Category: media

“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix conjured up $333 million at global box offices in its initial release, marking the best worldwide debut ever for the British boy wizard, according to final studio figures on Monday.”

“The dynamic between celebrities and their audience is shifting. The critics and the media no longer have the last word. Thanks to evolving technology, moviemakers and stars have new weapons to not only promote their projects directly to moviegoers, but to fight back against what they perceive as misinformation. They are taking advantage of their Internet fanbases to promote their projects, skipping the marketing middlemen and interacting directly with the people who buy tickets.”

“Audiences over the age of 45 doubled in the past decade, from 19 million to 38 million. The weekend, traditionally the most popular time for the cinema, made only 60% of total box office receipts last year. That figure is down from 68% in 2002, partly because older audiences are going to see films during the week.”

“Under the new proposal, which must be implemented by the CRB, SoundExchange would cap the $500 monthly per-channel minimum fee at $50,000 per year for webcasters. In exchange, webcasters would be required to provide more detailed data on the music that they play and make an effort to stop unauthorized copying from streamrippers — software that can turn ephemeral net radio streams into permanent recordings.”

“The Emmy system is broken. Unlike the film community — the members of which watch most, if not all, of the top Oscar contenders — the vast majority of people who make TV don’t watch TV. And these days, the explosion of cable programming means there’s far more TV than even the most diligent members of the academy can keep up with. Despite some tweaks to their awards-giving systems in the last few years, the Emmy powers that be refuse to truly acknowledge that these serious, systematic problems are making their awards process even more of a joke.”

The Harry Potter film franchise now stands at five films, with four different directors tackling JK Rowling’s boy wizard. And that diversity of directorial viewpoints (along with fast-evolving technology that has made ever more spectacular wizardry possible) has given the series a distinct evolving style, as the movies have gone from wide-eyed and innocent to dark and dangerous.

“The number of people going to the cinema in the UK fell for the second consecutive year in 2006, despite an increase in the number of films shown. Admissions dropped by 5%, from 164.7m in 2005 to 156.6m in 2006.”

The BBC controller has apologized for showing a video that appeared to show Queen Elizabeth storming out of a photo session with Annie Leibovitz. The video was shown out of sequence. “Blaming “young, untrained” television workers, he said: ‘Kids don’t understand that you do not cut corners. You don’t lie to audiences under any circumstances. The people who make programmes just don’t understand that the basic ethic of broadcasting in this country is trust’.”

Hollywood producers had suggested a thorough reworking of royalties payments to writers. “As it turns out, the proposal looks a lot like the current residuals scheme — perhaps with a higher percentage participation for the writers — but it would kick in only once producers recoup development, production and distribution costs. Studios also would first recoup marketing costs on film projects, though perhaps not on TV shows.”

“The Copyright Royalty Board, an obscure group of federal judges, set the new rates in March, eliminating a provision that allowed small webcasters to pay 10% to 12% of their revenues instead of a set per-song fee for every listener. The current rate of .0762 of a cent each time a song is played will more than double by 2010, and many Internet radio stations will face royalty payments greater than their revenues. Many individuals make little or no money through their online stations, so the decision made webcasting prohibitively expensive.”