Category: media

“In the search for online customers, entertainment companies are aggressively pursuing college students, who cannot remember life before the internet. This generation works off laptops more than it watches television, plugs into high-speed university networks, uses the web for homework and headlines — and on average carries around more than 1,000 songs on a hard drive. Already, dozens of schools are rolling out downloading services from Ruckus Network, RealNetworks, Napster and Sea Blue Media. So important is this university market that Sony BMG Music Entertainment, the world’s largest label, has paid the entire bill at some schools during trial semesters.”

Everyone knows that Hollywood is nothing but a bunch of self-aggrandizing liberals peddling their socialist claptrap to a gullible nation of consumers, right? Wrong. “Since the re-election of George W. Bush last fall, cultural conservatives have been flexing their muscles not only in the political arena but also on the entertainment front.” Will the next CSI spinoff be set in Crawford, Texas? Will MTV’s next Spring Break special stress abstinence and bedrock family values? Will Don Rumsfeld be the next James Bond? Anything’s possible…

When the cable networks Bravo and A&E (Arts & Entertainment) launched, many saw it as the final death knell for PBS – after all, if not one, but two profit-driven cable networks could air highbrow arts programming and script-driven Victorian dramas and make money doing it, what reason was there for the existence of a subsidized network airing the same stuff? These days, however, Bravo and A&E have remade themselves in the reality-TV model, and neither seems even remotely interested in airing any arts-related programming at all. A&E, in particular, now disdains the idea of highbrow TV, and points out that its viewer demographics are much improved since changing formats.

As DVD sales have become an increasingly indispensable part of Hollywood’s ever-evolving revenue stream, a new generation of specialized DVD producers and consultants has sprung up to plan, create, and manage all those hours of “extras” that make a DVD marketable. “Where feature films are mostly put together by producers pitching scripts to studios, which then attach a director and stars, the DVD business only has one star: the original film’s director. A director’s involvement – which means access to the set, extra footage and even ideas for special features – can mean the difference between a passable DVD and a great one.” As a result, directors are beginning to attach themselves at the hip to the top DVD creators available.

As consumers grow more and more weary of a marketing-driven culture and become more inclined to tune out commercial messages, advertisers are getting seriously creative in their efforts to move product. In fact, the new breed of (usually) satirical ads look more like short films than product pitches, and some lucky companies have succeeded in making their brand not only a household name, but a cultural milepost. “Humor is the best way to cut through the multichannel clutter in the age of cable and satellite TV,” and the most successful of the new ads are “simply co-opting images television viewers are bombarded with daily.”

“Ashton Kutcher as Humphrey Bogart’s Rick Blaine, the cynical yet courageous Yank? Paris Hilton as Ingrid Bergman’s Ilsa Lund, a woman torn between her heart and her duty? Owen Wilson as Paul Henreid’s Victor Laszlo, a man more admired than adored? Topher Grace as Claude Rains’ Capt. Renault, twirling his moustache in mock surprise?” Wow – an all-star cast. And it’s great! Outstanding! Shouldn’t miss it! (catch it quick, though – it’s only playing 4/1)

So the Day of Reckoning has come for file-sharing services. “The Supreme Court is expected to take about three months to rule on MGM v Grokster. But even if the entertainment business wins the case, while managing to coax more users into downloading legally, its problems are unlikely to go away. The rush into legal downloading is bound to cannibalise sales of CDs and DVDs, hitting profits. And perhaps the decline in global sales is indicative of a far greater problem for the music industry—that consumers simply think many of its products are not worth paying for.”

Oscar organizers have sued several companies and 50 unknown parties for selling tickets for Hollywood’s biggest award show, fetching up to $30,000 a pair from fans longing to rub shoulders with Leonardo DiCaprio or Hilary Swank.

Older Canadians are watching more TV, but their younger compatriots watch less. “In 2003, men aged 18 to 24 spent an average of 11.1 hours a week watching TV, down from 14.3 hours in 1998. Young women in the same age bracket watched 15.5 hours a week on average in the most recent period, down from 17.6 hours.” As for what Canadians watch: current affairs and news-watching are up while sport is down…

Sony says it wants to create an “iTunes for movies.” “Films will be put onto flash memory for mobiles over the next year. Movie studios are keen to stop illegal file-sharing on peer-to-peer nets and cash in on digital the download market. Movie piracy cost the industry £3.7bn ($7bn) in 2003, according to analysts.”