Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) has linked its Apple TV device to television shows purchased from a user’s iTunes account, meaning that those in the Apple Garden can now buy a show on an iOS device and watch it on Apple TV, or vice versa. A software update is rolling out Monday…

Ad spending on social networks like Facebook may be growing, but it’s not showing when it comes to CPMs—something which has implications for all web publishers. For years, premium pubs have complained that the social nets have flooded the web with a constant supply of inventory, which has only served…

Although online video continues to be one of the fastest rising ad categories, it also remains one of the smallest. So while TV networks have barely been able to turn the digital pennies into digital dollars (to use NBC Universal (NYSE: GE) head Jeff Zucker’s phrase), online video is also…

A&E is looking to test how well Microsoft’s addressable TV platform Admira can handle targeted media buys across some of its smaller channels. While Google (NSDQ: GOOG) TV Ads has received a lot of focus for how slowly its been able to drive targeted TV ads across set-top boxes, Microsoft’s…

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (NYSE: MSO) held its advertising upfront yesterday and unlike the traditional TV upfront events that are getting under way, the focus here was the company’s range of cross-platform offerings, all of which are tied together with social media elements. The centerpiece of the presentation was a…

From my live Twitter coverage (sdkstl) of the CBS (NYSE: CBS) earnings call featuring Chairman Sumner Redstone, CEO Leslie Moonves, outgoing CFO Fred Reynolds, incoming CFO Joe Ianniello: »  Moonves: improvement has been very steady, very real. ... Q2 better than Q1, Q3 better than Q2. Signs of recovery gathering…

»  Is Twitter ruining sports journalism by cutting out reporters and letting the athletes control the message? [USA Today] »  Hearst says reports that it is talking to Hachette Filipacchi’s parent company Lagardère about joint control of Elle are untrue. [NY Observer] »  The gender gap among online video watchers…

MTV Networks (NYSE: VIA) is “about done” with the upfront, Viacom CEO Philipe Dauman told analysts on the company’s Q2 earnings call this morning. “Given current conditions, we’re very pleased,” he added. As for those current conditions, domestic ad revenues declined 6 percent in Q2, which may sound tough but…

The TV upfront negotiations between agencies and networks appears to be moving forward after a period of paralysis, but you can dismiss any thought of online video benefiting from the recent impasse or from the sudden spurt of deal-making. For one thing, sources say, the current system, whether spending is…

Following the Discovery Communications (NSDQ: DISCA) upfront at the *Time Warner* Center in New York, I talked with CEO David Zaslav (pictured on the right, with president of ad sales Joe Abruzzese) about online video. Over at The Cable Show in Washington, D.C., this week, where Zaslav is speaking Friday…

NBC Universal (NYSE: GE) CEO Jeff Zucker, in a Q&A with Ellen Pollock, executive editor, BusinessWeek, opened the McGraw-Hill Media Summit by taking on Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart, who on the Daily Show last week took CNBC and one of its main stars, Mad Money host Jim Cramer, to task…

Microsoft’s Massive in-game ad division has a new leader: former Xbox Live GM JJ Richards. As ClickZ notes, Richards is a natural fit for the new position—he helped initiate MSFT’s acquisition of Massive in 2006, and has helped grow Xbox Live into a viable community (not to mention a steady…

I’m seated on in a second-tier balcony at Carnegie Hall, a location that CBS Corp. President/CEO Les Moonves references as metaphor for “the orchestra of media offerings” the company is presenting to advertisers. Given the impact of the dismal economy and the writers strike, the company is highlighting radio, outdoor…

Not all the networks were skimping on their presentations to advertisers this week. David Levy, president of Turner Broadcasting Sales and Turner Sports, kicked off the Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) net’s upfront presentation by bragging about how much Turner was paying to rent out the Hammerstein Ballroom by referencing former…

Conan O’Brien took the stage to introduce the NBC Upfront and reminisce about how times have changed over the course of his 15-year tenure with the company, including his looking forward to “next year’s upfronts at the falafel stand on 49th St.” The video is embedded below and the writeup…

NBC finally makes a decision: no upfronts, but a smaller “spotlight” event, and then series of client meetings with media buyers instead. As NYT writes here, get ready for “the endless season”, quoting Gene DeWitt, CEO at DeWitt Media. The “spotlight event” will be held May 12 in NYC and…

Despite caveats from Yahoo and AOL that they weren’t directly challenging the dominance of the broadcast and cable upfront market with their respective ad industry presentations over the past few months, it was clear the intent was to siphon off at least some of the $9 billion going towards the…

With the pageantry of the TV upfront presentations over, negotiations for the fall season’s ad dollars are well underway. While online media has received its share of attention during those talks in recent years as buyers and sellers discussed multi-platform packages, it appears that interactive has acquired a greater degree…

Betty Cohen is out as president and CEO of Lifetime Entertainment Services Wednesday, a day after what I gather was one of the network’s most successful upfronts. It certainly was the most detailed and ambitious from the digital end, closer to what I expected when Cohen came on board two…