I was reading a blog by Don Reisinger about the agreement recently made between Hallmark Television and Google. http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10112530-2.html.  He explains, “Instead of employing conventional techniques for television advertising, Google takes its online model and applies that to the medium. The company aims to provide greater relevancy by using proprietary targeting tools and an auction-based pricing system, which only costs advertisers when impressions are delivered to their ads.” Sounds like an interesting new take on advertising. I wonder if this new process will gain in popularity.

The Screen Actors Guild has been debating recently on whether to go on strike. This column by Vince Horiuchi of the Salt Lake Tribune details how the strike could be hazardous to the television world as well as the economy. http://www.sltrib.com/columnists/ci_11080105 .  He says that the recent writers’ strike cost California over 2.1 billion dollars and the actors strike could do much worse. This has bad news written all over it with the economy as poor as it is. Hopefully the actors can come to an agreement soon.

http://www.comcast.net/triviagames/tv/tvgameshows/?cid=tr_hptshowbizb_1124

Nielsen Media Research states the average American watches more television now then 10 years ago. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jbMrQbSxEdTGSLp5oJoTu3NIBBYgD94LCTAG4. Viewers watch on average 1 more hour per day then 10 years ago. This is surprising considering the rise of people who watch shows and other entertainment on computers. I guess the appeal for bad reality shows and celebrities doing anything really drags in viewers.

I was just reading about a study that focuses on banning advertisements on fast food during programming aimed at children. http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Researchers-Ban-Fast-Food-TV/story.aspx?guid=%7BE828ED82-0770-46FB-A4B2-CC38067CC172%7D.  The authors found that a ban on fast food television advertisements during children’s programming would reduce the number of overweight children ages 3-11 by 18 percent. I find this study hard to believe considering the average 10 year old doesn’t see a commercial for a Big Mac and run to the nearest Mcdonald’s. Children are connected to their parents when it comes to what they eat. Parents take their kids to fast food places and pay for their meals. If you want to cut down on childhood obesity, don’t ban fast food commercials but increase efforts to inform parents about the importance of feeding your children a healthy diet.

A University of Maryland study has determined that people who watch TV are more unhappy than people who read and stick to social situations for entertainment. http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20081117/television_habits_081117/20081117?hub=Health   Apparently TV is OK as a temporary distraction but people who read the newspaper or interact with others find happiness more often.

I just read a very interesting article by a writer for the San Francisco chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2008/11/12/DDUQ1426HP.DTL  Tim Goodman writes about the distinctions between unscripted and scripted television and makes comparisons between bad and good reality television. I thought it was a great article and the paragraph that describes why reruns are a dying breed on television was especially interesting.

I just read a story that I don’t buy into but maybe somebody will open my eyes and prove me wrong. Check it out. Comment back if you think I’m wrong in thinking there’s nothing truly proven by this study. http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-health/20081103/MED.TV.Sex.Teen.Pregnancy/

I followed a link on yahoo today to this site. http://tv.yahoo.com/the-simpsons/show/211/news/urn:newsml:tv.tvguide.com:20081031:f471d1779c0c026d4628919fd827132e

It seems that the Simpsons will continue on a few more seasons and further tarnish its reputation. I am a huge fan of the Simpsons if you are talking about the first 6 or 7 seasons, but it’s been all downhill since then. The makers of the show should have ended it years ago when there was at least some bit of quality to it but I guess when there’s money to be made, quality goes out the window.

This post doesn’t fit into the game show theme I’ve been writing about but I thought it was interesting. I read this story in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer. http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/33431444.html  The writer, Phil Sheridan, blasts Major League Baseball for bowing to Fox TV with their coverage of the World Series. He even goes as far as to call Fox a pimp. So take a look, interesting stuff.