Category: media

Radio ad rates are high right now, tempting stations to pack ever more commercials on the air. “Since the Federal Communications Commission deregulated the radio industry in 1996, stations have increased their commercial load by 25 to 33 percent. That means most FM stations play anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes of diet pill pitches and fast food ads each hour. News-talk stations play even more, mixing up to 20 minutes of commercials with baseball scores and headlines.” – St. Louis Post-Dispatch 05/04/00

— with ABC and restores the network to its cable lineup while the two companies continue to negotiate a new deal. – Boston Globe 05/03/00

ABC is likely to feel “a quick and nasty pinch this May sweeps” after yesterday’s debacle, when Time Warner pulled the plug on seven Disney-owned ABC stations around the country. “One rival network exec expects ABC to take an immediate 2% to 3% ratings hit nationally, that might mean the difference between first and second place.” – Times of India (Reuters) 05/03/00

Metallica collects 335,000 names of Napster users it says have stolen the band’s music. – CBC 05/03/00

Some 75,000 actors represented by the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists walked off their jobs, rejecting advertisers’ attempts to pay a flat fee instead of residual compensation every time commercials run. The actors dramatized their dispute in rallies Monday in Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. – Chicago Tribune 05/02/00

The British government sets up a £22 million investment fund to help revive Britain’s film industry. – BBC 05/02/00

A dispute over transmission fees between Time Warner and Disney led the cable giant today to pull the plug on seven Disney-owned ABC stations around the country. Instead of regular programming, about 3.5 million homes were treated to a full-screen message that “Disney has taken ABC away from you”…and during sweeps week, no less. – CNN 05/01/00

• FOOD FIGHT: No deal, no stations, as of midnight Sunday. – Washington Post 05/02/00
  
  
• CLASH OF THE TITANS: ”It’s one behemoth clashing with another for positioning.” – Boston Globe 05/02/00
  
  
• ONLY THE BEGINNING: Our viewing choices are shrinking because of media mergers. – Orange County Register 05/02/00
  
  
• MONOLITHIC MANEUVERS: How does the high-stakes tug-of-war between the multimedia monoliths bode for the future of broadband Web-based news and information? Will Time Warner’s pending merger with AOL “create an impenetrable barrier to non-AOL Time Warner companies interested in participating in looming interactive TV technology”? – Time 05/01/00
  
  
• BULLY TACTICS? “It’s unique in the history of cable,” said ABC spokeswoman Julie Hoover of the Time Warner dispute. “I can only liken this to the behavior of a schoolyard bully. They will beat up the kid in the schoolyard and they don’t care if the teacher sees it. They don’t care that the other kids don’t like it, they just do it because they can.” – Salon 05/02/00

First there were silents, then talkies, and eventually 3D, Dolby, and digital. Now a Savannah, Georgia screenwriter is developing a new film-sound technique called “Second Sound” that allows people sitting in the same movie theater to hear different sounds and frequencies at the same time. – Yahoo! (Reuters) 05/01/00

Artists have discovered the charms of the E-Bay auction site. Not just for buying material or selling work, but for finding collaborators and using the site itself as an artform. Like any good conceptualist, these artists know that “the art primarily resides in the idea and the often unconventional medium or approach, rather than the execution of the art object.” – MediaChannel 05/01/00

Public Radio International is suing Minnesota Public Radio over the latter’s purchase of “Marketplace.” MPR has been expanding its empire, and will control PRI’s two top programs. PRI is concerned that Minnesota Public Radio will start competing with it as a program distributor. – Current 05/01/00