Test Current

The “talking bags” of Fandango must have found more loose change in the theater seats than we thought as it was announced last week that Fandango has purchased Movie.com. The price of the acquisition was not disclosed.

For those of you following the corporate family tree; Comcast bought Fandango in April of 2007. Movies.com on the other hand is owned by Walt Disney Company.

Some of the original reports about the purchase of Movie.com seemed to think that Fandango made the move to get the web address. These days however, users of Movie.com are greeted with news of the Fandango purchase and the news that they have to set-up a new account.

With Movies.com and Fandango, you’ll get the ultimate moviegoing experience. Be sure to sign up for your own Fandango account, as your Movies.com account will no longer be active.

So much for the theory of purchasing Movie.com just for a better web address.

Fandango, which is based in LA, sells tickets for 1,300 theaters nationwide. Their press release concerning the purchase seems to paint Movie.com as more of an entertainment or fan site than anything else. The Associated Press reports that Fandango had 6.3 million monthly unique visitors to its Web site in May compared with 1.9 million for Movies.com and that both sites were launched in 2000.

Shortly after they purchased Fandango in 2007, Comcast unveiled their own entertainment web site called Fancast.com. This site still has the “beta” stamp on its home page, who knows what its fate will be with this Moive.com purchase. All of these divisions are part of the Comcast Interactive Media brand, which Comcast is expecting to turn a profit this year.

Movies.com had previously partnered with MovieTickets.com for their ticketing services. With Comcast stepping things up, the theater consortium that makes up MovieTickets.com and other movie ticket services like Moviefone, owned by AOL, will need to sleep with one eye open.

More Reading:

LA Times Article here

Variety article here

The bad news keeps rolling in for Independent Film as Paramount Pictures announced it will close its indie studio Paramount Vantage. All marketing distribution and production from Paramount Vantage will now be done by Paramount Pictures which is owned by Viacom.

Paramount Vantage had been on quite a streak lately, releasing such acclaimed films as “Babel,” “No Country for old Men,” and “There Will Be Blood” just to name a few. Robert Moore, vice chairman of Paramount Pictures, explained that it was a cost cutting move and the fact that division only made six films a year made it difficult to sustain its own staff.

Audiences have been buying-up tickets for independent film in the last few years, causing more competition among the studios and larger marketing budgets to get that audience attention. It was just about this time last month when we reported that Warner Brothers was closing its art house divisions; Warner Independent Pictures and Picturehouse.

Paramount Vantage, which was launched in 2006, had previously been called Paramount Classics.

More Reading:

The Wall Street Journal article here

LA Times article here

Variety article here

Time Warner is trying to rein in those heavy internet users by charging customers if they go over set limits. Today a test begins in Beaumont, Texas for Time Warner customers where monthly data allowances are in place and it’s a dollar a gig if you exceed the limit.

In the program several tiers exist, similar to a cell phone plan. Time Warner’s 90,000 customers in the test won’t have to pay the extra charge for the first two months, but they will be able to monitor their usage. This may give customers nightmares of the dial-up days. The old AOL metered plans were gladly abandoned as soon as flat rates were introduced.

Other internet providers such as Comcast have also been wrestling with what to do with customers who have the highest data traffic. It will be interesting to see if companies like Apple or Netflix weigh-in on these limits. Any plan to limit the flow of data could greatly affect their video download business.

More Info:

Read the Washington Post article here

The classic TV series “Gunsmoke” has the record for the longest running primetime series… but now they’ll have to make room for Homer and the rest of “The Simpsons.” Thanks to successful salary negotiations, this fall when the Fox Network series “The Simpsons” hits the air for its 20th season, it will tie the record set by “Gunsmoke.”

The new four year deal was inked over the weekend, but because of the long negotiations the season will be cut to 20 episodes from the usual 22. Although this is a four year contract, currently Fox has only ordered one more season.

It sounds like the title for the longest running primetime series isn’t the only record the show will hit. Reuters is reporting that the voice talent in the show will make about $400,000 per show. Last season the actors made $360,000 according to Variety. That would put The Simpson cast right up there with the highest paid sitcom stars.

Although these negotiations took quite some time to complete, they weren’t nearly as heated as some of those in the past between the cast and the network.

“The Simpsons” cast members include: Dan Castellaneta (Homer), Julie Kavner (Marge), Nancy Cartwright (Bart), Yeardley Smith (Lisa), Hank Azaria (Moe) and Harry Shearer (Mr. Burns) and is produced by Gracie Films.

More Info:

Reuters article here

Background info from Variety here

With the summer movie wave starting to crest, it’s nice to see that the audience can still make a film succeed. After enduring the endless PR blitz from “Sex and the City”, “Speed Racer” and the latest Indiana Jones movie, it looks like John Cusack may have a film that shows you can do things the old fashion way – by putting together a good film and letting the audience spread the word.

Check these numbers that would make most distributors have nightmares: On May 23^rd “War, Inc.” opened on only two screens in New York and two screens in LA. This film, about the first War to be outsourced to private enterprise, got fair reviews. One reviewer did said it wanted to be “Dr Strangelove” and another said it was “Grosse Pointe Blank” set in Iraq.

Yet the audience showed up in LA & New York and now the independent First Look Studios says will expand the film release. The original cities will get 10 more screens and “War, Inc.” will also now open in Austin, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Texas and Washington D.C.

Cusack’s credits for “War, Inc.” are multiple; not only does he star in the film, he’s listed as co-writer and as one of the producers.

Many of the films on the subject of Iraq don’t really seem to be at the top of the audience must see list. Case in point, in addition to this dark comedy Cusack was in James Strouse’s 2007 Iraq war film “Grace Is Gone.” Last weekend, “War, Inc.” made more than “Grace is Gone” made in its entire run.

“War, Inc.” also stars: Hilary Duff, Marisa Tomei, Joan Cusack, Ben Kingsley and Dan Aykroyd

More Info:

Watch the “War, Inc.” trailer here.

Official “War, Inc.” site here.

Reviews from NY Times, LA Times, Slate

In a cage match that could prove to be very amusing, Wal-Mart has decided to take on Craig’s List by offering free on-line classified ads. Although the beta site for their service is filled with Wal-Mart’s branding, it’s powered by Oodle, a company out of San Mateo California, which was founded by former Excite and eBay executives.

The site not only has ads from Wal-Mart customer, but also pulls from the resources of Oodle who also powers Lycos Classified, Local.Com, Military.com and a number of newspapers.

It did seem appropriate to see an ad on the front page of the Wal-Mart classified site for “Molly,” a seven year old broke mule that was listed for $600. Over 300 city/areas are listed on the Wal-Mart site for ad listings.

Oodle claims that they are the largest local classified site for a number of products and services. The Wall Street Journal reports that the site has 30 millions items, but unfortunately doesn’t say exactly how many of them would be worth buying.

The International Business Times reports that CraigsList at 30.3 million unique users monthly and Oogle at 5 million users. As far as charges, CraigsList only charges for employment listings in selected cities while Oogle users can also post for free but can pay a fee to command a better position for their listing.

There is an amusing 25 bullet point list of items that may not be sold on the Wal-Mart classified site; so forget it if you wanted to sell fireworks, animal parts or obsene material to name a few. (Check the list here)

Although they are the first retailer to try free classified ads, it’s yet to be seen how committed Wal-Mart is to this project. As you may remember Wal-Mart’s on-line video download service lasted less than a year, however there were some technology problems involved too.

Meanwhile Molly the mule waits for a buyer.

More Info:

To see the ad for “Molly” go here

Read the Wall Street Journal article here.

Read the International Business Times article here.

Here’s a link to some of the amazing video from the 12 hour fire that hit Universal Studio’s backlot on Sunday. View it here.

We’ve already seen it happen in several instances; events happen and the first video from that event isn’t from a network news sources, but from people who are there experiencing it and want to show the rest of the world. We’ve seen this when video has been posted to YouTube of rioting in Tibet or from disasters anywhere in the world.

The change that is occurring in some of these “reports” is that they are no longer just random video that’s posted, but something that looks much more like a “news package.” A stand-up is given by a “reporter” or even someone at a desk is giving a their version of a newscast - to make sure the world knows this information, to show their passion for subject, or to give notice that a subject is under-reported.

YouTube has taken notice and announced that they have pulled together a channel for this information called Citizen News. In a rather roughly presented introduction to the channel the new News Manager at YouTube, Olivia M. (Sorry I couldn’t make out the last name.), tells us about some of the people contributing content. Her first business expense does need to be a better video editing program, even if the amateur look of it is to make people feel anyone can do it. YouTube’s Olivia congratulates the “citizen journalists” and asks viewers to help them shape the Citizen News channel.

Now sure there will be a percentage of this material that many of us won’t want to pay attention to because it doesn’t concern us… and at times it will be a large percentage of the material. But think about what’s at the root of all of this; someone feeling socially responsible and wants to share what they feel is important. This is not a bad thing. So often the apathy just seems to be everywhere and we know when people are motivated like this it invokes change and sometimes even a sort of enlightenment. Also, we know it works when we see governments blocking internet access to this information.

In March at the Digital News Affairs conference in Brussels, Chris Press of CNN was announcing their new iReport.com site and said, “In many ways it’s a lot like YouTube, but with a focus on personal reporting.” Well Mr. Press, I believe YouTube heard you.

See the channel:

Citizen News

ABC is going to try and go where others have failed as they announce that they will bring the web series “In the Motherhood” to their network within the next year. The series currently streams from MSN.com and is reported to have logged 21 million views.

The series is created by MindShare Entertainment and features Leah Remini, of the “King of Queens,” Jenny McCarthy and E! TV’s Chelsea Handler. The storylines revolve around the challenges of motherhood.

MindShare Entertainment developed the show as a marketing tool for Sauve & Sprint. Both company’s names appear in the open of the show and their products are placed in the show too. Word is that Sauve & Sprint will stay involved in the TV version of the show.

Don’t think that this is some low budget on-line show; the six minute version I saw had the writing and production value of a network show already.

You may or may not remember the one episode of the show “Quarterlife” that aired on NBC. Although “Quaterlife” has a good web audience, those viewers didn’t follow it to NBC. That test of shows making the transition to television from the web was thought to mean no others need apply. The demographics for “In the MotherHood” however are completely different and these women still watch plenty of television.

Read More:

New York Times

Adweek

See the show:

In the Motherhood