Director Mark Pellington and producer Tom Gorai of Los Angeles-based Pellington/Gorai have signed with bicoastal/international Propaganda Films for exclusive representation in spots and music videos. The deal also give Propaganda first-look rights to all Pellington/Gorai’s feature film, television and internet projects. In other Propaganda news, the company has committed to the Hollywood redevelopment push, signing a 10-year lease for a 30,000-square-foot office building in the heart of the city. The interior of the two-story building will be demolished, and a new space will be designed. The company’s four current Hollywood locations will be consolidated into the new site by early fall. The complex will include offices, production suites, editing bays and a state-of-the-art screening room. It will house Propaganda’s commercial, music video, talent management, television, film and new media divisions, in addition to Satellite’s spot and music video divisions…. Word is that director Richard D’Alessio is joining New York-headquartered Shooting Gallery Productions….Director Boris Damast has joined the directorial roster of bicoastal Celsius Films…..Feature filmmaker John Waters (Pink Flamingos, Hairspray, Pecker) is making his spot debut via bicoastal The Industry: a more.com assignment for Citron Haligman Bedecarre, San Francisco….Denver animation studio Celluloid has added directors/designers Dan Yaccarino, Stacey Steers and Cathy Joritz, director Bill Kopp, and designers Aaron Augenblick and David Zweig….Stu Kuby has joined JSM, New York, as director of production….Bicoastal Johnson/Burnett Studios is opening a production office in Toronto this month. Tania Smunchilla, former VP, marketing/sales for The Post Group, Toronto, has been named to manage the new Johnson/Burnett, Toronto, operation….Bicoastal/international marketing communications company Pittard Sullivan has teamed with Goldman Productions, Cincinnati, to launch a joint venture audio company, RipTide Music. Richard Goldman, founder of Goldman Productions, will serve as CEO/president of RipTide Music, which has signed composer David Logan….
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More