Category: media

Sales of DVDs have started to slow after huge sales growth in recent years. “The video market is glutted. For big studios that means more jousting over future formats that may restart sales. But for specialty companies that have traded otherwise unavailable horror, action, art-house and exploitation titles, the glut has meant a struggle to survive.”

A year ago Chicago public radio station WBEZ moved to an all-talk format. But is the all-information-all-the-time schedule adding anything to the airwaves? A debate.

“Three YouTube channels – one for news and two for entertainment – will showcase short clips of BBC content. The BBC hopes that the deal will help it reach YouTube’s monthly audience of more than 70 million users and drive extra traffic to its own website.”

The country music format has been fading on American radio. “But the return of country to the FM airwaves this week in Los Angeles and San Francisco has the industry upbeat about the genre’s viability in the nation’s largest markets.”

The director of Seattle’s Northwest Film Forum write an open letter to complain about New Times’ Seattle Weekly movie reviews after a review is truncated and its meaning distorted. “Without a film editor and consistent criticism written by local writers, the reviews often contain factual errors and obvious references to openings in other cities. This is a system that is no longer serving either the reader or the advertising base.”

It’s been clear for a while that conservative Christians in America aren’t exactly satisfied with the menu of entertainment options being served up at our national trough, and a mini-industry catering to the needs of the pious has even sprung up. But did you know that writing movie reviews from a Christian perspective has itself become a profession? Nearly 100 critics around the country offer such reviews, ranging from dire warnings against the evil of Harry Potter to simple cataloging of offensive language and sexual content.

“The chasm grows even wider between the filmmaking duo who gained worldwide success with movies about the connections among disparate locations and characters – and people are taking sides. Director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga have accused each other of trying to steal the spotlight amid the success of their latest film, Babel.”

“EMI Canada and Sony BMG Music Canada Inc. are laying off dozens of employees, part of a global music industry shakeup related to declining compact disc sales and free music downloads.”

There has always been plenty of talk about Hollywood’s resistance to making movies featuring black characters. But less discussed is the difficulty of marketing films with black stars in the international marketplace. “Most Hollywood executives, producers and analysts interviewed for this article delicately maintained that the resistance to black performers abroad had had less to do with bigotry than with the international audience’s lack of experience with the humor or urban situations that figure in many of their films. Some in the industry, though, were more blunt.”

“All the effort to boost children’s self-esteem may have backfired and produced a generation of college students who are more narcissistic than their Gen X predecessors, according to a new study led by a San Diego State University psychologist. And the Internet, with all its MySpace and YouTube braggadocio, is letting that self-regard blossom even more, said the analysis, titled ‘Egos Inflating Over Time.'”