Showest and NSCA open this week
Written by Joyce L Chow & William Hoehne March 14 2006
MBN
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MONTEBUBBLISM: News is only news when it is fresh otherwise it is history.
Worldwide box office down says MPAA at Showest.
USA and EU end trade dispute
Bahrain Grand Prix: Race Results
Video Game Industry tanking
Worldwide box office down says MPAA at Showest.
Worldwide box office revenues fell by 9 percent in 2005 but the industry expects better results this year, Motion Picture Association of America Chief Executive Dan Glickman said on Monday.
A bumper crop of sequels to past blockbusters and animated films hit screens this year in a good sign for ticket sales, Glickman told the ShoWest conference for movie theaters.
Most of the drop in international box office last year came in key markets such as Germany, Japan, Spain, France and Italy. Only four films grossed more than $300 million outside the United States, compared with seven the year before, he said.
Forecasts are for the international box office to grow by 12 percent over the next five years, mainly as a result of markets such as Russia, Brazil, China and Vietnam, he said.
"The simple fact is that the international market is where the action is," Glickman said.
Taking a longer view, he pointed out that last year's box office decline came on the heels of a 24 percent increase in ticket sales the year before, and growth of more than 50 percent in the past decade.
Studios increasingly are debuting movies on the same day around the world not only to combat piracy "but because of a growing recognition that turning a premiere into a worldwide event builds excitement and drives traffic everywhere," he said.
Studios are also looking to use local talent in international markets to build their audiences in foreign countries, Glickman said.
Piracy remains an issue of immediate concern especially in China and Russia, where most good quality pirated copies of films originate and make their way around the world.
The MPAA was concerned about efforts in some European countries to decriminalize the illegal downloading of films.
Glickman called on theater owners to tap local governments for support in enforcing laws against camcording, which he said accounts for 90 percent of illegal copying of new releases.
"For all our efforts to combat it, we have yet to come up with a foolproof solution to the problem," Glickman said.
USA and EU end trade dispute
The European Union (EU) and the United States this morning ended a decade-long trade dispute under which companies from 11 European states were barred from bidding on certain types of U.S. government contracts, primarily smaller contracts in telecommunications, and vice versa.
The end to the somewhat obscure, but nasty disagreement comes as the result of the EU eliminating preferences for local telecom manufacturers on some government contracts or, as the European Commission (EC) put it in a prepared statement, “the EU telecoms market has been fully liberalized.” As a result, the United States agreed to lift its sanctions as of today, a move followed by an announcement this morning by the EU that it similarly is lifting its retaliatory sanctions.
“I welcome the fact that the United States has finally agreed to lift its sanctions against EU member states, which enables us to do the same,” commented EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson on the situation. “This heals a dispute that has dogged both sides of the Atlantic for more than a decade.”
The acrimony dates back to May 1993, when the U.S. government imposed sanctions against various EU member states, alleging that the EU’s 1993 Government Procurement Directive, which allowed EU member states to give a 3-percent price preference to EU companies in some sectors, discriminated against U.S. operators, especially in the telecom sector. The EU, in retaliation, imposed equivalent sanctions.
The U.S. sanctions barred European companies in 11 countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Sweden and the U. K. Germany was taken off the list in 1994 when it said it would not apply the price preferences. Greece, Spain and Portugal, meanwhile, had delayed implementation of the Government Procurement Directive and thus were not covered by its terms) from three types of contracts: contracts of goods, services and construction whose value fell under certain thresholds; all services contracts purchased by the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Power Marketing Administrations of the Department of Energy; and a list of 14 services contracted by federal agencies, including launching, dredging, broadcasting, R&D, legal services, hotel, health and telecommunications.
Exempt from both the U.S. and EU sanctions were contracts covered by the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Government Procurement, because both the United States and the EU are signatories to that agreement, which overrode both the U.S. sanctions and the EU’s Government Procurement Directive. The WTO agreement sets thresholds above which signatories’ agree not to impose preferences, such as those that were set out in the EU’s Government Procurement Directive.
Bahrain Grand Prix: Race Results
Honda Racing F1 Team
After a promising qualifying session yesterday, in which Jenson Button qualified third and Rubens Barrichello sixth, today’s Bahrain Grand Prix ended in frustration for the Honda Racing F1 Team drivers.
Jenson finished the 57-lap race in fourth place, while Rubens was one lap down in 15th place, having been plagued by a gearbox problem for most of the race.
Jenson was compromised from the start when a clutch problem caused him to make a slow get-away from the grid and was only fifth into Turn 1, one place behind team-mate Rubens. The two Honda drivers then had a close dice for several laps, until Jenson got ahead at the start of lap four.
They were then elevated to fourth and fifth places when Felipe Massa spun out of third place on lap seven, which is where the Honda drivers stayed until Rubens made his first pitstop on lap 16. He rejoined the race in 12th place, but was unable to make significant progress because he lost a gear, which greatly reduced the performance of his RA106 race car.
Jenson made his first pitstop on lap 18, rejoining in eighth, and he then set about charging back up the field. On lap 29, he made a sensational pass on Juan Pablo Montoya for fourth, which became third when the one-stopping Kimi Raikkonen pitted on lap 30.
Jenson led the race for one lap before making his second and final pitstop on lap 40, and he quickly closed onto the tail of Raikkonen, which is where he spent the final 15 laps of the race. At the flag, he was only 0.6s adrift.
Honda now has just one week in which to move its equipment to Malaysia for the second race of the season, where there is everything to play for
JENSON BUTTON
Position: 4th / Best lap time: 1:32.729
"Had I not had such a bad start then this could have been a great race for us. The pace of the car was absolutely there but the strategy didn’t pan out because I lost places off the start and wasn’t where we had planned to be at the pitstops. We may not have a podium but we have a very competitive car and if you look at the lap times when we weren’t in traffic we were genuinely as quick as anyone out there. I think we go to Malaysia feeling extremely positive. If we can address the clutch issue which caused the problem with the start we will be able to fight even harder with the competition."
RUBENS BARRICHELLO
Position: 15th / Best lap time: 1:33.840
"It’s a disappointing way to finish my first race for the team but in the early stages we saw a taste of our potential. Jenson and I had a great race with each other early on which I’m sure got a few people excited! Soon after though I knew we had a gearbox problem and I had to try to race with one gear missing. I was unable to push and had no chance of a points finish, so it wasn’t a good way for me to spend the race. We know that the pace is there so we just have to resolve our problems for next weekend when I’m sure we will have a much better race."
GIL DE FERRAN, SPORTING DIRECTOR
"Jenson drove a brilliant race, pushing hard throughout and showing that we had very similar pace to the leaders. Unfortunately he had a clutch problem at the start which dropped him back and ended up compromising the whole race. Rubens was running well early on but he lost the use of a gear which wiped out his chances. We come away from Bahrain disappointed with our final result but at the same time very encouraged by the performance of our car and drivers and looking forward to Malaysia."
SHUHEI NAKAMOTO, ENGINEERING DIRECTOR, HONDA RACING DEVELOPMENT
"A disappointing result. Looking at the positives, Jenson’s pace matched that of Fernando and Michael for most of the afternoon, and he drove his customary strong race throughout, but the start spoiled his chances of a better finish. It was a shame for Rubens that his debut race for us was affected by a gearbox problem. The V8 engine has been strong the whole weekend, and we remain positive for next week."
SUPER AGURI FORMULA 1
Takuma Sato came home to complete the SUPER AGURI FORMULA 1 team’s inaugural Formula One Grand Prix at the Bahrain International Circuit today. Team mate Yuji Ide made a gallant effort during his F1 racing debut following an early drive-through penalty, fuel rig complications and finally a stop out on track due to a mechanical problem with only 10 laps of the grand prix remaining.
Takuma Sato
Position: 18th / Best lap time: 1:37.104
“It is a fantastic result for us. I think that the boys in the garage deserve to be happy because they worked so hard to get us here to Bahrain. Although today we had radio communication and fuel rig problems, which is why there was some confusion during our pitstops, I think that everyone in the team has done a really good job. It is a positive step for us and I am very happy with today’s result. It was only a shame for Yuji that we could not bring the two cars’ home, but it is the great start that the team needed.”
Yuji Ide
Position: DNF(Lap 35) / Best lap time: 1:38.302
"I wanted to finish the race very much but the engine just stopped. I had the same problem as I had on Friday. Earlier in the race I couldn't put the gear into neutral so I over-ran at the pit stop. I don't know what I could do to make the car better but I know the mechanics have been working hard so I feel bad for my lack of experience. I will review the problem with engineers and I will do my best to finish the next race in Malaysia.”
Aguri Suzuki, Team Principal
“"Well this race was like a test for us. All that happened and what we were testing was something we should have done during the winter season. We will learn through each race and today was a good lesson for us. I spoke to both drivers before the race and told them that the most important thing for us to do today is to finish and from that experience, learn as much as possible. Taku did a good job.
“Yuji told me that he really wanted to finish the race, but he will have to improve step-by-step - so every single race will be a great lesson for him. He just needs more experience and the team will improve the car for both drivers."
Video Game Industry Tanking
by William Hoehne
There was a time that I thought that holding back the x-box was a smart idea.
In every area of entertainment over production had killed the industry. The zenith of how many televisions, radios, video taper machines, video tapes DVRs you would own has been reached.
I had figured, hold back the x-box and keep the market fresh then I noticed recently everytime I had gone by Electronic Arts and seen lights no longer on that had burnt long into the night . There were less and less games being played outside on their adult playground.
Six straight months of decline in game sales will do that. $700 million in loses for the industry will do that.
It is said that the slow down in sales has to do with the lack of fresh material out there.
It has been said that the mess caused by Grand Thief Auto helped to hurt the industry.
That a crack down by the government caused the problem.
The problem is that it is a combination of all the above. Too many old video games already out there, too expensive boxes to buy, too few new games and a industry that didn't get the message about policing itself.
Add it all togeather and you have a reason why the industry is in free fall.
A free fall that can be corrected but only with more new and creative games, better self policing and content that doesn't try to get by the right by hiding itself inside games with keys to open them.
