Showbiz Sandbox 604: Which Awards Actually Matter?

January 17, 2023

As we get deeper into this year’s awards season we’re finally hearing from groups whose opinions mean something. For instance, the guilds for directors, producers and cinematographers have all nominated their top picks from last year’s movies. In other instances however, awards are handed out in so many different categories, it seems like every film released gets a gold star.

Meanwhile, as the Grammy Awards are nearly upon us, we are learning that last year’s top five songs are generating less interest than the top five songs from 2021. In fact, the ten biggest songs of each year are drawing fewer and fewer listeners year-after-year, becoming a smaller piece of the streaming pie.

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including why Amazon is parting ways with ​​Jeremy Clarkson, how Cathleen Hoover dominated the 2022 best seller lists and a first look at last year’s global box office tally.

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Showbiz Sandbox 125: Are Radio D.J.’s A Thing Of The Past?

November 7, 2011

Radio listenership has eroded over the past several years as consumers have adopted streaming music services such as Spotify and Pandora.  To stay competitive and survive, Clear Channel, the nation’s largest radio station operator, shocked the industry this past week by firing dozens of local D.J.’s and replacing them with a national programming team.  Indie-label artists and music fans are sure to suffer as radio playlists become more homogenized and less relevant.

Google has no plans to get into radio, however rumors have surfaced that they might be trying to add a cable television operation to their broadband project in Kansas.  Launching and maintaining a cable television service is not exactly like running a search engine; it can be expensive, take years and ultimately lead to a lot of red ink.

Comedian Louis C.K. has shunned traditional cable altogether.  He’s decided to broadcast his upcoming comedy concert directly to fans via the Internet, bypassing traditional television distribution.

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Showbiz Sandbox 124: UltraViolet Is A Solution In Search Of A Problem

October 31, 2011

More than 75 companies have teamed up to form UltraViolet, a new service that promises to give consumers the freedom to watch movies and television shows wherever and whenever they want. However, early adopters have discovered that untethering content from physical media such as DVDs can be a tedious and confusing process. As the entertainment industry experiments with rapidly evolving technologies, viewers seem hard pressed to find any benefits in moving to the cloud.

When it comes to music though, fans have already migrated to online services such as Pandora, iTunes and Amazon. Now Google is preparing to launch its own music offering which is rumored to allow users to share music with their friends and family.

And if you thought digital technology was a tough racket, so is trying to copy the success of the hit television series “Mad Men”. NBC failed with it’s 1960s drama “The Playboy Club” and ABC isn’t fairing much better with “Pan Am”, a similar knock-off. They could have picked up Charlie Sheen’s new sitcom, “Anger Management” as a replacement, but FX scooped it up before anyone had a chance.

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