Showbiz Sandbox 455: The Business of Television Is Changing

July 15, 2019

It turns out members of the Writers Guild aren’t the only ones who want to overhaul the way television gets produced and paid for. Discovery Networks wishes to change how reality shows are funded in the United States, asking producers to foot the bill, rather than fund episodes up front. This is the same model employed in the European Union, however on that continent the producers maintain ownership of the content.

In another seismic shift, Disney TV Studios and Warner Bros. are letting the industry know that they want to change the way everyone working a television show gets compensated. Rather than the standard back-end profit participation model, the studios would pay one larger lump sum at the time of production for any of their broadcast, cable or streaming series.

Meanwhile, we’re learning that the reason censorship has grown tighter in China is thanks to the establishment of the new Central Propaganda Department. Perhaps those now in charge of monitoring the content of movies being distributed in the Middle Kingdom are still learning how spot objectionable content at the script stage.

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including a slump in the live music business, Nicki Minaj pulls out of a concert in Saudi Arabia and Netflix preps its most expensive movie to-date.

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Showbiz Sandbox 454: Summer Box Office Is Heating Up

July 8, 2019

It was the Fourth of July in the United States which is often a slow news time for the entertainment industry. Except for when it comes to the box office which looks to finally be picking up slightly thanks to sequels such as “Toy Story 4” and “Spider-Man: Far from Home.” Though the box office continues to trail behind last year’s record-breaking tally there are still plenty of big releases to come.

That includes at least one more live-action remake of a classic Disney film; “The Lion King.” That will be the third such Disney release this year. Is the company saturating the market with live-action remakes of its own classic films?

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including why Lionsgate is slowing down its theme park plans, Mad Magazine will stop being published and Rolling Stone launches its own music charts.

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Showbiz Sandbox 257: Debating President Obama’s Position On Net Neutrality

November 10, 2014

President Obama finally weighed in on the battle over net neutrality calling for the FCC to reclassify broadband providers as utilities under Title II of Telecommunications Act. This inflamed the war between those who believe such a move is mandatory and others who fear bureaucratic regulation will have the unintended consequence of throttling future development and investment in technology. We do our best to debate both sides of a very contentious issue.

Leaking copyrighted content online however, is an issue everyone can agrees is bad. Marvel Entertainment showed how to handle just such a scenario with aplomb when a leaked copy of the trailer for their highly anticipated sequel to “Avengers” hit the Internet before its official release. We’ll fill you in on Marvel’s immediate and exemplary response.

While we’re on the subject of responses, there’s no question how Taylor Swift’s new album was received by her fans. They gobbled up more than 1.2 million copies during its first week on sale. That’s more than the next 106 albums on the weekly sales chart combined.

Of course, we also cover the week’s top entertainment news stories including Lemony Snicket on Netflix, Matt Damon returns to Jason Bourne and Pixar gears up for another “Toy Story”.

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