Video Age International articles from January 2009

Video Age International archives from January 2009

Ups and downs as recorded through the years by VideoAge.
January 1, 2009... The world over has witnessed an America that, in 2001 began the first of George W. Bush's two presidential terms with the tragic destruction of parts of Wall Street, and ended in 2008 with a dramatic Wall Street crisis. In both cases the entire...

NATPE buyers buoyant 'bout biz, but bearish.(National Association of Television Program Executives)
January 1, 2009... For the past few weeks, distribution companies that will be exhibiting at NATPE have been holding their breath in anticipation of how the worldwide financial crisis will affect business at the Las Vegas market. For the past three months, many...

Africa prepares for television. DISCOP prepares for Africa.
January 1, 2009... A very well financed European businessman recently landed in an African country with a mission to launch a TV station featuring highly innovative content. His first stop was not a bank where he could seek money or a management consultancy where...

Net neutrality: MPAA vs. IFTA.
January 1, 2009... Last November's American Film Market (AFM) was abuzz with the news that freshly-minted President-elect Barrack Obama had come out in favor of net neutrality (i.e. unregulated Internet) in the U.S. Jean Prewitt, CEO of the Independent Film and...

Canada's nets not coined by cable.(World)
January 1, 2009... Canada's biggest broadcast TV networks may be forced to reexamine the way they do business after federal regulators at the Canadian Radiotelevision and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) rejected a proposal that would allow the networks to...

France's public TV ads cut.(World)
January 1, 2009... France's National Assembly has approved a plan to remove advertising from public television The initiative, spearheaded by President Nicolas Sarkozy, was enacted on all four of the nation's public channels early this year. Additionally, the new...

Remembering Janet Fine.(World)(Obituary)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... It's been a year since the untimely passing of longtime VideoAge contributor Janet Fine. To commemorate this tragic milestone, we take a look back at the life and times of the versatile writer, sister and aunt. An expert in TV, film and...

Mumbai attacks tie up media.(World)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... Coverage of a hostage situation in Mumbai by local news outlets has prompted new media regulations in India. Last November, armed terrorists attacked the nation's financial capital, killing more than 125 people and taking hostages at two luxury...

Behavioral ads debated in U.K.(World)
January 1, 2009... Internet advertising, and behavioral targeting in particular, has been a topic of recent dispute in the U.K. Last month, David Heath, member of Parliament and leader of the Liberal Democrats' Commission on Privacy, led a debate in the House of...

Famous quotes.(World)
January 1, 2009... "How did we get here?" --U.S. President George W. Bush showing his aloofness at a Sept. 18, 2008 emergency meeting on the imminent economic meltdown as reported in The New York Times, Dec. 21, 2008.

The man behind the bunnies: dissecting Hugh Hefner.
January 1, 2009... To get a glimpse into the luxurious life of media mogul and notorious womanizer Hugh Hefner, one only has to turn on E!, the cable entertainment channel. Here, amidst the grottos of the Playboy Mansion, he can be seen doddering around benignly...

Shaky economy, floor plans, Latins, drive TV market.(NATPE Preview)(National Association of Television Program Executives)
January 1, 2009... The new year brings with it the very first television market of 2009: the Las Vegas-based NATPE. Like last year's event, which took place smack dab in the middle of the WGA writers' strike in Hollywood, this year's NATPE comes in the midst of a...

The content biz gets chaotic under stress.(Predicting Trends)
January 1, 2009... In 1953, the English writer, L.P. Hartley opened his most famous novel, The Go Between, with the observation: "The past is another country; they do things differently there." Today, he could as easily have been speaking of the future of the...

Singapore takes its film and TV media seriously.(Asia TV Forum Report)
January 1, 2009... Singapore can best be described as a huge, clean, rich city-state shopping mall. In this former British colony, business is a way of life. People's lives are orderly, organized as to facilitate shopping, with the various commercial centers all...

Brazilian TV welcomes challenges, opportunities.(Territories)
January 1, 2009... The year 2008 has been the year of Brazil. The Brazilian film industry's international stature has been growing, and the TV sector has expanded internationally. The year started with director Jose Padilha's Trapa de Elite (The Elite Squad)...

Canada's premier tri-language TV network celebrates 25 years.(Salute to TLN)
January 1, 2009... The year 2009 marks the 25th anniversary of Telelatino (or TLN), a Toronto-based cable and satellite TV channel that offers programming in Italian, Spanish and English. (The company also operates an office in Montreal). To celebrate this...

Latin America TV distribution directory.(Directory)
January 1, 2009... ARGENTINA America Video Films Sales Contact: Utako Niimi Virrey Loreto 2426, 1426 Buenos Aires, Argentina Tel: (54) 11 4787-9098 Fax: (54) 11 4787-9094 E-mail: america@americavideofilms.net ...

La investigacion y desarrollo en television se llama "Piloto".
January 1, 2009... Hace poco, en un vuelo de Los Angeles a Nueva York estuve sentado al lado de una disenadora grafica que con orgullo comento que en los ultimos anos, ella llevaba consigo su set de TV, prefiriendolo a mirar streaming videos de la Internet en su...

Ex ejecutivos encuentran verdadero trabajo como consultores.
January 1, 2009... En el negocio del cine y la television, la vida no termina al jubilarse o cuando "se buscan nuevas oportunidades". De hecho, en muchas ocasiones (la vida) comienza en ese instante, y de manera frecuente, dando consultoria. Alli es cuando el...

La TV Americana va mas alla de sus fronteras.
January 1, 2009... Todo aquel que ha viajado y pasado un rato cambiando canales en un hotel en el extranjero, sabe que la marca de la TV Americana esta en todas partes y se recibe en diferentes idiomas. Gracias a una gran cantidad de reconocidas series, peliculas...

Israeli television: small country, big ambitions.(Territories)
January 1, 2009... The first broadcast in Israel was a military parade in 1968. The first commercial television industry did not even launch until 1993. This limited home market has taught a generation of Israeli content creators to cut costs and look for growth...

Conferences & events news.(Calendar)
January 1, 2009... JAL HARD ON WESTERNERS Choosing Japan Air Lines (JAL) for long hauls is equivalent to choosing airlines such as Delta, which, due to its narrow seats, makes long flights very uncomfortable, at least for tall people. JAL may very well...

My two cents.
January 1, 2009... So broadcasters are now "really" complaining that big movies no longer work on free-to-air television. To that I ask: "What are broadcasters doing to change that?" After all, they control the audience, not the movie producers and/or...