“These new sites, all of which are ad-supported and transmit video with peer-to-peer technology, are seeking to move beyond YouTube by improving video quality, attracting professionally produced content and expanding the viewing experience — which is to say: to be more like TV.
Tag: 08.30.07
Why Do TV Shows Get Canceled?
Audiences are dwindling. “TV is losing its most coveted viewers to the Internet. In a recent IBM survey of more than 2,400 households in the United States, the U.K., Germany, Japan, and Australia, 19 percent of consumers said they spent six hours or more per day on personal Internet usage, yet only 9 percent reported spending the same amount of time watching TV. Sixty-six percent reported viewing one to four hours of TV per day, versus 60 percent who reported the same levels of personal Internet usage.”
Barnes & Noble To Do OJ After All
Barnes & Noble execs have changed their minds and will stock OJ Simpson’s book after all. The book superstore had previously announced OJ had no place on its shelves. “We’ve been monitoring the pre-orders and customer requests, and have concluded that enough customers have expressed interest in buying the book to warrant stocking it in our stores.”
Live Free In A Historic House
“Many state governments own more houses of historical interest than they can afford to maintain, mainly on farms acquired decades ago and converted to parkland. Now a few states have begun turning these properties, along with some of the surrounding land, over to live-in curators, who take on restoration responsibilities in lieu of paying rent or taxes.”
Japan Embracing Canadian Music
“A maple-leaf logo has been added to Canadian CDs in Japan since 2004 as part of an ambitious campaign to create a distinctive Canadian brand here. And while revenues for Canadian pre-recorded music are collapsing at home, Japan is emerging as a crucial market for many Canadian performers, from top-name singers to smaller independent bands.”
The Ethics Of Book Abuse
“Every reader has a personal ethic for how to treat a book, a morality for what can and can’t be done to the physical object.” Is dog-earing a page a violation of the sanctity of the volume, or an easy way to hold your place? What about highlighting key passages, or writing notes in the margins? Or even (gasp!) throwing out an old book you don’t want anymore?
Two Western Mass. Museums Form A Partnership
The Clark Art Institute and the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MassMOCA) have agreed to join forces to share gallery space and collections. “The lease deal for three former factory buildings will increase the Clark’s visibility, and provide the museum with a sensible place to branch out into more contemporary art exhibitions… For Mass MoCA, the arrangement will pump money into the museum’s tiny endowment and perpetually strapped annual budget.”
Arthur Miller, Hypocrite?
Does an article revealing the not-so-well-kept secret that Arthur Miller had a son with Down’s Syndrome, whom he cut entirely out of his life as an infant, taint Miller’s legacy as a playwright? “For many of those who came of age in the middle of the last century a saintly glow hovers around Miller, whose plays have often examined questions of guilt and morality through the prism of family. He was a hero of the left and a champion of the downtrodden.” That image is now in danger of shattering.
New York’s Austrian Arts Giant
Christoph Thun-Hohenstein’s name may not ring a bell if you’re not deeply involved in the New York cultural scene, but the outgoing head of the city’s Austrian Cultural Forum has left a deep impression on those who are, “conceiving programs ranging from the music of 20th-century émigrés to the work of performance artists in the Eastern bloc; maintaining contacts with cultural institutions around the country; even hanging shows himself in his building’s diminutive exhibition space in the wee hours of the morning.”
Why Isn’t Scottish Opera At Edinburgh?
“On Saturday night the Cologne Opera will perform their version of Richard Strauss’s Capriccio at Scotland’s premiere international arts festival. That a German company and not Scottish Opera will take to the stage is being seen as the legacy of cuts made by the Scottish Executive three years ago. Scotland’s national company had been approached to stage an opera but it had proved considerably cheaper to work with Cologne Opera instead.”