By Media Play Staff October 21, 2019 | Welcome to Media Play News’ second annual 40 Under 40 — our yearly list of rising stars in the fast-changing world of home entertainment. The proliferation of streaming services, alongside the traditional transactional business, has broadened our industry more than anyone could have imagined. “Direct-to-consumer” is Hollywood’s new buzzword, and what that means is putting consumers...
By Kirsten Chuba October 21, 2019 | After announcing six new nonfiction projects — including a Mikey Mouse documentary that is a "passion project" for Disney CEO Bob Iger — Disney+ president of content and marketing Ricky Strauss told The Hollywood Reporter on Friday that in addition to a platform that includes the full Disney library, The Simpsons, Fox classic films and originals from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and Lucasfilm, nonfiction...
By Julia Alexander October 21, 2019 | Netflix is trying to be more transparent with its creatives about how it counts a view on an original series or movie, and a letter sent to the British government includes three new descriptors: starters, watchers, and completers. The three new categories are part of the most in-depth look yet at a reported method that helps...
By Julia Alexander October 14, 2019 | AMC Theaters, the largest movie theater chain in the US, is launching an AMC Theaters on Demand video service. The service will let customers rent or buy movies, much in the same way Apple’s iTunes Store and Amazon’s Prime Video have operated for years. AMC Theaters on Demand, as it will be called, will launch as...
By Gregg Tarr October 8, 2019 | Sony’s next-generation gaming console will officially be called PlayStation 5 when it hits the market during the 2020 holiday season, Jim Ryan, Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) president announced Tuesday in a blog on the Playstation website. Ryan confirmed details on the new game player first reported by Wired.com, including the fact that the device will have an...
By Nellie Andreeva [caption id="attachment_409" align="alignright" width="150"] Matt Strauss is also Chair of DEG.[/caption] October 7, 2019 | NBCUniversal is making sweeping changes, restructuring its broadcast, studio and digital operations and assigning new roles to a number of the company’s top TV executives, including Bonnie Hammer, Paul Telegdy and George Cheeks. Universal Television and Universal Content Productions will move under a single business unit named NBCUniversal...
By Alexandra Bruell and Suzanne Vranica October 4, 2019 | Walt Disney Co.is banning advertising from Netflix Inc.across its entertainment TV networks, according to people familiar with the situation, a sign that the marketing wars over streaming-video are escalating as media giants battle each other for subscribers. Disney, whose properties include ABC and Freeform, earlier this year put out an edict to staffers that it wouldn’t accept ads from...
By Todd Spangler September 30, 2019 | WarnerMedia announced several operational executive appointments for HBO Max, its premium service teed up to enter the streaming wars next year, under the leadership of Otter Media CEO Tony Goncalves. Goncalves leads the team handling product design, customer experience and lifecycle, acquisition and retention marketing, data reporting and insights, business development, and go-to-market strategy and business operations. HBO...
By Michael Lev-Ram September 23, 2019 | To address this new challenge, Netflix has assembled a team of veteran content developers who bear little resemblance to the typical C-suite crew sitting around a Silicon Valley conference room. Most of them have joined Netflix just in the past few years and were poached from the traditional Hollywood ecosystem. They present a diverse range of...
Our typical response to where long term U.S. Pay TV penetration will find a natural bottom has been that the absolute floor will depend on the number of households who consider sports content absolutely essential to their video consumption plans [caption id="attachment_6348" align="alignleft" width="200"] Michael Nathanson | Moffett Nathanson[/caption] September 26, 2019 | As cord cutting accelerates, investors are increasingly focused on where...
