Reasons for synchronising release dates globally, such as minimising piracy and coordinating marketing, hardly seem like priorities given present circumstances. The US is still the largest single cinema market, but in 2018 it made up just 27% of the global box office. The longer the “America-first” principle remains, the worse things get for everyone: cinemas and related businesses, Hollywood itself and moviegoers – whose expectations for Tenet are now so sky-high, the movie will have to singlehandedly cure the coronavirus to live up to the hype. – The Guardian
Category: media
Cord-Cutting Really Is Starting To Strangle Cable TV. So What Are The Cable Networks Doing?
“The decline of cable isn’t a new story, but what has started to take hold is a change in narrative inside the industry. Rather than try to prop up what they all know to be a decaying linear business, cable executives are instead focusing on their still-healthy intellectual properties and the brands behind them. Some of those cable brands are even aiming to carve out a space in the streaming world.” – Variety
There Are Four Kinds Of Streaming Video Viewers, Says Hulu Report
A new study, titled “Unpacking the Streaming Experience” and released by Hulu to launch its “Generation Stream” audience research platform, found that consumers watch in four different ways, which Hulu calls therapeutic streaming, classic streaming, indulgent streaming, and curated streaming. – The Hollywood Reporter
What Netflix’s List Of Ten Most-Watched Shows Tells Us
Netflix’s once heavily guarded vault of secret statistics has slowly opened up over the last couple of years, a gradual juicy reveal of viewer habits with some major caveats. – Irish Times
Hollywood Unions Say Federal Assistance Is Crucial For Its Workers
The Authors Guild said its members had lost on average 43% of their regular income since the start of the crisis. The Freelancers union said over 80% of its members were reporting loss of income and work opportunities because of the crisis, and are depending on government relief in record numbers. – Los Angeles Times
NPR’s Broken Business Model
For decades, the P in NPR stood for “public,” as in publicly supported, noncommercial radio and digital news. Yet with its growing dependence on corporate advertising, NPR has found itself on equally troubled footing as its for-profit competitors, all of them reliant on the same pool of advertising dollars that have dried up during the coronavirus pandemic. – Washington Post
China’s Movie Theatres Are Reopening, But The Audience Isn’t Flocking Back
“By midnight [of the first day, July 20], cumulative nationwide gross takings totalled $502,000. … Earlier in the day, state media had reported that the total included more than $150,000 of prior bookings, which indicates that only modest numbers of cinema-goers made decisions on the day.” – Variety
Is Netflix’s Top Ten List Even Real?
Last week, Netflix suddenly decided to “reveal” its Top 10 movies of all time. Hm. “The catch was that Netflix provided the ranking and the numbers itself, meaning there was no way to verify any of it, so the whole list was only slightly more informative than when Netflix insists that something is popular without providing any numbers at all (as it did in 2018 with Bright, a movie that didn’t even appear on the list despite how successful Netflix said it was). Interesting? Yes. Informative? Eh.” – AV Club
Disney Has Joined The Facebook Ad Boycott
At least partially – the biggest ad buyer this year on the social media giant has decided to pull its Disney Plus and Hulu ads, probably, along with hundreds of other advertisers, over concerns about how the platform handles hate speech. – Variety
Barcelona, In The Middle Of A Second Wave, Re-Closes Movie Theatres
While Spain’s figurehead monarchs went to the movies in Madrid, the Catalan government shut down Barcelona theatres and other mass gatherings (though it’s awfully hard to shut down Barcelona street parties, looks like). “The mandated shutdown is fiercely contested by Barcelona area town halls, adding to a nationwide debate about just how safe it is to go to the cinema.” – Variety