Anyway, Midway reported earnings for the second quarter earlier in the week, and as usual, they weren't the stuff of Wall Street dreams (see more earnings news), Revenues declined 26% to $23.4 million. The publisher lost $0.29 per diluted share on an adjusted basis. Last year at this time the loss was $0.12 per diluted share on an adjusted basis. That's horrible. For Q3, management expects an adjusted loss of $0.27 per diluted share. Midway is excited about its upcoming Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe title, to be released in time for the holidays. I'm not excited. Will the game be enough to propel the stock, which closed on Wednesday at a bargain price of $2.66, higher? I use the phrase "bargain price" sarcastically, of course.

I've often wondered about the Midway dilemma. What can this company possibly do to improve itself? Should Redstone order management to look for better synergies between it and the Viacom/CBS content library and/or platforms? Midway has worked with MTV before on promoting a few titles. It's too bad that Midway doesn't have access to some of the popular characters of the Nickelodeon channel. THQ (NASDAQ: THQI) currently has that license. I'd have to believe that good ole SpongeBob SquarePants would have helped things out.

I'm not sure what strategic changes the company should make, but I am sure that I'm happy holding my Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVID) shares. Those holding Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS) are probably pretty happy, too, even though that company's stock has had its own setbacks. Investors should ignore Midway, and not give in to the temptation to play around with its stock. I don't care about the company's current pipeline. It can announce all the new Mortal Kombat titles and casual-gaming portals it wants to, I won't be paying any attention. Those lucky enough to have bought in at the 52-week low of $1.53 might disagree with me, but I'd argue that the operative word here is "lucky."

Disclosure: I own Activision Blizzard; positions can change at any time.

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News Corp. (NYSE: NWS), a competitor of media entities such as Disney (NYSE: DIS), Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), Viacom (NYSE: VIA) CBS (NYSE: CBS), and General Electric's (NYSE: GE) NBC Universal, reported its Q4 and full-year numbers on Tuesday. Unfortunately, the stock received an after-hours yawn from investors. The share price didn't move much at all, about a nickel (the stock was up almost 5% on the day, however). The stats seemed pretty good in an overall sense, but they weren't overly compelling either, and I'm not sure I'd want to enter a position in News Corp. at the moment due to questions about the softening advertising market for television stations. But let's look at the data.

For the quarter, revenues increased over 16% and earnings per diluted share jumped over 50% to $0.43. There were, however, some asset gains thrown into that number. News Corp. likes to focus on operating income, and that metric grew 21% in Q4. Every operating segment, except for television, saw an increase in its profits. For the full year, revenues increased 15% and earnings per diluted share soared almost 68% to $1.81. Again, operating income gives a better account of performance due to the asset transactions affecting the bottom line, and here we see the growth is closer to 21%. For the full year, every operating segment saw growth.

News Corp.'s studio and cable divisions are doing well, and like I said, in a general sense, this was a good report. Plus, Fox Interactive Media saw its top line expand by well over 50%, driven by MySpace. But Rupert Murdoch has expressed some caution in terms of growth going forward. According to this article, he sees growth ahead, but it won't be of the stellar variety. And I'll add that operational cash flow for the year was down over 4%. I'd rather see that metric rise on a twelve-month basis. News Corp.'s shares seem cheap to me, but I don't feel compelled at this point to start a position. Given the current economic climate, I'd rather sit on the sidelines and wait for some more data.

Disclosure: I own Disney and GE; positions can change at any time.

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Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Akamai Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM) beat estimates but shares fell to a new 52-week low.
• Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) posted better-than-expected Q2 results and listed its guidance.
• CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS) issued a lackluster Q2 earnings report and will buy back shares.
• Concur Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: CNQR) Q3 revenues spiked, and it announced a big deal.
• Eastman Kodak Co. (NYSE: EK) swung to a Q2 profit due to a tax refund, but revenue growth was minimal.
• Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) narrowed its loss in Q1 as revenue more than doubled.
• First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) easily beat analysts' expectations and raised its guidance.
• General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) posted a bigger-than-expected Q2 loss on massive charges.
• Kellogg Co. (NYSE: K) posted solid Q2 results on price increases, and raised its guidance.
• Lazard Ltd. (NYSE: LAZ) reported healthy Q2 results on merger and restructuring deals.
• Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. (NYSE: MER) warned of a $5.7 billion write-down in the third quarter.
• Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) posted breakeven earnings while revenue fell but beat estimates.
• Office Depot Inc. (NYSE: ODP) reported a Q2 loss due to slower sales, sending shares lower.
• Siemens (NYSE: SI) said that Q3 earnings fell from a one-time gain last year.
• Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) Q1 profits tumbled on lower handset and flat-panel TV sales.
• Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: JAVA) forecast a loss in this quarter due to weakness in the financial sector.
• Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) had better-than-expected Q2 results on growth in wireless.
• Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) reported strong Q3 results that easily beat Wall Street expectations.
• Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) posted better-than-expected Q2 profit on theme park and ESPN strength.

For more highlights from this week, see: Exxon, Starbucks, Viacom, Comcast, Sirius, Kraft and others

Upcoming quarterly reports include Archer Daniels Midland (NYSE: ADM), Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG), Jack-in-the-Box (NYSE: JBX), Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO), News Corp. (NYSE: NWS), Whole Foods (NASDAQ: WFMI), Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S), Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE), and Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI).

Visit AOL Money & Finance for more earnings coverage.

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CBS (NYSE: CBS) -- major competitor of Disney's (NYSE: DIS) ABC, News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) Fox and General Electric's (NYSE: GE) NBC -- issued a lackluster earnings report for Q2 on Thursday. The market sent the stock down 3% at the end of the trading day. The outlook and the continued softness in the economy seems to be giving Wall Street pause in terms of CBS' prospects. Also, the top-line growth was nothing to write home about.

Revenues increased a scant 1% to $3.4 billion. Adjusted earnings per share on a diluted basis, which exclude a benefit from an asset sale, were $0.53 versus $0.57 in the year-ago period. Here are a couple more bad stats. Operating income on an adjusted basis took a dive of 13%. Free cash flow was almost 19% worse this quarter compared to last year's Q2. Not very cool, huh? According to this AP article, CBS beat by a penny, but is that really so impressive given the full context of things? No.

Still, I don't think shareholders should revolt just yet. The free cash flow on the six-month timeframe went up 6%, and even with the decrease experienced in Q2, the cash flow was enough to cover the dividend, which is a major attractant of the stock. Income investors who like the media sector definitely have to keep CBS on their list of potential buys, considering the company's 6%+ yield.

CBS believes that the advertising slowdown will inhibit growth for the rest of the year. So don't expect any fireworks in upcoming quarters. I like that management will be getting rid of fifty radio stations and intends to use the proceeds to buy back stock. That's shareholder friendly, of course. What probably won't be shareholder friendly is the stock itself. I'm not sure it's going to do much of anything while the economy suffers through its current malaise. But you do get that dividend. If investors are patient, then they should see some capital appreciation down the line.

Disclosure: I own Disney and GE; positions can change at any time.

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Well, you can't win 'em all. I certainly found that out with Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) latest quarterly results. The media company delivered the complete opposite of my expectations. Let's go through the numbers.

Revenues for the second quarter increased 21% to almost $3.9 billion. Net income from continuing operations expanded 19% to 64 cents per share. That beat the estimate I was using by three pennies (other sources listed a lower estimate for earnings). No matter how you slice it, Viacom showed Wall Street how it's done.

Now, let me admit how wrong I was. I thought media networks would shine during the quarter and that the film division might not do as well. Operating income at media networks increased 4%, while Paramount and its colleagues increased their segment's profit by almost 300%! You can thank the new Indiana Jones movie, as well as Marvel's (NYSE: MVL) Iron Man and DreamWorks Animation's (NYSE: DWA) Kung Fu Panda, for bringing the crowds into the multiplex and the money into Viacom's coffers.

I thought that perhaps the studio would benefit later in the year from the box-office hits because marketing expenses might eat into the quarter (according to the conference-call transcript, there was a large quantity of spending in Q2 2007 related to the opening of the Transformers blockbuster). Although Viacom will benefit later in the year from the home-video release of these projects, the 84% increase in theatrical revenues must have covered a lot; the company's content library also did some heavy lifting, including the original Indiana Jones films on DVD, which had strong sales due to interest in the new sequel. Interestingly enough, the release mentioned that marketing expenses for the company's Rock Band video game were an offsetting element in the quarter for the media segment.

You've got to love this quarter if you're a shareholder of Viacom. Unfortunately, the stock closed down by 3.8% in after-hours trading on Tuesday. It's a crazy market, and even though I think Viacom may be cheap, I'm not sure I'd step in until I saw some strength in the stock. Media businesses such as Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), Disney (NYSE: DIS), News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) and CBS (NYSE: CBS) have all been difficult holdings for investors as of late. I own Disney myself and have been dissatisfied with its stock. You'll have to do a lot of due diligence before deciding which media entity is right for your portfolio (if any).

Disclosure: I own Disney and Marvel; positions can change at any time.

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As a Disney (NYSE: DIS) shareholder, the High School Musical juggernaut is important to me. It means money for the company. It means a point of distinction for Disney that adds value to its content and differentiates it from other media businesses such as News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) and Time Warner (NYSE: TWX). It means that tweens have something realistic to relate to that reflects their own days of breaking out in song while walking through school (okay, that was a joke).

But I was disappointed to hear that a reality show extension of the brand is having a tough time in the ratings. According to this blog post at The Hollywood Reporter, the show, called High School Musical: Get in the Picture, had the worst ratings on Monday night. It's some sort of competition show with a prize related to being in some sort of video in the Musical franchise.

I'm not sure of the specifics, but my main concern is that it couldn't offer any competition to CBS (NYSE: CBS) or General Electric's (NYSE: GE) NBC. Remember, Disney's big model is to take its content and spread it around to enhance the value of the company's other platforms. It's all about the synergy. Unfortunately, it didn't work this time. I honestly thought that ABC would have seen huge numbers from the kids on this one. It makes me wonder if Musical might be getting long in the tooth.

I sure hope not, because the theatrical version will be coming up this October. I want at least one more hot project to be derived from the franchise before it heads for the fad graveyard and becomes just another mention on a VH1 I Love the 00s program. Camp Rock will hopefully pick up the slack as Musical and Hannah Montana start to hit their respective death phases.

I'm not saying that the dismal ratings performance for this reality show means that Musical is done for just yet. All I'm saying is Disney has its hands full in terms of incubating more fads for shareholders.

I own shares of Disney and GE; positions can change at any time.

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Credit Suisse downgraded Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) to "neutral" from "outperform", according to Briefing.com. The news service also reports that Caris initiated CBS (NYSE:CBS) with a "below average", and set an $18 price target.

Clearwire (NASDAQ:CLWR) Started at Outperform at RBC Capital, according to 24/7 Wall St. The financial website also claims that CSX (NYSE:CSX) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Merrill Lynch

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General Electric (NYSE:GE), which reports earnings tomorrow, has indicated that it may spin-off its weakest divisions -- the firm's consumer and industrial units. No one cared, and the stock did not move. The action would not be enough, nearly enough to pull GE away from its multi-year lows.

What investors would really like to see is GE broken into little pieces, the smaller the better. The only growing and hardy business that GE has now is its huge infrastructure operation. It would make a nice stand-alone company.

The unit that investors most want to see GE kick out the door is NBC Universal, a mismatch with all of GE's other businesses. In the last quarter, it had revenue of $3.6 billion and segment operating profits of $712 million. It is profitable, but not growing.

There is speculation that NBC Universal may have a very interested buyer in Time Warner (NYSE:TWX), which is about to get a load of cash from its own spin-off of Time Warner Cable (NYSE:TWC). The New York Post writes that GE CEO Jeff Immelt may be "interested in exploring a merger or spin-off - with Time Warner and Liberty Media mentioned most often as the likely suitors."

A deal which combines a TV network and another studio with Time Warner is not so far-fetched. NBCU has a number of cable channels including the recently acquired cable and online behemoth, The Weather Channel. Time Warner tried to buy that all on its own. The $3.5 billion price was too high. TWX has it own cable powerhouse, the crown jewel of which is CNN.

Time Warner could save a fair amount of money by putting together two studios, which would allow it to increase earnings by tearing costs out of NBCU.

The financial portion of the transaction would be a big pill to swallow for TWX, but it is not beyond the media company's capacity. CBS (NYSE:CBS), which has revenue comparable to NBCU, has a market cap of about $12 billion. That means Time Warner would probably have to pay $15 billion to get GE's entertainment unit.

Shareholders in Time Warner want to see management step up and improve the company's prospects. There are not many big media deals to be had these days.

Sometimes needing something is just as important as whether owning it makes sense.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

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Hollywood veteran Robert Halmi and his son, Robert, helped to build an entertainment firm back in the late 1970s -- and it turned out to be a great success. In fact, by 1994 they sold it off to Hallmark Cards. Then, in 2006 Robert teamed up with Kelso (a private equity firm) to acquire Hallmark Entertainment, which was renamed RHI Entertainment (NASDAQ: RHIE)

And, this week, RHI has hit the public markets - pricing its IPO at $14 per share.

Essentially, RHI develops and distributes made-for-television content and mini-series. Last year, the company posted $232 million in revenues and adjusted EBITDA of $33 million.

A key asset is RHI's film library, which includes more than 1,000 titles (or 3,500 broadcast hours). No doubt, this is a big source of future cash flows. What's more, the company is expanding into new categories, such as video-on-demand and pay-per-view.

Some of RHI's customers include ABC, CBS (NYSE: CBS), GE's (NYSE: GE) NBC, Spike TV and USA Network. There are also deals with global broadcasters, such as Antena-3, M6, PROSIEBEN-SAT1, TF1, Seven Network and Sky.

Unfortunately, the IPO market has been rocky lately. As a result, RHI had a dicey start - with the stock price falling 3.57% to $13.50 in today's trading.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.

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I recently wrote about World Wrestling Entertainment's (NYSE: WWE) million-dollar giveaway plans. This is the scheme that sees the Mr. McMahon character reward viewers who register at the company's website with portions of his fortune. He calls them up on the phone during WWE's RAW program and doles out various sums; according to this press release, one winner got $200,000, while another player received $125,000. One poor hapless soul won $2! Remember, Mr. McMahon is an evil guy.

I tuned in to see how the contest would be presented and to get some sense of how it was received. It seemed a bit awkward and slow at times. A few in the audience screamed that they were bored. Personally, I thought it was goofy fun to see Vince McMahon calling people to hand out some of his money and enjoyed it for what it was. But WWE will need to optimize the segment and try to make it more exciting, as I don't think it came off exactly as it wanted. McMahon is supposed to keep handing out $1 million a week for an unspecified time period, so the company will have more chances to improve the presentation.

WWE wants to really juice the ratings for the RAW brand, hoping that viewers beyond the hardcore fan base will stop watching networks owned by CBS (NYSE: CBS), Disney (NYSE: DIS), News Corp. (NYSE: NWS), and General Electric (NYSE: GE) long enough to sample the spectacle of the WWE product (of course, GE's NBC Universal owns the USA cable network, which RAW runs on). McMahon is smart to be trying something like this since WWE will be working its way up to perhaps one of its biggest pay-per-view opportunities ever: Wrestlemania 25. With a milestone like that coming, the company has a chance of really expanding its brand equity and setting the stage for long-term growth.

If you do believe in WWE, the stock is actually quite interesting right now. The yield on the shares is near 9.5% as of Friday's close, and the share price has experienced a pullback along with the market. Maybe those winning McMahon's money should sock some of the bucks away in WWE (admittedly, the cash-flow characteristics do have me a little concerned).

Disclosure: I own Disney and GE; positions can change at any time.

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Another strike for the entertainment industry. And, it comes just as a recession threatens to cut into TV ad revenue and movie ticket sales. That is not good news for companies like CBS (NYSE: CBS), Viacom (NYSE: VIA), and Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), which already trade near 52-week lows.

Investors are understandably worried that consumer concerns could hurt entertainment spending. Who has extra money to see "Spider-Man XII"? Marketers often cut budgets for costly broadcast TV ads when the economy looks grim.

Now, the Screen Actors Guild may go on strike when its contract runs out on June 30. According to The Wall Street Journal (subscription required), "The two sides have made little progress on key issues including compensation for actors when their work is used on DVD or new media such as the Internet."

Once again, the internet comes up as the one thing entertainment companies should fear. It has been used for illegal downloads of music and movies. Many younger people would rather hang out on YouTube than watch pay-per-view movies online. Now, actors want a portion of internet revenue.

If the actors are not careful, while they are on strike and the entertainment world is shut down, the internet will eat the whole industry.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

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Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG) has asked CBS Corporation's (NYSE: CBS) free on-demand music streaming service Last.fm to remove the label's music from the site "in an apparent dispute over compensation rates." Billboard reports that CBS is "currently negotiating a new agreement with Warner Music Group and are working hard to built the most comprehensive music service on the Web." Music from Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, EMI Group, and various independent labels remains on Last.fm, and the site's Internet radio service still offers songs from WMG artists.

CBS purchased British-based Last.fm a year ago for $280 million, and WMG was the first major label to sign with Last.fm in February 2007. According to Billboard, WMG had continued to keep music with Last.fm "on a month-to-month basis" after the original deal lapsed. Unlike paid subscription-based services, Last.fm and other free services offer consumers music without charge, and are ad-supported. News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) MySpace will soon be starting it's own similar service, which will tap into the social networking site's large user base.

Billboard also reports that WMG had grown "disenchanted with Last.fm's compensation rates" after comparing the rates to other services like the forthcoming MySpace Music. In addition, WMG "owns equity stakes in MySpace Music" and "has been frustrated by Last.fm's failure to proceed with its plans to launch a music subscription service." Paid subscription services have been being pushed by the music labels over other sites and stores like Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iTunes Store because they offer better profits for the labels. Mobile phone services have started to tap into this very service, offering consumers music and players on new phones developed for that very purpose.

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This post is part of a series on some of the most memorable companies that have disappeared.

RCA is perhaps one of the most famous abbreviations ever. Even though most people have probably heard of it, I'd be willing to say that quite a few would be stumped at what the letters stood for. Do you know? (No Googling allowed!) That's okay, because I'll tell you. RCA was the Radio Corporation of America.

According to a history at a site dedicated to RCA's current licensing initiatives, General Electric (NYSE: GE) established RCA in 1919 to fulfill a request made by the U.S. government during World War I. The government recognized the importance of radio patents during wartime and did not want GE to go through with a transaction that would see broadcasting materials sold to the British Marconi business. So, instead of interacting with British Marconi, the American Marconi business was absorbed into RCA.

As the years went by, RCA sold radios made by GE and Westinghouse and became involved in broadcasting. The radio medium saw its popularity rise in the early part of the 20th century, leading RCA to buy, along with GE and Westinghouse in 1926, a station in New York with the call sign WEAF. This was the genesis for the National Broadcasting Company, which you know better as NBC (and to think that a lot of pundits find GE's ownership of NBC Universal quizzical). Eventually, RCA bought out the Victor Talking Machine company in 1929. Yep, thus was born RCA Victor. Now, you might associate RCA Victor with that famous dog logo (I know I do). I didn't realize this, but that dog is called Nipper, he's said to be a Fox Terrier, and according to some legends I've read, he was thus named because he liked to bite people. Who knows, but I sure wouldn't want to bother him while he's listening to that phonograph of his!

But the time-line doesn't end there. RCA would move on to form RKO Pictures, become a major presence at Rockefeller Center's Radio City, and to distribute a famous brand of color television sets in the 1950s. In fact, for those who think paying a grand for big-screen flat-panel devices of today is exorbitant, how about paying that same amount for a screen the size of a ruler?! Believe it or not, that's what you would have shelled out for a small color unit way back when. NBC shows that were produced in color helped to create demand for RCA's color-TV products.

You've seen the RCA name on many electronic products, such as VCRs, stereo headphones, and DVD players. But did you know that RCA was in many different lines of business throughout its corporate life? Believe it or not, RCA, at different points in its later evolution, decided to diversify itself with really odd choices considering its electronic past. Incredibly, RCA invested in the Hertz rental-car agency, Banquet foodstuffs, publisher Random House, and, strangest of all (to me, at least), Gibson greeting cards. And to think I thought CBS (NYSE: CBS) buying CNET was quirky! Not even close.

As the RCA life cycle began to naturally wind down because of financial missteps during its latter existence, GE eventually took it over in 1986 and began a series of transactions to extract value from it. Today, the RCA brand, and that cute little dog, live on through licensing deals by current trademark owner Thomson, Inc. So, even though the original RCA entity is technically gone, its image does still resonate with consumers of today.

For many, RCA is a beloved name, and there are a lot of collectors out there who seek electronic products marketed by the old Radio Corporation of America in the previous century. As you can tell, this former powerhouse of old media has a rich history, one that is both fascinating and important in the context of the technological development of the country. For that reason, people love, respect, and will always remember these three letters as a seminal force in broadcast entertainment.

Disclosure: I own shares of General Electric; positions can change at any time.

Let us know in the comments what you miss about RCA. And be sure to check out other Companies That Have Vanished.

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World Wrestling Entertainment's (NYSE: WWE) Vincent Kennedy McMahon wants more viewers for his Monday Night Raw wrestling extravaganza. In fact, he's so keen on growing ratings that he's willing to spend his own money to keep viewers tuned. How much? Try $1 million.

In a terse press release concerning a promotional sweepstakes, WWE says that Raw viewers can register at the company's Web site and then watch for codes during the program beginning next Monday. People will be competing to win a portion of a $1 million giveaway each week for some unspecified time period. Now, before you think me naive, I made sure to see if this was legitimate, and from the looks of things it is. According to this AP article, McMahon will really be doing this. According to other reports, the June 9 Raw will reveal the details of the promotion. The $1 million will come from McMahon's own fortune (again, from what I understand, this is real).

There's no question as to why this is being done. WWE wants eyeballs. Ratings have been challenged as of late, according to that AP piece. I think giving away $1 million is exciting, and as far as a marketing campaign goes, it should boost ratings. Only problem is, I'd have to imagine that long-term shareholders aren't happy that this kind of gimmick has to be employed. Is wrestling becoming boring to people? Are they in need of other reasons to watch? Well, the answer would seem to be a resounding "yes."

There's nothing wrong with a contest. Heck, with the popularity of Deal or No Deal, everyone is looking for a chance at some amount approaching a million bucks. Nevertheless, McMahon and his creative cohorts need to become more creative in the storylines and in the usage of talent. He won't always be giving away money, so the product must stand on its own merit. Besides, although I can't argue that giving money is anything less than an attention-getter, I'll say that McMahon should have a contest where a winner gets to book an entire week's worth of programming. That would really speak to the core fan and bring back viewers who may no longer be watching. There's a lot of competition out there from CBS (NYSE: CBS), Disney (NYSE: DIS), News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) and GE's (NYSE: GE) NBC, so McMahon needs to be even more innovative when it comes to the contests themselves!

I hope to be watching this Monday to see how the Mr. McMahon character promotes the details. Whatever you want to say about the rest of the product, whenever Vince is on the screen, he's always entertaining.

Disclosure: I own shares of Disney and GE; positions can change at any time.

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News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) Fox network recently settled a snag with the talent behind The Simpsons. According to The Hollywood Reporter, fresh deals were struck that will keep the show on for a 20th season. That's pretty darn long to be on television, and it's a testament to the iconic quality that the animated series possesses.

Negotiations reportedly went on for months. In fact, next season will only see 20 episodes instead of 22 (they better still do a Halloween episode!). Some of the talent will be receiving $400,000 per show, representing a 33% raise (the cast actually wanted more than that). The Reporter article did not say who was getting what. I have to ask the following question: considering how long the show has been on, and considering that media companies are trying to discourage rampant increases in above-the-line costs (at least, that's what they should be doing, as far as I'm concerned), should News Corp. execs have demanded that Fox just end the negotiations and refuse to give in to a 33% raise?

I've got to be honest, a big part of me says "yes." However, there is incentive to keep The Simpsons on the air. Last summer, a movie version of the long-running show made a successful leap to the silver screen. The film grossed over $180 million at domestic theaters, and its worldwide total stands at more than $525 million, according to Boxofficemojo.

It would stand to reason that having the series remain active can fuel even more synergies between a Simpsons film franchise and a TV/merchandising phenomenon. Plus, it is something that differentiates Fox from the other networks. After all, you can't find Homer and Bart on Disney's (NYSE: DIS) ABC, CBS (NYSE: CBS), or General Electric's (NYSE: GE) NBC.

Yet, on the other hand, does Fox really need the series to be on the air to propel a hit string of cinematic sequels to the first Simpsons big-screen adventure? Consider that 20 seasons is not only a long time to be on the air, but it's a time period that certainly has given rise to a lot of changes in both taste and relevance. Let's be honest, Seth MacFarlane and his Family Guy series makes The Simpsons look totally grown up and completely without edge. I like The Simpsons too, but it's the truth, I'm sorry, Stewie and the gang simply have more of a buzz these days. And, adding to the mix the fact that MacFarlane recently scribed a new, lucrative pact (subscription required) with Fox only makes raises for the Simpsons cast seem like a weird investment. Why not just axe the show and let MacFarlane do the heavy lifting in terms of supplying all of Fox's animation needs? Heck, they're paying him enough.

I'm not sure how much longer Fox will keep The Simpsons on the air, but the company should do some serious thinking. Shareholders might be better served by moving on from an aging show, even though it is well-loved and well-written, and just making investments in movie sequels. At some point, things become too expensive to justify.

I own shares of Disney and General Electric; positions can change at any time.

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I've got to be honest, I wasn't so sure that Amazon's (NASDAQ: AMZN) Kindle device would be a hit. But, according to BusinessWeek, it seems like it's doing okay. Kindle, which is a reading platform for e-books, actually experienced sell-outs after it was launched last fall. And now, CBS's (NYSE: CBS) Simon & Schuster has upped its support of the platform by increasing the number of titles from its portfolio to be sold on Kindle. How does 5,000 more titles from Simon & Schuster sound?

Just great, I'm sure Jeff Bezos would say. And who can blame him? It looks like people are really taking to Kindle, and although I don't think reading books for pleasure in such an electronic manner will ever come remotely close to challenging printed tomes, I know it's still important for Amazon to have a strategy in this arena. And like I mentioned at the beginning, the fact that Kindle seems to have had a strong start is very impressive.

It should be noted, though, that Bezos is keeping sales figures close to the vest. He doesn't want to give away too much in terms of stats, so who knows exactly how well the Kindle brand is doing. But the device received a price cut last week, and that is an interesting little tell in terms of the viability of the technology. In fact, one friend of mine is hoping the price continues to drop below $349 because he is bullish on buying one. I never thought I'd hear anyone in my circle even mention this thing in casual conversation.

While the Simon & Schuster vote of confidence shows that Amazon is on the right track with the Kindle, I still am reticent about its ultimate future. I see the platform as more of a showcase for shorter technical documents that don't need to be stored in print format to be fully enjoyed. Also, short stories and/or novellas that might be hard to place in literary markets also would be of great value to Kindle.

Jeff Bezos has got an interesting technological experiment on his hands, and while I know that I will always read novels the old-fashioned way, I'm willing to bet Kindle still has at least some growth ahead of it.

Disclosure: I don't own shares in any company mentioned here; positions can change at any time.

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Lately, I've been hearing a lot of chatter about General Electric (NYSE: GE) and its NBC Universal asset (here's one example). Specifically, there's been talk about the future of the movie and television business and its role as a productive member of the GE portfolio. There are a lot of pundits out there who would like to see it sold off; probably a lot of investors would like that, too. Thankfully, CEO Jeffrey Immelt isn't one of them; he has consistently and steadfastly denied that NBC Universal will be offered to buyers in the near future. I hope he retains such opinion, because I definitely think GE needs NBC Universal.

Sure, GE needs to sell things from time to time, the latest example being the conglomerate's desire to dump its appliance division (Peter Cohan agreed with this logic and recently wrote a piece about the subject). But it shouldn't get rid of NBC Universal. Ever. Well, maybe there might be some compelling event in the future that would justify a sale, but I really don't see that happening. Why? Because content is valuable, and GE needs to own a piece of it.

We live in exciting times. The media is changing. New distribution paradigms, driven by digital technologies, are forming all the time. Libraries of films and television shows are going to be valuable well into the future. Think about Universal and its film library. The Mummy, Jurassic Park, E.T., The Bourne Ultimatum, Jaws...you get the picture. NBC Universal will be able to monetize all these franchises and many, many more from the library, as well as ones that have yet to be produced, via the new digital economy.

I think the fact that content is subject to the whims of the public at any given time goes a long way toward explaining why some would want GE to divest out of the content business. I can't argue that content isn't at the mercy of fickle opinion. I can argue, however, that entertainment will always be demanded and consumed by people. This doesn't sit well with those against my opinion because producing a TV show isn't like constructing a plane engine or a water-filtration system; put another way, you can't six-sigma Heroes.

But NBC Universal, like Disney (NYSE: DIS), Viacom (NYSE: VIA), and News Corp. (NYSE: NWS), is too powerful a force in media to ignore. Granted, it may not have the brand value that a Disney has, but there's nevertheless a lot of equity it can leverage in that department. Besides, it's not like the segment is doing utterly horrible business. Breaking out the latest GE annual report, I see that NBC Universal's revenues decreased 5% and operating profit increased 6% in 2007; in 2006, revenues increased 10% while operating profit decreased 6%. Granted, that's a mixed performance at best (and it should be noted that having the Olympics in 2006 and not having it in 2007 exerted an effect). But who expects content to always hit the mark? There will always be good and bad years due to the aforementioned taste thing; happening upon new franchises is a constant hit-and-miss experiment. One of the big problems with dealing with NBC Universal is its cost structure. Without a doubt, expenses for talent and programming can be very high. So, instead of selling this asset, pundits and shareholders should call upon Immelt to put pressure on Jeff Zucker, who is CEO of this segment, to aggressively cut costs. It can be done, no question in my mind. There's simply too much bloat in the entertainment business.

In the end, I think there's a strong chance GE will always keep NBC Universal in the fold. Assets such as NBC, USA Network, Sci-Fi Channel, CNBC, etc., are just too cool to simply sell (I'm not sure, though, why the company is interested in The Weather Channel, as I don't find that to be a very exciting brand). GE needs to compete with companies like Sony (NYSE: SNE), Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), and CBS (NYSE: CBS) in the digital-content age. The potential long-term upside is just too great.

Disclosure: I own shares in Disney and General Electric; positions can change at any time.

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