Category: media

America’s FCC has proposed “$3.9 million in fines against scores of television broadcasters for violating federal decency limits, including a record $3.6 million for stations that aired a show depicting group sex. The agency also upheld its decision to fine 20 CBS stations $550,000 for a stunt in which pop singer Janet Jackson exposed her breast during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show.”

HBO’s new show featuring a polygamous family has a downside: “By default, it perpetuates the common notion that the Mormon polygamy was a unique mutation in the history of Christianity. On the contrary, the practice goes back very nearly to the beginning of the church — and it has popped up again, from time to time, sometimes finding the most surprising advocates.”

“Movie theater owners faced with falling attendance are considering asking federal authorities for permission to jam cell phone reception in an attempt to stop annoying conversations during films…”

The advertising industry is looking for a new formula for paying actors. “The payment structures in the current collective bargaining agreements with SAG/AFTRA were originally developed to meet the needs and problems of the early 1950s. As different means of broadcasting were developed, new payment streams were added on to the contract, creating enormous administrative complexity, distortions in the allocation of compensation, and the potential for out-of-control costs. For example, talent payments for broadcasts that reach very small audiences can today exceed the actual cost of the media.”

To judge by the slobbering devotion displayed by most daily newspapers these days, you’d think that The Sopranos was more or less the only program left on television. (Okay, they also admit to the existence of Desperate Housewives.) And certainly, the New Jersey mob drama has built up quite the following over its five seasons. So it had to come as a shock to HBO (and all those adoring critics) when the premiere episode of the show’s final season lost fully 1/4 of its audience from last season.

Hollywood is considering a major promotional campaign designed to get the public off the couch and into movie theaters on a far more regular basis. The campaign, which would be patterned after the highly successful “Got Milk?” and “Pork – The Other White Meat” campaigns, would be the film industry’s new hope for reversing the slide in box office receipts. However, at an annual conference, theater owners objected to the strategy, saying that the problem of slumping attendance stems from Hollywood’s insistence on making and marketing terrible movies.

Earlier this month, the South Dakota legislature stripped $500,000 from South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s annual allocation as part of a last-minute round of cuts. Now, with the cut having been made public, lawmakers are passing the buck on whose fault it is. But what everyone seems to agree on is that there is little chance of the funding being restored this year.

Can the international film industry agree on technical standards for converting to digital? “There are about 35,000 screens in the U.S., while the international market has about 100,000 screens. … The transition to digital cinema is not only a U.S.-driven initiative, but more importantly, the international markets will make up the lion’s share of the world’s screens in order to achieve ultimate scale and global adoption of digital cinema.”

The UK government has outlined its plans for the BBC. “As well as the corporation’s traditional aims to ‘inform, educate and entertain’, the government has set it six new purposes: Sustaining citizenship and civil society; promoting education; stimulating creativity; reflecting the identity of the UK’s nations, regions and communities; bringing the world to the UK and the UK to the world; and building digital Britain.”

Arbitron, the leading radio ratings company, says it will replace listener diaries with people meters. “Arbitron has measured radio station listenership since 1965 by collecting handwritten diaries from volunteers who mail them in. The people meters have been in trials since 2001. The company plans to have the meters in place in the top 10 radio markets by the fall of 2008 and in the top 50 markets by 2010 or 2011.”