Last night on ‘The Daily Show,’ Jon Stewart turned his attention to the news that Rupert Murdoch is reportedly looking to purchase Time Warner for $80 billion. Murdoch rarely takes no for an answer once he has his eyes set on an acquisition, leading Stewart to remark: “He’s like the date-rapist of media barons …with all due respect.”

Murdoch owns Fox, which means that should he acquire Time Warner, CNN would be divested.  “It wouldn’t come cheap, though, with analysts saying the network would be worth about $10 billion on the open market,” Stewart said. “It’s a lot of money for anyone, but not a lot of money for everyone. Which is why tonight we’re starting our Kickstarter campaign to buy CNN.”

In the clip below, Stewart launches into the rewards for different levels of commitment. Stewart adds at the end that he hopes this campaign is more successful than his Wolf Blitzer Kickstopper.

Showtime’s ‘Penny Dreadful’ will make its Comic-Con debut as the opening day headliner, kicking off with a panel tomorrow featuring Josh Hartnett, Reeve Carney and Harry Treadaway and showrunner John Logan. In true SDCC spirit, there will be a contest at the panel that will grant two panel attendees access to the after-party.

The show, which features 19^th century British fiction characters, will seek to engage fans both in-person and via social with its SDCC presence.

In addition to talent signings, deluxe hardcover editions of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Oscar Wilde’s A Picture of Dorian Gray (all characters featured in the show), which each contain original black and white illustrations by Martin Stiff, Louie de Martinis and Ian Bass, will be available for purchase. 150,000 SDCC fans will also be wearing ‘Penny Dreadful’-branded lanyards. Read more

“The Walking Dead” has become a social TV favorite over the years, and today, AMC and Next Games gave fans a sneak peak at what the hit show’s upcoming new mobile game will look like.

“The Walking Dead: No Man’s Land” trailer was released, showing animated images of the game’s characters–modeled after the popular show–with a somber song playing in the background. The game, which will premiere at at the same time season 5 premieres early next year, will allow smartphone and tablet users the opportunity to fight for survival like the show’s characters do.

“Our approach is to stay true to the main themes of the TV show: survival strategy, finding safety for your people, balancing between right and wrong and, of course, action when it comes to fighting against the hordes of walkers,” said Teemu Huuhtanen, CEO, of Next Games.

Netflix released its Q2 earnings report yesterday, and though it didn’t surpass analysts’ expectations, the news is generally good. Netflix led the report by announcing that 15 years after launching, it now has over 50 million members in 40 countries. The company recognizes that much of its recent growth can be attributed to the success of ‘Orange is the New Black.’ The company’s “U.S. member base grew to more than 36 million on the strength of our ever-improving content offering, including Orange is the New Black Season 2. For Q3, we expect about 1.3 million net additions, comparable to Q3’13 in which we premiered Orange Season 1. We are pleased our net additions in the U.S. remain on par with last year.”

In addition to the potential of adding many more U.S. customers, the company has only scratched the surface abroad. Netflix saw 78% year-over-year international subscriber growth, with 13.8 million subscribers at the end of Q2.

Here are other highlights from Netflix’s earnings report, which have far-reaching implications across the digital, social TV, connected TV, and over-the-top landscape: Read more

Jerry Seinfeld’s eponymous show ended in 1998, and, “yada,yada, yada” he now stars in one of the most successful web series of all time.

To promote ‘Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee’ (CICGC), Seinfeld dropped by Facebook’s New York office last week to take part in a Q&A with fans on the CICGC page. In January, he did a very successful Reddit AMA. During the Facebook Q&A, he answered fan questions about his first car, road rage, and his sneaker collection, among others.

When asked whether he “enjoyed working with Crackle more than going through a traditional network,” Seinfeld replied: “Yes, Crackle has been heaven for us. They only support and never interfere and that is an artists dream.”

Showrunners and actors are expressing this sentiment more and more since Netflix introduced its paradigm-shifting ‘House of Cards.’ Of course, ‘House of Cards’ is not a web series, but it can certainly be attributed with opening the flood gates for successful examples of original content outside of linear.

Below is a selection of Seinfeld’s best answers from the Q&A, including a hint that hit guests may be returning in the future and that ‘Napolean Dynamite’ is his favorite comedy movie of the past 15 years. Read more

On the heels of recent growth, Beamly is set to expand its suite of mobile features to the first screen.

The company announced today its app, which includes a personalized TV guide, content discovery and recommendation features, remote control, personalized news feeds, and more, will soon be available for Android TV sets. It’s the first time company’s technology will be available for TV sets.

“We’ve always seen the future as being not about the first screen or the second screen, but a two-way connection between the device in your hand where you browse and interact with TV shows, and the big screen where you watch those shows” said Anthony Rose, co-founder & CTO at Beamly. “The arrival of the Android TV platform will finally make this possible.”

Read more

This week, “CBS This Morning” is partnering with NASA to take its social fans to space.

The first photo, posted on “CTM’s” Instagram this morning, shows an image of a solar flare.

Read more

Collective, a leading provider of multiscreen advertising solutions, currently works with 77 of the top 100 AdAge Advertisers and is a rumored IPO candidate.  Its core product allows advertisers to reach their audiences no matter what device they’re looking at. This is especially crucial for TV advertisers because their audience continues to use second screen devices while watching programming.

To help capture this second screen audience, Twitter last year introduced TV targeting solutions in the form of promoted tweets. “For example, during a Coke commercial, Coke sends out promoted Tweets to reinforce its ad’s message,” Collective VP’s of Product Strategy Adam Harris wrote in a piece for The Ad Tech Press. “Or Pepsi sends promoted Tweets during the Coke commercial to disrupt its competitor’s message.” Harris also cited the following data: 84% of people are using second screen devices while watching TV, but only 15% of this group use social to discuss what they’re watching.

So how can advertisers reach the 85% of people who aren’t taking to social to discuss the show, but are instead surfing the web or using second screen apps? To help answer this, Lost Remote spoke with Harris. Read more

The second season of Showtime’s critically-acclaimed “Masters of Sex” premiered this week and although the social audience was on the smaller side, they were highly engaged and extremely excited for the show’s return. According to our analytics partner, Canvs, which measures Twitter sentiment for shows, the most reacted-to moment of Episode 1 was viewers calling Bill a “jerk” when he ignored his crying baby and yelled at his mother. Still, most of the conversation surrounding the season premiere was about the return itself. Of the tweets that featured an emotional reaction, 38% used the word “love,” 23% used the word “excited,” and 12% used the word “good.”

Here are some other insights from Canvs followed by an infographic: Read more

TV shows run the gamut in terms of genres, and one is increasing in popularity–pawn shop shows. One of those is truTV’s “Hardcore Pawn,” which depicts the wheeling and dealing that goes on in a Detroit pawn shop.

As part of MediabistroTV’s “Pawn of July” series (yes, we made that up), Les Gold and daughter Ashley, who star in the show, explain why pawn shop shows are gaining popularity. One reason: the unique set of people who walk into the store.

Last week: Hardcore Pawn stars talk about the weirdest things they’ve bought or sold.