Category: media

Satellite radio appears to be catching on. Both American satellite radio companies are seeing big growth in their number of subscribers, with Sirius expecting to top 1 million by the end of the year. XM projects 3 million subscribers by January.

A new study counts the settings for American TV shows and – no surprise – finds most fictional settings are in New York or Los Angeles. “Those two cities account for just under half of the fictional settings for prime-time television shows going back to 1948, according to a new study by a media agency. California and New York state are settings nearly 60 percent of the time — even though those states make up less than 19 percent of the nation’s population.”

British television is in trouble. “Everything about British broadcasting at the moment points to too much television relying on the unsustainable business model of the 30-second ad slot. The current industry woes are mere detail against the broader ongoing issues of imminent analogue switch-off, BBC Charter renewal and the droning cultural lament about the general depravity and worthlessness of current screen fodder. We know from experience that crises are a cyclical part of the business, but the changes in technology, audience behaviour and the expectation society has of its linear media mean that we are now at a turning point for our great broadcasting institutions, some of which, at least, will not survive the next decade.”

Britain’s largest electronics store will no longer sell VCR’s. “The final nail in the coffin for VCRs is the low price of DVD players, which can now be bought for as little as £25. The cost of DVD recorders are also falling to a level within reach of many consumers.”

Greek lawyers are threatening to sue Oliver Stone over his depiction of Alexander the Great as bisexual. “The lawyers have already requested that a credit is added to the start of the film to make it clear it is pure fiction. Warner Bros and Stone have not made any direct comment about the request.”

“Federal regulators rejected on Friday the idea that allowing cable TV subscribers to pay only for channels they want would lower high cable bills. Consumer groups said the analysis was flawed.”

Witnesses before a US Senate committee testified that internet pornography is the “most concerning thing to psychological health that I know of existing today. The internet is a perfect drug delivery system because you are anonymous, aroused and have role models for these behaviors. To have drug pumped into your house 24/7, free, and children know how to use it better than grown-ups know how to use it — it’s a perfect delivery system if we want to have a whole generation of young addicts who will never have the drug out of their mind.”

Why is Michael Powell still leading the Federal Communications Commission? He’s a disaster. “Pompous and imperious, an ideologue who believes unfailingly in his own philosophy of how TV and radio should work (the FCC also has domain over telephone and emerging broadband technologies), Powell ignores or condemns anyone who opposes him. Though FCC chairmen have labored mostly in obscurity, Powell has managed to make himself famous; he’s the Torquemada of the insane campaign now being waged against “obscenity” on the airwaves.”

WNET-TV in New York has declined to air a promo for a film on sex researcher Alex Kinsey. Conservative groups have attacked the film, which they say glorifies the researcher. Fox Searchlight marketing chief Nancy Utley said: “New York is the most sophisticated city in the country. It would never occur to me that a censorship issue would come up in New York.”

“With support from both Republicans and Democrats, the Federal Communications Commission is poised to get even more aggressive about enforcing moral values throughout broadcasting, even putting cable television in its cross hairs and taking aim at Howard Stern’s right to talk dirty on satellite radio.” Still, there’s a fairly decent chance that many aspects of the FCC’s decency crusade will eventually face court challenges, and judges, even conservative ones, have historically been loath to allow limits on the First Amendment.