Category: media

“Nationwide, more than 150 movie theaters have added special systems to help the deaf, hard of hearing, blind or visually impaired, according to the nonprofit National Center for Accessible Media. Most of those theaters are in major cities that made the move voluntarily, but states are now putting pressure on theater chains to spread the technology much farther or risk discrimination lawsuits.”

Artists are finding ways to communicate with their fans in concerts with text messages. “Fans attending these concerts were invited to text messages to a pre-set code that let them post messages to large screens near the stage, as well as compete in trivia contests for the chance to win better seats or VIP backstage passes and to buy concert merchandise.”

Minority groups report that American TV networks have “made some strides in increasing ethnic diversity in front of and behind the camera, but still have fallen short in demonstrating an overall commitment to multiculturalism.”

The Sundance Festival has chosen 64 movies for this season’s event. “The festival has become so famous it is practically synonymous with independent film. In a rare discussion of the festival’s inner workings, the programmers said they were suffering not only from the sheer volume of images cascading into their heads, but the pressure of discriminating among them. Five people combed through 1,004 American and 936 international features (up from last year’s 761 and 843, respectively) and 760 American and 448 international documentaries (up from 624 and 385). Then there were the shorts: 4,311 of them (3,887 last year).”

Movie companies are considering shortening the window between theatrical release and home video release of movies. But that’s a mistake, says the chairman of Fox. Sending movies to home video markets much quicker than the average four-month exclusive that studios grant theaters could crimp growth. “When people say ‘Re-invent your business model because of the ubiquitous availability of pirated product.’ There’s a huge flaw with that. You can never compete with free.”

“The Whistler Film Festival, which launches its fifth-anniversary edition today in Whistler, B.C., is one step closer to becoming the Sundance of Canada with an aggressive new industry component that will sled in a slew of hot-shot sales agents and distributors from New York and Hollywood. And coming next year, China.”

“It took only six days after launch for NPR’s ‘Story of the Day’ podcast to reach the coveted No. 1 spot on iTunes for most downloaded podcast. On Nov. 21, NPR’s podcasts held down 11 spots on the iTunes Top 100, more than any other media outlet. But NPR has done much more than simply repurpose its own material for podcasts. The radio giant is hosting podcasts for member stations, and selling and splitting underwriting revenues with them.”

“Although it still teeters on the edge of financial viability, the progressive online publication is very much alive, while other boom-era magazines, like the Industry Standard, Upside and Red Herring, are dead or reinvented as leaner versions of their former selves.”

“Sexed-up, profanity-laced shows on cable and satellite TV should be for adult eyes only, and providers must do more to shield children or could find themselves facing indecency fines, the nation’s top communications regulator said yesterday.” The FCC’s decision to threaten cable and satellite broadcasters is bound to be controversial, since the agency has historically been charged with regulating the terrestrial airwaves, but not channels carried over cable lines. But Congress is considering a new package of legislation that would increase indecency fines and give the FCC authority over cable and satellite programming.

Podcasting, being the ultimate DIY technology, is a bit scattershot at the moment. Competence mixes with incompetence, and it’s fairly difficult to distinguish the good from the bad without downloading and listening to everything you find. But “two new search engines offer to do for podcasting what Technorati does for blogs by letting users search podcasts by keyword to single out audio that suits their interests. Podzinger and blinkx scour audio content for keywords by translating the audio into text and creating an index for quick searching.”