Showbiz Sandbox: Streaming Through the 2022 Sundance Film Festival

February 2, 2022

For the second straight year the COVID pandemic forced the Sundance Film Festival to move its 2022 event online. Even so, its organizers did a great job of putting on a virtual festival programmed with movies from emerging filmmakers and important documentaries on timely subjects.

Joining us to discuss the 2022 Sundance Film Festival is Stephen Garrett, a writer for the Book & Film Globe and the founder of Jump Cut, a marketing company that specializes in creating compelling trailers and posters for a wide variety of acclaimed motion pictures. We discuss the entries that will surely see some life after the festival, a few that won’t and the likelihood that any of them will ever be seen in movie theaters.

As expected, streamers such as Apple, Netflix and Hulu opened up their checkbooks to acquire Sundance titles for their subscription services, perhaps signaling a pause, if not an end, to big theatrical acquisitions being made at the festival.

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Showbiz Sandbox 278: Grooveshark Goes Down As Periscope Comes Up

May 4, 2015

Content owners seem to be locked in a never-ending game of legal Whac-A-Mole in an attempt to thwart technologies that enable copyright infringement. Last week record labels managed to shutter the music streaming service Grooveshark and movie studios were granted a court ordered injunction against Popcorn Time, which has been dubbed the Netflix of Piracy. Yet now entertainment companies are concerned about audiences live streaming television shows and movies from their mobile phones using social media apps such as Periscope.

That’s exactly what happened on Saturday during the welterweight title fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao. Some viewers took it upon themselves to beam video of the boxing match by transmitting the pay-per-view broadcast through their phones.

Meanwhile on Broadway, this year’s Tony Award nominations were announced, recognizing the best and brightest new live theatre productions. We’ll give you a rundown of who was nominated and why walking off with one of the prestigious prizes can mean big profits at the box office.

Of course, we also cover the week’s top entertainment news stories including the gigantic opening of “Avengers: Age of Ultron”, a remake of “Roots” and how “Seinfeld” is earning big bucks on subscription video-on-demand.

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