Coens `Country' wins best picture Oscar

Coens `Country' wins best picture Oscar

LOS ANGELES - The Coen brothers completed their journey from the fringes to Hollywood's mainstream on Sunday, their crime saga "No Country for Old Men" winning four Academy Awards, including best picture, in a ceremony that also featured a strong international flavor.

Javier Bardem won for supporting actor in "No Country," which earned Joel and Ethan Coen best director, best adapted screenplay and the best-picture honor as producers.

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St. Johns Fishing Lodge launch new Radio campaign

Here is the new 30sec radio commercial currently airing on ROCK 101 and CKNW.



Mitch Drew
BECK Agencies
mitch@beckbc.com

DirectBuy BC launches "Jay Janower Sports Den" contest on Global Weekend News

VANCOUVER- DirectBuy of BC is launching an exciting new contest on Global BC Weekend News starting next week. The prize is "Jay Janowers Ultimate Sports Den" and valued at over $7,500.

The prize package includes:

42 inch PLASMA TV
Home Theatre Leather Couch
780 watt Home Theatre Sound System
Beverage Centre

Details will be available online starting on February 20th.


Visit DirectBuyBC.ca for more information.

Hispanic Broadcast Ad Growth to Outpace Industry

Growth of Hispanic radio will hit 6 percent in 2008, once again handily outpacing the rest of the industry, which is expected to experience a growth rate of 2 percent to 3 percent, predicts SNL Kagan in a new study.

Annually, Hispanic radio station revenues should grow at about 4.9 percent over the next four years, the Economics of Hispanic TV & Radio in the U.S. study predicts (via Radio Ink).

Hispanic television will undergo rapid growth as well, with the four major U.S. Hispanic broadcast networks bringing in as much as $1.6 billion by 2011 (up from 1.3 billion in 2007).

Vanity Fair cancels annual Oscar party

LOS ANGELES - It's typically the hottest party in town on Oscar night — but not this year. Vanity Fair has canceled its annual Academy Awards party, the magazine announced Tuesday.

"After much consideration, and in support of the writers and everyone else affected by this strike, we have decided that this is not the appropriate year to hold our annual Oscar party," said a statement posted on VanityFair.com.

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Giants-Patriots most-watched Super Bowl

NEW YORK - The New York Giants' thrilling win over New England was the most-watched Super Bowl ever with 97.5 million viewers, a total that is second only to the "M-A-S-H" finale audience, Nielsen Media Research said Monday.

The game eclipsed the previous Super Bowl record of 94.08 million, set when Dallas defeated Pittsburgh in 1996. The final "M-A-S-H" episode, which drew 106 million viewers in 1983, is the only other show in American broadcast history watched by more people.

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Microsoft, Yahoo would create advertising titan

While Google would maintain edge in search dollars, proposed takeover would deliver mass online audiences for marketers

If the blockbuster takeover of Yahoo Inc. by Microsoft Corp. is allowed to proceed, the combined company could rival Google Inc. for clout in the advertising world.

Though Google holds the undisputed crown in terms of online advertising, Yahoo and Microsoft would together form the biggest challenge to its dominance over Internet ad dollars since the industry began to explode over the past decade.

While Google focuses on connecting marketers with audiences through its online search terms, Yahoo and Microsoft's MSN portal represent mass audiences.

Like Google, people make the sites a default Internet address on millions of computers around the world.

CLICK HERE FOR THE STORY AT GLOBEANDMAIL.COM

Online Syndication Hot Subject for Local Stations

The hottest topic at the this week’s National Association of Television Program Executives conference was online syndication, with local television stations staying busy buying syndicated programs for their websites.

Local TV is being left out of online revenue growth, and local TV stations are struggling to catch up. Online syndication, in which stations purchase the rights to television shows and sell advertisements within the programs to local businesses, is one way to boost revenue. The business model is successful with television, but it is unclear yet whether it will work online, writes The New York Times.

Part of the reason the model is uncertain is that the online audience is not localized, so selling to local businesses may be an antiquated structure. And TV shows online have mostly appeared on network TV sites rather than the sites of local stations. Few stations have proven successful at luring visitors with original content beyond local sports scores and school closings.

Broadcast TV earned 9.3 percent of the $8.5 billion market for local online advertising last year; newspapers took in three times that amount.

Viewers of local television are often reminded to go online for weather and traffic updates, but they tend to go to newspaper websites. The success or failure of stations’ online ventures will ultimately depend on the promotional abilities of the station.