Video Age International articles from February 2008

Video Age International archives from February 2008

WGA's Patric M. Verrone assesses the writers' strike.
February 1, 2008... Pilot season is [the networks'] research and development, and drastically reducing it would be a self-defeating move." This was a statement made by Patric M. Verrone, president of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) West, regarding the...

Petry chairs ATAS Foundation.(World)
February 1, 2008... Jerry Petry, executive vice president, Administration, NBC Universal Television, West Coast, has been voted chairman of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation. Petry was elected to the volunteer position by the Foundation's Board...

Toshiba quits HD-DVD battle.(World)
February 1, 2008... Japan's Toshiba Corp has officially withdrawn from the highdefinition DVD biz, conceding defeat in a vicious format war with Sony. In February, the electronics giant announced that it would no longer develop, produce or sell HD DVD disc...

WB sidesteps TV networks.(World)
February 1, 2008... Warner Bros. TV president Bruce Rosenblum recently told a group of California's Stanford Law School students that studios like his will soon bypass broadcast TV networks using broadband and cellular, and go directly to consumers with content....

Book exposes Spielberg's affair.(World)
February 1, 2008... Valerie Bertinelli's new book, "Losing It: And Gaining My Life Back One Pound at a Time" (Free Press) chronicles much more than just the actress's battle to lose weight. In her new autobiography, the onetime One Day at a Time star gives candid...

Murdoch dishes out DirecTV.(World)
February 1, 2008... In February, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved an $11 billion deal between Rupert Murdoch's News Corp and DirecTV Group Inc. The deal will allow Murdoch to exchange his 41 percent interest in El Segundo, California-based...

Sony, Sharp meet to build LCDs.(World)
February 1, 2008... Sony Corp. has announced that it will take a one-third stake in Sharp Corp's new LCD panel factory in Tokyo. The plant, which will cost $3.5 billion to construct, will be completed by March 2010. The partnership is a response to the growing...

Apollo TV project out of orbit.(World)
February 1, 2008... Arbitron and TV ratings giant Nielsen Co. have put a stop to Apollo, one of the most expensive and buzz-worthy market research programs in history. The program's sole purpose had been to examine how exposure to different media and marketing...

Ben Ammar goes to Italy.(World)
February 1, 2008... France-based Quinta Communications CEO Tarak Ben Ammar has acquired control of Eagle Pictures, a leading Italian film distributor, in a deal that is part of his strategy to establish a pan-European network supported by Goldman Sachs. This U.S....

Bohm now SVP at NBC Universal.(World)
February 1, 2008... Pauline Bohm has been promoted to senior vice president, Marketing, for NBC Universal International Television Distribution. Bohm, who is based in Los Angeles, reports to Belinda Menendez, president, NBC Universal International Television...

Poetry in motion at Abu Dhabi TV.(World)
February 1, 2008... In the 1980s, France's Antenne 2 (now France 2) found a surprise domestic and international hit in Apostrophes, a little show about books and writers. Now, thanks to a hit show about poetry on Abu Dhabi TV, writers are back! Loosely based...

Famous quotes.(World)
February 1, 2008... "My son is now an 'entrepreneur.' That's what you are called when you don't have a job."

Star power in Hollywood's golden age.
February 1, 2008... The concept of celebrity has greatly evolved since the golden age of the Hollywood studio system. The days of high glamour, when actors were elevated to demi-god status, have long since ceased to exist. Today, thanks to the ubiquity of the...

CinemaVault: a small company that's big in film, TV sales.(Company Profile)
February 1, 2008... With over 300 film tides and 800 buyers internationally, CinemaVault Releasing is a fixture on the TV and film market scene, in addition to both the big and small screens worldwide. In 2008 alone, the company will attend 17 markets and...

Do 47 million viewers make an audience for ad men?(Ethnic TV in the U.S.)
February 1, 2008... A new audience measurement system in the U.S. could change the way foreign-language TV stations are perceived by the advertising community. Global Advertising Strategies, a New York-based consulting firm that acts as a liaison between...

A dynamic TV market with riches reaching maturity.(TV in Poland)
February 1, 2008... From a program distribution standpoint, Poland is one of the most lucrative territories in Europe. Stations pay record prices for studio output deals, mainly for movies. Every major international format has either been sold or is about to be...

Crisis over drama is a question of deficits.(German TV Production)
February 1, 2008... German commercial network Sat.1's TV Movie production Die Hitzewelle (Heat Wave) was declared a success after it aired this past February and garnered a 17.3 percent viewing market share in the so-called "relevant target group." In Germany,...

U.S. content providers getting high on hi-def.(Leveraging Technology)
February 1, 2008... The pending U.S. analog shutoff in February 2009, and more affordable high definition television sets in American stores, are spurring increased production of HD television programming in the U.S. Currently, though, producers of non-scripted...

Hollywood goes EST.(Electronic Sell-Through)
February 1, 2008... Screenwriter William Goldman famously remarked that in Hollywood, "no one knows anything." While most interpreted that remark to mean, "Studio executives are [expletive]," Goldman was actually describing the difficulty in predicting a hit....

Monetizing actors: hopefuls are the sums of their parts.(Selling Body Parts)
February 1, 2008... In 1999, London's The Sun and the New York Post ran articles reporting that singer/actress Jennifer Lopez had taken out a billion dollar insurance policy on her most valuable asset--her butt. Although she later denied the claims, the rumors...

Moving with the times: from show biz to shoe biz.(NATPE Review)
February 1, 2008... Perhaps because of the U.S. writers' strike that threatened to cripple the entertainment industry and despite the decision by a number of major studios to abandon the convention floor in favor of suites, the recent 45th annual National...

Fifty percent of advertising at MIP-TV is a waste.(Promotion & Advertising)
February 1, 2008... Look around you as you walk the aisles, the Croisette, or lounge in an insouciantly important manner in the lobby of the Martinez or Majestic and you will see one thing, if you see nothing else: Advertising. Whoever said, "It pays to...

Scenario had the WGA's strike continued.(What If ...)
February 1, 2008... So, the WGA strike is over, there is a new three-year deal in place, and a new scale of residual payments for DVD and non-linear broadcasting has been agreed upon. But what would have happened had the strike dragged on into the summer?...

The calm after the storm. Assessing post-strike damages.(Hollywood Rewritten)
February 1, 2008... Though the bitter negotiating of the writers' union strike is over, the TV industry's new struggles may be just beginning. The Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike against the producers' association came to an end on February 12 when the union...

Conferences & events news.(Calendar)
February 1, 2008... TRAVELERS HAVE RIGHTS Lawyers have negotiated a $203 million settlement against British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways after passengers filed a class action suit in the wake of the carriers' alleged participation in anti-competitive...