Simon Applebaum's Odds & Ends from the Passing Parade

Consumer Electronics Association executives stick with their forecast of ultrahighdefinition TV sets not taking off in a big way until 2015 or 2016 The ultraTV setmaker crowd almost to a TV whether big players Samsung Vizio LG and Toshiba or newbies like Seiki stick to their belief that next year will be the time sales shoot for the sky This is going to a be fun watch for who blinks first on their standWithin this ultra HD set competition Sharp and Toshiba include Web browsing features with their models where you use a remote or keyboard to put any Web site in big view Sharp goes one step further with sidebyside displays of Web site and TV picture There39s one catch at the momentyou can39t display a Web video and TV picture sidebyside You have to go fullscreen if you want to see that YouTube or Netflix program The Sharp folks say they39re working on it and intend to make that sidebyside video display possible ASAP Once that39s perfected and available let39s see how fast this smart TV feature gets imitated by the other ultra HD set manufacturersThe big CBSTime Warner Cable station blackout is over but many Time Warner Cable subscribers in the Midwest continue without Journal Broadcasting stations in their areas thanks to week five of that situation involving cable39s secondlargest operator In this one there39s no sign anyone39s at the negotiation table and no sense lack of NFL games now or the premieres of new broadcast series the next two weeks is forcing movement between these retransmission gladiatorsSlowly and surely Al Jazeera America is winning viewers over to its coverage Nielsen reports the channel averaged 23000 in primetime the week before Labor Day up 5000 from the week before Total day viewing jumped to 18000 from 14000 Still unclear if slowly and surely Al Jazeera America will pick up affiliates and national advertising supportWhen Jerry Lewis hosted the Muscular Dystrophy Association39s annual 21hour telethon he made a habit of pointing one finger at the tote board and declaring the tote was viewer pledges and nothing more than viewer pledges Furthermore he showed pride in that 100 percent or more of the final tote was accounted for year after year with that total climbing above 60 million in its last 21hour editions Not so postLewis39 role with MDA When announcing that 595 million was raised by the Show of Strength special running on ABC September 1 MDA acknowledged that the total included corporate sponsor contributions So how much did viewers actually pledge during that twohour special The sense you get is not after considering A One corporate sponsor the International Association of Fire Fighters involved with MDA for decades raised 261 million through its boot drives over the last few months nearly half of the total B Many ABC stations did little or no promotion for Show of Strength whether with onair spots outdoor ads or newspaperonline banners and C ABC averaged 21 million viewers for the night third among broadcast nets according to Nielsen Give MDA credit for noting the inclusion of sponsor money The question for 2014 and beyond How do you invite more viewing and more donations when you viewMarty Glickman was one of the great radioTV sportscasters of all time and a force behind the mike as well HBO39s new documentary Glickman writtenproduceddirected by James Freedman does the subject full justice One way or another catch thisGet ready for one busy cluster of New Yorkbased TV activity between the final weeks of September and October Advertising Week39s 10th goround begins it all followed by the firstever PaleyFest NY Hispanic TV Summit Digital Delivery Network39s conference Diversity Week the annual New York Television Festival and NYC Television Week another firstever attraction focused on the tube Set aside that extra taxi and subway fareyou39ve been warnedUntil the next time stay well and stay tunedThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

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Simon Applebaum's Odds & Ends from the Passing Parade

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The Care Economy No One Built -- And the Leader Who Did. Wellthy's Lindsay Jurist-Rosner - By Jack Myers

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Simon Applebaum's Odds & Ends from the Passing Parade

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The Care Economy No One Built -- And the Leader Who Did. Wellthy's Lindsay Jurist-Rosner - By Jack Myers

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