Category: media

The King Kong movie has sold $100m (£57.4m) in its first week out on DVD. That beats what the film did at the movie theatres in its first week in release. “The film, made by Oscar-winning director Peter Jackson, sold 6.5m copies in the format. In its first five days, King Kong took $66m (£37.8m) at the North American box office, falling short of the $75m (£43m) it was expected to make.”

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has been investigating radio companies over illegal payola deals. But Spitzer now says that “the FCC is working against him. ‘We have asked them several times to participate and they have not only not done that, but they are now furtively going out there negotiating behind our backs’,” propsing mush smaller fines than Spitzer had in mind.

For the first time, downloads of major Hollywood movies will be offered the same day they’re available on DVD. “Until now, both services offered digital movie downloads for a rental period only. Some films have been available to buy, but mainly those movies have been B grade flicks.”

“If you were thinking about subscribing to satellite radio solely for a broader variety of music, digital radio might offer a cheaper and reasonably satisfying experience. On the other hand, if you’re smitten by satellite’s other offerings, including the unmatched selection of sports, more thinly sliced music niches (blues, classic jazz, old-school soul, chamber music, show tunes) and unusually creative radio — drama, movie soundtracks, live performances, artist profiles — satellite has nothing to fear from broadcast’s new venture. At least not yet.”

A new study of British TV viewing habits reports that of the 7.5 million people who use TV subtitles, six million have no hearing impairment at all. “The problem with subtitles is once discovered they can be incredibly hard to let go of. Their value extends to a rich variety of TV-watching scenarios.”

Four major American radio companies – Clear Channel Communications Inc., CBS Radio Inc., Entercom Communications Corp. and Citadel Broadcasting Corp – are negotiating with the FCC over fines for illegal pay-for-play practices. “Some of the radio companies have proposed fines of as much as $1 million. However, at least one FCC commissioner, Democrat Jonathan Adelstein, is pushing for penalties that could exceed $10 million per company.”

The Bahamas has banned showings of “Brokeback Mountain.” “The board chose to ban it because it shows extreme homosexuality, nudity and profanity, and we feel that it has no value for the Bahamian public.”

“Beginning tomorrow, New York will have a year-round international, independent film series for children, the only one of its kind in the country. The first weekend of every month, the New York International Children’s Film Festival will show at least one feature for young children and one for ages 9 and older. Each film will be screened twice, preceded by a short, at the IFC Center in Greenwich Village.”

Apple Computer is being sued in British court by the Beatles’ record label, Apple Corps, with the label claiming that a copyright infringement occurred the moment the computer company moved into the music business with its iTunes downloading software. It is the third time that Apple Corps has gone after the maker of Macintosh computers and the iPod. At issue in the current fracas are differing interpretations of the out-of-court settlement that resulted from the last clash between the two Apples.

The animation company that changed the face of big-screen cartoons is celebrating it’s 20th anniversary. Pixar, which counts Finding Nemo and Monsters, Inc. among its hit films, dragged Hollywood into the age of digital animation more or less single-handedly, thus setting off a raging debate on whether computer-generated characters can ever really have the humanity of a hand-drawn version. Pixar’s chief stands firm: “Computers don’t create computer animation any more than a pencil creates pencil animation. What creates computer animation is the artist.”