Satellite TV News

PBS has launched a new website PBS Arts offering Americans the opportunity to experience the arts and explore the creative process through special virtual exhibits, videos from PBS national and local programs and interactive features.

PBS Arts website www.pbs.org/arts is part of PBS’ ongoing commitment to strengthen public engagement in all forms of artistic expression and performance – in front of the camera and behind the scenes – and to bring more of the arts into the lives of millions of Americans.

PBS Arts’ initial offerings include four concurrent virtual exhibitions, including “Ruin and Revival,” which features works from the “Storm Cycle” collection by New Orleans-based artist Thomas Mann. In this exhibition, Mann commemorates the city’s ongoing recovery and renovation, and celebrates its resilience.

Producers from the PBS series CRAFT IN AMERICA filmed Mann in and around New Orleans at locations that inspired his sculptural works. The “Ruin and Revival” virtual exhibition offers additional arts-focused Katrina footage, including a Louisiana Public Broadcasting report, video excerpts of PBS host Tavis Smiley’s recent journey to New Orleans and Smiley’s conversation with Branford Marsalis about the Musicians’ Village, a physical and spiritual home for performing artists in the city.

PBS Arts is organized into exhibitions and searchable by artistic discipline. The website will feature initially at least one new exhibition each month with content spanning all genres of the performing and visual arts, including dance, theater, contemporary music, opera, painting, sculpture, film and photography.

One new web exclusive, SOUND TRACKS Presents “Quick Hits,” is a spinoff of the PBS SOUND TRACKS: MUSIC WITHOUT BORDERS television pilot, which showcased stories about music and musicians from around the world. The premiere episode of “Quick Hits” presents Italian superstar Jovanotti (considered the Bono or Bruce Springsteen of Italy) in a San Francisco stage performance and interview with public radio reporter/host Marco Werman, along with a photo slideshow. In September, “Quick Hits” will feature the Brazilian singer and actor Seu Jorge. Other exhibitions will showcase stories and videos from signature PBS series such as ART:21 and AUSTIN CITY LIMITS.

PBS Arts will explore the process of artistic creation, behind the scenes and directly with the artists. Users will be encouraged to comment on the exhibitions and performances as well as upload their own related content. PBS Arts will allow viewers to share content with their friends, family and followers on Facebook and Twitter.

Full episodes of — and additional footage from — upcoming PBS specials and series such as CIRCUS, a six-hour program premiering in November, will give PBS Arts visitors additional opportunities to delve into the many arts and cultural programs found on PBS.

The site’s launch coincides with the recently released National Endowment for the Arts report, Audience 2.0: How Technology Influences Arts Participation (http://www.nea.gov/research/new-media-report/New-Media-Report.pdf), which indicates that people who engage with the arts on-air or online are three times more likely to attend a “live” event than non-media participants. For many adults, electronic media represents their sole means of experiencing dance, theater and music, the research showed.

The debut of PBS Arts kicks off PBS’s multi-platform initiative to reinvigorate public engagement with the arts through an exploration of performance, artistic expression and the creative process — on-air, online, in the classroom and in every community. PBS believes access to the arts educates the nation’s children, defines cultures, increases creativity and innovation, fosters civic engagement and promotes appreciation for diverse traditions.

PBS President and CEO Paula A. Kerger said “PBS and its member stations strive to help the American people discover the power and remarkable breadth of the arts. For 40 years, we’ve used television to give the public a front-row seat to the world’s greatest cultural experiences, and now PBS Arts will help us achieve this goal online. PBS Arts will also allow us to transport audiences from these front-row seats and give them opportunities to interact with artists and share their experiences of being engaged and enriched by the arts.”

DISH Network has launched local high-definition channels in 14 new markets on August 14. DISH Network claims that with the new additions, the satcaster is offering local high definition channels in 170 markets covering more than 96 percent of U.S. TV households.

DISH Network subscribers in the following markets receive local HD channels starting on August 18:

• Augusta, Ga.
• Davenport, Iowa
• Evansville, Ind.
• Monroe, La.
• Paducah, Ky.
• Rochester, Minn.
• San Angelo, Texas
• Shreveport, La.
• Wichita, Kan. and
• Wilmington, N.C.

DISH Network will also launch local HD programming in

• Bangor, Maine
• Macon, Ga.
• Rochester, N.Y. and
• Traverse City, Mich.

Dave Shull, senior vice president of Programming for DISH Network said “DISH Network is proud to offer the most HD local coverage in America. We continue to expand our local HD channel service because we know how important it is to our customers to watch sports, movies and their favorite primetime shows in high definition.”

FOX Network and the TEEN CHOICE 2010 awards have partnered with Planet Cazmo and entertainment mogul Tommy Mottola to create a custom Teen Choice online environment – “Virtual Teen Choice Beach Party.”

Planet Cazmo, a leading creator of online virtual concerts with a global audience of ‘tweens and teens, developed the first-of-its-kind integration between an award show and virtual world experience — “Virtual Teen Choice Beach Party” – which will be available via a link for teens after voting online for TEEN CHOICE 2010, which airs Monday, August 9 (8:00 EST) on FOX.

The experience allows participants to create and customize avatars and virtual homes, make friends, chat, play games, dance with other party guests and purchase virtual goods, including the iconic Teen Choice Surfboard made famous by the awards show.

“We are excited to be working with Planet Cazmo and to have a customized virtual world for our site visitors to form communities, talk about the show, and extend the online experience,” said Bob Bain, executive producer of TEEN CHOICE 2010.

The pairing of the virtual experience and TEEN CHOICE 2010 was developed through a partnership between Mottola’s Mottola Company and Planet Cazmo aimed at providing strategic entertainment and brand relationships.

“We are thrilled to be a part of TEEN CHOICE 2010 and to provide a 24/7 virtual environment for their millions of dedicated fans,” said Mottola. “I applaud FOX and Bob Bain Productions for welcoming Planet Cazmo to this summer’s television event.”

Planet Cazmo has developed virtual events for major music and entertainment acts including American Idol’s Jordin Sparks, David Archuleta, and Allison Iraheta, in addition to top-selling artists Jason Derulo, BoB, Weezer, Jay Sean, Natasha Bedingfield, Sean Kingston, Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em, The Script, Metro Station, and others. Planet Cazmo put the first virtual concerts on Facebook earlier this year, as well as the first-of-its-kind online music benefit show in December, 2009, donating a week’s worth of revenue to support the USMC’s Toys for Tots program.

The TEEN CHOICE 2010 partnership marks the opening of Planet Cazmo’s new “Cazmo Network” where the company has recently launched several partnerships with major portals such as Primary Games and others, with other major announcements coming soon.

Ashworth College has announced that author, motivational speaker, U.S. Olympic team sports psychologist and Ashworth instructor, Dr. Nicole Detling Miller, will be the keynote speaker at this year’s graduation ceremony to be held on August 7, 2010 at Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta, GA.

Recently, Dr.Detling Miller served as the official U.S. Speed Skating Team sports psychologist and “mental coach” during the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, assisting athletes in overcoming any confidence, composure, anxiety and distraction issues that might hinder their performance.

“Sometimes it’s the difference between winning an Olympic medal and just missing out. The goal is to have athletes performing at their peak,” said Dr. Detling Miller, who serves as chief instructor and subject matter expert for Ashworth’s Sports Psychology program. “By the time athletes reach the Olympics they are comparable in terms of skill and physical ability. What gets them to the podium is how well they’ve prepared themselves mentally.”

The 2010 ceremony will be the fourth annual for Ashworth College, a provider of accredited online college degrees and online high school diplomas. Attending a live graduation ceremony has special significance for Ashworth graduates. Not only does it honor a long-standing tradition shared by students worldwide, for most grads it is quite possibly the first live interaction with faculty, staff and other students. The average Ashworth student completes their education online, from home, anywhere in the world without stepping foot in a classroom or ever meeting an instructor face-to-face.

“Graduation is Ashworth’s Olympics… where graduates climb up to the podium and are recognized for their hard-earned accomplishments in front of their peers and family,” said F. Milton Miller, Ed.D., Ashworth College Vice President of Education. “We’re looking forward to hearing Dr. Detling Miller’s message at this year’s ceremony. Miller acknowledged that what Ashworth graduates have learned academically is only the foundation for what will make them successful.”

Dr. Miller’s course, Sport Psychology for Peak Performance, is designed for coaches, trainers, exercise and fitness instructors, recreation directors and athletes who want to improve performance. Her online course teaches useful mental strategies, goal setting, maintaining concentration, handling competitive pressure, and much more.

Dr. Detling Miller holds multiple degrees in sports psychology including a BA in psychology and sports science from Ohio Wesleyan University, her MS in sport psychology from Ithaca College, and her Ph.D. in sport psychology at the University of Utah. She also completed an internship in sport psychology and sports medicine at the Mayo Clinic.

Besides her involvement with Ashworth College and the U.S. Olympics, Dr. Detling Miller is a frequent presenter at international and professional conferences, has been guest speaker at several U.S. coaching clinics and co-authored book chapters and contributed to numerous professional publications.

A three sport collegiate athlete (basketball, indoor track and field, and outdoor track and field), Dr. Detling Miller maintains an active lifestyle playing soccer, rock climbing, downhill skiing, and mountain biking. She currently lives in the Salt Lake City, Utah area with her husband, John, and sons, Logan and Elias.

“We’re very proud of the fact that one of our instructors is affiliated with the U.S. Olympic team and has helped numerous athletes achieve success,” said Gary M. Keisling, Ashworth College Chairman and CEO. “We’re also proud to have her as part of the Ashworth family and thrilled to have her participate in this special occasion.”

Past Ashworth commencement speakers include two-time Ashworth graduate Didiayer Snyder, team designer on the Emmy Award-winning Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and Mike Lambert, Executive Director of the Distance Education and Training Council.

2010 Cessna Citation Special Olympics Airlift will bring in 800 athletes and coaches from across the United States to take part in the 2010 Special Olympics USA National Games, July 18-23 in Lincoln, Neb.

Special Olympics athletes from Georgia taking part in the event send off will be from 6 a.m. until 7:30 a.m. at the main terminal of the Peachtree-DeKalb Airport, located at 2325 Chamblee Tucker Rd.

More than 160 private jets have been donated, with many of the planes making multiple trips to bring athletes and take them home. The jets will be landing approximately every two minutes for a 9-hour period on Saturday, July 17. Georgia athletes will compete alongside 3,000 other athletes.

The following coaches and athletes will compete at National Games:
Senior Unified Softball Team of Jones County: Coaches Leah Bodnarchuk, Blake Lyons and Graham Nash; athletes Keith Norman, Chinassa Hill, Olivia Nelson, Trace Scott, Michael Wooten, Brenda Drawhorn, Jeremy Pitts, Chelsey McKinney, Steven Ryle, Heath Tyre, Tony Wilbert, Jonathan Boutwell, and Marcus Wooten.

Athletes competing in Rhythmic Gymnastics are from Carrollton, Cobb and Columbia counties are DeAsia Manley, Keiria McCaskill, Amber Shrewsberry and Lani DeMello. Their coach is Jennifer Gunnells of Carrollton Parks & Recreation. The Head of Delegation for Team Georgia is Kelli Britt of Special Olympics Georgia’s state office.

The Georgia team is sponsored by AON, Superior Essex, 11Alive, BB&T, Carmax, The Coca-Cola Company, and PGA Superstore and Fogelman Management Group.

COMEDY CENTRAL has announced that it teaming up with the New York Comedy Festival, to produce “Comics To Watch.” This is a live show featuring the best up-and-coming young comedians from across the country.

The comedians, selected by the all-comedy network and the festival organizers, will be chosen for their unique strengths including writing, delivery to stage persona. The showcase will take place at the famed comedy venue Carolines on Broadway during the 2010 New York Comedy Festival, which runs November 3 – 7.

“Comics To Watch” will showcase a wide range of diversely talented young comedians — the very best talent making the rounds on the national scene. Being recognized and invited to participate in this live event would be huge accomplishment for these up-and-coming performers.

“The New York Comedy Festival has long been home to some of today’s biggest headliners who are at the top of their game,” said JoAnn Grigioni, vice president, talent, COMEDY CENTRAL. “‘Comics To Watch’ was created to launch the careers of the next generation of comedians by putting them in front of industry executives and comedy fans.”

“We’re thrilled to be partnering with COMEDY CENTRAL on this great new addition to the festival,” says Caroline Hirsch, a partner in the New York Comedy Festival and owner of Carolines on Broadway. “COMEDY CENTRAL has a long history of finding and developing the very best new comedy talent and ‘Comics To Watch’ will provide a unique platform for a select new group of comedians to be seen. I’m looking forward to participating in the process of identifying and developing this group of emerging comedy talent with COMEDY CENTRAL,” Hirsch adds.

Kristen K. Brown’s Happy Hour Effect LLC is developing a new web-based talk show and radio program ‘The Happy Hour Effect with Kristen Brown.’

This talk show helps people live with less stress and more balance in their lives. Already a show is currently being broadcast on Oprah Winfrey Network and is available for viewing and voting online.

Happy Hour Effect’s founder and president, Kristen Brown said “The more votes the show can get by July 3rd, the better. I need to catch the attention of the producers so hopefully my work/life balance message and passion for helping others manage the stress in their lives more effectively will shine through in my video.”

“But votes will help too so go online and vote often! A vote for this show is a vote for you because it will help fight the stress that contributes to illness and the leading causes of death in America” added Brown.

Dish Network has dropped four Walt Disney Company owned high-definition channels in fee dispute. The HD channels that are removed from its HD programming lineup are:

• ABC Family HD
• Disney Channel HD
• Disney XD HD and
• ESPNews HD

The satcaster is still offering the standard definition channels. Dish Network has stated that Disney is seeking for more carriage fees.

Dish Network briefed that it offers all subscribers ‘HD Free for Life’ and this is possible because the satcaster negotiates fair amount for the HD channels.

Dish Network said “We offer all customers ‘HD Free for Life,’ which is possible because we are committed to negotiating fair contracts that allow us to keep our prices low. That is why we could not agree to the significant fees requested by Disney and ESPN Networks.”

Disney said, “Our position is that Dish Network is not entitled to carry ABC Family HD, Disney Channel HD, Disney XD HD and ESPNews HD without paying compensation. We hope that Dish will work with us to reach an agreement so that we can make these HD networks available to their customers.”

Time Warner and Verizon have partnered to offer new television programming available online to Verizon’s FiOS TV subscribers.

Time Warner and Verizon have announced that FiOS TV subscribers will automatically receive free, unlimited online access to popular content from Time Warner’s Turner networks – TNT and TBS starting June and also plans to bring the same content to mobile devices in the near future.

Verizon is working with a number of content providers to test and make available soon to FiOS customers a significant amount of additional online programming from a variety of content providers, including FOX News, CBS, MTV Networks, Hallmark Channel, Smithsonian Channel, the Tennis Channel and more. These channels will join other online video services already available to FiOS customers. These services include Time Warner’s HBO, which launched HBO Go to FiOS customers in February.

Mike Ritter, chief marketing officer for Verizon, said “Consumers want to access video any time, any place, and Verizon continues to expand our high-quality entertainment services, providing FiOS customers with access and control. We will continue to work with companies like Time Warner and other early adopters to remain a leader in delivering the best content over the best network.”

Time Warner Inc. Chairman and CEO Jeff Bewkes said, “Verizon has been a great partner as we’ve explored new ways for their subscribers to access and interact with our popular networks. TNT and TBS will now be available online to FiOS subscribers at no added cost. In less than a year, we’ve been able to launch our vision of delivering TV Everywhere to nearly 20 million customers nationwide.”