Buy The Channels You Want? Consumer advocacy groups have been asking Congress to look into why cable companies won't let subscribers pick the channels they want in their subscription packages instead of being forced into accepting dozens of channels they may never watch while still paying for them." Cable companies say such a system would wreck the econbomics of the current TV business. The FCC seems skeptical... Wired 07/30/04

FCC Vs. TV Violence The Federal Communications Commission wants to take on violence on TV. "Hundreds of studies over decades document the harmful impact that exposure to graphic and excessive media violence has on the physical and mental health of our children. Wanton violence on the people's airwaves has gone unaddressed for too long." Backstage (AP) 07/29/04

Toronto Film Fest Up, Montreal In Trouble A study commissioned to review Canada's four largest film festivals offered up some sharp criticism to Montreal's sagging offering. "The report, which surveyed film professionals from around the world, is a preliminary step as Telefilm and SODEC review their festival funding priorities. It could lead to Montreal getting a smaller portion of the millions of dollars in government grants given each year to film festivals. The study also praised festivals in Vancouver and Atlantic Canada, which rank third and fourth after Toronto and Montreal and which also continue to grow. The most significant findings highlighted the rise of Toronto and the decline of Montreal." Toronto Star 07/29/04

FCC Prepares To Weigh In On Viewer Choice The FCC takes a break from slapping down broadcast obscenity this week to weigh in on an increasingly important issue within the TV industry: whether consumers should have the right to select the cable channels they wish to pay for a la carte, or whether cable companies have the right to offer packages (as they do now) with dozens of channels grouped together. "The report won't include any specific recommendations, but its tone -- especially on whether a la carte could result in huge price hikes -- could influence whether forces in Congress continue to pursue the issue." Wired 07/29/04

A (Spike) Lee Grows In Brooklyn Spike Lee is calle by some the black Woody Allen. He doesn't like the comparison. And, he still has difficulty getting funding for projects. "Why is it so hard? For me, I'll give you three reasons. One is I've never had a blockbuster. No. 2, I don't necessarily do standard Hollywood films. And No. 3, when studios do decide to do films that are geared toward an African-American audience, their vision of who African-Americans are is different from mine — a lot of times it's in direct conflict with how I see African-Americans." The New York Times 07/29/04

Movies In The Absence Of Words (Make 'em Up) It's the latest thing - movieoke. People watch a movie together with the sound off, performing the script themselves into a microphone. "It's harder than karaoke. People don't watch movies over and over again the way you listen to songs over and over again. And there's no music in the background to help when you mess up." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 07/28/04

Big Chill - FCC Rulings Scare Broadcasters The FCC crackdown on content commissioners believe might be offensive is having an effect on broadcasters. "We've got to err on the side of restraint because we can't make any one of our stations liable for legal action, for FCC fines. That would be irresponsible." Hartford Courant 07/27/04

How Blockbuster Hopes To Stave Off Extinction Many have predicted the death of the video rental business. But Blockbuster, America's largest video rental chain, is fighting back. "Blockbuster is expanding programs that let customers trade both videos and video games. The strategy is to transform Blockbuster from a place you go to rent a movie to a place you go to rent, buy or trade movies and games: new or used, in store or online.'' The New York Times 07/27/04

PBS Offer: How About $5 Billion For Our Analog Signals? PBS president Pat Mitchell has a proposition: Congress should give the network $5 billion in return for giving up its analog broadcast signals. "Trading analog signals for digital is a big regulatory issue right now. The old analog signals are worth billions, since they can be used to transmit streaming data. Mitchell's idea is that a one-time 'grant' is better than the feds' reluctantly doling out a mere $300 million to PBS annually." Denver Post 07/26/04

A History Of Politics In Movies Hollywood has always been obsessed with politics, and there is a long tradition of films with political stories. "Such movies provide windows on the vast changes that have sculpted the political landscape over the years; if Frank Capra's Depression-era civics lesson is innately optimistic, then Michael Moore's wartime anti-Bush-administration harangue seems afflicted by a whopping dose of cynicism. But in ways that may not be immediately apparent, the two films share similarities; each is a snapshot of a political system that works only if the citizenry pays attention and, perhaps more importantly, is given the opportunity to pay attention." Baltimore Sun 07/26/04

Fahrenheit Box Office Tops $100 Million Michael Moore joined the $100 million club as his political assault 'Fahrenheit 9/11' became the first documentary ever to top that mark at the domestic box office." Baltimore Sun (AP) 07/26/04

And This, 007, Is Called An iPod... "When the engineers at Apple originally designed the iPod, it's doubtful they thought of their gizmo as a potential security risk. But in corporate and military circles, that's exactly what the digital music player has become. Circles like Britain's Ministry of Defence (MOD), which last week added the iPod to its list of restricted devices." At issue is the ease with which an iPod user can download information of any kind (not just songs) from other machines. Toronto Star 07/25/04

CBC Chief Dodges Flying Memos The new chief of the CBC's English-language TV division has had a rough first week on the job, as he seeks to distance himself from a controversial memo which recommended privatizing large chunks of the public broadcaster and splitting the TV channel into three specialty networks. Richard Stursberg insists that, while he may have been involved in discussions which touched on the subjects contained in the memo, he does not support any of its proposals, and wants to use his position to strengthen the CBC's regional presence, and to make it "more Canadian" in general. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 07/24/04

Cleveland's Multimedia Center Gets A Big Boost A $1.6 million gift from a Cleveland foundation has jumpstarted the funding campaign for a unique multimedia center which will combine the operations of the city's public TV station WVIZ and public radio station WCPN (known collectively as Ideastream) with "broadcast and dance studios, offices, classrooms and a small theater." Organizers hope that the project can revitalize Cleveland's theater district while providing a much-needed center for arts education. $17 million of private money still needs to be raised for the center to become reality. The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 07/24/04

The Year Of The Documentary It's clear now that we are in the midst of a documentary boom, says Geoff Pevere, and the more controversial, the better. So what's driving the rush to fact-based films? Well, technology has made such films a lot easier to make than they used to be. The world is a polarized and dangerous place at the moment, which whets the appetite for information. And the Bush administration, with its constant attempts to "manage" information, has certainly made a certain sector of the populace thirst for alternative knowledge. "One more thing: When [documentaries] work, they can knock you flat on your ass." Toronto Star 07/23/04

How iPods Could Fail Lost amid all the hype surrounding the iPod and its copycats is the fact that, despite the obvious consumer interest in digital music, no one audio file format has yet emerged as the industry standard. Songs downloaded in iPod's format, for instance, cannot be played on Sony's player. More importantly, with a few major media companies (like Sony) controlling the majority of the available product, Apple is running a significant risk of having the iPod become the new Betamax if its format doesn't become the standard, and soon. The Telegraph (UK) 07/22/04

This Summer - Reruns Rule This was supposed to be the summer that year-round TV programming took hold. No repeats, new series... "We've heard all these big grandiose announcements about the year-round programming and what a great strategy it is. We've seen no evidence to back up the rhetoric. In fact, we've seen quite the opposite." CBS, the only network running reruns, is the only network doing well. "Midway through the summer season, CBS is the only major network to increase its number of total viewers, adding 3 percent to an average of 8.5 million." The New York Times 07/21/04

The Throwaway DVD A new "dispoable" DVD that self-destructs is being touted as an anti-piracy tool as well as a challenge to the traditional movie rental. "The discs are created using an oxygen-activated chemical, and are shipped in vacuum-sealed packages. Once the disc is exposed to air, the chemical starts working; 48 hours later, it turns black, and the DVD player can’t read it anymore." New York Magazine 07/19/04

Congress "Cleaning Up" Movie Legislation The US Congress is considering two bills this week that will impact the entertainment industry. "The House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote Wednesday on the Family Movie Act, which would exempt from legal liability anyone who uses filtering software to "clean up" purportedly indecent, violent or pornographic movie content. The following day, the Senate Commerce Committee will decide whether to renew the satellite TV industry's right to transmit network programming." Backstage 07/20/04

In Canada: Muzzle Al-Jazeera, Muzzle Fox? So Canada is going to begin showing the Al-Jazeera network on TV (though its programming will be censored). "Many people applauded how cable operators must tape and monitor Al Jazeera 24/7 to head off possible offensive material. So, now that the cable industry has yet another application to import Fox News before the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), will anyone call for Fox to be similarly muzzled to stop potentially 'abusive comment' on the U.S. channel?" Toronto Star 07/20/04

UK's Blockbuster Cinema The UK film industry posted a record level of production last year, while admissions at UK cinemas reached their second highest level in 30 years. "About £742m was taken at the UK box office. The box office tally marks an increase of 136% on the previous decade, with one in four people now attending the cinema once every month." BBC 07/19/04

Canada Carrying/Censoring Al-Jazeera "Last week, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission decreed that Canadian cable and satellite operators could carry Al-Jazeera, along with eight other 'non-Canadian third-language services' as digital channels. However, concerns that Al-Jazeera would incite anti-Semitism, and air offensive and objectionable material, prompted the CRTC to insist that distributors of the news service monitor it for 'abusive comment' 24 hours a day." What kind of message does censoring the channel send when we proclaim our free press? The Globe & Mail (Canada) 07/19/04

Marvel's Spidey Senses Are Tingling The legendary Marvel Comics, "which owns the rights to the Spider-Man character, has seen its fortunes soar from the "Spider-Man" movies. Over the last four years, thanks in large part to a steady stream of Spidey-related revenue, Marvel has gone from losing tens of millions of dollars a year to turning a profit of $152 million on revenue of $348 million in 2003." The New York Times 07/19/04

New High-Tech Kick For Arthouse Movie Theatres The new owners of Landmark Theatres art movie houses "plan to bring big-media ideas of vertical integration to the art house world. The new owners are importing digital technology to Landmark's 204 screens by equipping each of the 57 theaters in 21 markets with high-definition digital projection by year's end." The New York Times 07/19/04

The Marketing of Controversy In the past few months, two of the most successful films in history have also been two of the most controversial. In fact, major controversy is just about the only thing that Mel Gibson's bloody biopic of Jesus and Michael Moore's brutal indictment of the Bush administration have in common. But Gibson and Moore have both tapped into a marketing concept that took Hollywood completely by surprise, yet seems like a no-brainer in retrospect: controversy sells, and you can't let too many facts get in the way of a good story or the profits a good story will bring. Toronto Star 07/17/04

How Dare You Spin Off My Copy Of That Duplicated Idea? TV critics are used to seeing industry execs engage in some pretty petty sniping, but Tim Goodman cannot believe that he has spent the better part of a week listening to Hollywood types argue over who stole whose idea for a lousy reality show that wasn't even remotely original anyway. "In a town all too familiar with the notion that there are only seven original stories and the rest is just, well, copy machines, ambition, connections and timing, why anyone is getting all uppity about theft is beyond comprehension." San Francisco Chronicle 07/17/04

The Minnesota Microbroadcasting Movement Minneapolis's Walker Art Center is closed for the year as its building undergoes a major expansion, but rather than fade completely from public view, the museum is mounting a series of interactive exhibitions called "Walker Without Walls." The latest project has Walker staffers "spending the summer helping as many as 500 locals build and operate their own miniature radio transmitters. It's called microradio, and organizers hope the combined voices of the new microbroadcasters inspire a 'Radio ReVolt' (the project's title)." The transmitters are all set to the same frequency (97.7FM, an open spot on the Twin Cities dial) and can broadcast for up to 200 feet.
St. Paul Pioneer Press 07/17/04

The Art Of Giving Credit Film credits are usually just a part of the film to be gotten through these days. In fact, most modern movies leave almost all their credits for the long, slow scroll at the film's conclusion, lest the audience be bored by the lack of creativity. But to Saul Bass, those credits were a true art. "The daubed graffiti credits that open West Side Story, the crumbling statues in Spartacus, the scratchy modernist posters and sleek corporate logos of his later work all carry his measured approach to expressing a story in, as he put it, 'some metaphorical way'. That approach is the subject of an extensive exhibition which opens [this weekend] at London's Design Museum." The Telegraph (UK) 07/17/04

Looking Forward To Days Of Yesteryear ABC's new drama, "The Days," has the potential to revolutionize the television industry, but not because of anything that happens to the characters. Instead, ABC is using the miniseries to test out the next generation of product-placement techniques, and is taking a page from the golden age of the medium, when companies sponsored entire programs rather than simpy buying 30-second spots. To advertisers, it's a way to get value for their ad-buying dollar at a time when most viewers click away from ad blocks. To the network, they hope it's a way to keep the money rolling in without angering viewers with blatant commercialism. Chicago Tribune 07/16/04

New Alliance To Copy-Protect Entertainment "Movie studios, computer chipmakers and consumer electronics companies said Wednesday they are working together to build a new copy-protection standard that would allow home viewers to watch and share high-definition video among various entertainment and portable devices, but prevent pirates from making perfect copies." Wired 07/15/04

Video Now Tops Music Downloads Downloads of video have surpassed music. "Films and other files larger than 100MB are becoming the most requested downloads on networks around the world." Experts estimate that "at least 10 million people are logged on to a peer-to-peer (P2P) network at any time." BBC 07/15/04

HBO Leads Emmy Nominations HBO takes a big lead in nominations for this year's Emmy awards. "The pay cable channel, which has now led the list of nominations four consecutive times, totally dominated the competition this year, taking in 124 nominations, up from its previous high of 109 last year. That was almost double the number of the nearest competitor, NBC, which this year took in just 65 nominations, down from 77 last year." The New York Times 07/15/04

FCC Crackdown Has Public Broadcasters Running Scared The FCC's recent crackdown on "obscenity" isn't likely to change much of what commercial broadcasters choose to put on the air. After all, with most TV networks and radio stations now owned by a few multi-billion dollar corporations, the potential $500,000 fines are a slap on the wrist. But for public broadcasting, where every dollar of programming money has to be begged and cajoled from either viewers or the government, the fines have the potential to be crippling. Accordingly, PBS, public radio, and some individual public stations are working overtime to get rid of anything that sounds even remotely controversial, even when it's just a single word from an innocuous British sitcom or a sound byte embedded in an award-winning documentary series. The Christian Science Monitor 07/13/04

• Previously: Bleeping Because Of FCC "Three foul words, including the F-word, have been bleeped from the new PBS drama Cop Shop, much to the chagrin of Richard Dreyfuss, its star and executive producer." Why the exorcising? FOFCC - Fear of the FCC. The Globe & Mail (Canada) (Reuters) 07/13/04

Who Needs Friends When You've Got Tony Back? In a mildly surprising twist on the usual Hollywood bluster, today's announcement of the nominations for the 56th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards did not include a nod to the just-concluded NBC blockbuster, "Friends." The sitcom probably didn't deserve to be nominated, but that rarely has anything to do with it when a hit show is leaving the air. Instead, the nominated comedies are "Sex & the City," "Arrested Development," "Curb Your Enthusiasm," "Everybody Loves Raymond" and "Will & Grace." On the drama side, HBO's mob hit "The Sopranos" once again leads the pack after being ineligible last year. CNN 07/15/04

File-Sharing Turns To Film Even as the music industry continues to kvetch over illegal file-trading, it seems that mere songs are no longer the only files on the block to be swapped. In fact, the popularity of online trading of complete films and "other files larger than 100MB" is close to overtaking that of music on peer-to-peer networks. It's all illegal, of course, but while the music industry has been touting the success of its anti-piracy campaign, it seems that what has actually occurred has been a shift in focus, from music to film, and a shift in technique, from large well-known file-trading enablers like Kazaa to smaller, more surreptitious programs. BBC 07/15/04

BBC: We've Got To Improve The BBC’s governors yesterday said that the corporation’s programmes were not good enough and launched a major inquiry into how to improve them. The Scotsman 07/15/04

UK: A Future Without Analog Radio? It's likely that when UK radio stations are all broadcasting in digital format, the analog signals will be switched off. "The government has set a target of 2010 to switch over to digital TV, and the culture secretary, Tessa Jowell, recently hinted that a similar move for radio would be considered." The Guardian (UK) 07/14/04

Canadian Radio Regulator Shuts Down Controversial Station "Canada's broadcasting watchdog refused yesterday to renew the licence of a controversial Quebec city radio station, setting the stage for its closure next month. The CRTC said CHOI-FM repeatedly broadcast insulting and offensive comments in violation of the Broadcasting Act." Toronto Star 07/14/04

Study: Movie Ratings Are More "Lenient" "A new study from the Harvard School of Public Health has found that a decade of 'ratings creep' has allowed more violent and sexually explicit content into films, suggesting that movie raters have grown more lenient in their standards." The New York Times 07/14/04

Pac Man Back (And This Time It's Art!) "Twenty-five years after they colonized the arcades, the original video games have begun to invade a whole new area: pop culture and high art." They're showing up everywhere... New York Magazine 07/12/04

Critic Faces The Criticized (It's Not Pretty?) TV critic Tim Goodman calls PBS the "worst-run media company in the world" in print, then runs into PBS head honcho Pat Mitchell. And Goodman's feeling a bit emotionally down. And... San Francisco Chronicle 07/13/04

Cable Beats Broadcast This Summer US broadcast networks are suffering the summer doldrums. "More viewers are watching cable than all the big networks combined. In June, about 57.7 percent of the TVs in the U.S. were watching cable, up 7.4 percent from the year before." New York Post 07/13/04

Bleeping Because Of FCC "Three foul words, including the F-word, have been bleeped from the new PBS drama Cop Shop, much to the chagrin of Richard Dreyfuss, its star and executive producer." Why the exorcising? FOFCC - Fear of the FCC. The Globe & Mail (Canada) (Reuters) 07/13/04

The R-Card... But Not All Movies aRe The Same The new R-Card allows teenagers to see "R"-rated movies without an adult. But "the problem with the R-card is that all R-rated movies are not equal. The rating has been assigned to movies as diverse as the charming "Billy Elliot" (theatrically released as an R for bad language and brief sexual references, but later edited for a PG-13 on video) and the ultra-violent "Kill Bill" (rated R for constant carnage as well as strong language and sexual violence)." Chicago Tribune 07/13/04

Staff Protests Treatment Of Voice of America Staff at Voice of America claim that their network is being ruined. "Nearly half of Voice of America's (VOA) 1,000 staffers have signed a petition protesting what they call the ''piece-by-piece'' dismantling of the 62-year-old service, which reaches 87 million people in 44 languages." USAToday 07/13/04

Stars Yes, But No Icons Anymore The passing of Marlon Brando has Renée Graham wondering where the movie icons of today are. Sure there are stars, but "there's nothing special to grasp or hang onto. Absent is that extraordinary, almost otherworldly sizzle that inspires our adulation and those performances that become a blueprint for behavior, both good and bad." Boston Globe 07/13/04

Two Hit Movies, Two Very Different Audiences Fahrenheit 9/11 and Passion of the Christ have been surprise hits this year. But their audiences are very different. "The top theaters for "Fahrenheit" have been in urban, traditionally Democratic strongholds, including Manhattan, Los Angeles, San Francisco and the Bay Area, Chicago and Boston. The highest grossing theaters for "Passion" were typically more suburban and far more widely dispersed, from Texas and New Mexico to Ohio, Florida and Orange County, Calif." The New York Times 07/13/04

Left, Right & Center - The PBS Political Slant? Is PBS slanting right because it gave conservative Tucker Carlson his own show? "If the debate, then, is whether PBS is allowed to have a conservative on the air, well, that's the kind of ridiculousness that paints liberals into a corner and makes PBS look bad in the process, as if it knew it was biased all along." San Francisco Chronicle 07/12/04

Ingmar Bergman In The 21st Century Filmmaker Ingmar Bergman doesn't have the cachet he once had. "It is perhaps frivolous to speak of a great artist 'falling from fashion.' But many of the values that are so highly prized in artworks of the early 21st century -- irony, multiculturalism, a certain breeziness of affect -- are quite different from those that Bergman offers. He is an unapologetically "high culture" European modernist, from a very specific time and place, one deeply influenced by the Lutheran faith (which he abandoned but not without a struggle), by psychoanalysis and existentialism, and by the dreamlike chamber plays of his great countryman August Strindberg. To this heritage, he has added his own filmic innovations, his own anxieties and obsessions, and a matchless linear intensity." Washington Post 07/11/04

Who Will Run CBC TV? The CBC is looking for a new executive to run its English-language TV netork. The "job isn't quite the plum it was even 10 years ago. The television universe is more crowded, competitive and confused than ever. Even with the continued popularity of Hockey Night in Canada, the CBC, like most traditional broadcasters, has lost audience share to the sundry cable and satellite-delivered services out there. Then, of course, there's the constant insecurity over just how much the CBC can expect each year from its parliamentary appropriation." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 07/10/04

No Mystery Here - Uncompromising Filmmakers Make Hits AO Scott ponders the phenomena of Passion of the Christ and Fahrenheit 9/11's success at the box office. "It was clear long before anyone had seen a frame of either "Passion" or "Fahrenheit" that what audiences would witness was the uncompromised, unfiltered vision of a strong-willed, stubborn and bloody-minded director. Is it too idealistic of me to think that this freedom from compromise is part of what attracted audiences? Perhaps more than ever before, the movie studios are ruled by timidity, anxiously tailoring their releases to avoid giving offense. Yes, they sometimes engage in the mock-provocations of sex and brutality, but these tepid buttons are pushed much less forcefully than they were 30 years ago. For the most part, movies, intent on maintaining an illusion of consensus, tread cautiously around the thornier thickets of our civic life." The New York Times 07/11/04

PBS On The Rocks? About a third of PBS' corporate underwriting has disappeared in the past three years, including 'the considerable loss of ExxonMobil's sponsorship of Masterpiece Theatre, which has yet to be replaced." So is the public broadcaster a sinking ship? San Bernardino Sun (Cal) 07/09/04

PBS Takes Aim At FCC Ever since Congress started murmuring about abolishing the supposedly left-leaning and elitist institutions of American public broadcasting over a decade ago, NPR and PBS seem to have been running either to the right or just to blandness. So the fact that an action-packed new cop drama is being produced by public television might qualify as a minor surprise. Even more surprising is that the producers of "Cop Shop" are taking some serious shots at the FCC's recent crackdown on "indecency." Washington Post 07/10/04

The Original iPod The Sony Walkman turns 25 this month, and if that doesn't sound like a big deal to you, you're probably too young to remember life without portable music. But Daniel Rubin isn't: "For a mix-tape obsessive, this was like sprouting wings. Countless new soundtracks beckoned. I made running tapes, sunning tapes, sauntering tapes, strutting tapes. It provided groove for the quotidian, put joy in waiting. I was no longer prisoner of Donna Summer or Molly Hatchet on the radio." Philadelphia Inquirer 07/10/04

Could New Copyright Law Make iPods Liable A bill under consideration in the US Congress would make operators of media-swap networks such as Kazaa and Grokster liable for users' actions. "Opponents say the language is so broad it could apply to makers of MP3 players, such as iPod, and CD and DVD recorders, as well as to media organizations that give consumers tips on using digital content. The recording and movie industries support the bill to help curb piracy. But the tech industry is worried." USAToday 07/08/04

Payola - You Play, You Pay How to get your song played on the radio? One word: Payola. "Although some forms of payola were outlawed after the mid-century scandals, various loopholes allowed other incarnations to thrive, under the guise of independent promotion. With money from the record companies, promoters used oblique tactics—subsidies, gifts, “research funds”—to encourage radio stations to add new singles to their playlists. By 2000, tens of millions of dollars a year were being spent on what you might call legal payola, and although bad publicity has severely curtailed the promotion business, paying to play is still integral to the way radio works. Despite its sleazy reputation, payola has a certain rationale." The New Yorker 07/05/04

By The Power Of Gracenote A little-known company called Gracenote is quietly becoming a major player in the new world of digital music. The company was formed around an idea - that there should be a way for digital players to recognize and label songs and albums without users having to enter the information - and every major digital player now depends on its services. "Gracenote's rise resembles a pattern seen in many industries, in which one company evolves into an information clearinghouse that holds extraordinary power over its rivals." Wired 07/07/04

UK Way Ahead Of US With Digital Radio Digital radio is so hot in Great Britain that the government is preparing to announce a shutdown date for traditional analog broadcasting. 600,000 digital receivers have been sold in the UK since the format launched earlier this year, and nearly half of all British radio broadcasts are now available in digital form. Even the receivers themselves are becoming cheaper - a £50 model will be available in supermarkets shortly. BBC 07/07/04

The Biggest Blockbuster (Who Sez?) What's the most popular movie of all time? Looking at the box-office receipts gives only part of the answer... National Public Radio 07/05/04

The Movies' Billion-Dollar Month For the first time, American movie theatres sold more than a billion dollars worth of tickets. "The North American box office took $1.03 billion during June, Hollywood Reporter found - a 14% increase on June 2003's previous monthly record. Takings were boosted by blockbusters including Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Shrek 2." BBC 07/06/04

Study: Link Between Violent Video Games And Violence New research suggests links between violent video games and aggressive behavior. Predictably, this has led to calls for legislation to limit violent games. "The game industry says legislating ultra-violent games out of the hands of children would deal a severe blow to free speech. Game companies point to the industry-imposed ratings system that gives detailed descriptions of violence in a game and labels some titles as "mature" or "adults only." Forbes (AP) 07/06/04

Are Documentaries The Next Big Thing? With the success of Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, critics are wondering if documentaries are going to be the next big thing in movies. "Are documentaries going to be taken more seriously? The short answer is yes. But Michael Moore is still a special case. He's become a star, almost like any other star. That said, I do think audiences are getting used to going to documentaries in a way they haven't before." The New York Times 07/05/04

Russian Film Riding High The fall of Communism was a near-death sentence for the Russian film industry, as the federal funding that had always been a cornerstone of the USSR dried up in the capitalist world of post-Soviet reality. "By 1997, a miserable 12 home-grown films were released per year in Russia. By last year, however, that had shot up to 75, state sponsorship has risen by 14 per cent in 2004 to $70 million, and an average of 30 per cent of any film's budget is now provided by the government. Add to this the fact that most urban Russians under 35 cite filmgoing as their favourite pastime, and the predicted rise this year in the number of screens in Russia from 550 to 700, and it seems that Stollywood has arrived." The Telegraph (UK) 07/03/04

Finally Embracing Reality, Yet Again The music industry appears to have finally embraced downloading as the wave of the future, and many are asking what took so damn long. But John Naughton says that we shouldn't be surprised by the industry's slow embrace of the obvious: "The fact that the music moguls resisted music downloading for so long is par for the course. They opposed audio, cassette and video taping and, later, DVD. Yet each turned out to be extraordinarily profitable. Movie studios now earn far more from videos and DVDs than they do from cinema audiences, but they had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the DVD world." The Observer (UK) 07/04/04

New Boss, Same Old Line When Jack Valenti steps down as president of the Motion Picture Association of America later this summer, he will hand the reins to former Congressman and Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman, a darkhorse candidate chosen for his Washington influence rather than his connection to Hollywood. But don't expect the MPAA's party line to change: according to Glickman, his top three priorities will be "piracy, piracy, piracy." Philadelphia Inquirer 07/03/04

Dreaming Our Digital Future Intel has a vision: "Consumers will start to use their PCs at home to download, store and manage films, songs and games, in order to transmit all this fun stuff wirelessly to TV screens and stereo speakers throughout the house. The kids could then watch “Shrek 2” in the basement, while mum listens to Brahms in the kitchen and dad browses the holiday pictures on the main TV screen in the living room." The Economist 07/02/04

Motion Picture Assoc. Names New Leader The Motion Picture Association of America has a new chief. "To succeed Jack Valenti, 82, once an aide to President Lyndon B. Johnson, the Motion Picture Association of America has chosen Dan Glickman, a former agriculture secretary under President Bill Clinton and a Democratic congressman from Kansas, as its new chairman." The New York Times 07/02/04

Court: Canadian ISP's Not Liable For Pirate Royalties Canadian internet providers aren't liable for royalties for music downloaded by their customers, rules the Supreme Court. "In a unanimous 9-0 decision, the court ruled that although ISPs provide the hardware and technology, they aren't responsible for what people download. The court ruled that companies providing wide access to the web are "intermediaries" who are not bound by federal copyright legislation." CBC 06/30/04

Janet's Flash May Cost CBS The FCC is proposing to fine CBS the maximum allowable amount - $550,000 - for the now-infamous on-air baring of Janet Jackson's right breast during the Super Bowl halftime show. The fines would officially be levied against 20 CBS "O&O's" - affiliate stations which are owned and operated by the New York-based network. The FCC, which has been accused in recent months of being on a witchhunt, had vowed to review the incident, which prompted the recent government crackdown on supposedly indecent material airing on American TV and radio. Washington Post 07/01/04

Actually, On Second Thought, We're Fine, Thanks When the British government closed a tax loophole covering the private funding of major films, the UK film industry went ballistic, claiming that the change would literally kill off the nation's movie business. A few months on, however, the industry is admitting that new sources of funding have been found, and nothing has really changed. In fact, experts expect "the numbers of films and jobs in the industry in 2004 to end up roughly the same as 2003." BBC 07/01/04

Taking On iPod Sony plans to take on Apple directly in the coming months, launching a new digital version of its famous Walkman to compete with Apple's iPod. The company claims that its player will cost significantly less than the iPod, and will store as many as 3,000 more songs. The player, which will play only songs encoded in Sony's own format, debuts this month in Japan, and hits U.S. stores in August. BBC 07/01/04