June 12, 2008

Hollywood Seeks Piracy Deal With FCC

Studios would distribute movies via cable sooner in return for blocking capabilities, and more news.

By Steve Goldstein

News Briefing for Thursday, June 12, 2008

Hollywood movie studios are asking the FCC for permission to block signals from certain types of TV and component plugs as a way to prevent piracy, the Wall Street Journal reports. As part of the proposed deal, new movie releases would reach consumers earlier via cable operators and satellite distributors. [Wall Street Journal]

Some businesses do well in good economic times and bad. We’ll always need plumbers, right? Same with garbage hauling. And with the TV business. Never mind all that overblown hype about ad skipping. People watch TV whether they’ve hit the jackpot or the skids, and the programmers know how to reshape themselves for the times. As the New York Times reports, two such programmers are HGTV and TLC, which have turned the housing slump to their advantage. [New York Times]

Discovery Communications’ top executives make a lot of money. [Wall Street Journal]

Los Angeles court officials have inadvertently helped publicize HBO’s documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired. [Hollywood Reporter]

The 58-floor Comcast Center opened in Philadelphia. [Trading Markets]

Late Stories
Suddenlink said today it will build a $3.5 million regional call center near Parkersburg, W  VA. The edifice should be completed in October. The MSO  operates a call center there, but it has outgrown that facility. It plans to add 30 jobs to the 188 full-timers employed in the current building. The regional call center will serve Suddenlink’s 240,000 video, Internet and phone customers in a five-state area centered in West Virginia.

Season 5 of Bravo hit Project Runway returns early on July 16 and in a new time slot, 9:00 pm. The series is scheduled to move to Lifetime this winter.

NBC Universal will stage a comprehensive cable affiliate marketing push highlighting the peacock’s 3,600 hours of multiplatform coverage (700+ hours on cable) of the Beijing Olympics, which begin Aug 8. The integrated campaign will include a local ad sales push, a general awareness campaign, pre-Games free On Demand and broadband campaigns. Also on the docket are promotions touting HD, FOD, broadband, and interactive TV.

Wednesday's Top Stories

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