Category: media

Pittsburgh public radio station WQED has unveiled a new downtown satellite studio, which the station and the city hope will pave the way for a revitalized cultural district to begin drawing crowds. The studio will be used for live broadcasts five nights a week, focusing on whatever is currently going on in the cultural district. Live performances and interviews will be scheduled on the fly, with performers able to make a quick stop at the studio before or after their main appearance of the night.

With Apple having proven beyond a doubt that legitimate companies can turn a profit and please music consumers with pay-per-song download services, other companies are looking to get into the act. Dell, which grabbed a huge share of the personal computer market in the 1990s, has announced that it will launch its own downloading service to compete with Apple’s iTunes, and will also develop several consumr electronics products, including a digital music player.

When exactly did pornography become a mainstream product? A scant few years ago, porn was the elephant in America’s bedroom: constantly present, but rarely, if ever, spoken of in polite society. Today, the porn industry is crossing over with mainstream Hollywood like never before, and no one is blinking an eye. What’s changed? Well, “the adult-film industry is bigger than ever, making some 6,000 movies a year and grossing more than $4 billion – roughly as much as the National Football League. Money like that attracts other business people.”

A new PBS series honoring the Blues paid musicians whose music was used in the series a fraction of the going commercial rate. “I think the musicians deserve much more than we paid, said one executive who worked on the series, speaking on condition of anonymity. On the other hand, he added, the series could not have been completed if the fees had been higher.”

“Even people who love the BBC worry that its status as Britain’s most enduringly credible institution — more trusted than the government, more respected than the monarchy, more relevant than the church — is being frittered away by editorial blunders, an inability to negotiate the changing broadcast landscape, and an aggressively adversarial approach to the news among some correspondents that presents a striking contrast to the BBC’s old style of measured politeness.”

Canada’s CBC is getting $10 million less this year than it had been promised by the government. Viewers and listeners likely won’t see the cuts on-air, but the reduction will impact investment in projects.

The use of “foul language” on American TV is up dramatically in the past five years, says a new study by the Parents Television Council. “During the so-called ‘family hour,’ from 8-9 p.m., foul language increased by 94.8 percent between 1998 and 2002, the study found. It rose by 109 percent during the 9 p.m. hour in the same period.”

Vintage children’s characters are showing up on British TV in increasing numbers. “Given that nostalgia means nothing to children, the main targets for these programmes are mothers at home. In children’s television, particularly pre-school, the shows that kids watch are generally chosen by their parents. For us, it’s valuable to have programmes that parents recognise from their own childhood.”

“For the first time in any Emmy telecast, cable shows received more awards than those on the broadcast networks. And it was not even close.”

The powerful lucrative movie business gets a lot of its talent from the theatre. “Is there something inherently wrong about one of the world’s most powerful industries’ being so disconnected from the source of some of its greatest talent? A good part of the entertainment industry’s research and development have been in the nonprofit sector, but the bills have not been paid by entertainment conglomerates but through the box office, foundations, local businesses and the taxpayer.”