Category: media

“Pushed by improving technology and the constant drive for a marketing edge over lower-cost rivals, the airlines are adding dozens of TV channels, risqué movie choices and innovative satellite music genres. ‘We’ve found out that what customers want to see is not just the blockbusters but also good films they haven’t had a chance to see yet’.”

“The practice of the pilot season-upfront-fall premiere cycle dates back to the early 1960s, when networks took over production of TV series from advertisers following the quiz-show scandals of the 1950s. The networks started selling ad time rather than advertisers producing single-sponsor shows. Unless things change again — always possible in the current, fast-changing media environment — it’s the cycle the industry is stuck with.”

“Second Life, with its capacity for organic growth and interaction, has been hailed as Web 2.0 – a revolution-in-waiting no less significant than the birth of the World Wide Web itself. players (or ‘residents,’ as they much prefer) log using virtual identities, or avatars, into a world where they can teleport, fly and alter their appearance at whim – was a virgin land bound only by the wildest dreams.”

“Broadcasters do not always use all their assigned capacity. Often there is additional spectrum left over that can be used to air other channels of programing. Small and independently owned businesses could take advantage of this capacity and use it to air their own programing.”

Several ad services offer bloggers money for blogging about products. It can be lucrative for the bloggers, but it blows the integrity of those writing the posts…

“How does a movie score in the 90s with an audience and get a 9% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes? How do you figure that? Is the audience that stupid? Is America’s taste that bad? I don’t think so. If you read reviews on a consistent basis on all films, you realize that the majority of films just get murdered. The only films that get good reviews are the ones that nobody sees. I just don’t think you can make movies for critics.”

“The Joost service is already a fully functioning online TV network of around 400 streams of programming available to some 14,000 testers. TV over the internet is not new. What is new with Joost is the fullscreen image showing a high-resolution picture and full-length programmes.”

“In a ruling made public Tuesday, the Copyright Royalty Board significantly increased the royalties paid to musicians and record labels for streaming digital songs online. The decision also ended a discounted fee for small Internet broadcasters. Broadcast radio stations that also stream their programs online, such as KCRW in Santa Monica, said they might have to scale back on webcasting, and operators of Internet-only radio stations said the new fees would probably force them to go silent.”

“The $13 billion proposed deal cannot be completed without the permission of antitrust lawyers at the Justice Department and a majority of the five commissioners at the F.C.C. The commission gave the two companies spectrum licenses for the satellite radio services in the 1990s on the condition that they not merge, and it would have to waive that condition for the deal to go forward.”

Two U.S. Senators are pressuring Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to take a tougher line against music and video piracy, “urging Ottawa to enact anti-piracy legislation similar to a bill the two senators introduced in 2003.”