Category: media

US regulators Thursday “rejected a request by broadcasters to require cable and satellite operators to carry multiple digital channel offerings from local television stations. Cable operators have voluntarily agreed to carry multiple digital channels in some cities, but broadcasters say making it a requirement would benefit the public by giving them more programming choices. They contend that cable companies are afraid of the competition that more free, local “over-the-air” channels would give popular cable-only movie and sports networks.”

“Indecency” fines for US broadcasters could go up 15-fold under a bill wending its way through Congress. “A select committee in the House of Representatives has voted in favour of a bill to increase individual fines to a maximum of $500,000. Stations could also face losing their licence if they violate indecency laws more than three times. Under the bill, individual performers could also face a fine.”

The line of succession at the Walt Disney Company has been blurry ever since chairman and CEO Michael Eisner agreed to step down last year, and a new book detailing many behind-the-scenes power struggles within the company seems likely to make choosing a new top mouse even harder.

Bad television is still bad television, but television as a medium may not be as bad for our minds as we’ve always suspected. Decades of research make it clear that moderate amounts of television viewing can actually open cognitive doors for children, provided that the program being watched has an educational bent. “A child who watches Sesame Street in preschool will not only be better at recognizing letters and numbers in Grade 1, but will also be more willing to learn. And the change is not short-lived.”

The London Critics Circle Film Awards were handed out this week, with Martin Scorsese taking home best director honors for his biopic of Howard Hughes, The Aviator, and the surprise highbrow comedy hit Sideways winning best film.

Across the US Tuesday, activists screened the documentary “Eyes on the Prize, in defiance of the copyright law. The program, “which debuted on PBS in 1987, can no longer be broadcast on television and has never been released on DVD due to a tangle of licensing issues. When the film was first made, each piece of newsreel footage, photograph and song used in the 14-part series had to be licensed from its copyright holder. Due to limited funding, the filmmakers could only afford to buy rights to the material for a certain number of years, and now those rights have expired.”

Women earn substantially less than men in the UK film industry, according to a new study. “Only 16% of women earn more than £50,000, compared with 30% of men. Women make up a third of the workforce.”

“Over the past 76 years, the Academy Awards have repeatedly, almost methodically, overlooked great artists and enduring achievements in favor of passing fancies, fleeting trends and one-shot wonders. What can you say about the foresight of a group that excluded the original talkie, “The Jazz Singer,” from the first awards ceremony in 1928? They found it too gimmicky. The new crop of nominations gives us a chance to remember wonderful films and filmmakers that Oscar forgot, and to try to recollect others supposedly destined to withstand the test of time.”

Not only is Denver public TV station KBDI airing the episode of Postcards from Buster that drew complaints from education secretary Margaret Spellings and caused PBS to cancel national broadcast, but the station is airing it in prime time. The broadcast will be followed by a public discussion of the show. “We’re not only pleased to offer the episode but want to use it as a basis for extended discussion on one of our signature, local prime-time public-affairs programs.”

A group opposing same-sex marriage in Canada is calling for a boycott of Famous Players (the country’s biggest theatre chain) because of an ad being shown in the chain’s theatres. The ad “calls on theatre patrons to contact their Member of Parliament to say they support the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. ‘We are deeply saddened by Famous Players Theatres’ decision to subject unsuspecting moviegoers to ads promoting same-sex marriage,’ says the group.