Category: media

Video iPods don’t seem to be used much for video, reports a new study. “Owners of Apple’s ubiquitous portable media device spend far more time on it listening to music or audio podcasts than they do using it to watch TV or movies.”

A movie about dancing penguins was champ at the movie box office over the weekend, beating out James Bond. “Happy Feet is just ahead by a flipper. It’s unusual to have two movies this close, battling for that No. 1 position.”

“No one is a bigger supporter of the fast-food emporiums that have colonized the known world than Hollywood’s studios. For the last 10 years, Disney had a cozy partnership with McDonald’s, with promotions specifically aimed at introducing young fans of ‘The Incredibles’ and ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ to the pleasures of Happy Meals. The 10-year pact, valued at more than $2 billion, has just ended, but Disney has not ruled out doing individual McDonald’s tie-ins in the future.”

After a terrible 2005, this year has tuned out pretty well for Hollywood at the box office. “Whichever the strategy, the movie business climbed its way out of a dismal pattern of declining audience to more solid footing in 2006. With most of the year’s movie receipts counted, the box office is up 6.5 percent over last year, and attendance has risen nearly 5 percent.”

“Nearly two-thirds of people in the United States say they believe that most TV programming and advertising is targeted toward people under 40, the survey said. More than 80 per cent of adults over 40 say they have a hard time finding TV shows that reflect their lives. A significant number of baby boomers — 37 per cent — say they aren’t happy with what’s on television.”

A preoposed new copyright law in Australia might make it illegal to own an iPod. “Section 132AL(2) of the bill provides that a person commits an ‘indictable offence’ if they possess ‘a device, intending it to be used for making an infringing copy of a work or other subject-matter’.”

Scotland sends £180 million a year on its public broadcaster. The public affairs and news shows are great, writes Tom Little. But when it comes to producing entertainment… well, is this really the best they can do?

“Grandiose promises of an interactive future circulated for decades, then seemingly died out a few years back. But today more than 25 million homes can engage with their television on something approaching their own terms.” So what do people really want from their TVs?

Why all the non-compatible formats and versions of your favorite electronics? “The relentless drive to upgrade, overtake, or replace the competition has led to a dizzying number of choices in everything from digital cameras to MP3 players to personal computers. If it’s not new features, it’s hipper fads that keep most of us on a treadmill of constantly replacing our personal electronics.”

With World War II now more than 60 years behind us, a long-enduring taboo may be starting to show signs of a crack. But surely it can’t really be the case that filmmakers are beginning to create sympathetic depictions of Nazis? Well, not exactly. But “the sheer horror of German civilian suffering, and the despairing heroism of its shattered armies” now seems to be fair game, as do “scenes of numbed Germans shuffling through the Third Reich’s ruins.”