The Morning Fix: Digital TV is coming, are you ready?; Pilots flying out of LA; Get your Facebook vanity plate, but be careful choosing; Letterman on the rise.
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After the coffee. Before going to that breakfast you regret scheduling.
Are you ready for Friday’s switch? More than 250,000 Southand residents are not prepared for the digital TV conversion this Friday. The Los Angeles Times says we’re among the nation’s ‘top slackers.’ Also, an interview on the conversion with FCC Commissioner Michael Copps.
Pilots flying away! Pilot production in Los Angeles has dropped 17% over the past five years, according to FilmL.A., the folks who hand out film permits. Variety notes that L.A.’s dwindling share of a shrinking scripted TV market amounts to a big economic hit to the region at a time when the Golden State can ill afford to lose business tax revenues. The report is clear evidence that the filming incentives available in 44 states are taking a huge bite out of Hollywood’s hometown biz, according to FilmL.A. prexy Paul Audley.
Get your Facebook vanity plates. Facebook is letting users choose personal URLs and the deadline is Friday night. TechCrunch warns you to think carefully before pressing that button or you could end up being ‘mileycyrusfanforever’ forever. This is why I don’t have tattoos.
Oops. Barry Diller says free content on the Internet was an ‘accidental historical moment that will absolutely be corrected.’ Speaking at the Advertiser 2.0 conference, Diller, CEO of InterActiveCorp., points to the iPhone and its app store as a future model. Cnet News.
Twitter’s growth has slowed a little. Here’s a pretty chart from Compete, a web analysis firm (I think that means they crunch numbers).
In today’s Los Angeles Times: Eddie Murphy’s ‘Imagine That’ may not want to imagine this weekend’s box office. It took David Letterman about week to pass Conan O’Brien in the ratings. Letterman’s been booking the big guns -- Julia Roberts and Howard Stern -- and its paying off.
-- Joe Flint
