Category: media

The BBC is getting protests about its decision to move the daily “Thought for the Day” program to 6:50 in the morning. Protesters say the move will “marginalise” the program.

Michael Winterbottom’s new film features real actors having real sex on screen. And that’s evidently a problem. “The sex is real and quite explicit, and the minor furor surrounding the film — censorious editorials in the UK and Australia, the British-based Christian Coalition for Traditional Values condemning the film as ‘a rank piece of soulless pornography’ — comes from the unaccustomed conjunction of fake characters, real congress, and a ”real’ movie.”

LA’s movie business might be down, but TV production is booming. Some “132,000 workers riding the biggest boom ever in Los Angeles television production, one that is rapidly turning Tinseltown into a TV town. While Hollywood’s nomadic film business has gravitated toward cheaper U.S. and foreign locales, television production has become the bedrock of the Los Angeles entertainment economy. Producers are responding to a demand for original programs from broadcast networks and a mushrooming number of cable channels. Reruns are being shunned in favor of fresh shows that continue to earn money for years when shown again or sold on DVD.”

Donald Trump is taking “The Apprentice” to Chinese television. “Trump will be the executive producer of the Chinese show, which will be hosted by Beijing property mogul Pan Shiyi.”

Movie studios are reassessing their TV advertising. “Network TV has been part of Hollywood’s sales formula for many years, as studios desperate to launch expensive blockbusters blitzed the national airwaves in an effort to reach the broadest possible audience. But many studio executives now are calling that formula into question, having watched this summer as it failed to pay off amid a string of box-office laggards. The diminishing effectiveness of such ads is to some symptomatic of a broader problem in Hollywood.”

The CBC has locked out 5,500 unionized workers after prolonged negotiations failed to produce a contract. “Viewers of CBC Newsworld awoke yesterday morning to a prolonged period of dead air on their screens, and a lengthy set of Canadian music on the CBC’s Radio 1, in place of the top-rated Metro Morning program. Taped material was continually spun throughout the day on the radio service, punctuated by brief hourly news reports by unfamiliar announcers. Each report was followed by a taped apology for the absent programs, which it blamed on a “labour dispute.”

The Australian government is considering a move to allow it to pull programs off television it they are judged offensive. “If anyone stopped for five seconds to think about giving the minister the power to willy-nilly take programs off TV, off radio, off pay TV… (it’s) probably not a good idea.”

California is losing so many movie and TV jobs that the state is considering giving tax breaks to producers, mimicing a strategy that has lured business elsewhere. “The bill would provide a 12 percent tax credit on a project’s spending in California, up to a cap of $3 million per production, according to a draft obtained by The New York Times. Television movies, which are perhaps the most endangered species of Hollywood production, may be given an extra 3 percent credit.”

TV ratings for this summer have been abysmal. “Despite unleashing a torrent of first-run reality series, CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, UPN and The WB drew a paltry 30 percent of all TV viewers during the week of Aug. 8-14.” Last week’s much-hyped finale of “I Want to be a Hilton” lured 3.7 million viewers opposite a Tuesday chapter of the Univision telenovela La Madrastra (The Stepmother), which had 5.3 million viewers.

Movie execs continue to struggle with how to goose up the movie box office. “The managing director of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Michele Garra, said Hollywood’s focus on “event” movies was limiting the diversity of releases. There was also a trend to “derivative material” that included sequels, remakes, movies made from old television series and comic book adaptations that turned some film-goers off even if they attracted others.”