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Comcast Chairman/CEO Brian Roberts surprised attendees of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas Tuesday by unveiling a new cable modem capable of downloading a two-hour movie in high definition in just four minutes. The same film would take more than six hours to download via a high-speed DSL modem, he said, or seven days via a dial-up modem. Roberts said that he expects millions of the modems to be delivered to Comcast subscribers by the end of the year.
Warner Bros., which distributed some 1,000 60-day warning notices to employees on November 12, notifying them that they could be laid off as a result of the current writers’ strike, is expected to begin letting many of those employees go any time after Friday, published reports said today (Wednesday). Today’s Hollywood Reporter and Variety quoted a Warner Bros. spokesperson as saying that the so-called WARN notices were required under federal law, but she declined to indicate how many pink slips might be issued. The spokeswoman added, “Due to the ongoing WGA work stoppage, some studio divisions will have to lay off employees. We regret the impact this will have on our employees, and we hope to bring them back to work once the WGA strike ends.” Daily Variety said that representatives of Disney Sony, DreamWorks and 20th Century Fox said that they have no similar cutbacks in the works. Meanwhile Axium International, a Hollywood payroll services company, filed for bankruptcy Tuesday, one day after telling its employees not to return to work. The company did not indicate whether the writers’ strike had been responsible for its plight.
Here in the U.S., our head of state couldn’t seem to master the Segway, but Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II is apparently quite the video game diva.
The undoubtedly reputable U.K. publication The Peoplereported earlier this week that the 81-year-old royal got a hold of a Wii console (according to a “Palace source,” it belongs to her 25-year-old grandson, Prince William) and “showed all the signs of becoming a Nintendo addict.”
The Queen’s game of choice seems to be Wii Bowling (what, did you expect Call of Duty 3?) and the source told The People that her “hand-eye coordination was as good as somebody half her age.”
Rolling off a reputation for cutting-edge Yank series including “House,”“Lost” and “The Simpsons,”Fox was Spain’s most popular pay TV channel last year.It upped daily viewers 23% to an average 1.25 million, for a 4.4% share of paybox auds, according to research company Multimedia Corp.
Spain’s second-rated pay channel by aud share was Sony’s AXN (4%), third was Sogecable’s premium sports/movie service Canal Plus (3.3%), currently only carried by Digital Plus.
Spain’s pay TV aud is building slowly. In December, pay TV took 16.2% share of the total audience, up from 14.5% 12 months earlier.
Holy work-stoppage, Batman! The ongoing WGA strike now has Warner Bros.’ superhero bonanza Justice League of America in its crosshairs. A source tells Hollywood Insider that filmmakers would like another script rewrite and are now debating whether to begin shooting without one. The studio has a Jan. 15 deadline to either greenlight League for a spring production start — meaning a summer ‘09 release — or push it into the post-strike ether. (Warner Bros. had no comment.) All seven superheroes have been cast — among them, Adam Brody, according to one report — but it remains to be seen whether they’ll get to fly this year.
The booming popularity of Nintendo’s Wii console and DS handheld sent the combined sales of game machines and gaming software in Japan to a record high last year, according to research by a Japanese publisher.The results underline the stellar success of Nintendo Co., the Japanese maker behind Super Mario and Pokemon games. The Kyoto-based manufacturer has pursued a strategy to reverse the gradual decline that has ailed the industry in recent years by introducing games that appeal to newcomers, including the elderly and women.
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 9 (UPI) — Since the Writers Guild of America strike began Nov. 5, feature film production in Los Angeles is up 52 percent compared to the same period last year.
Most movie studios stockpiled projects in anticipation of the strike.
TV production, however, is at a virtual standstill with all but one scripted series shut down because of the strike, creating a direct economic impact of $160 million per week, Variety.com reported Wednesday.
Warner Bros. has notified more than 1,000 employees in its studio facilities operations that an unspecified number of people will soon be let go.
“It now appears that the WGA’s strike will continue for the foreseeable future and we must begin to scale back our operations due to the decline in production activity,” Warner Senior Vice President Joann Black said in a letter.
BRUSSELS, Belgium - Apple Inc. will scrap online pricing policies across Europe for iTunes music downloads and soon charge consumers in Britain and the rest of Europe the same amount, the company and the European Union said Wednesday.
Apple charges about 9 cents more per song in Britain compared with prices in nations that use the euro. The company said it has to pay more to record companies in Britain for distribution rights.
Did you catch Letterman getting his beard shaved off? Did you pick up on the impromptu product placement? Can’t buy better advertising than that - huh?
