Video Age International articles from April 1998

Video Age International archives from April 1998

Studios face future with confidence. (motion picture industry conference in Los Angeles, CA, in Mar 1998)
April 1, 1998... Ten questions for the new millennium Representatives from five U.S. studios gathered last month to answer 10 questions for a Video Age round table in Los Angeles on the future of the international television business. Participating in the...

Pilots making the rounds. (television projects)
April 1, 1998... Renewals still in question What's in store for the 1998-99 television season? A quick review of the pilots in development indicates that the networks are looking to feature film directors and producers, as well as seasoned TV producers, for...

My two cents. (CBS Inc's coverage of the 1998 Winter Olympics, Nagano, Japan)(Editorial)
April 1, 1998... CBS did manage to get the pronunciation of Nagano right, putting the accent on the second vowel. The name of the Japanese host city of the 1998 Olympic Games caused some European broadcasters no little amount of consternation. However, in...

Dadi in America. (Chinese Television Network launches CTN Dadi Entertainment channel in North America)(World)
April 1, 1998... Hong Kong-based Chinese Television Network launched its CTN Dadi Entertainment channel in North America in February. Dadi, which broadcasts entertainment programming in Mandarin Chinese, has never operated as a full channel outside China and...

French digital deal for TPS. (Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux)(World)
April 1, 1998... France's Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux and M6 signed an agreement in late February to buy out Luxembourg-based CLT-UFA's share of the digital satellite venture TPS. Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux will purchase 15 percent and M6 will purchase 5 percent of...

Latin America TV report. (Audits and Surveys Inc's annual study on Latin American viewing habits)(World)
April 1, 1998... The new Los Medios y Mercados de Latinoamerica (LMML) study has caused crowing on both sides of the Panama Canal. The fourth annual study, conducted by the New York-based media research company Audits & Surveys and commissioned by the Television...

News time for Televisa and WTN. (Televisa S.A.; Worldwide Television News Corp)(World)
April 1, 1998... Mexico's Televisa and the news agency Worldwide Television News have announced a joint venture through which Televisa's regional coverage of South America and Central America will be distributed around the world. The regional news bureaus of...

Send in the set-top boxes. (British Sky Broadcasting PLC places huge order for digital set-top boxes with Pace Micro Technology)(World)
April 1, 1998... Pace Micro Technologies, a U.K. manufacturer of digital set-top boxes, has reported a "substantial order" from British Sky Broadcasting in preparation for the launch of the BSkyB digital service. Pace, which believes it is the first company to...

Report from NANBA. (North American National Broadcasters Assn-sponsored annual broadcast industry meeting in Los Angeles, CA, on Feb 8, 1998)(World)
April 1, 1998... Broadcast industry executives assembled February 8-10 in Los Angeles for the 20th Annual General Meeting of the North American National Broadcasters Association (NANBA) to discuss major industry issues, including high definition television...

Japan joining. (Sumitomo Corp's subsidiary Asmik Corp merges with Kodokawa Shoten Publishing Co's ACE Pictures unit to form Asmik ACE Entertainment)(World)
April 1, 1998... Japan's Sumitomo Corporation and Kadokawa Shoten Publishing Co. merged two of their subsidiaries this month with the purpose of entering that country's emerging video market. On April 1, distribution company the Asmik Corporation (a subsidiary...

Taxing times in Hungary. (Hungarian motion picture industry films may be levied tax of 3%-6% of total box office revenues)(World)
April 1, 1998... The Hungarian Ministry of Culture is considering imposing a tax on all movies of between 3 percent and 6 percent of box office revenues. The money would be used to fund local movie production, which accounted for only 6 percent of the movie...

India cable ready, report says. (Salomon Smith Barney Investment Bankers' report on potential market for cable television industry in India)(World)
April 1, 1998... Although Indian television is currently undergoing a slump in business, it was buoyed recently by a report from Salomon Smith Barney Investment Bankers, who declared that "the Indian market represents the greatest medium-term and long-term...

Mumbai doc fest finds int'l following. (Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary, Short and Animation Films in Bombay, India)(World)
April 1, 1998... The fifth Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary, Short and Animation Films (MIFF), held March 1-7, featured more than 300 films from 30 countries and an increased international participation. "We hope that the festival, which is...

Trouble makes Thai allies. (Thailand-based pay TV firms UTV Cable Network and International Broadcasting Corp merge in wake of Asian financial crisis)(World)
April 1, 1998... In an effort to survive the Asian economic crisis, Thailand's two pay-TV companies, the UTV Cable Network and the International Broadcasting Corporation (IBC), have agreed to combine their businesses. The move was prompted by significant losses...

Defining Vision: The Battle for the Future of Television.
April 1, 1998... THE BATTLE FOR THE FUTURE OF TELEVISION How cunning, conceit, and creative genius collided in the race to invent digital, high-definition TV In Defining Vision: The Battle for the Future of Television (Harcourt Brace, 402 pp.), Joel Brinkley...

The art of the Diller deal. (Barry Diller's HSN Inc creates local-national, broadcast-cable hybrid firm USA Networks Inc)(Company Profile)
April 1, 1998... A simplified look at a complicated plan It's cable. It's broadcast. It's national. It's local. It's Universal TV. It's the USA Network and the Sci-Fi Channel. It's Silver King. What is this confusing beast? It's the new USA Networks Inc., and...

Promax Europe goes to the max.
April 1, 1998... When Worldvision's Rita Scarfone was a board member of Promax, she urged the then predominantly American TV promotion association to buy its president, Jim Chabin, a ticket to Europe to look at new markets. A fortuitous suggestion indeed. Today,...

Pax man. (Paxson Communications CEO Lowell Paxon)(Company Profile)
April 1, 1998... Will Bud Paxson's dream of a seventh network come true? "Pax Net will have values and profits." This is how Lowell "Bud" Paxson - a born-again Christian who earned his fame in infomercials and home shopping as co-founder of the Home Shopping...

Pockets of opportunity amid pockets of crisis at AFM '98. (American Film Marketing Association conference in Sta Monica, CA, on Feb 26, 1998)
April 1, 1998... The rain didn't come. Nevertheless, the AFM organizers were ready with 5,000 umbrellas, now in storage for the next El Nino. Recently appointed American Film Market Association President Allen "Mike" Frischkorn had assured everyone that there...

Market filled with buyers in search of sellers. (20th annual Monte Carlo TV Market and Festival exhibition on Feb 23, 1998)
April 1, 1998... Asking journalists how they viewed the 20th annual Monte Carlo TV Market could have been interpreted as a sign of the uncertainty that now surrounds the event. But while distributors were baffled, buyers were buoyant. "This is going to be a...

Nobility reaches television. (member of Hungarian royal family enters television broadcasting business)
April 1, 1998... Television is becoming noble in the literal sense of the word. The most recent nobility to enter the field is George von Habsburg, prince and arch-duke of Hungary. The 33-year-old grandson of the last king of Hungary and emperor of Austria has...

Three perspectives on DVD. (executives of three home video companies give their views on digital video disc)(Interview)
April 1, 1998... The first digital video disc, or DVD, players were introduced to consumers in the spring of 1997. Sales of the players have failed to meet the most optimistic projections, in part because the accompanying software titles are being released...

Debating the fate of public television. (Germany)
April 1, 1998... The attack was vehement but well calculated. In December, Juergen Doetz, president of the Association of Commercial Broadcasters in Germany (VPRT), finally gave vent to his annoyance with German public broadcasting. He criticized its "expansion...

Ladies and gentlemen, today is the end of the world. (Germany's top daily public news television program, Tagesschau)
April 1, 1998... Dry but trustworthy, the Tagesschau shapes the face of German news It's the "grande dame" of news. It's the flagship for public television, always the No. 1 program for serious information. But at the same time it is old-fashioned, dry and a...

Soccer and TV: a heated game. (Germany)
April 1, 1998... For Germans, soccer is - next to cars - the most important hobby in the world. Nine of the 10 highest ranking sports events on TV in 1997 were soccer matches. Before Boris Becker and Steffi Graf entered the scene and shifted some attention to...

Digital TV: the calm before and after the storm. (Germany)
April 1, 1998... To many observers of the German media, the current quarrels over the introduction of digital television resemble a Greek tragedy. "The wrangling for competence and interests in politics and business will disturb any quick success of digital...

RTL: a portrait. (Europe's largest television station RTL Television)
April 1, 1998... Helmut Thoma's quotes are always good for a laugh - but not necessarily for professionals in the media business, who are often the target of his humor. Two years ago, when the launch of digital television in Germany almost got tangled up in the...

Bresil: Roberto I. Marinho, l'avenir de Globo TV.(Interview)
April 1, 1998... Bon, jettons un coup d'oeil sur le marche de la television bresilienne, actuellement desservi par quatre grands reseaux commerciaux, deux services terrestres payants et deux operateurs DTH. A present, rajoutons 144 nouveaux permis de cables et...