Through the Wire
By Simon Applebaum, with bureau reports -- Multichannel News, 8/25/2002 8:00:00 PM
No Leo In This Den
Suppose you're American Movie Classics, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. holds a chunk of your equity. It's natural to believe that when you put your seal on a movie-oriented board game displayed in toy and book stores from coast to coast, MGM would tag along — perhaps with classic movie scenes on the cover and questions or stunts taken from its flicks inside.
Get the drift?
Sorry, but drift on. AMC Reel Clues — developed by University Games and hitting Kmart, Toys 'R' Us, Target, Barnes & Noble and Wal-Mart stores this month — has no MGM snapshots on its cover and no direct connection with the studio. In fact, the box just lists film titles, superimposed over a film reel and caught inside film frames. How original can you get?
Why no MGM participation? Too many licensing and intellectual property hoops to jump through, said Tom Barreca, senior vice president, new media and development with AMC's digital ventures division. "The cleanest way to do this product was to keep it agnostic," he explained. "It would have involved a number of sub-licenses to make the MGM connection. You have to deal with so many clearance issues, ending up with so much legwork that there's no profit margin to the game."
The Wire gets that picture, hoping that the next time AMC approaches the game world, MGM gets it too.
Cable, Por Favor
Two weeks ago, The Wire brought to light the TV awards show that — for the second straight year — didn't present a single honor to a cable network or show.
Now, submitted for your attention: A viewership study on the surging U.S. Latino population, covering both English and Spanish-language TV, and … Que pasa cable?
Nowhere to be found. Media-buying agency Initiative Media's Latino trends report, released last week, offers no insights on cable's contribution to the trend. Nada about Galavision, or mun2, or digital Latino programming tiers marketed by Olympusat and Canales ñ. Also nothing on Resurrection Blvd., The Brothers Garcia, Strong Medicine and other weekly cable series produced by or starring Latinos.
What does Stacey Koerner, Initiative's crack media pundit — and its senior VP and director of broadcast research — have to say about this oversight? "We would love to report on these developments," she answered. "Nielsen [Media Research] makes it very difficult for us to get cable data. The cost is ridiculous and the process is clunky. Until Nielsen makes it easier to get the data, there's not much to say."
To Tell the Truth
Advisory: The following is not a Game Show Network item.
Shrinking trade shows have forced planners to take a step back and analyze the purpose of their meetings. To do this, some associations have polled members to determine what they want from their annual get-togethers. They also ask attendees how they would change trade shows.
At least one survey that caught The Wire's eye is keeping it very real. A poll mailed by the Texas Cable Telecommunications Association asks members the usual broad questions, such as topics of interest and necessary additions to the exhibit hall. But under the heading "I attend cable shows because" — with a blank left to be filled — one of the answers available for respondents to check reads, "My boss says I should go, so I do, but I just hang around."
Shock to the System
They call storm damage an act of God. Maybe it was an act of Thor, god of thunder, but it was definitely a natural disaster of the electrical type that hit ESPN executive Sean Bratches's home in Connecticut.
The house was struck by lightning during an hours-long series of electrical storms in the region Aug. 2, and apparently no surge protector in the world would have been up to the task of shielding his cable modem from a serious case of internal melting.
Being a customer of Cablevision Systems Corp.'s Optimum Online service, ESPN's executive vice president of affiliate sales and marketing brought the deceased modem back to a nearby The Wiz store, and picked up a free replacement.
Bratches has yet to get the full happy ending, though. He's not back online though, because the PC the modem was connected to had also been fried.
No related content found.
VIEW ALL GALLERIES
