Tag Archives: Fox

FOX’s 24 Season 8: New York Gets Jacked… all from an LA studio…

24-Season8-NY
Part of 24 full page advertisement in NY Times

O boy… I was excited hearing that FOX’s 24 Season 8 was going to take place in New York. Thought I would be able to catch a movie set or two. I remember seeing a “making of” after Season 3 or so and was totally prepared for some cool stuff.

Only a little later I found out that nothing in Season 8 was going to be taped here in New York which was a total disappointment.

Next: this weeks Sunday edition of the NY Times had a full page advertisement “New York Gets Jacked” with Jack Bauer standing on top of a NY taxi!

I mean… how could Fox pull this off? A full page advertisement that screams: watch watch watch: it is in New York (while it is not)

I had to watch the Season 8 premiere yesterday and I could not help thinking all the time scenes of New York were shown, Jack walking in streets of the city, NYPD, yellow taxis, the UN… It just felt…. totally fake.

So, here is my request for FOX: please make sure Season 9 is back in LA and do not think of picking another city unless you tape there. I understand 24 is fake to start with but taping everything from an LA studio makes it all very very fake. And a full page advertisement in the NY Times (of all newspapers) does not really help, at least for somebody living in NYC.

If a successful TV series like 24 was managed like a brand, how far would you go with losing “reality” ?  Or is this just written by somebody who’s favorite TV series was 24 and stopped believing 3+ Seasons ago? 🙂

Time Warner & Fox cable deal: how much are cable providers willing to pay to stay in the game?

The whole Fox vs Time Warner contracting mess was interesting to follow. For those who don’t know what happened: Fox demanded about a dollar per Time Warner subscriber while Time Warner was willing to pay 30 cents per subscriber.

What this shows is that content providers are getting power back as they are not solo dependent on cable providers delivering their content (and advertising) to viewers. Back in June I wrote a blog post that questioned how long we consumers are willing to pay for the convenience of watching content through cable versus the internet (link). Now it seems content providers have woken up and turned this up side down: how much are cable providers willing to pay to stay in the game. They can do so as virtually any program can be obtained through the content provider network, hulu.com or iTunes.

I am very curious to see how this all plays out in the next two years. One thing is for sure: during 2010 I will make steps to remove my 100+ USD per month cable contract and go to an internet solution. Thinking about a Mac Mini for that…. anybody any tips?