• Just before the Oscars, too! For people who want to watch WABC in New York City, get out your analog-to-digital converter. After years of arguing between one of the world’s biggest content companies and a company that just turned a well-regarded regional paper into a loss leader, ABC/Disney and Cablevison have hit an impasse. The loser? The viewers. Here’s a recap of the whining on both sides:

• In one corner: Disney “Cablevision has once again betrayed its subscribers by losing ABC7, the most popular station in the tri-state area. This follows two years of negotiations, during which we worked diligently, up to the final moments, to reach an agreement. Cablevision pocketed almost $8 billion last year, and now customers aren’t getting what they pay for…again.”
• In the other: Cablevision “It is now painfully clear to millions of New York area households that Disney CEO Bob Iger will hold his own ABC viewers hostage in order to extract $40 million in new fees from Cablevision. We call on Bob Iger to immediately return ABC to Cablevision customers while we continue to work to reach a fair agreement.” source

• Ah, studies! The things we love! The Pew Internet and American Life project just released a really interesting study about readership habits, with the key point being that online news is a huge chunk of readership nowadays. Here are a few key numbers and points, because we know that you guys like it when we do that for you:

The overall key number from this study:

• 59%like getting news on AND off the Web

We like mixing mediums:

• 92% get their news from multiple media platforms daily (as many as six)
• 2% get their news solely online – we call these people early adopters

Who reads what, where?:

• 78% like to get news from a local TV station
• 61% like getting their news on the Internet
• 50% still like reading news in a local newspaper

Online usage habits:

• variety Most people don’t have favorites. 65 percent don’t have a preferred site for their information.
• national Local news isn’t read so much online – weather and national news are much more popular.
• social Talkers are a big driver of news – three-quarters of people get news via e-mail or social media.

Lessons to take:

• » Newspapers need to focus on local: Many newspapers already do so. It’s their bread and butter, and the journalism they offer is still valuable. Readers agree, which is why they still prefer newspapers and TV for local news.
• » Can’t stop the Web: Online news is already ingrained into the public consciousness, and much of it is grabbed through social media. And it’s decentralized reading too. No point trying to plug it up at this point. In fact, it’s grabbing a massive hold on mobile phones, too.
• » People like talking about news: 72 percent of news-readers say that journalism is a social experience – they read because they like talking about it. Online, this means that social media needs to be a huge part of news-distribution efforts. source

• $1.99 the price Apple currently sells TV shows for – it’s also a dollar extra for HD, and it’s expensive
• $1 the price Apple is gunning to sell TV shows for, which could help it take on Hulu
• $30 the price they want to charge for all-you-can-eat monthly Apple TV subscriptions source

• 35% increase from 2008; 26.6 million watched source

• $58 million in donations so far; holy freakin’ crap source

• We’re happy to have reached
  a reasonable deal with no disruption in programming for our customers.
• Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt • Regarding the deal made between his company and News Corp. over content. News Corp. wanted a dollar per subscriber for its content each month; Time Warner wanted to pay them closer to twenty cents. They found a happy medium or something. Customers still lose because it means higher cable prices either way. source

• NO but they’ll give some more time to their money spat source

• “The comedy’s title will change if it gets on the air.” TechCrunch reports that one of Twitter’s funniest accounts, @shitmydadsays, is getting a TV deal. Which means such gems as this will have an audience beyond the 708,371 followers the account already has: “Sometimes life leaves a hundred dollar bill on your dresser, and you don’t realize until later that it’s because it #)&!)! you.” Freaking awesome. source