Showbiz Sandbox 439: Fox Suffers “Bones” Shaking Legal Defeat

March 4, 2019

Fox lost a blockbuster lawsuit to the stars and creative talent behind their smash television series “Bones.” An independent arbitrator used scathing language to describe 21st Century Fox executives, calling them out for lying, cheating and “reprehensible” studio fraud.

Though Fox says the will appeal the ruling, it could have a big impact on sweetheart deals between studios, their own networks, their own cable channels and their own streamers. There’s no bones about it.

Meanwhile book publishers and the National Writers Union, along with many others, are decrying the practice of Controlled Digital Lending, or CDL. As publishers restrict e-book access and raise their prices, libraries that own a physical copy of a book are making a digital PDF available for loans to patrons. When a digital PDF is borrowed, the physical copy is removed from circulation until the digital copy is returned. So what’s the problem?

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including why a hologram of Amy Winehouse will not be going on tour, why the movie theater chain Cineworld dumped BAFTA and box office in China is down 5% this year despite rosier forecasts.

Read more

Showbiz Sandbox 331: Apparently Warner Bros. Needs to Start Making Donuts

August 16, 2016

In a scathing open letter published last week, an alleged ex-Warner Bros. employee took the studio and its chairman Kevin Tsujihara to task for a number of recent missteps. The author mocks studio brass for doubling down on the talent delivering critical duds such as “Batman v Superman” and their inability to make a hit movie, despite somehow managing to keep their jobs.

Though the veracity of the letter is questionable, it caused ripples in Hollywood not because it revealed a trove of inside secrets, but more due to the fact that it publicly stated what so many have been whispering about Warner Bros. lately; a lack of leadership and a confused executive team have led to a year of mixed results.

Meanwhile, we’ve been watching the Rio Olympics, along with three or four billion viewers around the world. Despite audience figures that are down from the London games in numerous territories, the Summer Olympics is arguably still a ratings juggernaut hard to compete against, giving networks broadcasting the event a serious advantage.

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including how a Netflix documentary helped overturn a murder conviction, why Thomas Gibson got fired from “Criminal Minds” and Comedy Central cancels “The Nightly Show”.

Read more

Showbiz Sandbox 330: Rio Olympics Faces Competition for TV Viewers

August 8, 2016

The 2016 Summer Olympics are underway in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and there are more ways to watch the games than ever before. In the United States, NBC is broadcasting 6,800 hours of coverage from Rio across 11 television channels and 41 live online streams. We look at the declining TV ratings and whether all the action is happening in primetime or online. And does that even matter?

What didn’t seem to matter at all were the dozens of negative reviews movie critics skewered threw at the latest DC Comics adaptation, “Suicide Squad”. After being universally panned, the film went on to break global and North American box office records when it opened over the weekend.

The Television Critics Association summer press tour has proven to be a hotbed of video streaming news. For instance, Time Warner bought a 10% stake in Hulu and NBC let slip they will be announcing their own streaming plans soon. Meanwhile, rumors are circulating that Apple wants to build a TV guide to let everyone know how and where there favorite shows can be found.

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including Oprah’s latest book club pick, the albums nominated for this year’s Mercury Prize and George R. R. Martin books another TV series.

Read more