China cracks down on American Idol-style shows

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese authorities are cracking down on how often broadcasters can air reality, dating and talent shows such as the Chinese versions of "American Idol" and "The Voice," which draw huge audiences.

Provincial broadcasters show such programs, which are cheap to produce and earn a lot of advertising revenue, on satellite channels that are broadcast around the country.

The official Xinhua News Agency reported that the "American Idol" kind of talent shows now need approval from the body that oversees broadcasting, which will license one such program per channel each quarter for prime-time viewing.

It also reported that new regulations require satellite channels to allocate no less than 30 percent of their weekly air time to topics including news, economics, culture and science from next year.

There have been repeated efforts to limit American-style reality TV and other light fare shown on satellite TV, or push them out of prime-time viewing, with stated reasons including the need to stop vulgar content and promote more efficient use of resources.

Repeated calls to the State General Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, which reportedly issued the latest regulations, rang unanswered.

Liu Shanying, a political scientist at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said he suspected the new regulations were because the satellite channels were taking too much audience away from the national broadcaster China Central Television.

The administration "is helping CCTV, the TV broadcaster that has the main task of carrying forward the government's message," said Liu, who used to work for CCTV. "The local stations have more freedom to attract audiences with entertainment shows. And that takes away too many viewers from CCTV and they are afraid that no one will pay attention to the government's tune."

The restrictions are expected to drive still more viewers online — where they can watch the same types of pre-recorded shows — and away from state TV.

• Television
• Media
• American Idol

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/china-cracks-down-american-idol-style-shows-072135741--finance.html
Related Topics: Healthcare.gov   iOS 7   denver post   Andrea Sneiderman   mila kunis  

Study: Netflix Execs Made $62.3 Million Off Volatile Stock

A Netflix stock chart could make one dizzy. Shares were at $300 apiece in July 2011 before tumbling to $58 in October 2012. Then on Friday, they closed at $333.50.

For investors with the stomach to ride the ups and downs, money could be made. But "Netflix's real winners," according to a study out Monday from SNL Financial, are its top three executives, who cashed in for $62.3 million since late 2011.

"Amid all the ups and downs, one thing has been consistent: Netflix's top executives have struck upon a gold mine," says the SNL report.

PHOTOS: TV Showdown: Exclusive Portraits of 4 Top Executives

SNL says CEO Reed Hastings, CFO David Wells and chief content officer Ted Sarandos have cashed out a combined 385,418 stock options since the third quarter of 2011 with an aggregate value of roughly $75.6 million, a $62.3 million premium to their combined exercise price of $13.2 million.

Hastings, unsurprisingly, scored the heftiest profit, with $38.5 million, followed by $16.9 million for Sarandos and $6.9 million for Wells.

The stop-option cash-ins were fairly well-timed, SNL says. For example, Hastings had a pile of options from Netlix's IPO days at an exercise price of $1.50 that he was selling slowly on a trading plan, though he suspended the plan when the stock plunged in October 2011.

PHOTOS: From 'Arrested Development' to 'House of Cards,' Exclusive Portraits of Netflix's Stars

Hastings and Sarandos both exchanged some stock options for shares between February 2012 and January 2013, but beyond that "none of the three redeemed any stock options between October 2011 and April 2013," says SNL. "Since then, however, all three have aggressively resumed exercising stock options for a major profit."

And the stock options keep coming, naturally. Since July 2011, the three executives have been granted 446,439 options worthy roughly $48.4 million based on their exercise prices.

The volatility that ultimately may hay have worked to the advantage of the executives was caused by a price hike and a short-lived spinoff of the DVD business into something called Qwikster. Both initiatives were roundly criticized by consumers and Wall Street and caused the stock to plunge then come roaring back when Qwikster was dumped.

"Ultimately, the last two years have been good for Netflix executives and, over the long run, good for Netflix itself, despite considerable volatility with the period," the study concludes.

Netflix is set to report its quarterly earnings after the closing bell Monday.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheHollywoodReporter-Technology/~3/dRxQx63Jl00/story01.htm
Tags: mrsa   Kliff Kingsbury   Julius Thomas   miley cyrus   Kendrick Lamar Control  

Rousimar Palhares: I did not want to hurt Mike Pierce

In less than two weeks, Rousimar Palhares has become a divisive figure in world of MMA. He was cut and banned by the UFC for holding a submission too long on Mike Pierce at UFC Fight Night 29 in Brazil on Oct. 9, which prompted plenty -- including the Nogueira brothers, who train with him -- to come to his defense.

Others, like UFC president Dana White, have made it clear that there is no room for repeat offenders. Palhares was suspended back in 2010 for 90 days for holding a similar lock on Tomasz Drwal at UFC 111, and has had other issues with sportsmanship in jiu-jitsu competitions.

On Monday, "Toquinho" spoke publicly for the first time since the fight on The MMA Hour, and made it clear that he didn’t think he was in violation of the rules until he watched the fight later on.

"I did not want to hurt him," Palhares said through his manager/interpreter, Alex Davis. "In the heat of the fight, I didn’t feel him tap. Afterwards, when I watched the fight, I’d realized that I’d held on too long. But I really didn’t mean to hurt him, you know? He’s a fighter like I am, and I know that he does this for a living, and I’d never want to hurt him."

Though Palhares did apologize to Pierce and Dana White later on, particularly when it was brought up that Pierce had a sprained MCL and torn ankle tendons, he also tried to explain his defiance on holding submissions beyond the threshold of what’s right. He made it clear he was sorry for the result, but as for the action itself, he segued into reasons and justifications.

"I think it has a lot to do with my style," he said. "I’m really aggressive when I go after the submissions, and there’s been times also when I’ve not held on and people have gotten out of it, and I end up losing the fight. So, it’s kind of the way I fight, but I’ve been getting better, and working a lot on this. But it’s just the way I fight, it’s my style.

White has said that Palhares wouldn’t be welcomed back to the UFC, a closed door proposition that the 33-year old Palhares hopes was also made in the heat of the moment.

"I don’t know, I think time will tell," he said about the possibility of one day returning. "I’m going to continue fighting, and I’ll do my best. I want to be the best in the world, and the UFC is where the best in the world are. And time will tell. I will keep on doing it and getting better and let’s see what happens."

Though Bellator has gone on record saying that it is not interested in bringing in "Toquinho," Davis said that there has been interest from other promotions to sign Palhares, yet that right now nothing has been signed or finalized. Palhares had an 8-4 run in the UFC and at one time was nearing contention in the middleweight division, but the asterisks piled up on his name. Not only did he have the incidents for holding submissions too long, but he was popped for elevated testosterone following his 2012 fight with Hector Lombard, which landed him a nine-month suspension.

Asked outright if he regretted how he handled the end of the Pierce fight in his welterweight debut, Palhares said, "No, I wanted to win by submission." When clarified to mean the particular infraction, not the submission itself, he changed his tune.

"Yes, that part I need to apologize to Mike Pierce and to Dana White," he said. "I was so focused on the fight, I didn’t feel it. I only saw that afterwards."

Source: http://www.mmafighting.com/2013/10/21/4863458/rousimar-palhares-i-did-not-want-to-hurt-mike-pierce
Related Topics: jay cutler   Michelle Rodriguez   courtney stodden   Chromecast   nate robinson  

Laser-Scanning Hundreds of Artificial Caves Beneath Nottingham

There are more than 450 artificial caves excavated from sandstone beneath the streets and buildings of Nottingham, England—including, legendarily, the old dungeon that once held Robin Hood. Not all of these caves are known even today, let alone mapped or studied.

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/T3TSyFpusB4/laser-scanning-hundreds-of-artificial-caves-beneath-not-1448991315
Tags: steelers   The Goldbergs   gucci mane   Hyon Song-wol   Jason Heyward  

'Gravity' exerts its force, earns $30M in 3rd week

NEW YORK (AP) — "Gravity" continued to exert its force at the box office, the WikiLeaks drama "The Fifth Estate" flopped, and the anticipated Slavery tale "12 Years a Slave" opened strong in limited release.

Final weekend box office totals were released Monday. Warner Bros.' space adventure "Gravity" remained in first place for the third straight week, adding $30 million to its three-week haul of $169.6 million.

Disney's "The Fifth Estate," starring Benedict Cumberbatch as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, had one of the year's worst debuts, taking in just $1.7 million in more than 1,700 theaters.

In just 19 theaters, Steve McQueen's highly acclaimed "12 Years a Slave" made nearly $1 million in its first weekend. Fox Searchlight plans to gradually expand the film in the coming weeks.

___

The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Monday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by Rentrak, are:

1. "Gravity," Warner Bros., $30,027,161, 3,820 locations, $7,861 average, $169,563,291, 3 weeks.

2. "Captain Phillips," Sony, $16,413,093, 3,020 locations, $5,435 average, $52,443,328, 2 weeks.

3. "Carrie," Sony, $16,101,552, 3,157 locations, $5,100 average, $16,101,552, 1 week.

4. "Escape Plan," Lionsgate, $9,885,732, 2,883 locations, $3,429 average, $9,885,732, 1 week.

5. "Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 2," Sony, $9,672,791, 3,602 locations, $2,685 average, $92,709,559, 4 weeks.

6. "Prisoners," Warner Bros., $2,064,235, 2,160 locations, $956 average, $57,258,393, 5 weeks.

7. "Enough Said," Fox Searchlight, $1,750,519, 757 locations, $2,312 average, $10,737,966, 5 weeks.

8. "Fifth Estate," Disney, $1,673,351, 1,769 locations, $946 average, $1,673,351, 1 week.

9. "Runner Runner," 20th Century Fox, $1,665,242, 2,011 locations, $828 average, $17,576,560, 3 weeks.

10. "Insidious Chapter 2," FilmDistrict, $1,499,842, 1,665 locations, $901 average, $80,890,083, 6 weeks.

11. "Rush," Universal, $1,261,115, 1,197 locations, $1,054 average, $24,623,294, 5 weeks.

12. "Machete Kills," Open Road, $1,203,135, 2,538 locations, $474 average, $6,402,374, 2 weeks.

13. "Don Jon," Relativity Media, $1,182,410, 1,114 locations, $1,061 average, $22,479,577, 4 weeks.

14. "Baggage Claim," Fox Searchlight, $1,100,374, 865 locations, $1,272 average, $20,001,029, 4 weeks.

15. "I'm In Love With A Church Girl," High Top Releasing, $971,826, 457 locations, $2,127 average, $971,826, 1 week.

16. "12 Years A Slave," Fox Searchlight, $923,715, 19 locations, $48,617 average, $923,715, 1 week.

17. "We're The Millers," Warner Bros., $744,255, 881 locations, $845 average, $147,710,416, 11 week.

18. "Pulling Strings," Lionsgate, $607,966, 438 locations, $1,388 average, $5,163,752, 3 weeks.

19. "Instructions Not Included," Lionsgate, $538,588, 475 locations, $1,134 average, $43,542,138, 8 weeks.

20. "Despicable Me 2," Universal, $485,850, 395 locations, $1,230 average, $363,741,080, 16 weeks.

___

Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-10-21-Box%20Office/id-40e56d80bf934c8a95c3e837e4c545b8
Similar Articles: Case Keenum   tampa bay rays   Nfl Fantasy   Jason Dufner   Kidd Kraddick  

Singapore’s Asia TV Forum to Launch Animation Lab

ATF is held annually at Singapore's Marina Bay Sands casino, hotel and convention complex

This year’s edition of the Asia TV Forum & Market (ATF) in Singapore will debut a new three-day event dubbed Animation Lab, the event's organizers announced Monday.

Intended to help promote the region’s burgeoning animation industry, the program will seek to bring together Asian animation producers, who are seeking investment and funding opportunities, with international broadcasters and financiers, who are interested in both the growing animation talent and market opportunity of the region.

STORY: ATF, ScreenSingapore Lock Down Dates for 2013

ATF organizers say the program will be open to all individuals or companies that have new animation projects in the planning or production stage, and will give them a platform to engage in closed-door pitches to various participating international commissioners.

International TV pros signed on to take part include Henrietta Hurford-Jones, director of children’s programming at the BBC Worldwide.

"The aim is always to try and grow the international CBeebies brand as well as our children’s portfolio worldwide,” Hurford-Jones said in a statement. “I would be delighted to find creative partners in Asia to potentially develop exciting new children’s content with.”

Also on hand to take pitches and meetings will be, Barbara Uecker, head of programming and acquisitions for children's TV at Australia’s ABC TV, and Nicole Keeb, head of international co-productions and acquisitions for children and youth programming at Germany’s ZDF Enterprises GmbH, along with her colleague Arne Lohmann, vice president of ZDFE.junior.

AFT says additional network execs will be added to the Animation Lab roster in the coming weeks.

AFT is Asia’s most established TV and cross-platform content market for buyers and sellers from the region and afar. This year’s event, ATF’s 12th edition, will take place Dec. 3-6 at Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands casino, hotel and convention complex.  

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thr/television/~3/Cph7Uzo4xaM/story01.htm
Tags: American Horror Story   Rihanna Pour It Up Video   Why Did The Government Shut Down   Million Second Quiz   The White Queen  

US regions exhibit distinct personalities, research reveals

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

17-Oct-2013

[


| E-mail

]


Share

Contact: Lisa Bowen
lbowen@apa.org
202-336-5707
American Psychological Association

Some parts of country are conventional and friendly; others relaxed and creative

WASHINGTON Americans with similar temperaments are so likely to live in the same areas that a map of the country can be divided into regions with distinct personalities, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.

People in the north-central Great Plains and the South tend to be conventional and friendly, those in the Western and Eastern seaboards lean toward being mostly relaxed and creative, while New Englanders and Mid-Atlantic residents are prone to being more temperamental and uninhibited, according to a study published online by APA's Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

"This analysis challenges the standard methods of dividing up the country on the basis of economic factors, voting patterns, cultural stereotypes or geography that appear to have become ingrained in the way people think about the United States," said lead author Peter J. Rentfrow, PhD, of the University of Cambridge. "At the same time, it reinforces some of the traditional beliefs that some areas of the country are friendlier than others, while some are more creative."

The researchers analyzed the personality traits of more than 1.5 million people. Through various online forums/media (e.g., Facebook and survey panels), participants answered questions about their psychological traits and demographics, including their state of residence. The researchers identified three psychological profiles based on five broad dimensions of personality openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism also known as the "Big Five" personality traits. When the researchers overlaid the findings on a national map, they found certain psychological profiles were predominant in three distinct geographic areas. The data were collected over 12 years in five samples with participants from the 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia. Overall, the samples were nationally representative in terms of gender and ethnicity, with the exception of a larger proportion of young people.

"These national clusters of personalities also relate to a region's politics, economy, social attitudes and health," Rentfrow said. The study found that people in the friendly and conventional regions are typically less affluent, less educated, more politically conservative, more likely to be Protestant and less healthy compared to people in the other regions. The relaxed and creative states' residents are more culturally and ethnically diverse, more liberal, wealthier, more educated, comparatively healthy and less likely to be Protestant than those living in other regions. The temperamental and uninhibited region has a larger proportion of women and older adults who are more affluent, politically liberal and unlikely to be Protestant.

As for what might have shaped the regional personalities, theories plus research on migration and social influence offer clues, the authors said. For instance, research has shown agreeableness is a trait often found in people who stay in their hometowns, and the analysis indicated that a large proportion of residents in the friendly and conventional region lived in the same state the year before. The relaxed and creative region may have been influenced by a frontier mentality that endures with lots of young people, professionals and immigrants moving to the region for educational and employment opportunities. In the temperamental and uninhibited region, significant numbers of people have moved away, and research has shown that people who move to another part of the country are typically high in openness and conscientiousness and low in neuroticism almost entirely the opposite of the temperamental and uninhibited profile. "Considering that the temperamental and uninhibited profile is marked by high neuroticism, it's reasonable to speculate that social influence might facilitate the spread of anxiety and irritability across the region," the study said.

The researchers analyzed personality data from people who voluntarily participated in website personality tests, the "My Personality" Facebook application and from an online survey that recruited participants using a design that mimics random digit dialing. To determine regional political, economic, social and health factors, they examined data from a variety of sources, including the U.S. Census Bureau, state board of elections offices and the Association of Religion Data Archives.

###

Article: "Divided We Stand: Three Psychological Regions of the United States and Their Political, Economic, Social, and Health Correlates;" Peter J. Rentfrow, PhD, Michal Kosinski, MSc, and David J. Stillwell, PhD, Cambridge University; Samuel D. Gosling, PhD, University of Texas at Austin; Markus Jokela, PhD, University of Helsinski; and Jeff Potter, Atof Inc., Cambridge, Mass. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, online Oct. 14, 2013.

Contact: Peter J. Rentfrow, PhD, at pjr39@cam.ac.uk or 011-44-1223-767-805

The American Psychological Association, in Washington, D.C., is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States. APA's membership includes more than 134,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance the creation, communication and application of psychological knowledge to benefit society and improve people's lives.

http://www.apa.org

---

[


| E-mail


Share

]

 

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

17-Oct-2013

[


| E-mail

]


Share

Contact: Lisa Bowen
lbowen@apa.org
202-336-5707
American Psychological Association

Some parts of country are conventional and friendly; others relaxed and creative

WASHINGTON Americans with similar temperaments are so likely to live in the same areas that a map of the country can be divided into regions with distinct personalities, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.

People in the north-central Great Plains and the South tend to be conventional and friendly, those in the Western and Eastern seaboards lean toward being mostly relaxed and creative, while New Englanders and Mid-Atlantic residents are prone to being more temperamental and uninhibited, according to a study published online by APA's Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

"This analysis challenges the standard methods of dividing up the country on the basis of economic factors, voting patterns, cultural stereotypes or geography that appear to have become ingrained in the way people think about the United States," said lead author Peter J. Rentfrow, PhD, of the University of Cambridge. "At the same time, it reinforces some of the traditional beliefs that some areas of the country are friendlier than others, while some are more creative."

The researchers analyzed the personality traits of more than 1.5 million people. Through various online forums/media (e.g., Facebook and survey panels), participants answered questions about their psychological traits and demographics, including their state of residence. The researchers identified three psychological profiles based on five broad dimensions of personality openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism also known as the "Big Five" personality traits. When the researchers overlaid the findings on a national map, they found certain psychological profiles were predominant in three distinct geographic areas. The data were collected over 12 years in five samples with participants from the 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia. Overall, the samples were nationally representative in terms of gender and ethnicity, with the exception of a larger proportion of young people.

"These national clusters of personalities also relate to a region's politics, economy, social attitudes and health," Rentfrow said. The study found that people in the friendly and conventional regions are typically less affluent, less educated, more politically conservative, more likely to be Protestant and less healthy compared to people in the other regions. The relaxed and creative states' residents are more culturally and ethnically diverse, more liberal, wealthier, more educated, comparatively healthy and less likely to be Protestant than those living in other regions. The temperamental and uninhibited region has a larger proportion of women and older adults who are more affluent, politically liberal and unlikely to be Protestant.

As for what might have shaped the regional personalities, theories plus research on migration and social influence offer clues, the authors said. For instance, research has shown agreeableness is a trait often found in people who stay in their hometowns, and the analysis indicated that a large proportion of residents in the friendly and conventional region lived in the same state the year before. The relaxed and creative region may have been influenced by a frontier mentality that endures with lots of young people, professionals and immigrants moving to the region for educational and employment opportunities. In the temperamental and uninhibited region, significant numbers of people have moved away, and research has shown that people who move to another part of the country are typically high in openness and conscientiousness and low in neuroticism almost entirely the opposite of the temperamental and uninhibited profile. "Considering that the temperamental and uninhibited profile is marked by high neuroticism, it's reasonable to speculate that social influence might facilitate the spread of anxiety and irritability across the region," the study said.

The researchers analyzed personality data from people who voluntarily participated in website personality tests, the "My Personality" Facebook application and from an online survey that recruited participants using a design that mimics random digit dialing. To determine regional political, economic, social and health factors, they examined data from a variety of sources, including the U.S. Census Bureau, state board of elections offices and the Association of Religion Data Archives.

###

Article: "Divided We Stand: Three Psychological Regions of the United States and Their Political, Economic, Social, and Health Correlates;" Peter J. Rentfrow, PhD, Michal Kosinski, MSc, and David J. Stillwell, PhD, Cambridge University; Samuel D. Gosling, PhD, University of Texas at Austin; Markus Jokela, PhD, University of Helsinski; and Jeff Potter, Atof Inc., Cambridge, Mass. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, online Oct. 14, 2013.

Contact: Peter J. Rentfrow, PhD, at pjr39@cam.ac.uk or 011-44-1223-767-805

The American Psychological Association, in Washington, D.C., is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States. APA's membership includes more than 134,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance the creation, communication and application of psychological knowledge to benefit society and improve people's lives.

http://www.apa.org

---

[


| E-mail


Share

]

 

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/apa-ure101613.php
Similar Articles: Miss World 2013   Malcom Floyd   aaron hernandez   big brother spoilers   princess diana