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Like the rest of you I just endured a week of “Stormwatch ‘08” and this time, rather than simply being bothered by how pointless the video footage was, I did the constructive thing and tried to think of some new or at least money saving ideas to cover massive snowstorms.

Here are the ones I saw on Stormwatch—again—that I think should be retired:

Talking to one disgruntled and one still-cheerful passenger at the snowed-in airport

• Going to a hardware store to document the lack of snow shovels
• Leaning into a car going nowhere and asking how bad the road conditions are
• Interviewing Christmas shoppers while the equivalent of a jet turbine blows snow in their faces.
• Skipping the middleman and being the station’s snow guinea pig, but this time, you

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That the Iraq War is no longer a high priority for TV news divisions is obvious -- if not merely in the amount of personnel and program minutes dedicated to a conflict that still involves 130,000 U.S. troops, then in how much network executives are willing to talk about their coverage on the record.

On the evening newscasts at ABC, CBS and NBC, where the bulk of the broadcast networks’ Iraq coverage is placed, program minutes dedicated to Iraq seem commensurate with the military death toll: 1,888 minutes in 2007 and just over 400 minutes in 2008, according to news analyst Andrew Tyndall. The U.S military sustained 303 casualties in 2008, according to GlobalSecurity.org. That is less than half the yearly casualties of 2004 through 2007, which was the deadliest year on record with nearly...Read More

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Have you heard of Mae Laborde? No? Well, you’ve probably seen her, at least if you have been watching Fox or cable sibling FX.

 Laborde may be best known for her hilarious take on the DTV transition for a sketch on Talkshow with Spike Feresten that went viral (below), but the 98(!) year old actress has been appearing all over the tube.

 As the AP reports, Mae played Vanna White 40 years in the future on MadTV and came ...Read More

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By Claire Atkinson, Business Editor, B&C

NBC Universal's Jeff Zucker was pretty candid in his "network-model-is-broken" interviews last week. The only thing lacking were the statistics to show how bad things have got.

This week General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt delivered those cold hard figures in the annual outlook investor meeting at 30 Rock, from Saturday Night Live's Studio 8-H.

Immelt's presentation featured a stunning PowerPoint slide. Earnings at the broadcast unit—which includes the stations as well as the network—were just $400 million...Read More

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The second season premiere of Flight of the Conchords made its debut on Funny or Die, well in advance of its January 18 premiere on HBO. By launching it a month early online, HBO can build buzz around the show, as well as some other upcoming properties.

 If you check out the premiere episode (embedded below for your enjoyment, you can also go here) you will see that it also includes a sneak preview of the upcoming HBO comedy, Eastbound & Down.

The executive producers of Eastbound & Down? Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, who also happen to be involved, in wait for it… Funny or Die.

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By Richard Bellamy, Special to Broadcastingcable.com

When Nielsen released their top 10 lists for 2008 on Friday, they ranked the top television programs, using both Live ratings and Live+7 ratings for timeshifted viewing. But even Live+7 excludes a growing portion of viewer: those who watch television online. (Nielsen's methodology for compiling the data also left several CW shows off of the top timeshifted programs list.)

We asked Nielsen for the top 10 television programs online in 2008, but according to a spokesperson, the company is “not measuring program level data online at this time.”

Hulu, the NBC Universal-News Corp. joint venture, does not release viewership info (we asked), and neither do severa...Read More

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By Claire Atkinson, Business Editor, B&C

Wall Street executives are wondering why News Corp. cancelled its appearance at the UBS Global Media & Communications conference Wednesday. The company had been slated to appear at 1:30 p.m. today. It was replaced by a presentation from WWE senior management.

The summit saw presentations from NBC Universal, Disney Co. and today by CBS Corp and Time Warner.

Officials at UBS confirmed that News Corp. had cancelled and said their appearance had only been scheduled tentatively.

In response to a call for explanation, a News Corp. spokesperson said the cancellation was due to scheduling issues with senior executives.

One attendee quipped, "Perhaps they just don't want to be crucified."

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By Claire Atkinson, Business Editor, B&C

Who had Disney CFO Thomas Staggs down as a car salesman?

Speaking at the UBS conference on Tuesday, Staggs said that he expected advertisers to come back to the market as they looked to capture share and established brands. "I can take orders in the back," he quipped.

When asked what might help the poor picture with regard to the autos market, "If all of you could buy a new car, that would help."

Complete Coverage: UBS Global Media and Communications Conference

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By Claire Atkinson, Business Editor, B&C

As chief executive of WPP Group, the knighted Martin Sorrell is a major figure in the advertising world.

He's also known as a mischief maker who rarely passes up an opportunity to zing a rival—such as the time he called a business decision by Interpublic Group the "irrational actions of a wounded animal."

Speaking Monday at the UBS conference, Mr Sorrell had another target in his sights. His presentation detailed WPP Group's transformation into a research powerhouse. The centerpiece of that strategy was the company's 1.93 billion acquisition of Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS), which set up a rivalry with the Nielsen Compa...Read More

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For those of you who haven’t used the Internet during the past year, “Rickrolling” refers to the practice of enticing unsuspecting Web surfers to click on a link to a video for “Never Gonna Give You Up” by ‘80s heartthrob Rick Astley.

After the prank snowballed online—spawning an election-season “Barackrolling” variation and even mutating into a live stunt at basketball games and other events—Cartoon Network pulled off what we can only hope was the ultimate (as in final) Rickroll during last week’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

What’s more, the network managed to enlist Rick Astley himself to emerge from its Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends float a...Read More

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