NEW YORK: The three-month Hollywood writers' strike appears to have had life-changing consequences for the US media industry.
First NBC Universal cancelled its traditional upfront advertising airtime sales extravaganza; now rival CBS has said it will commission fewer pilot shows, cut back its annual presentation to advertisers and offer less lucrative production deals to writers.
The changes come as CBS posted a 14% year-on-year slide in fourth quarter earnings to $286.2 million (€190m; £144m). Revenue dipped 3% to $3.75bn.
Meantime, Sirius Satellite Radio, which is still awaiting regulatory approval for its purchase of rival XM, saw its Q4 loss narrow to $166.2m from $245.6m. Sirius ended 2007 with 8.3m subscribers, up 38%.
Comments ceo Mel Karmazin: "We are optimistic that we will hear favourable information . . . soon."
First NBC Universal cancelled its traditional upfront advertising airtime sales extravaganza; now rival CBS has said it will commission fewer pilot shows, cut back its annual presentation to advertisers and offer less lucrative production deals to writers.
The changes come as CBS posted a 14% year-on-year slide in fourth quarter earnings to $286.2 million (€190m; £144m). Revenue dipped 3% to $3.75bn.
Comments ceo Mel Karmazin: "We are optimistic that we will hear favourable information . . . soon."
Data sourced from Financial Times online; additional content by WARC staff
