Category: media

National Public Radio is flying high these days as ratings soar and NPR expands. “But NPR’s ambition has stirred anxiety within the public radio system over how to preserve the character and financial viability of local stations in the ever larger shadow of the national production service they created more than 30 years ago as a modest support operation.”

“An international treaty to give broadcasters the right to control who may record, transmit, or distribute their signals is reaching a crucial stage of negotiation by the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva.”

American cable-TV giant Comcast is offering a new digital video recorder. “About 5 percent of US households now own digital video recording systems, a figure that is expected to rise to 22 percent by 2008. Even though the numbers are small, industry executives expect growing DVR usage to roil the $58 billion US television advertising market, as increasing numbers of consumers, particularly the most affluent who are most likely to rent the devices, get the power to program their own television viewing, and ignore the traditional 30-second television spot.”

Movie publicists have lately been warning critics not to reveal plot details of movies they review. “It got me wondering: were we being asked to keep quiet about not only the twists and surprises, but also about the fact there are twists and surprises in the movie? Isn’t that a bit like telling a Peanuts reader that Lucy is going to pull the football away from Charlie Brown, again? (If you didn’t know she does that, sorry.)”

“As the tentacles of media conglomerates reach further into many of the programs Americans watch, concern is rising that the content of shows, particularly news programming, is putting the business interests of parent companies before the public interest in getting unbiased information. The impact of “vertical integration” (which breeds cross-promotion) and other issues related to concentrated media ownership are likely to take on greater prominence this fall as an issue on the campaign trail.”

A computer programmer has written a program that allows his computer to monitor satellite radio and search and record music in which he’s interested. Music companies (and the satellite radio people are understanably freaking out. The program makes satellite radio a kind of super-jukebox download system.

A media analyst predicts that cable TV’s inroads on capturing audience from broadcast networks will peak by 2009, collectively attracting about 57% of prime-time viewers. That’s up from 53% in 2004 and 43% in 2000. But that will be it, he says, unless cable networks choose to cut profit margins by ramping up spending for programming.”

Is academia getting out of the public broadcasting business? “In the past two years, educational licensees in Los Angeles, Detroit, Seattle/Tacoma, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Portland, Ore., and a number of smaller markets have sold or transferred control of pubcasting stations.” Why? Money. “Educators are selling stations because of their budget woes—to get station subsidies off their backs and/or gain an influx of capital.”

The lineup for this year’s Toronto Film Festival is set. “As reported in the trade magazine Variety last week, two-time Oscar-winner Kevin Spacey’s much anticipated Bobby Darin biopic, Beyond the Sea, will make its world bow Sept. 11 at the Toronto festival, which this year is hosting a grand total of 100 world premieres.”

The PG-13 movie rating is 20 years old. Back in 1984, “with no middle-ground between PG and R, the ratings board of the 1980s frequently wrestled with the right way to classify movies that should and should not be viewed by children. The flaw in the Motion Picture Association of America’s rating system was that it lumped all children — from infants to 17-year-olds — into the same group.” Then along came Steven Spielberg, who “invented the category. And “instead of being solely an extra warning to parents, as it was originally conceived, it has evolved into the preferred rating of studios and filmmakers. PG-13 puts “hot sauce” on a movie in the viewer’s mind.”