A 78-episode adaptation of the Hindu epic Ramayana, broadcast every Sunday morning for 18 months in 1987-88 on what was then India’s only TV channel, was seen by up to 100 million people. Life in much of the country would come to a standstill while it was on, and many viewers treated watching it as an actual religious ritual. (Some even put garlands of flowers on the TV set.) It was the first religious program the national network aired (previous governments had held the subject taboo), and reporter Rahul Verma explains why its broadcast is seen to have ignited the now-powerful forces of Hindu chauvinism. – BBC
Category: media
Streaming Wars Are Getting Serious This Fall (And It’s Going To Be Expensive And Inconvenient)
In a couple of weeks, you’ll have so many options to pay for content à la carte, you won’t really know where to start. And yes, you’ll be paying extra for the inconvenience. – Shelly Palmer
‘Rocywood’, Gritty Homegrown Cinema From Rio’s Favelas
Named for Rocinha, with 70,000 residents the largest favela in Brazil, Rocywood is a production company formed by five young Rio filmmakers. Their budget per film averages around $50 (US), with favela residents providing everything from the cast to rented equipment to hair and makeup. “The films, made for locals by locals, are screened on the streets of Rocinha using a projector and an improvised tarp as a screen, but are also available on YouTube for a worldwide audience to see.” – Hyperallergic
DirectTV Loses Staggering 1.2 Million Pay-TV Customers Last Quarter
ATT&T said Monday its DirecTV and its U-Verse television business in the third quarter lost a staggering 1.2 million customers, as more consumers cut the cord and migrate to video streaming platforms. – Los Angeles Times
Netflix To Let Customers Speed Up/Slow Down Viewing Speeds
Whip through that “Seinfeld” at double speed? Audio books already come with this feature, allowing readers to speed up the playback. But video producers object to the idea as it changes how viewers will see their work. – The Hollywood Reporter
Landmarks Theatre President Suddenly Quits. Is The Quality Movie Business In Jeopardy?
Ted Mundorff: “Since 1927, attendance has gone down, though box office remains the same. It usually sits around $10 and a half billion dollars. I’ve always been very bullish on movie theaters, and I don’t think they are going away, but I do think these past two years we have seen closures of theaters.” – Deadline
Why Are The NYT, WSJ And Others Making TV Shows?
“So what are newspapers and web producers up to, besides making extremely expensive pivots-to-video? And why are these outlets willing to bet people like their journalism enough to watch entire TV shows about it? Maybe it’s because they aren’t really about journalism. The best producers money can buy aren’t interested in “all the news that’s fit to print.” What works best on television is one kind of journalism that has a long track record of success, especially for the big-city tabloid newspapers.” – The Baffler
Why You Shouldn’t Trust Netflix’s Viewer Numbers
Yes, Netflix is sharing more information about how many people are watching its shows than it did just a year ago, and we now have a broad sense of which shows and movies are especially popular with its subscribers. But there’s plenty of reason to avoid these apples-to-oranges comparisons and take this data with a grain — make that a heaping scoop — of salt. – Los Angeles Times
Study: Movie Attendance Goes Up When Movie Casting Is More Diverse
In its latest data drop, analytics firm Movio has discovered “a correlation between a minority group’s representation on screen and that group’s audience turnout, with some groups attending in numbers at more than twice the usual rate.” The report also shows that consumers less inclined to head to the movies will turn up to the multiplex if they see themselves projected on screen. – Variety
20 Comedy Sketches That Helped Define The Last 20 Years
“The past two decades have been especially defining for the medium. The Internet, social media, politics, social mores, and public discourse on race and gender have altered dramatically; sketch comedy has not only reflected that, but has also helped propel those changes forward.” – Washington Post