Video Age International articles from May 2000

Video Age International archives from May 2000

Rios: EI Conquistador for Telefonica Media.
May 1, 2000... With the announcement last month that Telefonica of Spain had delayed plans to sell shares in its media unit, one could pinpoint when the technology stocks of most markets began to free fall. That Telefonica has intuition one could have...

German TV Poised to Dominate Europe.
May 1, 2000... Similar to the American multimedia market that seems to be dominated by two powerful corporations, AOL-Time Warner and AT&T, Germany is guided by two industry giants: Bertelsmann and the KirchGruppe. After years of negotiations with both...

U.S. Changes Hit Domestic, International TV Buyers.
May 1, 2000... These Los Angeles Screenings are opening under a cloud of domestic and international discontent. On the domestic front, there are the disputes between the networks and their affiliates and the brouhaha over the sweeps that could change the...

Century "C" -- 21st Century Digital Media.
May 1, 2000... The key words of the media at the start of the 21st century are connectivity, communication, creativity, convenience, community, customization, e-commerce and convergence. This century will become "Century C." And there are two words that are...

My Two Cents.
May 1, 2000... Italy's daily Il Corriere della Sera reported on a debate currently inflaming French intellectuals, titled "Risking American Cultural Colonization." Similarly, The Wall Street Journal wrote that the "European governments anxious that American...

Canada's SexNews Channel.
May 1, 2000... Canadian television screens could start to fog up if the federal broadcasting regulator gives the OK for a proposed sex-news channel. Passion Television filed an application with the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission...

Dutch Gov't Cable TV Views.
May 1, 2000... The Dutch government finalized a long-awaited policy paper on cable networks aiming to restructure regulations for improving the speed of digitalization, competition and consumer choice in the Netherlands. The Dutch Parliament debated the...

EuroData's World TV-Watching.
May 1, 2000... EuroData TV released its annual report of television viewing, "1999: One Television Year in the World," analyzing the TV habits of 1.2 billion viewers in 59 countries. The report noted the global trend of increased television viewing,...

India's Kerala Film Fest Grows.
May 1, 2000... Although it leads the world in film output, India has only four international film festivals. The International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) is the second major film festival of India and reported a larger contingent of delegates this year....

Cable Merger Rouses Japan.
May 1, 2000... Japan's two leading cable companies are merging, which is expected to completely alter the landscape of Japan's telecommunications industry. The merger provides major competition for Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) in the race to bring...

UPC Grabs German Cable.
May 1, 2000... United Pan-Europe Communications (UPC), the Netherlands- based cable communications company, recently paid $956 million to acquire EWT/TSS, Germany's fourth-largest independent broadband cable operator. UPC will give a 49 percent share in UPC...

Manifesto For Media Diversity.
May 1, 2000... In response to concern over global developments in the entertainment industry, a group of filmmakers, media professionals, writers and academics will hold a conference from May 22-24 in Valencia, Spain to adopt the "Valencia Manifesto on...

RightsMart's TV Rights Online.
May 1, 2000... Introduced at February's American Film Market and in March at ShoWest, RightsMart.com tours itself as the centralized virtual file market where buyers and sellers can list and locate unexploited film rights for features, shorts,...

IBC To Honor Toy Story 2.
May 1, 2000... The International Broadcasting Convention's Awards Show being held in Amsterdam September 10 will play host to representatives from Buena Vista International, on hand to receive the "IBC Special Award" for their digital cinema screenings of Toy...

Lancaster's Hollywood "A Big Circus".(Review)
May 1, 2000... The story of Burt Lancaster begins with the idea of America, with the belief that you can journey to another place and become another person," wrote Kate Buford in Burt Lancaster: An American Life (Alfred A Knopf, pp. 447). Descended from...

Yetties Eyeball Yuppies at MIP.
May 1, 2000... As indicated by the Video Age Daily at MIP-TV, the TV industry has been taken over by yetties (young, entrepreneurial, tech-based people). The contrast between yuppies and their offspring yetties was most evident at the eight conferences (out...

SPI Gets a Taste of Peppermint.
May 1, 2000... Peppermint, the recently-formed worldwide sales and distribution company, has confirmed an exclusive agreement with the New York-based independent distributor SPI International to distribute more than 400 hours of programming. SPI specializes...

Nuccio's Quest For It's itsy bitsy Time.
May 1, 2000... From Cannes to Munich to Los Angeles, The itsy bitsy Entertainment's Emilia Nuccio is spreading the gospel of toddler-TV power worldwide. In Germany, Nuccio was the first American to be invited to speak at Cartoon Master, an EU-sponsored event....

Comarex Inks EM. TV Jr. Deal.
May 1, 2000... Comarex signed an exclusive representation agreement with EM.TV's Junior to distribute its programming on free TV and cable throughout all of Latin America. The agreement also calls for the development of a Junior channel for cable and...

State of the U.S. TV Stations.
May 1, 2000... Network/affiliate relations sour over compensation/digital spectrum. The implications for the int'l TV industry Relations between the Big Three networks and their independent affiliate stations have become strained as long-standing...

Near-Live Dubbing Service Lends a Latin American Voice.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... Thanks to GlobeCast, a satellite service provider, the long-running U.S. showbiz newsmagazine Entertainment Tonight comes equipped with a new sound. As part of a one-year deal with MGM Networks Latin America, GlobeCast is supplying the dubbing...

Europeans to Co-Produce Fireworks' Action Series Queen of Swords.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... Spain's Morena Films and Telefonica Media and the U.K.'s Amy International Entertainment have signed up as European co-production partners on Queen of Swords, the new action-adventure one-hour series from Canada's Fireworks Entertainment. This...

Venevision International: L.A.'s Early, Late Presence.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... Venevision International has joined many Latin companies in opening its suite earlier in Los Angeles so as to meet with its clients from the region. Venevision will be present at the L.A. Screenings from May 17-25, showing new products and...

Hispanic TV Outshines Anglophone Nets.
May 1, 2000... The U.S. Census Bureau predicts that Hispanics will make up one quarter of the total U.S. population by 2050. Combine that with recent Spanish-language ratings victories over English-language programming, and it seems that "Spanish-language...

Internet Start-Ups: TV's Brain Drain.
May 1, 2000... The Internet start-up phenomenon is tempting top executives away from the traditional broadcasting industry to work in the new "country without frontiers," as UnoDosTres.com's founder and CEO Carlos Barba called it. Formerly serving as...

Broadband: New Mantra for Mainstream TV.
May 1, 2000... While MIP-TV was under way in Cannes, another major TV trade show was taking place in Las Vegas -- the annual National Association of Broadcasting (NAB) convention. Billed as the world's largest broadcasting convention, NAB not only...

What Is Convergence?
May 1, 2000... There seems to be a lot of confusion about the definition of convergence. No one is sure what convergence will look like in five years, but we are now seeing some signs of what consumers want and need and this will shape how convergence plays...

VOD Is the Motivation for iTV Services.
May 1, 2000... Video-on-demand (VOD) is back in the news as cable and telephone companies are introducing new interactive services. After several false starts, the pieces of the interactive television jigsaw puzzle now fit together - the technology works and...

Las Estaciones de TV de los EEUU descubren la Era de Oro con el "Punto Com".(text in Spanish)
May 1, 2000... El Bur[acute{o}] de Publicidad par TV (BTV), que es la asociaci[acute{o}]n de estaciones locales de TV de EE.UU. que trata los asuntos relacionados con la publicidad, ha lanzado una hoja informativa para las estaciones locales de TV, sobre...

El magnate del negocio multimedia de Polonia: Zygmunt Solorz-Zak.(text in Spanish)
May 1, 2000... A unque el futuro de la mayor parte de la Televisi[acute{o}]n de la Europa del Este no luce demasiado brillante, debido al fallo de una fusi[acute{o}]n importante el a[tilde{n}]o pasado, existe un hombre en ese negocio que se muestra "todo...

Modelo para vender contenido de programacion en Ia era de Internet.(text in Spanish)
May 1, 2000... He descubierto una nueva ley de F[acute{i}]sica: Cuanto m[acute{a}]s entiendo un asunto, m[acute{a}]s f[acute{a}]cil me resulta explic[acute{a}]rselo a los lectores. Ll[acute{a}]melo el "Principio de Dom"! Sin embargo, no result[acute{o}]...