hey there Comic Fans

[somedaybitch]

Variety is reporting this morning that Warner Bros is going ahead with it's big screen adaptation of Justice League of America; George Miller directing. Brandon Routh (sic) and Christian Bale are not expected to appear in their Superman and Batman roles, respectively, and both Bale and Batman director Christopher Nolan have voiced their unhappy with JLA going forward while the Bat's in active production.

feel sorry for the suits that have to sort that legal mess out. but, you know, yayz Justice League. Miller's an interesting choice; eclectic, charming, dark and bleak yet balanced against hope, closet sap. i think i approve.

ahhhhhhh, kerfluffles.

eta:

and in other Tinsel Town news, i say, HOLY SHIT! a class action suit was filed yesterday by an anti-trust lawyer, charging that the US pay tv industry amounts to a cartel, depriving customers of choice. the suit names every major network, broadcast AND cable, AND all cable and satellite operators and argues that the cable industry should be a la carte, thereby ensuring that customers aren't forced to pay inflated prices for channels they don't want, which is what currently happens with the tier system.

if the suit achieves class action status, it could include as much as 80 millions people across the country.

source: mediabistro's FishBowlLA daily podcast Morning Call Time.


and hey, NBC? you lose whatever "goodwill" points you might have garnered with your just announced NBC Direct download platform.

The company is going to start testing a new NBC Direct service in October with full, free downloadable episodes which can be stored up to seven days on Windows PCs. The shows will be on offer for a week as soon as they've aired, and will include imbedded, un-skippable ads.

[this quote from a blurb somewhere else.]

i mean, it's all well and good that you realized you screwed the pooch when you told iTunes to fuck off, but including DRM software that then kills something you've paid for? that's crap.

Later in the beta launch, users will be provided the free subscription option that will allow them to pre-select their favorite NBC programs they want to watch. Those shows will be automatically delivered to their computers as soon as they are available after the original broadcast. The downloadable player will also have filtering technology, which will prevent it from playing any stolen copyrighted material.

Comments

[wishkey.livejournal.com]

80 million...what'll that come out to be, something like a scraping of copper veneer off the side of a penny for my portion of the settlement? :D

Interesting. For me it's all about what cable networks I don't want to pay for, not the ones I add on, and cable stations like to budle stations together so you have to add one to get the other *coffdisneycoff* I wonder how that'll come out.

[somedaybitch.livejournal.com]

yes, this will definately be a case to closely watch.

[svilleficrecs.livejournal.com]

NBC Direct should just be called "Please torrent NBC shows".

[somedaybitch.livejournal.com]

totally. just when they're on the verge of something brilliant in the paradigm shift to Business 2.0, they're arrogance beats them over the head and they fuck it up.

[itsazoo.livejournal.com]

Is there actually anything on NBC I would want to watch, let alone download? n/k (not kidding)

Now on the subject of cable stations you don't want, I get way too many sports stations and public access. I had to take extra to get History International and BBC America, too.

[somedaybitch.livejournal.com]

there might be. i mean, Friday Night Lights gets rave fan reviews, and Bionic Woman's pilot was good, but still. installing drm against my will is kinda crap.

re cable, totally, and i hate that. and they do that shit on purpose because we don't have any choices.

[itsazoo.livejournal.com]

Friday Night Lights is not my cuppa but I know they are doing well. I might give Bionic Woman a watch.

I know David is right; you pay for a range of channels, popular and not so. It's supposed to be so the less popular ones can be on. Discovery covers at least 6 or 7 different channels that pretty much share programming. I could do without the ESPNs but they're the ones that bring in the money, not History International or Discovery Science.

[somedaybitch.livejournal.com]

and none of that should be the consumer's problem, imho. if i have to pay for it, i should be able to jetison what i don't watch, because if i don't watch it, then i shouldn't have to pay for it. i'm just ornery that way, i guess.

[itsazoo.livejournal.com]

Not ornery. I totally feel that way. I should pay for only the stations I watch but it wouldn't work financially for the cable industry. Maybe we could trade with other viewers: I'll give you my ESPNs in exchange for your History International, BBC America and throw in Animal Planet and we have a deal.

[somedaybitch.livejournal.com]

then they're model is flawed...which is the point. they're not meeting their clients demand with the proper supply.

I'll give you my ESPNs in exchange for your History International, BBC America and throw in Animal Planet and we have a deal.

ha! that's brilliant.

[arthurfrdent.livejournal.com]

thing about the cable cartel? while it is wrong, I don't hink people are prepared for the cost of making it right.

Is it cheaper to buy a can or a sixer? just because they are going to allow you to buy a can individually, doesn't mean it will be cheaper. Also? You think niche station budget is low now... well I think few people will be willing to fork over the cash for the history channel, or the dicovery channel so their sellf financed stuff will go away. they won't have the revenue to afford it.

But? That's just the way the cookie will crumble. You have to have critical mass for stuff, and they wont...

[somedaybitch.livejournal.com]

i don't agree, but it'll certainly be interesting to see how this plays out if they get class action status.

[thevaliumsofalj.livejournal.com]

wow, that's a potentially huge class action suit. scary!

i think the fact that NBC is letting people download the eps for free is cool, but i'm not so sure that it want the shows to be able to self destruct after 7 days. but, i can understand why they'd do that, since they're providing the downloads for free for a finite amount of days following the airing of the show - especially if they want people to buy the dvds.

[somedaybitch.livejournal.com]

they already stream shows on their website, though, and i don't have a problem with the eps de-activating after 7 days really. my problem is what *else* is in that drm software because it specifically said "stolen copyrighted material", which was a really odd wording. i don't believe they were talking about the eps getting hashed. i don't trust nbcu. if i want to watch eps i'll go to their website, and if they take that down, i'll just go the other way.