11-Country Raids On Digital Pirates Raids were carried out wednesday in 11 countries, as agents targeted suspected digital pirates. "Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as investigators around the world, took part in 90 searches that resulted in the arrests of four people. The U.S. Justice Department 'is striking at the top of the copyright piracy supply chain – a distribution chain that provides the vast majority of illegal digital content now available online'." CBC 06/30/05

New Arts Shows For BBC "The BBC has commissioned four new arts shows, which it has hailed as major additions to its cultural output amid accusations of dumbing down." BBC 06/30/05

9/11 Themes Find Their Ways Into This Summer's Movies Can "War of the Worlds" send people back into the movie theatres? "In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, Hollywood was squeamish about making any movies that touched on the themes of 9/11, even tangentially. Any number of movies about terrorists were either scrapped or rewritten. As time went by, though, a group of filmmakers realized that 9/11 played such a dramatic role in the nation's psyche that ignoring it would be foolish." Los Angeles Times 06/29/05

One Movie Chain Turns To Money-Back Guarantee The movie theatre business is so spooked by declines in box office in recent months that AMC, one of the biggest chains, is offering a money-back guarantee. If you don't like "Cinderella Man" you get your money back. "The no-hassle money-back guarantee is a rarity in the business, where fans who sit through awful flicks usually leave with little more than bad memories. But AMC's results are encouraging enough that CinemarkInc., another big exhibitor, is planning a similar promotion for the three-day weekend." Wall Street Journal 06/29/05

The Great 2005 Film Slide: It's The Economics, Stupid! Lots of film aficionados would like to make the argument that movie ticket sales are down because of a decline in quality, but that's a tough sell, since Americans have embraced cinematic mediocrity (and worse) for years. A more likely explanation has to do with the steadily rising cost of tickets, a trend which stands in stark contrast to the dropping price of DVD rentals and on-demand movies. A family of four wanting to see this summer's big blockbusters can expect to drop at least $34 ($23,971 if the family lives in New York,) and that's before popcorn and soda pop. Baltimore Sun 06/29/05

Court Ruling Will Only Delay The Inevitable Turning away from the immediate legal implications for a moment, the Supreme Court's ruling holding Grokster liable for the actions of its customers may hurt the very industry that is celebrating victory. "By helping maintain the status quo, the ruling could further delay the death of the old way of doing things and postpone the birth of new strategies that successfully build on unstoppable peer-to-peer technologies... It's time for the entertainment industry to accept the inevitable and stop trying to use the courts to put a leash on unpredictable new technologies. In the end, the business model in the entertainment industry is going to change, and these companies can either find a way to insert themselves into the new order, or risk finding themselves frozen out forever." Wired 06/29/05

• Is Anyone Safe? Coverage of the Grokster ruling has focused almost exclusively on peer-to-peer file sharing networks. But other corners of the online media world could be in trouble, too, notably Apple's new podcasting hub... Wired 06/29/05

Hollywood - Direct To Classroom In Australia, "big film distributors are paying a professional teachers organisation to create study guides based on the latest blockbusters, bypassing the NSW Department of Education or the Board of Studies. The study packs - about films such as Kingdom of Heaven, Robots and Ice Age - are emailed directly to tens of thousands of teachers, who are also offered free entry to special screenings." Sydney Morning Herald 06/29/05

Did Big Media Really Win In Filesharing Case? "Recent history is littered with examples of the entertainment industry panicking about technologies that ended up proving harmless - and which might not exist today had they been subject to a ruling like this one. "I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone," Jack Valenti, then head of the Motion Picture Association of America, said in 1982. Those arguments don't apply here, the court said." The Guardian (UK) 06/29/05

TV Reality? Working On These Shows Sucks "While the reality genre has matured, creating shows that commonly compete in the ratings with scripted entertainment, conditions for those who work on the shows have worsened, not improved, those workers say. Although the most popular reality shows compete with scripted entertainment, the genre remains a seat-of-the-pants culture, with some shows taking only weeks, rather than months, to be bought, produced and appear on the air. This has made for intense competition among reality-show producers." The New York Times 06/29/05

Filesharing - Friend Or Foe? (Maybe Both?) So Big Media has decided that filesharing networks are a threat to their existance and the courts hav backed them up. "Six years after Napster arrived, it should be clear that geeks and fans are simply going to bypass a legal framework that was built for sales of sheet music and discs. As they did with radio and television, copyright holders should make those volunteers their allies in marketing because, try as they may, they're never going to find the Off switch." The New York Times 06/29/05

Why Has Movie Attendance Plunged? We've Seen Them All Before! Everywhere you look this summer, there are movie remakes and retreads. "Is it any wonder this avalanche of retreads has come at a time when theater attendance is headed toward its lowest level since 1996? Young moviegoers, who make up the bulk of film audiences, crave surprise, sensation and authenticity. So if the multiplexes are full of homogenized pop baubles, why wouldn't more people than ever be happy to stay home and fire up a DVD on their new plasma-screen TV?" Los Angeles Times 06/28/05

Rich: Castrating Public Broadcasting Frank Rich writes that "the right's new assault on public broadcasting is toothless, far from it. But this time the game is far more insidious and ingenious. The intent is not to kill off PBS and NPR but to castrate them by quietly annexing their news and public affairs operations to the larger state propaganda machine that the Bush White House has been steadily constructing at taxpayers' expense." The New York Times 06/26/05

Supreme Court Ruling Will Have Implications On Tech We Can Use Monday's ruling by the US Supreme Court that tech companies can be liable for copyright infringement by those who use their technology will have serious implications for tech development. "While entertainment companies touted the victory as a crystal clear decision about right and wrong business practices, technology groups said they are left with a murky, unclear standard of what it means for a company to encourage, or induce, its customers to infringe copyright, and this will lead to more litigation. 'This really has given a tremendous amount of leverage to content owners to dictate the kind of technology that consumers will have available to them'." Wired 06/27/05

• Supremes' File-Sharing Decision Isn't The End... Sure, Monday's file-sharing decision by the Supreme Court was unanimous. But it's clear the Big Media companies "didn't win anything like what they had been asking the Supremes for—a rule that would penalize any company that made money off a product widely used for infringement, regardless of what the company intended. And though the technical companies and consumer groups are troubled by the outcome in this case, there's still much to encourage them." Reason 06/27/05

Canadian Arts Groups Protest Satellite Radio Plans Canadian arts groups are protesting a decision by the federal government to introduce pay-satellite radio service in Canada. They say that the service will erode efforts to produce Canadian content on radio... CBC 06/27/05

Supremes: Fileshare Services Liable The entertainment industry wins big as the US Supreme Court rules that file-sharing services are liable for copyright infringement for illegal downloading over their networks. "We hold that one who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement, is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by third parties." San Franciso Chronicle 06/27/05

Worldwide Box Office Slump The movie business isn't just down in the US - the rest of the world is in a box office slump too. "Whether it's because consumers are distracted by the Internet, DVDs, videogames and ever more sophisticated mobile devices — or something as simple as warm weather, as has been the case in some key European markets — it's clear that people around the globe are not going to the movies as much as they have in recent years." Los Angeles Times 06/27/05

Advertisers Love Those Ads Before The Movie One of the hottest new categories for advertisers? Movie theatres before the show. "Advertisers like these spots, and have been buying more of them. Movie ads are one more alternative to television spots, which are losing favor as TiVo and other digital video recorders make it easier for viewers to zap them. Last year, ads in United States movie theaters grew 23 percent to $438 million." The New York Times 06/27/05

Lord Of The Lawsuits Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson is suing the studio that financed the trilogy. "In his lawsuit, Mr. Jackson claimed that New Line committed fraud in its handling of the revenues generated by 2001's "The Fellowship of the Ring," and as a result, he was underpaid by millions. The suit does not specify a damage award. But in an interview last week, his lawyers said that, after New Line applied its contract interpretation from "Fellowship" to the other two movies, Mr. Jackson was underpaid by as much as $100 million for the trilogy." The New York Times 06/27/05

Hollywood Ponders Its 18th Consecutive Down Week For the 18th week in a row fewer people went to the movies in America than went during a similar period last year. Is the buzz over the celebrities who star in the movies drowning out the movie hype itself? "Hanging over many of these summer movies has been the public focus on the behavior and personal lives of their leading actors." The New York Times 06/27/05

"Breaking" The News "Since Jan. 6, when the five-member Rochester-based group Newsbreakers executed its first bust, as it calls them, of a live remote in their hometown, viewers in Boston; New York City; Manchester, N.H.; Columbus, Ohio; and several other cities have seen their local news briefly hijacked by elaborately planned vignettes that are more likely to baffle or alarm reporters than make them curse on the air. " The New York Times 06/26/05

Why We're Not Going To The Movies(?) "Grosses have been dropping for three years now, and, worse, after you adjust for inflation, it becomes clear that attendance is down even further, anywhere from 8 to 10 percent depending on who's talking. People are simply not going to the multiplex as often as they used to. The question is not only why but whether the trend is reversible or if it's part of a much larger cultural shift in the way we entertain ourselves." Boston Globe 06/27/05

Ostrow: Tomlinson Is A Disaster At CPB Joanne Ostrow is out of patience for the right-wing mudslingers who have been trying to take out public broadcasting for the last decade, and who have recently scored some serious victories thanks to a conservative chairman at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. "The politicization of public broadcasting is in full flower... The man who is supposed to be the buffer between PBS and Congress has instead become a battering ram. This former head of the Voice of America seems to have confused the role of PBS and NPR with that of the VOA and Radio Free Europe, explicit political mouthpieces." Denver Post 06/26/05

The New Hollywood Right The rules of media-politic have been clear for some time: talk radio belongs to conservatives, Hollywood belongs to liberals. But a new generation of conservative filmmakers is determined to change the equation, and they've been joined by an increasingly vocal group of Hollywood stars whose political leanings veered right after 9/11. The New York Times 06/26/05

If You Can't Beat 'Em, Join 'Em (Finally!) After years of trying to beat file-sharers into the ground, the music industry appears to be shifting strategies. Rather than focusing on money lost to pirates, the industry is now focusing on creating new revenue streams from new technologies such as peer-to-peer file-trading networks. Of course, this is exactly what many observers had been saying the industry should do from the beginning, but it may be that the years spent fighting online piracy have created a need for music peddlers to find a way for music sales to coexist with the free transfer of concert tapes and unlicensed material. Wired 06/26/05

This "R" Is For Rude Nell Minow wishes there was a movie rating for rudeness. "After all, the ratings for language are based on the traditional profanities. They don't apply to insults or obnoxious comments that are what used to be called "fresh." On the contrary; in today's media, children who are rude, even to adults, are applauded -- literally, in the case of sitcoms, which give insulting and disrespectful comments full-out laugh-track approval." Chicago Tribune 06/24/05

Congress Votes Not To Cut Public Broadcasting Budget The US House of Representatives has voted not o cut funds for public broadcasting. "The 284-140 vote demonstrated the enduring political strength of public broadcasting, whose supporters rallied behind popular programs such as 'Sesame Street,' 'Postcards From Buster' and 'The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer.' The Public Broadcasting Service undertook a high-profile campaign to rescind the proposed cut. Lawmakers were flooded with letters and phone calls." The New York Times 06/24/05

CPB named New President The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has a new president. "Patricia S. Harrison, the assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs, was selected after three days of closed meetings by the corporation's board of directors. She was co-chair of the Republican National Committee from 1997 to 2001." Yahoo! (AP) 06/23/05

Successful Indie Needs Downloads How to make indie films rich and famous? By emulating the success of indie music, which has used internet downloads with great success. "European cinema currently has a 26.5% penetration inside Europe - and only makes a 3.3% chink in the US market. By digitally delivering film with a new initiative, the 35% market share that independent music enjoys in North America could be achieved with cinema." BBC 06/23/05

Fair And Balanced (Awwww...Not Really) Why is public television getting dumped on? "To some degree, public television has positioned itself for abuse. The charter of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting says it must adhere to "objectivity and balance in all programs or series of programs of a controversial nature." Unfortunately, Americans have little appetite for truly "fair and balanced" coverage. If we did, the News Hour With Jim Lehrer would be a smash hit and Fox News would be banished to the media dustbin." Seattle Weekly 06/22/05

Video Artist Runs Afoul Of Aussie Ratings Board A video artist gets caught in the Australian ratings board's rule that all works of moving images have to apply for ratings classification. But that costs real moneey, more in fact than some artists spend on making their work... Sydney Morning Herald 06/23/05

Public Broadcasting's Problematic Lobbying Public radio stations are rallying their listeners to lobby Congress not to pass deep funding cuts to public broadcasting. But "jarring juxtaposition of news programming and self-interested promotion exemplifies the fine line that public broadcasters are walking as they mobilize to combat threats to their financing. It is always a delicate task for a news organization to cover itself. But when the organization in question is financed in part by the government, when the news centers on the prospects for that money and when a station floods its airwaves with spots urging viewers or listeners to contact their Congressional representatives, the undertaking becomes much more challenging." The New york Times 06/23/05

Public Access TV Vs. Denver Denver's public access TV station is in a fight with the city's government. "The Denver City Council and management at DCTV are butting heads over the latter's budgetary habits. Like, spending too much. City funding for a public-access channel - $500,000 annually - was part of the deal. That contract ran out last year. To keep the channel on the air, the city fronted DCTV $115,000 for operating expenses and $150,000 for equipment. A divorce is imminent." Denver Post 06/22/05

Herbie, Fully Loaded... With Product Placement "In an era when on-screen advertising is routine -- even unobtrusive when done well -- the makers of "Herbie" use every opportunity to stick a parade of Cheetos, Pepsi, Dupont, etc. in your face. Not only is this supremely distracting, but Disney's hyper-marketing even slows the dialogue as actors struggle to say such things as "Nextel Cup Series" as if they're reading off cue cards held by stern-looking corporate lawyers." Chicago Tribune 06/22/05

No Stuntmeister Oscar Movie stunt coordinators are thwarted again in their attempt to get a new Oscar award category for stuntmasters. "At a time when the academy is trying to find ways to reduce the numbers of statuettes given out, and looks at categories with an eye more focused on reduction than addition, the board is simply not prepared to institute any new annual awards categories." Yahoo! (AP) 06/22/05

Senators Call For Removal Of CPB Chief Sixteen Democratic senators have appealed to President Bush to remove Kenneth Tomlinson as head of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. "We urge you to immediately replace Mr. Tomlinson with an executive who takes his or her responsibility to the public television system seriously, not one who so seriously undermines the credibility and mission of public television," wrote the senators. The New York Times 06/22/05

Writers Want To Unionize "Reality" Shows The Writers Guild of America wants to unionize workers who create TV reality shows. "Unlike a sitcom or drama, a reality show doesn't often employ 'writers.' Instead, people with titles such a 'field producer' or 'story producer' make sure each episode follows a script that's often conceived in advance. In other cases, editors have the job of finding dramatic story lines in hundreds of hours of tape. Producers might boil down 400 hours of footage to create a single 44-minute episode of a show." Yahoo (AP) 06/21/05

No. 2 American Theatre Chain Buys No. 3 "AMC Entertainment Inc., the No. 2 U.S. movie theater chain, on Tuesday said it will buy its next-largest competitor, Loews Cineplex Entertainment Corp., to compete with market leader Regal Entertainment Group . " Yahoo! (Reuters) 06/21/05

BBC In America For the first time, BBC Radio 1 will be broadcast in America. BBC has signed a deal to be carried on satellite radio. "Radio 1 will be heard on Sirius, which offers around 120 commercial-free services for a subscription fee. " BBC 06/21/05

NPR Ombudsman On CPB Ombudsmen NPR ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin says its regrettable that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting thinks it needs two ombudsmen to watchdog politics. "The appointment of the CPB ombudsmen has, indeed, accomplished something: It has sown doubts (or reinforced existing ones) among many listeners (and viewers) that there is something fundamentally wrong at NPR and PBS. But these doubts are based on impressions, innuendo and hearsay evidence. Questioning the practices of journalism is always a good thing. But declaring a priori that there is bias, as Mr. Tomlinson has, contradicts the high standards of public broadcast stewardship that CPB has always advocated." NPR 06/21/05

Getting As Good As He Gives The actions of Corporation For Public Broadcasting chairman Kenneth Tomlinson continue to come under fire as further details of his partisan political activites come to light. The latest revelation, that a supposedly independent researcher hired by Tomlinson without the approval of the corporation to investigate supposed liberal bias in PBS's newsmagazine, Now with Bill Moyers, "worked for 20 years at a journalism center founded by the American Conservative Union and a conservative columnist," is being investigated by CPB's inspector general. Meanwhile, one sitting U.S. Senator is openly calling for Tomlinson's resignation. The New York Times 06/21/05

• Is PBS Protesting Too Much? As public broadcasting ramps up its fight against a hostile Congress that recently voted to slash 25% of its government subsidy, some observers say that PBS and NPR are coming dangerously close to crossing a "lobbying line" that could cost them public support. Washington Post 06/21/05

A Bad Year In Tinseltown You can blame poor plotlines, online piracy, those infernal ads, or anything else for it, but the fact remains: fewer people than ever are going to the movies these days. "Compared with last year, box-office receipts have been down every weekend since late February; the last time comparable business was off for such a long span was in 1985. This summer's movie season has been especially brutal. North American theater attendance from early May to June 19 was off nearly 11% from a year ago, tracking firm Exhibitor Relations Co. estimated Monday... Although the final accounting for 2005 releases cannot yet be determined, their domestic runs indicate the prospects are decidedly dim." Los Angeles Times 06/21/05

Multifunctional Overdrive? Will the ubiquitous iPod become obsolete in the face of new cell phone technology? At least two companies are hoping so, as they gear up for the release of a major direct-to-phone music service next year. The companies, Napster and Ericsson, say the service will allow users to download music directly to their phones, or to transfer collections back and forth between the phone and a computer. Of course, phones are getting awfully bulky with features these days, what with all the cameras and games and ring tones and videos, and a lot of consumers still seem to want a phone that just makes phone calls, and an MP3 player that just plays music. Wired 06/21/05

Illegal Downloads Don't Come With Popcorn, Either A new series of ads intended to combat online piracy in the UK is taking an interesting approach: encouraging viewers to see more films in the theatre, "the way they are meant to be seen." The hope is that reacquainting viewers with the higher quality of theatrical projection will make them less likely to download bootleg copies of the film made available online. The ads will begin running in theatres as trailers to summer blockbuster movies within a few weeks. BBC 06/21/05

Book, 'im Danno - American TV Overrun By Police Shows Why are Americans so fascinated with police shows on TV? "Last season, a third of the Top 40 shows on television were procedurals, loosely defined as programs that depict a crime each week and solve it. Most of the other top-rated programs were reality shows or comedies, with only six dramas having nothing to do with crime making the list." Dallas Morning News 06/19/05

Public Broadcasting Fights Back Last week a US Congressional committee voted to cut money for public broadcasting by 25 percent. This week, public TV and radio is fighting back. "Faced with their biggest budget battle in a decade, public broadcasters are waging local campaigns through the Internet and on-air advertising to oppose legislation that, some claim, would weaken their ability to produce local programming and cripple their sister stations in rural areas of the country." Los Angeles Times 06/20/05

Networks Look Outside The Building US TV networks are increasingly turning to outside producers for their shows. "No one in Hollywood expects the networks to stop favoring their own. But at a time when some conglomerates like Viacom are reassessing the benefits of bigness - and when a hyper-competitive ratings race makes closing off any possible advantage foolhardy - most network and studio heads have come to realize that an overreliance on their own fare can lead to creative and financial trouble." The New York Times 06/20/05

Is HBO Losing Its Lustre? "Through the end of May, HBO's average prime-time viewership was down to 900,000 from 1.2 million for the same period in 2004. The weekly "Deadwood" audience has dropped by 2 million and "Carnivale" was canceled, while "Six Feet Under" and "Entourage" both started new seasons with smaller audiences than the year before..." Yahoo! (AP) 06/19/05

Death Of The Adult Movie? (Blame The Studios) "When it comes to DVD consumers, the studios are confident that if they build a strong adult movie, the audience will come. That feeling does not extend to theatergoers. For that, the studios have only themselves to blame. They're driving that ever-loyal viewer home to watch HBO or DVDs by not keeping the moviegoing habit going with strong movies aimed at adults. The movie business is pushing them away, making them look for other things, like renting all the seasons of 'Six Feet Under'." Backstage 06/18/05

US House Panel Votes 25 Percent Cut In Public Broadcasting Money "The US House Appropriations Committee approved a bill on Thursday that would cut funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting by $100 million, or 25 percent, starting in October." Backstage 06/17/05

TV Ratings War - How To Measure? The Nielsen TV ratings company is starting to roll out "people meters" to measure viewing in local markets across America. But some in the idustry are complaining about the shifts in ratings compared to the old method of measuring viewership. A Nielsen exec say that the more accurate meters show an increae in viewer time in front of their TV's... The New York Times 06/18/05

Public Broadcasting Chairman Comes Under Fire In US Senate Prominent Democratic Senators question the direction of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting under chairman Kenneth Tomlinson. "Tomlinson, appointed to the CPB board by President Bill Clinton and to the top job by President Bush, has made ideological balance on PBS and National Public Radio a central theme of his tenure at a time when broadcasters in the field are primarily occupied with possible large cuts in federal funding. The House Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved a 25 percent cut in the CPB's budget for next year." Washington Post 06/18/05

• The Smoking Emails? CPB Chairman And His Political Witch-hunt An investigation of Corporation for Public Broadcasting chairman Kenneth Tomlinson turns up emails showing consultations with a former White House official about the public TV politics. "The e-mail messages are part of the evidence being collected in a broad inquiry by the inspector general of the corporation into whether Mr. Tomlinson violated any rules that require that the corporation act as a buffer between politics and programming." New York Times 06/18/05

Groking The Movie Biz (Not Really) How does the movie business work? We don't really knoww. According to a recent academic paper, the effectiveness of "star power" is one of many "puzzles" that haunt the movie business, an industry where executives "rely heavily on tradition, conventional wisdom, and simple rules of thumb." Despite extensive market research dating back to the '20s, Hollywood is the King Lear of the entertainment world: It has always but slenderly known itself. Slate 06/16/05

What Good Is A Film Festival? "A film festival sounds vaguely intellectual, an oasis of cinematic contemplation in the midst of the crass commercial marketplace. But a film festival is an aberration; people don't need further encouragement to go to the movies. When the most misguided Hollywood remake of a half-remembered TV show can make $10 million in its opening weekend, it could even be argued that people go to the movies too much. There are few good reasons for film festivals to exist, and yet they proliferate like cancer clusters across the country." Slate 06/16/05

Why The Movie Slump? Poll Says Look To Home... A new poll says that 73 percent of those asked prefer to see movies in their home on DVD or videocassette rather than in the theatre. "The same poll found that only 22 per cent of people preferred to see movies the old-fashioned way – in a movie theatre. The numbers may provide fodder for those who believe the proliferation of at-home entertainment technologies is permanently changing moviegoing patterns." CBC 06/16/05

Radio You Can Interact With "A team of students from Carnegie Mellon University have developed Roadcasting, a collaborative, mobile radio system that will allow car drivers and anyone else with a computer, a wireless connection and digital music files to not only broadcast their own station, but influence the play lists of other Roadcasting DJs transmitting in the area." Discovery 06/16/05

Offending Christians Still Not A Crime An attempt to bring the BBC under judicial review for defamation of Christianity has been blocked by the British courts. The case arose from the protests staged after the BBC announced plans to televise a performance of the popular show, Jerry Springer: The Opera, which includes hundreds of swear words and a scene in which God, Mary, and Jesus are guests on a talk show in hell. The request for judicial review was turned down flat by the UK's High Court. BBC 06/16/05

Corporation for Public Broadcasting Investigates Republican Lobbyist Fees "Investigators at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting are examining $15,000 in payments to two Republican lobbyists last year that were not disclosed to the corporation's board." The New York Times 06/16/05

48 Hours Of Chaos, Beer, And Art Call it a gimmick, call it a waste of resources, but there's no question that the 48-Hour Toronto Film Challenge, which dares amateurs to put together a short flick featuring several mystery elements in only two days, is a hell of a good time for those involved. Unless, of course, you miss the deadline by five minutes... Toronto Star 06/15/05

It's Awfully Big, But At Least It's Canadian Following the recently announced merger of Canadian cinema chains Cineplex Galaxy and Famous Players, 63% of Canada's movie screens will be controlled by a single company, an unheard-of situation for a country that fanatically protects its native culture against incursions from Hollywood. But behind the deal is a single individual, 51-year-old immigrant Ellis Jacob, who has quietly risen through the ranks to become a major player on the international film scene. Jacob points out that while the merged company might resemble an American-style corporate monolith, it will also represent the first time that a majority of Canadian movie screens have been controlled by a Canadian company. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/15/05

Yet Another Ombudsman For Public TV "Facing charges of political bias and a threat to its funding from Congress, the Public Broadcasting Service yesterday adopted an updated set of editorial standards and announced that it would add an ombudsman who will report directly to PBS President Pat Mitchell. The action comes in the wake of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's hiring of two ombudsmen in April," a move which has been widely criticized as being politically motivated. Baltimore Sun 06/15/05

Clear Channel On The Splits A few years ago Clear Channel was buying up thousands of American radio stations, becoming the giant of the business. But now it's splitting off some of its enterprises as the aggressive growth backfired. "In the past year alone, its stock is off 25%, to about $29, even after the company bought back about 10% of outstanding shares starting in April, 2004. That's a steep drop from about $80 a share at its buying peak in 2000. The formerly cocksure Clear Channel is a humbled enterprise." BusinessWeek 06/14/05

Radio Turns To High Def Traditional radio is facing challenges. Perhaps a solution to some of them might be high definition broadcasting. "More than 370 radio stations are now broadcasting in high definition, a digital format that boosts audio quality and limits static. A handful have begun experimenting with digital "multicasting," which allows broadcasters to spawn inexpensive sister stations and could give traditional radio a fighting chance against the pumped-up variety of satellite and internet competitors." Wired 06/14/05

Brits Clean Up At Banff TV Fest "A stylish British miniseries synthesizing music, gambling and drama took top prize at the Banff Rockie awards on Monday, leading a British invasion that captured nine trophies as the best shows in international television were honoured. Canada, Japan and the United States each won three international Rockies at the 26th annual awards." The Globe & mail (Canada) 06/14/05

US Supremes: Won't Hear Media Ownership Challenge The US Supreme Court declines to hear challenges brought by big media companies to whether regulations limiting ownership are constitutional. "The high court turned down appeals by media companies, including Tribune Co. and Gannett Co. Inc., which have argued that the ownership limits the Federal Communications Commission set in 2003 violate free speech rights and a 1996 law they said ordered deregulation." Yahoo! (Reuters) 06/13/05

Canada Invests In TV Programming The Canadian government is putting $100 million into production of new Canadian TV content. "Ottawa has contributed $800-million to the fund since it was formed in 1996. The private-public partnership, which supports creation of programming in French, English and aboriginal languages, has helped create $5.7-billion in Canadian programming." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/13/05

Canadian Movie Theatre Chains Get Together Canada's two largest movie theatre chains are combining. Cineplex is buying Famous Players from Viacom Inc. for $500-million. "Last fall, New York-based Viacom said it planned to sell its Famous Players arm in Canada, the largest movie exhibitor in this country with a market share of about 40 per cent. Famous Players operates at 81 locations with 787 screens across the country." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/13/05

Hollywood's Latest Marketing Tool? Blogs "Costing almost nothing to maintain, the vast majority of blogs are mental clearinghouses for their authors, lo-fi Web confessionals or bully pulpits that vary from current events to niche pastimes to sex. Directors' blogs, by contrast, are slickly engineered to virally market their movies — to stoke fan ardor. Some observers say this approach allows studios to put a spin on moviemaking — and, by playing to fan interest, head off potential controversies. Movie marketers say the sites allow blogger-directors to reach out to fans in an up-close-and-personal way." Los Angeles Times 06/12/05

Podcasts For Fun And Profit Is podcasting breaking in to the big time? "Earlier this month, talk-show host Rush Limbaugh began offering podcasts of his shows for $50 a year, and competitors like The Dr. Laura Schlessinger Program may follow his lead. Meanwhile, commercial and public radio stations are trying to figure out where they fit in the podsphere and how they can make a buck by filling up your MP3 player." Wired 06/12/05

Gallup: Americans Don't Trust Newspapers, TV American news media are having a difficult time. A new poll says public confidence is falling. "Those having a "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in newspapers dipped from 30% to 28% in one year, the same total for television. The previous low for newspapers was 29% in 1994. Since 2000, confidence in newspapers has declined from 37% to 28%, and TV from 36% to 28%, according to the poll." Yahoo! (AP) 06/12/05

Minnesota Flunks Couch Potato Test Minneapolis/St. Paul has consistently lower TV viewership than other major metropolitan cities. "Only 59 percent of us tuned in during weeknights last month, compared with 68 percent in top-ranked Philadelphia, according to a study by Nielsen Media Research. Why? Our region is too wealthy, too well-educated, too wired and too white, researchers say." The Star-Tribune (Mpls) 06/12/05

Banff TV Festival Lives "The Banff World Television Festival has undergone a major makeover after staving off bankruptcy and has opted for a bold new image as matchmaker." The Globe & mail (Canada) 06/10/05

Congress Considers Deep Cuts In Public Broadcasting Funding A US Congressional committee has passed major cuts in funding for public radio and TV. "By a voice vote, the House Appropriations subcommittee adopted a measure that would reduce the financing of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the organization that directs taxpayer dollars to public television and radio, to $300 million from $400 million. The subcommittee also eliminated $39 million that stations say they need to convert to digital programming and $50 million for upgrading aging satellite technology that is the backbone of the PBS network." The New York Times 06/10/05

Device Says We Watch More TV Nielsen says its new electronic viewer measuring devices show Americans are watching more TV than previously measured. "The new local-TV ratings system, which replaces a written paper-diary system with a remote-control-like device, showed an 18.6 percent in TV viewing in San Francisco, followed by a 9.1 percent gain in New York, 1.4 percent in Chicago and 0.5 percent in Los Angeles. Among TV watchers, the demographic that saw the biggest increase was men between the ages of 18 and 49, an audience that advertisers pay a premium to reach." Yahoo! (AP) 06/09/05

An End To Pakistan's Bollywood Ban? Pakistan's film industry is trying to get the country's government to end a ban on showing Bollywood films. "The ban was imposed after the Indo-Pakistan war of 1965. The local film industry has proven itself to be completely unable to meet the demands of the local market." BBC 06/09/05

GOP Heavy Set To Take Over CPB The controversial chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is pushing for a former co-chair of the Republican National Committee to be named president of CPB. Patricia de Stacy Harrison, who currently works in the State Department, has made statements concerning public broadcasting that are in line with CPB chairman Kenneth Tomlinson's desire to bring more conservative voices to public television and radio. CPB's 8-member board is "dominated by Republicans" at the moment, and Tomlinson has sparked a war of words in recent months with his appointment of an ombudsman tasked with tracking supposed liberal bias in PBS news programs. Washington Post 06/09/05

Listeners Over 35 Need Not Apply As America's corporate-dominated radio industry scrambles desperately to find and unveil the Next Big Thing (by which, of course, we mean the next highly profitable and easily compartmentalized format,) a not-so-subtle shift is occurring on-air. With stations and their advertisers eager to attract and hold the iPod generation, retro is in, but the classic format known as "oldies" is apparently being ridden out of town on a rail. "Many existing oldies stations are barely holding on, the victims of declining ratings and radio-industry apathy. 'Golden oldies' stations, home to artists like Frank Sinatra and Glenn Miller, are in even worse trouble. Ultimately, observers say, the radio industry simply doesn't have much interest in baby boomers." The Christian Science Monitor 06/09/05

Why Won't Aussies Watch Aussie Movies? "Last year record numbers of Australians stayed away from Australian films. In January, the Australian Film Commission released figures showing that in 2004 the local share of box office takings was just 1.3 per cent. A record low. In international terms, that's appalling. In figures for 2003 quoted in April's inside film magazine the US domestic film share of local box office was 95 per cent." Sydney Morning Herald 06/08/05

Everything Must Go! "Over the next three months, Miramax Films, founded and operated by brothers Bob and Harvey Weinstein, will release at least 10 movies, including seven films that have been gathering dust on the studio's shelves for up to four years. The backlog is so profound that the directors of three of those films have started, filmed and almost completed new movies with other studios in the time it has taken Disney-owned Miramax to bring their earlier films to theaters... The release of several of the Miramax movies was held up partially by the very public divorce of the Weinsteins and Disney, which bought the studio in 1993. With the Weinsteins set to leave Disney and Miramax on Sept. 30, the brothers say they are determined before their exit to supervise the debuts of movies they produced and purchased." Los Angeles Times 06/08/05

The DaVinci Trailer How big a pop cultural phenomenon is The DaVinci Code? Well, here's one indication: filming on the movie version of Dan Brown's runaway bestseller hasn't even begun (and Westminster Abbey has declined requests for parts of the film to be shot there,) and yet a preview for it is running in front of George Lucas's latest Star Wars installment. The book has generated considerable controversy amongst Catholics, but the quibbling doesn't appear to have hurt the book's popularity, and Hollywood is salivating over the prospect of carving out a chunk of the franchise. Chicago Tribune 06/08/05

Right Stuff - Hollywood Right Organizes Its Own "Some outnumbered Republican entertainment workers not only yearn for equal access to filmmaking in famously left-leaning Hollywood but also consider themselves at war against a hostile left-wing majority, with battles being waged on the Internet, in books, at film festivals and even in nightclubs (hence a comedy troupe named the Right Stuff). They're even -- gasp! -- organizing in groups like the Hollywood Congress of Republicans, which sponsors luncheons at which celebrities including Ben Stein and Morgan Brittany offer moral support to a like-minded political minority that is sick of being mocked by industry taste-setters." Yahoo! (Reuters) 06/07/05

Study: "G" Movies Outperform "R's A study by a group that promotes family movies says that "G"-rated movies are more profitable than those rated "R". "The study, released Tuesday by The Dove Foundation, showed that the average G-rated flick was 11 times more profitable than its R-rated counterpart, but the film industry made more than 12 times as many R-rated as G-rated movies from 1989-2003." Backstage (AP) 06/07/05

NY Strikes Out On TV New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg tried to encourage the filming of TV shows in New York by giving tax breaks to producers. But the scheme has failed as none of the shows piloted in New York were picked up for the fall network schedule. New York Magazine 06/06/05

A Formula For The Perfect Sitcom Researchers have come up with a formula to write the perfect sitcom. "There are long-standing golden rules for sitcom, but our findings bring them down to this single equation. Comedic value is determined by multiplying the recognisability of the main character (R) by their delusions of grandeur (D). This is added to the verbal wit of the script (V) and the total is multiplied by the amount someone falls over or suffers a physical injury (F)." The Guardian (UK) 06/07/05

TV: New (sort of), Improved (debatable), and Stalking You The 500-channel universe is old news. Video-on-demand? Been there, done that. TiVO is standard viewing equipment for at least a chunk of the populace. And could television be on the verge of yet another major paradigm shift? You'd better believe it: "Once upon a time, you found TV. Now TV will find you. We're already watching in elevators, bars, airports, banks, dentist chairs, on street corners. Soon, more of us will be watching on cellphones, in cars, on newfangled wireless gadgets, and if this keeps up, on a tiny matrix implanted into our bionic retinas." Toronto Star 06/04/05

Layoffs At TV Museum The New York-based Museum of Television and Radio has accepted the resignation of its president and laid off a dozen employees as it attempts to cope with fiscal problems that have plagued the institution for the past several years. The New York Times 06/04/05

Entertainment-Embedded Ads "As consumers turn away from traditional advertising, tech marketers are picking up the slack by weaving lots of gadgets into the fabric of TV shows and movies. The net, video games and ad-skipping DVRs are forcing marketers to focus more attention on branded entertainment." Wired 06/03/05

Smithsonian Pulls Out Of Sponsoring Film "The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History has withdrawn its co-sponsorship of a showing later this month of a film that supports the theory of "intelligent design.The museum said it would not cancel the screening of the film, "The Privileged Planet," but would return the $16,000 that the Discovery Institute, an organization that promotes a skeptical view of the Darwinian theory of evolution, had paid it." The New York Times 06/03/05

Could Hollywood Benefit From Illegal File-Sharing? Even as Hollywood ramps up its attempts to shut down BitTorrent, the high-volume peer-to-peer file sharing system that is allowing users worldwide to illegally download and share movies and television shows, some in the industry see serious upside to the technology. Specifically, BitTorrent has created cult followings for many foreign TV shows that would otherwise have almost no chance of getting any notice from America's market-driven broadcast industry. Besides, say supporters, Hollywood already uses peer-to-peer networks to create buzz about their latest products, so the lawsuits and pronouncements of doom are ringing fairly hollow. Wired 06/02/05

• New Digital Distribution Law Stalls In House "A key lawmaker has complicated the movie industry's push for a law to restrict consumers' ability to redistribute digital TV content over peer-to-peer networks and the internet at large. Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), chairman of the House Commerce Committee, has indicated that he opposes inserting a broadcast flag measure in his newly introduced digital TV bill, which would set a 2008 hard deadline for broadcasters to give back their analog spectrum." Wired 06/02/05

Preserving The Pods Since the explosion of the Internet more than a decade ago, archiving the history of the new medium has become one of the biggest challenges for those inclined to try it - web sites come and go with alarming frequency, and today's revolutionary site could be tomorrow's passé pile of HTML code. Now, with podcasts the latest technology to burst onto the trend-heavy tech scene, one man has made it his mission to archive as much of the online amateur radio as he can get his hands on. Not that he'd actually bother listening to the vast majority of it, you understand... Wired 06/02/05

Network TV Audience Stabilizes For the first time, Fox won the network ratings race for a season. More significant though, is that the total network TV audience staying steady this season for the first year in a dozen. "The broadcast networks in general had virtually the same number of prime-time viewers this season as they had in 2003-04, which is significant because viewership had dropped every year since the 1993- 94 season." Rocky Mountain News 06/01/05