MIKE ON RADIO: Bantering About the Murdoch Family, CinemaCon and Disney's Maker Purchase on KCRW's "The Business"

Kim Masters was back on this week's edition of KCRW's "The Business," but her banter buddy John Horn was out, so I'm once again bacl this week to chat about the week's entertainment news. Here's what we touched on:

- News out of CinemaCon, the annual trade show for theater owners, is that global box office is strong except among the youth in the US.

- More Murdoch family drama and news of a succession plan to run the various companies of News Corp.

- Disney news: Anne Sweeney has been replaced by Ben Sherwood to run ABC and the other Disney-owned TV channels. What will his news background bring to the job?

- Disney plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to buy the online studio Maker Studios.

Listen today at 2:30 p.m. (PT) on KCRW 89.9, or listen now below!

KCRW's THE SPIN-OFF: March Edition (Listen Now!)

The Spin-Off is back for its March edition! This month we have a guest co-banterer, Slate's Willa Paskin, joining us to talk about TV headlines. Here's a snapshot of this month's episode:

Hosts Michael Schneider and Joe Adalian are joined this month by guest Willa Paskin, TV critic for Slate.com. The three discuss the state of ABC. What is working and what isn't? What does the departure of top Disney/ABC executive Anne Sweeney mean for the network?

Then, 'is there too much good TV to watch it all?' Referencing David Carr's recent New York Times article and the abundance of quality programming from an increasing number of outlets, they wonder if there is enough talent in the business to keep this up.

Finally, can Amazon rebrand itself as a viable rival to Netflix, HBO and Showtime? They're picking up new shows by creators like Chris Carter and Jill Soloway -- will they work?

In "Downloads," Joe is looking forward to two HBO comedies: Veep and the new show from the creator of Beavis & Butt-head, Silicon Valley; Willa is excited about the Veronica Mars movie; and Mike gives a shout-out to Fox's Cosmos.

Listen below:

MIKE ON RADIO: Bantering About SXSW, ABC and DreamWorks for KCRW's "The Business"

Kim Masters was away this week, so I joined the Los Angeles Times' John Horn to banter on KCRW's "The Business" about the week's news. Here's what we touched on:

Anne Sweeney's departure from Disney/ABC

Dreamworks Animation takes yet another multi-million dollar write-down on a failed film.

SXSW embraces TV or 'Episodics'

Listen below!

MIKE ON RADIO: Breaking Down Anne Sweeney's Disney/ABC Exit

On Friday's edition of KCRW's Hollywood Breakdown, I chat with John Horn about the surprise exit of Disney/ABC Television president Anne Sweeney... and her unusual reason why. Listen: