Category: media

American broadcasters say the anti-“obscenity” laws now on the books have a chilling effect. Case in point – a documentary on 9/11 that contains swearing. “So far, about a dozen CBS affiliates have indicated they won’t show the documentary, another dozen say they will delay it until later at night and two dozen others are considering what to do… The announcement came as the Tupelo, Miss.-based American Family Association readied its 3 million members to flood the FCC and CBS with complaints after the documentary airs.”

“The latest figures, from the first weekend in May through Labour Day, indicated that revenues from North American ticket sales jumped by 6.3 per cent compared to the same period in 2005. During that period, the films raked in about $3.85 billion US in sales, while attendance climbed by about 3.1 per cent.”

As late as the 1990s, major movie studios employed as many as 2000-3000 animators. Now almost all of that work has gone to computers and there are only a few hundred working. That doesn’t mean 2D animation is going away, though…

Netflix isn’t just about renting DVDs any more. “Ironically, the little Los Gatos Internet upstart that relies on the first-class postage stamp to deliver its discs has become the player to beat. It now finances films. It scours independent festivals to procure movies that the studios miss. It’s even begun exploring video on demand.”

With technology advances and falling prices for equipment, the number of people making and distributing short films has exploded. “In all, there are more than a hundred short-film festivals worldwide. And if you figure in the feature festivals that include short-film competitions, the number could be in the thousands.”

MTV hasn’t been all about music videos for some time now. Now fans are making the videos. “So what do music fans do when they have cheap cameras and an easy way to share their work with other fans? They sing cover versions of their favorite songs, or show off their lip-synching skill, or do silly little dances. On YouTube this means that artists sometimes end up competing with their own fans.”

A US Senate committe says it will not take up confirmation for a second term of Kenneth Tomlinson as chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors after a highly critical government report that said he used the office for personal gain.

“The annual trophy-fest drew 16.2 million viewers on NBC. It was the Emmy show’s second smallest audience since 1990, when it aired on Fox, which was in its infancy and not available in some parts of the country. Opposite the Emmys, ABC’s Sunday telecast of “The Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl” drew nearly 10 million viewers to become the most watched theatrical film on television this year.”

Kenneth Tomlinson has been head of CPB until a previous damning investigation last year. He is still chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors. “A year-long State Department investigation has found that the chairman of the agency that oversees Voice of America and other government broadcasting operations improperly used his office, putting a friend on the payroll and running a ‘horse-racing operation’ with government resources.”

“According to industry figures, Toronto is the source for 90 per cent of pirated discs sold in Canada. Last week, police shut down an operation that was capable of manufacturing three million discs a year. It was just one of 51 similar busts countrywide this year. In an effort to stem the tide of illegal copying, motion-picture industry officials have been pushing for aggressive enforcement and stiffer penalties for copyright violators, but they were dealt a blow yesterday when the federal Justice Department said it has no plans to change laws.”