When David Beckham came to Los Angeles last year to play for the Galaxy team, he was hailed as the savior of U.S. soccer. Times have changed, though, and an L.A. company is releasing a DVD expos & #233; that has the British athlete none too happy.
After delaying the launch of “David Beckham: Life of an Icon” for nearly five months, Los Angeles-based Liberation Entertainment is moving forward with its May 6 release of the DVD as the Major League Soccer season kicks off.
Beckham’s attorneys had fired off a number of threatening letters to Liberation when the company released the unauthorized Beckham DVD in the United Kingdom last August. The company promptly pulled its copies off all retail shelves and brought the project to the editing room.
After snipping out a montage of product endorsements, Liberation executives decided it was safe for release in the United States.
“I believe that there were some genuine concerns but we have addressed those issues,” said Mathew Kennedy, head of sales and marketing for Liberation.
Beckham’s camp stridently disagrees, however, and doesn’t want the video out on this side of the Atlantic, either.
Libel law is strict in Britain, where the burden of proof is placed on the publisher. In the United States, plaintiffs must prove the publisher acted recklessly and unprofessionally.
Besides featuring a slew of Beckham’s greatest sporting moments, the hour-plus video delves into the athlete’s personal life and his marriage to rock star Posh Spice. Bonus DVD chapters include his fallout with his feisty former team manager Alex Ferguson and his arrival upon the Hollywood scene.
Different Beat
The sizzling hot Latino media market in Los Angeles has always had its highest profile on the radio. And Latino radio still dominates the city’s overall market when it comes to ratings.
Radio One, which specializes in programming targeted toward an African-American audience, reported a companywide loss of $386 million for the past fourth quarter.
So, it was no big surprise last week when Radio One Inc. announced the sale of rhythm and blues station KRBV-FM (100.3) to Bonneville International Corp. for a mere $138 million, which is about the value of the station’s facilities and its broadcast license in one of the nation’s largest markets.
Last week’s sale announcement and a $150 million buyback strategy helped to boost Radio One’s stock by more than 58 percent, to $1.76.
Bonneville has not said what type of programming it will adopt when it takes over the Rhythm and Blues station this summer, but industry analysts are predicting a shift toward Latino programming.
Pirate Raids
If you want to get a DVD copy of Warner Bros.’ “10,000 B.C.” before it comes out on store shelves you can probably find a copy in downtown L.A.’s infamous Santee Alley.
But life is getting a little tougher in the world of illegal discs.
Police Chief William Bratton recently submitted a report to the Los Angeles City Public Safety Committee that details the number of illegal CD and DVD busts conducted by LAPD’s piracy unit during the past four years.
The five detectives and one officer who make up the Police Department’s piracy unit made 33 arrests and recovered about $2.1 million in estimated intellectual property value during its first six months in operation back in 2004.
Those numbers have steadily increased over the years, climbing to 126 arrests and recovering more than $5 million in estimated intellectual property value during 2006.
Last year, the piracy unit busts were down by nearly 50 percent but intellectual property recovered was up to nearly $12 million, due to cracking down on higher value targets.
Barney Time
Children’s video franchises such as “Barney” are big money makers on home video and the right to distribute such fare has always been a hard fought battle.
Lions Gate Entertainment has nabbed the DVD distribution rights to the purple dinosaur and other properties from Fox Home Entertainment in a deal with Hit Entertainment, the U.K.-based company owned by private equity investment group Apax Partners.
The arrangement is expected to increase Santa Monica-based Lions Gate’s family home video market share from 9 percent to 15 percent, by adding a slew of children’s titles, including “Barney” to its current slate of popular titles like “Bratz” and “Care Bears.”
The Lions Gate distribution deal comes on the heels of the resignation of Hit Chief Executive Bruce Steinberg, a former Fox executive.
Jeffry D. Dunn, former Nickelodeon Networks chief operating officer, took over Steinberg’s post earlier this month and helped craft the deal.
Image’s French Connection
Gearing up for an international television conference in the south of France later this month, Chatsworth-based Image Entertainment Inc. has formed a worldwide television sales division and promoted Steve Saltman, former vice president of the company’s domestic television division, to head to the new international department.
Saltman will be responsible for all forms of television distribution, including the worldwide sales of Image content across broadcast television, cable/satellite, pay-per-view and video-on-demand platforms.
Barbara Gomperz-McCarney was promoted to executive director of international sales and operations and Tiina Teal was named manager of television sales and international operations. Both report to Saltman.
Staff Reporter Brett Sporich can be reached at
[email protected]
, or at (323) 549-5225 ext. 226.
