KC Confidential

Have you tried booking a non-stop flight to Minneapolis lately?

The cost is ridiculous. Around $748 round trip. But then the Twin Cities have always been an expensive destination for air travelers from Kansas City. NORTHWEST AIRLINES pretty well owned the market and had the only non-stops between the the two cities.

Then along came K.C.’s short lived VANGUARD AIRLINES.

Oh how the prices dropped when Vanguard start offering non-stop service to Minneapolism but that didn’t last long. Once Vanguard was gone prices spiked again almost immediately. Then NORTHWEST was bought out by DELTA AIR LINES which continued to offer non-stop service—but at those same high rates. Continue reading →

First HEARST CORPORATION plays hardball with TIME WARNER CABLE over cable fees in 11 markets…

In Kansas City the cord was cut last with KMBC-TV, KCWE-TV and ME-TV.

Next Viacom shut out DIRECT TV customers for channels that include Comedy Central, MTV, BET, Nickelodeon, The Daily Show and Dora The Explorer.

Even DISH NETWORK got into the fray when AMC‘S popular Breaking Bad among other shows became no-shows.

Here’s my take on the standoff.

I don’t have a problem with cable networks taking hard stands over fees they charge to cable or dish systems if those networks only outlets are pay providers.

Let’s face it, programming for those networks probably doesn’t come cheap.

However when it comes to the re-transmission of FREE commercial TV, I believe it to be an entirely different story.

Take Channel 9.

It’s an over-the-air station that provides programming free of charge to viewers. Its income depends primarily on the sale of local, regional and national advertising and the rates charged for those commercials are based on the size of the audience delivered by KMBC.

The station may also be compensated to a lesser extent by the ABC network.

So by carrying KMBC-TV, doesn’t Time Warner help Channel 9 deliver as large an audience as possible?

And if nothing else, provide perhaps a better picture than its over the air signal may provide depending on where it’s being received.

So why then is Channel 9 charging the cable system?

Shouldn’t the cable operator be charging the station? After all Time Warner is prohibited from selling its own commercials within the KMBC re-transmission.

Obviously that’s never going to happen.

But the practice of commercial TV stations charging cable and/or satellite systems is relatively new. Re-transmission was originally provided free—until broadcasters got greedy.

It’s high time for the FCC to step in here in a major way and put an end to these standoffs that eventually end up in your and my pockets. 

It was an air-conditioned, summer night’s dream by the movie studios…

At the start of summer the studios were braced for what was anticipated to be one of the biggest movie box offices ever. However to date that dream has been more of a nightmare as they’ve watched one multi million dollar investment after another go down in flames.

Now as we enter the week of summer’s most anticipated movie—Christopher Nolan‘s THE DARK KNIGHT RISES—here’s my list of the season’s hits, misses, bombs and surprises—thus far.

But before we examine the summer scorecard thus far, let me predict THE DARK KNIGHT RISES upcoming three day boxoffice gross.

My domestic ticket sales magic number is $155 million.

Will it outgross THE AVENGERS? Probably not but it’ll come close.

Why not? Because THE DARK KNIGHT RISES won’t benefit from the 3-D up charges the way THE AVENGERS did. The Avengers collected an additional (average) of $3.00 per ticket for the third dimension.

Do the math.

Here then the major studios list of hits of this summer since Hollywood kicked off the first week of May.

The hands down big winner: Walt Disney’s MARVEL AVENGERS.

MEN IN BLACK 3 did pretty well as expected, as did SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN and THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN.

PROMETHEUS shows up in the winner’s column even though it didn’t have the payoff fans were hoping for.

All three major animated films this summer delivered—including MADAGASCAR 3, BRAVE and ICE AGE: CONTINENTAL DRIFT.

And as the sleeper comedy hit so far of the summer, Seth MacFarlane‘s TED wins hands down.
 
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Now the uh, disappointments and misses.

I’ve got to include Tim Burton‘s DARK SHADOWS. Also Sacha Baron Cohen‘s THE DICTATOR. Then there’s the ensemble chick-flick WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU’RE EXPECTING, PEOPLE LIKE US, Oliver Stone‘s SAVAGES and Woody Allen‘s TO ROME WITH LOVE.

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The total bombs thus far include BATTLESHIP, CHERNOBYL DIARIES, Adam Sandler‘s low rent THAT’S MY BOY, Adam Shankman‘s failed screen adaptation of ROCK OF AGES and the (what were they thinking) ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER and KATY PERRY: PART OF ME.
 
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Oh there’ve been a couple of big surprises this summer.

The first being THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL with its star-studded AARP-worthy cast. This one started out on the art house circuit then successfully added commercial runs thanks to strong word of mouth.

And Steven Soderbergh‘s MAGIC MIKE which no one in the industry predicted would hit the way it did. Not only did it open big but the damn thing has had legs. And butts. And chests. And………
 
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So within reason it’s so far, so good.

Time to unleash the Caped Crusader Thursday at midnight plus one minute