By Scott Mendelson August 22, 2018 | If we judge a studio’s summer by the amount of new franchises it created, Warner Bros. may be the unofficial winner. Yes, Walt Disney ruled the roost with 42% of the overall market share, even if 22% of that came from just two movies (Avengers: Infinity War and Incredibles 2). And yes, Universal/Comcast Corp. had the year’s...
By Cynthia Littleton August 21, 2018 | Trying to play catch-up to Netflix, the largest U.S. media conglomerates are bent on reinventing part of their operations as a direct-to-consumer business model. The industry’s biggest content producers aim to tap into the efficiency of streaming video via the internet to build proprietary pipelines into America’s living rooms, laptops, tablets and smartphones. “The modern media...
By Anousha Sakoui, Nabila Ahmed, and Spencer Soper August 16, 2018 | Amazon.com Inc. is in the running to acquire Landmark Theaters, a move that would vault the e-commerce giant into the brick-and-mortar cinema industry, according to people familiar with the situation. The company is vying with other suitors to acquire the business from Wagner/Cuban Cos., which is backed by billionaire Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner, according...
By Lucas Shaw August 15, 2018 | YouTube has become synonymous with online video and the lucrative advertising that it commands. Amazon.com Inc.’s Twitch streaming site is the go-to place for the much smaller audience of video gaming enthusiasts. Now, in a bid to grab a larger slice of the online advertising pie, Amazon has decided to aggressively broaden the programming on...
By Natalie Jarvey August 11, 2018 | The retailer has yet to make the rounds with its vision for the type of content it could bring to its streamer — and may not until it has a top programming executive in place, a position that one agency source says Walmart is seeking to fill. Although it is still early, Hollywood observers say...
By Todd Spangler August 9, 2018 | Hulu’s cash burn has accelerated — its losses in the second quarter of 2018 more than doubled — as the video-streaming venture continues to step up its investment in content and technology to acquire new customers. At this point, questions remain about what will happen next for Hulu once Disney gains majority control of the company, and how the service...
By Sahil Patel August 9, 2018 | As TV viewers spend more time on streaming video platforms, big media companies have gotten more serious about building their own subscription streaming services — or “direct to consumer” products, as the companies call them. That’s led to the creation of new executive roles and responsibilities at companies that historically haven’t sold subscription products to...
By Brooks Barnes August 5, 2018 | LOS ANGELES — Very little is known about Disneyflix, as some people in Hollywood are calling the Netflix-style streaming service that Disney plans to introduce late next year. How much will subscriptions cost? Disney has given hints but no specifics. The name, rollout strategy, precise menu of movies and television shows — all still a mystery. But...
By Andrew Liptak August 3, 2018 | Companies like Disney and Warner Bros. already have extensive back-catalogs of material, and have launched their own efforts to bring out their own streaming platforms. Disney’s is expected to launch sometime in 2019, while Warner Bros. will launch DC Universe, dedicated to its superhero franchises, later this fall. Both services will help bring all...
By Janko Roettgers August 1, 2018 | T-Mobile is on track to launch its TV service this year, COO Mike Sievert said during the company’s earnings call Wednesday. “We continue to plan it for this year,” he said, adding that the company was looking for what he described as an “initial launch” in 2018. T-Mobile first announced last December that it was looking to launch a...