Category: media

Clear Channel pulls Howard Stern off its stations “as public scrutiny over salacious speech and suggestive behavior on TV and radio is on the rise after Janet Jackson bared her breast during the Super Bowl halftime show. The move also came the day before Clear Channel chief executive officer John Hogan is to appear before a House subcommittee hearing on broadcast decency.”

Why don’t African-Americans have more power in Hollywood? “In the history of the movie studios no African-American has ever had the power to green-light a film. Part of the problem is that the movie business is similar to the Italy of the Medicis; without a patron to offer favor, there’s no place to go but down.”

“A USA TODAY study of movies released in 2003 found that the grades handed out by critics had a significant relationship to the money the movies grossed. In general, the better the reviews, the higher the box office. Even a half-star meant millions of dollars more for a movie’s total take.”

It wasn’t too long ago that many of Canada’s independent filmmakers were calling for the death of the National Film Board. But in 2001, the NFB got a new leader, and “most independent producers like the changes instituted in the past two years, and some even now dare to cautiously believe that the NFB — not long ago considered a colossal waste of taxpayer money — might have a shot of becoming what it once was: an effectual promoter, supporter and producer of top-quality Canadian stories.”

A group advising the UK Conservative Party recommends that the government do away with the BBC’s license fee and the corporation’s board of directors. “The BBC is overwhelmingly funded by the £2.3bn a year it receives from TV households paying the licence fee, which the group says is at the root of the BBC’s problems.”

Hollywood filmmakers are beginning to make available prints of their films that are captioned for deaf people. “While the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 has dramatically increased captioning on television, it does not require movie captions. The reason is obvious: Unlike TV captions, they can’t be turned off. The studios and theaters convinced Congress that captioning would reduce the overall audience for movies. Since then, there has been progress in developing a technology that provides captions to people at their seats.”

Two more Canadian TV dramas were cancelled last week, and Canadian drama production is getting to be AWOL on the TV schedule. “The crisis has spiked into a full-blown emergency. It’s absolutely shameful that Canadian broadcasters can’t support two long-running series that broadcasters admit Canadians were watching. Once again, Canadian audiences and creators have fallen victim to broadcasters’ hunger for profits. I guess doubling their profits last year just wasn’t good enough.”

You won’t see anything like that Superbowl nastiness on this weekend’s Oscars telecast. ” ‘We want the show to reflect not a stuffiness, but a dignity appropriate for film’s highest honour. We want it to be a family affair that can be appreciated by the widest possible audience.’ ABC is charging a record $1.5-million (U.S.) for a 30-second Oscar ad, and has been sold out since September. CBS took in $2.3-million for a half-minute of ad time on the Super Bowl.”

Yes, yes, we’ve heard it all before – that the sitcom is an endangered species. But with ratings down, no new hits, and a few high-profile franchises ready to wind up, some are beginning to worry about the sitcom as a genre. “Hit sitcoms are so lucrative to studios, which sell reruns to local stations, that they help compensate for the expensive process of developing new shows. Moreover, television has suffered a paucity of smash comedies for several years as viewers drift away for unscripted fare such as “American Idol,” “Survivor” and “The Apprentice.”

“America’s dominance of the movie industry across much of the world is not just a matter of money and big business. Popular culture celebrates American values and it presents a particular American view of the past…”