Category: media

America’s TV networks have rediscovered the serial drama with stories played out over weeks. “The change is as surprising as it is welcome. After all, viewers have been conditioned for years to expect less and less from TVWith these half-dozen additions to the fall’s prime-time lineup, the networks are acknowledging that, just maybe, audiences are hungering for more drawn-out, more intriguing and, ultimately, more humane storylines.”

Why do self-proclaimed TV “watchdog” groups get to dictate about morality and what parents want? Now “three major media companies — NBC Universal, Viacom and News Corp. — have launched TV Watch to advocate parental controls and oppose government intervention. This newly minted group, which has brought together an unusual mix of corporations, creative types and conservative, free market proponents, is emerging as the council’s adversary in an escalating battle over what’s appropriate for the airwaves. ‘The discussion had turned into a very one-sided debate. Our group was formed to balance out the debate and provide some reason’.”

Three years ago the subscription channel ArtsWorld was launched with viewers paying £6 a month to access it. It has a small but dedicated audience, but now the channel evolves to a new level, becoming free and available in 7.8 million homes. How will this affect programming?

A former BBC director fears the broadcaster might some day become a subscriber-based service. “The second we move to a subscriber [TV] model you exclude the people who can’t afford it. All the homes that didn’t subscribe would be deprived of programmes that are important. Children’s programmes would be massively affected. You cut people off – especially the poor people of society. It is possible we will lose public funding and that the BBC will move in a subscriber direction, but that is a sad day I will not cheer.”

BBC Director Mark Thompson says the public broadcaster will soon make it possible for users to download TV and radio programs. “The device, with a working title of MyBBCPlayer, would let web users download original radio and TV programming from its website for as long as seven days after it was broadcast. He disclosed that the BBC intended to introduce the measure because it had to extend the means by which the public could reach its programmes if it was to retain the licence fee.

“Local stations can’t afford to create the ‘wow’ factor. The cost of creating local programming that meets the expectations of mass viewers is prohibitive. The existence of so many public-TV outlets offers great potential for public affairs programming and community involvement, and a counterbalance to the news on commercial stations that often focuses on crime and fluff. But too often precious airtime and local resources are burned up in broadcasting carbon-copy national programs, critics say.”

Movie remakes of old TV shows haven’t worked well this summer. “A lot of these shows are badly dated, and though they may have worked in the 1960s or ’70s, when they’re updated they just seem irrelevant. The thing that seems charming today isn’t the plot or the jokes, but the time-capsule quality. Plus, people are used to seeing these shows on the small screen. You have to have something really special to justify transplanting them to the movies.”

“As Americans flee network television in droves, Korean dramas are grabbing audience share. In the Bay Area, “Dae Jang Geum,” or “Jewel in the Palace,” aired this spring, dubbed in Mandarin on the Chinese-language KTSF. For the finale, more than 100,000 fans tuned in, handing the show higher ratings than ABC’s “Extreme Makeover,” the WB’s “Starlet” or PBS’ “Live From Lincoln Center” in that time slot. The ‘Korean wave’ of pop culture — known in South Korea as hallyu — is a point of national pride, helping introduce the country to the world and breaking down historical grudges with its neighbors. The soaps have also boosted the popularity of South Korean movies and singing acts.”

Make no mistake – teh videotape format is dead. “In fairness, the remains of VHS haven’t been interred yet. After all, 94.7 million American households still own VCRs. And more than $3 billion was spent on video rentals and purchases in the United States last year, according to Home Media Research. But if VHS isn’t quite dead, it’s at least on life support, comatose, all industry signs indicating it will not be resuscitated.”

Can MTV be an arbiter of mass-market music tastes in a world where entertainment flows from everywhere? The network is branching out from pure TV to other platforms. In addition to the traditional celebrity-studded ceremony of Sunday’s MTV Awards, “viewers will also be offered backstage shots and bonus content simultaneously on the MTV Overdrive broadband channel: while watching an acceptance speech from, say, Coldplay on live television, a viewer can also be logged onto Overdrive and see Kanye West in his dressing room or the Killers performing outside American Airlines Arena. It’s all about circulating people back and forth between the different screens,”