Category: media

“To settle a legal dispute, the nonprofit foundation that supported public television in Oklahoma for more than three decades is dissolving. The [Oklahoma Educational Television Authority] Foundation will transfer ‘all funds and assets held in trust for OETA’ to a new nonprofit organization, Friends of OETA.” – The Oklahoman

This is the story of the tumultuous and chaotic past year “based on interviews with 65 current and former employees. It’s ultimately a story about the biggest shifts ever to take place inside the world’s biggest social network. But it’s also about a company trapped by its own pathologies and, perversely, by the inexorable logic of its own recipe for success.” – Wired

“Netflix will have passed the 150 million global subscriber mark when it reports its latest results this week … About 80% of new subscribers come from markets outside the US.” – The Guardian

Short answer: The Writers Guild of America asked them to. Longer answer: The Guild says agency practices have evolved to the detriment of writers and that writers are earning less as agents expand their businesses, creating conflicts of interest. But it’s difficult. Writers depend on agents to work on their behalf and have close relationships with them. – Los Angeles Times

The Palace of Fine Arts in San Sabastián has been threatened by a real estate developer for five years – and as a final move, UNESCO’s International Council on Monuments and Sites has placed an international warning on the site. “Iñaki Gurrutxaga (PNV), chief of the mayor’s office and responsible for urban planning, points out that ‘the owner has no obligation to maintain it,’ but that the City Council opposes converting it into apartments. ‘The best solution is to give it a use. But cultural use is not the only one: it does not have to be a cinema.'” – El País (Spain)

According to the showrunners, without one woman, Game of Thrones on HBO would never have gotten far at all. Bernadette Caulfield, the executive producer, was in charge of all of this: “With its sprawling tale unfolding in a wide variety of environments, it was almost certainly the most technically complicated series ever made, at times running five units (film crews) simultaneously, on multiple continents, to complete a given season on time.” – The New York Times

Like New Zealand and Lord of the Rings, Belfast became a major tourist attraction thanks to its starring role across eight seasons of Game of Thrones. One local artist who spent a year making sculptures for the farewell party: “The legacy will go on for many, many years. There’s a real pride in the whole country because of Game of Thrones.” – Los Angeles Times

That’s right, Rae (of Insecure fame) shares the screen with a young woman who conceived of the movie when she was 10 and then executive- produced it at 14. “The bullying that the young [character] endures at school resonated with Rae, she says. ‘I really remember that moment, of being 13, and thinking: ‘How do I become someone where this doesn’t happen to me again?’'” – The Guardian (UK)

Writers vs. agents heated up over the weekend, and the sides don’t look any closer than they were last week. “The contract battle between the WGA and Association of Talent Agents came to a boil on Friday night, just as broadcast TV’s traditional staffing season is starting. With the broadcast network upfronts only a month away, pilot orders will be made in the coming weeks, which means showrunners will need to fill out writers rooms.” – Variety