television

By now, you've probably seen at least one of those televised public service announcements--or maybe even read on this very Web site--about how the U.S. government is forcibly cutting off analog TV broadcasts starting next February. And if you're a cable, satellite, or Internet-based TV subscriber, you probably already know that you shouldn't have to make any changes, and if you rely on over-the-air broadcasts, you may have already requested a taxpayer-funded coupon for a converter box.

Well, it seems your elected representatives on Capitol Hill don't have a lot of faith in the … Read more

CBS Television Stations has launched a new program to get its local news headlines onto blogs and social-media sites, the CBS division said Monday.

Called the CBS Local Ad Network, it's a way for participating region-focused blogs to pull in extra cash by embedding CBS news widgets on their sites and splitting the revenue of accompanying ads with CBS.

On Monday, the program was launched in a selection of the TV network's regional markets: Boston, Dallas-Fort Worth, San Francisco, Denver, and Chicago. Within the next few weeks, CBS has said, the CBS Local Ad Network will come to … Read more

Some would say that peer-to-peer video start-up Joost, created by the founders of Skype and Kazaa, failed to live up to the overwhelming hype that surrounded it. CBS Interactive president Quincy Smith, whose CBS Audience Network of online video sites includes a partnership with Joost, isn't one of them.

Speaking to a small gathering of tech and media reporters at CBS' New York headquarters Thursday, Smith gave a firm "no" when asked if Joost--which requires a software download and has slipped from the Web video radar since its buzzworthy debut--was dead in the water. "(Mike) Volpe … Read more

This is a fish story--complete with attacking sharks, high-velocity steak, and ninjas with poison darts, no less.

This is the story of my Wednesday spent hanging out with the MythBusters-- Jamie Hyneman, Adam Savage, Kari Byron, Grant Imahara, and Tory Belleci--at their workshops in San Francisco.

MythBusters, for those who aren't aware, is a hit Discovery Channel show in which the five stars tackle famous myths--such as that frozen chickens pose a greater danger to airplanes than thawed poultry, or that a single postage stamp on a helicopter's rotors can cause it to crash and burn--and attempt to … Read more

If you're a big MythBusters fan, or even if you're not, I hope you will stop on by on Friday morning, as I'll have a story and extensive photo gallery from the day I spent Wednesday hanging out with the famous team.

Without giving too much away, I got to spend most of the day yesterday at the MythBusters headquarters in San Francisco, talking with the hit TV show's stars as they prepared for upcoming episodes.

Think magnets and sharks, flapping fish, dynamite and steak, and ninjas and poison darts.

And if you want to know … Read more

This post was updated at 12:46 PM PT with comment from 'Quarterlife' co-creator Marshall Herskovitz.

It's undoubtedly a setback for those hoping to see Web video make a clean transition to the living room TV: Quarterlife, the hyped-up Web series from the co-creators of Thirtysomething and My So-Called Life, had a very disappointing network debut on NBC and may be on the chopping block.

The show, which premiered Tuesday night, managed to pull in only a tepid 3.1 million viewers, according to The Hollywood Reporter. While NBC hasn't formally decided to pull the plug, sources have … Read more

If you're among the 2.4 million Americans who have already applied for government subsidies to offset the cost of a forced digital television upgrade, you should be receiving that voucher soon.

Next week, the U.S. Department of Commerce plans to start mailing out the $40 coupons, which can be used to defray the cost of selected converter boxes that permit older, analog televisions to receive digital broadcasts, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said Friday.

It's all part of the congressionally mandated switch from analog to all-digital broadcasts scheduled to occur on February 17, 2009.

If you're … Read more

WASHINGTON--In a political gambit that could lead to higher fees for cable providers and their subscribers, the satellite television industry urged politicians on Thursday to enact a federal law prohibiting "discriminatory" taxes.

DirecTV and Dish Network executives argue that the federal legislation is needed because six states--Ohio, Tennessee, Florida, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Utah--have enacted laws in recent years that impose steeper taxes on satellite subscribers than on cable subscribers. They claim that those laws are a direct result of cable industry lobbying in an effort to make their prices more competitive with those charged by satellite operators. … Read more

Apple could be gearing up for a late February event, according to a report out Thursday.

The Unofficial Apple Weblog reported that Mira Mobile Television, a West Coast television production firm, is hiring in preparation for an Apple event to be held at the end of February. TUAW notes that the listings aren't posted on Mira's site, and it calls its own report an "unconfirmed rumor" based on a single source.

So why give it any credence? For one, Apple's Greg Joswiak earlier this week reiterated the company's plans to introduce the iPhone software developer's kit … Read more