Tag: film

The 10 most innovative companies in video

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In 2020, people’s reliance on video for communication and entertainment skyrocketed due to the pandemic. Companies from all areas of the spectrum—livestreaming, video communication, shopping, as well as TV and movie platforms—all found ways not only to exploit this growing demand, but lean into it in ways that improved its users quality of life in new and unexpected ways. 1. Apple For proving that the streaming race is a marathon not a sprint The company’s, $5.99-a-month streaming service, Apple TV Plus , was slow out of the gate when it launched in late 2019. But in 2020 it picked up speed, launching an aggressive, event film strategy with Greyhound , the Tom Hanks WWII film that it bought from Sony and turned into summer water-cooler chatter. On the TV side, the company got past its initial stage of shows with glossy sheens that didn’t ultimately deliver and moved into a much more satisfying era of truly original-feeling shows like Ted Lasso and the Israeli thriller Tehran . Strong word of mouth and critical acclaim for these and other titles helped the service reportedly grow to about 35 million subscribers and nab eight Emmy nominations. The streamer took home one for Billy Crudup’s performance in The Morning Show , the flagship series when Apple TV Plus launched, but now a footnote in the streamer’s well-stocked portfolio. 2. Tubi For giving viewers the Netflix experience for free In response to Black Lives Matter, Tubi created a vertical called United Against Inequality showcasing movies and TV shows from the free, ad-supported streaming service’s library of 23,000 titles. None of them were Tubi originals—there’s no such thing—but the move showed how Tubi cleverly curates content from its vast library in order to draw users, which now number 33 million. In 2020 the company was acquired by Fox Corp. for $440 million, giving Tubi access to yet more content and ammunition with advertisers. This combined fire power, along with Tubi’s new, Advanced Frequency Management tool, which lessens ad repetition and improves frequency management of commercials, solved one of the biggest problems with ad-supported streaming and has helped make Tubi the streaming service you most need. Read More …

Why Disney wants $30 for ‘Raya and the Last Dragon’ when ‘Soul’ was free

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Disney fans who spent the Christmas holiday streaming the Pixar feature Soul for their kids via Disney Plus may be a little confused this weekend. Disney Animation’s latest film, Raya and the Last Dragon , which is out March 5 and is about a Southeast Asian warrior princess on a quest to find a dragon that will unite her people, will also be on Disney Plus, but subscribers will have to pay an additional $30 to see it, at least right now. This summer, the film will be available to all Disney Plus subscribers for free. There’s one additional wrinkle: Raya is also being released in theaters. Well, some of them. Cinemark, the third-biggest movie theater chain in the United States is refusing to show the film, reportedly because Disney’s financial terms were too onerous for a movie that is also being released on streaming.   Consumer whiplash? Just a tad. This is a phenomenon that points to how entertainment conglomerates are still very much in experimentation mode when it comes to settling the streaming vs. theatrical debate, particularly when it comes to kids’ films. It also underlines just how many kinks still have not been worked out (i.e., with theater chains). For a sense of how chaotic and unresolved it all is—and how there is truly no single, settled-upon formula—consider that on March 4, Paramount released The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run exclusively on its new streaming platform, Paramount Plus, as well on premium video-on-demand rental platforms for $19.99 . A week earlier, Warner Bros. released Tom & Jerry both in theaters and on HBO Max (at no extra charge).   According to Paul Dergarabedian , senior media analyst for Comscore, this is the new world order wrought by the pandemic that has wreaked havoc on the theater exhibition business. “‘Are you going to go streaming or theatrical?’ That used to be the question, and there were two answers,” he says. “Now there are 10, 15 answers and permutations of how you can release a movie.”   Raya ‘s rollout mirrors Disney’s release of the live-action Mulan last summer, an approach that confused consumers—as well as generated ire . Thirty bucks when subscribers were already paying $7 a month for Disney Plus Read More …

How Disney Plus is winning by ripping up the streaming playbook

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Earlier this month, Netflix sent out an email announcing titles on its service for that week. The flurry of personalized (for the subscriber) titles included its teen romance hit To All the Boys: Always and Forever ; the Nickelodeon series iCarly ; and War Dogs , a Netflix original movie starring Bradley Cooper. There were also promos for recent Netflix originals: Bridgerton , Shonda Rhimes’ buzzy period drama; the teen film We Can Be Heroes ; and George Clooney’s sci-fi film The Midnight Sky . Disney also sent out an email that week announcing what it was touting on its streaming service, DisneyPlus. Most prominently featured was Cinderella , the 1997 TV adaptation of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical starring Brandy. Less space was given to a single episode—number six—of the Marvel series WandaVision , a DisneyPlus exclusive, and High School Musical: The Musical: Series , another Disney Plus show that debuted in 2019. As streaming services duke it out and woo subscribers—the latest, Paramount Plus , debuts on March 4—Disney is snubbing its nose at the streaming playbook pioneered most meaningfully (and aggressively) by Netflix. It is not promising a brand-new TV show or movie every single day of the year. It is not churning out splashy press releases announcing lavish deals with TV and filmmakers like Rhimes and Ryan Murphy. It isn’t catering to consumers by allowing them to binge an entire season of a show in one sitting. Want to watch WandaVision ? Read More …

This is how inclusive Netflix’s original programming really is

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Last month, Netflix released its first-ever inclusion report detailing where the company stands with having a diverse and equitable workplace. Now Netflix is keeping that same energy in analyzing its original TV shows and films. Today, Netflix published a study conducted by the University of Southern California Annenberg Inclusion Initiative that breaks down how Netflix’s original content from 2018 and 2019 performed across 22 inclusion indictors. While the streamer excelled in certain areas and showed growth over the year, it’s evident that there’s still a considerable amount of ground to cover toward parity in front of and behind the camera—particularly with more representation from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups. “We’ve released this report in the interests of transparency,” said Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix. “Because without this kind of information it’s very hard to judge whether we’re improving or not. And the report makes clear that while Netflix has made advances in representation year-over-year, we still have a long way to go.” Here’s a snapshot of some key statistics from the study: 52% of all leads/co-leads (TV and film) were women and girls 31.9% of all leads/co-leads (TV and film) were from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups 23.1% of film directors were women 16.9% of film directors were from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups 29.8% of show creators were women 12.2% of show creators were from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups In addition to the study, which Netflix has committed to releasing every two years through 2026, the streamer also announced the Netflix Fund for Creative Equity, a $100 million endowment that will be distributed globally over five years in an effort to build talent pipelines for underrepresented communities. Read More …

Try this creative tactic to improve an idea or hone your pitch

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After explaining an idea to a friend, I’ll often ask them to explain it back to me. Not only does that help me understand whether the idea is landing, but it also helps me pick up new ways to explain it. When I first thought about writing this book, the bestselling author Dan Pink listened to my pitch and then explained it back to me, only far more eloquently Read More …