Movie theaters could begin screening live, high-definition broadcasts of NFL football games, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has told a media conference in New York. Speaking at the Reuters Media Summit, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said that he has had talks with Shari Redstone, president of National Amusements, which owns the Cinema De Lux, Showcase Cinemas, Multiplex Cinemas, and The Bridge theater chains. Goodell also indicated that he has had similar talks with other theater owners but suggested that those with Redstone have progressed further than the others because National Amusements is the parent company of CBS, with which it already has a deal. He said that it wanted to protect the NFL's broadcast rights, which are worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Regal Theaters, the nation's largest theater chain, has begun testing devices in 25 of its locations that allow patrons to summon ushers if audience members use cell phones or become unruly. Regal Chief Executive Michael Campbell told the Reuters Media Summit in New York Wednesday that a second button will notify management of faulty projection, a third about uncomfortable room temperature, and a fourth about any other problem. Campbell said that ordinarily customers won't say anything such problems while the film is running. "They just will complain on their way out or, in the worst case scenario, they don't come back." He said that he expects the device to be available nationwide next year and that it will be given to "mature" audience members, who will receive free popcorn for their efforts.

Apple Computer is facing new challenges to its iPod devices from content providers, who, while seeking ways to profit from digital technology, remain worried that it will wreck their businesses. On Wednesday, Reuters quoted Doug Morris, head of Vivendi's Universal Music Group (UMG), as saying that he wants the same deal from Apple that he has negotiated with Microsoft for its Zune player -- a royalty payment for each device sold. Morris said that all such digital devices "are just repositories for stolen music, and they all know it. So it's time to get paid for it." Two weeks ago UMG sued social networking site MySpace, charging that it allowed users to pirate its music videos. Meanwhile, the London Financial Times reported that the major film studios are demanding that, before they will sign a deal to provide movies to Apple's iTunes Music Store, Apple must develop software that will prevent the movies from being downloaded to multiple iPods from a single PC.

Sundance, America's leading film festival, has announced the titles of 64 films that will be included in the 2007 competition (16 films in each of four categories). Festival director Geoffrey Gilmore told Variety that he was impressed with the entries. "There were easily 40 or 50 films we could have programmed, ones I have regrets about not showing. That makes it really hard to hold the line and not expand the festival," he said. The festival runs from January 18 to 28 in Park City, Salt Lake City and Ogden, Utah.

Elijah Wood, who starred in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, has weighed in on the controversy over New Line Cinema's decision to dump Peter Jackson as the director of the LOTR prequel, The Hobbit. In an interview with Britain's Empire magazine, Wood said that he was dismayed that "it's ultimately a business decision and not at all considering the fans." Wood, who would seemingly be too old now to appear in the prequel, nevertheless observed, "I can't imagine any of the original actors would want to join" a production that was not overseen by Jackson. "How can you imagine a prequel that didn't look the same, and didn't have the same continuity?" he asked.

In the wake of last September's military coup, the budget for the Bangkok Film Festival -- one of the preeminent film showcases in Asia -- has been slashed, and the festival has cut its ties with the U.S. management company that runs it, Film Festival Management Inc. of Beverly Hills. The Tourism Authority of Thailand has sent a letter to FFM noting that "certain circumstances have sidetracked the development of the festival, making changes in its planning inevitable." A budget of $3.6 million had reportedly been allocated for the 2007 festival, down 24 percent from $4.7 million this year. The festival is scheduled to be held from Jan. 29 to Feb. 5. In an interview with the Bangkok Post, TAT spokesman Chattan Kunjara na Ayudhya said, "We do not have any conflict with FFM. The decision was made due to the political situation and some problems over budget allocations. ... This presents a great opportunity for us to groom a Thai team to run the festival."

Nicole Kidman has replaced Julia Roberts as the highest-paid actress in Hollywood. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Kidman's $17 million was $3 million short of Roberts's salary when she appeared on the list last year. This year, however, Roberts took the year off to spend it with her 2-year-old twins. Tied for No. 2 on the 2006 list were Reese Witherspoon, Renee Zellweger, Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz, each of whom receives $15 million per film.

Without either Dancing with the Stars or Lost on its schedule, ABC plunged from first place to last, as replacements Show Me the Money and Day Break flopped Wednesday night. Show Me the Money drew a 5.7 rating and a 9 share at 8:00 p.m., barely beating out the CW's America's Next Top Model, which posted a 5.3/8. Meanwhile, Day Break, which was shoehorned into the 9:00 hour in order to avoid the audience erosion that has occurred previously when Lost aired reruns, attracted even lower ratings than those reruns. Wednesday's episode drew a 3.8/6, 33 percent below Show Me the Money.

NBC has decided to keep Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip in its Monday-night time slot despite continued audience erosion. The show, however, continues to delight TV critics. In today's (Thursday) New York Times, Alessandra Stanley, applauding NBC's decision to stick with it, remarked that it "works, at times brilliantly." Another ratings-challenged but critically praised show, Friday Night Lights, will switch from Tuesdays to Wednesdays at 8:00 p.m., starting January 10. commented Melanie McFarland, the television critic of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer: "Could it be that this fall's combination of high critical expectation and low viewer response has conspired to bring about ... patience?" After the football season ends, NBC will revamp its Sunday-night schedule with Grease: You're the One That I Want debuting on January 7, in which contestants will vie for a leading role on a Broadway revival of Grease. A new season of The Apprentice will also debut on January 7. Both shows will air 90-minute segments for the first two weeks, then be joined by Crossing Jordan on January 21. Although NBC had indicated recently that it planned to add a third edition of Dateline to its schedule, the final lineup released Wednesday showed the news magazine airing only on Tuesdays and Sundays.

Emperor penguins not only ruled at the box office last week, they also dominated basic cable as Hallmark Channel's telecast of the documentary March of the Penguins drew 4.5 million viewers on Saturday, its biggest audience ever. The Penguins film also helped give Hallmark the highest ratings of any day in its history. For the week of Nov. 20-26, it ranked second only to ESPN's Monday Night Football.

TiVo, the most famous name in digital video recorders, but which has nonetheless never been able to translate its fame into profits, narrowed its loss 28 percent in the third quarter to $11.1 million versus a loss of $14.2 million during the same quarter a year ago. The result beat analysts' expectations. Nevertheless, TiVo had to increase its gross revenue 32 percent to achieve the result, taking in $65.6 million compared with $49.6 million a year earlier. Moreover, the company projected a net loss of $33-38 million in the fourth quarter, when it essentially gives away settop recorders via rebates in order to sign up new subscribers. Several analysts questioned the strategy and maintain that it will never allow TiVo to post a profit. "The company is burning a lot of cash and is showing little growth," Oppenheimer's Alan Bezoza told USA Today.Shares in the company fell more than 5 percent in after-hours trading Wednesday.

In what today's (Thursday) Hollywood Reporter described as "a case of art imitating art imitating art yet again," NBC is considering airing the rehearsals of Saturday Night Live -- fodder for the writers of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and 30 Rock -- on the Internet. As reported by the trade publication, NBC Universal chief digital officer George Kliavkoff told a conference in Los Angeles Wednesday that sometimes the SNL Friday-night rehearsals are "a lot more interesting than the show."