Category: media

“In olden days the TV term ‘special’ was derived from ‘spectacular,’ but it retained a more conventional meaning — something distinctive (and rare) enough to stand apart from the crowd. Today, the proliferation of viewing options clamoring for attention has made that a virtual impossibility.”

“A report released Wednesday says box office revenue outside North America climbed 4.9 percent to $17.1 billion, representing nearly two-thirds of all ticket sales. Revenues in the United States and Canada increased 5.4 percent to a record $9.6 billion, with admissions unchanged at 1.4 billion tickets sold but prices 5 percent higher.”

“TNT, TBS and TruTV have announced their most ambitious plans for original programming ever and, for the first time, will present new schedules to advertisers the same week as the broadcast networks in May.”

Of the five pilots ordered by the broadcast networks last week, four were based on international formats. A big reason is the three-month Hollywood writers strike, which ended three weeks ago.

“Canada’s biggest commercial television networks spent $107-million more on foreign programming last year than they did to make domestic shows, the widest gap between Hollywood productions and locally made content the industry has ever seen.”

“If you get the distinct impression that the networks are mailing it in, well, guess what? Your gut is good… Without using the word ‘collusion’ unnecessarily, it’s not a big leap of imagination to say that the networks have essentially given up. The scrubs are on the field.”

“Will the Harper government go forward with what seems to many an insidious back-door way of stifling freedom of creative expression and introducing ugly censorship mechanisms disguised as tax reforms? …And will anyone ever get a look at those guidelines that are allegedly at the heart of the matter, or would be, if only they existed?”

“While the TV industry has rushed to bring derailed shows back on the air since screenwriters returned to work three weeks ago, the threat of renewed labor unrest by actors in the months ahead has put movie studios in a tenuous situation.”

“Since 1981, SAG and AFTRA have jointly bargained primetime contracts, splitting negotiating committee seats 50-50. However, a recent rift between the two actors unions had jeopardized the guilds’ ability to present a unified bargaining front.”

People who own digital video recorders skip commercials. According to a new study, 79% fast-forward all or most of the time. An additional 15% of those polled said that they fast-forward advertisements ‘some of the time,’ while 4% said they rarely skip past ads and just 2% never hit the fast-forward button.”