“This gives Disney a stronger foothold in the challenging Indian market while supporting Reliance's expansion efforts. It also pits the new entertainment behemoth against popular rivals such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Sony and 50-odd other streaming platforms.” - BBC
Eddie Huang, who worked at Vice and has a new documentary out: Gavin McInnes's “voice and opinions are so entangled and at the foundation of Vice hese companies like Disney are investing in the ideas of a Nazi. You cannot separate the two.” - Los Angeles Times
For instance, “Outstanding Narrator: A refreshingly succinct category name for such a prestigious award. The winner this year will succeed the man who has won the past two years in a row, one Barack Obama.” - Vulture
Pedro Almodóvar says in his 44 years of filmmaking, “We went from an atrocious dictatorship to the breadth of all the freedoms that were made available to us. … My career has been quite linked, curiously, to the opening up to democracy in Spain.” - Deadline
"NPR expects to close its current fiscal year with revenues about 2% over budget due in part to growth in development. … (The network's) projections show an increase of about 3% in revenues from member station fees. Corporate sponsorship income will be roughly flat when fiscal 2024 closes at the end of September." - Current
We’ve seen news organizations open communication that gives journalists a better idea of what, exactly, needs to happen for their publication to survive and thrive — and where they fit in. - NiemanLab
Amid a harsh crackdown by the Maduro regime following an election he claims to have won but apparently lost badly, a news service called Connectas is airing its (genuine) reports using two AI-generated anchors in order to shield the actual journalists' identities from police. - The Hollywood Reporter
The DPA advocates for an opt-in system, meaning that data can be used only after consent is explicitly given by creators and rights holders. This represents a significant departure from the way most major AI companies operate. - Wired
"(Back) when networks would commission a season of 22 episodes of a sitcom or drama, these rooms would often boast a dozen or more writers. … Today, with the rise of streaming platforms, studios increasingly rely on so-called mini-rooms with just four or five writers to create shows, often with fewer episodes." - The Guardian
For winter and spring 2024, box office was down 30% from the previous year. So the fact that this summer was down only 10% is seen as good news. But it also raises the question of whether the U.S. film business can maintain its momentum coming into the fall and then 2025. - Variety
In a world that’s bleak enough already, feel-good, heartfelt comedy feels like more of a salve; earnest sitcoms seem to counteract the vitriol of the real world. But the dark comedies, by their very nature, feel truer to life than their more wholesome peers. - The New York Times
"ESPN and other Disney-owned channels have gone dark on DirecTV" — on the first weekend of college football season and halfway through US Open tennis — "after the sides failed to come to terms on a new carriage agreement, (an impasse reflecting) the broader economic pain spreading throughout the pay TV sector." - Variety
We live in the era of the “explainer movie” — a creation like those in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Dune ecosystem, Star Wars constellation and, on the television side, the Game of Thrones series that has sweeping and sophisticated fictional worlds, extensive background lore and complex (or, at least, many) narrative arcs. - Washington Post (MSN)
"The rain-soaked video game on (lead designer and writer Dhruv Jani's) computer screen, Folds of a Separation, is just one of many that Studio Oleomingus has created about India’s postcolonial history and its contemporary political climate." - The New York Times
