The company after whom the entire genre is named (remember the iPod?) maybe shouldn't kill podcasting, and indeed, the numbers might be an accident: "In September, Apple introduced iOS 17, which included a small change that has had a big impact on downloads." - The Verge
Awards season is what one might call compressed due to the Hollywood strikes of the spring and summer (and fall). Thus: "HBO’s post-apocalyptic drama The Last of Us topped night one of the 2023 Creative Arts Emmys presentation with eight awards." - The Hollywood Reporter
You see, "while modern Mickey is known for his charming personality, Steamboat Willie Mickey was more menacing with his propensity to use his fellow animals as musical instruments." - CBC
"At a time when the film industry is still struggling with deep existential anxieties, ... for many in Hollywood the impetus to look past the Globes’ rocky past is simply too strong to resist." Heck, there's even a new trophy. - Los Angeles Times
The scariest media moments of 2023 involved watching Internet-led disruption come for familiar forms of media, like late night TV and cable systems. - WBUR
When Chrome’s cookies are fully removed the open web will have mutated from a place where up to 90% of users were in some way targetable by advertisers, to a vast desert in which most users are essentially invisible to publishers and their clients. - Press-Gazette
Employment in motion pictures and sound recording climbed by 11,400 jobs to 463,000. After months of declines, industry employment began rising again in November. - Deadline
"While recent rumors suggest the pair had a falling out, (Benny) Safdie insists his split with Josh is amicable. 'It’s a natural progression of what we each want to explore,'" says Benny, who has found himself with a healthy acting career. - Variety
"'Most contracts have arbitrary termination clauses and offer paltry fees, especially to newcomers,' says a leader of the Indian equivalent of the Writers Guild of America. … 'They also don't pay writers for reworking drafts and give producers the right to decide whether a writer should be credited for their work.'" - BBC
"This year’s class of teacher movies is more concerned with individuals’ flaws than their knowledge-imparting skills. It could also be a reflection of the post-COVID assaults on scholarship that are roiling culture and politics. Or maybe filmmakers just want to deliver multifaceted characters rather than place them on idealized pedestals." - Los Angeles Times
The venture capitalist firm SignalFire estimates that less than 4% of creators make over $100,000 a year, although YouTube-funded research points to a rising middle class of creators who are able to sustain careers with relatively modest followings. - The Conversation
The analytics firm Gower Street estimates that global sales of movie tickets in 2023 add up to $33.9 billion, an increase of 31% from 2022 but still 15% behind the last three-year average before COVID. - The Hollywood Reporter
The center’s latest report, titled Inclusion in the Director’s Chair, called the entertainment industry’s pledges to promote inclusion “performative acts” and “not real steps towards fostering change”. - The Guardian
Customer defections across premium streaming services rose to 6.3% in November, from 5.1% a year earlier. About one-quarter of U.S. subscribers to major streaming services—a group that includes Apple TV+, Discovery+, Disney+, Hulu, Max, Netflix, Paramount+, Peacock and Starz—have canceled at least three of them over the past two years. - The Wall Street Journal
The Blu-ray and DVD releases of Oppenheimer, for example, sold out in a week or so. Some of this is the basic fan/collector impulse, but much of it is awareness that corporations can remove individual titles from streaming availability more-or-less at will, but they can't come and take your discs. - BBC
