| 2000 |
 Chronomedia index
Numbers after entries link to the list of references. |
links and notes |
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Cultural highlights | Predictions made this year |
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| January 3 |
Final Peanuts cartoon strip appears after 10 months short of 50 years of publication |
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| January 24 |
UK's EMI and Warner Music of the US announce that they are to merge to create the world's largest record company, with a global market share of up to 25 per cent. |
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| February 21 |
Live animation is transmitted by Cartoon Network in the US featuring cartoon character Johnny Bravo. Multi-Standard Instant Cartoon Images software developed by Alive Animation matches images with live voice-over in a phone-in for viewers by sequencing and synchronising short computer segments. The credibility of the animation depends on the crude simplicity of the original series. |
 Pertinent quotation |
| March 4 |
Sony launches its PlayStation 2 games console. |
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| May 28 |
In Croatia Nova TV begins experimental transmissions. |
> November 3 |
| May |
Spain begins digital terrestrial television (DTT) transmissions. |
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| June 12 |
Record advertising rates are set in the UK for the half-time break in ITV's coverage of the England v Portugal match in the Euro 2000 football tournament: around £340,000 for 30 seconds across the whole network. |
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| July 1 |
The four main UK television channels (BBC1, BBC2, ITV and Channel Four) switch from the 4:3 format to 14:9 for analogue transmissions and 16:9 for digital. |
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| July 21 |
Parliament in Poland approves a new Telecommunications Act. [0049] |
> 2004 |
| August 27 |
Ostankino Tower in Moscow is damaged by fire that puts all Russian television services except NTV off the air. |
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| August 28 |
Premiere at the Clearview Strathmore Cinema at Aberdeen,
New Jersey, of Driven Together, a feature film produced and directed by David M Kaiserman, and shot, edited and projected entirely in digital form. |
Possibly the first such event. |
| May 28 |
In Croatia Nova TV begins regular transmissions as the country's first nationwide commercial television channel. |
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| October 9 |
Law on Radio and Television comes into force in Armenia. |
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| December 1 |
Digital satellite broadcasting begins in Japan |
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| December 9 |
Digital six-screen cinema opened by T-Joy at Hiroshima, Japan is believed to be the first in the world not to have parallel or back-up conventional film projection facilities. |
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| December |
UK prohibition on providing commercial public dancing on Sundays under the Sunday Observance Act 1780 (qv) is repealed. |
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| • |
NBC pays $715m for the US television rights to the Olympic Games. |
 Olympic Games |
| • |
Dutch television production company Endemol is sold by its founders to Spanish telecom and media company Telefónica for €5.5bn. |
2005 November |
| • |
According to a survey by video copying prevention specialist Macrovision, (only) 11 per cent of US households with more han one VCR have connected machines together for the purposes of tape-to-tape copying. [0081] |
< 1993 |
| • |
Shipments of VHS video recorders in Japan this year are 6.41m units. |
> 2007 |
| • |
In France, the gap between cinema release of a film and its release on video—the 'theatrical window', mandated by law—is reduced from 12 months to six months. |
< 1996 |
| • |
A group of US customers file a class action against video rental company Blockbuster alleging that fees for late return of rental videos is a deceptive business practice. One estimate is that stores earn up to 20 per cent of their revenue from this source. [0081] |
> 2001 June |
