BC Crawler

Friday, November 30, 2007
November 30, 2007

By Alex Weprin

[Point, Counterpoint] The AMPTP presented a plan to the WGA that included some new media concessions, but the WGA is not pleased with the proposal. Nikke (24/7) Finke of Deadline Hollywood Daily says that she hears there are more concessions to come. Right now it is a race against time. If they don’t strike a deal soon, the producers might move on to the DGA and try to strike a deal with them.

Says the AMPTP: “The AMPTP today unveiled a New Economic Partnership to the WGA, which includes groundbreaking moves in several areas of new media, including streaming, content made for new media and programming delivered over digital broadcast channels.  The entire value of the New Economic Partnership will deliver more than $130 million in additional compensation above and beyond the more than $1.3 billion writers already receive each year.”

Says the WGA: “Thursday morning, the first new proposal was finally presented to us.  It dealt only with streaming and made-for-Internet jurisdiction, and it amounts to a massive rollback. For streaming television episodes, the companies proposed a residual structure of a single fixed payment of less than $250 for a year's reuse of an hour-long program (compared to over $20,000 payable for a network rerun).  For theatrical product they are offering no residuals whatsoever for streaming. For made-for-Internet material, they offered minimums that would allow a studio to produce up to a 15 minute episode of network-derived web content for a script fee of $1300.  They continued to refuse to grant jurisdiction over original content for the Internet. In their new proposal, they made absolutely no move on the download formula (which they propose to pay at the DVD rate), and continue to assert that they can deem any reuse "promotional," and pay no residual (even if they replay the entire film or TV episode and even if they make money).

Hmmm… Here’s hoping.

[All the way to the Bank] The CNN YouTube debate, though marred by controversy regarding Brig. Gen. Kerr, was the most watched presidential primary debate so far. The win gives CNN the two most watched debates of the year, the Republican YouTube debate and the November 15 Democratic debate.

[Whoops, Sorry About That, Kinda] Facebook will be revamping their new ad system, dubbed Beacon, to respond to complaints from users and activist groups such as Moveon.org. Facebook will let users veto any of the announcements made to friends about purchases made from Facebook partner sites. Currently the system is passive, every time a user makes a purchase at a partner site, a little box pops up in the lower right, if a user doesn't click the box fast enough, it broadcasts the purchase to the users friends. Listen up Mark Zuckerberg: clever idea, bad implementation.

[Ah Ann, is There Anywhere You Won’t Pop Up?] Ann Coulter popped up on C-Span, and CBS Public Eye editor Matthew Felling doesn’t like it: “If the cable networks are where we turn for some bombast and bloviation, C-SPAN is the calm and rational (if not occasionally soporific) voice of reason in the political conversation. The content of C-SPAN might not always be thrilling, but it’s nearly always important. They’re the grown-ups in public affairs broadcasting. So why were they giving the queen of the political food fight a forum?”

Coulter pops up everywhere because she is a good quote. You can be sure she will say something wacky and/or offensive. For some unfortunate reason ( *cough* ratings *cough*) the networks don’t seem to mind. 

[If Dr. House Eats Lay’s Potato Chips, I Will Too] The FCC is looking to crack down on product placement on TV shows, saying they blur the line between commercials and entertainment. One of the examples given was a Seventh Heaven episode in which Oreos were mentioned repeatedly by characters in the show, and were even part of a wedding proposal. On proposal would put a banner or ticker at the bottom of the screen letting the viewer know that the product placement was paid for.

[Nothing Says Local News Like Tequila Ads] WNBC, NBC’s New York flagship station, will begin airing liquor ads on the network. The ads will run against the 11p.m. newscast as well as the late night shows, when over 90% of the audience is over 21. The national networks do not have liquor ads, though NBC did briefly in 2001. A spokesperson for Science in the Public Interest, which opposes the move, said that the WNBC decision might be “‘a test of the potential response’ to running liquor spots on all the local stations owned by NBC.”

[Well This Will be Exciting, I Guess] Video game company Activision is teaming up with Discovery Communications to make games based on their Animal Planet programming. The first show to be turned into a game will be Meerkat Manor, which follows a family of Meerkats. Think The Sopranos meets Alvin and the Chipmunks.

Posted by BC Crawler on November 30, 2007 | Comments (1)