You notice television, radio, etc. have made a lot of hay off the decline in the fortunes of daily newspapers?
This is from the new posting at mediabuyerplanner.com:
Wall Street firm UBS is predicting that ABC’s owned-and-operated stations could see revenue tank by as much as 30% in the first quarter of 2009.
Such a decline, which would follow an O&O decline of 15% in the fourth quarter of 2008, is likely attributable to a decline in spending by U.S. automakers, writes MediaPost. More bad news is expected to follow in coming months, with revenue expected to fall at least 25% over the next two quarters.
UBS expects that Disney’s ABC network will see a 12% drop in revenue, to $869 million, a less drastic drop than the previous quarter, according to Broadcasting & Cable. Cable will see a 9% decline in advertising, plus a welcome 9% jump in revenue from subscriptions.
Ad revenue makes up 20% of Disney’s total revenue.
In coming weeks, Disney is expected to unveil details on its much-rumored partnership with Hulu. Chatter has it that Disney is in negotiations with Fox and NBC to take an equity stake in Hulu.com. In exchange, Disney would get broader distribution of its ABC shows via the video site.
Disney also recently inked a deal with YouTube to make short-form content available on the Google site, in an effort to gain broader distribution for its ABC television programs.
The corporate media can not support itself in these economic conditions. The more we can get back to local ownership of media based on ads from local businesses the healthier the media will be in general.
And we must develop other ways to pay for content regardless of the platform.
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DVDs so far this vacation week: Tom Tyler's "Santa Fe Bound, " an above average entry in Tom's series from Poverty Row producers Reliable Pictures. The film has a bigger cast and better sets than many of the Reliables and Tom seems to be enjoying himself in the role of a drifter who falls into the middle of a murder plot to take over a ranch. Perhaps it is because his wife Jeanne Martel played the heroine. The Alpha DVD used a pretty good print with no jump cuts.
"Revenge of Frankenstein:" I've never had the opportunity of seeing all of the Peter Cushing Frankenstein films and now the folks at Big Lots are offering two of the titles in their blow-out of DVDs. How can I resist a $3 DVD? The second film in the series is extremely well-done with a great premise and a fairly remarkable ending. Of course I would watch just about anything with Cushing as he is one of my favorites.
I got to meet him at a Famous Monster of Filmland Convention in NYC in the mid-1970s. he was standing by himself in the lobby of the then Hotel Commodore and I walked up to him and welcomed him to the Unites States. He was extremely gracious and wanted to know who I was and where I came from, etc.
In the days well before people charging to autographs Cushing signed for hours, literally for everyone who wanted his signature.
© 2009 Gordon Michael Dobbs
2 comments:
Somewhat related: The publisher of Motor Trend filed for bankruptcy yesterday. A Trend indeed.
The corporate ways of the 20th Century are at an end; great writeup, Mike.
REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN is my favorite of all Terence Fisher's films, and in its way the best and most subversive of the entire Hammer lineage. That ending is a real stunner -- interesting that none of the subsequent films ever followed up on it's core revelation, or that it took Frankenstein's assistant to succeed where he never could or would!
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