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Monday, January 5, 2009
Hispanic TV landscape could shift in L.A. trial
LOS ANGELES — In a trial that could change the landscape of Hispanic television in the U.S., broadcasting giant Univision Communications Inc. squares off Tuesday against the supplier of its popular telenovelas, Grupo Televisa SA.
The courtroom battle, brewing since 2005, has taken on the tinge of a romantic drama. Televisa is playing the role of the spurned suitor seeking justice, while Univision is trying to keep a financially successful, if unhappy, marriage intact.
Mexico City-based Televisa, the dominant producer of Spanish-language dramas, alleges that Univision wrongly excluded certain programs from the deal that called for Univision to share its advertising revenue with Televisa, even from shows that weren’t made by Televisa. The 25-year agreement was set to continue through 2017.
As the charges and countercharges escalated over the years, the dispute has evolved to threaten Univision’s bedrock of programming — the three hours of Televisa-made soap operas that air five nights a week such as “Las Tontas No Van Al Cielo” (“Dumb Women Don’t Go to Heaven”) — and have cemented Univision at No. 1 among U.S. Hispanic audiences.
If Televisa’s arguments — that Univision committed a material breach of contract — are proved at the jury trial starting Tuesday, the company intends to cut its ties and take its programming elsewhere.
Such a move could cripple New York-based Univision, which has $10.8 billion in debt, much of it created in 2006 in a private-equity firm leveraged buyout, at a time when even advertising for the growing Hispanic market is slumping.
“If Televisa wins, overnight it changes the Spanish-language television landscape as we know it today,” said Jose Cancela, a Coral Gables, Florida-based marketing consultant and author of “The Power of Business en Espanol.”
“This source of programming that Televisa provides gives Univision a dominant position in the marketplace,” Cancela said. “If they were to lose that or it unravels, it has a huge implication for their financial circumstances.”
When the lawsuit was first filed in 2005, it was just about recouping payments Televisa said it was owed. But Televisa raised the legal stakes by alleging a material breach of contract, which would allow it to cancel the deal entirely.
Televisa made this move around the time Univision declared that it was for sale in February 2006. At the time, Televisa owned 11 percent of Univision and was trying to take it over. Univision argued that Televisa’s breach-of-contract claim was designed to scare off other suitors, a poison pill that would leave potential Univision buyers with a hollowed prime-time lineup.
Ultimately, Televisa failed in its takeover bid and had to sell its stake to a group of private equity firms and billionaire Haim Saban, which acquired Univision for $12.3 billion.
But Televisa pressed on with its suit, seeing greater value in shopping its content elsewhere in the United States than the roughly $140 million, or around 12 percent of Univision’s total ad sales, that it collects from Univision annually.
Entangled in the corporate legal feud is also the generational struggle of the media mogul family of Emilio Azcarraga Viduaretta, the founder of the company that became Televisa.
His son Emilio Azcarraga Milmo, “El Tigre,” locked the company into the quarter-century deal with Univision’s then chief executive, Andrew Jerrold Perenchio. But when the second Emilio Azcarraga died in 1997, passing on the family’s control to the third, Emilio Azcarraga Jean, relations between the companies soured.
In 2005, Azcarraga resigned from Univision’s board to protest Perenchio’s decision to pick the company’s next president without consulting him.
“Perenchio never really accepted Emilio Jr.,” Cancela said. “Perenchio’s attitude was, ‘I signed this with your dad, and you’re stuck with it.’”
Univision, now led by CEO Joe Uva, claims that the alleged breaches in the contract, even if they are proven, are not “so dominant or pervasive as to frustrate the purpose” of the deal, thereby not crossing the threshold for a “material breach” set by Judge Philip Gutierrez.
Televisa claims it is owed $118 million from Univision; Univision has paid $18 million of it under protest. About $80 million of the damages sought are over unsold commercial spots that were then used by Univision subsidiaries, which Univision argues are not part of the revenue-sharing plan.
“Univision has always complied with the terms of its agreements with Televisa,” Univision lawyer John Keker said in a statement. “When the jury hears the evidence, we are confident that they will understand that and we will prevail at trial.”
Televisa lawyer Marshall Grossman argues that the “bad faith which permeates the relationship,” including stonewalling by Univision accountants, is enough to justify the termination of the contract.
The prospect of appeals means it could take another year or two for the matter to be settled, meaning any shock to Univision and its programming lineup might be blunted for now. “This lawsu it is almost five years old. So Univision has had plenty of opportunity to continue to develop and make alternative arrangements,” Grossman said. “If it’s wounded, in our judgment, it’s self-inflicted.”
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Twitter accounts of Obama, Britney Spears hacked
Here’s a story from CNN.com:
The Twitter accounts of President-elect Barack Obama, CNN anchor Rick Sanchez, Britney Spears, Fox News and 29 others were hacked today according to the microblog site, leading to false and inappropriate messages being posted on their accounts.
The microblog site Twitter was hit with phishing scams and hacker attacks during the last three days.
First Fox News Twitter followers read a false message about Bill O’Reilly’s sexuality Monday morning after hackers launched several attacks.
Then came the attack on pop princess Britney Spears private parts.
CNN anchor Rick Sanchez, who uses Twitter on his TV show to interact with the audience, also fell victim to the scam, when a hacker posted about drugs on his account.
Twitter is a social-networking blog site that allows users to send status updates, or “tweets,” from cell phones, instant messaging services and Facebook in less than 140 characters.
Twitter co-founder Biz Stone wrote on the site’s blog that the accounts were compromised after a hacker accessed tools the support team uses when a Twitter user can’t remember or wants to reset their login info.
“We considered this a very serious breach of security and immediately took the support tools offline,” Stone said in the blog post. “We’ll put them back only when they’re safe and secure.”
Jennifer Dargan, Director of Public Relations for CNN confirmed Sanchez’s account was compromised.
“As a result, some Twitter users may have received offensive messages attributed to Rick when the breach occurred,” she said. “This is annoying, though such breaches are not uncommon when using social networking sites.”
“Rick has notified Twitter of his account’s breach and taken some basic steps to secure his account’s access. Rick enjoys communicating with viewers via Twitter and he and many others at CNN find social networking a valuable tool in their shows. Rick will continue to use Twitter — along with MySpace and Facebook — to engage CNN’s audience.”
The attacks came after Twitter suffered a vicious phishing scam over the weekend, during which everyday Twitter users may have been tricked into logging on to a page masquerading as the Twitter front page, according to the site.
Instead, users were actually giving out their login information. The fake link was then passed along to anyone following that user.
Twitter posted a small notice on the page of each user warning them about the attacks.
But some users, concerned about the attacks, began messaging Twitter employees.
“So you’re OK with a status quo where any Twitter [application] is potentially a phishing scam?” Twitter user “Aral” posted on the account of Alex Payne, a developer at Twitter. According to his Web site Payne is in charge of working with programmers who develop their own applications that work with Twitter.
“I’m certainly not happy with the security status quo. I just want people to understand the different threats. We’ll get there,” Payne responded.
The attacks are the first known security issues with Twitter, which has grown as a popular social networking site during the last year.
The attack on Twitter indicates hackers may see social networking sites as a good place to try and steal passwords and account information from the most people.
While many of the accounts were fixed quickly by resetting passwords, the attacks are a reminder for Twitter that with increasing popularity comes more security risks. iReport.com: Scammers ‘phishing’ on Twitter
And those risks have kept employees at Twitter working quickly to try and fend off attacks and fix compromised tools.
The company’s CEO Evan Williams echoed that sentiment with a post on his Twitter account this morning.
“Mood at Twitter HQ the first work day of the year: Focused Anxiety.
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Gwyneth Paltrow shares diet tips
Few people would envision Hollywood star Gwyneth Paltrow as one who needs a diet.
But the 36-year-old, who most recently appeared in the summer hit “Iron Man,” did share her plans for a post-holiday detox, and you can find the details here and here.
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Springsteen songs free via Amazon, Guitar Hero
Bruce Springsteen fans can download a free song now and also have something to look forward to later this month.
In celebration of his upcoming album, “Working on a Dream,” Springsteen’s single “Life Itself” is already available via Amazon (along with a video).
And from Jan. 27 through Feb. 4, fans of The Boss will be able to download “My Lucky Day” and the classic “Born to Run” for Guitar Hero World Tour. The songs are available for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii video game systems.
Meanwhile, Springsteen and the E Street Band are preparing for their halftime performance in the Super Bowl.
For more details, check out this link.
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North American box office has record year
The Hollywood Reporter says the domestic box office did set a record last year, grossing $9.78 billion, up about 2 percent over 2007.
However, the number of tickets sold in Canada and the U.S. dropped, from 1.4 billion to 1.36 billion, meaning that higher ticket prices helped fuel the record.
Of course, The Dark Knight and its studio, Warner Bros., were the big winners, with Dark Knight earning $531 million.
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Actor Pat Hingle dies at 84
Actor (and University of Texas grad) Pat Hingle died of cancer over the weekend at the age of 84, reports Variety.com.
He was perhaps best known for playing Commissioner Gordon in the 1990s Batman movies, but he also had roles in Norma Rae and On the Waterfront, and made appearances on numerous TV shows.
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Actor Gary Oldman marries jazz singer
Actor Gary Oldman has tied the knot for the fourth time, marrying musician Alexandra Edenborough in California last week, reports England’s Daily Telegraph.
The 50-year-old actor, who played Commissioner Gordon in The Dark Knight, was previously married to model Donya Fiorentino (divorced in 2001), actress Uma Thurman and actress Lesley Manville (the Web site did not list when those marriages ended).
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‘Marley’ remains at the top of the box office
Marley and Me was the weekend’s top film, making about $24 million and bringing its total to $106.5 million since it opened on Christmas Day, says The New York Times.
In fact, “the top five films — and some others down the ladder — kept their positions from last week,” said the Times.
At No. 2, Bedtime Stories took in about $20 million. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, at No. 3, made about $18.5 million. No. 4, Valkyrie, made $14 million. And No. 5, Yes Man, took in about $13.9 million.
I don’t expect that trend will continue next week, with Bride Wars opening and Gran Torino expanding into new markets. Be sure to check Friday’s paper for reviews of the opening films.
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What’s the song being played in ‘The Soloist’ trailer?
I finally got around to seeing The Curious Case of Benjamin Button over the weekend, and before the movie started I saw the trailer again for The Soloist, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx.
I could not figure out what classical piece was played in the trailer, and finally had to look it up online.
It’s Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 in G, according to WikiAnswers.
Here’s the trailer (found on YouTube). Following that is a video of Yo-Yo Ma playing the suite (also from YouTube).
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‘Dancing’ host wants Jackman on the show
“Dancing with the Stars” host Samantha Harris says she wants to see Australia star Hugh Jackman on the show, reports People.com.
She expects he would do well as a contestant, because he has had starring roles on Broadway. Harris even pitched the idea to him and “he actually twirled and dipped me. I was so excited,” she said told People.
The next season of “Dancing” begins in March — so you fans don’t have too much longer to wait (remember, February is a short month!) — and obviously the cast will be announced in the coming weeks.
If by some miracle Jackman was a contestant on the show, do you think that would make him the biggest star on the popular reality series? I can’t remember all the other stars who’ve danced for ABC, but no other A-list actor comes to mind.
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