Category: media

The Canadian Television Fund, which draws money from the license fees paid by cable and satellite companies and uses it to support homegrown TV programs, is the focus of a major inquiry in Parliament after Canada’s two largest cable companies cut off funding for the fund. Concerned MPs demanded hearings after a cable executive was quoted boasting that the fund would soon be dead and buried.

The city of Boston was turned upside down Wednesday when a guerrilla marketing campaign for a Cartoon Network program was mistaken for a terrorist attack. Obviously, it’s no laughing matter, but Lisa de Moraes says that the Boston debacle doesn’t even come close to the top of the list of bizarre and terrifying marketing gimmicks that TV writers have to deal with regularly.

“The trade association that works on behalf of Canadian producers said Wednesday it’s ‘astonished’ the union representing artists and performers is appealing an Ontario court’s decision to bring in an arbitrator to end a three-week-old strike… At least three large scale U.S. productions have cancelled plans to bring work to Canada due to the prospect of a long strike.”

“Royal Bank of Scotland is lending its financial muscle to Time Warner’s attempts to improve its performance at the box office by backing a £178m push to produce potential blockbusters… The Edinburgh-based bank has joined the world’s biggest media group in a co-funding deal which will give Time Warner’s New Line Cinema division the wherewithal to make around 20 films over the next two years.”

Through its first four episodes, “American Idol” is averaging 35.21 million viewers, 5% more than the last season’s first four episodes. In a week with a significant amount of reruns, Fox led with an average of 12.56 million viewers, with CBS second with 11.64 million.

Many actors who have won Hollywood movies’ top prize quickly sink into oblivion after. “It’ll make you wonderfully happy for a night. But don’t expect that it’ll do anything for your career.”

“Nickelodeon, the popular children’s cable network, is pushing hard into the online world with Nicktropolis.com, a new Web site that will let its young users enter their own world of Internet activities. The Web site, which is to be activated today, is aimed at children ages 6 to 14, and plays heavily to their appetite for games….”

“Because this season has already brought three televised awards shows without a single surprise in the acting categories, the winners’ acceptance speeches have been hemmed in by an unusual problem: The same old people to thank and too many opportunities to do it.”

YouTube is working on a plan to let video uploaders share ad revenue based on how many viwers watch their video. “Since the takeover by Google, YouTube has also negotiated a string of deals with large media groups, which also involve some revenue sharing.”

Old TV shows that got canceled are finding new life on DVD. “Every canceled TV series had millions of people who watched it and presumably millions who remember it. If 20 to 25 percent of the nation watched a series, that just wasn’t enough at the time. And it wasn’t enough if a series was critically acclaimed but didn’t get good ratings.”