Category: media

India’s supreme court has refused to ban “The Da Vinci Code.” “The two judges in the court argued that no predominantly Christian country had banned the film. Christians comprise about 2% of India’s billion people. Indian censors have cleared the film, but seven of 28 states have banned it.”

“As America careers toward its much-touted conversion to the all-digital transmission of television signals — the digital switchover is now set in stone for February 2009 — the debate over multicasting is looking like another shining example of the law of unintended consequences when technology comes into play.”

“Now in its 27th year, this is where ideas meet reality, where creators meet gatekeepers, where the amorphous notion of ‘content’ is scrutinized, dissected, analyzed, forecast, debated and ultimately celebrated in an atmosphere that is at once relaxed and charged.”

A new study of the Canadian TV industry says that “Canadian broadcasters and producers are going to have to integrate more with the global media business to prosper in the new digital environment. While “public financial support will always be necessary to achieve cultural objectives” in Canada, the paper acknowledges that this support has stagnated in recent years at the same time as the regulatory protections afforded by organizations like the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission have started to erode.”

Evangelical Christians are lobbying for consumers to have the right to pick and choose which stations they get. But “the fear among Christian broadcasters is that a proposal to allow consumers to reject MTV or Comedy Central would also allow them to drop the Trinity Broadcasting Network or Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network. Cutting off that access could hurt religious broadcasters.”

After years of threats, Congress has finally acted to dramatically increase the maximum fine that can be levied by the Federal Communications Commission against a television or radio station deemed to have aired objectionable material. The new maximum fine per violation of the FCC’s often vague and always controversial obscenity rules is $325,000 (a tenfold increase.)

When the alt-country stars known as the Dixie Chicks released their latest album this spring, industry experts expected that the Chicks would be looking to patch up their relationship with “traditional” (read: right-wing) country fans, which soured when the group’s lead singer took a potshot at President Bush a few years back. But the new album seems more like an angry rejoinder than an apology, and mainstream country stations have refused to play it. Somehow, though, the Chicks are #1 on the charts, even without radio. The initial surge can be attributed to savvy marketing, but if the album proves to have staying power, it could signal that increasingly generic terrestrial radio is fading as America’s primary hitmaker.

“Don’t expect the Emmy Awards to look like a TV rerun again this year. Although favorite, high-rated nominees usually return year after year, there’s a new voting system that aims to boost the chances of low-rated snubees in the top series and acting categories.”

Film shorts have traditionally been considered a loss leader. But “low-cost cameras and desktop editing have expanded the field beyond Hollywood aspirants to everyone from hobbyists to experimental artists. And online, sites like Atomfilms, iFilm, Clipland and Amazefilms, among dozens of others, have showcased shorts, transforming them from advertisements for one’s self to a form of self-expression in its own right. And along the way, they’ve actually managed what was long thought to be impossible: Making a little money along the way.”

Containers of mysterious unclaimed movie props were sold at auction this week. Were they part of the original “Star Trek” set? What was actually in the containers…