NPR will give listeners the choice to pay — via its own platforms, Apple, or Spotify — a yet-undetermined monthly fee in order to receive its podcasts without advertising sponsorship messages; the network will also make this option available to member stations for their podcasts. PRX will offer a $4.99 monthly subscription to podcasts it distributes via four channels...
"The streaming device maker will rebrand the Quibi library, which it bought in January, as Roku Originals in the run-up to debuting them on its free, ad-supported Roku Channel later in the year. Any future original programming will fall under that banner as well. … The Roku Originals library includes some 75 shows" — with expensive talent and production...
It alleges Google "punishes" publishers in its rankings if they don't sell enough advertising space in its marketplace. Google called the claims "meritless". Associated Newspapers' concerns stem from its assessment that its coverage of the Royal Family in 2021 has been downplayed in search results. - BBC
That’s a notable uptick from the streamer’s 2020 spend of $11.8 billion, as the pandemic prompted production delays across the industry, and a 2019 content spend of $13.9 billion. - Variety
Steve Gilula and Nancy Utley have been at the helm of Searchlight Pictures since the turn of the millennium, and one could argue that the films they've produced have (as Brooks Barnes puts it here) "shaped global culture." They've won four Best Picture Oscars in the past dozen years (for Slumdog Millionaire, 12 Years a Slave, Birdman, and The...
This year Netflix is forecasting 6 million new subscribers, the lowest first-quarter increase since 2017, well down on the almost 16 million sign-ups in the first quarter last year, as lockdown restrictions ease. - The Guardian
"NPR cut spending in areas including staff and executive pay to offset a decline in revenue spurred by the pandemic, particularly in corporate sponsorship. The network's revenue is 'slightly above' its 2019 income but hasn't reached 2020 levels, Cowan said. Next year, NPR will aim to completely roll back the budget cuts that staffers agreed to last year...
" Hammer is bemused at the lengths to which China has gone to stop its citizens catching even a brief glimpse of his latest film" — Do Not Split, about the 2019 pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong. "In the rest of the world, that move has earned him the type of press coverage he could never have dreamt of."...
About 26% of Gen Z said video games are their top entertainment activity, and 87% of those in the age bracket said they play video games daily or weekly. That’s followed by listening to music (14%), browsing the internet (12%) and engaging on social media (11%). Only 10% of Gen Z respondents said watching TV or movies was their...
There may be fundamental problems with the way the Academy Awards connect with contemporary Hollywood films and their audiences. “For some time the movies nominated for best picture represent only a tiny fraction of the tickets sold – there is chasm between the Oscars and the moviegoing public. The Marvel and DC films are hardly ever up for best...
It's not the 1960s anymore (not by a long shot), so actors usually don't play drunk by getting drunk. Instead, consider Aubrey Plaza's technique for her movie Black Bear. "Acting drunk when you’re sober is no easier than acting sober when you’re drunk. To get into the right frame of unsteadiness, Plaza would spin round until almost throwing up...
This doesn't seem like a great idea, but then again, who asked the audience? "Items can be digitally added to almost any movie or TV show. For example, advertisers could put new labels on the champagne bottles in Rick's Cafe in Casablanca, add different background neon advertising signs to Ocean's 11, or get Charlie Chaplin to promote a fizzy...
Just as Chloé Zhao seems a near-lock for Best Director, the predictions are ... that no one watches this year's Oscars ceremony. "At a time when the traditional film industry is fighting for its primacy at the center of American culture — with at-home entertainment soaring in popularity and pandemic-battered theater chains closing — a collective shrug for the Oscars would send Hollywood deeper into...
The flagship theatre was special for multiple reasons, but one is that Hollywood often doesn't seem very, well, Hollywood. "The ArcLight Hollywood, by contrast, represented the living, breathing movie industry. It accomplished the rare feat of melding Hollywood the real with Hollywood the ideal. With its costume and prop exhibits in the lobby and its Q&As with actors and...
Not just irrelevant, but worse. HBO is celebrating, of course, but "whatever about HBO, how do the rest of us feel about Game of Thrones turning 10? Is our nostalgia tempered, for instance, by the fact the final seasons are now agreed to have been pretty dreadful? What, moreover, of the casual use of sexual violence as a plot device?...
