Category: media

“Hollywood is the closest thing the business world has to a Roman Empire: a largely self-sustaining, self-contained industry, reigning supreme over most premium content in most media channels. And like Rome, the entertainment business has plenty of enemies who’d love to watch it burn. They probably won’t get their wish.”

“It seems that people who use their smartphones while watching their favorite shows are only doing so to distract themselves during commercials — not good for advertisers — though they do often look up websites related to the show.”

“Hollywood still isn’t reflecting the nation’s diversity in its entertainment products, and that omission is costing the industry considerable amounts in lost revenues.”

“The Amazons and Netflixes of the world are starting to look more like traditional networks with their own unique, increasingly robust programming lineups, while continuing to charge full stream ahead into a future where television gets delivered via the Internet.”

And why YouTube and Hulu are more like the Mongols and Manchus than like the Vandals and Visigoths.

Director Eléonore Pourriat uploaded her five-year-old short film Oppressed Majority (Majorité Opprimée) to YouTube last week. It’s been viewed 2.3 million times so far.

In the first interview since he withdrew the app, Dong Nguyen says, “Flappy Bird was designed to play in a few minutes when you are relaxed. But it happened to become an addictive product. I think it has become a problem. To solve that problem, it’s best to take down Flappy Bird. It’s gone forever.”

“In the past year, time-shifting of television content grew by almost two hours, averaging 13 hours per month, the study found. Viewers averaged nearly 134 hours of live TV viewing a month in 2013, down nearly three hours from 2012.”

“Many real-world decisions require self-regulation of moral behavior. Our study indicates that playing violent video games can interfere with this ability.”