Category: media

“Last week, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission decreed that Canadian cable and satellite operators could carry Al-Jazeera, along with eight other ‘non-Canadian third-language services’ as digital channels. However, concerns that Al-Jazeera would incite anti-Semitism, and air offensive and objectionable material, prompted the CRTC to insist that distributors of the news service monitor it for ‘abusive comment’ 24 hours a day.” What kind of message does censoring the channel send when we proclaim our free press?

The legendary Marvel Comics, “which owns the rights to the Spider-Man character, has seen its fortunes soar from the “Spider-Man” movies. Over the last four years, thanks in large part to a steady stream of Spidey-related revenue, Marvel has gone from losing tens of millions of dollars a year to turning a profit of $152 million on revenue of $348 million in 2003.”

The new owners of Landmark Theatres art movie houses “plan to bring big-media ideas of vertical integration to the art house world. The new owners are importing digital technology to Landmark’s 204 screens by equipping each of the 57 theaters in 21 markets with high-definition digital projection by year’s end.”

In the past few months, two of the most successful films in history have also been two of the most controversial. In fact, major controversy is just about the only thing that Mel Gibson’s bloody biopic of Jesus and Michael Moore’s brutal indictment of the Bush administration have in common. But Gibson and Moore have both tapped into a marketing concept that took Hollywood completely by surprise, yet seems like a no-brainer in retrospect: controversy sells, and you can’t let too many facts get in the way of a good story or the profits a good story will bring.

TV critics are used to seeing industry execs engage in some pretty petty sniping, but Tim Goodman cannot believe that he has spent the better part of a week listening to Hollywood types argue over who stole whose idea for a lousy reality show that wasn’t even remotely original anyway. “In a town all too familiar with the notion that there are only seven original stories and the rest is just, well, copy machines, ambition, connections and timing, why anyone is getting all uppity about theft is beyond comprehension.”

Minneapolis’s Walker Art Center is closed for the year as its building undergoes a major expansion, but rather than fade completely from public view, the museum is mounting a series of interactive exhibitions called “Walker Without Walls.” The latest project has Walker staffers “spending the summer helping as many as 500 locals build and operate their own miniature radio transmitters. It’s called microradio, and organizers hope the combined voices of the new microbroadcasters inspire a ‘Radio ReVolt’ (the project’s title).” The transmitters are all set to the same frequency (97.7FM, an open spot on the Twin Cities dial) and can broadcast for up to 200 feet.

Film credits are usually just a part of the film to be gotten through these days. In fact, most modern movies leave almost all their credits for the long, slow scroll at the film’s conclusion, lest the audience be bored by the lack of creativity. But to Saul Bass, those credits were a true art. “The daubed graffiti credits that open West Side Story, the crumbling statues in Spartacus, the scratchy modernist posters and sleek corporate logos of his later work all carry his measured approach to expressing a story in, as he put it, ‘some metaphorical way’. That approach is the subject of an extensive exhibition which opens [this weekend] at London’s Design Museum.”

ABC’s new drama, “The Days,” has the potential to revolutionize the television industry, but not because of anything that happens to the characters. Instead, ABC is using the miniseries to test out the next generation of product-placement techniques, and is taking a page from the golden age of the medium, when companies sponsored entire programs rather than simpy buying 30-second spots. To advertisers, it’s a way to get value for their ad-buying dollar at a time when most viewers click away from ad blocks. To the network, they hope it’s a way to keep the money rolling in without angering viewers with blatant commercialism.

“Movie studios, computer chipmakers and consumer electronics companies said Wednesday they are working together to build a new copy-protection standard that would allow home viewers to watch and share high-definition video among various entertainment and portable devices, but prevent pirates from making perfect copies.”

Downloads of video have surpassed music. “Films and other files larger than 100MB are becoming the most requested downloads on networks around the world.” Experts estimate that “at least 10 million people are logged on to a peer-to-peer (P2P) network at any time.”