Bloomberg terminal stars in “The Newsroom”

Peter Lauria of Buzzfeed writes about how a Bloomberg terminal — with fictitious Bloomberg News stories — is playing a prominent role in the HBO series “The Newsroom.”

Lauria writes, “Indeed, since information on the Bloomberg terminal is proprietary, producers weren’t able to duplicate or construct a newsfeed the way they do for clips of CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News that are shown on screens throughout the newsroom (most footage of news shows seen on The Newsroom is either obtained under “fair use” provisions or constructed from B-roll footage producers have access to through a deal with CNN). The show’s producers asked Bloomberg for permission to feature the terminal, going so far as to have a representative from the former New York City Mayor’s financial data giant, valued at more than $22 billion at last count, demo some of its features on set.

“They created fake screens to fit the show’s plot — in one scene, a fake story about AWN’s missed earnings report is shown; in another its stock chart; and in one glaring error early in the episode, Munn’s character doesn’t know the bombing at the Boston marathon occurred because she is engrossed in the Bloomberg terminal, but the service obviously would — and did — flash news breaks about the incident all over its wire and websites and TV network that day.

“Poul and representatives for HBO and Bloomberg all said no money changed hands and that this wasn’t a product placement. Michael Marinello, the Bloomberg executive who worked on the deal, described it as “branded entertainment” and said a company called Corbis Entertainment connected Bloomberg and the show, for which he paid them a fee to help oversee the project from the ground in Los Angeles.”

Read more here.