Category: media

There’s a major surge in the number of older people going to the movies. And their larger numbers might start to change the movie industry. “Older audiences want to see a different kind of film. Maybe, as Norma Desmond once said, the movies have gotten smaller. But might not they be getting better, too?”

“In an effort to keep viewers from skipping ads — whether the old-fashioned way, by fleeing the room, or the TiVo high-tech, fast-forward method — the newly created CW network is introducing a new forum for sponsors called ‘content wraps.’ The content wraps will replace national advertising on an occasional basis on CW and will play at the beginning, middle and end of a program.”

YouTube, the internet video site phenomenon, is now serving 100 million videos a day. “YouTube videos account for 60 percent of all videos watched online, the company said. Videos are delivered free on YouTube and the company is still working on developing advertising and other means of generating revenue to support the business.”

“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” had another smash weekend at the box office, earning an estimated $62.2 million. In only ten days, the movie has grossed $258.2 million, making it the top-selling movie of the year.

“In America, when people advocate gutting government support of PBS and NPR, which Congress tried again this year despite President Bush’s mild opposition, they often cite cable TV and talk radio as the marketplace’s answers to any audience needs. That’s hardly the case when one considers what laughably passes for books-and-arts coverage on cable or talk radio. I’ve detected no such programming on commercial radio, except when another culture-war distraction flares up. And there’s precious little on cable.”

In recent years it’s been hard to find the “arts” in the A&E cable channel. Not so, says A&E’s chief programmer: “I would completely refute that. I think they’re absolutely about the arts and culture and pop culture. You look at this country and 50%, [a] huge chunk of the population belongs to gyms even if they don’t go to them. It’s a huge focus on bodies and exercise and getting fit, and I think absolutely this is representative of our culture. We’re getting at it from a sort of particular angle and following, you know, personalities here, but that’s absolutely about representing the arts and culture. So, yes, it’s — you know, we’re not focusing on the traditional arts, but I think both these series are going inside the creative process.”

Boston public radio station WBUR is dropping its arts reviews. The station is “eliminating its online arts magazine, Arts Scene, and with it the position held by editor and arts critic Bill Marx. The station has, however, added a full-time arts reporter, Andrea Shea. Arts criticism will be phased out by the end of the summer. ‘It was a good service for people who really like in-depth criticism and commentary in the arts. There’s a role for that, it just isn’t completely tied into what our main mission is’.”

“The nomination of Warren Bell, executive producer of ABC’s ‘According to Jim’ and a contributor to the online edition of the conservative National Review magazine, has puzzled and alarmed some public broadcasters, who fear he would revive the sharp political debate that engulfed the system last year.”

Canada’s biggest media company says it is buying one of its biggest competitors. “BGM owns CTV and the Globe and Mail, along with 17 TV specialty channels, including TSN, MTV and the Discovery Channel. On Wednesday, BGM announced it had agreed to pay $1.4 billion for control of national rival CHUM Ltd., which owns 33 radio stations and 12 TV stations, headed by the Citytv channels in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg. CHUM also owns 21 specialty TV channels and the Muzak background-music operation in Canada.”

Leonard Cohen’s mournful paean to music, “Hallelujah,” has been around for more than two decades now, but filmmakers and TV producers just can’t seem to get enough of it. Chris Hewitt loves the song, but wouldn’t mind never hearing it again as an all-purpose backdrop to some melodramatic plot twist that could have stood on its own. “Great as it is, the song has become the musical equivalent of a tube of toothpaste. Each time it’s used, it becomes a little emptier, a little less effective.”