Category: media

MTV’s Music Awards – televised from the UK – were a big success last week. But some of the shine was taken off the occasion after an MTV computer containing important data for the production was stolen. “Dozens of local firms who acted as suppliers for MTV face delays in being paid because e-mail records of what they are due have gone.”

CBS chairman Les Moonves denies that his network caved in to political pressure when it canceled a Reagan bio-pic. “It was a moral decision, not an economic or political one. The series did not present a balanced view of former President Reagan and his wife Nancy, Mr Moonves stated.”

So, now that NPR has $200 million of the late Joan Kroc’s money, it can stop holding those awful on-air beg-a-thons, right? Wrong. While fans of the public radio network may be dreaming ecstatically of what that kind of money could do for listeners, NPR execs are hoping that, if anything, the Kroc gift will inspire more large donations. There is also some fear of a backlash: NPR is not popular with the Republicans currently in charge of Congress, and many would like to see the network’s public funding eliminated.

Sony is preparing to begin selling a new type of copy-protected CD in Germany, with hopes to expand worldwide if consumers embrace the new technology. The CDs do not allow users to share their contents on illegal file-swapping sites, but contain a compressed digital copy of the music which individual consumers can “rip” to their computers and later download to Sony-based portable music players. In what has become a familiar dance, the company is calling its new CDs a breakthrough for consumers, and consumer groups opposed to copy protection of any sort are claiming that the discs can cause computers to malfunction, and are unfairly limiting in any case.

The Boston Globe editorial page offers some suggestions to NPR on what to spend some of its $200 million windfall: “Bring back music and culture programming. NPR’s news reports are thoughtful and compelling. Its talk shows are topical and a nice way to bring listeners into conversations. And “Car Talk” is great entertainment. But occasionally all this talk is wearying. Balance could be provided by music shows and radio documentaries.”

With the Motion Picture Academy declining to send DVD copies of movies to voters of awards, studios are getting creative about getting voters in front of their pitcures.

Arab music videos are sexy and alluring. But they’re also controversial in the Arab world. “This is a direct challenge to the forces of traditional Arab culture, which in many places remains an environment of constricted, traditional, and narrowly defined identities, often subsumed in group identities that hinge on differences with, and antagonism toward, other groups. Many Arab observers of these videos recognize the nature of that challenge, which is why one critic calls these videos ‘weapons of singing destruction’.”

Why are the entertainment companies so resistant to change? “The entertainment business prides itself on absorbing and exploiting virtually every youth culture trend. But when it comes to revamping its business model, Hollywood can be as resistant to change as Detroit automakers or the steel industry. When TV sets appeared in living rooms in the late 1940s, movie studios panicked, treating the new medium with the same disdain and distrust that executives today have for baby-faced Internet downloaders. How could we possibly survive, the old moguls moaned, trying to compete with something that is free? Hollywood survived and flourished in the new medium.”

“CBS’ startling decision this week to pull the broadcast plug on the biographical drama (as distinct from biographical documentary) “The Reagans,” following an extensive campaign by conservative activists alleging the movie was “inaccurate” and “unfair” to the former president, reflects a dazzling and immensely troubling lack of awareness of the sacred importance of this vital cultural freedom. Furthermore, such preemptive, content-driven attacks on works of art are on the rise in America.”

Where have millions of US TV viewers disappeared? This fall’s ratings are down 8-10 percemt. “If this is true, it’s a seismic shift. Some of these numbers scare you. And there are billions of dollars in national advertising at stake. When they sell ads, networks pledge that they can deliver a certain number of viewers in certain demographics; if they fail to meet the numbers as tallied by Nielsen, they have to run more ads – ‘make-goods’ – at no cost. If you go back and you look at TV viewing patterns over the past 10 years, it’s very unusual for viewing levels to change more than 2 or 3 percent over time.”