Showbiz Sandbox 427: Debating This Year’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Nominees
October 15, 2018
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio announced next year’s nominees for induction into it’s prestigious institution, setting off the annual bickering over who should or shouldn’t get in. Is the British heavy metal band Def Leppard more deserving than the gothic rock darlings The Cure? Bands such as Roxy Music and Radiohead with their lengthy history seem like no-brainers, but what about popular acts like Rage Against the Machine who only ever released four albums? We take an educated and opinionated guess on which nominees we think should make the cut.
In China, box office began to slow down considerably in August for the same reason grosses decline in other parts of the world; a lack of hit movies. It doesn’t help that subsidies from online ticketing platforms are now being blocked by the government, as is the practice of distributors buying bulk tickets to their own films to boost box office.
Meanwhile, the rush by every media company on the planet to launch their own streaming platform has created an environment where consumers might begin to push back against having to pay for so many subscription services. WarnerMedia is the latest to announce plans for a streaming play.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including the nominees for the National Book Award, guitarist Lindsey Buckingham sues Fleetwood Mac and a new television series will depict the formation hip hop legends Wu Tang Clan.
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Showbiz Sandbox 425: Ticketmaster Gets Caught Abusing Its Market Domination
September 24, 2018
When Live Nation and Ticketmaster merged eight years ago it was openly feared that the combined companies would run roughshod over the industry and consumers alike. While there has been speculation about some of the shenanigans Ticketmaster has been up to since then, we now have conclusive proof that the ticketing juggernaut is manipulating the market and working with resellers in the secondary market in order to collect additional fees. They’ve even developed a software tool for just such a purpose.
The United States Senate, meanwhile, passed the Music Modernization Act. It creates a blanket mechanical license which allows for songwriters and artists receive royalties for streaming. It also fixes the problem of receiving royalties for works created before 1972 and includes producers in the new scheme. We’ll take a look a the new bill and explain what it all means.
Speaking of music, a new report indicates that industry revenue in North America is up slightly during the first half of 2018, just as Spotify makes it even easier for independent artists to post their music directly to the streaming service. Does that make Spotify a record label?
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including Kelly Clarkson gets a new daytime talk show, Comcast beats Disney in an auction for Sky in the United Kingdom and singer Sam Smith loses his voice just before going on stage.
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Showbiz Sandbox 410: In a Global Landscape the Cannes Film Festival Remains as Relevant as Ever
May 21, 2018
Despite all the griping over the lack of glitz and glamour, or at the very least big movie stars, at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the event lived up to its reputation for programming some of the most artistic movies currently being made around the world. When the Palm d’Or was handed out over the weekend it went to Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda for his touching family drama “Shoplifters.” Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman” won the Grand Jury Prize and the Lebanese filmmaker Nadine Labaki was awarded the Jury Prize for her movie “Capernaum,” about a scrappy young boy dealing with the hardships of life ont he street in Beirut.
China too is becoming more diverse when it comes to the movies it is allowing in multiplexes. While Hollywood was quick to dominate the market with big blockbusters, Chinese distributors showed up in Cannes to acquire mid-budget titles from around the world.
Meanwhile, the mounting number of mergers and acquisitions of global media companies have begun to cause a chain reaction where each deal may affect the next. The latest merger has caused CBS to sue its parent company to prevent a merger with Viacom.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including a movie deal for a Lin Manuel Miranda musical, YouTube tweaks its music subscription service and Congress looks to extend copyright protections.
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Showbiz Sandbox 399: Why Can’t Hulu and Spotify Turn A Profit?
February 12, 2018
As consumers abandon physical media like compact discs and DVDs they are signing up for streaming services like Hulu and Spotify by the tens of millions. Even so, profitability has proven elusive for such companies. We’ll try and understand why, despite all their earnings and tons of headlines, such services continue to be in the red.
Meanwhile the movie awards season has reached a fever pitch, with the Writers Guild handing out their top awards to “Call Me By Your Name” and “Get Out.” Could the horror flick be gaining momentum in the Oscar race just like “Moonlight” did last year?
The Grammys may be over but Michael Giltz just finished his list of the best albums of 2017. Oce you move beyond the big prize for Album Of The Year, his picks have a lot in common with the winners at this year’s ceremony.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including why Russia has launched a smear campaign against an Oscar nominated documentary, a hiccup in the sale of The Weinstein Company and a respected television executive gets picked to head up Amazon Studios.
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Showbiz Sandbox 398: Streaming Services Crowd The Field During Super Bowl
February 5, 2018
The ratings for this year’s Super Bowl may have declined 7% and we might know why. After all, there were ads for Hulu, Netflix movies like “The Cloverfield Paradox,” Amazon Prime’s Jack Ryan series and even a few movies that might appear in theatres later this year. Oh, there was also a pretty good football game that came down to the last play.
The big game usually puts a damper on the box office in North America, but it certainly doesn’t help when new releases can’t hold their own against titles that opened in December. Even so, international grosses are where all the action is these days and over the past week a Bollywood title managed to beat out the latest “Maze Runner” installment in China. We’ll explain why.
Meanwhile, the Oscar race is coming into sharper focus now that the Director’s Guild has handed out their top awards to “The Shape of Water” and “Get Out”. It’s important to remember however, that the preferential ballot has managed to upend the Best Picture category recently.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including why there is a petition for RIAA president Neil Portnow to resign, compact discs are slowly disappearing from retail outlets and Netflix may team up with Luc Besson.
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Showbiz Sandbox 395: The Future of Television Is Now and It’s Online
January 15, 2018
Though the number of pay-TV subscribers grew by 1.2% last year, in mature media markets consumers continue to cut the cord, migrating to over the top (OTT) services provided by an increasing list of streaming services. In fact, Hulu just announced they now have 17 million subscribers for their on-demand and live-TV services. The promise of a future wherein we could watch whatever we want, whenever we want may finally be here. Now all we need is half a dozen streaming subscriptions.
Meanwhile, as the Directors Guild of America and BAFTA announce their nominees for year end honors, the awards season begins to further define some of its frontrunners. Though not always telling of who might wind up on Oscars shortlist, “The Shape of Water” and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” continue to rack up the most nods.
And unfortunately cases of sexual misconduct continue to make headlines. The revered French actress Catherine Deneuve joined 100 other women from France to accuse the #metoo movement of having a pack mentality that sometimes mistakes flirting for sexual assault and winds up destroying people’s lives in the process.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including why YouTube is facing a backlash over a post by one of its popular vloggers, “Modern Family” will end after its tenth season and why Radiohead might be suing Lana Del Rey over copyright infringement. Read more
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Showbiz Sandbox 382: Safety On Hollywood Sets Thrust Into Spotlight
October 3, 2017
When the star of a popular television series was involved in a car accident after a 14-hour day of production it prompted an investigation into the safety of the show’s performers. It also called attention to the simmering issue in Hollywood over on-set safety, which in recent weeks has included the death of a stunt person arguably not trained for the stunt they tackled and the possible murder of a location scout.
In the United States last summer’s box office might have been down, but popcorn sales are up. That’s not enough to keep independent movie theater owners happy. They’re suing the chain Landmark on antitrust grounds. Coincidentally, Landmark sued Regal over the very same issue a few years ago.
Meanwhile, an audit conducted by the MPAA of Chinese revealed that movie theater operators in the country are consistently underreporting ticket sales costing the studios millions of dollars in grosses. Fixing the problem can be a long political process.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news how Hulu is outbidding Netflix on library content, the reboot of “American Idol” rounds out its judges panel and the big lawsuit between two TV ratings aggregators.
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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 358: The Skinny on YouTube’s New Live TV Service
March 6, 2017
With YouTube becoming the latest player to offer an over-the-top subscription streaming service it’s safe to say the the skinny television bundle has officially arrived. For $35 per month, subscribers can now get 40 channels of live TV including major networks and ESPN. YouTube TV also has a virtual DVR with no recording limits.
YouTube is entering an increasingly crowded market with competitors such as Dish Network’s Sling TV, AT&T’s DirecTV Now, Hulu and many others. But YouTube may have an advantage thanks to some powerful artificial intelligence that has helped increase worldwide viewing to over one billion hours per day, nearly as much as traditional television in the United States.
Now normally, two weeks after the Academy Awards we’d already be struggling to remember who won Best Score. But thanks to the most notorious screwup in Oscar history, we’re still talking about the broadcast and its fallout. We’ll explain why.
Of course, we also cover the week’s top entertainment news stories including the absurd controversy over Disney’s first gay character, Harry Potter tops the Olivier Awards with a record 11 nominations and Spotify reaches the 50 million subscriber mark.
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Showbiz Sandbox 350: Hollywood Has Faith in Religious Marketing
January 9, 2017
Organized religion and the film industry have traditionally not played nicely with one another. Recently however, movie studios have been courting Christian filmgoers, in hopes of increasing audiences for certain titles. Brooks Barnes, a staff reporter for the New York Times, joins us to discuss one of Hollywood’s latest marketing trends.
The Writers Guild and the National Society Of Film Critics have both weighed in with end of the year honors. But will any of their choices matter come Oscar time?
The same question could be asked about the Golden Globes which were held last weekend. “La La Land” and “Moonlight” walked away with the top prizes as they continue to march through awards season as this year’s front runners for a Best Picture Academy Award.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including why Kodak is bringing back celluloid (sort of), how talk show host Conan O’Brien is going viral and Norway ditches FM radio.
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