The Change Mariner: Category: Deep Dive - 'The Future of TV & Film'

June 24, 2004

Digital Impact: Television Advertising

Yahoo! News: With TiVo's fast-forward, viewers' shrinking attention spans and new media choices, the 30-second TV ad has more rivals for consumers' attention. That is pushing marketers' thinking increasingly outside the TV box for ways to make the costly but...

Posted by Timothy Fredel at 12:36 AM | See the full story | TrackBack

April 20, 2004

Studios Rush to Cash In on DVD Boom

The New York Times: Not since the advent of the videocassette in the mid-1980's has the movie industry enjoyed such a windfall from a new product. And just as video caused a seismic shift two decades ago, the success of...

Posted by Bob King at 11:29 AM | See the full story | TrackBack

April 19, 2004

DVD War Looms As Advancements Draw Near

Yahoo! News The DVD stands out as one of the most rapidly adopted consumer technologies ever, but in the electronics industry it's akin to an aging king in Shakespearean drama -- rivals are lurking, knives drawn. Just as consumers are...

Posted by Timothy Fredel at 5:33 PM | See the full story | TrackBack

April 3, 2004

Sony's Chief's View of Change: Broadband as the Big Meteorite

UK Times Online Inteview with Nobuyuki Idei, Sony CEO. ... In an environment changing as quickly as this you have no time to create a business model. People used to talk about "game plans" but you can't even do that...

Posted by Norm M. Wada at 1:06 AM | See the full story | TrackBack

March 29, 2004

Leisure Pursuits of Today's Young Man

New York Times: The television industry was shaken last October when the ratings from Nielsen Media Research showed that a huge part of a highly prized slice of the American population was watching less television. As the fall TV season...

Posted by Timothy Fredel at 4:33 PM | See the full story | TrackBack

March 26, 2004

Electronic Arts Funds New Video Game School at USC

Game Girl Advance.com: It had to happen. Now that the game industry is as big as the film industry, it looks like college graduates will be thinking about going to game school instead of film school. - n. wada "The...

Posted by Norm M. Wada at 10:05 PM | See the full story | TrackBack

Video Industry Key to Success: Hollywood Hits

Forbes.com: The video game industry is facing a hardening of the creative arteries as aging gamers' tastes increasingly shift toward sequels and games based on movies, industry participants said this week. With more and more titles chasing the success of...

Posted by Norm M. Wada at 9:42 PM | See the full story | TrackBack

March 19, 2004

Three Reasons TiVo Will Die

Yahoo! News: #1: Moore's Law The first one, ironically, derives from the same technology that enabled TiVo to live in the first place: Moore's Law. As chips got powerful enough and hard drives cheap enough, the PVR was inevitable. But...

Posted by Timothy Fredel at 12:05 PM | See the full story | TrackBack

February 15, 2004

Comcast, Disney & The Video On Demand Future

Denver Post: It's too early to guess the outcome of the hostile takeover bid for the House of Mouse. Comcast, a company feared and loathed in this market and others as the industry Bigfoot, wants to merge with Disney, the...

Posted by Timothy Fredel at 10:58 PM | See the full story | TrackBack

February 9, 2004

How Home Theaters Are Transforming Entertainment

New York Times: The VCR and the DVD player have changed where and how Americans watch movies, and now home theaters are further transforming the experience. As setups like the Slotkys' become commonplace, TV watching is becoming more of a...

Posted by Timothy Fredel at 10:21 PM | See the full story | TrackBack

February 6, 2004

Nielsen Media, TiVo Sign Agreement

USATODAY.com: Nielsen Media Research, the company that measures television viewership, signed an agreement Thursday with TiVo to provide information on digital video recorder usage. Television networks, concerned about declining ratings, have complained that Nielsen's measurements don't reflect the growing use...

Posted by Timothy Fredel at 5:15 PM | See the full story | TrackBack

February 5, 2004

Corning To Invest $600 Million In LCDs

Techweb: Corning Inc. is making a $600 million investment in its liquid crystal display glass substrate manufacturing process to take advantage of the boom in flat-panel computer monitors and television sets. The company said the investment will be in stages...

Posted by Timothy Fredel at 9:31 PM | See the full story | TrackBack

January 21, 2004

AOL: You've Got Movies!

CBS Marketwatch: A buck gets you more than a song on the Internet these days. Time Warner's America Online is offering broadband users downloaded movies for 99 cents each. AOL is partnering with MovieLink, a movie download rental service and...

Posted by Bob King at 11:54 AM | See the full story | TrackBack

January 19, 2004

Television Commercials Come to the Web

New York Times: Beginning tomorrow, more than a dozen Web sites, including MSN, ESPN, Lycos and iVillage, will run full-motion video commercials from Pepsi, AT&T, Honda, Vonage and Warner Brothers, in a six-week test that some analysts and online executives...

Posted by Bob King at 8:39 AM | See the full story | TrackBack

January 13, 2004

China Poses Trade Worry as It Gains in Technology

New York Times: Today, the principal international standard-setting organizations have representation from many countries, including China, but American interests often carry the greatest influence. "We are accustomed to the United States being the biggest market and the technology leader, so...

Posted by Bob King at 9:07 AM | See the full story | TrackBack

Disney closes Orlando studio as digital animation takes over

Sun Sentiel (Florida): The Walt Disney Co. is shuttering its Orlando-based animation studio, cutting 258 jobs, as the company shifts from hand-drawn animated films to computer-generated features and videos. Some of the employees will be offered jobs in Burbank, Calif.,...

Posted by Bob King at 8:59 AM | See the full story | TrackBack

December 22, 2003

Silicon.com to Entertainment Industry: Get Over It (Downloads)

Silicon.com: The entertainment industry has in the last few days suffered two set backs in its efforts to stop illegal copying of music and films. First we heard that on Friday the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) had a...

Posted by Norm M. Wada at 12:49 PM | See the full story | TrackBack

December 21, 2003

The Video Game Industry: On the Verge

New York Times: Has there ever been a cultural sea change as stealthy as the one represented by the rise of interactive entertainment? To anyone who came of age after, say, the introduction of the first Sony Playstation in 1995,...

Posted by Timothy Fredel at 11:52 PM | See the full story | TrackBack

December 18, 2003

New Era: Watching Television on American-MadeTV's

DetroitFP: For years Asian brands have ruled American living rooms. From TV sets and stereos to video games and DVD players, chances are if they are in your house, names such as Sony, Samsung and Panasonic are on them. But...

Posted by Norm M. Wada at 12:44 AM | See the full story | TrackBack

Intel prepares for assault on digital TV market

SeattlePI: At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which opens Jan. 8, Intel is expected to disclose the development of a class of advanced semiconductors that technologists and analysts say will improve the quality of large-format digital televisions and...

Posted by Norm M. Wada at 12:37 AM | See the full story | TrackBack

December 17, 2003

Intel Expected to Make Chips for Digital TVs

Yahoo! News: Intel wants to get inside your television. The world's largest microchip maker will soon unveil plans to make chips for digital televisions, opening a fast-growing market to a company that dominates the computer chip business, an industry...

Posted by Timothy Fredel at 7:27 PM | See the full story | TrackBack

Intel Digital TV

New York Times: The Intel Corporation is planning to do to digital television what it has already done to computing. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which opens on Jan. 8, Intel is expected to disclose the development...

Posted by Bob King at 8:34 AM | See the full story | TrackBack

December 16, 2003

Huge Growth of Open Source Music, Video Using Creative Commons Model

CSM: ...So it does not come as a surprise that Berklee, among the country's most prestigious music institutions, is at the front of a small but influential pack of schools moving unprecedented amounts of content online. After the Recording Industry...

Posted by Norm M. Wada at 11:28 PM | See the full story | TrackBack

December 13, 2003

Subscription Video On Demand

CBS Marketwatch: If you've wondered what the video-on-demand television universe might look like once it's fully integrated, Glenn Britt is in one of the best positions to tell you. Britt, the chairman of Time Warner's cable unit -- the nation's...

Posted by Bob King at 2:24 PM | See the full story | TrackBack

December 12, 2003

Distributed/Contextualized TV Guide Embedded in Web Pages

VH1.com: I recently went to the VH1 website to listen to Alicia Keyes' newest song and find a listing of when she might appear on MTV an VH1. Listed below her profile is the following link: "Find Alicia Keys TV...

Posted by Norm M. Wada at 11:31 AM | See the full story | TrackBack

Stephen Jobs' View on TV Downloads: Very Different From Music

RollingStone.com: Q: Lots people who work in the movie business have watched what's happened to the music industry and think they're next. Do you see that? SJ: It is a problem. But movies are very different than music. First of...

Posted by Norm M. Wada at 10:40 AM | See the full story | TrackBack

December 10, 2003

College Coaches Add Realism to New Video Games

Redding.com: Williams and the 12 other coaches who appear in Electronic Arts Sports' new "NCAA March Madness 2004" receive just a few thousand dollars apiece for their roles as motivators and strategists. Some � such as Williams, Oklahoma's Kelvin Sampson,...

Posted by Norm M. Wada at 12:20 AM | See the full story | TrackBack

MIT Brings Video Games to The Classroom

PCPRO: Fortunately, this does not mean using 'Grand Theft Auto III' to hone children's driving skills or that Tomb Raider is a suitable introduction to archeology. Instead MIT is looking to find ways to integrate games into subjects in the...

Posted by Norm M. Wada at 12:10 AM | See the full story | TrackBack

Legislation Attacks Violent Video Games with Legislation

SFExaminer: Assemblyman Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, wants California children to spend the holiday season peacefully, not gunning down minorities and running over prostitutes. Standing in front of the towering Union Square Christmas tree on Dec. 1, Yee announced legislation prohibiting...

Posted by Norm M. Wada at 12:05 AM | See the full story | TrackBack

December 9, 2003

Coke Joins Music Downloads To Market

PCPRO: Coca-Cola is to launch a UK music downloads service in January. myCokeMusic will offer more than 250,000 tracks at 99p each and will be based on technology from OD2, which already provides similar services for MSN, HMV and Freeserve,...

Posted by Norm M. Wada at 11:57 PM | See the full story | TrackBack

Foreign Shows A Draw for Satellite TV

NEwsJournal: Regardless of whether they transmit via cable or satellite, all of the pay television companies are racing to offer something beyond the basics, said Michael Paxton, a senior analyst at a market research firm called In-Stat/MDR. The firm breaks...

Posted by Norm M. Wada at 11:53 PM | See the full story | TrackBack

Satellite Television Brings Outside World to Saudi Arabia

WashingtonBureau: Satellite television has brought the outside world to Saudi Arabia, and its impact can't be exaggerated, sociologists say. The obtrusive, ugly dish is transforming Saudi society in a way that the country's small groups of dissidents and reformists never...

Posted by Norm M. Wada at 11:44 PM | See the full story | TrackBack

Study: Television Violence on the Rise

MiamiHerald: The study by the Parents Television Council counted 534 separate episodes of prime-time violence on the six major broadcast networks during the first two weeks of the November ratings "sweeps" in 2002. That was up from 292 violent incidents...

Posted by Norm M. Wada at 11:40 PM | See the full story | TrackBack

December 6, 2003

Wal-Mart to Flex Muscles in Music Downloads?

ECommerceTimes: Wal-Mart Stores Inc. reportedly is looking at beginning to sell digital music downloads by year's end, raising the prospect of new price competition in the online music market. That could significantly reduce the allure of unauthorized free music downloads....

Posted by Norm M. Wada at 1:14 PM | See the full story | TrackBack

New "Vatican" For Filmmakers In Cuba

CubaNet.org: ... A 50-minute drive from Havana, the international film and television school immediately strikes the visitor as a colonial compound in the tropics. A staff of over 200 full-time cooks, maids, gardeners, builders, drivers, translators and security staff cater...

Posted by Norm M. Wada at 1:10 AM | See the full story | TrackBack

Movie Theaters to Go the Way of Drive-Ins?

SFGate.com: As one of the four big release dates -- along with Memorial Day, Christmas and New Year's Day -- Thanksgiving week can draw 40 million Americans into theaters, far exceeding the average weekly attendance of 25 million to 30...

Posted by Norm M. Wada at 1:02 AM | See the full story | TrackBack

December 4, 2003

TV, movies are king as Philippines prepares to elect new president

ChannelNewsAsia: Television and the movies are transforming the Philippine political landscape as the star-struck electorate put a film icon and a network star on pole position in next May's presidential vote. Only five years ago, Filipinos elected film star Joseph...

Posted by Norm M. Wada at 11:54 PM | See the full story | TrackBack

New law makes recording movies in theaters a misdemeanor

Miami Herald: Sneaking a camcorder into a movie theater will soon be a crime in California under a new law designed to protect both copyrights and the livelihood of thousands of movie industry workers. "This industry is the economic engine...

Posted by Norm M. Wada at 11:47 PM | See the full story | TrackBack

Advent Networks' Ultraband Boosts Cable IP Performance

eweek.com: Corporations looking for alternatives to expensive T1 service may soon get benefits from an unlikely place�cable TV operators. At the cable industry's Western Show 2003 here on Wednesday, networking startup Advent Networks Inc. of Austin, Texas, showed off its...

Posted by Norm M. Wada at 11:06 PM | See the full story | TrackBack

FCC seeks to overturn cable broadband ruling to force sharing of broadband networks

News.com: The Federal Communications Commission filed a petition Thursday requesting a rehearing in a case that could bring new federal regulations to the cable broadband industry. The agency submitted the 19-page document to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals...

Posted by Norm M. Wada at 10:55 PM | See the full story | TrackBack

Cable Companies Skip TiVo

Forbes: Shares of digital video recorder maker Tivo Inc. (nasdaq: TIVO - news - people) on Thursday fell more than 12 percent after a leading cable TV provider said it would develop its own recording system, which may reduce Tivo's...

Posted by Norm M. Wada at 10:47 PM | See the full story | TrackBack

December 3, 2003

Cable Tops Broadcast TV In Sweeps Period for First Time

CNN.com: More U.S. households were tuned to cable television networks than broadcast networks last month during prime time, the first time cable has bested over-the-air competitors during a crucial sweeps period. Ratings for the sweeps period, used by the networks...

Posted by Timothy Fredel at 4:40 PM | See the full story | TrackBack

December 2, 2003

Evolution of Sundance: Big Name Stars in (Quasi) Independent Films

HollywoodReporter: The competitive categories of the 2004 Sundance Film Festival will be characterized by big-name actors appearing in films by relatively unknown directors, projects influenced by Sept. 11 and a record-breaking number of projects from black filmmakers. ... Said Festival...

Posted by Norm M. Wada at 10:17 AM | See the full story | TrackBack

Card Playing the hottest game on television

CNN: Card playing -- an activity that filled the evening hours before television was invented -- has improbably become one of TV's hottest programming trends. After less than a year, the "World Poker Tour" is already the Travel Channel's most...

Posted by Norm M. Wada at 10:08 AM | See the full story | TrackBack

December 1, 2003

Digital broadcasts mark fledgling debut in Japan

JapanTimes: With signs that say "Digital is coming!" hanging in stores packed with new TV models promising dazzling imagery, Tokyo's bustling electronics shopping district in Akihabara is one place in Japan that's gung-ho about digital television broadcasting that began Monday....

Posted by Norm M. Wada at 8:21 PM | See the full story | TrackBack

November 30, 2003

Changing Face of TV Sets: More Options, More Compact

NYT: ... While the average TV set lasts about 11 years, families typically buy a new set every three or four years, industry officials say. Over all, Americans are expected to buy 30 million televisions this year, at a rough...

Posted by Norm M. Wada at 2:17 PM | See the full story | TrackBack

November 29, 2003

Presence of Powerful Woman Behind The Screen Translates Into More Women On-screen

NYNewsDay: ... Ms. Lauzen's latest study, which analyzed the 2002-3 prime-time season, found that women made up 22 percent of all creators, executive producers, producers, directors, writers, editors and directors of photography, a percentage that has remained virtually unchanged for...

Posted by Norm M. Wada at 10:48 PM | See the full story | TrackBack

More Consumers Tune to HDTV

NYNewsDay: After years of false promises and halting starts, HDTV -- the ultimate in TV picture sharpness -- finally appears to be ready for prime time. A combination of lower prices and more HD programming, bolstered by the trend toward...

Posted by Norm M. Wada at 10:39 PM | See the full story | TrackBack

Nielsen and Scarborough to Develop New TV Rating

MRONS: Scarborough Research and Nielsen Media Research in the US have recently formed a partnership to offer the NSI Profiler�a new qualitative television rating which combines Nielsen Station Index (NSI) ratings with Scarborough�s qualitative consumer indices. This combination of Scarborough�s...

Posted by Norm M. Wada at 10:36 PM | See the full story | TrackBack

November 28, 2003

Radeon's Personal Video and Audio Recorder in a PC Slot

About: ...Along with the TV application, there is the Gemstar Guide+ TV listing software that is integral to the EASYLOOK functions. This application downloads TV listings based on your television service and location to provide up to a week's worth...

Posted by Norm M. Wada at 12:43 PM | See the full story | TrackBack

The Change Mariner Deep Dive - 'The Future of TV & Film'