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P<I>atrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spinner, Levar Burton, Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis, F. Murray Abraham, Donna Murphy, Anthony Zerbe. Directed by Jonathan Frakes. Aspect ratio: 2.35:1 (anamorphic). Dolby Digital 5.1. 108 minutes. 1998. Paramount 335887. PG. $29.99.</I>

Planet Hollywood in New York hosted the world premiere of <I><A HREF="http://www.shootyoudown.com">underdogs</A></I> at the New York International Independent Film Video and Arts Festival this past weekend, but, in an effort to get the film from the launch party into the market, the writer-director has listed the rights to the romantic comedy on <A HREF="http://www.ebay.com">eBay</A>.

Network television may be on the decline, but the film industry is stronger than ever. American movie fans bought almost $3 billion worth of movie tickets over the summer of 1999, exceeding the all-time high of $2.6 billion, set the previous year. This year, 11 movies pulled in more than $100 million each, and ticket sales for the year to date are up 6%.

According to a report issued last week by <A HREF="http://www.alliedworld.com">Allied Business Intelligence</A>, a worldwide conversion from traditional analog broadcasts to digital images is creating a windfall for those producing consumer set-top boxes. Findings in the report, "Digital Set-Top Boxes: World Markets, Architectures, and Vendors," also indicate that the global installed base of digital set-top boxes will reach 252 million units by the end of 2004. The report states that two key factors driving the demand will be the use of digital set-top boxes by both DBS and cable subscribers. Growth in terrestrial digital TV decoder boxes is likely to be significantly slower, according to the research.