THE PROMOTION

‘Terrifically smart and funny’ – Sixty Second Preview 

Seann William Scott and John C Reilly star in the quirky off-beat comedy ‘The Promotion’ which will be released by High Fliers on retail DVD on April 23^rd.

Both actors will have a high profile in UK cinemas around the DVD’s release date. Seann William Scott, currently starring in ‘Goon’, will be seen again in the Spring when he reprises his role for the final film in the hugely successful ‘American Pie’ franchise while John C Reilly will be starring with Sacha Baron Cohen, Anna Faris and Ben Kingsley in ‘The Dictator’ which opens in May. 

‘The Promotion’ was written and directed by Steven Conrad who was also the screenwriter for ‘The Pursuit Of Happiness’ and ‘The Weather Man’.

Living the American Dream, happily married Doug Stauber’s professional ambitions are about to be realised when his boss at the Chicago supermarket chain where he works assures him he's a shoo-in to manage a new neighbourhood store.

However, enter rival Richard Wehlner. He wants the job too, has a better CV than Doug, has a wife and a daughter and is regarded by seemingly everybody as an all-round terrific guy.

How should Doug react to this challenge? Should he regard Richard as a friend, a colleague, a competitor or an enemy?

Richard, it seems, has demons and a past but with the help of motivational tapes he’s determined to succeed.

Soon their professional rivalry explodes as the two men fight it out in corporate and psychological tests to determine who gets the dream promotion to supermarket store manager! A clear case of two guys, one job and no rules!

‘The Promotion’ has a run time of 86 minutes, a ‘15’ certificate and an rrp of £12.99. 
 

THE BUGLE GOES INDEPENDENT

New beginning for leading satirical podcast

Satirical comedy podcast The Bugle, hosted by JOHN OLIVER (The Daily Show with Jon Stewart) and ANDY ZALTZMAN (7 Day Sunday on BBC Radio 5Live) has found a new home, following its departure from The Times in January 2012.

Fans were able to download the 179^th issue of the newly-independent Bugle, featuring JOHN and ANDY in their respective home cities of New York and London, on Friday 20^th January, via iTunes or www.soundcloud.com/the-bugle, and the show’s new website, www.thebuglepodcast.com.

Last year, the podcast had an average of over 2 million downloads per month.  It has regularly featured in the official iTunes podcast top ten in both the USA and UK, and has topped the iTunes comedy charts.  In the wake of Friday’s relaunch, The Bugle reached the number 10 spot on the iTunes chart.  As of Sunday night, The Bugle was in the top 5 comedy podcasts in the USA and UK, as well as in the top 10 in Australia, Canada and New Zealand, and was the UK’s highest-ranked independent podcast.

Issue 179 of The Bugle saw JOHN and ANDY reunite to cast their unique perspective over the week’s major news stories and protagonists.  Subjects covered with their trademark cocktail of political satire and outright nonsense include the Wikipedia internet blackout, the Republican nominations race, and the Queen’s proposed Jubilee yacht.

The Bugle, which debuted in October 2007, is a transatlantic comedy show, in which JOHN and ANDY are connected via ISDN.  It has built up a devoted worldwide following, and is listened to in more than 145 countries, including Yemen, Armenia, Burma and Gabon.  Listeners have also emailed in from Afghanistan, Darfur and Antarctica.

The numerous topics the show has covered include:  the 2008 U.S. presidential election, the 2010 U.K. general election, the global economic crisis, the Arab Spring, the crackpot antics of the world’s various despots and lunatics, the 2011 Cricket World Cup, and Lou Reed’s epoch-defining 2010 concert for dogs.  The Bugle has left no satirical hot potato unbuttered.

The first podcast of 2012 can be downloaded from www.iTunes.com / www.soundcloud.com/the-bugle

Official website:  www.thebuglepodcast.com or visit www.facebook.com/buglepodcast  

The Bugle’s Twitter feed is @hellobuglers.

“Eye on a new century"

AFP's first photo app for the iPad, is adapted from a 2010 book “the shock of the new century” featuring the best images from the first decade of the new millennium.

Events which marked the first decade of the 21st Century are vividly recalled through the images in the app….the Concorde crash, Yves Saint Laurent's farewell to the fashion industry, Zidane's head-butt, the death of Michael Jackson, the attacks on September 11, 2001. Each of the 130 photos has a corresponding caption and commentary from the photographer.

The menu consists of 12 images linking to the photo gallery for the corresponding year. Once inside the gallery, photos appear in full screen. Just scroll vertically to move to the next photo and horizontally to switch years. A banner can be called up displaying all the years and their content.

AFP will release as well "Rugby 2011" an easy to navigate application celebrating the best of last November's Rugby World Cup through the lenses of  Agence France-Presse's prize winning photographers. The nine high-definition photo galleries feature bone-crunching tackles and spectacular tries, the emotional highs and lows on the way to a dramatic final won by hosts New Zealand.

Future "AFP Photo Books" applications will be devoted to highlights of current events and key personalities. AFP also plans a number of other photo apps including on the environment, faith rituals and traditions and offbeat features. A selection of galleries dedicated to the AFP Photo Annual, featuring the best news pictures of 2011, will be released in January. In February, we will run a retrospective of the Arab revolutions to mark the first anniversary of the uprising in Tunisia. Other themes will appear during 2012.

With these new "pay for" apps, the first two of which are on sale at a special launch price of 1.59 euro, AFP is strengthening its presence on the mobile market, one of the agency's key development areas.

Futuresource and Intellect announce the Future of Entertainment Summit

BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones to chair inaugural event

London. 24 January, 2012: Futuresource Consulting, the leading specialist research and knowledge-based consulting firm and Intellect, the trade association for the UK's technology industry have announced a new 'must attend' event which will help shape the future of digital entertainment.

The Future of Entertainment Summit will take place in London on 20 June this year, providing a prestigious platform for industry leaders, policy makers, entrepreneurs and those driving innovation in digital entertainment and consumer electronics, to share opinions and shape strategy.

For many years, both Futuresource and Intellect have run highly successful conferences in this arena and the Future of Entertainment Summit builds on the success of the Futuresource Entertainment Summit and Intellect's Future of Digital Entertainment conference, with the companies joining forces to meet the needs of increasingly converging markets.

Jim Bottoms, co-founder and director, Futuresource Consulting said: "The integration of two highly successful conferences to form a new entertainment summit clearly demonstrates our commitment to providing premier, best-in-class events to the entertainment industry. These are challenging times and this partnership allows us to add even more value for attendees as all elements of the industry come together under one roof to explore the full scale of the business opportunity."

William Higham, Intellect's director of digital media convergence said: "We are increasingly seeing convergence between the interests and activities of device manufacturers, content creators, technology companies, broadcasters and infrastructure owners. This conference will build on the strong position each organisation enjoys within these dynamic communities and will become an agenda setting industry event."

Rory Cellan-Jones, the BBC's highly influential technology correspondent will chair the Future of Entertainment Summit.

Follow the conversation on Twitter #fes2012

Conference details

Date: 20 June, 2012

Venue: The Grange City Hotel, Cooper's Row

London EC3N 2BQ

Xmas fails to improve consumers’ connection with Smart TV

Ownership of Smart TVs only increases by 1% from December to January 2012

• A YouGov survey in November 2011 revealed that 1 in 10 people in the UK owned a Smart TV, but intention to purchase was very low - only 15% of UK consumers said they would own one within the next 12 months 

• YouGov re-ran the survey in January to see if Xmas would provide a welcome boost – it didn’t. Ownership of Smart TVs in the UK only increased by 1% from Dec to Jan. In contrast HDTV ownership seems much more the rage with ownership increasing by 4% (from 55% - 59%).
  
• Perhaps unsurprisingly, given their suitability as gifts and a lower price point, the Nintendo Wii and other games Consoles that can access TV content saw a big uplift in sales/ownership over this period. Wii ownership, for example, increased by 4% 

• This strongly suggests that games consoles, rather than Smart TVs, will win the battle over which device people will use to access Internet content through their TV
  
• For example, ownership of a games console that can access TV programmes in the 18-24 age group jumped from 7% before Christmas to 25% in January
  
• The modest increase in Smart TV ownership was mostly driven by males – increasing from 10% to 13% over Christmas and Jan – and those aged 35-44 (also a 3% uplift) 

• Most worryingly, for the Smart TV industry, there has been no practically no change (1%) in people’s intention to purchase a Smart TV within the next 12 months 

• Dan Brilot, Media Consulting Director, YouGov, "However, some of the industry’s messaging does seem to be getting through as shown by a thawing in indifference towards Smart TV and a rise in purchase consideration. Prior to Christmas, 52% of the UK population said they definitely would not purchase one but this has dropped to 45%. Similarly, the % saying they are unsure about purchasing one has risen from 16% to 25%."