Video Age International articles from October 1997

Video Age International archives from October 1997

Looking into Murdoch's plans: a blueprint for world conquest. (News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch)
October 1, 1997... Author Larry Gelbart seems to have found inspiration for his HBO movie Weapons of Mass Distraction in the feud between Rupert Murdoch and Ted Turner. In real life, Murdoch dwarfs any other media mogul in history. In the media empire that the...

The world's top 100 international TV distributors.
October 1, 1997... In June, Video Age reported that 1996 U.S. TV sales internationally amounted to $3.85 billion. This year sales could reach $4.5 billion. To this figure one can add an estimated $2 billion from companies not belonging to the AFMA or the MPAA. The...

From dean of int'l TV to ambassador of global TV. (former Paramount International Pres. Bruce Gordon)
October 1, 1997... Bruce Gordon, who has served as president of Paramount International Television for more than two decades and has been with Paramount for 30 years, has decided to retire from his current position. However, he has signed a multi-year deal under...

Bruce Gordon: when TV makes dreams come true. (television executive)
October 1, 1997... Few executives can retire from a top position and still have an active role in the industry. Of course, Bruce Gordon is not your average executive. He's been referred to as "the dean of international television" and the "ambassador to the global...

A lifetime in television. (television executive Bruce Gordon)
October 1, 1997... Bruce Gordon was born in 1929 in the Surry Hills neighborhood in inner Sydney, Australia. As a young boy, he amused himself by working on his own magic act. As a teenager, he helped his father sell fruit on Pitt Street by juggling the produce to...

My two cents. (Italy's privacy law)
October 1, 1997... Freedom of speech should be not a matter of opinion but a matter of course. The recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling protecting online speech, sexually explicit or otherwise, compares favorably with the law severely limiting freedom of speech that...

A cheaper DISH. (EchoStar Communications' offer to customers of renting the hardware for its DISH Network DBS satellite service)(Brief Article)
October 1, 1997... EchoStar Communications, perhaps looking over its shoulder at the rental strategy of rival PrimeStar, has decided to offer customers the option of renting the hardware for its DISH Network DBS satellite service. In the past, DISH subscribers...

Broadcast ad spending on the rise.(Brief Article)
October 1, 1997... Despite a continued decrease in audience and ratings, U.S. broadcast television is still the No. 1 advertising medium and will remain so through 2001, according to the 1997 Communications Industry Forecast by Veronis, Suhler & Associates....

The empire strikes back. (Bruce Gordon family's broadcasting investments in Australia)
October 1, 1997... In 1995, the Australian newspaper The Mercury ran a headline in big letters: "The Man With The Magic Touch." The article below noted that "Former schoolboy magician Bruce Gordon, shareholder of a $400 million [U.S. $290 million] television...

Antena 3 taken by Telefonica.(Brief Article)
October 1, 1997... The Spanish telecommunications company Telefonica recently signed a preliminary agreement with Spain's Antena 3 Television enabling Telefonica to take over the management of the TV channel. Telefonica acquired 25 percent of Antena 3, while the...

Stolte and Venza to receive awards. (Dieter Stolte, director general of ZDF German Television; Jac Venza; International Council of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences' Directorate Award and Founders Award)(Brief Article)
October 1, 1997... The International Council of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences will present the Directorate Award to Dieter Stolte, the director general of ZDF German Television, at this year's International Emmy Awards Gala on Monday,...

Networks flip-flop on HDTV. (high-definition television)(Brief Article)
October 1, 1997... It seems that some U.S. broadcasters are thinking about backing out of their promise to offer high-definition TV on the second channel loaned to them by the FCC for digital broadcasting. (Broadcasters made the HDTV promise in order to win the...

Endemol wins WIN. (contract between Endemol Entertainment and World International Network)(Brief Article)
October 1, 1997... The Netherlands' Endemol Entertainment has signed a distribution agreement with L.A.-based World International Network under which Endemol will be WIN's exclusive distributor in 11 territories, including Scandinavia, the Benelux, Portugal,...

U.S. studios TAP Latin America. (agreement between Motion Picture Association and Television Association of Programmers Latin America)
October 1, 1997... The Motion Picture Association of America and the Maryland-based Television Association of Programmers Latin America have announced a renewed commitment to work together to address the regulatory.' challenges that plague pay-TV programming...

Cable Jornadas. (Cable '97 conference in Argentina)
October 1, 1997... This year's Cable '97, organized by ATVC and CASSIDA, focused on the launching of new channels and premium channel systems in Argentina. "Jornadas" also included discussion of the problems with local channels and outside channels. In addition,...

Marenzi takes the wheel at Paramount. (appointment of Gary Marenzi as president of Paramount International Television)
October 1, 1997... On October 1, Gary Marenzi will succeed Bruce Gordon as president of Paramount International Television. Marenzi's responsibilities will include distributing Paramount films and TV programming to international broadcasters, cable channels and...

Tax problems and merger for Kirch. (German media mogul Leo Kirch)(Brief Article)
October 1, 1997... An old tax case is pursuing German media mogul Leo Kirch, boss of Beta. He is accused of having evaded taxes on an undeclared transaction worth $250 million. The word in some German newspapers is that, if found guilty, Kirch could face up to 10...

MGM's roaring duo. (appointments of John Symes as president of MGM Worldwide Television Group and James Griffiths as president of International Television Distribution and MGM Networks)
October 1, 1997... MGM has restructured its television organization and renamed it the MGM Worldwide Television Group. John Symes has been named president of the group. He has assumed additional responsibilities for the international pay-TV and free TV operations,...

The Barry Diller Story, The Life and Times of America's Greatest Entertainment Mogul.
October 1, 1997... It's no secret that the better-known media moguls are considered to be shrewd, difficult and controlling. Rupert Murdoch, Ted Turner, Michael Eisner and Sumner Redstone all fit the bill. So does Barry Diller, but one doesn't hear as much about...

The road from MIPCOM to MIFED: film and TV, perfect together.
October 1, 1997... As MIPCOM opens its doors in Cannes, theatrical sales execs will be keeping a keen eye on what's happening. Sales results during this five-day run act as a barometer, predicting the climate for sales in October, when the theatrical market MIFED...

Licensing '97 International: looking for that brand of gold.
October 1, 1997... For three sweltering summer days in June, licensors, licensees and everyone in between trekked across the baked wasteland surrounding New York's Jacob K. Javitz Convention Center to get to Licensing '97 International. This year's market, held...

MIP Asia holding steady, but for how long?
October 1, 1997... Yes, there will be a fourth edition of MIP Asia (December 46). However, heavy attendance is another matter. After speaking with a handful of last year's participants, Video Age can safely say that this year's MIP Asia will at least match the...

The business of pay-TV.
October 1, 1997... The business of pay-TV is growing in direct correlation with the demand for more television viewing choices. But the definition of pay-TV varies. For example, pure pay-TV is considered to consist of the premium movie channels like HBO, Showtime,...

Canadian pay-TV paying off.
October 1, 1997... Canadian pay-TV has been buzzing since 1988, when 23 stations were licensed. Today there are 35 specialty channels available. Sports channels remain the most popular of the pay channels. These include diversified sports channels (CTV...

Bruce Gordon looks to the future. (television executive)(Interview)
October 1, 1997... Q: When do you think the digital platform will be a viable business? A: The digital platform is already a viable business. Paramount in 1995 closed two major international deals for the digital platform - the first in Germany with the Kirch...

New programs, new plans, new plots, new pay. (television networks)
October 1, 1997... Without doubt, this new U.S. TV season is getting more attention than ever before from the general press. The Wall Street Journal. The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times have devoted countless pages to the subject. That's because...

Playing favorites: a Video Age opinion poll rates the markets.
October 1, 1997... MIP-TV comes out on top It's a situation familiar to industry journalists. You're at a trade show, you've finished interviewing an executive, and the person turns to you and asks, "What does everyone else think of the market?" In order to...

Will top CLT-UFA duo find recognition? (CEOs Remy Sautter and Rolf Schmidt-Holtz)
October 1, 1997... Once in a while, the media and entertainment world produces visionaries whose surnames, effectively, become trademarks. Think Turner, Murdoch and, granddaddy of them all, Disney. But Sautter and Schmidt-Holtz? These two names belong to Remy...

Not just Windows for Microsoft: software giant wants a piece of the TV action.
October 1, 1997... Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is getting close to making his dream of getting Microsoft software into every piece of advanced TV hardware come true. Microsoft's latest television activity took place in June, when Gates invested $1 billion of his...

The private parts of Rysher.(Company Profile)
October 1, 1997... Rysher's foray into the film business left the company with a bad Hollywood hangover. The various successes the company had had were obfuscated by its disappointing performance in the film arena. At the height of its film production addiction,...

Media research companies continue to flourish; accuracy is key.
October 1, 1997... Politicians are said to use statistics the way drunks use lamp posts:for support rather than illumination. Christopher S. Wren, The New York Times It seems that more and more entertainment companies are relying on media research companies for...

Montreal World Film Festival: lots of buzz.
October 1, 1997... The "world" has come for the past 21 years to the Montreal World Film Festival, held in conjunction with the International Film, Television and Video Market (August 22-September 2). The Montreal audience makes it one of the best-attended film...

Digital television: warp speed on a rocky road.
October 1, 1997... American television broadcasters currently use a six megahertz frequency, allocated to them by the FCC, which allows them to transmit a single analog television channel in the standard NTSC format. This channel is displayed on a TV set through a...

Sky Latin America: a deep-pocket venture.
October 1, 1997... Sky Latin America, a strategic alliance between Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. and three other major media groups, was established to provide direct-to-home satellite television throughout Latin America and the Caribbean basin. The Sky consortium...