Category: media

Last summer reality TV dominated American TV screens, and reruns of winter shows died. So this summer networks flooded screens with new reality shows and the reruns (mostly) disappeared. So what’s popular? “Thirteen reality programs had premieres during May and June, and not one has cracked the Top 10 list, according to the most recently available A.C. Nielsen Co. ratings (for the week ending July 6). Reruns of sitcoms and dramas, meanwhile, have dominated the upper echelons of the ratings.”

San Francisco public broadcaster KQED has 200,000 members and counts itself one of America’s more popular public stations. But corporate contributions have been down and the station has to reduce its budget by 10 percent – likely forcing some layoffs. “In 2003, corporate donations are expected to fall by as much as 30 percent. The station is expecting to receive about $6.5 million to $7 million, compared with about $9 million donated in 2002. At the same time, dues to PBS and NPR, which supply much of KQED’s programming, have increased and the station is still working to comply with federal regulation that forced a conversion to digital broadcasting.”

Many Hollywood movies are castring black actors as spiritual figures. “Of course, there are many films aimed at African-Americans that star blacks in a variety of parts, from villainous to heroic. But casting blacks as angelic characters has become an increasingly common trend in mainstream movies. For their part, many African-Americans see this heavenly designation as less than beatific. Filmmakers like Spike Lee have spoken out against such roles, calling them patronizing and unrealistic.”

Small Internet radio stations are planning to file an antitrust suit against the Recording Industry Association of America, accusing them of using high royalty rates as a way to force websasters out of business. The internet group claims that “the existing royalty rates structure would force as many as 90 percent of small commercial Internet radio stations to close if left unchanged.”

“The Ottawa International Animation Festival has gotten a reprieve from its possible demise after Telefilm Canada decided to reinstate its annual funding for at least for one more year. The $52,000-a-year cheque from Telefilm, which represents a critical 25 per cent of the festival’s budget, will likely mean that the next biannual animation festival scheduled for September, 2004, will go ahead as planned.” Still, the future of the festival, which claims to be North America’s largest animation festival, is still quite uncertain.

Mere months after a potentially crippling strike was averted in America’s television industry, Australia is facing a similar action by the nation’s actor’s union, which has been embroiled in a pay dispute with broadcast networks for the better part of a year. At issue are the wages of Australian actors, who the union claims earn less than the national salary average even if they have a starring role on a hit show. Next week’s scheduled walkout is scheduled to last only a day, but the union is prepared to go farther, with television producers threatening that such action could result in popular TV shows being pulled off the air for good.

New tracking data obtained by monitoring Tivo users suggests that TV advertising will be turned upside down. “This is the beginning of the end of that drunken orgy of dollars spent on broadcast TV as the ultimate ‘reach’ vehicle. Certain genres of programming are ‘stickier’ than others. The report said big-budget situation comedies and dramas tend to have the lowest retention and commercial-viewing rate because couch potatoes tend to record them and skip through the commercials rather than watch them live. Reality TV, news, and event programming such as the Oscars telecast, on the other hand, do significantly better at getting viewers to see the commercials.”

The BBC is widely regarded as one of the world’s finest broadcasters. But currently the Beeb is in an “unusually nasty and high-stakes clashes with two prime ministers: Labor leader Tony Blair at home, and Ariel Sharon in Israel.” The two leaders have have vehemently protested the network’s coverage of their recent military actions and “accused the BBC of being reckless and unethical in recent coverage. Both prime ministers have fought back ferociously, contending the broadcaster’s lofty reputation makes it impossible to shrug off stories they believe are wrong. These are not polite protests.”

HBO has long been thought to be a cut or two above broadcast networks. Its original series are acclaimed, and it has often seemed willing to take risks that over-the-air newtorks will not. But, “its oft-repeated slogan notwithstanding, lately the service looks very much like it is TV in some respects — being held up by ego-inflated stars, hanging on to aging franchises, bristling at an attack of the clones by competitors, and watching quality series disappoint ratings-wise.”

A new streaming radio station in London attempts to gather data about what each listener likes and doesn’t like and tailor its music playlists. “Here’s how it works for Last.fm: Users can either fill out a profile or just begin listening. If a song plays to the end, the system logs this as a thumbs up. But if the user doesn’t like a song and hits the Change button in the Last.fm player, it’s marked as a thumbs down. Over time, a preference profile is built.”