Category: media

“Apple wants to lower the cost of a single TV episode on iTunes from the current $1.99 to 99 cents. Consumers are beginning to ask why they’re paying so much for cable….”

“The move is in response to the Disney studio’s plan to reduce the period in which it can be shown only in cinemas from the standard 17 weeks. The plan would allow Disney to release the film on DVD at the end of May,” which the Odeon chain said “would ‘set a new benchmark, leading to a 12-week window becoming rapidly standard’.”

A set of guidelines is “intended to curb the film industry’s worst abuses of science by confining scriptwriters to plotlines that embrace the suspension of disbelief but stop short of demanding it in every scene.”

“Apple wants to ignite TV show sales [on iTunes], especially as it prepares to introduce the iPad tablet computer next month. But its proposals to lower prices across the board are being met by skepticism from the major networks,” which “are wary of selling shows for less” and “of harming their far more lucrative deals with affiliates and cable distributors.”

The parent’s complaint that triggered the probe “raises questions about the legitimacy of the breathless-and-bright-light game show competitions that populate the prime-time television landscape. The allegations … recall the quiz show scandals of the 1950s when TV executives fixed the outcomes of ‘Twenty One’ and ‘The $64,000 Question.'”

Kathryn Bigelow’s Iraq War drama won six British Academy awards, while the 3D sci-fi juggernaut directed by her ex-husband, James Cameron, took only two, both in technical categories.

“Roman Polanski was crowned best director at the Berlin film festival for his thriller The Ghost Writer, in a move some saw as politically motivated because of his fight against US extradition over sex charges.” The Golden Bear award for best film went to the Turkish movie Bal (“Honey”), by director Semih Kaplanoglu.

With the money earned from broadcast rights to the Academy Awards ceremony, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences funds an enormous archive of cinema history, public screenings and lectures, media literacy programs for high schoolers, screenwriting fellowships, and research into film preservation and digital storage.

“[The] pathologies on the shows are much the same, as are the solutions: rules, rules, some talking, and more rules. For people accustomed to living without boundaries or consequences, this can be challenging and therefore make for vibrant television. The defenses they’d spent years building up to become famous are just as entertaining as they crumble down.”

After reviewing its strategy, the organization concluded that local TV operators wouldn’t be able to find a common ground with the cable companies.