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Time Warner Cable has finished it’s contract with Fox Broadcasting and it’s time to renew. This time around Fox is asking for some compensation for their local affiliates: about $1 per subscriber. Now Time Warner is willing to pay a fee but it’s looking at more like 20cents per subscriber (something closer to what they pay for CBS affiliates). An agreement could not be reached so Time Warner decided to play hard ball and start a big PR campaign to go after the “greedy broadcaster”

Here’s a better explanation from WSJ…

They asked the public whether we wanted TWC to “Get Tough” with the broadcasters or “Roll Over”. Of course, the results of such poll was never going to affect the negotiations. It was a BS campaign. Even if you select “Roll Over” they give you “another chance” to make the correct decision. It’s like, “We hear you, but we’re going to get tough for you”

Not to be out gunned, Fox came back with their own PR campaign to blame the “greedy cable supplier”

Fox is saying that TWC is just using this as excuse to raise cable rates and that the evil corporation that brings in billions is being stingy with money.

And caught in the middle – the hostage of January premieres including the premiere of American Idol, January Bowl Games, and the return of popular hit shows like House, Simpsons, and Glee.

So who’s right? They’re both full of it. Honestly I would be more on the side of Fox – costs are costs. Besides, I have no great love affair with TWC – my experience with them on their cable media side hasn’t shown me that it is a particular well run company.

In reality, this is negotiation is far more complicated than just who’s making more money. Just saw this article from B&C about taking Fox to the FCC. I can’t proclaim to understand really what’s going on, but it sounds like TWC struck a deal with Sinclair which owns several Fox affiliates. So they’re claiming Fox Broadcasting is butting in with affiliate’s retransmit negotiations with the cable suppliers which may be a violation of FCC rules.

Or something like that.

And as a heavy viewer of Fox myself, I have a dog in the fight.

What I do know – once this is all settled, both sides are going to be winners. I predict TWC will be forced to raise rates and Fox Broadcasting will get a raise in fee. TWC will blame Fox but I really don’t think anyone will pay attention.

It’s definitely NOT in the best interest of either side to pull the Fox signal from TWC. From Fox’s standpoint, it means the loss of millions of viewers. From TWC, it’s a could mean loss of millions of subscribers. I have a sneaking suspicion a deal will be struck at 11th hour with both sides emerging declaring victory for the little guy. But its really the giants battling over who gets what part of the carcass that is the cable subscriber.

I sound like an evil anti-corporate person right now… I’m not, but I don’t like to pretend that corporations are watching my back. Nobody watches your back. Not big business, big government, or big union. They’re all out from for themselves.

But I digress. I really doubt we’ll see Fox disappear from the lineup. I could be wrong though but I would put the odds at 5 to 1.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Reactions to Inglorious Basterds

Dec 24th

Posted by GJ in Films

401No commentsReactions+to+Inglorious+Basterds2009-12-24+09%3A29%3A14GJ

Well I’m a bit late to the party. Frankly I had almost forgotten that I had wanted to see Basterds when it came out but one thing led to another and I didn’t get around to it. So when I saw it was advertised as coming out on DVD/Blu-Ray – well I jumped on Netflix and had them send me a copy.

I’m really glad I did.

Quentin Tarantino is quickly becoming one of my favorite working directors. In some circles who enjoy seeing his failure as he climbs up the ladder this might be very much a passe thing to say. But say it I will. His dialogue isn’t just quirky to be quirky. Although I will admit there are a few scenes in Basterds that should have been trimmed down a bit – every scene contains so much subtext between the characters that when it does finally boil over – it explodes.

It’s refreshing and I think something that aspiring filmmakers and writers are told NOT to do.

Quentin lets his characters talk. And he lets a scene breathe. That’s something that coming from a TV commercial background where it’s all about shoving in more in less, is so novel.

Let the characters talk. Let them be them.

Which brings me to my favorite Basterds character. The SS Officer, Hans “the Jew Hunter” Landa. Christoph Waltz really brings a lot of maniacal charm to this bad guy. Every scene he’s in is just gushing with this subtext I was talking about.

Brad Pitt was good as Lt. Aldo – bringing a sort of simplistic comic relief to the film. He’s one man with only one mission.

And here’s where the film sort of becomes just about average. The rest of the characters seem rather weakly built. Even though the film is called “Inglourious Basterds” there’s really not much about the Basterds themselves. It’s really about the three leads, Landa, Aldo and Shoshanna. Although Shoshanna was a beauty, I found her story to be the least interesting, probably because her character although having the most clearly defined motivation (she was a Jew who’s family was hunted by Landa himself), I just didn’t feel a connection to her. Perhaps she played the part too coldly.

And a lot of other characters that we meet before they briefly get killed…

I think what drives a lot of filmmakers to Tarantino is the adolescent styled violence. QT trades in stories in a world when people get killed as a plot point. Violence and death holds no real consequence other than having one less character on screen.

And that’s perfectly okay… I like those stories once in a while.

What draws me to Tarantino is watching the subtext under his scenes. It seems like he’s doing more and more of it as he matures – much to the shagrin of those that preferred the more mindlessly violent QT.

I also very much appreciated the Sergio Leone approach that Tarantino takes on violence in this film. There’s a long draw up of tension, then zing, bam, pow… the violence is over.

Inglorious Basterds although not a perfect film by any means, would rank about an 8.3 out of 10 which I think at this point puts it into my top ten of the year (sucky year)

Popularity: 25% [?]