Category: media

Cowboy romance Brokeback Mountain gets seven Golden Globe nominations, including best dramatic picture and honors for actor Heath Ledger. Other Best Picture nominees include: “The Constant Gardener,” the Edward R. Murrow tale “Good Night, and Good Luck,” the mobster story “A History of Violence” and “Match Point,” a drama about infidelity.

“Italian TV is cutting several scenes from the controversial BBC series Rome because they are too sexy and violent.”

“Under pressure from the government, the nation’s two largest cable companies and several others announced Monday a plan to offer packages of family-friendly channels to give parents another option to shield children from sex, rough language and violence.”

The country’s digital literacy is at stake. “The Executive has always said that broadcasting services are a reserved matter , but they have so many points of influence that impact on broadcasting: media literacy, economic development, how Scotland is placed in the digital revolution. It is related.”

“Hollywood studios would like to believe that digital effects are worth the cost, if only because they hold the prospect of a licensing cornucopia for toys and video games. But, alas, the studios also confront the less happy reality that even state-of-the-art CGI, if it gets out of synch with the story, does not create an audience either at the movie houses or on DVD.”

“Sunday, DreamWorks ended its 11-year run as an independent company by agreeing to be sold to Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc., in a deal valued at $1.6 billion. The sale highlights the enormous, perhaps insurmountable, challenges facing an independent company with hopes of competing against massive media conglomerates.”

Trying to combat ad-skipping devices like Tivo, TV networks are turning to product placements in the scripts of shows. But now some writers are putting up a fight, demanding more pay in exchange for scripting product plugs into their shows.”

After receiving 1,300 complaints, the BBC has pulled a promotional trailer for digital TV – “which some viewers complained was ‘horrific’ and ‘disturbingly psychotic’.”

“The move from terrestrial to satellite raises numerous questions, among them: How many of Stern’s estimated 12 million daily listeners will pay $12.95 per month to continue their Howard habit, and will the FCC bow to growing political pressure to rein in cable and satellite content? But one thing is clear: Whether you see Stern as a trend-setting revolutionary or an aging schlockmeister who wants to sink even lower without FCC interference, his shows on Sirius will stamp the largely virginal medium with new benchmarks and standards for taste and decency.”

“Consumers expect customized selections in everything from iPod playlists to on-demand news. So no one should be surprised that a battle is brewing over cable-TV offerings that is drawing in consumer activists, Christian groups, children’s advocates, Congress, cable companies and those concerned about whether government should exert any control over cable content.”