Category: media

What’s wrong with TV network news in Australia? “It’s clear there is something of a crisis in TV news and current affairs. Big money is being spent to secure personal stories, talents are being shuffled around like the proverbial deckchairs, presenters are being cosmetically overhauled and yet, still, the viewers are turning off.”

Ever since the FCC “decency” crackdown began, US television networks have been slamming disclaimers on any program containing even mildly profane content or innuendo. Even PBS’s award-winning documentary series, “Frontline,” has run with disclaimers about language and content. What’s the point? Well, obviously, the disclaimers give the networks a bit of plausible deniability if the FCC comes calling, but more importantly, studies have consistently shown that viewers want racy, controversial programming, and the disclaimer might even cause a few pairs of eyes to stay tuned.

Lost in all the hype and glitz surrounding Hollywood is a sub-genre of the film industry that never seems to get any respect, and worse, never seems to get an opportunity to be seen by any but the smallest slice of the general public. “Short films can be found in such high-quality, low-glamour places as human rights and children’s film festivals. They also have brief, sometimes one-night-only runs in alternative movie theaters, libraries, museums and foreign cultural centers… It’s as if short-story collections were sold only at book fairs and independent bookstores on special occasions.”

The Ontario government will give $25 million to help build a new theatre complex for the Toronto International Film Festival. “The centre will include four screening rooms and a large exhibition space, as well as office space for festival staff and housing the festival’s reference library. This will allow the festival to be more of a year-round operation — the goal of making Toronto an international film capital 365 days a year instead of just 10 days. Plans for the development were announced in 2003 with great fanfare, but the original 2006 completion date proved unrealistic. Donors were not lining up to pour money in the project and it has taken two years for the project to gather momentum.”

Plans for reorganizing the BBC and abolishing its board of governors promise to transform the public broadcaster. But will the changes improve broadcast product?

“This week, Africa is holding its version of the Cannes Film Festival… in the capital of Burkina Faso, one of the world’s poorest countries. Le Festival Panafricain du Cinéma de Ouagadougou (FESPACO) screens nearly 200 films, many of them made on budgets no more than the cost of the Versace dress that Halle Berry wore on Sunday. FESPACO is the biggest and most prestigious film festival in Africa, but it faces a problem moviemakers here would like to solve: a distinct lack of participation from African-Americans in Hollywood.”

You needn’t brave any huge crowds or gaggles of paparazzi staking out the 15th annual Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose this week in order to get your fill of the fest’s 200 featured films. “The Cinequest event is an independent film festival with a digital twist. Commercial-free, DVD-quality downloads of many of the festival’s feature films are available for online viewing… The festival expects 60,000 flesh-and-blood visitors this year, up from 54,000 last year. Organizers expect more than 75,000 movie downloads during the festival.”

The BBC would have its license renewed until 2016, under a government proposal. But the renewal comes with a stick: “the BBC was warned that in return for the licence fee settlement it had to redouble its efforts to produce landmark programming, cut down on repeats and US imports and tackle public concerns over the falling standards on TV. It should not play copycat. Or chase ratings for ratings sake.”

The British government is starting the process of dismantling the BBC’s board of governors. “Today’s green paper on the future of the Corporation said its governance needed to be modernised to suit the changing demands from the broadcasting industry and that the current system lacked clarity, transparency and accountability. ‘The governors’ dual role as cheerleader and regulator does not sit easily in a public organisation of the size and complexity of the BBC’.”

Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Representative Joe Barton (R-Texas) are teaming up to propose new broadcast content rules which would extend the FCC’s jurisdiction to include cable TV networks. The measure is likely to be popular in the increasingly conservative Congress, but may not pass legal muster in the federal court system. “The Supreme Court held in 2000 that cable operators aren’t subject to federal indecency rules because they are financed by subscribers who pay for access and because viewers can request that channels be blocked. Broadcasters have argued that cable should be subject to the same indecency rules as network TV.”