Category: media

New company signs up 143 television stations in 102 American markets to begin broadcasting high speed wireless signals to personal computers. Service to begin early next year. – Wired 03/09/00

Thai politicians are protesting the latest Leonardo DiCaprio movie “The Beach” and proposing to ban it from the country. They say the film is blasphemous and portrays their country as a drugs paradise. The movie’s opening earlier this week was also protested by angry environmentalists. – BBC 03/09/00

Media critic Todd Gitlin says that rather than uplift and educate people, modern media conglomerates are a Band-Aid. “Fortunes are to be made in offering ever-reliable analgesics to a public hungry for fast relief,” he says. The guys who run the networks, the newspapers, the studios, the magazine and music companies are getting richer while our civic life grows poorer. – Toronto Star 03/09/00

The television landscape is pitching and heaving, changing at an ever-accelerating rate. But the traditional networks have been slow to adapt, even as their share of viewers has slipped precipitously. – Variety 03/09/00

For the first time in 20 years the cost to market movies dropped last year. At the same time, ticket prices climbed an average 8 percent. Slimming down to a more profitable Hollywood. – Variety 03/08/00

Hollywood wins battle to be be allowed to dub their movies into Spanish in Mexico. Mexican law had decreed all movies had to be subtitled. The Hollywood majors have long claimed the statute discriminated against the estimated 20 million illiterate Mexicans as well as the elderly and those with poor vision. – Variety 03/08/00

Terry Gross’s “Fresh Air” turns 25 this year. Playing to an audience of 3 million, it is a tastemaker sorting through an ocean of culture. – New York Times 03/08/00

Last week a popular French magazine accused filmmaker Luc Besson of persistent plagiarism in his films. He strongly denies it. – Times of India (AP) 03/08/00

Family movies, especially children’s movies. The last four months have been winners for the family fare. – New York Times 03/07/00 

Digital technology is transforming the movie industry before our eyes. The Sundance Film Festival presented a record 17 digital films this year, and filmmakers George Lucas and Spike Lee plan to shoot and produce their next features digitally. Images are clearer. Editing is easier. Shooting can be done on cheap $4,000 cameras. And the dramatic decline in costs gives filmmakers greater freedom. – San Francisco Chronicle 03/07/00