Showbiz Sandbox 615: Warner Bros. Takes Streaming to the Max
April 18, 2023
Warner Bros. Discovery had long promised to merge its two major streaming services HBO Max and Discovery+ into a single, combined offering. This past week the media giant unveiled the name of the new service to the public; Max. Despite having decades of positive brand recognition, HBO will be dropped from the name. The company also announced a ton of new content for the service including a Harry Potter television series.
Meanwhile, the Writers Guild of America has authorized a strike against studios, networks and streamers. Producers believe that a strike is now inevitable after the writers’ current contract ends in May.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including the latest additions to the Library of Congress National Registry of Recordings, Latin music becomes a $1 billion industry and a proposal for new safety guidelines for film and TV productions.
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Showbiz Sandbox 496: Hollywood Jumps On the TikTok Bandwagon
June 3, 2020
Even after the platform helped Lil Nas X turn “Old Town Road” into one of the most successful popular songs of all time, there are some (mostly older) demographics that are unfamiliar with the explosive popularity of the social media platform. Natalie Jarvey, the Senior Digital Media Editor at the Hollywood Reporter, joins us to discuss how TikTok is doing YouTube one better as a launching pad for new talent.
In fact, TikTokers with tens of millions of followers, many of whom are still teenagers, have begun to attract Hollywood talent agencies, record labels and major brands, ultimately leading to big paydays. However, as fast as TikTok became the social media flavor of the moment, could its star fade just as fast.
Of course we also cover some of the week’s top entertainment headlines including which major entertainment conglomerates are backing #BlackLivesMatters during recent civic protests, the Writers Guild of America takes aim at international residuals and “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia” sets a new record for a sitcom.
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Showbiz Sandbox 447: The Madness of Media Moguls Making Mega-Millions
May 6, 2019
While the exorbitant salaries of the entertainment industry’s top executives are not a new phenomenon, the subject cropped up again recently after a relative of Walt Disney objected to the $65 million paycheck Disney CEO Robert Iger earned last year. That amounts to 1,424 times more than the average salary of a Disney employee. We debate whether Hollywood moguls should be earning hundreds of times more than their employees and why their compensation is so high in the first place.
On Broadway, Tony nominations were announced last week and they pack more drama and excitement than the creatively weak season that just ended. We’ll take a look and predict which shows will benefit the most from awards and the chance to perform live on TV.
Meanwhile, “Avengers: Endgame” continues to dominate the worldwide box office, earning $2 billion in just 11 days, faster than any film in history. That said, we wonder why Hollywood studios neglect to mention that their tentpole movies often begin showing on Thursdays.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including big changes at CBS News, YouTube scores some Major League Baseball games and why the London production of “Les Miserables” is getting a makeover
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Showbiz Sandbox 420: A Closer Look at the Current State of the Publishing Industry
August 20, 2018
When we talk about the publishing industry, we are usually looking at the trade market. Those are the books sold in bookstores, like the latest Stephen King title. But the publishing industry is made up of more than just trade. For instance, there’s also the education market like college and high school textbooks. While trade publishing has modestly righted itself revenue-wise over the past few years, all these other segments are down in sales, sometimes considerably.
Meanwhile an entire week has gone by without MoviePass changing the terms and conditions of its cinema-going subscription plans. Even so, the company’s investors are not happy and are suing the owners for tanking the stock.
We’ll also take a closer look at the music industry paper published by Citigroup last week. A lot of industry players have very convincing reasons why the way the report calculates its revenue and statistics is all wrong.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including how Conan O’Brien is trimming his nightly talk show to a half-hour, Sony Music will distribute the earnings from its Spotify investment to artists and the streaming television series that has hundreds of millions of viewers in China.
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Showbiz Sandbox 415: Along With Box Office, Movie Star Salaries Are On The Rise In China
July 9, 2018
We’ve been told for years now that the theatrical box office in China will ultimately surpass that of North America, probably by 2017… or 2018, or definitely by 2020. But higher grosses have pushed the salaries for the country’s most sought after movie stars to astronomical proportions, something frowned upon in China. In fact, the Chinese government has now stepped in with a new set of regulations capping the salaries paid to talent on movies and television shows and have begun to scrutinize contracts more closely.
On the other hand, The Grammys have decided bigger is better. The Grammys are following the lead of most major awards and expanding its top categories. Instead of announcing the Best Five Album Of The Year nominees, they’ll be announcing eight. The same goes for Best Record and Best Song and Best New Artist. All other categories remain the same.
Meanwhile the group that votes on each year’s most coveted movie awards just got a little bigger. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences invited a record 928 people to their club with half the invites going to women and 38% to people of color.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including how Spotify hopes to earn revenue by selling movie tickets, credible rumors about new “Star Trek” series and MoviePass officially adopts surge pricing.
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Showbiz Sandbox 401: Redbox Beats Disney At Their Own Copyright Game
February 26, 2018
In the first round of a copyright infringement lawsuit, Disney failed to win an injunction preventing the DVD rental company Redbox from selling digital copies of its films. Instead, a judge ruled that since Redbox is forced to buy retail copies of Disney films, they have the right to sell the digital copy that accompanies each disc. To make matters worse, the federal court faulted Disney for copyright misuse, making the studio vulnerable to an existing countersuit filed by Redbox.
While Disney and Redbox duke it out in court over copyright issues, the cinema-going subscription company MoviePass is suing an upstart competitor named Sinemia over patent infringement while at the same time trying to straighten out its customer service.
In China the Lunar New Year closed out by bringing in $500 million at the box office, the highest weekend tally ever recorded in a single market. In total, the country took in whopping $901 million during the Spring Festival.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including why actor Brendan Fraser disappeared from Hollywood, The Weinstein Company is forced into bankruptcy and Netflix debuts its first Arabic content.
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Showbiz Sandbox 337: Streaming Comes to the Rescue of the Music Industry (Sort Of)
September 26, 2016
After more than a decade in decline, the sale of recorded music in the United States is set to grow for the second straight year thanks to increased revenue earned from music streaming services such as Spotify. Even so, the music industry is taking in half of what it earned at its peak late 1990s because streaming revenue hasn’t made up for the falloff in actual sales.
Meanwhile, the Dalian Wanda Group continues its invasion of Hollywood by cutting a deal with Sony Pictures to market movies in China. Wanda can practically guarantee the success of a new release given that it controls the largest movie theater chain in China ensuring a film will be scheduled heavily when it opens.
There is no sure bet at Viacom however as the media giant’s leadership remains in turmoil. It’s interim CEO is stepping down sooner than expected and the vice chairman of Paramount Pictures is also exiting. Then last week the company announced it would take a $115 million loss on a movie that hasn’t even been released yet.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including a new law requiring websites like IMDb remove an actor’s age upon request, the BBC gets into a bake off battle and why Netflix is getting more original every day.
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Showbiz Sandbox 228: The Dish On That Disney Deal With Dish
March 11, 2014
After months of rancorous public and legal battles with television networks over their ad-skipping Hopper technology, U.S. satellite provider Dish Network reached a landmark retransmission consent agreement with the Walt Disney Company. The deal calls for Dish to disable bypassing commercials for three days after a show originally airs. In return Dish is getting the rights to provide Disney’s networks via the Internet for any future IP-television offering they might develop.
Meanwhile, the city which has become known for producing movies and television shows is under siege. Not from a foreign invader, but rather Los Angeles (and California) is suffering from what is known as “runaway production” thanks to tax incentives being offered in other states and countries.
Austin Texas has also been invaded over the past week by attendees at the annual South by Southwest festival. Neil Young marked the occasion by announcing Pono, his long awaited high-def music player, along with its accompanying store filled with digital tracks for audiophiles.
Of course, we also cover the week’s top entertainment news stories including Sandra Bullock’s giant “Gravity” payday, television networks start premiering their shows in summer and why time-shifting made HBO’s “True Detective” a huge hit.
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