Stock | NWS rises 6%; Murdoch talks up O'Brien

News Corp. shares are up smartly today, trading recently for $15.89, up nearly 6%. The move follows NWS's second-quarter financial report yesterday, where the company beat analysts expectations.

Also yesterday, CEO Rupert Murdoch said the company is having internal discussions about the possibility of a late-night program for comedian Conan O'Brien, MarketWatch says, but that Fox Broadcasting has not been in negotiations with the former Tonight Show host (left).

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Fox TV | Anatomy of NBC's slide to a 'punch line'

In a new story, The New York Times traces the network's embarrassing decline to also-ran among the four broadcast networks are NBC affiliates. "It has been an unseemly spectacle for a company that prides itself on a smooth corporate culture," the NYT says today, "and the disastrous culmination of a high-stakes gamble" last year by NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker to move talk show host Jay Leno to the 10 p.m. slot, passing The Tonight Show to the younger Conan O’Brien.

Urgent: O'Brien rejects NBC late-night plan

Putting himself further into play among competing networks, Tonight Show host Conan O'Brien (left) says in a statement that he won't accept NBC's plans to shift the show into a 12:05 a.m. time slot, in order to accommodate the network's plans to move Jay Leno to a later start.

O'Brien's statement follows positive signals yesterday from News Corp.'s Fox Entertainment, where President Kevin Reilly "strongly endorsed O’Brien in an interview with The New York Times. "He would be a very compatible fit for our brand,” Reilly said. “He is one of the few guys on the planet that has demonstrated he can do one of these shows every night.”

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Fox TV | News Corp. said suitor for Conan O'Brien

Amid reports he may be shunted aside so Jay Leno can return to his late-night berth, Tonight Show host Conan O'Brien (left) is mulling options that could include accepting a purported offer from News Corp., The Wall Street Journal is now reporting.

"One suitor is News Corp.'s Fox network, which has had early discussions with O'Brien's circle about hosting another late-night show," the Journal says, citing "people familiar with the matter."

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Fox TV | An appraisal of The Simpsons, on its 20th

Tough-to-please New York Times TV critic Alessandra Stanley assesses the 20th anniversary special for The Simpsons, airing this Sunday night, and finds plenty to recommend. "Mostly it’s a typical half-hour of animated lunacy and a reminder to apostates of why they loved the show in the first place,'' she writes today.

Averting blackout, Fox and Time Warner OK pact

The two companies said last night that they'd agreed on new terms for a contract covering Fox Broadcasting stations in New York, Los Angeles, and other markets, The New York Times says, preventing a blackout of the weekend’s college bowl games in millions of homes. The Wall Street Journal's story is here. Neither of the companies is showing statements on their websites, however. The showdown with Time Warner Cable had threatened to cut off viewers from much-watch football bowl games this weekend, plus mainstays including The Simpsons.

NWS, Time-Warner extend higher fee talks

Continuation of the tense negotiations prevented millions of Time Warner Cable customers from losing access to Fox Broadcasting programming, including popular weekend football game coverage.

The two companies are renegotiating a contract that officially ended at midnight Thursday and have been unable to reach an agreement on fees that News Corp. is asking to be paid for carriage of its national broadcast network, says The Wall Street Journal.

The New York Times is covering the talks on its Media Decoder blog.

Fox-Time Warner Cable feud nears 11th hour

[Fox TV is rallying support via its Keep Fox On site]

Barring a last-minute settlement tonight in a retransmission fee squabble, News Corp. says millions of Time Warner Cable customers in Los Angeles and other cities will lose Fox Broadcasting stations at midnight tonight.

"The companies are fighting over how much the cable operator should pay Fox stations for the right to retransmit their shows, sporting events and local newscasts,'' The New York Times says. "Fox is demanding about a dollar for each cable subscriber each month, which analysts say could set a precedent for broadcasters that want more money from cable and satellite operators."

The contracts expire today at midnight. Fox could then take its signal off Time Warner Cable systems in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and other cities. Negotiations between programmers and distributors are often prolonged and painful, the NYT says, "but they rarely occur in public the way the feud between Fox and Time Warner Cable has."

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