Fox Finds Digital HD Not Lost in Translation With Foreign Consumers...

Fox Finds Digital HD Not Lost in Translation With Foreign Consumers...

After launching its Digital HD brand in the United States as a brand to boost the sale of its homevideo titles, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment is taking the idea on the road — namely, overseas.
Switzerland is the latest country to promote Digital HD after Fox introduced the concept to consumers in France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Australia. Altogether, the studio is selling movies on digital before they're released on DVD or Blu-ray in over 100 territories.
"Life of Pi" was the first Digital HD title to launch in Switzerland on Apple's iTunes, Microsoft's Xbox and local distributor Swiss TV, followed by "Live Free or Die Hard," "Epic" and "Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters," with Fox seeing an increase in sales with each title.
This week, Sunrise, the country's second largest telecommunications provider, and HollyStar, started stepped up to back Digital HD with "The Croods," and 100 other catalog titles, with "The Wolverine" to be released Nov. 18.
Sunrise is promoting Digital HD through its various platforms, as well as through a print, online and retail campaign.
"The studio's Digital HD strategy is an aggressive response to the growing demands of Swiss fans who want the convenience, quality and most importantly immediacy to enjoy their favourite content anytime and anywhere," said Timm Degenhardt, chief marketing officer, Sunrise.
SEE ALSO: Early Digital Releases Help DreamWorks Animation Sell More Movies on Homevideo

The move to foreign markets has helped Fox increase its Digital HD business 34% over last year. Digital transactions are also up by 50% in Switzerland, according to I.H.S. Research.
The studio is clearly going after the 215 million households with HDTVs and the 780 million with broadband connected devices.
Fox was first to introduce the Digital HD brand last year with the release of "Prometheus." What's helped is a $15 price point for films and the earlier release window, typically three to four weeks before the titles bow on disc.

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Fox launching Spanish-language network...

Fox launching Spanish-language network...

A quarter century ago, Fox figured there was room for more than just three big TV networks. It created Fox Broadcasting, which would redefine television with shows such as "Married ... with Children,""The Simpsons,""24" and"American Idol."

Now, Fox is hoping to stage an encore.

Rupert Murdoch's company on Monday unveiled MundoFox, a new Spanish-language broadcast network. A joint venture with Colombian powerhouse RCN Television Group, the network will challenge the Spanish-language media dominance of entrenched rivals Univision Communications and Telemundo.

"It is a fascinating move, and it has the potential to really make an impact," said Diana Bald, a senior vice president at advertising firm ID Media.

Fox and RCN have chipped in an estimated $100 million to hire staff, develop programming and launch the service. The network and its national news team will be based in Los Angeles, unlike Univision and Telemundo, which both operate from Miami.

Fox is banking on the L.A. location to give MundoFox a competitive edge by absorbing the region's Mexican American culture. Two-thirds of Latinos in the U.S. are of Mexican heritage.

"The key for them is to become a disruptive force rather than be a me-too player," Bald said.

That's precisely the plan, said Hernan Lopez, chief executive of the Fox International Channels division.

"The market has been too steady for too long," Lopez said. "The average Spanish-language channel looks very similar to the way it looked 15 to 20 years ago. Those networks have a proven formula, and it works for them. But we think break-through TV beats formula TV."

"Formula TV" is a dig at industry titan Univision, which instead of spending hundreds of millions of dollars each year developing unproven shows, as do English language giants ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox, airs telenovelas produced by Grupo Televisa of Mexico that have performed well during their initial runs in Mexico.

The five-night-a-week programs also score huge ratings in the U.S. This summer, Univision's blockbuster telenovela "La que no podía amar" has been drawing larger audiences than most shows on the major networks.

Instead of telenovelas, whose plots revolve around the heartaches and ambitions of a female protagonist, MundoFox is positioning its dramas as "teleseries" that also run five nights a week. Lopez described the more contemporary programs as action adventures with romantic backdrops, designed to appeal to men and women alike.

MundoFox plans to run in its 9 p.m. weeknight slot RCN's hugely successful "El Capo," based on the story of fictional drug lord Pedro Pablo Jaramillo. The network also plans to reprise the original "Yo soy Betty, la fea," another RCN production, which became a global phenomenon and inspired the successful ABC show "Ugly Betty."

Another teleseries, "Kdabra," features elements of magic and the supernatural. Christopher Von Uckermann plays a 17-year-old teenager who has escaped from a dark community, triggering unexpected events. (The show previously ran on Univision's Telefutura network.)

"RCN has a history of success in the U.S.; they have produced some great hits," said Bald, the advertising executive. MundoFox "might be onto something if they can attract an edgier crowd and the second and third generation. Traditional telenovelas tend to appeal an older generation of Hispanics."

Univision counters that its telenovelas perform well among the prized demographic of 18- to 34-year-old viewers. Indeed, the median age of the Latino population is younger than that of the general population, making Latinos and the networks that target them magnets for advertisers.

MundoFox is planning game shows, including "Minuto para ganar," hosted by Marco Antonio Regil. Late night will feature Seth McFarlane's"American Dad," dubbed in Spanish. For children, it will offer "Nat Geo Kids," a program originally produced by National Geographic.

MundoFox's 6 p.m. national newscast will be anchored from Los Angeles by the Peabody Award-winning journalist Rolando Nichols. (The division will be separate from the company's New York-based Fox News Channel). MundoFox says its newscast will be the only one in Spanish that will air live on both the East and West coasts. RCN will provide international newscasts.

Sports will also be a crucial component. Although Univision and Telemundo have the rights for key soccer leagues, MundoFox is hoping it can carry some punch with UFC's mixed martial arts fighting.

"UFC championships have been extremely popular with Hispanics, and I really believe that's been a missed opportunity for Univision and Telemundo," Bald said.

In Los Angeles, the network will air on KWHY-TV Channel 22, a station previously owned by NBCUniversal. (The Federal Communications Commission forced NBC to divest KWHY because NBC already owned two stations in the market, KNBC-TV Channel 4 and Telemundo station KVEA-TV Channel 52.)

Other companies have tried and failed to launch new Latino networks. Telemundo, even with a deep-pocketed parent, NBCUniversal, struggled for years to take market share from Univision. Fox also has had mixed results. Although Fox News Channel has unseated CNN as the cable news leader, the company's nearly 5-year-old Fox Business Network has not come close to toppling CNBC.

In some ways, Fox is swimming against the tide by launching a Spanish-language network.

Advertisers seem more interested in reaching bilingual Latinos than those who are principally Spanish-speaking. So Univision is starting a 24-hour English-language cable news channel with Walt Disney's ABC News next year.Comcast Corp., which controls NBCUniversal, will launch a handful of networks, also in English, aimed at young Latinos, including one co-owned by "Spy Kids" director Robert Rodriguez.

Spanish-language TV, Lopez said, is the smart play because many bilingual Latinos speak Spanish at home.

"Fox is already the No. 1 brand among Latinos in English-language America, so if Fox wants to grow among Latinos, it makes sense for us to have a Spanish-language network," Lopez said.

Thank you Los Angeles Times

By Meg James, Los Angeles Times

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Fox International Announces Chinese Film Development Award (Cannes)

Recipients will receive a cash grant and a first-look deal with the studio.

CANNES -- Fox International Productions and the Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF) have announced the creation of the annual Fox Chinese Film Development Award, which is accompanied by a first-look deal with the studio and a cash grant of HK$100,000.

"We believe that there is a wealth of unrealized filmmakers in China," FIP president Sanford Panitch said during a press conference in Cannes. "One of the goals of FIP is about finding this talent and introducing them to the rest of the world."
The award is part of FIP's latest effort to break into the local-language film business in the worlds' fastest growing movie market.
Submissions are open to any Chinese-language project, or a project with the potential to be adapted into a Chinese-language film. They can be submitted by the copywriter of the project, whether a director, producer, writer or other talent.
The call for entries is open from now through Oct. 30. Projects will be judged based on their creativity, originality and Asian cultural content, as well as their potential for being made into a full-length feature.
Five projects will be shortlisted. The first winner will be announced at the HAF awards ceremony in March 2012.
"We are most grateful to Fox for their award," said Roger Garcia, executive director of the Hong International Film Festival society, which oversees HAF. "Fox's decision to make their award at HAF shows that Hong Kong continues to be the hub our our region's cinema."
Now in its 10th year, HAF supports cinema culture in the Asian region by selection projects from various countries to take part in the three-day event. HAF funding and awards have contributed to more than 50 film projects, many of which have have gone on to play at major film festivals and secure distribution.
The Fox Chinese Film Award comes as Hollywood studios amp up their efforts to make Chinese co-productions, and take part in the moviegoing boom in China.
FIP's first mandarin-language co-production, Hot Summer Days, made in 2009 with Beijing-based partners Huayi Brothers, was shot for $2.4 million and grossed $22 million. A sequel is in the works and FIP hopes soon to be able to announce its 2011 release in China.
FIP's second China foray, The Butcher, the Chef and the Swordsman, also with Huayi, cost less to make (under $1 million) and made less back (about $3 million), but exceeded the studio's expectations by launching an unknown director with great potential, Panitch says.
Director Wuershan, an ethnic minority from China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, moved from his feature debut with FIP to direct the sequel to the 2008 hit Painted Skin, from Hong Kong director Gordon Chan, that grossed about $33 million at China's box office.
"With the directors we're finding, it's not about the future, it's about now," Panitch said in an earlier interview, noting that Wuershan's debut film The Butcher would help form the first slate of films launching the recently announced Fox World Cinema label.
Jonathan Landreth reported from Beijing.

Thank you Hollywood Reporter

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Industry News: Israeli Sitcom ‘Traffic Light’ Makes American Debut

February 8, 2011

Airing TONIGHT on FOX at 930:

Israeli Sitcom ‘Traffic Light’ Makes American Debut

Israeli sitcom ‘Ramzor’ has been getting a ton of hype outside of Israel, even before it won last fall’s International Emmy for best comedy series. The show has been so well received that FOX has made an adapted version of ‘Ramzor,’ with the title ‘Traffic Light’ which premieres tonight at 9:30.

Ramzor’s win at the 38th annual International Emmy Award ceremony marked the first International Emmy for an Israeli program since “Kapo” took home the award for best documentary in 2000.

In an interview with Ynet after the ceremony at New York’s Hilton Hotel, the show’s creator Adir Miller said, “I just can’t believe it. I had a feeling. We had a panel there before the ceremony and saw the responses. It’s just amazing. We were sitting there and all the Hollywood big shots got on the stage. The award was presented to us by the chief writer of ‘Saturday Night Live’.”

‘Traffic Light’ will be a sitcom, like ‘Ramzor’ about three 30-something guys in very different stages in their relationships. Check out the trailer for the American version below, and make sure to set your DVR this evening when ‘Traffic Light makes its American debut on FOX.

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Industry News : Fox to put awards screeners on iTunes for SAG members

January 8, 2011

Fox to put awards screeners on iTunes for SAG members

The Hollywood awards screener is finally catching up with the digital age. In a first for the industry, Fox Filmed Entertainment will make three current releases from its Fox Searchlight movie unit that were nominated for Screen Actors Guild awards -- "Black Swan," "127 Hours," and "Conviction" -- available as free downloads from Apple Inc.'s iTunes to all of the acting guild's nearly 100,000 voting members.

The move could mark the first step in an industry-wide shift toward making digital copies of movies available to voters for all awards, eventually ending the costly, time-honored practice of producing and sending physical copies of their DVDs.

Fox co-Chairman Jim Gianopulos said his studio is also in talks with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, whose members vote for the Oscars, and with the British Film Academy, about making iTunes downloads available to their voters as well even though they have already been sent DVD screeners.

SAG members will get a code they can use to download the three Fox Searchlight films in high definition and watch them on a computer, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, or on television via Apple TV. As with any iTunes rental, films can be watched as many times as the voter wants during a 24-hour period. They will be available from Jan. 7 until Jan. 28, the day votes are due. The SAG awards will be presented Jan. 30.

Studios regularly send DVDs with watermarks -- which identify the video as belonging to a specific person in case it leaks onto the Internet -- to voters in various awards groups. However, Gianopulos said his studio had never before found a way to get screeners to SAG members.

"When you're dealing with this large a number of voters, it's extremely difficult in terms of logistics and would be cost prohibitive to produce and ship screeners to every SAG member," he said, adding that it would likely cost "many millions of dollars" to do so.

The deal, which Gianopulos pitched to and struck with iTunes chief Eddy Cue, will quite possibly prompt other studios to make screeners available via Apple or other digital outlets. That could particularly be true for those whose films are also nominated for SAG Awards and that may feel at a competitive disadvantage.

Screeners have always been controversial in Hollywood, as studios have weighed competing worries about piracy and desires to promote their films to awards voters. In 2003, the Motion Picture Assn. of America unsuccessful attempted to ban screeners. Some studios later participated in a failed test to send Oscar voters special DVD players that could play screeners with stronger copy protection than normal DVDs.

More recently, studios have returned to sending normal discs along with watermarks to crack down on any members who allow their copies to leak online.

iTunes downloads feature much stronger copy protection than DVDs, however, and can only be watched during a 24-hour period, making it easier for studios to showcase their films to voters securely. Gianopulos noted that they could also be useful for people who want to watch a movie on a portable device or before watermarked discs have been produced.

"This could eventually be an alternative for all awards voters to give them access to our films at an earlier stage or while they are traveling," he said. "It's what technology is all about: Giving people more choices to view films while still recognizing that we would always prefer that they see it in a theater if possible."

SAG members will receive an e-mail from the guild and a postcard from Fox Searchlight with instructions on accessing a download code from the studio's website.

--Ben Fritz

Thank you Los Angeles tTmes

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