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Viacom, whose media companies include Nickelodeon and the MTV and Turner cable channels as well as Paramount Pictures, said today (Thursday) that its profit plunged 65 percent in the last quarter, attributing the fall to a one-time $379-million charge to cover an arbitration award to shareholders of "Rock Band" videogame maker Harmonix. Excluding the Harmonix payout, the company's earnings were down 5 percent. The company was stung during the quarter by a sharp drop in ratings — still unexplained — for its Nickelodeon kids channel. "If we hadn't had the Nickelodeon ratings issues, our advertising sales would have been a growth for the quarter," Viacom chief Philippe Dauman said.

Last fall's devastating floods in Thailand played havoc with Sony's ability to fulfill orders and were largely responsible for the company's $2.04-billion net loss in its last quarter, CFO Masaru Kato said in a conference call today (Thursday). "Several production facilities in Thailand suffered direct damage during the floods and supply chains across the region were disrupted," he said. It was a particularly hard time for the company to be hit, given that the quarter includes the crucial holiday sales period. Sales of consumer products fell 24.4 percent to $12.77 billion, it said. The continued strength of the yen against other world currencies, particularly the falling euro, didn't help either. And while Sony Pictures recorded a 7.7percent bump in gross earnings, net profits for the studio plunged 85 percent, due to a large slate of releases that required higher expenditures on promotion and marketing. The film unit also was stung by the disappointing performance of Arthur Christmas, which reportedly cost more than $100 million to produce, but which brought in $146 million worldwide — not enough to put it into the black after payouts to theater chains and costs for distribution and marketing are taken into consideration.

Documentary maker Josh Fox, who was nominated for an Oscar last year for his film Gasland, about the impact of natural gas drilling, was arrested on Capitol Hill Wednesday when he attempted to film a Congressiional hearing focusing on the issue. Charged with unlawful entry, Fox was led out of the hearing room in handcuffs. "This is a public hearing!" he shouted as he was being ejected. "I'm being denied my First Amendment rights." Republican members of the House Science, Space and Technology subcommittee said that he did not have proper press credentials to film in the hearing room, But Democrats on the committee urged that Fox be allowed to return and called for a vote — which they lost. Later, Fox told Politico.com, "There were no other broadcast journalists in the room. … We've taped public hearings across the U.S. for three and a half years. We've taped hundreds. This is public speech and it's protected. Our ability to report on it is protected by the First Amendment. And they came to us and said, "You're in violation of House rules.' I told them, ‘You're in violation of the rules of the United States of America, which is the Constitution." Late Wednesday, New York Democratic Congressman Maurice Hinchey decried the treatment of Fox. Hinchey, who is co-author of a bill to protect drinking water from the risks of gas drilling, called Fox's arrest "beyond unacceptable," noting that "there was plenty of room for cameras" in the hearing room. "This is blatant censorship and a shameful stain on this Congress," he added.

Wairarapa, New ZealandWhile James Cameron shot much of his Oscar-winning Avatar in U.S. locations, such as Kauai and the Big Island in Hawaii and the converted aircraft assembly plant in Playa Vista, CA where Howard Hughes built the Spruce Goose, many scenes were also shot at Stone Street Studios in Wellington, New Zealand, and virtually all of the special effects work was performed there at the famed Weta digital effects studio, cofounded by Peter Jackson. Now, it appears that New Zealand will be the home base for Cameron's sequel to Avatar. Published reports said today (Thursday) that Cameron has applied to buy 2,636 acres of farmland where he and his family "intend to reside indefinitely." In a statement, the Cameron family said, "We love the rugged landscape and the spirit of the people here, and are looking forward to becoming resident on our beautiful farm. We hope we will be accepted as good neighbours and good members of the community in South Wairarapa."

Disney's Real Steel, an enormous hit at the worldwide box office last year, with nearly $300 million in ticket sales (thanks largely to an overseas gross of $210 million), arrived on home video last week with another show of strength — debuting at No. 1 on all three major charts: standard DVD sales, Blu-ray Disc sales, and total rentals. Home Media magazine said that it dominated the sales chart, earning five times the revenue of the No. 2 film, the Summit Entertainment "cancer comedy" 50/50, which managed to take in only $35 million at the domestic box office. 50/50 also placed second on the Blu-ray Disc sales chart and on Home Media‘s rental chart.

The Eastman Kodak Company, whose iconic brand name once appeared in the credits of virtually every motion picture released in Hollywood, appears to be slowly fading to black, the victim of the modern digital age when film is being replaced by digital recording and cameras by mobile phones. Now, the familiar announcer's intonation "Live from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood!" preceding numerous glittering events, including the annual Oscars presentations, may be placed on mute as well. The company, now in Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, wants out of its $75-million, 20-year naming contract with the theater. In court papers, company executives said that they had "evaluated the contract in consultation with their professional advisers and determined that any benefit related to these rights likely does not exceed or equal the debtors' costs associated with the contract." A hearing on the matter has been set for February 15 at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan — less than two weeks before this year's Oscars presentations.

Hoping that he can achieve for the rest of the company what he has already achieved for its games division, Sony has named Kazuo Hirai as the company's next president and CEO. He will succeed Howard Stringer, who will remain executive chairman until June, when he will become chairman of the board. The appointment was expected following Hirai's striking success in turning around Sony's Playstation business — even as Sony's principal consumer electronics business continued to bleed red ink. Sony reportedly is planning to use the PlayStation Network, championed by Hirai, as the converging point for a network that will offer the company's games, movies, music, and other services. Sony's film division also remains healthy despite the company's overall malaise. Last year Sony Films was the third-highest-grossing studio (behind Paramount and Warner Bros.) with $1.36 billion in ticket sales.

It wasn't all gloom and doom for the home video industry last year. According to a note to clients from Morgan Stanley analyst Benjamin Swinburne, sales of movies on Blu-ray Discs increased 11 percent, with Blu-ray representing 27 percent of the top titles of the year. The Morgan Stanley note observed that Blu-ray sales for the first time exceeded $2 billion in revenue. "We see growth in high margin Blu-ray sales as a net positive for the industry, and continue to look for Blu-ray and digital distribution to help offset declines in physical DVD sales," Swinburne wrote, while noting that overall DVD declines will exceed Blu-ray gains. "We believe that consumers will continue to migrate to rental transactions (vs. sellthrough), due to the economy, convenience of kiosk and subscription channels, and an overall maturation of physical DVDs," he added.

Les MoonvesIn a court filing, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association has submitted a transcript of a deposition by CBS Chairman Les Moonves in which he said that he had informed HFPA President Philip Berk that he was prepared to pay $25 million over five years for rights to the Golden Globes Awards. "It was an opening offer, and anyone who does these negotiations knows there's more room than that when you put it out." The HFPA is suing Dick Clark Productions for allegedly making an unauthorized seven-year deal with NBC that came to $21.5 million over seven years. At the center of the HFPA's lawsuit is a 1993 agreement with Dcp that Dcp claims gives it the right to continue to produce the awards show if it secures a deal with NBC to televise it.

Jonathan Handel Entertainment industry labor attorney Jonathan Handel says that a study included Tuesday in the AFTRA-sag merger documents about bringing together the Pension and Health plans of the two unions "could be a game changer." Noting that in the past plans to merge the two performers unions have come undone by SAG activists who have contended that the merger would dilute their own P&H plan, Handel says in an analysis appearing in the Hollywood Reporter that a feasibility study conducted by attorney Deborah Lerner, who has represented such plans in over two dozen mergers, and a half-dozen other lawyers, concludes that the AFTRA-sag merger poses no risk of loss of benefits. In fact, the study concludes, mergers of such plans are "beneficial because they strengthen the financial base of the surviving plan, reduce administrative expenses, and permit employees to concentrate their covered work under one benefit structure."