Category: media

The drift from seeing movies in theatres to at home on a DVD is probably inevitable. “The theater exhibitor says, “If you give me money, I’ll show you something.” The DVD seller says, “If you give me money, I’ll give you something.” Right away, the DVD seller has an advantage.”

“These days it’s not necessarily a question of which film to see, but whether to go to the movies at all. Increasingly, the public is becoming more vocal about its unhappiness with some of the unpleasant circumstances it now associates with moviegoing.”

“As the music, television and movie industries move to make more media available online, they are also attempting to keep that content from showing up on peer-to-peer networks or being copied for friends. They are looking to Congress for help. Meanwhile, many consumer electronics firms are hobbling their own devices to protect themselves from potential lawsuits or, in the case of Apple, to make money from selling media to those who bought the company’s hardware… Media companies also told Congress in November that they want new digital FM signals to include an anti-copying flag and that satellite radio companies should not be allowed to create portable players that can store gigs of content.”

“Almost everywhere you looked, uncertainty reigned. Attendance and box-office receipts were down more than 5%. Disney’s movie studio recorded a quarterly loss of $313 million. DreamWorks threw in the towel on its short-lived dream. Harvey and Bob Weinstein left Miramax. MGM was folded into Sony. Tom Cruise seemed to self-destruct. Julia Roberts took an extended maternity leave.”

Google’s test project to make San Francisco wireless for free promises to change the entertainment industry. “Reportedly, Google has already lined up unused fiber-optic cable that spans the country. Such a free Wi-Fi network would mean that the Hollywood studios would no longer need to rely on cable operators—or even telephone companies—to have a two-way pipeline into homes. They could directly rent any movie to consumers and bill their credit card (like everything else is billed on the Internet) without paying a cut to cable operators or local televisions stations.”

2005 was the year of the Hollywood remake. “Major studios have delivered moviegoers 14 remakes of their own films, up from just four in 2000. What’s the attraction of remakes, and how do they get made?”

Electronic game sales are down for 2005. “Sales in November appeared to be particularly soft, falling 14 per cent to $47 million in the month that included the release of the highly anticipated XBox 360 from Microsoft.”

“This is the third straight year of decline in Hollywood ticket sales – the first such stretch of bad news in 40 years. Because of the continued falloff – sales are down 12.6 percent from 2002 – a growing number of analysts wonder if America’s movie habits are changing permanently.”

“A federal judge has blocked a California law that would have made it illegal to sell or rent violent video games to minors, saying he doubted whether such sales could be banned even if the games were proved to cause violent behavior among children.”

The TV ratings company Nielsen will begin measuring viewing habits of those who use digital recordered like Tivo. “Responding to the requests of clients who wanted to know how DVR use affected viewing, Nielsen will now offer three ratings per program and network: Live, Live/Same Day (which includes same-day playback via DVR) and Live+7 Day Ratings (live along with time-shifted viewing up to 168 hours after airing). The first overnight ratings with live and same-day sets of data will be Wednesday; the first Live+7 streams will be available two weeks after the Monday-Sunday cycle.”