- "DESTINATION"
ARTS PROGRAMMING: BBC2 has clustered arts programming on Sunday
nights. How is it? "After 150 minutes of Proust mocked and
Picasso beatified, I felt like the schoolboy who asks his father
where the Pyramids are and is told to ask his mother because she
puts the things away." New
Statesman 03/27/00
- BBC
TO SLASH hundreds of management jobs to find £100 million
extra a year for making programs. BBC
04/03/00
- TELETRONIC
SEGREGATION: "The latest Nielsen demographic ratings
reveal a stunning racial chasm: Seven of the 10 TV shows most
watched by blacks are also the seven programs that come in dead
last among whites." Should we be trying to get together?
Philadelphia
Inquirer 04/02/00
- OOOH
BABY BABY BABY: New study reports that sex on prime time American
television has tripled in the past ten years. Oh yes, violence
and bad language are up too. MSNBC
(AP) 03/30/00
- ART
ON TV: Why has TV been so bad about featuring the arts? Who
knows, but the TV arts landscape is beginning to thaw somewhat
with a couple of new productions.
Boston Globe 04/02/00
- THE
PR OF CHAMPIONS: What makes a winner? Salon takes a look at
Dreamworks' eight-month-long "American Beauty" publicity
campaign, beginning with Bernard Weinraub's glowing hype in the
"New York Times" last July (a full three months before
the film's release). The day after the studio took home the Oscar,
the "Times" congratulated the Dreamworks team for their
successful orchestration of all the buzz surrounding the movie.
"No one mentioned the powerful newspaper columnist who'd
in effect played first violin." Salon
3/30/00
- READING
THE SOUND OF THE WEB: A new freeware closed-captioning program
for for video on the web has been released at Boston public station
WGBH. "Before MAGpie, if you wanted to add captions, you
had to type in formatting codes and timecodes. To caption a 10-minute
clip, it took two to three hours. With MAGpie's automation, it
takes about 30 to 40 minutes." Wired
03/31/00
- OUR
HEROES: Much of the art on the web is, well, rather lacking
in imagination. Etoy is trying to change that. Fresh from battles
over the use of their name, the artist group is forging ahead.
"Created in 1994 by seven original founders who describe
themselves as 'sound-producers, artists, designers, lawyers, PR
and CI experts [public relations and corporate identity]' etoy’s
first project was to merge their individual identities into one
digital identity and produce, 'the first dot.com brand in the
art world.' ” The
Art Newspaper 03/31/00
- A
WHORE, A DOLT AND A BAD GUY: Minority groups have become newly
mobilized in Hollywood. Projects depicting minorities of any sort
in a negative light are being protested, and the heat is being
turned up. Toronto
Globe and Mail 03/31/00
- WHAT
IF NO ONE WATCHES? High-definition television broadcasting
is here, but broadcasters are wondering if anyone is watching
it. "It’s a good old-fashioned chicken-and-egg debate. Depending
on your viewpoint, either there aren’t enough digital set owners
to make broadcasting much programming worthwhile, or there isn’t
enough high-def programming out there to spur new set sales."
Variety
03/31/00
- PAID
TO SELL: Two prominent actors unions - the Screen Actors Guild
and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists -
have said their members won't make any more commercials until
their demands - for increased residuals and more money for ads
running on Spanish-language television and in international markets
- are met. CNN
3/30/00
- ON
FURTHER APPRAISAL: "Antiques Roadshow" dumps two
appraisers, saying the pair had ''staged'' their on-air appraisal
of a Civil War-era sword during an episode that aired in 1997.
``Following up on a report in the Boston Herald, WGBH has determined
an appraisal of a Civil War sword, first broadcast in 1997, was
staged by the appraisers without the knowledge of `Antiques Roadshow'
and in violation of the basic premise of the program.'' Boston
Herald 03/20/00
- Show
severs ties with appraisers. Boston
Globe 03/30/00
- Background:
"Roadshow"
is PBS' No. 1 show. "The appraisers perform an almost
magical function on Antiques Roadshows, transforming junk
into gold through the power of their expert knowledge."
Feed Magazine 03/14/00
- SCHOPENHAUER
IN PRIME TIME: Who says
TV is all fluff? About to bow on British TV 4 - on Saturday evenings
no less - is a series on serious philosophy, billed (no doubt
for the ratings) as "a guide to happiness." Series producer
Alain de Botton says Seneca speaks to road rage and Schopenhauer
to a contented love life.
The Economist 03/29/00
- CREDIBILITY
ROADSHOW: Public TV's "Antiques Roadshow" is a major
hit with viewers and a cult phenomenon. But now the show has a
credibility problem. It "heavily uses two antiques
appraisers whose company was found liable in federal court of
defrauding the owner of Civil War heirlooms. The two appraisers
have also staged at least one phony appraisal on the program,
according to sources and court records." The show has vigorously
stuck by the duo. Boston
Herald 03/29/00
- DREAM
TEAM: After watching its heavily favored "Saving Private
Ryan" lose the Oscar for best picture last year, Dreamworks
SKG enjoyed "sweet vindication" on Sunday when its "American
Beauty" took home five awards-just six years after the studio
was founded and only three years after its first release. "DreamWorks
SKG had at last risen to the top of the pecking order, for one
night, at least." New
York Times 3/28/00
- TRASH
REVISITED: The Andy Warhol-era film "Trash," which
"epitomized what it meant to be hip," has been resurrected,
and with it the career of independent director Paul Morrissey
who worked on several of Warhol's films. NPR
3/27/00 [Real
audio file]
- ACCUSED:
Journalists in India, outraged that "The Sixth Sense"
didn't win a single Oscar, have accused the Academy of apartheid.
"The country's media claims the film's lack of success in
any of the six categories in which it was nominated was due to
racism against its director, M Night Shyamalan, who was born in
India." BBC
03/28/00
- AMERICAN
BEAUTY big winner at Oscars. New
York Times 03/27/00
(one-time registration required for entry)
- OSCARS:
All the winners, all the action. Oscars.com
- SO
MUCH FOR EXIT POLLING: The Wall Street Journal tried to
see if it could predict the Academy Awards outcome by polling
voters. How'd they do? Sydney
Morning Herald 03/27/00
- WHAT
ABOUT THE BLACKLISTEES? When a member of the Academy Awards
suggested they devote a segment of the ceremony to the blacklist,
he was told in concise terms: "'The Academy's policy is to
remain totally non-political and...any mention of the motion picture
industry cooperation with the House Unamerican Activities Committee
constitutes a political statement.'" Political or not, history
is inescapable and a part of the present. Shouldn't the Academy
"pass a simple resolution honoring the anonymous blacklistees,
those who were denied work and recognition at the time? The question
is not whether such a resolution may constitute a political statement.
It's the decent thing to do." The
Nation 04/03/00
- TRAILER
TESTING: Increasingly Hollywood is turning to testing to see
how it should market its films.
BBC 03/27/00
- JUST
WHO ARE THESE GUYS ANYWAY? Everyone talks about the Academy
of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as if it was a group of people
in a room somewhere making these big decisions. Just what - and
who - is the Academy? Chicago
Tribune 03/26/00
- STUMBLING
ONTO GOLD: The 61-year-old man who found the case of stolen
Oscar statuettes and returned them to the police was awarded a
$50,000 reward for his good deed. In addition to securing an invitation
to the Academy Awards ceremony, he hopes to get a book contract
or a movie made about his life. The
Washington Post (AP) 03/23/00
-
OSCARS
are said to contribute some $61 million into the Los
Angeles economy. Variety
03/24/00
-
VINTAGE
MANIA: Once the sole obsession of film buffs, collecting
vintage film posters has become a big business over the last
10 years. Christie's is holding its vintage film poster auction
Monday, and fans - "who get their kicks from having a slice
of cinema history on their living room walls" - are already
speculating about record-breaking prices. "The undoubted
highlight is the chance to bid for rare original 'Casablanca'
posters, including Pierre Pigeot's steamy exotic 1942 design."
The
Guardian 03/24/00
-
CAN'T
GET NO RESPECT: Seems the Oscars have a category for everything
- this year there's even "Best Publicist." So why
no prize for best animated film? As usual, not one animated
movie was nominated this year, despite some strong work. Critics
object on the grounds that, since the advent of computer-generated
imagery, feature films with digital effects and feature-length
cartoons basically use the same techniques. "By that rationale,
Buzz Lightyear and Woody the cowboy from "Toy Story 2"
could be considered cousins to Jar-Jar Binks in "the Phantom
Menace" and the dinosaurs in "Jurassic Park."
Times
of India (AP) 03/24/00
-
BILLIONS
AND BILLIONS SERVED? Each year the claim is made that the
annual Oscar telecast is watched by billions of people worldwide.
Is it true? Not even close. "These numbers are hopelessly
exaggerated, usually the product of adding together each broadcast-licensed
nation's entire population, rather than an estimated, Nielsen-like
figure approximating actual viewers. Even if the Academy Awards
were to be broadcast in China and India - which, as of press
time, they were not to be this year - it certainly would not
mean that every citizen from Bombay to Beijing would be able
to tune in the program. Or even give a crap." Salon
03/22/00
-
MINNESOTA
COMES TO TOWN: It took an outsider in the form of Minnesota
Public Radio to take over a Los Angeles public radio station
and give the city its first local morning public affairs program.
Is this public radio of the future? LA
Weekly 03/23/00
-
FILMS
WITHOUT BORDERS: All except one of this year's Oscar nominations
for foreign language films were set outside the director's native
country; scriptwriting and financing are commonly becoming multinational
ventures; and filmmakers are finding the freedom to explore
and adopt foreign countries as their own. What does all this
signify? The "internationalization of the national film."
Los
Angeles Times 03/22/00
-
"I
CAN'T NAME ONE CRITIC I TRUST:" Last week the American
magazine Variety polled four dozen filmmakers to see what they
thought about film critics. It wasn't a happy report. Most lament
a decline in review standards, saying many critics had turned
into little more than "blurbmeisters."
The Guardian 03/22/00
-
MAN
OF IRON: Polish director Andrzej Wajda will become the first
Eastern European film director to receive a lifetime achievement
award at this Sunday's Academy Awards. During a five-decade
career, with 44 films to his name - including his 1981 film
"Man of Iron," Wajda's acclaimed personal show of support for
the Solidarity movement - he has revitalized his nation's film
industry. "Last year, for the first time since the end of the
communist era and the relaxation of import restrictions on American
movies, Polish films logged better box office figures than foreign
ones." Time
(Europe) 0 3/27/00
-
SHOWING
AT A (COMPUTER) SCREEN NEAR YOU: Cyber movie theaters (showing
"everything from Hong Kong action flicks to artsy films") and
a growing number of comic Webzines are "making it possible for
Koreans to see movies and read comics with just a click." One
24-hour site plans to show online film festivals, and Korea's
filmmakers are starting to release "for-cyber-theater-only"
movies. No one, from here to Seoul, is sure whether the computer
monitor will ever truly replace the big screen, but "there's
no denying that the internet is turning the industry upside
down."
Korea Herald 3/21/00
-
HOME
TO MAMA: The missing 55 Oscar statues are found in an LA
garbage can. ``My foot hit one. It was heavy and I opened it
up. Everybody knows who Oscar is,'' said the trash recycler
who found them. He filled the trunk of his car with the boxes
and called his 22-year-old son. Willie Fulgear said he had no
idea the Oscars were missing. Boston
Herald (AP) 03/20/00
-
HOLLYWOOD
INDEPENDENT: Seems like a great time to be an independent
filmmaker. New markets, lots of attention, plenty of innovation.
Sure, but there's a downside, too. Seven prominent indie filmmakers
get together to talk about the biz. The
Nation 03/20/00
-
KIDS'
STUFF: "Arthur," the animated series based on
the best-selling books, is PBS' top-rated children's show, and
by PBS calculations, the most-watched children's show on television.
The Canadian company that produces the show is ensnared in a
mess of financial woes, and late last week, three Canadian government
agencies suspended their funding of the company, pending answers
to questions, including the issue of an unauthorized investment
of $122 million. PBS is nervously watching the fortunes of its
star franchise. Los
Angeles Times 03/20/00
-
COMING
TO A THEATER NEAR YOU: The case of the missing Oscar statuettes
is... positively cinematic. There's got to be a movie in there
somewhere. Washington
Post 03/19/00
-
FAUX
SAVINGS: Until it closed last month, the 84-year-old Universal
Studios Research Library was the oldest and largest collection
of its sort in Hollywood - a remarkable resource for screenwriters,
producers, art directors and set designers who relied on its
books, magazines and indexed images to give their projects factual
and atmospheric credibility. Now the library has been closed
to save money, and its users worry about the fate of its collections.
San
Francisco Chronicle 03/19/00
-
ONLINE
AND ENTREPRENEURIAL: This week yetis (that's Young Entrepreneurial
Techies) from all over will gather in Hollywood for the first
Online Film Festival. There's some irony here, though. "The
technical ideology thing is way ahead of the technical practicality."
Philadelphia
Inquirer 03/19/00
-
BRING
BACK THE CHEESY SPECIAL EFFECTS: Computer generated imagery
has transformed the world of movie special effects. "Whereas,
before, if they were making The Attack of the Killer Ants, they'd
have papier mache ants chewing someone in half, now they'll
use a computer graphic ant, because it's cheap and they can
get bigger shots." But the amazing imagery has gotten predictable,
and now there's talk of a backlash. National
Post 03/18/00
-
DEADHEAD
DEITY: Nine US TV stations have banned a new NBC
cartoon called "God, the Devil and Bob," in order
to avoid provoking religious groups. The main concern seems
to be that God bears too close a resemblance to Jerry Garcia,
late singer of the Grateful Dead. "God wears dark glasses
and has the amiable countenance and demeanor of Garcia (who
for a sizeable number of his fans, the Deadheads, was God anyway)."
The Age (The Guardian)
03/17/00
-
GROUNDED:
Plan to send Russian actor to the Mir Space Station to shoot
a movie has been iced for the time being for lack of funds.
BBC 03/17/00
-
CASE
OF THE MISSING OSCARS: First the Academy's ballots went
missing. Now a shipment of Oscar statuettes was stolen off a
shipping dock.
Variety 03/17/00
-
WHAT
EXACTLY IS AN INDEPENDENT FILM? A
film festival deep in the heart of Texas aspires to be the next
Sundance. New
York Times 03/16/00 (one-time
registration required for entry)
-
OWNING
UP:
Hollywood's top prize for directors has
long been the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' D.W.
Griffith Award. But when this year's award went to director
Steven Spielberg, it was stripped of its namesake, because of
Griffith's racist views. "The decision to remove Griffith's
name has churned up a maelstrom of mixed emotions in the liberal,
artistic community of Hollywood that still recognizes its debt
to the director's pioneering work. Is it possible to honor the
achievements of a ground-breaking artist, they ask, while still
deploring that person's political views?" Washington
Post 03/16/00
-
WATCHING
THE MUSIC GO 'ROUND: Vinylvideo is
"a revolutionary system for screening short artist-made
films on a television set. Each film is stored on a 12-inch
vinyl record that spins at 45 rpm on a standard audio turntable.
An electronic box connects the turntable to a TV and converts
the audio signal for video playback." New
York Times 03/16/00 (one-time
registration required for entry)
-
BOMBAY
CALLING: Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch
will spend $100 million to set up a film studio near Bombay
and wire the metropolis with a fibre optic network. In his relentless
pursuit to expanding his multi-media empire, he has already
acquired a string of popular news and entertainment television
channels in India.
The
Age (AP) 03/16/00
-
LAST
ONES STANDING: New research suggests that there may have
been some 20 prehistoric human types that may have existed.
But now only Homo sapiens remain. Did we off the other humans?
Were we just stronger? What exactly did we do to all the others?
New Canadian TV show explores the mystery. Toronto
Globe and Mail 03/15/00
-
GREAT
MINDS, GREAT NAME: Judge rules that a History Channel series
"Great Minds" of history, business and science is
too similar to a Teaching Company series called "Great
Minds of the Western Intellectual Tradition" and will have
to change its name. Both series feature intellectuals talking
about their areas of expertise and are marketed in the New York
Times Book Review. Washington
Post 03/15/00
-
THE
HEALING POWER OF MOVIE MUSIC: Film
scores can provide nice background music, enhance the pictures
and words on the screen; they can be filled with pop songs that
raise the film's grosses; they can hype the love, the fear,
the horror you see unfolding on screen. Can movie music also
help us psychologically, by "making the ritual complete,
helping us heal through catharsis"?
Ovation
03/12/00 [text and audio]
-
SCORE
ONE FOR THE HOME TEAM: When the South Korean government
relaxed rules controlling what foreign films could enter the
country, many thought American movies would flood the market.
But surprise - a wave of interesting and innovative Korean movies
has been produced.
New
York Times 03/14/00
(one-time
registration required for entry)
-
PIXEL-ARTED:
Internet art is everywhere these days. Is this the beginning
of a whole new genre of art? "In a way, you can say
the Internet has fundamentally changed how audiences access
art. But I don't think you'll ever be able to replace the visceral
experience of being in the room with a piece." St.
Louis Post-Dispatch 03/14/00
-
IT'S
ALL A GAME: Computer animation is great, but the programs
are expensive for filmmakers. So some movie makers have turned
to the engines that drive computer games to render Hollywood-quality
animation at a fraction of the price.
Wired 03/13/00
-
BBC
ARTS - BATTERED, BRUISED AND CRITICIZED:
In the past year the BBC's arts section has been accused of
dumbing down, giving up, cutting back and banishing things so
far to the edge of the schedule that they have all but fallen
off. What to do? Create a new arts initiative - "Arts Zone"
is designed to be "the home of arts on terrestrial
television". London
Sunday Times 03/12/00
-
WHAT
IF I LOSE: It's awards season again,
and the potential fulfillment of many a childhood dream. Get
nominated and everybody loves you. But....what if you lose?
New
York Times 03/12/00 (one-time
registration required for entry)
-
EUROPEAN
EQUIVALENT OF AOL/TIME-WARNER MERGER: Euro-giants unite,
with broadband player United PanEurope Communications (UPC)
acquiring all of the assets of the pan-Euro station group SBS
Broadcasting. Variety
03/10/00
-
IT'S
ROSY IF YOU CAN AFFORD IT: The future, that is. The digital
film revolution promises some big improvements in the way movie
theaters do business. All well and good. But can they afford
the new toys in the first place? For many exhibitors, the issue
in front of them is survival. They're struggling to climb out
of the red after a financial squeeze caused in part by growing
competition from other media and an ambitious period of new
theater construction and refurbishment designed to lure customers.
-
A
MUSEUM BY ANY OTHER NAME: In Britain, fears that the country
may be "over-museumed" after a rash of building. So
some of the latest museum editions aren't calling themselves
"museums" at all. Bristol's newest $180 million baby
doesn't have the word in its name. Instead, the 11-acre site
has the unwieldy name of "@ Bristol" and the emphasis
is all on the toys of new technology, IMAX movies and video.
London
Telegraph 03/10/00
-
DON'T
OPEN UNTIL CHRISTMAS: The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts
and Sciences has sent a letter out to its members warning that
the The Wall Street Journal is trying to get the jump on finding
out winners of this year's Oscars. The letter asks that voters
not cooperate with the Journal's telephone poll. Variety
03/09/00
-
IT'S
AN iBLAST: New company signs up 143 television stations
in 102 American markets to begin broadcasting high speed wireless
signals to personal computers. Service to begin early next year.
Wired
03/09/00
-
"RECKLESS
INDISCRIMINATE SEDUCTION": Media critic Todd Gitlin
says that rather than uplift and educate people, modern media
conglomerates are a Band-aid. "Fortunes are to be made
in offering ever-reliable analgesics to a public hungry for
fast relief,'' he says. The guys who run the networks, the newspapers,
the studios, the magazine and music companies are getting richer
while our civic life grows poorer. Toronto
Star 03/09/00
-
THAI
BAN: Thai politicians are protesting the latest Leonardo
DiCaprio movie "The Beach" and proposing to ban it
from the country. They say the film is blasphemous and portrays
their country as a drugs paradise. The movie's opening earlier
this week was also protested by angry environmentalists. BBC
03/09/00
-
JURASSIC
TV: The television landscape is pitching and heaving, changing
at an ever-accelerating rate. But the traditional networks have
been slow to adapt, even as their share of viewers has slipped
precipitously.
Variety 03/09/00
-
SERIOUS
ABOUT SLIMMING DOWN: For the first time in 20 years the
cost to market movies dropped last year. At the same time, ticket
prices climbed an average 8 percent. Slimming down to a more
profitable Hollywood. Variety
03/08/00
-
DUBBA
DUBBA DO: Hollywood wins battle to be be allowed to dub
their movies into Spanish in Mexico. Mexican law had decreed
all movies had to be subtitled. The Hollywood majors have long
claimed the statute discriminated against the estimated 20 million
illiterate Mexicans as well as the elderly and those with poor
vision. Variety
03/08/00
-
INTELLIGENT
DIALOGUE: Terry Gross's "Fresh Air" turns 25 this
year. Playing to an audience of 3 million, it is a tastemaker
sorting through an ocean of culture.
New York Times 03/08/00 (one-time
registration required for entry)
-
BESSON
DEFENDS HIMSELF: Last week a popular French magazine accused
filmmaker Luc Besson of persistent plagiarism in his films.
He strongly denies it. Times
of India (AP) 03/08/00
-
THE
HOTTEST THING IN MOVIES? Family movies, especially children's
movies. The last four months have been winners for the family
fare.
New York Times 03/07/00 (one-time
registration required for entry)
-
THE
FUTURE IS NOW: Digital technology is transforming the movie
industry before our eyes. The Sundance Film Festival presented
a record 17 digital films this year, and filmmakers George Lucas
and Spike Lee plan to shoot and produce their next features
digitally. Images are clearer. Editing is easier. Shooting can
be done on cheap $4,000 cameras. And the dramatic decline in
costs gives filmmakers greater freedom. San
Francisco Chronicle 03/07/00
-
CHINA'S
JUST SITTING THERE: American film distributors are eager
to push into China, Russia and other largely untapped markets.
But first the distributors want a better deal from studios.
Variety
03/07/00
-
THE
WORLD ACCORDING TO HOLLYWOOD: "Art takes its
inspiration from two sources, religion and entertainment--the
heavenly and the festive. But today, everything is conflated
with entertainment as Hollywood conceives it. In 1999, U.S.
movies earned about $29.8 billion out of a total global take
of $33.4 billion. And that figure does not include income from
video sales, merchandising, licensing, concessions, and other
tie-ins." Is Hollywood's view of the world so compelling
that it has to crush everything in its path? Civilization
03/00
-
LATEST
MERCHANT IVORY FILM draws protests from Indian community
for the movie's depiction of an Anglo-Indian character. BBC
03/07/00
-
SEEMED
LIKE A GOOD IDEA AT THE TIME: Plan to auction independent
films in the US fails as there's little interest or bidders
for the first 15 movies offered. Times
of India (AP) 03/06/00
-
TV
MISCREANT: "I was busted by the TV police." The
Idler 03/06/00
-
A
MAN AND HIS (DREAM OF A) RADIO STATION: Denver man has a
dream to own a radio station that would program positive messages
- "a push-button sanctuary for the mind," with upbeat
music, good-news news and humor. He doesn't have the $19 million
it will take to buy a station and get on the air. So he's running
to raise money. Has he lost his mind? Denver
Post 03/06/00
-
AFRICAN
FILM FESTIVAL: The tiny African country of Burkina Faso
is home to Africa's biggest film festival. "Fespaco has
also turned little Ouagadougou, with its red-earth streets,
into a city of biennial movie maniacs, who flock to the screenings
and discuss the candidates for the Stallion of Yennanga, the
festival's grand prize, with as much fervour as World Cup football
matches. Meanwhile, the bars and terraces of the Hotel Indépendence
seethe with film-makers from Algeria to Mozambique and TV production
scouts from Europe." London
Telegraph 03/04/00
-
A
MATTER OF IDENTITY: This year's Asian American Film Festival
explores questions of who we are. San
Francisco Chronicle 03/05/00
-
WILL
TIME-WARNER/AOL MERGER put the squeeze on Disney? US Senate
committee investigating the deal wants to know. The Mouseniks
are keeping mum though. "Disney is concerned that Time
Warner will retaliate against the company by relegating its
cable webs to inferior positions on systems’ channel lineups
or remove them from the systems completely." Variety
03/03/00
-
A
"REFUGE FOR EGOMANIACS":
Berlin's only public access television station is under fire
by critics. Founded in 1985 and modeled on U.S. public-access
TV - which aims to further the freedom of speech of small, special-interest
groups - the Offener Kanal provides a TV- and radio-broadcast
platform for any legal German resident over the age of 18. Opponents
say the channel is out of date and a refuge for egomaniacs and
the mentally disturbed. They argue the special-interest groups
don't reflect society as a whole. Die
Welt 03/02/00
-
A
GIRL'S GOTTA MAKE A LIVING: While everyone was focusing
on the AOL/Time-Warner merger last month, AOL and PBS made a
deal to co-brand and co-produce. Is this good for public TV?
"This deal is just one more brick in the wall which basically
says that we no longer have public broadcasting in the U.S."
San
Francisco Bay Guardian 03/02/00
-
GIANT
STEPS:
Clear Channel Communications, the broadcasting heavyweight,
buys SFX Entertainment, the giant live-performance presenter.
SFX owns or operates 120 theaters nationwide. San Antonio-based
Clear Channel will soon operate 867 U.S. radio and 19 television
stations, as well as 550,000 billboards.
Boston Herald 03/01/00
-
MORE
AND LESS: France has dramatically increased the number of
films it produces, but audiences haven't grown to match the
growth. Variety
03/01/00
-
NOW
YOU TOO CAN OWN... In an attempt to find a better way to
sell independent films, an entrepreneur holds an auction. Los
Angeles Times 03/01/00
-
ROUGH
"SURVIVOR:" BBC's new show puts 36 people on a
desolate island to live, and films the results. The critics
are skeptical: "You cannot flirt with nature on this particular
Atlantic frontier and not expect to get comprehensively ravaged
by her. These poor sods with their suburban escapist fantasies
are being shamelessly exploited, and despite the assurances,
I simply do not believe they know what they're letting themselves
in for." Los
Angeles Times 03/01/00
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ONE
HOT FORMAT: Classical music radio station KDFC is the leading
music station of any format in the Bay Area. Now it's got some
competition from a new AM upstart. San
Francisco Chronicle 03/01/00
