By Todd Spangler June 17, 2019 | IMDb has dumped Freedive as the name for the service it launched in January — rebranding it as “IMDb TV” (somewhat confusingly, as it includes movies as well). Over the next few months, IMDb will add “thousands” of new titles to IMDb TV, which it claims will triple the number of movies and TV shows available to watch...
By Jessica Toonkel and Tom Dotan June 14, 2019 | As companies like WarnerMedia and Apple prepare to market new video services to consumers, they are racing to develop hit shows. But as vital as good programming is, figuring out how to sign up and keep subscribers is just as important. To do so, media companies are tapping new types of executives...
By Eric Johnson June 10, 2019 | Every pay-to-stream video company is fighting a “battle royale” for your attention, and not all of them will make it. Former Amazon Studios strategist Matthew Ball says Netflix and Disney are safe bets to land on the winners list, but now as an outsider looking in, he thinks there’s a strong argument that Amazon...
By Wendy Lee and Suhauna Hussain June 3, 2019 | When the iTunes Music store debuted 16 years ago, digital music meant buying a CD and uploading it to a computer or illegally downloading a song from a file-sharing service. Apple changed all that by charging customers 99 cents for a song they could take with them wherever they went. Over...
By Stephen McBride May 21, 2019 | Netflix changed how we watch TV, but it didn’t really change what we watch… Netflix has achieved its incredible growth by taking distribution away from cable companies. Instead of watching The Office on cable, people now watch The Office on Netflix. This edge isn’t sustainable. In a world where you can watch practically anything whenever you want, dominance in distribution is very fragile. Read more on Forbes. Related Articles: Disney+...
By Dade Hayes May 20, 2019 | After a period of years when Netflix, Hulu and Amazon reigned virtually unchallenged as subscription streaming’s Big Three, the landscape is getting more crowded than the last act of Avengers: Endgame. This complex, multi-front battle qualifies as perhaps the disruption of the 21st Century (with apologies to President Trump). It has implications for everyone in the entertainment business for a number of reasons—changing...
By Eric Peckham May 7, 2019 | Most of the strategy discussions and news coverage in the media and entertainment industry is concerned with the unfolding corporate mega-mergers and the political implications of social media platforms. These are important conversations, but they’re largely a story of twentieth-century media (and broader society) finally responding to the dominance Web 2.0 companies have achieved. To entrepreneurs...
By Thomas K. Arnold May 6, 2019 | Two of the five major studios have quietly changed the names of their home entertainment divisions. Paramount Pictures is once again using Paramount Home Entertainment, after several years of operating as Paramount Home Media Distribution. And Walt Disney Studios’ home entertainment arm is now known as Disney Direct-to-Consumer and International. Read more on Media Play News....
BY JOHN KOBLIN April 30, 2019 |Eleven months after striking a deal with Netflix, the Obamas have a slate of programming. Barack and Michelle Obama’s new production company, Higher Ground Productions, on Tuesday announced seven projects that are in the works for Netflix, including several documentaries and a movie about Frederick Douglass. Read more on NY Times. Related Articles How Netflix May Impact the Next...
By Lucas Shaw and Matthew Boyle April 28, 2019 | Walmart Inc. already sells more TVs than anyone. Now it wants to make the shows you watch on them, too. The retailer plans to bankroll at least a half-dozen original programs over the next year, and will unveil the first few to advertisers in New York this week, people familiar with the plans...