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Matt Roush's Ask Matt column gone

F

fortt3

Popular TV critic Matt Roush's online "Ask Matt" column on TVGuide.com is victim of the sale of the TV Guide magazine to Open Gate Capital. When the sale closed on Dec 2nd, it meant the end of his weekly column. He didn't even have a chance to let his fans know. They found out in the terse announcement posted Friday in place of the column.

“TV Guide Magazine and TVGuide.com are now owned by separate companies. Matt Roush is staying with the magazine and will no longer write for TVGuide.com. Matt's been a great friend to the site and to our users over the years. He's an exceptional professional, and we wish him all the best.”
http://www.tvguide.com/Roush/Where-Matt-Roush-1000790.aspx

There are possibilities of a return in an online form at some point, if the print magazine, which will no longer have TV listings, can stay afloat long enough to launch it.

Bummer! :mad:
I will miss reading Matt's take on the returns of Lost and 24.
 
Macrovision still does. They had purchased Gemstar-TV Guide International, Inc. on May 2, 2008 and said they were possibly looking to sell both the magazine and TV Guide Network to other parties. With the sale of the magazine, they still have the TVGuide.com site and the cable channel. Don't ask me how they were able to reach agreement on Macrovisions's website and channel and Open Gates's magazine all keeping the name and logo despite diffent owners.
 
fortt3 said:
Macrovision still does. They had purchased Gemstar-TV Guide International, Inc. on May 2, 2008 and said they were possibly looking to sell both the magazine and TV Guide Network to other parties. With the sale of the magazine, they still have the TVGuide.com site and the cable channel. Don't ask me how they were able to reach agreement on Macrovisions's website and channel and Open Gates's magazine all keeping the name and logo despite diffent owners.
Click to expand...

Licensing agreement. Very common. GE licenses it and the RCA labels to Thomson, a French company, to make electronics. RCA is also licensed to Sony (formerly BMG) for the record label.

One party (Macrovision) might own the trademark and license it to the other (Open Gate). Of course...it probably has an expiration date. After that...whoever owns the trademark can refuse to renew. The terms are usually kept secret as part of the sale agreement...so we will not know how it is done.

Regardless...it sounds like the end is near for TV Guide magazine. I have never ever heard of Open Gate. (Macrovision is the copy protection people). Open Gate bought it for $1.00 (less than a gallon of gas - and 1/3 of the TV Guide cover price). Might as well go ahead and say goodbye to an American icon.
 
Open Gate apparently buys up failing companies that they think they can turn around. Yeah, they got the mag for $1, but keep in mind they had to assume liabilities and take out a loan from Macrovision for $9.5 Million at 3%. And, the new verion of the mag won't have listings.

Getting back to the original subject, Matt Roush may be back online in the future, but he's on a sinking ship that he'll probably have to bail from anyway.
 
I miss the tiny little TV screens with the channel numbers inside of them. That was part of TV Guide's charm.
 
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