Nielsen says streamers logged 55.1 billion minutes on streaming services on Christmas, breaking the previous high — set on Christmas in 2024 — by 3.9 billion minutes. That amounts to 54 percent of all TV use during the day, also an all-time high for streaming services. - The Hollywood Reporter
Because viewers give a “very different level of attention” to a movie at home versus in a theater, Netflix wants to push the action set pieces toward the front. He said there are behind-the-scenes discussions about reiterating “the plot three or four times in the dialogue” to account for people being on their phones. - Variety
“Netflix’s all-cash offer of $27.75 per share replaces its previous offer of $23.25 in cash and $4.50 in Netflix common stock per share. The sweetened offer comes as rival bidder Paramount continues pushing its own all-cash offer for all of Warner Discovery. The value of Netflix’s offer remains $72 billion.” - The Wall Street Journal (MSN)
"When this deal closes, we will own a theatrical distribution engine that is phenomenal and produces billions of dollars of theatrical revenue that we don’t want to put at risk. We will run that business largely like it is today, with 45-day windows." - The New York Times
“The Oscar field has included one international director for seven straight years, making it likely that dissident filmmaker Panahi, a vocal critic of Iran’s authoritarian regime, earns a nomination for his blistering movie about resistance.” - Los Angeles Times
Three companies “produced between seven and 10 telenovelas a year between them, a volume that would leave Miami the primary center of production of Spanish-language productions in the United States. No other place in the country had anything like it.” What happened? - El País English
“The smaller cousin of the famed Vegas attraction would offer the same features as the original and be the first in a ‘global network’ of mini-Spheres, which the company wants to also call Sphere.” - Washington Post (Yahoo)
“If you can’t tolerate autonomy, love it and set it free, if you can’t relish it for its very ugliness, its deathiness, then you are missing some qualities of authenticity and of wisdom.” - The Guardian (UK)
“Linde will begin his tenure on Feb. 17, after Sundance’s final film festival in Park City and before it heads to its new home in Boulder, Colorado.” - The Hollywood Reporter
South Carolina ETV/South Carolina Public Radio lost $3.2 million — 10% of total revenue — in annual funding when the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s grants were rescinded. A network spokesman says “We anticipated this shift and factored it into our planning and budget discussions” and no programming is affected. - Inside Radio
On the heels of a record-breaking sale in November—which (briefly) set a new auction record for Bob Ross—American Public Television (APT) is sending another group of artworks by the late painter to the block. - Artnet
“A bipartisan spending bill … would allocate $643 million for broadcasting from the U.S. Agency for Global Media. … Trump signed an executive order in March calling for the dismantlement of the agency, which oversees Voice of America and funds nonprofit groups including Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia.” - The Washington Post (MSN)
By presenting an alternative to Meta and Twitter TikTok challenged the idea, pervasive in the early 2020s, that social media’s destiny was terminal decline, what the extremely online would call a “vibe sink.” - The Nation
While Paramount is hoping to find a weakness in the Netflix offer, experts say the lawsuit has a low chance of success and would only add further complications and delays to what is expected to be a protracted approval process. - The Wrap (MSN)
That depends on the category. For Best Picture, on which the entire Academy membership votes for nominees, you’ll need 922 first-place nods this year. But each of the Academy’s specialist branches chooses nominees for its specialty, and some branches are small. For Best Editing, you’ll need 68 votes; for Best Casting, only 30. - TheWrap
