'Draw Something' Comes to Television

CBS has secured the rights to make a pilot based on the popular drawing game, Draw Something.  Despite the game’s waning popularity, CBS had to compete with other media companies for the privilege, including Sony Pictures Television, Embassy Row and Ryan Seacrest Prods.

Imagine Ryan Seacrest having these rights.  Every picture would've been a different Kardashian or American Idol finalist.

Word is, the upcoming show will follow the Pictionary-esque format of divining words from drawings, and will also include a studio audience, some celebrities, and a cash prize for winners. Moreover, folks watching the show from their homes will be able to play along using their smartphone and/or tablets.

Not sure if the viewers at home will be able to win prizes.

Sony to make Workforce Cuts

Sony Corp.will cut 10,000 jobs, or 6% of its workforce, as the Japanese electronics conglomerate and its new chief executive try to get back to profitability.

Kazuo Hirai, the new CEO of Sony will make the cuts.

Much of the employee scale-backs will come from Sony’s television division which has been losing money for the better part of a decade to lower-cost competitors such as Samsung and Vizio.

Roughly half of the job cuts will stem from recent deals, including Sony’s sale of a chemicals company last month and a spinoff of its LCD production capabilities into a joint operation with Hitachi and Toshiba.

The cuts apparently going to happen worldwide.

Sony has already cycled through several rounds of severe layoffs, which have claimed tens of thousands of jobs since 2005.

AT&T Last Minute Holiday Gifts

My friend Emily Edmonds made an appearance on Atlanta & Company this week to talk about some AT&T gadgets and devices you might want to pick up for yourself or a last minute gift.

Tech Accessory Holiday Gift Idea Day 21: Roku 2 HD Streaming Player

If you watch television at all the Roku 2 is the perfect accessory.

And now, it's at a great price.

This is the best value in high-definition streaming to your TV with more than 300 channels of movies, TV shows, live sports, and more. Enjoy Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, Crackle, Pandora, and much more. Includes built-in wireless, and works with virtually any TV.

It's easy to set up, and is small enough that you won't even know it's there.

Get one, and get it in time for Christmas with Amazon.

Packers-Saints TV Ratings High, But Down From Last Year

Thursday's night's Green Bay Packers victory over the New Orleans Saints delivered reliably huge ratings for NBC. But the game was nevertheless down a bit compared with last year's NFL season kickoff.

Thursday's game tackled a 17.2 overnight rating/28 share, making it the second-highest-rated NFL kickoff game in 13 years, says Nielsen.  It happened to be down 3% compared with last year's gigantic opener between the Saints and the Minnesota Vikings.

Overnight ratings measure the 55 largest TV markets, covering nearly 70 percent of the country. Each overnight rating point represents about 735,000 TV homes. The rating is the percentage of all homes with TVs, whether or not they are in use. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.

Was is because these are two small market teams?  Was it because the Packers appeared to be on their way to a blowout win, or are fans disenchanted afterthe long NFL lockout?  Also, viewing might have been thrown off a bit by President Obama's jobs speech that was carried live before the game.

We'll see how ratings look this week as there are some good matchups.