Showbiz Sandbox 655: Netflix Stops Sweating (and Reporting) Subscriber Growth

Netflix first quarter earnings report showed growth in all areas from subscribers, to revenue and income. But with Netflix clearly dominating competitors and entering a mature market, the streaming giant will no longer provide subscriber figures on a regular basis. Instead, Netflix will concentrate on profit and the amount of time each of their 270 million subscribers spend viewing programming on their platform.

Meanwhile, the long gestating sale of Paramount Global got a lot more interesting last week when Sony entered the picture with its own bid for the media conglomerate. Unfortunately, indie production house Participant Media was unable to find a buyer and abruptly shuttered.

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including this year’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, Taylor Swift breaks her own sales records with the release of her album “The Tortured Poets Department” and the Sundance Film Festival may be in search of a new home.

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Showbiz Sandbox 571: Want Ratings? Get Joe Rogan To Host The Oscars!

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences brought an end to the endless speculation of countless awards pundits by announcing this year’s Oscars nominations. Now we’ll all have to deal with the griping about who was snubbed along with seven weeks of incessant reports about which Best Picture nominee is gaining momentum with Oscar voters.

Perhaps we should thank the Oscars for stealing the headlines from comedian Joe Rogan whose podcast has caused no end of controversy and grief for Spotify, its exclusive distributor. The only good news out of the Rogan mess is that it’s finally brought the band Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young back together, at least in regards to their desire to remove their music from the streaming service.

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including how a Disney soundtrack is dominating the music charts, viewership of the Winter Olympics plummets and the head of CNN is suddenly ousted.

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Showbiz Sandbox 541: AT&T Hangs Up On WarnerMedia

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 529: Hollywood Grapples With Cancel Culture

Whether it’s sexual misconduct, misogynistic behavior or social media missteps, the careers of numerous entertainment industry figures have recently been upended after allegations of their moral misbehavior surfaced. The repercussions are impacting every part of the industry, from the upper echelons of the French film industry to the rose ceremony on “The Bachelor.” Agencies, studios and record companies are now left to decide whether to jettison stars that have become tainted.

Meanwhile, one year after China closed movie theaters to contend with a growing coronavirus epidemic, the country is showing the world how to revive the cinema business. Apparently all it takes is a few blockbusters to get audiences back into the very theaters many had predicted would never reopen.

Of course we also cover some of the week’s top entertainment headlines including how the cast of the “Umbrella Academy” got a raise, Disney continues to add subscribers to its streaming service and why Dave Chapelle’s old show is back on Netflix.
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Showbiz Sandbox 477: The Recording Academy Upstages Itself During Grammy Week

Even before this year’s Grammys are handed out next Sunday the Recording Academy is making headlines, not necessarily in a good way. In a controversial move, the organization put its CEO Deborah Dugan on administrative leave after less than six months on the job, citing reports of alleged misconduct. However, this came after Dugan sent a memo to the academy’s board highlighting voting irregularities, financial mismanagement, exorbitant legal bills as well as conflicts of interest with the organization’s board members, executive committee and outside lawyers.

It will take some time to sort out what is actually going on within the Recording Academy’s executive ranks, though we should know who takes home the Album of the Year Grammy by next week. If the academy plays it safe, it just might be Vampire Weekend, but we think Lizzo should be a frontrunner.

Meanwhile, Chinese New Year is upon us, the biggest movie-going week in the Middle Kingdom. As usual the country has blacked out Hollywood film releases to help bolster attendance of homegrown movies. Yet this may not even be necessary since lately domestic titles are doing better than imported content.

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including this year’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, Netflix plans to spend billions on content and why we might be headed for another writers strike.

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Showbiz Sandbox 468: A Rundown of This Year’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Nominees

Next year’s nominees for placement into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio include candidates considered in previous years, including Depeche Mode, Judas Priest and Todd Rundgren. They join new nominees such as Pat Benatar, Dave Matthews Band and Whitney Houston, among others. We speak with Sal Nunziato, a music blogger and drummer for the band The John Sally Ride, to get his encyclopedic thoughts on which of the nominees should actually get the nod.

We also discuss the pros and cons of streaming music services. There is no dispute that it’s great to have an archive of music, not to mention new releases, all available for listening within a few seconds. On the other hand, it’s also nice to support the music we really like by actually buying physical copies.

Meanwhile, the video game industry made some headlines this week after a Chinese team won the latest “League of Legends” world championship. At the same time the latest “Call of Duty” release has generated some controversy since it is set amidst the Syrian Civil War and depicts child soldiers, the killing of civilians, among many other issues.

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including why Woody Allen dropped his lawsuit against Amazon Studios, HBO Max sets its subscription price and technology is allowing filmmakers to cast the late James Dean in an upcoming movie.

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Showbiz Sandbox 432: Peak TV Just Got Peakier

When John Landgraf, head of the FX network, proclaimed we had reached a state of “peak TV” back in 2015, he predicted the 422 television shows being produced at the time would inevitably decline since there was no way for audiences to keep up. Last year however, that number rose to 495 series being produced. To put this increase in perspective, there were 182 shows on the air in 2002.

It’s safe to assume these numbers are bound to rise with new entrants into the video streaming market launching in 2019 including Disney and WarnerMedia. What’s more, the annual amount of money being spent on all this content is astonishing with the likes of Netflix and Amazon each spending $8 billion and $5 billion respectively. And that’s nothing compared to the $22 billion Disney is shelling out.

Meanwhile, the awards season is underway with all sorts of groups weighing in on their favourites, including the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the Golden Globes and the first awards that matter: the Screen Actors Guild. Spoiler alert: “Roma” just hit a roadblock.

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including the Grammy nominations, new entrants to the National Film Registry and Mariah Carey’s latest chart-topping hit is a quarter century-old Christmas song.

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Showbiz Sandbox 427: Debating This Year’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Nominees

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio announced next year’s nominees for induction into it’s prestigious institution, setting off the annual bickering over who should or shouldn’t get in. Is the British heavy metal band Def Leppard more deserving than the gothic rock darlings The Cure? Bands such as Roxy Music and Radiohead with their lengthy history seem like no-brainers, but what about popular acts like Rage Against the Machine who only ever released four albums? We take an educated and opinionated guess on which nominees we think should make the cut.

In China, box office began to slow down considerably in August for the same reason grosses decline in other parts of the world; a lack of hit movies. It doesn’t help that subsidies from online ticketing platforms are now being blocked by the government, as is the practice of distributors buying bulk tickets to their own films to boost box office.

Meanwhile, the rush by every media company on the planet to launch their own streaming platform has created an environment where consumers might begin to push back against having to pay for so many subscription services. WarnerMedia is the latest to announce plans for a streaming play.

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including the nominees for the National Book Award, guitarist Lindsey Buckingham sues Fleetwood Mac and a new television series will depict the formation hip hop legends Wu Tang Clan.
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Showbiz Sandbox 393: Disney Acquisition of Fox Underscores Hollywood’s Digital Transition

In one of the largest deals Hollywood has ever seen, the Walt Disney Company announced it had agreed to buy most of 21st Century Fox in a transaction valued at $66.1 billion. Disney will scoop up Fox assets that include 20th Century Fox film and TV studios, 300 cable channels, 22 regional sports networks, control over the Hulu streaming service and a stake in Sky. Fox will keep its news, sports and broadcast networks, as well as its publishing empire.

The move underscores how movie studios have become an intellectual property business where scale matters. Rupert Murdoch feared Fox never scaled properly to compete in the age of digital on-demand consumption of content and that his company was at the peak of its value. Selling a portion of his empire also avoids a family power struggle over who would take control of the company once he steps down.

Meanwhile, the first award nominations from a guild have arrived courtesy of the Screen Actors Guild. And the Library of Congress added 25 new works to the National Film Registry, including fiction and documentaries, features and shorts. We’ll discuss what significant works they’ve enshrined.

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including the FCC officially ditches net neutrality regulation, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announces this year’s entries and why Norway is switching off FM radio.

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Showbiz Sandbox 383: The Fall of Harvey Weinstein

When The New York Times reported that movie mogul Harvey Weinstein has been paying off women accusing him of sexual harassment for decades, it didn’t come as much of a surprise to many in Hollywood. Many of those that worked in and around the legendary indie movie producer, including a number of movie stars, were victims of Weinstein’s behavior, had direct knowledge of it, or had been warned about his reputation.

Reporters spent years trying to uncover the story, but only recently was enough evidenced gathered to conclusively document the repeated harassment. Within days of the story being published, and with more actresses leveling accusations, Weinstein was fired from his position as head of The Weinstein Company. Whether Weinstein could ever work in Hollywood again is difficult to fathom and the future of his former company is tenuous at best.

Meanwhile, the much anticipated sequel to the classic sci-fi movie “Blade Runner” was finally released to disappointing box office returns. Was it the 35-year wait between movies, the nearly three hour running time or simply a confusing marketing campaign that kept audiences away?

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including who won the Nobel Prize for literature, Netflix raises its prices and the this year’s nominees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

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