In an apparent effort to beef up in the face of competition from Wal-Mart and other mass merchants and from growing online competitors like Netflix, Blockbuster has offered to buy its largest competitor, Hollywood Video, for $700 million, the Wall Street Journal reported today (Thursday). The offer represents a 17-percent premium over Hollywood's current stock price. In addition, Blockbuster has agreed to assume $350 million of Hollywood debt. If the deal receives regulatory approval -- a big "if," according to analysts -- Blockbuster would add 1,900 Hollywood stores to its own 5,000. In reporting the deal, the WSJ commented that it reflects "a new aggressive stance taken by the video giant just a few weeks after it was split off from its former corporate parent, entertainment company Viacom Inc."

Religious conservatives and family-values groups are planning to wage a battle against Fox Searchlight's Kinsey, about the pioneering sex researcher, when the movie opens in limited release on Friday. In a statement on Wednesday, Robert Knight of Concerned Women for America charged that the movie "lionized" a man whose "proper place is with Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele or your average Hollywood horror flick mad scientist." Knight went on to assert that Kinsey "was the godfather of the homosexual activist movement, the campaign to mainstream pornography, and even the campaign to strike down abortion laws." The youth group Generation Life, composed of "virgins and renewed virgins," announced that it would picket theaters showing the film. And the conservative WorldNetDaily.com has taken aim at the movie in the current issue of its monthly magazine Whistleblower, in which it charges that Kinsey transformed America "in five decades from the Leave It to Beaver innocence of the 1950s to today's wanton, 'anything-goes' sexual anarchy."

L. A. Weekly columnist Nikki Finke has suggested that Michael Ovitz may have been behind an item that appeared in the New York Post's "Page Six" column on Wednesday quoting an unnamed "trial watcher" as saying that New York Times reporter Laura Holson has "acted more like a member of Jerry Springer's audience than a reporter for the august Times" during the trial. The item also slammed an article by Holson in the Sunday Times about Ovitz's testimony. "Lest anyone forget, Ovitz's PR flack for years was Howard Rubenstein, who reps the New York Post," Finke writes. (Finke herself was fired by the New York Post two years ago after Disney complained about her articles concerning a lawsuit over the rights to Winnie the Pooh.) Without citing sources, Finke also reports that Ovitz's lawyers "have tried to put heat on the NYT about Holson's reporting."

Former Disney board member Stanley Gold, who would eventually form an alliance with Roy Disney aimed at ousting Michael Eisner as head of the company, testified Wednesday that he relied on Eisner's description of Michael Ovitz when he voted to approve his appointment as company president. "I felt Mr. Eisner was keeping me in the loop" during negotiations with Ovitz, Gold testified during the trial of a shareholders suit against Disney seeking to recover the $140 million that it paid Ovitz when the company fired him. Gold said that Eisner informed him that "it was going to cost Disney a lot of money to get Mr. Ovitz." He said that he was also kept abreast of talks concerning Ovitz's severance package. "I knew if he was terminated, and if the stock went up, it was going to cost the company a boatload of money," Gold said.

In a move that could eventually see the Columbia and TriStar movie logos phased out and replaced with one for their parent company, Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment announced Wednesday that effective Nov. 30, it will be known as Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. In a statement, Benjamin Feingold, the division's president, said, "We are extremely proud of the Sony name as it is the No. 1 brand name in the world." The first home-video release to bear the new name is expected to be Spider-Man 2 on Nov. 30, although one report suggested it could be a Seinfeld collection due to be released a week earlier.

ABC affiliates in cities that account for more than a third of the television audience have informed the network that they will not air tonight's repeat showing of Steven Spielberg's acclaimed Saving Private Ryan, out of fear that the FCC might fine them for broadcasting indecent language. Ironically, one of the broadcast companies that has refused to air the film is Pappas Telecasting Companies, which received the back of the hand from the FCC last month after it donated more than $350,000 in airtime to Republican candidates. In a statement, the company said that it had been "in the forefront of regulatory efforts to eliminate profanity, indecency and gratuitous violence from network programming, particularly during times when children may be watching. Moreover, as is evidenced by recent decisions of the Federal Communications Commission, stations that air network programming with indecent or profane content are subject to significant fines and the threat of license revocation." Raymond Cole, president of WOI in Des Moines, IA, indicated that he would like to have aired the film, but "we just don't know" whether the FCC would "conclude that the movie has sufficient social, artistic, literary, historical or other kinds of value that would protect us from breaking the law." [NOTE: I have posted a reading of Winston Churchill's magnificent description of the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" at http://studiobrf.newshare.com/Churchill.mp3]

CBS news reporters and staff are experiencing anxiety awaiting the release of the findings of an independing commission investigating the discredited 60 Minutes report by Dan Rather on Sept. 8 about George W. Bush's National Guard service, veteran Face the Nation anchor Bob Schieffer told today's (Thursday) Philadelphia Inquirer. "We're all apprehensive," Schieffer told the newspaper. "Nobody knows what this commission is going to find. Look, we made a terrible mistake. CBS has admitted it made a terrible mistake, and Dan [Rather, who fronted the report] has apologized. We take this very seriously, and some serious steps are going to have to be taken." Shieffer indicated that no decision about the "serious steps" is likely to be made until the commission's report is released. "I guarantee you that CBS will do whatever it takes to get our credibility back. If we don't have credibility, we'll cease to be. That's our coin of the realm," he said. The Inquirer cited internal rumors at the network that Rather may be asked to step down as CBS Evening News anchor. "Obviously, I'm concerned for Dan," Schieffer, a longtime friend, said. "He's holding up pretty well under the circumstances, but his situation has taken its toll, no question. How could it not?"

A British TV production company that is producing a U.S. version of its hit reality TV show Hell's Kitchen for Fox has agreed to settle a lawsuit by a contestant on the show who was involved in an on-camera shoving match with its volatile host and ended up injured. Granada TV has agreed to pay the man, who was not named in news reports, $124,000, and is reportedly furious with host Gordon Ramsey's conduct. Ramsey, a celebrity chef famous in Britain for his fiery on-air behavior, is also hosting the American version, in which the winning contestant is to receive a Hollywood restaurant worth more than $2 million.

British mogul Richard Branson has proved to be no match for Donald Trump on television. The head of Virgin Records, Virgin Superstores, and Virgin Airlines was only able to pull a 3.2 rating and a 5 share -- about 5 million viewers -- Tuesday night on the new Fox reality series The Rebel Billionaire. It placed fifth in its time period. The night was dominated by CBS's coverage of the Country Music Awards, which averaged an 11.5/18. On Wednesday, ABC's new drama Lost captured the highest rating of the night, a 12.2/18 in the 8:00 hour, capturing almost as many viewers as CBS's 60 Minutes (6.7/10) and NBC's LAX (5.9/ 9) combined. It also helped ABC, with an average 9.1/14 rating, finish a close second behind NBC, with a 9.8/14. CBS placed third with an 8.1/12, while Fox settled for a 5.0/7. ABC led its rivals in total viewers and adults 18-49.

The Arena Football League and NBC have agreed to a new two-year contract. AFL games showed ratings growth last season -- in many cases they exceeded those for ice hockey -- but were nevertheless well below those for other mainstream sports events. The original two-year deal called for renewals in four-year increments, but the two sides agreed to a two-year extension instead. "We knew growth would take time, but by being profitable, this partnership allows us time to work on attracting new fans to what we believe is a terrific product," NBC Sports President Ken Schanzer said in a statement. Under the deal, NBC pockets the first $10 million in ad revenues to cover production costs, after which it shares advertising receipts with the AFL. NBC is the only major network that does not have a contract with the NFL.

In what is being described as a back-door entry of liquor advertising onto the major TV networks, NASCAR said Wednesday that it will allow liquor companies to sponsor race cars next season. Under the new policy, logos for hard-liquor products would be permitted to be displayed on cars that are shown during NASCAR broadcasts.