Showbiz Sandbox 463: Why the Emmy Awards Make For Such Bad Television
September 23, 2019
How is it that an awards show honoring the best and brightest talent and content on television always winds up being such a poor representation of the medium? We’re talking about the Emmy Awards, which were handed out this past weekend in a ceremony without a host. While it was nice to see a few new honorees take home trophies, the proceedings themselves were rather dull. We try and figure out why.
Meanwhile, in the music business Live Nation and Ticketmaster are once again being scrutinized by the Department of Justice for antitrust. It doesn’t help that the company’s latest attempt to thwart scalpers left some fans of the Black Keys holding worthless canceled tickets.
Speaking of music, Amazon is raising the bar for streaming services by offering a Hi-Def streaming tier with lossless audio. Even the notoriously fussy rocker Neil Young is hailing the move.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including how “Downton Abbey” spurred adults into cinemas, French courts claim you have the right to resell your legally purchased digital content and screenwriters take a big stand in their dispute with talent agencies.
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Showbiz Sandbox 456: The TV Shows That Will Benefit Most From An Emmy Nomination
July 22, 2019
Television audiences have become so fragmented these days that almost every show can benefit from Emmy Awards attention. Sure, you think everyone knows about shows like “Stranger Things” and “The Handmaid’s Tale” We ask which series might get a needed ratings boost from being in this year’s Emmys race.
HBO took home the most Emmy nominations helped by “Game of Thrones” which set a record earning 32 nods, the most ever for a single show. However, with “GoT” and “Veep” in their final seasons is HBO’s award enjoying a swan song over its Emmy dominance?
Meanwhile, Disney’s latest live-action adaptation opened internationally to $531 million on its way to what is likely another billion dollar gross for the studio. In fact, Disney may have five billion dollar movies this year alone.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including the headlines from Comic-Con, Netflix subscribership drops and why you may not be able to find that hot new album at your local record store.
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Showbiz Sandbox 444: Disney Gets Serious About Streaming
April 15, 2019
From the moment the Walt Disney Company announced they would eventually launch their own video streaming service everyone wanted more detailed information. When would the service launch? How much would it cost? What content would be offered? Last week Disney answered all of those questions during an investor media event.
Disney+, as the service has been named, will launch this November in and will offer hundreds of hours of television and movies, both old and new, for the attractive price of $6.99 per month or $70 per year. Unlike Apple, who announced their own streaming service just a few weeks ago, Disney proved they know how to launch an attractive content platform. Not surprising since they have content from their animation, Marvel and Lucasfilm labels to offer up.
Meanwhile, the Writers Guild of America and the talent agents which represent their membership, are still arguing over the adoption of a new code of conduct which would prevent agencies from collecting packaging fees on new television series. Late last week the WGA asked its members to fire their agents, which many did rather publicly via social media.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including how Apple Music has topped Spotify (in the United States), the Emmys revise how certain TV shows are classified and Netflix buys a movie theater.
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Showbiz Sandbox 424: Talking Telluride, Toronto and Emmys with Indiewire’s Anne Thompson
September 18, 2018
Every September the annual awards season begins to take shape at three major film festivals; Venice, Telluride and Toronto. Anne Thompson, Indiewire’s editor at large, was at the latter two and she joins us to explain how this year’s Oscars race looks like it will be filled with a bounty of great movies, including one from director Alfonso Cuaron, which is looking for a way to overcome the stigma of being released by Netflix.
Speaking of awards, the timing works out to have Thompson also give us her thoughts on the recent Emmy Awards, honoring the best and brightest prime time television series from the past year.
Meanwhile, the European Union passed reforms to copyright law that have proven to be contentious given that it could mean big changes for tech platforms such as Google, Youtube and others. Content owners, on the other hand, are delighted with the outcome.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including Time magazine gets another new owner, Spotify allows users to download more music and Paul McCartney enjoys his first #1 debut for his latest album.
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Showbiz Sandbox 416: Superheroes Have Never Been More Popular, Just Not In Comic Books
July 16, 2018
Meanwhile the Emmy nominations were announced last week and despite expanding their Best Drama and Best Comedy categories to eight nominees, there were still complaints about shows being left off the list. Welcome to Peak TV! With 400 shows to choose from, there’s no way to please everyone.
Subscription movie ticket service MoviePass has instituted its peak pricing policy which seems to apply to the first weekend of any movie, no matter how popular. And we’ll give you a first hand account of what happens when the company thinks you’re breaking their terms of service.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including how Drake has claimed seven of the top 10 singles on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, why Scarlett Johansson won’t be playing a transgender person in a new movie and plans for “Downtown Abbey” movie have officially been announced.
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Showbiz Sandbox 415: Along With Box Office, Movie Star Salaries Are On The Rise In China
July 9, 2018
We’ve been told for years now that the theatrical box office in China will ultimately surpass that of North America, probably by 2017… or 2018, or definitely by 2020. But higher grosses have pushed the salaries for the country’s most sought after movie stars to astronomical proportions, something frowned upon in China. In fact, the Chinese government has now stepped in with a new set of regulations capping the salaries paid to talent on movies and television shows and have begun to scrutinize contracts more closely.
On the other hand, The Grammys have decided bigger is better. The Grammys are following the lead of most major awards and expanding its top categories. Instead of announcing the Best Five Album Of The Year nominees, they’ll be announcing eight. The same goes for Best Record and Best Song and Best New Artist. All other categories remain the same.
Meanwhile the group that votes on each year’s most coveted movie awards just got a little bigger. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences invited a record 928 people to their club with half the invites going to women and 38% to people of color.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including how Spotify hopes to earn revenue by selling movie tickets, credible rumors about new “Star Trek” series and MoviePass officially adopts surge pricing.
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Showbiz Sandbox 381: Telluride and Toronto Continue To Shape Awards Season
September 18, 2017
Each year the Venice, Telluride and Toronto film festivals are held so closely together their programming often overlaps as each vies to land titles that will be in the running for major awards (read: Oscars). Anne Thompson, Indiewire’s editor at large, has just returned from Telluride and Toronto and she fills us in on all the festival season favorites.
While Thompson was in Toronto enjoying movies like “The Shape of Water” from director Guillermo del Toro, film buyers were struggling to find anything to pick up. There was a general sense that all the worthwhile titles had been cherry picked before the festival even began.
Meanwhile the Emmy Awards were held over the weekend honoring the best television from the past year. At this year’s ceremony a disruptive streaming video provider made a big splash, though not the one everyone expected. Hulu took home the Best Drama Emmy for “The Handmaid’s Tale”, despite Netflix having three shows nominated in the category.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including the head of NBC admitting most of its primetime viewership is not watched live, George R. R. Martin’s new TV series and MoviePass surpsasses 400,000 subscribers in under a month.
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Showbiz Sandbox 374: Streaming Services Rack Up 2017 Emmy Nominations
July 18, 2017
When this year’s primetime Emmy nominees were announced HBO still lead the way with 111 nominations, including 22 for “Westworld”, but streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon are quickly gaining ground with their own popular shows. Even Hulu managed to push their way into the Emmys for the first time with 13 nominations for “The Handmaid’s Tale”.
The only thing that remained the same about the Emmys from previous years is that some shows were nominated that shouldn’t have been, while others weren’t nominated but should have been. Don’t get us started on the TV episode that was somehow nominated for Outstanding Television Movie.
One series that wasn’t nominated for an Emmy was “Hawaii Five-O”, the hit CBS show which had two of its main actors depart after a contract dispute that became a flashpoint over the salaries and casting of minority talent.
Of course, we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including why a major Chinese entertainment company is taking a hit on the stock market after criticism from government officials, Tyler Perry signs a producing deal with Viacom and Quincy Jones sues the Michael Jackson estate over royalty payments.
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Showbiz Sandbox 352: 2017 Academy Award Nominations Launch #OscarsSoDiverse Trend
January 24, 2017
When the 2017 Oscar nominations were announced this week the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences managed to avoid a third straight year of controversy over all-white acting nominees. Among this year’s honorees are six African American actors, setting a record for the most in a single year. Hopefully this is a sign more racially diverse films are being produced.
What the Academy did manage to overlook however, were films with huge audiences. Despite nominating nine films for Best Picture Oscars, not a single one has surpassed the $100 million mark (yet).
Meanwhile, in over in the music business, album sales have never mattered less. These days it’s all about music publishing, which can be a true goldmine. Just ask Paul McCartney who is suing Sony/ATV to regain the publishing rights to the Beatles catalogue.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including Jerry Seinfeld’s new Netflix deal, the death of 3D television and NBC renews one of its biggest hits for two more seasons.
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Showbiz Sandbox 345: Awards Season Kicks Off With the Proper Spirit
November 28, 2016
Despite an endless debate as to precisely when the movie awards season begins each year, everyone agrees that the Independent Spirit Awards are one of the more important events. Though not all of the indie films honored by the Spirit Awards will go on to be nominated for Oscars, each year’s nominees provide a list of worthwhile movies on which to catch up.
With 2016 entering the homestretch Hollywood movie studios have begun releasing titles they hope will win big awards or big box office… or both. Disney continues to fire on all cylinders with it’s latest animated release “Moana” as well as “Doctor Strange” minting money during their record breaking year. And “Star Wars: Rogue One” is still a month off.
Meanwhile the media fallout from the U.S. presidential election continues to make headlines, not all of which are accurate. In fact, Facebook and Google are making efforts to crack down on fake news stories as news organizations begin to look at the role they played in recent political events.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including this year’s International Emmy Award winners, why television networks aren’t canceling this season’s failing shows and animator Hayao Miyazaki comes out of retirement to make another movie.
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