As TiVo and other digital video recorders captivate an ever wider swath of the American TV-viewing public, advertisers are in full panic mode. After all, how are the companies that pay for commercial television’s otherwise unsustainable programming supposed to see a return on their considerable advertising investment if every other viewer has the capability to simply skip the commercials? The answer seems to be in a new generation of product placement, with dramatic storylines actively working sponsoring brands into the action, a concept which viewers may eventually find even more irritating than traditional advertising.
Tag: 01.20.05
Disney-Miramax Infighting Causing Concern
“Miramax, the alpha distributor that long dominated the indie-film scene, has been embroiled in contentious contract negotiations with parent company Disney, and all signs point to an imminent divorce, with Disney keeping the Miramax name and film library and Miramax co-founders Harry and Bob Weinstein raising money to start another company elsewhere.” But as this year’s edition of Sundance, the premiere indie film festival in the U.S., prepares to kick off, filmmakers associated with Miramax are in an awkward and uncertain position.
Paying The Performers – What A Concept!
“The growing popularity of satellite and Internet radio is creating a new source of royalties for performing artists… Under traditional copyright law, royalties have gone only to composers and music publishers. The new royalities, from airplay on the fast-growing XM and Sirius satellite services, are being paid to performers and the copyright holder of the recording — generally a record label or, in some cases, the people who lease the master recording.”
Atheists In America (Where?! Let’s Get ‘Em!)
America seems to be all about religion and demonstrable faith these days, with even the most secular of public figures feeling compelled to at least occasionally make nods toward their own piousness. In other words, it’s a rotten time to be an atheist. “USA Today put the number of nonreligious Americans at 30 million… There are 5 million Americans who are Jewish, but everybody knows a lot more Jews than they know atheists, and why? Because atheists are afraid to come out of the proverbial closet.”
Hollywood vs. High-Tech, Round 2
“Intellectual property legislation that failed to pass in Congress last year likely will reappear in the new session, but after 2004’s bitter battle, technology and consumer groups are ready to get more aggressive.” The effort to prevent stricter copyright enforcement is likely to have more corporate muscle behind it this year as well. Last year’s battles convinced many high-tech companies that they needed to go on the offensive, lest they get steamrolled by the entertainment industry’s highly effective Congressional lobbying.
Underground Net Pirates Convicted, Face Jail Time
For the first time in the U.S., two men have been convicted of illegally sharing music files over an online peer-to-peer file-trading system, and face up to five years in prison for their crimes. “The US Department of Justice said the two men operated the central hubs in a piracy community organised across the Direct Connect peer-to-peer network. The piracy group called itself the Underground Network and membership of it demanded that users share between one and 100 gigabytes of files.”
Sundance Giving Up On Original Web Content?
Five years ago, the Sundance Film Festival launched a parallel online festival designed to showcase the best examples of the new genre of web film, which everyone figured was just about ready to blow up. As it turns out, web film is pretty much dead, and these days, Sundance’s online component features streaming versions of the same short films shown at its main festival. “On the one hand, the new SOFF format is exciting news: Anyone with a computer can watch some of the world’s best new short films. But SOFF’s makeover also suggests that made-for-the-web films haven’t evolved as quickly as expected.”
Booker Chairman Stirs Controversy
“The newly announced chairman of the 2005 Man Booker prize has admitted that the judges are unlikely to read all 130 books in contention, while describing his fellow judges as “light on the minorities” and the process as like a “world federation wrestling match”.”
Taking Stock In San Antonio
A new study indicates that residents of San Antonio enjoy art and cultural events, but are increasingly frustrated with the lack of financial support given to the organizations that make up the city’s cultural scene. More than two-thirds of residents even support a $5-per-capita hike in the amount the city spends on the arts, which is significant when you consider how Texans normally feel about tax increases. But San Antonio’s real cultural problem has never been the public sector, but private donors and foundations who either don’t give nearly as much as their counterparts in other cities, or who give without any real understanding of where their money is going.
Artists, Teachers Protest Paid Admission At The Louvre
Some 200 artists and teachers protested outside the Louvre last weekend complaining about a decision to strip them of free admission to the museum. Since September, artists, teachers and students no longer have free entry to the Louvre. “For an artist, the Louvre is oxygen. People whose job it is to transmit art must have access to it.”