Category: media

“Blending brand names and products into television shows, as opposed to traditional ads that run during commercial breaks, has gained greater currency in recent years as the industry faces the rising popularity of TiVo and other devices that let viewers skip commercials.
But some industry experts suggest that product placement — digital or otherwise — has limited value in delivering a commercial message. Hollywood producers and writers also have raised concerns about their work being turned into virtual infomercials, and consumer activists have fretted about blurring the line between entertainment content and advertising.”

Islam is changing Europe. And filmmakers are starting to explore how. “With dramas, comedies and documentaries, directors are seeking to go beyond head scarves and aperitifs to prick a European conscience increasingly insecure about multiculturalism. And it is no small irony that these filmmakers are exploring the effect of Islam at a time when Christian Europe is happily adrift in secularism.”

Trying to capitalize on the US success of “Desperate Housewives,” Disney “plans to produce four local Latin American editions, each with its own cast and cultural flavor. Spanish versions of the show will in Argentina, Colombia and Ecuador, and a Portuguese version will air in Brazil.”

Tired of seeing its audience lured away by satellite radio, traditional radio stations are beginning to broadcast in high definition. “The hitch is that a special – and expensive – radio is needed to hear the new offerings, and a consumer would be hard-pressed to find such a radio in a store. The radios are available online, through hdradio.com. Undaunted, 12 of the nation’s top radio companies last week started a $200 million advertising campaign to tout HD radio in the first 28 markets where it has been launched.”

These days, there aren’t many words you can’t say on television. But the policies of broadcasters determined to keep the small screen “family friendly” have led to a bizarre expansion of the language for purposes of on-screen cursing that won’t get anyone fired. No one in real life would ever blurt out “frik,” or “frinx,” or “fup” in a moment of anger, but for TV characters, the made-up curse words have become second nature, and are bordering on becoming a new dialect.

Ever since Brokeback Mountain became a bona fide cultural phenomenon, conservative commentators have been alleging that Hollywood is deliberately shoving homosexuality down the throats of “normal” Americans who have no interest in it. But Colin Covert says that while Hollywood may well have an agenda, it likely isn’t of the gay variety: “It might be more a question of sheer artistic utility. What gay themes offer in this day and age is the essential element for drama: conflict. And while there are few subjects as intrinsically charged as forbidden love, there’s always a need for a novel, culturally relevant angle as social mores change.”

America’s Armenian immigrant community was thrilled last month when PBS announced that it would air a documentary detailing the Armenian genocide of World War I. But since scheduling the showing, PBS has bowed to pressure from the Turkish government, which has always denied the genocide, agreeing to follow the documentary with a “panel discussion including people who dispute that genocide occurred.”

When Paramount Pictures acquired DreamWorks Studios recently, it found itself in need of a new executive to run the company, and went straight to Stacey Snider, head of Universal Pictures. Ordinarily, this is the type of thing that might be kept hush-hush. But this is Hollywood, where rumors are stock in trade, and the Snider sweepstakes are now officially on.

Now that the WB and UPN networks are slimming down to one, Fox has decided to launch a new network. It’s called the My Network. “As billed, the star attractions of the network will be a pair of hourlong dramas inspired by telenovelas. Like those Spanish-language TV staples, the new shows, Desire and Secrets, will air Monday-Friday, and commit to wrapping up their soapy story lines in 13 weeks.”

Daniel Battsek has big shoes to fill as the new chief of Miramax. “Plucked last fall from Disney’s international film ranks in London, Battsek suddenly finds himself a major player in the competitive world of specialty films. The 47-year-old executive is under the gun to quickly reestablish Miramax as the kind of dominant force it was when the Weinsteins released such acclaimed hits as “Shakespeare in Love” and “The English Patient” in the late 1990s. It won’t be easy.”