Category: media

“The growing technology has created a balancing act for broadcast and cable executives weighing how to offer more programming without threatening traditional ad dollars and syndication rights.”

“It seems as if we really are on the brink of a major change in how we experience film. Judging by recent comments by two notable producers/distributors, Harvey Weinstein of The Weinstein Co. and Christine Vachon of Killer Films, we should all brace ourselves for a fast-approaching world beyond the theatrical release model that has defined cinema for much of its existence.”

“As a viewer whose default mode of interaction with images has consisted, for as long as I can remember, of intense, rapid-fire decoding of text, subtext, metatext and hypertext, I’ve long had a queasy fascination with slow-moving, meditative drama.”

“But as antsy TV executives gear up to pre­sent this year’s new shows at the annual network upfronts, and we all prepare, as a society, to mercilessly mock whatever turns out to be this year’s answer to the Geico cavemen sitcom, we shouldn’t feel as if the perfect (or near-perfect) season can never happen. Because it did.”

“Historically, Hollywood has more or less shunned older viewers, who tended to buy fewer concessions than younger audiences, and took in a movie only once, maybe twice, a year. But in the last 18 months, studios, cinema operators and movie distributors have tracked a surprising surge in ticket sales among the 50-plussers.”

“It doesn’t take a genius to conclude that Netflix’ popularity has a negative effect on the movie piracy rates in the US. Although no torrent site has gone out of business yet, Netflix certainly is a serious ‘competitor’ for access to movies.”

“Indian studios had refused to provide financial backing” to the director Onir for his film I Am “due to the movie’s controversial subject matter. Not to be put off, the film-maker took to Facebook and pulled in donations from as far afield as the US and Australia.”

“Bassem Youssef, a 37-year-old cardiothoracic surgeon, is closing a television deal that would make him one of the top paid talents on Egyptian television, a rise to stardom that began less than two months ago – on YouTube.”

“In the impressively produced rap video Fight of the Century … Friedrich Hayek and John Maynard Keynes square off to argue over such questions as whether the government should spent less or more, the source of prosperity, and whether war or natural disasters be a blessing in disguise.”

“According to the DOC, English documentary production in Canada has fallen below 2000-01 levels, and some 2,000 direct and indirect jobs have disappeared over the last five years.”