It is imperative the public be made aware of major media policy decisions to help take part in and shape the industry that they rely on to be an informed citizenry in a democracy. However, in an increasingly concentrated media landscape where fewer owners control our channels of information and reign over a vast array of holdings, the system is firmly positioned to conceal or marginalize policy stories that negatively affect its business interests. This study explores mainstream TV news coverage of the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act or SOPA– legislation proposed to reduce counterfeit purchases online that came under fire from critics for potentially threatening the fabric of free expression on the Internet. By asking, “How much attention did major television news networks whose parent companies supported SOPA devote to the bill during their nightly broadcasts?” and “How much attention did major television news networks whose parent companies supported SOPA devote to the bill during their nightly broadcasts after the Internet Blackout protesting the Act?” it finds those networks whose parent companies sought to benefit from the Act’s passage failed to report on the legislation at crucial times before and after the SOPA debate. The results largely fall in line with the mainstream media– namely the broadcast industry’s– historical self-censorship of significant media policy stories. / text

Context. Online piracy is widespread, controversial and poorly understood social phenomena that affects content creators, owners, and consumers. Online piracy, born from recent, rapid ITC changes, raises legal, ethical, and business challenges. Content owners, authors and content consumers should benefit from better understanding of online piracy. Improved, better adapted to marketplace and ITC changes content distribution models should benefit content owners and audiences.Objectives. Investigate online piracy effect on pirated product sales. Improve understanding of online piracy behaviors and process scale.Methods. This observational study investigated movie-sharing effect on U.S. box office. Movie sharing was observed over BitTorrent network, the most popular peer-to-peer file-sharing network. Relationship between piracy and sales was analyzed using linear regression model.Results. File sharing was found to have a slightly positive correlation with U.S. box office sales during first few weeks after film release, and no effect afterwards. Most of newly released movies are shared over BitTorrent network. File sharing is a global, massive phenomenon.Conclusions. I conclude that online movie file sharing has no negative correlation on U.S. box office. Slightly positive movie sharing correlation to box office sales could have occurred because sharing rather informs, than substitutes cinema going.

A la frontière entre les industries du divertissement et la production culturelle, grand fournisseur de contenu à l'économie numérique, l'industrie du cinéma soulève des questions intéressantes dans le champ de l'économie et du marketing. Cette thèse répond à trois questions empiriques importantes sur ce sujet à l'aide de différentes méthodes adaptées (économétrie des données de panel, différence-de-différences, économétrie structurelle) et propose un nouveau développement théorique du modèle nested logit. Le premier chapitre étudie l'effet des notes des consommateurs sur Internet, et analyse la complémentarité et la substituabilité de ces notes avec l'information disponible avant la sortie des films en salle. Le deuxième chapitre étudie l'effet redistributif de la loi anti-piratage Hadopi sur les entrées des films en salle, en écartant minutieusement les phénomènes alternatifs pouvant affecter les résultats. Le troisième chapitre considère la saisonnalité dans l'industrie française du cinéma et décompose séparément les entrées des films en salle en le niveau de l'offre (le nombre et la qualité des films), la demande saisonnière sous-jacente, les variations météorologiques, et les promotions nationales en estimant un modèle nested logit à trois étages tenant compte de la congestion des films dans les salles de cinéma. Le modèle est utilisé pour identifier les dates de sortie optimales en fonction des types de film. / At the frontier between entertainment industries and cultural production, vital content provider of digital economy, the motion picture industry raises several interesting questions in the field of economics and marketing. This dissertation tackles three important empirical questions in the motion picture industry using different methods (panel data models, difference-in-differences, and structural econometrics) and brings a new theoretical development about the nested logit model. The first chapter deals with online consumer reviews, also known as electronic word of mouth (eWOM), and focuses on the extent to which prerelease information alters the effect of eWOM on movie sales. The second chapter studies the collateral damages of the French anti-piracy law known as Hadopi on box office performances of movies, by carefully ruling out alternative explanations of the result. The third chapter investigates on seasonality in the French movie industry. The analysis separately identifies and decomposes movie sales into the number and quality of available movies, underlying seasonal demand, weather shocks, and national sales promotion by estimating a three-level nested logit model of weekly demand accounting for congestion on movie theaters' screens. The model is used to identify optimal release periods depending on the types of movie.