Tag: tv

Why do writers who hate a topic get assigned that topic in the mainstream media?

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Toby Hadoke addresses some issues he has with the media’s coverage of television, actors, terminology, and ultimately about the lack of respect for the profession and the art: Revelling in ignorance about the medium you write about seems bizarre – especially when such ignorance is used to recommend somebody but, with a little implicit criticism, keep them in their place at the same time (and to what end – apart from to make the journalist look clever?). Looking clever feels terrific when you’re reviewing something, and it’s fantastic if you can enliven your prose with a witty barb or sparkly

Celebrate! The TV credits are going to grow again on the BBC

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Tony Hall, the BBC Director General on ‘credit squeezing’, where television programs reduce the size of the end credits to shoehorn in a trailer for the next program: Yes. Well, we’re changing it. It’s the curtain call. You want to make sure that the creative team get their proper bow. So we have got a new way of doing it, starting right away.” Now to deal with the voiceover interrupting the middle 8 of the Doctor Who theme.

Second screening The Masters, and the slow death of television

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If there’s one area that TV should have the high ground on, it’s live sporting events of national prominence. Yet… The second screen experience slowly replaced the first — I barely looked up at the television. CBS’s reverent, almost whispered coverage took a back seat as I programmed my version of the Masters. The function that would have allowed me to throw the Internet coverage to my big-screen television was not enabled, but that’s only a matter of time. Change often comes very slowly, but then happens all at once. I await once more with keen interest what this year’s

The legions of staff employed by NBC to stop piracy speak out

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In 2009, Mr. Skinner’s unit sent out 427,000 takedown notices. But last year, as illicit videos became more prevalent, that number grew to 3.9 million. For “Suits,” the unit has sent out more than 40,000 notices. Strike that, they’ve only got twenty employees and lots of automation to try and stem their share of “$58 billion of losses” (a number made up by the MPAA). But the WSJ article shows a huge amount of ‘reaction’ to the issues, and no proactive reasons to try and provide a better solution for people who want to watch NBC’s content.

Dear movie industry, have you learned from Napster?

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Bill Wyman (no, of NPR, not the Stones) lays it al out in depth over on Slate. The trouble facing the movie industry right now is the same one the music industry had to confront 10 years ago. This is the summing-up sentence I referred to above.The easiest and most convenient way to see the movies or TV shows you want is to get them illegally… Again, to belabor the obvious: The illegal version isn’t just free. It’s better. Update: This is really a "blog post to which the answer is no", but Tom Sizemore points out on Twitter the