The Morning Fix: It pays to be kept out of the loop. Oprah to help on Chicago Olympic push. Early TV season analysis. Shocker: Young people still listen to radio!
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After the coffee. Before setting the DVR for ‘FlashForward.’
Sometimes it pays to be kept out of the loop. The Wall Street Journal reports that Marvel Chief Executive Ike Perlmutter was granted 1.27 million stock options that could end up being worth more than $34 million after his film chief, David Maisel, had a February meeting with Disney CEO Bob Iger about ways the companies could work together but before those talks led to the big deal last month. Maisel, WSJ said, never mentioned that meeting to Perlmutter, who was given the options in March, and the real talks with Iger didn’t start until June. At that point Perlmutter was debriefed.Sunday analogue ticket. Already shelling out $300 a year for DirecTV’s NFL Sunday Ticket package but wondering why it costs an additional $100 to see the games in high definition? The New York Times’ Rich Sandomir was and he digs in to find out why so much dough.
IPods haven’t killed the radio star ... yet. Radio may be struggling, but young people still like to spin the dial, according to Nielsen Co., which is taking on rival Arbitron to provide ratings on the medium. In a survey detailed by Crain’s New York, the 18-34 age demographic is listening to almost 22 hours of radio a week.
Early analysis. The Wrap’s Joe Adalian looks at the five early lessons of the new TV season, including why leftovers taste good and the influence of critics. Oh, and it’s too early to judge Jay Leno.
Love ‘Mad Men,’ hate commercials. Fans of the ‘60s drama that centers on an ad agency apparently don’t like ads themselves. TiVo reports that ‘Mad Men’ fans skip ads at a higher rate than fans of other shows. The survey, which the Hollywood Reporter analyzed, also shows that the more Emmy wins a show gets, the more likely fans skip the ads in it.
Just don’t bring Mackenzie Phillips with you. Talk queen Oprah Winfrey is going to go to Denmark with other Chicago royalty to pitch the Windy City to the International Olympic Committee to host the 2016, reports Crain’s Chicago.
In the Los Angeles Times: Yes, there are still some record stores out there besides Amoeba. ‘Surrogates’ was not without headaches, says John Horn. CBS owns Tuesday.
-- Joe Flint