Category: media

It’s time to turn off the TV. “That’s the idea behind TV-Turnoff Week, which for the 11th year is inviting everyone to “Turn off TV, turn on life.” From Monday (April 25) through May 1, you can join as many as eight million other viewers in pulling the plug on TV, the Internet and video games.”

Ever since the Fox sitcom Arrested Development hit the air two years ago, critics have been begging viewers to tune in, lest the innovative program go the way of other “smart” comedies, which is to say, into the network dustbin. The show has never become a hit, though, and a third season is very much in doubt. But Fox, which has traditionally been quick to cancel low-rated programs, is taking an unusual approach to the future of Arrested, asking fans of the show to sign an online “loyalty oath” promising to watch and support the show if it is brought back.

Movie theatre owners are getting better at spotting film pirates who attend premieres armed with tiny video cameras, but in Canada, the law has yet to catch up with the times. In fact, in many cases, those caught trying to create illegal bootlegs of the latest Hollywood blockbuster are charged with nothing worse than trespassing. Now, the Canadian film industry is putting pressure on the government to toughen up the laws and provide some disincentive to the tapers.

“Hollywood has a long tradition of luring wealthy outsiders to its gleaming lair, from William Randolph Hearst, the newspaper millionaire, in the silent movie era to Paul Allen, the Microsoft billionaire, who is a principal investor in DreamWorks, the 10-year-old studio. What distinguishes the current crop of outsiders is the sheer number who have arrived in the last two years or so, many of them very young and prepared to make the movies themselves rather than relying on studio executives or other insiders.”

John Tusa, Barbican managing director and a former BBC executive, says the BCC has dumbed itself down to an unacceptable level. He claims that “enthusiasm has replaced knowledge, with broadcasters unable to trust their audience with challenging ideas for fear of damaging ratings.

In 20 years, Michael Eisner took disney from a faltering company to one of the richest in America. He didn’t do it with Disney cartoons. So “how did Eisner succeed in adding $65 billion in enterprise value to Disney at a time when his rivals were faltering? Having come from television, Eisner saw that Disney’s future would be in home entertainment—not in movie theaters.”

Tivo is talking with major search engine companies about partnering on finding digital entertainment. “One scenario that’s been discussed would see TiVo partner with Google or Yahoo on a new service that would let consumers search for videos on the Web and then watch them on their television sets.”

Motorola is planning to sell a new phone that will act as your personal entertainment center. “The company plans to launch a service, dubbed iRadio, that allows the new phones to download songs and radio programming from an Internet- connected computer each day, then beam them to car stereos or home entertainment centers. The iRadio initiative reflects the intense interest that phone manufacturers, music companies and mobile network operators have in new music services for cellphones. Their appetites whetted by the multibillion-dollar global market for ring tones, they are eager to sink their teeth into song downloads, online jukeboxes and music videos — even though it’s not clear what, if anything, customers will buy.”

“New public space art projects are using cellphones and other mobile devices to explore new ways of communicating while giving everyday people the chance to share some insights about real world locations. One art project, Yellow Arrow, based in New York City, has developed a system where people can place yellow stickers in the shape of arrows around the city, stating that they have something to say about that particular location. Each arrow, which is ideally placed in a location that holds significance to the person, has its own unique code that can be sent to a mobile phone via text messaging, allowing others to read the message that was left.”

The retiring manager of New York public radio station WBAI says radio is about to undergo big changes: “Internet radio is the future. I don’t mean traditional radio will disappear. But Internet radio can solve the biggest problem of a WBAI: that there isn’t enough airtime in a week to carry everything you want to carry. With the Internet, capacity is limitless. Once Internet radio becomes as accessible and easy to use as ‘regular radio,’ everything changes.”