PROGRAMMING
On Sunday night, The King was defeated by the queens of Wisteria Lane.
“Desperate Housewives” beat the first installment of CBS biopic “Elvis,” in an
important Sweeps Week (ratings period) Sunday night. The rest of the week fared
better for CBS, with the net winning a first place spot. Fox came in second in
overall viewers (but first in the 18-49 demo); ABC trailed as a close third;
meanwhile, NBC fell way behind to be number four. The WB beat UPN by a hair —
3.32 million to 3.3 million respectively. [E! Online]
E! Online

U.K. reality TV has gotten rather cultured. A new Channel 4 show, dubbed “The
Play’s The Thing,” will search for the next big British playwright. The
winner of the contest will see his or her play staged on London’s famous West End.
[BBC News]

BBC News

Kids’ movies just got a whole lot cooler. Andre 3000, one half of hit rapping
duo Outkast, has signed a deal with Nickelodeon to star and produce a Nick
Movie, “The Hit,” in which a little fifth-grader looking to find a new wife for
his father, realizes that Cupid is his next-door neighbor. [ABC News]
ABC News

BUSINESS
Controversy and executive back-stabbings aside, things are looking good for
the Mouse House. The Walt Disney Company saw increased earnings in the second
quarter of 2005. Strong performance from its film studio and increased sales of
DVDs, as well as higher ratings driven by hit shows on Disney's ABC
television network are credited for the improvement. Higher income from the company’s
ESPN and ABC Family cable channels also had a positive effect. [The New York
Times]
The New York Times

It’s a good time to be a public broadcaster. The Ford Foundation, the main
financial backer of public broadcasting during its formative days, is
undertaking a $50 million initiative to support non-profit media. Thirteen public TV,
radio and other media organizations, will receive the grants over a period of
five years. [The New York Times]
The New York Times

TECHNOLOGY
The Brits are gearing up to join the mobile TV party, as a testing period
kicks-off in Oxford this July. The trial, run by NTL Broadcast and O2, will run
for six months, and make news and cartoons available to cell phone users. All
350 testers will be able to see shows from the Discovery Channel, CNN, the
Cartoon Network and a short-film channel called Shorts International. [BBC News]
BBC News

CONTROVERSY
Apparently, Internet piracy has New Zealand broadcasters quaking in their
boots. As more and more TV viewers look to Internet downloads in order to watch
their favorite U.S. programs before they ever even air in their country,
broadcasters must think of new ways to lure their advertisers to spend money. [The
New Zealand Herald]
The New Zealand Herald

Employees of the BBC will not sit idly by and watch their jobs get pulled out
from under their noses. Journalists and technical workers at the BBC have
voted to strike against the 2,050 job cuts of which director General Mark
Thompson warned earlier in the year. [CBC Nova Scotia]
CBC Nova Scotia

LEGAL
In a victory for TiVo lovers (and their friends) everywhere, a U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals has ruled that the Federal Communications Commission (the U.S.
regulatory agency), in an effort to prevent digital shows from being copied
and shown on other TVs, computers and video players, had exceeded its authority
in requiring anti-piracy technology on digital and consumer devices. [Calgary
Herald]
Calgary Herald

FILM
Seems as though big-screen technology is making a big bang in Mexico. Mexican
theater chain Cinepolis will add three additional Imax screens to the two
that are currently up-and-running (in Mexico City and Monterrey). The others will
open in Guadalajara, Puebla, Mexico City and an unspecified location. [The
Globe and Mail]
The Globe and Mail

The firmament in Cannes is full of stars. Today, Indian actress Aishwarya Rai
declared the beginning of the Cannes Film Festival after an overhead
gymnastic display by a member of Cirque du Soleil. The glamorous 11-day event opened
with a red carpet screening of surreal French drama “Lemming,” one of 21 films
competing for the Palme d'Or award. This year, the jury is expected to choose
a more entertaining and less political film than last year’s winner,
“Fahrenheit 9/11.”[BBC News]
BBC News

PRESS RELEASE CLIPS
As 4Kids Entertainment gears up for its first season of girls’ action anime
series “Mew Mew Power,” a number of international broadcasters are already on
board. The show will find a home on SIC in Portugal, Alter Channel in Greece,
Nickelodeon in Australia, TVNZ in New Zealand, MNET in South Africa,
Children’s Channel in Israel, Cartoon Network in Latin America and Minimax in Hungary,
Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania.
4Kids

MTV Networks International has terminated its agreement with Craig Media in
Canada. Subsequently, the channels currently known as MTV Canada and MTV2 will
be rebranded on June 30, 2005. The two networks were among the channels CHUM
acquired in its purchase of Craig Media in 2004. New names of the channels and
program titles will be unveiled in the coming weeks.
CHUM Limited

Earthworks Entertainment, a three-person animation company, which is publicly
traded as part of NASDAQ, will be rolling out its kids properties at
Licensing Show 2005. The company holds licensing and merchandising rights to “Corneil
& Bernie,” “Little Suzy’s Zoo,” and many more internationally recognized
brands.
Earthworks Entertainment

Endemol appears to have had a very busy MIP-TV. Now, post-MIP, the Dutch
company has closed deals for formats, ready-made programs and game shows with
broadcasters from all over the world. Some highlights include: a three-year deal
with Brazil’s TV Globo for series 6, 7 and 8 of “Big Brother”; a deal with RTL
Croatia for “All You Need is Love”; a deal with the Middle East’s MBS for
“Worlds Apart”; and a deal with Sony in India to broadcast “Fear Factor” and
“Operacion Triunfo.”
Endemol

Little boy-mummy-pharaoh Tutenstein is a hit in Europe. Porchlight
Entertainment has sold an additional 13 new episodes of “Tutenstein” to Jetix Europe.
Porchlight

Sony Pictures Entertainment has achieved a major victory in a copyright
infringement case. Writer Nancey Silvers had claimed that Sony stole her script for
the TV movie “The Other Woman” for the movie “Stepmom.” The copyright on
the original script was held by Frank & Bob Films, which had assigned Silvers
the right to sue for infringement. However, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
ruled that a copyright holder couldn’t assign or sell the right to sue for
copyright to someone else.
Sony Pictures

VIZ Media’s cyber crime-fighting show, “MegaMan NT Warrior,” has been sold
to four terrestrial stations throughout Latin America: TV Globo in Brazil,
Televisa in Mexico, America TV in Peru and Venevision in Venezuela. In other VIZ
Media news, the company has named Spin Master Ltd. master toy licensee and
Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing master publishing licensee for “Deko Beko
Friends.”
VIZ Media

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