Category: media

Movie and TV studios are worried about copyright infringement and protecting their work on YouTube. But the real competition in years to come will likely be the small video and film makers who have discovered that the internet gets them an audience.

For at least seven years, film studios and theaters have been hyping digital projectors and the crisp, clear picture quality they will bring to movie screens. Yet the vast majority of the nation’s cinemas are still using old analog projectors. Despite the economic and visual advantages of digital projection, out of the nation’s more than 38,000 movie screens, only around 2,200 have digital projectors.

NBC and News Corp. say they’re launching a competitor to YouTube. The new site will feature “thousands of hours of full-length programming, movies and clips. The new entity — a company yet to be formed — will distribute its content on AOL, MSN, MySpace and Yahoo, the new partners say.”

“The latest issue to cause a rift between the New York-based National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and Los Angeles-based Academy of Television Arts & Sciences is related to discussions over the creation of new Emmy Awards honoring digital content.”

Of course, writes Dan Brown. Movies belong on the the big screen. TV is for the TV set. And YouTube? Well, YouTube is for the computer of course. And it’s not good that TV, movies and video should mix…

Internet radio could be headed for another period of contraction after “a recent ruling that will increase royalty rates for music distributed through digital channels. The timing is interesting, coming as it does just as new devices that let listeners ‘tune’ Internet radio stations (using a wireless connection), much as they do conventional radio, are hitting the consumer market. Internet radio, some say, could eclipse such technologies as HD and satellite radio.”

A new Imax film about the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Katrina seems a bit incomplete, as it somehow manages not to say a word about the political and societal dysfunction that have made Katrina a lasting blot on the American landscape. So “why does a film that seems so insistent on decrying the loss of wetlands end with little more than an anodyne lament and some empty hope? Roll the credits: The film was made with money contributed by Chevron. And Dow Chemical. And Dominion Exploration and Production, a major power company.”

When you’re running a film festival, it’s vitally important that you actually have films to show. And at this year’s Cleveland International Film Festival, that seemingly simple necessity was a lot harder to come by than you might imagine. “Half of the print had arrived. The other half… was on a sealed FedEx truck somewhere in Ohio or Indiana.” And then Canada got involved…

Paul McCartney has been introduced as the flagship star in what Starbucks hopes will shortly be a thriving stable of recording artists. Yes, Starbucks. The ubiquitous coffee company, which has been selling CDs and DVDs in its stores for some time, is starting its own record label. “The label plans to sell albums through traditional and digital music outlets, with no advance sales and no additional content for Starbucks stores.”

Movie posters for an upcoming horror film have been pulled across the country following multiple complaints from cinema patrons. “The posters portrayed star Elisha Cuthbert being tortured and killed.”