Category: media

The UK has closed a tax loophole that helped finance movies, and producers say at least 40 movies in production will be affected, including some that now won’t be made. “The loophole allowed ‘tax partnerships’ to be set up in which investors would put money into a project but pull out before the film made money.”

Canadian digital TV was switched on in 2001 with 45 new subscriber channels. It’s hardly been a success. “How do you market in a mass way when more than half of the country still doesn’t have digital service? How do you persuade people to add the channel once they’ve already chosen their core package? But for a channel that will always earn 90 per cent of its revenue from subscribers – as opposed to advertisers – it’s a problem that has to be solved.”

A US Federal judge has ruled that a company must stop selling a software program that allows users to make copies of DVDs. But the company vows to appeal: “There is no difference between making a copy of a music CD for personal use and making a backup of a DVD movie for personal use. We are so firm in our belief in the principle of fair use that we will appeal this ruling immediately. And we will take our fight all the way to the Supreme Court, if that’s what it takes to win.”

“TV-themed DVD sales topped $1 billion in 2003, a gold mine for formerly overlooked assets that had been collecting dust in studio vaults. Nurturing the trend, the studios in 2003 doubled the number of TV titles released in 2002. The TV on DVD business is expected to grow substantially again this year. That’s found money beyond the syndication market, a revenue stream that simply wasn’t there before.”

America has a long tradition of being outraged at depictions of religion on the silver screen. “Since the beginning of movies, filmmakers worldwide have courted controversy with their attempts to ‘literalize the sacred.’ It’s true whether the subject is Jesus in The King of Kings, the Muslim prophet Muhammad in Mohammed, Messenger of God, or the Hindu deity Rama in the Ramayana.” And so the latest “The Passion of The Christ” is nothing new.

There’s a new radio format on the Canadian airwaves, and record labels aren’t exactly thrilled. The stations are called JACK or BOB. “JACK’s “brave” programming strategy is to ignore radio’s typically strict formatting and to play a variety of stuff on one format that you’d normally hear on, say, three: A bit of classic rock, some adult contemporary and a whole lotta ’80s hits geared primarily towards listeners in their upper 30s and early 40s.”

Why don’t you see ads for movies on the annual Academy Awards telecast? It’s all about appearances, of course… But “cutting out an entire, very lucrative ad category appears not to have hurt ABC any; the network was able to charge about $1.5 million per 30-second spot this year and the ad time is all sold out.”

Once it was rare to see documentary films in theatres. But documentaries are getting new respect at the box office. “Credit everything from wide availability of cheap technology for filmmakers and an explosion of cable channels and satellite TV desperate for product, to audiences whose appetite for the real has been whetted, but ultimately not satisfied, by reality TV. The documentary phenomenon is international.”

Roy Disney has declared war on Disney chairman Michael Eisner. And Now the Disney Company is in danger of being swallowed up by Comcast. To understand Walt’s nephew Roy and his beef with Eisner, it helps to understand a little family history…

Viacom president Mel Karmazin has laid down the law to the top execs of 180 Infinity radio stations around America that Viacom owns. Karmazin is said to have told the execs on a conference call that there is a new “zero-tolerance” policy on obscenity over the air: “If you don’t comply, you’ll be fired for cause. This company won’t be a poster child for indecency.”