1) The Supreme Court has been busy (and not just with DOMA). The High Court handed down multiple rulings with major impact for the entertainment industries. First, the Court extended the “first sale” doctrine to content purchased overseas but resold in the US, in a case brought by Supap Kirtsaeng, a Thai-born student sued for copyright infringement by Wiley & Sons when he resold textbooks purchased in Taiwan. The ruling has already spurred some in Congress to call for revisions to copyright law, with testimony from the U.S. Register of Copyrights calling for the “next great copyright act” involving clarifications and revisions to the Digital Millenium Copyright Act enacted 15 years ago.

2) While the industry may have lost that case, they did come out ahead in another, as the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Comcast in an antitrust suit filed by Philadelphia-area subscribers claiming they were being overcharged. This could extend beyond the realm of television/cable providers, as the ruling impacts the ways cases can be pursued by a class group.

3) As regular WAYM readers might recall, last week News Corp and Disney were both considering buying the other out for control of Hulu. Now, reports show both sides are considering selling to a third party. Potential buyers being tossed around are investment firm Guggenheim Partners, Yahoo, and Amazon, tough no official comments have been made. So at this point, anything (or nothing) could happen.

4) In other streaming news, HBO GO, the online streaming service from HBO that is currently only available to those with a cable subscription (with the extra HBO fee), may ‘go’ broader, with HBO CEO Richard Plepler mentioning interest in teaming up directly through broadband providers. This would make HBO the “first premium cable network to bypass cable” and go directly to its Internet-based audience. This could be a big step, and a tacit admission of new competition in the form streaming sites like Netflix and Amazon.

5) This past week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released a report detailing the results of an “undercover shopper survey” on the enforcement of entertainment industry ratings. In an age where video games are often singled out for their impact on children, the FTC found the ESRB’s rating system and video game retailers the best, noting an 87% success rate of underage children being denied buying M-rated games. All areas found marked success, however, as box office, DVD sales, and CDs all showed improvement over the past years (See graph/report for more details).

6) The Game Developers Conference (GDC), the “world’s largest and longest-running professionals-only game industry event,” took place this past week, featuring booths, panels, and demos of the latest and greatest out of the video game industry. Although events like PAX and E3 draw larger audiences and media coverage, GDC has become another site for industry outsiders, like Disney and Warner Bros., to become more involved. Highlights include Activision’s uncanny valley-crossing graphics demo and independent game Journey taking home several awards including being the first independent to win Game of the Year.

7) Upfront season is really heating up, starting with News Corps cable network FX announcing the launch of a new sister channel, FXX (The extra X is for… I don’t know). FXX (launching in September) will specifically target a younger demographic, 18-34, and will be bolstered by moving current FX comedies It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and The League, as well as new comedy programming and reruns of popular shows like Sports Night and Arrested Development. Back on the FX front, network president John Landgraf also announced the acquisition of a 10-episode adaptation of the Coen Brothers’ Fargo, a bid they hope puts them in competition with more premiere cable fare like HBO and AMC.

8) More from the upfront front, Participant Media announced the creation of ‘pivot’ (stylized in lower-case), a new cable network formed from their purchase of the Documentary Channel. The new channel will mostly be filled with non-fiction programming aimed at Millenials, with shows from Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Meghan McCain already lined up. Participant Media is exploring options for offering the channel via broadband, trying to hook this young generation with both relevant technology and content.

9) A new report out this week from UCLA and the Writers Guild of America (WGA) revealed women and minorities are still underrepresented on television writing staffs as well as in producer roles. UCLA sociologist and the report’s author Darnell Hunt revealed that while some progress was made, it was at such a slow rate, the effects are marginal or nearly nonexistent.

10) Variety isn’t gone, but it won’t be the same. The 80-year-old Hollywood daily trade magazine published its last print edition on March 19. Variety will live on, both online in its revamped (paywall-free) website and in a new weekly magazine that debuted March 26.

And we return to The Silly Side, looking at the inherent weirdness that comes from entertainment industries:

• Montie, the cat understudy of the new Breakfast at Tiffany’s Broadway production, has been fired.
• Ashley Judd has officially announced (on Twitter) she will not be running for Senate. In related news, I, Andrew Zolides, will also not be running for Senate.
• In Jon Hamm’s penis news, Jon Hamm has spoken out (in a Rolling Stone interview) about the Internet’s obsession with his penis, calling out various blogs and tumblers devoted to… him. At any rate, Mad Men returns April 7.

Ten (or more) media industry news items you might have missed recently:

1) Surprisingly, the biggest news items of the past two weeks come from the ‘dying’ world of publishing. The ‘Time’ in Time Warner is officially breaking off as Time Warner has announced a split with its magazine division, Time Inc. The spin-off will make Time Inc. an independent, publicly traded company, currently the number-one magazine publisher in the U.S, featuring People, Sports Illustrated, Forbes and of course, Time. But Time Warner isn’t the only conglomerate making bold publishing moves, as News Corp. is creating a new publishing-focused company, still named News Corporation, granting it a healthy starting-allowance of $2.6 billion. This has led to multiple reactions from the industry with fears of possible layoffs at Time.

2) Staying in the world of magazines, Next Issue Media has expanded beyond Apple to launch on Windows 8 and Microsoft products like the Surface. Following a subscription model for unlimited access to over 80 magazines, Next Issue has been called both ‘Hulu’ and ‘Netflix’ for magazines. (The jury is still out on which one we are all going to call it. Post your suggestions in the comments below!) CEO Morgan Guenther is aiming for 1 million subscribers in the next 18 months.

3) Back to battling conglomerates, new information in the legal battle between Cablevision and Viacom has come to light. To catch you up, at the end of February, Cablevision filed an antitrust suit against Viacom, arguing against the mass media giant’s method of bundling its less performing cable networks with must-watch ones claiming, “The manner in which Viacom sells its programming is illegal, anti-consumer, and wrong,” in what may very well be the least self-aware statement ever made by a corporation. Now, Cablevision is claiming Viacom was threatening a $1 billion penalty if Cablevision refused the lower-tier networks. More on this irony as it develops.

4) The release of EA’s highly anticipated reboot of the SimCity video game franchise may go down as one of the biggest disasters in the industry’s history (though nothing touches the unforgettable landfills of Atari E.T. cartridges). Utilizing EA’s already highly controversial always-online DRM protection, SimCity became unplayable for thousands of players due to server issues and shut-downs. An alleged EA employee blasted the company on Reddit, expressing frustration and disappointment over the launch. EA responded by increasing server capacity and offering a free game, but many have not been assuaged, especially after computer modders/hackers revealed the game can function offline, but EA refused to allow that capability despite the massive amount of server failure.

5) In more video game news, the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) and the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) have announced a new campaign to educate parents on the industry’s ratings system and parental controls. This comes as a response to increased media scrutiny, particularly in the possible connection between video games and violence in teens and young adults. In a related move, the ESRB has changed its policy on game marketing, following a model similar to Hollywood in that publishers may show trailers for Mature (M) rated games to a wide audience, as long as a green slate (a la movie trailers) precedes the footage.

6) Hulu’s future is in question, as Disney and News Corp. are discussing strategy for the online streaming service, with the implication begin one may buy out the other’s stake (which would be another third. The final third is primarily owned by Comcast, who is barred from management decisions to a federal regulatory agreement). The talks appear to be centered around the companies’ divergent views on Hulu’s primary operation, with News Corp. favoring the paid subscription model of Hulu Plus while Disney wants to focus on advertising-based revenue from free streaming.

7) News from the ‘upfront-line’: upfront season has begun! Cable and smaller broadcasting divisions have already begun the annual process of selling airtime to advertisers. Two of the more newsworthy reports come from NBC News Group, where Matt Lauer joked about recent negative reports on his image and Today’s slipping ratings, and Disney Kids, pushing the use of multi-screen viewing patterns and, much more importantly, the upcoming summer spin-off “Girl Meets World.” We demand Mr. Feeny!

8) At the box office, the past two weekends played Jekyll and Hyde for Hollywood, providing them their first flop and first mega-success of 2013. Two weeks ago, Jack the Giant Slayer brought in an estimated $28 million domestically, just 14% of its nearly $200 million budget, though it shows promise in Asia. Last weekend, however, Oz: The Great and Powerful proved to be just that, bringing in over $80 million domestically and $150 million globally. While this is good news for a Disney, who started planning for a sequel before Oz‘s release, it is better news for the entire domestic box office, as current year totals are 17% behind 2012.

9) Unionized healthcare workers at the Motion Picture Television Fund hospital stated their intention to strike for three days starting this Monday, March 18. MPTF responded with intentions to hire replacement workers for the strike. Talks fell through this past Wednesday, and the union plans on following through with their strike.

10) A new study from Carnegie Mellon‘s Initiative for Digital Entertainment Analytics, published on March 6, draws the conclusion that since the shutdown of piracy-giant Megaupload, legal digital movie sales and rentals have increased, drawing a distinct correlation. Their findings show, “a positive and statistically significant relationship between a country’s sales growth and its pre-shutdown Megaupload penetration.”

And finally, The Silly Side, the news stories too inane not to share:

• A countersuit has been filed over the Fifty Shades of Grey porn parody (Fifty Shades of Grey: A XXX Adaptation). Smash Pictures (really) is claiming Universal’s lawsuit is unjustified on the grounds that due to its being originally published online as part of a fan fiction series, it is technically in the public domain.
• Please don’t turn off your smartphones. App, a new horror film from the Dutch studio 2CFilm, involves utilizing a free interactive app movie-goers can use during the screening, that adds complimentary information and scenes that are activated by audio cues in the film.
• Russell Crowe saw a UFO and posted a video of it. That’s really all I have to say about that.

Accents – Jonny Lee Miller’s Sherlock in Elementary would lead the way in any other year, but Made in Jersey doubles down with a promo trailer ever-so proud of Janet Mongomery’s transformation from her native British to Jersey (aw, it’s so cute that Hollywood just discovered the existence of voice coaches).

Bows – Hot off their co-starring role in summer blockbusters The Hunger Games and The Avengers, bows will appear in The CW’s adaptation of The Green Arrow, Arrow.

Crazed beasts – From Do No Harm’s Jekyll and Hyde tale to Beauty and the Beast’s noble, Kristin-Kreuk-saving beast, beasts are in.

DJs and radio hosts – Perhaps nostalgic for the early days of radio when they actually had an audience, NBC has two new shows (Go On, Next Caller) with radio hosts. Don’t tell Louis CK, but the latter stars Dane Cook.

Executive Producer of GI Joe – Anyone see that movie? Anyone like it? Zero Hour boasts of this famed auteur in its advertising, perhaps because “a bland Da Vinci Code wannabe” doesn’t sound as good?

Fava bean aficionados – Hannibal starts mid-season, and with Bryan Fuller behind it, I’m intrigued. If Fuller’s signature magic realist whimsical style proves an odd fit for the franchise, FOX also aims to cover all your psycho stalker serial killer needs with The Following.

Gay friends – The New Normal sees a gay couple hire and fall in love with a single mother who offers to be their surrogate, while CBS’ Partners focuses on best friends and business partners, one of whom is gay (and while the trailer isn’t promising, wouldn’t it be nice if CBS could convince their audience of 60-something men not to be scared of gay men?).

Housewives, desperate – You thought the show was over? And that it had spawned enough failed copies already? Think again, as I introduce you to ABC’s Mistresses.

Investigations – ‘Cause there just aren’t enough of these already on TV, Elementary, The Following, Zero Hour, Red Widow, Made in Jersey, Hannibal, and Revolution will all feature bold acts of getting to the bottom of things.

Jack Black wannabe – 1600 Penn recasts Bill Pullman as President, but far from his heroic, alien-killing Independence Day-self, he’s now pudged out a bit and is plagued by a college-age son trying so very hard to be Jack Black.

Kid named Butt-Kiss – ABC’s The Neighbors features a kid named after Dick Butkus, and hence pronounced “Butt-Kiss.” Apparently it was written by the two 11 year-old boys on my bus home the other day who spent the entire time thinking up names for farts. And Butkus is an alien. I present to you the runaway winner of next year’s Emmys.

Locke – Imagine if Season 6 Locke from Lost owned a fancy yet haunted apartment building in Manhattan (not in De Forest, WI, as Google suggested when I typed the show title in just now!), and there’s the premise of 666 Park Ave. However, the trailer suggests we’ll need to wage through lots and lots of scenes of Rachael Taylor getting changed before we get to see Terry O’Quinn.

Mysterious monochrome monitors (and yes, I get 3 points on Scattergories for this one) – Speaking of Locke, his favorite sidekick appears to be back in NBC’s Revolution. A JJ Abrams / Eric Kripke / Jon Favreau (gee, I wonder if it’ll have a built-in fan following?) production set fifteen years after the world loses electricity, apparently someone in this world still has their Commodore 64 up and running.

Nuclear submarines – For most original premise for a television show, I’m giving some cred to The Last Resort, ABC’s show about a nuclear submarine that refuses to fire on Pakistan and instead goes rogue and sets up a principality on a small island, while facing down the US that gave it the orders.

Operating rooms – it’s American primetime, so there must be doctors, and lots of them. More on Animal Practice in a second, The Mindy Project gives the titular Kaling her own vehicle, Mob Doctor is kind of self-explanatory (albeit perhaps with less ORs and more dark parking lot operations), Do No Harm has a doctor with a double life, and Emily Owens, MD wins the “most out of my demo” award for its interest in how hospitals are just like high school (wasn’t that Grey’s Anatomy?).

Primate surgeons – … but isn’t it time that primetime TV had a monkey who scrubs in? Poor Justin Kirk, finally and deservedly gets his own show only to be doomed to be upstaged by a monkey.

Quirky families – I bet you’ve never seen one of these on TV? Lucky for you, there’s Family Tools, Malibu County, The Neighbors, Mistresses, Made in Jersey, Mob Doctor, Ben and Kate, The Goodwin Games (trying to be The Royal Tenenbaums meets Running Wilde), Save Me, The New Normal, Guys with Kids, and How to Live with your Parents and Have a Title that’s Way too Humanly Long for Any TV Critic or Fan to Ever Bother With.

Re-Reba – Reba was cancelled, yes, but ABC’s market analysis clearly suggests that all that was missing was palm trees, since it’s back, in Malibu County. Supposedly the premise is different too.

Snuglis – Guys with Kids is one of the most aggressively not funny trailers of this upfront season. And I even watched it wearing my baby in a Snugli. So I should like it, right? No.

Tami Taylor – We all need more Tami Taylor in our lives. She’s now an aging country singer who is forced to tour with the annoying Hayden Pannettiere. There is nothing about the plot that interests me. But it is Tami, so I will watch Nashville. All hail Connie Britton.

Unhappy people – Go On sees can’t-find-a-new-show-that-sticks Matthew Perry leading a support group with Chandlerisms and bracketology. Many of these shows, though, will create even more unhappiness in the world.

Very well-toned men – Pecs and six packs are out in force. The trailers for both Chicago Fire and Arrow remind me how very unfit I am. Maybe I should watch 1600 Penn instead?

Westerns set in old Vegas – It’s like Mad Men meets Bonanza! CBS’s Vegas aims to look at early Vegas, with Dennis Quaid as the horse-riding sheriff trying to instill justice, and Michael Chiklis as the East coast mobster on the other side.

X-treme measures – People pushed to the edge. What will they do? Tune in to Revolution (fighting The Man), Red Widow (with an avenging Widow who isn’t Natasha Romonoff), Vegas (see above), The Mob Doctor (trading appendectomies for protection), Arrow (super hero by night!), 666 Park Avenue (“what’s Evil Locke doing to us, honey?”), Last Resort (see Nuclear Submarines), Do No Harm (fighting the beast within), and Infamous (a Revenge wannabe) to find out.

Young Carrie Bradshaw – At first I thought The Carrie Diaries was a CW spinoff of The Vampire Diaries with an even scarier supernatural beast at its core, but apparently it’s actually about Carrie in the Eighties.

Zealots – Prepping us for November’s next wave of Tea Party candidates, network tv is giving us cults (Zero Hour, CW’s Cult) and people who speak to God (Anne Heche in Save Me).

This year was especially active. By one count, 34 scripted shows were given the axe (though some had been killed much earlier than this past week), 28 of those being freshmen. Tied for blood on the floor were for ABC and NBC, each canceling 9 shows, Better with You, Brothers and Sisters, Detroit 1-8-7, Mr. Sunshine, My Generation, No Ordinary Family, Off the Map, The Whole Truth, and V for ABC, and The Cape, Chase, The Event, Law and Order: Los Angeles, Outlaw, Outsourced, The Paul Reiser Show, Perfect Couples, and Undercovers. FOX too, though, cut 8 shows (Breaking In, The Chicago Code, The Good Guys, Human Target, Lie to Me, Lone Star, Running Wilde, and Traffic Light), CBS said goodbye to Shit My Dad Says, Chaos, Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior, The Defenders, Mad Love, and Medium, and The CW cut Hellcats and Life Unexpected. By my math, that equates to 29 hours worth of television per week … before we add the reality shows (and Live to Dance, America’s Next Great Restaurant, and Shedding for the Wedding seem to have fallen by the wayside).

Conversely, a whole lot of shows got picked up. ABC commissioned 13 new shows, NBC was close behind with 12, FOX added 9, CBS added 5, and The CW added 4. That’s 35.5 hours worth of television.

I hope to blog about the previews and trailers for the new shows in more detail over at The Extratextuals later, but for now, I have a few general observations about the comings and goings and what they say about American television right now:

(1) Only two of the 43 new shows are reality shows: The X Factor and H8R. Otherwise, we seem to have weathered the storm of endless new reality shows. Each network more or less has its franchise shows (Idol on FOX, to be interchanged with X Factor based on season; Survivor and Amazing Race on CBS; Next Top Model on CW; Biggest Loser and The Voice interchanging with The Sing-Off on NBC; and Dancing with the Stars and The Bachelor for ABC), and scripted programming is back in development heaven.

(2) Who says the sitcom is dead? Four of the nine returning freshman shows are sitcoms, and the only two to be renewed well in advance of the upfronts (Raising Hope and Bob’s Burgers) were sitcoms. Plus 17 of the new shows are sitcoms. And 7 of those are multicam. Sounds to me like the genre is doing just fine.

(3) I’m intrigued to see that FOX continues to commission animated shows (it’s even commissioned a Flintstones reboot from Seth McFarlane for 2013), isn’t canceling any, and yet is keeping them all on Sunday evening. While it now has enough to take up two whole nights if it wants to do so, I also like the idea that they’ll have enough in store to switch them out between Fall and the mid-season. Here’s hoping that allows for a better quality of writing and less burnout.

(4) There’s a lot on offer for younger women in this new schedule. There are numerous sitcoms elsewhere that are female-centered (Apartment 23, Suburgatory, Whitney, Are You There Vodka?, Best Friends Forever, Bent, Two Broke Girls, I Hate My Teenage Daughter, The New Girl, and even Man Up seems to be as much for women to laugh at men), and between Revenge, Scandal, Good Christian Belles, Prime Suspect, Unforgettable, Hart of Dixie, Ringer, Secret Circle, A Gifted Man, and Smash, a whole bunch of the new dramas are female-centered or close to it too.

(5) And yet there’s something of a gender bifurcation observable, as a notable clump of shows are aimed wholly at dudes. Last Man Standing, How to be a Gentleman, and Free Agents seem especially dude-centered, even aggressively so; Person of Interest seems like Burn Notice for the Lost and Batman fanboy set; and while they may all be aimed at women too, the troika of Pan Am, Charlie’s Angels, and Playboy Club are clearly going for eye candy sales to guys.

(6) Speaking of which, what’s with the crappy Mad Men wannabes?

(7) There’s lots to complain about, but I must also give the networks credit for a few experiments. Terra Nova, Once Upon a Time, Awake, Smash, Revenge, and The River, for instance, all have some legitimately new things about them. Whether I’ll actually watch them is another thing, but it’s nice to see that we’re not just getting yet more odd couple sitcoms and procedurals centered around brilliant deductive minds … though we’re getting those too.

(8) 43 new shows and a whole lot of white. Really, Hollywood? Work It offers Prison Break’s Amaury Nolasco the chance to share the lead (though when the show is canceled, that will be over), Charlie’s Angels sees Annie Ilonzeh as one of the three angels, Scandal sees Kerry Washington lead the cast (with a disturbingly non-Scottish Henry Ian Cusack by her side), one of the Playboy bunnies in Playboy Club is African-American, and the hugely tall guy from Green Mile is in The Finder. I’m not impressed. Say what you will about the now-canceled Outsourced, but it had about as many non-white speaking roles in it as the entire slate of 43 new shows seem to have combined.

(9) For all those who saw promise in last year’s short-lived Lone Star, fear not, for Kyle Killen is back, with Awake. While, as with Lone Star, I worry about where it could go, it’s an intriguing premise – a man interchanges between alternate realities, in one of which his wife died in a car crash and in the other of which his son died in a car crash. I found it easily the most gripping of the trailers, and was amused to see that Killen learned his lesson about creating lead characters who we can’t empathize with … cause who can’t feel for the dude who lost his wife and his kid in a car crash?

(10) Finally, and speaking of those trailers, it’s refreshing to see the networks make these so widely available this year. In past years, it’s often been hard to get hold of them. For those of you who want to see more, I recommend going here for ABC, CBS, The CW, FOX, and NBC.

What else can be said of the upfronts? At this time of year, forecasts are a dime a dozen—whether about the likely success of programs or about how much different networks are likely to get in advertising commitments. In regard to the prognostications, I’ll snarkily note that there never seems to be much reporting on who was right or wrong, so I’ll pass on offering one more armchair programming/buying perspective: But a couple more observations

Something Different: As The New York Times noted in “Cable Takes a Front-Row Seat at Upfront Week,” in years past, cable channels made their programming announcements in March and April and steered clear of Manhattan in May, letting it be a broadcast show. But this year cable came to the big dance with programming announcements and events by many of the major channels. In the big picture, I’m not sure how much this matters—just further evidence of the industrial blurring of a distinction that has grown ever more negligible in terms of the viewing experience of many. While perhaps more notable this year with the Comcast buyout of NBC, the selling lines within conglomerates have been blurry for awhile now. Even further blurriness is added by the selling of advertising in digital content.

Read with Caution: All of this blurriness is about more than how buyers may feel after a network’s cocktail reception. The genre of industry article that follows the stream of prognostications is the genre that hypes the size of the deals that get made once the buying begins. Read these with caution. It only gets more and more difficult each year to decipher what is actually going on relative to other years. Rarely do articles make clear distinctions about what kind of add-ons are part of deals—sure, a network may be up 3% over last year, but did they have to sell/throw in some online, product placement, or cable to get there? Handicapping the fall schedules is a fun game, one I’m far better at than fantasy football, but so little of what is written about the upfronts really means anything substantial (other than industry posturing—which admittedly, has a role, but isn’t industry journalism’s finest contribution).

An Upfront Aside: As a television viewer I’ve been struggling to figure out why I have been wholly uninterested in the upfronts this year when in years past I would pour over the new grids with the glee of a child on Christmas morning. First, I realized the schedule has long ceased to matter to me. It all goes in the DVR (thanks to multiple tuners) and comes out whenever I decide. Given I’m no longer among a handful of early adopters and we’re in an era of Live+ measurement, analyzing the schedule no longer holds hidden meaning about what might succeed or fail because of its schedule position. Second, as a drama maven and reality avoider (at least in terms of my viewing preferences), I’m stunned by the minimal role broadcast programming plays in my life—(do I still even watch anything on CBS?). Finally, with all the constant reporting that has become part of the coverage of TV, from the aggregation at tv.tattle.com to constant updating of even only rumored developments by the trades online and newcomers like Deadline Hollywood, I’m fully appraised of the status of all shows and the factors likely to contribute to their return or passing.