Category: media

“This year, more and more films have been withheld from the press prior to opening day perhaps because studios have calculated that they can attract audiences regardless of whether the films have been reviewed beforehand. While it’s not unprecedented for film companies to nix such previews, the recent trend underscores the extent to which the industry’s changing business model relies less on critics for promoting certain types of mainstream fare.”

“Aggregation and indexing have also had the unintended consequence of flattening the hierarchy of movie critics: Inevitably, The New York Times or Chicago Tribune reviewers are taken off their perch when their sound bites appear next to Movie Mom at Yahoo! Movies, Ericsnider.com, or (our favorite) Hollywood Bitchslap. Even worse, their opinions are devalued when they become just one datapoint in an average score.”

The FCC is investigating four radio giants for payola. The FCC “requested documents from Clear Channel Communications Inc., CBS Radio Inc., Entercom Communications Corp. and Citadel Broadcasting Corp. over allegations that radio programmers had received cash, checks, clothing and other gifts in exchange for playing certain songs without revealing the deals to listeners, a violation of federal rules.”

The Cannes Festival announces this year’s lineup of movies. “Having already announced Ron Howard’s ‘The Da Vinci Code’ as the opening night, out-of-competition world premiere, the festival will keep star-wattage high.”

UK culture minister Tessa Jowell has warned the BBC it isn’t likely to get the full increase in the TV license fee it wants. “The BBC has proposed raising the licence fee by 2.35% above inflation, taking it from the current £131.50 to £180 by 2013.”

“Telefilm Canada will soon appoint former Torontonian Michael Jenkinson — a brainy entrepreneur who has spent the past 13 years in Hollywood’s hard-knocks production trenches — to become its new feature film executive for English Canada, sources say. While Montreal-based Telefilm would not confirm Jenkinson’s new posting, sources in the tight-knit entertainment community say the Jamaican-born film executive will take on this challenging job in mid-May. The federal funding agency annually doles out roughly $80-million to about 30 productions through its Canada Feature Film Fund.”

Does British TV travel? Of course. The UK’s top TV export last year was the Bafta Awards broadcast. “It tied with a wildlife documentary about chimps and Wild Sex, according to figures collated for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Sales of TV exports increased in the US by 10%, while there was an 85% growth in western Europe.”

The most popular TV shows in America right now are all about money. “Some media observers say these shows succeed, in part, by exploiting the economic anxiety in society today. Shaky pensions, mounting medical co-payments, rising gas prices and seemingly endless downsizing in the American workplace can leave consumers — and TV viewers — longing for a show-me-the-suitcase-of-cash solution.”

“The rise of the on-demand world has local suppliers of content everywhere unsettled. In one sense, it’s the classic tale of old-guard businesses struggling to withstand a disruptive technology. (Think Napster and the record industry.) But it’s also a lesson in how media are benefiting by embracing the new broadcast landscape of content without boundaries.”

For its 79th Annual Academy Awards, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is moving back to the last Sunday in February, a spot the Oscar show occupied in 2004 and 2005 before moving back a week — to the first Sunday in March — this year in order to avoid going head-to-head against NBC’s broadcast of the closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics.