Category: media

Hollywood now only makes 14.2 percent of its revenues from movie ticket sales, while 85.8 percent came from licensing or selling their products for use in the home. With downloading options expanding, the home-market video-on-demand market looks to get even bigger.

FCC chairman Kevin Martin says that “letting consumers choose their subscription television channels would help shield children from inappropriate content and not necessarily lead to higher prices. His view contradicts a study the FCC issued last year that said allowing consumers to pay for only the channels they want could lead to higher charges, a position endorsed by the cable industry.”

All is not well with the business of Holllywood, according to a new study. “The survey by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. depicts an industry under siege and whose outlook is murky. The entertainment industry employs nearly 250,000 people in the county, according to the report. But studios are beginning to cut jobs in anticipation of a slowdown in DVD revenues that have been so lucrative in recent years, according to the report. Studios also are grappling with softer box-office receipts, movie piracy and uncertainty over which new technology will best deliver entertainment to consumers.”

“This new feature will work in much the same way TiVo subscribers create ‘WishLists’ to find programs. But instead of Jimmy Stewart movies or TV shows about baseball, TiVo users would register a profile with the company based on their interests. Then, in a section of the TiVo menu system, they will find ads — short- and longform — based on their interests. Someone in the market for a new car would find ads for cars that someone who isn’t would never see, for instance. ‘What we’ve learned is, TiVo customers want to know about new products and services but on their own time’.”

“Sundance, the top U.S. independent film gathering held each January in Utah, placed 16 American dramas and 16 documentaries into a competition that spotlights directors, writers and actors working outside Hollywood. It also made 16 feature films and documentaries eligible for awards in special foreign film categories.”

Our TV experiences are going to change radically in the next few years. “We won’t care if that show gets sent to us over a coaxial cable, a copper phone wire, or a satellite feed. With the cost of wireless coming down and the technology now vastly more powerful, it won’t be long before we will be able to obtain high-quality video without a pipe at all, directly to our next-gen video iPod or Internet phone or wi-fi-enabled home-entertainment server.”

Leaders in the UK’s movie industry say proposed changes in the tax law will discourage American producers from filming in Britain. In proposals set out earlier this year, a film would need to be “culturally British” to be eligible for tax relief.

“Given the sheer number of on-demand options consumers will have at their fingertips in a couple of months — let alone a couple of years from now — maybe the Nielsen ratings for prime-time television just don’t matter anymore. Well, don’t weep for Nielsen Media Research just yet. Ratings do matter, and will continue to matter for some time, for the same reason that domestic box-office numbers matter to Hollywood movie executives.”

The way we see movies is changing. “There will come a day when an event-type attraction — a new ‘Harry Potter’ — will be downloadable for viewing opening day on your adorable little screen on your expensive new cell phone. Such sugar-plum distribution visions are giving much of Hollywood a panic attack.”

“As of Sunday, this year’s cumulative box-office take continued to lag behind last year’s by about 6%, or about $475 million. Of the 47 weekends so far in 2005, only 14 have done more business than the comparable weekends in 2004.” But it looks as if Thanksgiving weekend might hit the books as the second-biggest box office ever…