Leave a Comment

Oscar Ratings Excuse. Trade Roughage 09/16/08
SpoutBlog — Here’s another reason for the Academy to heavily nominate The Dark Knight: it may just be the incentive potential viewers need to make sure to convert their TVs to digitial in time for the Oscar telecast, which airs only five days after the big signal switch occurs. At least there’s already a good excuse in place, though, in case the show’s ratings are a disappointment. The effects of Black Monday included media company stock plunges, but there doesn’t seem to be too much worrying at U.S. movie studios. The Indian film industry, however, appears to be feeling a major crunch. Ben Affleck ...

Oscar Crisis Looms as Old TV's Threaten Work Stoppage [The Wayback Machine]
Gawker: defamer — ... We had no idea that next February's analog-to-digital TV conversion was shaping up as the Y2K of contemporary broadcasting, but a careful reconsideration of the facts offers alarming new perspective on a crisis in the making. To wit: Your grandparents may miss the Academy Awards. Or so reports Variety, which points to the Feb. 17 changeover, the Feb. 22 Oscarcast and a constituency of none-the-wiser viewers as the makings of a perfect storm threatening to wash away the Oscars as we know them: ...