Video Age International articles from October 2001

Video Age International archives from October 2001

Big Bucks at High Altitude: Airlines' Soaring Back-End.(market for inflight entertainment)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... Are all program distributors taking advantage of the $3.28 billion annual audiovisual market that the worldwide airline industry represents? Just imagine the numbers: more than 217 international airlines, 5,364,000 yearly flights, 1.07 billion...

Producing Telenovelas: a Matter of Location.
October 1, 2001... The golden age of soap operas is fading in the U.S. and other parts of the world, because younger people do not have the patience required to become immersed in the endless loops. Telenovelas have conclusion to their storylines, thus they...

Sumner Redstone's Book Illuminates Show Biz.(Passion to Win)(Review)
October 1, 2001... "I am not yet ready to talk about succession, I am always very ready to talk about success... What am I going to be doing five years from now?... I still want to be number one." This is how Viacom's chairman and CEO, Sumner Redstone, ends...

Eastern Europe: The Next Harvest.(television distribution opportunities)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... DISCOP, Russia, Internet Thanks to a growing number of independent channels gaining a foothold in Eastern Europe, the television market is becoming increasingly interested in American programming. According to Marion Edwards, executive vp...

Video Age: Once the House of Warhol.(offices former home of Andy Warhol)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... VideoAge has received permission from the licensing division of the Andy Warhol Foundation to display a brass plate in front of its New York offices commemorating the artist. The plaque states: "The House of Warhol. Andy Warhol Lived Here:...

Helping Africa: One Phone at a Time.(improving telecommunications)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is holding its 24th annual Telecom event from November 12 to 16 in Johannesburg, South Africa. This will mark the fifth time that organizers of the ITU event have brought it to Africa, a continent...

Malatesta at Global Media.(Catherine Malatesta, Anthony J. Scotti form new company)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... International TV executives Anthony J. Scotti and Catherine Malatesta have joined their considerable forces to form Global Media Television, a division of Scotti's Global Media Management Group. Officially launching at MIPCOM, the company plans...

D-TV Standard A Definite Maybe.(digital television)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... After years of disputes as to just how digital television will become the norm, Germany's KirchGruppe has decided to take action by introducing new MHP (Multimedia Home Platform) technology for its set-top boxes. MHP is an open standard for...

Satellite Vs. Cable: Who Will Win Canada's Digital TV War?(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... Canadians agree that digital TV is the way of the future, but the question remains, what road will they take to get there? Currently, satellite providers lead cable in the digital TV competition. Research claims that satellite providers boast a...

Replication Vs. Duplication.(copying CD-Rs)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... The two methods of copying CD-Rs, duplication and replication, continue to battle for supremacy. The main issue is economics, especially if applied to DVDs. The DVD and CD share the same DNA, even though DVDs have 14 times the storage...

Paramount's New Post, Promotion.(Paramount International Television, James Hurlock)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... Paramount International Television has promoted James Hurlock to senior vp, Sales. Hurlock has relocated to Los Angeles from Sydney, Australia, where he served as vp of Paramount's Asia/Pacific region. In his new post, he will continue to...

Videotron's Payment Problems.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... Many suppliers and contractors are livid -- some are even pursuing litigation -- over alleged chronic payment delays at Canada's Quebecor Inc.'s Videotron cable and telecom operations. Reportedly, multiple companies, including Novasys Inc. and...

LETTERS.
October 1, 2001... The story "Plays Can Pay, TV Banks on It" is really great. Thanks for taking such care with details and for intelligent, well-rounded reporting. It's nice to find a reporter who "gets it." Lisa Batchelder Channel 13/PBS, New York, NY...

Television Anonymous.(Glued to the Tube: The Threat of Television Addiction to Today's Family )(Review)
October 1, 2001... Most addicts eventually figure out that they have a problem. People understand that acceptance is the first step toward kicking a habit. However, in the last few decades, a more insidious substance than drugs has managed to worm its way into...

Vertical, Horizontal Integration Change the Face of Television.
October 1, 2001... Soaring production costs, the softening advertising market and the need to find more revenue streams across multi-platforms to fund the network and studio businesses, are the driving forces behind the ever-increasing vertical integration of TV...

Merger Muscle Helps Deflect Soft Ad Market.(global communications companies)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 2001... In boardrooms throughout the entertainment industry, a new media mantra is heard: size does matter. Because of their size and buying power, companies such as AOL/Time Warner, Fox's News Corp., Vivendi/Universal and Viacom/CBS are uniquely...

Debate over Repurposing. But What the Heck is It?(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... Returns are almost as old as television itself. But there's a new kind of television rerun that has the potential to significantly change the current business model. This season's new buzz word is "repurposing," sometimes referred to as...

Venevision: A Vision Beyond Latin America.
October 1, 2001... Venevision International, one of the world's leading program distributors, has proved to be a success since its establishment on September 15, 1982 as an offshoot of Venezuela's TV network Venevision. The Florida-based company was originally...

Albert Maysles: 50 Years of Reality Programming.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... Reality programming may be the new hot genre, but New York-based award-winning director Albert Maysles has been doing it for 50 years. Albert and his late brother and collaborator, David, are credited with the creation of "direct cinema," an...

Public-Access Excesses Turn into TV Networks' Successes.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... The Saturday Night Live sketch Wayne's World on U.S. TV network NBC, translated the misadventures of two low-budget cable access TV hosts into two hit films. However, commercial public-access success does not only occur in fiction. There are a...

Merger Slaloms, DotCom Doldrums at SPORTEL.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... With sports television programming, licensing and marketing growing faster then ever before, organizers of the 12th annual SPORTEL Monaco believe that the conference will undoubtedly exceed attendance expectations. Although it is usually...

MIPCOM: The Future is Not Like It Used to Be.(conference in Cannes)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... Not too long ago, the months preceding a market were filled with enthusiasm and high expectations. These days the future isn't what it used to be. Although MIPCOM 2001 takes place in sunny Cannes, an uncertain global economy may turn the city's...

New Season, New Deals for the Studios. Stars Galore.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... Following the Los Angeles Screenings, critics were predicting a formidable new U.S. TV season. The season began on September 17. Wrote Howard Rosenberg in the Los Angeles Times: "The fall promises an unusually strong lineup of new series. Who'd...

Promax in Search of a New Mission?(conference in Miami)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... The international television business has changed and so has the Promax conference. The question is: What kind of an event has it evolved into? And where will Promax go from here? Not too long ago, it was clear: Promax was a gathering of...

Banff TV Festival: Expensively Rich.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... Discussions on "Pushing the TV Envelope," the role of the Internet in television, the aggressive Canadian Immigration Services and the high cost of attending the Banff Television Festival permeated the 22nd annual event in the Canadian Rocky...

Q&A on U.S. Digital TV with NAB's President.(National Association of Broadcasters president Edward O. Fritts)(Interview)
October 1, 2001... Edward O. Fritts presides over the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) in Washington, D C., a lobby organization with 7,000 embers that groups all U.S. radio-TV stations. Until recently, NAB also represented all the U.S. TV networks....

Union in Search of Internet Rights Models.(Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists executive Thomas Tapley)(Interview)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... In conjunction with the downturn of the economy, the Internet is causing more than one headache for various talent unions. Topics of dispute include residuals, sales windows and even how projects are conceived in term of whether an original...

Internet Q&A with NATPE's Bruce Johansen.(National Association of Television Program Executives president)(Interview)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... VideoAge. You've been a broadcaster, a producer, a distributor, and now the president of the Santa Monica, California based National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE), one of the world's largest TV organizations. Give us your...

The Net Nabbed TV's Best: Where Are They Now?(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... The sudden boom of dotcom disasters hammered reality into web know-it-alls and high-profile broadcasters into the ground. Television technicians, managers and journalists were originally lured to the web by stratospheric salaries. Now the...

DISCOP 2001 Successfully Repositions Market.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... The recent takeover by Key3 Media Group did wonders for DISCOP 2001, which hit record highs during its ninth annual market event that took place at the end of June at the Hyatt Hotel in Budapest, Hungary. This edition proved that it has...

Television and the Internet in the Ex-Soviet Bloc.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... In Eastern Europe, television reaches the entire population. The region is served by a myriad of networks, local stations, satellites and, in Moscow, by a digital-TV service via microwaves. Cable TV is also highly developed in the area,...

Russia Relies on New TV Sets.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... For years, even Russians resisted buying Russian-made goods, which were typically unreliable or dangerous. But with the financial crash of August 1998, the ruble depreciated and imported consumer goods were no longer a viable option for most...

My Two Cents.(Column)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... Reading the headlines in the opinion pages one gets the idea that vertical, horizontal or transversal integrations are bad. Then, flipping to the business sections, we are informed of yet another acquisition, merger, divestiture or leveraged...

Canada Becomes an "ideaCity".(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... The best and the brightest of what Canada's film, TV and finance industries have to offer were showcased at "ideaCity: Ideas Change the World," a three-day conference held in June, designed to stimulate unconventional notions and dialogue among...

MIFED's New Face.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... The 68th annual MIFED, the industry's Milan-based film event, will have its yearly market from October 28 to November 1. Set, as always, within the hallowed halls of the Fiera Milano's fairgrounds, this year's market will continue to showcase...