Categories

open all | close all

Sponsored By:

Historical Perspective: So Where Is Entertainment Going?

Read more articles on Internet Marketing and Movies, visual media.

March 21, 2007

Posted by neillevine

About This Editor: I am a writer. Have been writing for other sites, but expect to do most of my future work HERE! My expertise extends from the esoteric such as burning hydrogen to the unpredictability of the stock market and my writing makes me a jack of all trades and exasperated master of none. I have had some influence over national wildfire and water policy and there are hints of a change in energy policy, BUT as Samuel Goldwyn once said, "A verbal promise is not worth the paper it is written on."

         

Feature length movie companies eventually left the two reel companies in the financial dust and even absorbed what was left of many of them meaning that the new companies which are in essence the forebears of what are now called Paramount, Fox, Universal and Warners, plus a few others including one that eventually became Sony Pictures, by the late 1920s were attracting most of the vast audiences that flocked to the flickers.

At one time, most of the production companies were vertically integrated with the theatre companies. In fact, they started out separately, merged, were separated by court order and now have merged into gigantic multiplexes with mostly separate ownership.

During the early part of the twentieth century, radio broadcasting was making technical progress and by the 20s some companies were broadcasting over the air. Stations started by airing content, that is, music, news, sports and so on and people bought radios manufactured by some of the very companies that financed the stations. Soon they were uniting into networks that formed the beginnings of CBS, NBC, ABC and even Fox, which was once called DuMont, then Metromedia, and is now named after a movie company but that is another story explaining how companies grow  since Fox now has cable channels but not much in the way of radio assets.

The transition to televison was mainly financed by the radio networks with money they were making from audio broadcasting but as television grew radio and movies lagged in comparison, an analogy that bears on the current internet situation. Radio and movie companies still made money most of the time but paled in comparison to the growth numbers that the new kid on the block, television, put up. During this time, papers also were squeezed for money with many papers either folding or consolidating, again reflecting on the current situation. 

So old media from music to newspapers are being impacted by the internet and it appears video is next.  Music videos, ads and coming attractions are already online and youtube and its competition are bigs hits.  The financial comparison between music companies and movie companies might not be straightforward since people watch more old movies than buy old music, but things will change for them that is for sure. 

Anyone who can predict the future, of course, is likely to make good money, deservedly so. 

Last 5 Entries by neillevine

• Tax Cuts Follow The Bouncing Interest Rates - November 3rd, 2008
• Fund Raising, Jobs, The Future Of The Economy - October 24th, 2008
• Term Limits, Debates, Speaker Pelosi Investing - October 17th, 2008
• Economics=Dismal Science. Budget Deficits Balance Of Trade - October 14th, 2008
• Cam Getting Osama Bin Laden Boost Confidence - October 8th, 2008

Related Posts