Researchers report that “older women who say talk shows and soap operas are their favorite TV programs tend to score more poorly on tests of memory, attention and other cognitive skills.”
Tag: 03.20.06
FCC: High Fines For Indecency Are Warranted
The FCC defends its decision to fine US broadcasters almost $4 million for indecency. “Whenever the commission is trying to determine what is appropriate and inappropriate, there’s inherently lines that end up being drawn. And all of that ends up involving the context of the way particular words are used or not used. This debate is not new.”
SXSW – Marketplace To Bypass The Majors
“As the major-label recording business struggles with ungovernable competition online, many musicians have decided that the way to make a career is in the mode of troubadours from time immemorial: performing live and hitting the road. But where troubadours depended on word of mouth, now musicians can spread their own reputations online; at SXSW, as the event is known, many seek the next link.”
Peter Shaffer At 80
Playwright Peter Shaffer is 80. “Shaffer hasn’t had a play open at the National for 21 years. But during the 1960s and 1970s he was responsible for four of the theatre’s biggest successes: The Royal Hunt of the Sun, Black Comedy, Equus and Amadeus. Hits were his department. It is said that during the dark days of the early ’80s, revenue from his plays kept the National in business.”
Louisville Orchestra Strikes Contract Agreement With Musicians
The troubled Louisville Orchestra has reached an agreement on a new five year contract with musicians that averts the Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing that was threatened for early next month.
A Public Broadcasting Endowment?
The US is planning a major auction of broadcast bandwidth, which could mean a bonanza for public broadcasting. “The auction, now scheduled for 2009, is being made possible by the switch from analog to digital broadcasting technology. Digital broadcasting requires less bandwidth than analog, meaning parts of the spectrum can be freed up for sale to cell phone companies, wireless Internet firms and others.the auction could generate anywhere from $500 million to $5 billion that could be used to set up a permanent trust fund for public broadcasting.”
Latino Theatre Company Wins Management Of Theatre Center
The Latino Theatre Company has been granted money to manage the Los Angeles Theatre Center in downton LA. “The awarding of the management agreement brings to a close a drawn-out — and often contentious — battle over who should run the historic venue, which served as a home to the Latino Theater, Will & Company, Moving Arts and Playwrights’ Arena theater companies.”
Measuring The Video Audience In The Tivo Age
Nielsen is figuring out ways to measure ratings for shows on Tivo, on cell phones, on computers. But if one of the big draws to Tivo is being able to skip commercials, what do ratings matter to advertisers?
New Life For Old Sounds
“Curators at the University of California at Santa Barbara’s Donald C. Davidson Library have digitized 6,000 late 19th-century and early 20th-century wax and plastic cylinder recordings — precursors to the flat record. The audio, which includes ragtime hits, vaudeville routines and presidential speeches, encapsulates history with crackles and hisses, but archivists say preserving the sounds now is vital because the cylinders are deteriorating.”
Movie Theatres Stuck In Digital Divide
The movie theatre industry has been promising a switch to digital for years, but it still hasn’t happened. “Digital cinema promises to slash distribution costs associated with shipping heavy tins of 35-mm prints to thousands of theaters worldwide. That will give cinema owners new choices and flexibility in booking movies and other kinds of entertainment content, like live concerts or sporting events. But cinema owners still worry that the digital equipment might require constant upgrades, be more complicated to operate, or break down more often than what they’ve got in their projection booths today.”