Category: media

“The arrest, which was the culmination of weeks of private investigation, has already put a huge dent in the city’s normally bustling piracy industry, Mr. Guzzo said: Not a single illegally recorded movie sourced from Montreal has surfaced on the Internet since.”

“The sound of silence gripped Hollywood for a second straight day as striking writers negotiated with studios and nets behind closed doors to end the 23-day work stoppage. Both sides agreed early Tuesday evening to return for more talks this morning.”

Pre-Oscar film hyping is nothing new in Hollywood, but the makers of Ratatouille, the animated hit from Pixar, are taking the unconventional route of asking voters to consider their movie for Best Picture, rather than Best Animated Feature. “More than a technical issue, the dilemma goes to the heart of Hollywood’s evolving attitude toward animated movies.”

“Sean Penn’s Into the Wild, a drama about a disaffected young man who wanders North America, nabbed the top prize as the movie kudos season opened with the Gotham Awards.” Other honors went to Ellen Page for best breakthrough actor, and Michael Moore for best documentary.

“Seven key Spanish arthouse film companies have teamed to create Filmin.es, an ambitious Internet movie portal aimed at the indie film community. Launch is scheduled for March 2008, with Filmin offering consumers a range of options, including download-to-own, download-to-rent, streaming view and DVD store.”

“The whimsical Bob Dylan narrative I’m Not There, featuring Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere and four others playing incarnations of the enigmatic singer, led nominees Tuesday for the Spirit Awards honoring independent film… The Spirit Awards will be presented Feb. 23, the day before the Academy Awards.”

“The CBC needs a new contract with Canadians, preferably with a 10-year mandate and a firm funding commitment to give Canadians the improvements they want, including HD TV and more regional radio, he said.”

“The agreement will give the TV concern’s networks such as NBC, Telemundo and Bravo — as well as its NBC owned-and-operated TV stations — access to TiVo’s ratings data. The deal will enable NBC to offer advertisers data on the results of campaigns that use interactive tags.”

“Several broadcasters have been pushing back against Arbitron’s new system, saying there aren’t enough people participating in the panels to ensure that the data is reliable. Arbitron says it has had particular difficulty getting young adults and members of ethnic groups to participate.”

“The groups claim there is new evidence showing that satellite radio and terrestrial radio are not close substitutes — a direct contradiction of the data submitted by XM-Sirius.”