data and content thrown at them at lightning speed. The idea that they will actually care about us and know about us is probably our biggest challenge.”

So Pivot is keeping expectations low â€" it won’t be rated by Nielsen at the outset â€" while trying to be on every screen it can. The channel is part of a drive into television by Participant Media, the film company behind “An Inconvenient Truth,” “Lincoln,” “A Place at the Table” and others. It comes at a time of intense skepticism about whether people under 35 are watching traditional television at all anymore, now that alternatives like Netflix and YouTube are available.

Nielsen data backs up Pivot’s claims that old-fashioned television is still paramount among young people. In the first quarter of 2013, the typical adult aged 18 to 24 watched about four hours of TV every day, most of it live, and 16 minutes of Internet programming. Those aged 25 to 34 watched about an hour more TV than the younger group, and almost as much on the Internet.

Still, the trend lines are ominous; traditional TV consumption has been slipping among those under 34 for the last two years. And many people suspect that the shift is happening faster than Nielsen’s data suggests. So why start a channel for the so-called millennial generation, besides the obvious answers involving advertisers who pay a premium for younger demographics?

Mr. Shapiro’s answer involved a great deal of flattery. Where others see stereotypes about “navel-gazing entitled narcissists,” he said, “we see the most open-minded, most connected, most generous, most giving generation alive on the planet today. We’re betting heavy on their ability to make the changes that the world so badly needs.”

Participant Media’s progressive mandate â€" “entertainment that inspires and compels social change” â€" will carry over to Pivot through on-screen graphics about how viewers can help combat, say, hunger in America, or support antibullying efforts. But Mr. Shapiro stressed that Pivot will be a general entertainment channel, complete with an original comedy called “Please Like Me” and repeats of “Friday Night Lights” and “Farscape.”

“We can’t fulfill the second part of our mandate if we can’t fulfill the first,” he said.

Mr. Shapiro, 46, is not himself a millennial, nor is his senior management team, and when told during a telephone interview that this reporter was 27, he exclaimed, “You’re a child!” At other times, he used “kids” before correcting himself and saying “young people.” But he said “half the programming group are millennials.”

The channel’s celebrity backers include Joseph Gordon-Levitt, whose variety show, “HitRECord on TV!,” will come on early next year, and Meghan McCain, whose on-the-road talk show, “Raising McCain,” will premiere in September.

In an interview Ms. McCain, 28, daughter of Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, admitted to some hesitation before her first meeting with Pivot, given the history of high-minded start-up channels “that quite frankly don’t do that well.” (Participant acquired two failed channels, the Documentary Channel and Halogen TV, last year to allow the creation of Pivot.) But she said she came away convinced by the channel’s potential.

“When I was growing up, MTV News had such a big impact on my life,” Ms. McCain said. Now it scarcely exists, she added, implying that Pivot could fulfill a similar purpose. Mr. Shapiro included MTV in Pivot’s competitive set, along with ABC Family, BBC America, the forthcoming FX spinoff FXX, Hulu and Netflix.

“Our bet is on a pluralistic view of the future of television,” he said, meaning viewers can choose scheduled or on-demand offerings. Kent Rees, Pivot’s top scheduler, said the channel has been constructed with binge viewing in mind: For instance, the first six episodes of “Please Like Me,” an Australian comedy starring Josh Thomas that made its debut in that country earlier this year, will be shown several times in a row during Pivot’s first week. They’ll also be available on demand.

While Pivot is dependent on the support of cable and satellite providers, some of which have declined to carry it, the channel also wants (and needs) to reach the viewers it calls “broadbanders” (and others call cord-cutters), who pay for Internet but not bundled TV channels. It is encouraging broadband providers to sell a small bundle of channels, Pivot included, for Internet streaming.

“It would be the first product of its kind,” Mr. Shapiro said, sold through the broadband provider â€" if any agree to do it, that is. Exuding confidence, he said the Internet version would “roll out in the next 12 months.” By then, Pivot hopes to be premiering its first scripted drama, “Will,” about Shakespeare’s life as a millennial.

A version of this article appeared in print on July 30, 2013, on page C1 of the New York edition with the headline: Pivot TV Pitches To Young Viewers.

CNN to Produce Documentary on Hillary Clinton

The intense focus on Hillary Rodham Clinton, former secretary of state and 2008 presidential candidate, heading toward a potential second run at the presidency was stepped up again Monday as CNN announced that its film division would produce a documentary on her.

Two days earlier, NBC announced it would produce a four-hour mini-series on Mrs. Clinton.

The CNN documentary is expected to be released in 2014 and will have a run in theaters before it plays on CNN. The film will be produced and directed by Charles Ferguson, who won a documentary Oscar in 2010 for the film “Inside Job,” about the corruption in the financial services sector that contributed to the economic crisis in 2007-2008.

CNN has said the film unit operates separately and without editorial input from CNN itself.

CBS Renews ‘Under the Dome’ for a Second Season

LOS ANGELES â€" To the surprise of no one, CBS said on Monday that it would bring back its huge summer hit “Under the Dome” for a second series of episodes next summer.

Leslie Moonves, the chief executive of CBS, made the announcement here at a session with television critics and reporters. He also announced that Stephen King, who wrote the novel the series is based on, would write the first episode of the second season.

CBS initially bought the project as an experiment and made no decision on whether to limit it to just a single season. But it kept open that possibility in case the show took off in the ratings. “Dome” has been a hit from its opening episode, which attracted 13.7 million viewers in its initial ratings. Mr. Moonves said here that the episode’s audience grew to more than 20 million viewers with delayed and streamed viewing included.

The show has been enormously profitable, CBS executives said, with movie advertisers clamoring to buy available commercials in the series.

Mr. Moonves said the network would most likely follow up “Dome” with more short-run series next summer.

Asked if it would be straining credulity to keep the town in the series under a dome for an extended period, he said: “Why can’t they be under the dome for a long period of time? This is television.”

Campaign Spotlight: Rite Aid Offers Extra Goodies to Customers 65 and Up

Rite Aid Offers Extra Goodies to Customers 65 and Up

The Rite Aid Corporation has introduced a new loyalty program for customers 65 and older, based on its earlier “wellness+” loyalty program, that it is promoting through a multi-media campaign.

Introduced in 2010 to combat competition from other pharmacy chains and big-box retailers like Walmart, wellness+ provides participants 24/7 access to a pharmacist, discounts on merchandise and other benefits. The new “wellness65+” program â€" which Rite Aid announced in mid-June and began promoting June 30 through an advertising campaign by MARC USA of Pittsburgh -- offers the same benefits, as well as a private consultation with a pharmacist and special discounts the first Wednesday of each month. Both programs have different membership tiers; members who purchase more become eligible for greater discounts and additional wellness benefits like a gym membership. There is no charge to become a member of either program.

Rite Aid operates more than 4,600 stores in 31 states, primarily on the east and west coasts, and in the District of Columbia.

Ken Martindale, president and chief operating officer of Rite Aid, said “attracting new senior customers represents a crucial growth opportunity for Rite Aid because seniors tend to be our best pharmacy patients.” Increasing the size of its senior patient base also lets Rite Aid provide services like immunization and medication therapy management “to a segment of the population that stands to benefit the most from the positive health outcomes these services provide,” Mr. Martindale added.

Tony Bucci, chairman of MARC USA, said television advertising for wellness65+ will focus on 21 major urban markets where Rite Aid would have “the greatest opportunity to enroll new seniors.” These markets range, in the eastern United States, from Boston, Hartford and New York to Washington, Louisville and Atlanta, and include western cities like Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco, Sacramento and Portland, Ore. Based on the theme “How did I get here,” spots are running primarily on news programs and shows like “Wheel of Fortune” and “Jeopardy.”

One TV spot depicts a man in a bathing suit, standing by the edge of a pool, getting ready to dive in. The voice-over says, “Every now and then you gotta ask yourself, ‘How did I get here?’” The spot then shows the man having his blood pressure monitored by a Rite Aid pharmacist, and flashes the wellness65+ card, which the voiceover says helps members “feel and live your best.” As the spot concludes, the man dives into the pool and swims away; this is followed by the Rite Aid logo and tagline, “With us, it’s personal.”

“When you see the commercial, the people aren’t hip,” Mr. Bucci said. "They’re very personal, honest, sincere and caring. The idea is that people over 65 are fully enjoying life.”

Radio spots 60 seconds in length will run on news, talk, easy listening, jazz, classical and gospel radio stations in the same 21 markets where the TV ads run. In one radio spot, the announcer says, “You’ve had 60-some-odd years to prepare for this moment. Sixty-some-odd years that added up to a squishy, squashy backyard squirt gun battle. And it’s here that the question hits you. How did I get here? Is it just living in moderation? Or saving with gusto? Like getting 20 percent off your Rite Aid purchases every first Wednesday of the month with Rite Aid’s new wellness65+.” The spot concludes with the announcer calling the program “one more way Rite Aid is helping you stay here, now that you’ve actually gotten here. Here, soaking wet and slinking through your own rosebushes.”

A full-page ad running in AARP The Magazine depicts an older woman on an amusement park ride with a child. The headline says, “Here’s to suddenly remembering where laugh lines come from. Feeling and living your best. Rite Aid is committed to helping you realize it, with exclusive, new benefits for seniors.”

Last month Rite Aid also began a tour, which will run through March 2014, featuring a van decorated with wellness65+ and Rite Aid logos and photos of program participants. The van will visit more than 30 cities across the country. In each city, Rite Aid will partner with local organizations to host community wellness events for seniors and their families, like free health screenings, pharmacist consultations and seminars with local experts on subjects like fitness.

John Learish, senior vice president of marketing for Rite Aid, declined to quantify how much the company will spend to promote wellness65+. However, he said Rite Aid’s advertising expenditures in the second half of its current fiscal year would be “comparable” to what was spent in the same period in its last fiscal year, which ended March 2, 2013.

According to Kantar Media, Rite Aid spent a low of $40.1 million on advertising in calendar year 2009 and a high of $50.8 million in calendar year 2010. Its calendar year 2012 spending on all media was $13.5 million in the first quarter; $6.5 million in the second quarter; $10.3 million in the third quarter; and $17.4 million in the fourth quarter. Kantar Media also said the company spent $9.4 million on advertising in the first quarter of calendar year 2013.

According to Mr. Learish, wellness+ had more than 25 million active members â€" who had used their card at least twice in the previous six months--as of the end of the first quarter of Rite Aid’s current fiscal year. He also said program members generated 77 per cent of non-prescription sales and 70 percent of prescriptions filled in the first quarter of Rite Aid’s current fiscal year, both up over the same period last year; he declined to quantify these increases.

Sinclair to Buy TV Stations From Allbritton

Sinclair Broadcast Group, one of the country’s biggest owners of local television stations, continued its buying spree on Monday, announcing a deal to acquire seven stations owned by Allbritton Communications, including WJLA, the coveted ABC affiliate in Washington, D.C.

The purchase price was $985 million. Along with the seven stations, Sinclair will take control of NewsChannel 8, Allbritton’s local cable news channel in Washington. Sinclair said that it would explore the rollout of a national cable news channel using NewsChannel 8 as its core.

The acquisition continues a period of aggressive expansion by Sinclair, which has stations that cumulatively reach about 35 percent of households in the United States. Before Monday’s announcement, the company had completed about $2 billion in station deals since late 2011. “We are thrilled to add the Allbritton properties to our growing portfolio and national footprint,” Sinclair’s chief executive, David Smith, said in a statement.

Allbritton’s chief executive, Robert Allbritton, told employees in May that he was putting the seven stations and NewsChannel 8 up for sale so that he could concentrate on the Web site Politico, which the company also owns, and possible investments elsewhere. “My plan is to use the resources and expanded mindshare that such a move would make available to increase my commitment to Politico,” he wrote in an internal memorandum at the time. “Then we can plunge in further on a variety of other potential investments that intrigue me as I contemplate the next chapter for our business.”

On Monday Mr. Allbritton said he was confident that Sinclair’s “leadership and resources will enable our stations to reach new heights of service to our communities.”

The sale comes during a frenzied stretch of local television buying and selling. Gannett announced last month that it would acquire 20 stations owned by Belo for about $1.5 billion, and Tribune announced earlier this month that it would acquire 19 stations owned by Local TV Holdings for $2.7 billion.

Analysts had previously said that Allbritton’s stations could go for more than $900 million, led by WJLA in Washington, one of the biggest markets in the country. The other six stations, all affiliates of ABC, are much smaller, in markets like Birmingham, Ala.; Tulsa, Okla.; and Roanoke, Va.

Given the value of WJLA â€" and how much influence a station in the nation’s capital can have â€" some had speculated that Allbritton would sell it separately, but the company opted not to. In a statement on Monday, Mr. Smith of Sinclair made it clear that WJLA was the crown jewel. “To buy a full-blown news operation in our nation’s capital and an infrastructure that allows us to be connected to our branches of government and be at the pulse of national issues is a once-in-a lifetime event,” he said.

Without making any definitive comments about the creation of a national cable news channel, Mr. Smith said NewsChannel 8 “provides the perfect platform should we decide to expand it into other markets, especially given the amount of local news we produce across our entire portfolio.”

Sinclair has connections to 149 television stations across the country, many of them in small and medium markets. It owns some of the stations outright; others it operates or manages for affiliated companies. With the addition of the Allbritton stations, Sinclair estimated that it would reach 38.2 percent of households in the United States.

Public interest groups might object to the deal, partly because it furthers a consolidation trend and partly because Sinclair’s newscasts have been accused in the past of showing bias toward Republican and conservative causes.

Sinclair said in a news release that it would pay for the stations “through a bank loan and/or by accessing the capital markets.” It expects the transaction to close by the end of the year.