Category: media

Hundreds of British movie theaters have been awarded government grants to install digital projection equipment, in exchange for which they have agreed to cut down on the number of big-budget Hollywood films they show, and to feature more homegrown flicks and arthouse fare. “The digital projectors will do away with the need for film reels – making it cheaper for distributors to get independent films seen.”

The Nielsen ratings company wants to roll out its new automated “people meters” in the Washington, D.C. market as soon as possible, replacing the decidedly outmoded info-gathering method of having select viewers keep a written diary of their viewing habits. But five of D.C.’s major TV stations have filed objections to the switch, saying that the meters undercount minority viewers and young viewers.

New York City has apparently had enough of losing film productions to Toronto, and has begun offering a generous package of incentives to filmmakers. “Producers are offered a 15 per cent tax credit for productions that shoot at least 75 per cent of their project in New York’s five boroughs. To sweeten the deal, the city is offering free advertising for the films on city-owned billboards and bus shelters.” But you won’t hear Toronto complaining – “a bold increase in Ontario’s tax credits for the industry, which offer both Canadian and foreign productions a tax break for shooting here, has helped reinvigorate the city’s flagging industry.”

The latest trend in animated films has been to cast well-known actors in the lead roles, and market (at least in part) on that star power. But to the little-known pros who have spent a lifetime perfecting their skills as voice actors, this is a revolting predicament, and many worry that their considerable talents will soon become expendable, as Hollywood insists on bigger and bigger names to headline animated flicks.

With the rise of satellite radio, portable MP3 players, and podcasting, many cultural observers have already declared traditional radio to be dead, or at least on its way towards becoming the type of broadcast wasteland that the AM band became following the rise of FM in the 1970s (but before AM’s resurgence in the 1990s on the back of sports and talk formats.) But the facts simply don’t back up such a simplistic view of the coexistence of old and new media: the latest market study of those stuffy old radio stations shows plenty of profit yet to be had. And as long as there is profit potential, there is simply no chance of radio giving up the ghost.

This season was the closest ratings race ever for American TV networks. “For the first time in its two-decade history, Fox, once the upstart outsider, will win the network competition in the category of viewers between the ages of 18 and 49, which every network but CBS defines as the yardstick of prime-time supremacy, because so many advertisers pay a premium to reach that group.”

US federal agents shut down a Web site that they said allowed people to download the new Stars War movie even before it was shown in theaters. “The Elite Torrents site was engaging in high-tech piracy by letting people download copies of movies and other copyright material for free, authorities said.”

The outgoing president of PBS used an appearance at the National Press Club this week to fire back at conservative critics of the public broadcaster. Pat Mitchell’s insistence that PBS “does not belong to any one political party” comes in the wake of revelations that the Republican chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which is supposed to shield PBS from political meddling, had hired a consultant to monitor supposed left-wing bias on a few select PBS programs.

The metal band Mötley Crüe has filed a lawsuit against NBC claiming the network “violated the group’s free-speech rights and weakened its sales by banning it after Vince Neil, the lead singer, used an expletive on the air in a Dec. 31 appearance on The Tonight Show.”

Traditionally, Canadian partners in movie production have come from the US, France and Britain. But recently, a more active partner has moved onto the scene: South Africa, “described by the folks who shoot there as a cinematographer’s dream because of its varied topography, fabulous light and eternal summer.”