Showbiz Sandbox 648: Judging This Year’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Nominees
February 20, 2024
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame announced their 2024 nominees, including some musical acts previously shortlisted for inclusion. Musician and music writer Sal Nunziato joins host Michael Giltz to argue over which of these acts should be included in the Hall of Fame and why. Plus they give us a rundown of their favorite albums from the past year.
Meanwhile, “Oppenheimer” solidified itself as the obvious and only leader during this year’s awards season by winning seven BAFTA awards, including Best Film. At this point, the movie seems destined to top the upcoming Academy Awards.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including the math behind this year’s movie release schedule, how Microsoft is spreading some Xbox love and ESPN is going long on college football.
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Showbiz Sandbox 631: Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals Kick Off Unusual Awards Season
September 20, 2023
Every annual awards season has its own strange rhythm and unexpected twists. But with both actors and writers on strike, unable to promote certain movies, surely this year’s awards season will be the strangest of all. At the heart of the madness is Anne Thompson, the Editor-at-Large of Indiewire. The awards season expert is back from both the Telluride and Toronto International Film Festival and she fills us in on which movies managed to drum up some buzz during the fall festival circuit.
Meanwhile, the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes roll on without any contract negotiations taking place. Drew Barrymore and Bill Mahr both got into hot water with the guilds by trying to start up production of their talk shows without writers. They quickly reversed course.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including Dua Lipa’s book club, music sales hit a new record and why the founder of Rolling Stone magazine was booted out of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
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Showbiz Sandbox 541: AT&T Hangs Up On WarnerMedia
May 18, 2021
Not even three years after AT&T spent $85 billion to purchase Time Warner and form WarnerMedia, the telecom giant is calling it quits, agreeing to merge the content side of its business with Discovery. The deal would create a new media company positioned well to compete in the streaming market and a management team that is well versed in the entertainment business. The original acquisition of Time Warner always seemed questionable for AT&T, and ultimately left Warner Bros. in a bit of a mess.
Meanwhile, some music streaming services are adding hi-def audio to their offerings and, perhaps more importantly, not increasing the cost to subscribers. Since most new music can be found on all the streaming platforms, will high quality audio become a differentiator that attracts new customers or causes them to switch providers?
Of course we also cover some of the week’s top entertainment headlines including why Ellen DeGeneres is leaving her daytime television show, Disney’s new theatrical release strategy and this year’s entrants into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
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Showbiz Sandbox 525: A Non-Netflix Show Finally Tops Nielsen’s Streaming Charts
January 19, 2021
For the first time in history, or at least since Nielsen started its U.S. weekly streaming chart, a non-Netflix show claimed the top spot. For the week ending December 20th “The Mandalorian” was the number one steamed show in the nation, with over 1.33 billion total minutes viewed by Disney+ subscribers. As more streaming services come online with their own original programming, Netflix’s domination of the Nielsen chart may ultimately fade.
Speaking of ratings, a new leader among cable news networks has emerged since last year’s presidential election. For the first time since 2000, CNN and MSNBC beat out Fox News. Do these ratings reflect the unprecedented political crises we’ve been facing or a sea change in viewership?
Of course we also cover some of the week’s top entertainment headlines including country star Morgan Wallen’s new streaming record, Disneyland ditches annual passes and Shakira sells the publishing rights to her music.
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Showbiz Sandbox 518: The Cord Cutting Epidemic Is Growing
November 17, 2020
This year, consumers have continued to migrate from pay television providers to over-the-top services at an increasing rate. In the United States alone, the number of cable and satellite subscribers has dropped 25% to 73 million in just five years. Many industry watchers are expecting that number to bottom out at 50 million by 2025.
Yet people are watching more television than ever; they’re just doing it on services such as Roku, HBO Max and Hulu. Last week Disney reported that their new streaming service has attracted 73 million subscribers. Their original target was 60 million by 2024. They reached that number their first nine months.
Of course we also cover some of the week’s top entertainment headlines including how Spotify is investing more in podcasting, Ticketmaster makes a plan to safely hold concerts again, and the Super Bowl has booked its halftime show.
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Showbiz Sandbox 516: What Went Wrong With Quibi
October 27, 2020
Quibi, the bite-sized content platform founded by media mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg and business leader Meg Whitman, has been mocked since it was first announced. Now after six months and $2 billion, Quibi is kaput. Unable to find an audience, and despite a fruitless attempt to find a buyer, Quibi is officially shutting down.
The company insists people were gunning for them from the start, but the simple truth is that Quibi always seemed like a solution in search of a problem. Besides, however good the content may have been, it was going to be very hard to convince people to plunk down $5 a month just to watch random videos while commuting.
Of course we also cover some of the week’s top entertainment headlines including Netflix misses its third quarter subscriber goal, television ratings for live sports events plummets and box office continues to soar in China and Japan.
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Showbiz Sandbox 514: Has Disney Lost Its Soul?
October 13, 2020
As the COVID-19 pandemic wears on, things are not getting any easier for the Walt Disney Company. The company, long a cheerleader for the theatrical moviegoing experience, has just moved the latest Pixar film to its streaming platform, Disney+. Meanwhile, Disneyland still hasn’t been allowed to open and now a well known activist investor is making all sorts of problems for the media giant.
When cinemas do finally reopen there will be a glut of Marvel and DC titles trying to find release dates. Presently, they can only play at a drive-in, which by the way now qualifies a movie for an Academy Award. It’s also the only kind of movie theater New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is allowing to open.
Of course we also cover some of the week’s top entertainment headlines including why artists are debuting at the top of the music charts more frequently, why the ad spend during the TV upfronts is down this year and Broadway will remain closed until at least May of 2021.
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Showbiz Sandbox 502: The Entertainment Industry’s Slow News Week
July 14, 2020
With concerts and live performances canceled, cinemas closed, movie studios delaying releases, and streaming video or music the only entertainment audiences can enjoy, the industry is slowly grinding to a halt. Perhaps show business folk were recovering from the Fourth of July holiday weekend or are preparing for Bastille Day, but there was hardly any entertainment news to report.
Even so, we tell you why North America’s largest cinema chains are suing the state of New Jersey, what is happening to the release of the latest “Halloween” horror films and why music may be disappearing from elevators.
Plus, proving just how strange a year 2020 has become, the Venice, Toronto, Telluride and New York Film Festivals – usually fierce competitors – have decided to collaborate on what entries they present, not to mention how to do so safely.
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Showbiz Sandbox 500: Hollywood Could Use A Social Media Coach
July 1, 2020
When it comes to social media, Hollywood seems to have a love/hate relationship. Celebrities and entertainment companies love being able to promote themselves and their latest work directly with fans and audiences, but they hate it when they get into trouble with their tweets and Facebook posts.
Our former co-host Karen Woodward works as a social media manager with some of the best and brightest in the entertainment industry. She stops by to explain how being earnest and sincere is the ideal approach to successfully tackling social media. Woodward also fills us in on the latest trends in social media and whether it’s worth getting onto Instagram and TikTok.
Of course we also cover some of the week’s top entertainment headlines including why the value of the music streaming service Spotify has skyrocketed, China cracks down on fan-fiction and IMDb wins a court case for the ages.
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Showbiz Sandbox 491: Coronavirus Is Taking Theme Parks For A Wild Ride
April 30, 2020
As the global entertainment industry looks to reopen in the wake of the COVID-19 shutdown there are some sectors that may not be able to welcome customers back until next year. Theme parks, for instance are designed for cramming as many people as possible into lines and onto rides. As such, the ongoing pandemic is forcing most amusement parks to delay opening until at least 2021 or even later?
Claudia Nunn is a senior project manager at The Producers Group, a leading provider of production and design services for destination attractions worldwide. In other words, they help to create theme park rides and immersive environments for everyone from Disney and Universal Studios to resorts, casinos and museums all over the globe. She joins us to discuss how theme parks are dealing with the coronavirus closures, how and when they might reopen, as well as some of her past stories in developing amusement parks.
Of course we also cover some of the week’s top entertainment headlines including Apple Music continues to grow, Sinclair lets freelancers fend for themselves and a court ruling means literacy may become a constitutional right.
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