“I am in this race to tell the corporate lobbyists in Washington that their days of setting the agenda are over.” Guess who said these memorable words? In November 2007, then-presidential candidate Barack Obama uttered this now all-but-forgotten campaign promise. The president recently announced his plan to appoint Tom Wheeler (above), a true industry insider, to head of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Wheeler is a career water carrier for corporate interests. He served as head of the National Cable Television Association (NCTA) from 1979 and 1984, and ran the Cellular Telecom and Internet Association (CTIA) from 1992 through 2004. …

Louise Levison, a longtime movie industry watcher, found that 2012 was a deceptively good year for indies. Writing at Baseline Intelligence, she noted “independent box office in North America in 2012 was $4.5 billion and 41.7% of the $10.8 billion total.” She warns, “the one film that I feel made the 2012 indie percentage an anomaly is The Hunger Game.” It grossed $408 million in domestic sales and, without it, the indie share would be 37 percent, in line with what she calculates as the historical annual average of indie films of 35 percent for the period of 2000 to 2011. …

Google’s YouTube is now into its second round of a long-term plan to remake the “original content” landscape. In the process, it is challenging the established broadcast and cable networks through its own Internet-based TV programming service. In 2011, YouTube began funding an estimated 160 ventures to feed a streaming Over-the-Top (OTT) programming service. It supported ventures involving Tom Hanks, Amy Poehler and others to produce new programs and signed up big-name talent like Madonna, Jay-Z and Ashton Kutcher to “curate” branded channels. It also supported dozens of start-ups run by established indie makers and others. AdAge found that among the …

The winner of the 2012 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature was Searching for Sugar Man, directed by Malik Bendjelloul and produced by Simon Chinn. Released in July 2012, it grossed $3,536,058 in box office sales. By year-end 2012, the other four finalists took in a total of $1,724,657. This breaks down as follows: The Gatekeepers, director Dror Moreh and produced by Philippa Kowarsky and Estelle Fialon ($1,418,694); How to Survive a Plague, directed by David France and produced by Howard Gertler ($132,055); 5 Broken Cameras, co-directed by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi ($101,940); and The Invisible War, directed by Kirby …

Has a peculiar notice popped up on either your TV set or computer reading: “Copyright Alert! #1”? This notice is the first of six that digital communications users will receive as part of the Copyright Alert System (CAS). Having failed to get Congress to adopt the SOPA/PIPA legislation last year, the movie and record industry trade associations, the MPAA and RIAA, respectively, have taken a second bite at the apple in their effort to address the problem of illegal downloading of copyrighted entertainment content. CAS, which went into effect on February 25, ties the major content trade associations to the …

Traditional broadcast and cable television is in free fall. More and more viewers are turning to alternative viewing options offered through “broadband” services facilitated by the Internet. Traditional TV programming, like editorial content in newspapers and magazines, is really an eyeball hook for the show’s advertising. And traditional TV viewing is suffering its biggest loses among its most coveted demographic groups – Generation Y (ages 13 to 32) and Gen X (ages 33 to 46). A recent report by GfK, a German research firm, paints a dismal picture of TV audience erosion. It found that among Gen Y folks, only …

Net neutrality may end this year. Verizon, AT&T and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) are spearheading a three-pronged attack against the open Internet and other open forms of digital communications. If they succeed, telecommunications will be further “deregulated” and, thus, further privatized and monopolized. As a consequence, telecom services will get more expensive, local requirements subordinated to the whims of huge corporate monopolies, competition and innovation will suffer and U.S. world ranking in terms of broadband speed – 15th today! – will further erode. One attack involves Verizon’s court challenge to the FCC’s very authority to regulate digital communications. …

Now that the 2013 Sundance Film Festival is underway, it’s an opportunity to remind indie filmmakers that, sadly, their future is on the web and not in movie theatres. Park City screenings, parties and other get-togethers are great fun and a good chance to meet other makers and distributors. However, don’t expect to make a deal! This year Sundance will screen 119 feature-length films from 32 countries, including works from 51 first-time directors. These works were selected from 12,146 submissions, including 4,044 feature-length films and 8,102 shorts.  One can only wonder if the odds for having one’s feature selected (2.9%) …

Do you watch movies downloaded via the Internet to your laptop, tablet, smartphone or even TV set? If so, have you received a love letter from your Internet Service Provider (ISP) informing you to either go on a digital data diet or plan to pay more to suck down more streaming 1s and 0s?  If not, it will arrive shortly. The leading ISPs are changing the usage and pricing models they have long used, shifting the industry from one with “unlimited” plans to “limited” deals. The effort to impose data caps – sometimes called data throttling – may have significant, …

The major telecommunications companies, led by AT&T and Verizon, are consolidating their control over the Internet. These companies are working closely with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to further control the telecom market. Together, the giant telephone and cable companies are reducing the number of Internet Service Providers (ISPs), privatizing the nation’s telecom infrastructure (i.e., the Public Switched Telephone Network or PSTN), pushing new “data caps” limitations to raise rates and moving aggressively to end net neutrality. And they are succeeding. In the face of this campaign to reduce industry competition and customer choice, efforts are underway throughout the …