Weekly Digest from the West
Jean-Baptiste Piron
Cultural Attaché I Attaché culturel I Québec Office Los Angeles
Stay safe, Stay Healthy, Stay Connected.
-50 Ways Companies Are Giving Back During The Coronavirus Pandemic: Mr. Rogers once said, “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mom would say to me ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’” And that can be no truer than now. I live in the Bay Area where there has been a mandatory shutdown. It is bizarre to see the grocery store ransacked, the schools empty, and the explosion of mass hysteria on social media. Most people’s lives have been completely upended by the Corona Virus or COVID-19 sweeping the world. That said, today I’m highlighting 50 helpers. When the pressure is on, and governments are overloaded, it is up to businesses large and small to do things that will better their employees, customers and the community at large, until this difficult time passes. We’ve even seen famous musicians like John Legend, Keith Urban and Pink play free concerts for people isolated at home. From a business and government perspective, what we have seen in the last few weeks and days, is how fast we can move and make decisions when we want to affect change as a society. But let’s get to the recognition. Here are 50 Examples of Companies Doing Good For The World During This Corona Virus Pandemic:
-AMC Networks Plans Ad Packages on Streaming Outlets it Doesn’t Own: AMC Networks wants to sell the ads that accompany “Walking Dead” on its flagship cable outlet and wherever the series’ zombies might march. The company that operates cable networks like AMC, IFC and We TV is telling advertisers that it will maintain first-window sales rights when series it owns are made available on ad-supported streaming outlets that might include venues like Pluto TV, among others. The company expects to unveil some of these deals in weeks to come, but believes the arrangement means AMC can help a sponsor create commercials that suit the show no matter where it runs “Unlike many who are in the process of pulling all their intellectual property back and putting it into a ‘walled garden’ situation, our goal is to make sure that our programming and our shows are seen by as many people as want to on every platform and every device they want to consume it on,” says Kim Kelleher, president of commercial revenue and partnerships at AMC Networks, in an interview. “We are bringing our advertising partners with us.” The TV industry has canceled all the glitzy live presentations they typically mount at this time every year to lure billions in ad revenue as part of the “upfront” ad-sales market. But the show must go on. For Kelleher, that means keeping talks with agencies going, even if the current coronavirus crisis is taking some of the flash out of the season. This is her first TV upfront, having joined AMC Networks after stints at magazine publishers Conde Nast and the former Time Inc. She believes her new job has some of the same qualities as those previous ones, as she is selling distinct media brands that appeal to audiences that marketers don’t want to miss. Among the programs AMC Networks is touting are a new “Walking Dead” series and “Soulmates,” an anthology series that looks at a new test that helps people connect to their soulmates – and some of the dilemmas that may bring. But the company is also offering to help advertisers latch on to past series such as the cult favorite “Halt and Catch Fire,” or “Turn” and “Rectify” in a time when viewers are eager for high-quality drama but may not want to buy yet another subscription service to get a look at it.
https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/amc-networks-tv-advertising-upfront-2020-kim-kelleher-1203535187/
-NBCUniversal Will Release Films to Stream Alongside Theatrical Releases: Today, NBCUniversal announced that movies that were lined up to show in theaters will now be made available on-demand at the same time that they hit theaters still left open during the coronavirus pandemic. This decision breaks the tradition of the typical 90 day period between films leaving theaters and becoming available to watch at home. With rules and guidelines now in place to limit public gathering to 50 or fewer people, it isn’t likely that films would draw the crowds studios would have otherwise hoped for. Making the films available online is a smart move by the studios to keep families safe while always keeping them entertained. “Given the rapidly evolving and unprecedented changes to consumers’ daily lives during this difficult time, the company felt that now was the right time to provide this option in the home as well as in theaters. NBCUniversal will continue to evaluate the environment as conditions evolve and will determine the best distribution strategy in each market when the current unique situation changes,” the company said in a statement Monday. Trolls World Tour will be the first movie to debut online and in theaters on April 10th, with other films being available on-demand as early as Friday. Universal’s The Hunt and The Invisible Man, and Focus Features’ Emma are among the additional titles.
-Amazon wants to hire 100,000 new workers to meet coronavirus demand: Amazon is looking to hire 100,000 new warehouse and delivery workers to meet increased demands for shipments as a result of the novel coronavirus pandemic, the company announced on Monday. It will also increase the hourly pay of workers employed in these positions by an additional $2 in the United States through April. As more Americans stay indoors to protect themselves from the coronavirus outbreak, they’re turning to e-commerce stores like Amazon to purchase groceries and household supplies. On Friday, Amazon told customers that they could experience delays in Prime shipments and that the company was running out of stock on some highly sought-after household staples. “We are seeing a significant increase in demand “Getting a priority item to your doorstep is vital as communities practice social-distancing, particularly for the elderly and others with underlying health issues. We are seeing a significant increase in demand, which means our labor needs are unprecedented for this time of year,” Dave Clark, Amazon’s senior vice president of worldwide operations, said in a blog post on Monday.
-Universal to make current theatrical movies available for home viewing: Universal Pictures, in a bold move to confront the coronavirus’ threat to the movie industry, is collapsing the theatrical window. In an extraordinary step, the studio on Monday said it would make its movies available in the home on the same day as their global theatrical releases, beginning with DreamWorks Animation’s “Trolls World Tour,” opening April 10 in the U.S. The company will also make movies that are currently in theatrical release available on-demand beginning as early as Friday, starting with the Elisabeth Moss horror film “The Invisible Man,” the satirical thriller “The Hunt” and Focus Features’ period comedy-drama “Emma.”The movies will be available on a wide variety of on-demand services, including those owned by parent company, Philadelphia-based cable giant Comcast Corp. and its European subsidiary Sky, for a 48-hour rental period at a suggested retail price of $19.99. The movies will also be released on platforms including iTunes, Google Play, Amazon Prime and FandangoNow, which is part-owned by NBCUnivesal. The decision is a radical departure from the longtime industry practice of waiting 90 days between a movie’s release in theaters and when it is available for home viewing. Theaters have long resisted collapsing the so-called theatrical window, fearing it would undermine their business by discouraging consumers from going to the multiplex. The Nation Assn. of Theatre Owners, the Washington-based trade group representing cinemas, declined to comment.
-Popcorn Time, the once-popular Netflix for piracy, is back: Popcorn Time disappeared a few years ago, forcing people who used the extremely easy “Netflix, but for piracy” app to search elsewhere for movies and TV shows. Today, as more people are forced to self-quarantine in an effort to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, Popcorn Time has returned, Motherboard reports. “Love in the Time of Corona Version 0.4 is out,” a tweet from the Popcorn Time Twitter account reads. Popcorn Time was scrutinized when it was released in 2014. The streaming app became extremely popular for people who wanted to access films that were still in theaters — or those not on streaming services — but with a far more polished interface than often-sketchy piracy websites that required users to hunt down, verify, and download links themselves. Popcorn Time, on the other hand, effectively removed the downloading process, and streamlined the viewing experience, making it nearly as simple as legal streaming (despite the fact that the service still relies on the same BitTorrent technology as regular torrenting). As a result, Popcorn Time was shut down multiple times, and it had its IP blocked in a number of countries. Motherboard also notes that while other versions of Popcorn Time are active right now, “the user interface of this one and its release appear to be closely affiliated with earlier Popcorn Time projects, based on domain redirects and URLs.”
https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/17/21183546/popcorn-time-piracy-streaming-netflix-bit-torrent-update
-Chrome Extension Lets You Chat, Watch Netflix with Friends Remotely: A Chrome browser extension that lets users watch Netflix content in sync with friends and conduct a group chat alongside their viewing is gathering attention this week, as many stay home and away from social gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic. Called Netflix Party, the extension allows users to engage in remote watch parties where participants can converse in real time via a group chat. After the extension is installed, you can head to Netflix to load a show or movie. Then you click on an “NP” logo to start your party and then share the URL with your friends. That chat feature seems feature-rich, including support for user icons, nicknames, GIFs and more. Meanwhile, the developer appears to be updating and improving the extension at a rapid rate, possibly to try and stay ahead of increasing demand, such as a recent update that added more than two dozen servers. Of course, Netflix Party has been around for a while and the notion of virtual watch parties isn’t exactly new. Outside of participants manually syncing what they’re watching and then using a standard chat app, there are a number of alternative browser extensions that allow for similar functionality, including support for YouTube and Twitch. In fact, Microsoft offered a party mode on its Xbox 360 video game console, allowing users to interact with friends and family while watching Netflix. But with the ongoing coronavirus outbreak keeping many of us at home, virtual watch parties could certainly see a boom in popularity.
https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/chrome-extensions-lets-you-chat-watch-netflix-with-friends-remotely/
-Fox Breaks Ranks With Cable News on Streaming Access Amid Virus Crisis: Amid cord-cutting as well as a coronavirus pandemic that is changing viewer consumption, Fox Corp. is taking a temporary step away from the cable bundle and making its television properties freely available to stream. Fox News will now become available to stream without paying for cable, the company said Wednesday. The move was described as a partnership with Fox’s pay TV providers. Cable news channels like CNN and MSNBC are available to view online with a cable provider sign-in (both offer 10-minute previews of live coverage before asking for a sign-in). CNN dropped its cable authentication for a coronavirus town hall on March 13 and plans on doing the same for a follow-up event on March 19, but the channel isn't planning on making its full feed available for free. "Our highest duty as a company is to provide the individuals and communities we serve with information and analysis to help educate and protect them during dangerous times," Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch said in a statement. ? That is why we are today making Fox News and Fox Television stations available to everyone in the country." The move from Fox arrives one day after the slimmed-down conglomerate acquired the free, ad-supported streaming service Tubi for $440 million. The streamer offers 20,000 film and TV titles, including from studios like Paramount, Lionsgate and MGM. It's unclear how long Fox News and its 29 local Fox TV stations will be made available free under the agreement with its distribution partners. However, more Americans are increasingly cutting ties with cable bundles. An estimated 6 million-plus households cut the cord in 2019 alone, per a MoffettNathanson report on Feb. 19. While Fox may be first among the major cable news outlets to offer full online viewing of its channels, other media giants are making moves to bring more of their content to the streaming space. On Monday, NBCUniversal said that it’d be bringing its current film releases to on-demand platforms, temporarily collapsing the traditional theatrical window for those titles as most U.S. theater chains shutter.
-About 120,000 Entertainment Industry Crew Jobs Lost Due to Coronavirus: An estimated 120,000 below-the-line entertainment industry jobs have been lost due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic : That number represents about 80% of the 150,000 members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, according to the IATSE. Leaders of the International Cinematographers Guild, which has about 9,000 members and operates as IATSE Local 600, made the disclosure about the IATSE estimate in a message to members as part of its most recent weekly newsletter. “By the time you have finished reading this weekly, the circumstances we find ourselves in will have already changed,” the message said. “We are writing to tell you what we know at this moment and what we are working on at your local as our industry joins the world in shutting down and workers and their families are left wondering about their futures. The IATSE reports that the pandemic shutdown has resulted in the loss of 120,000 jobs held by its 150,000 members. It is critical that our industry be included in pending federal relief package.” The message was signed by ICG national president John Lindley, national executive director Rebecca Rhine, and 10 other officers and executives. It painted a bleak outlook for the immediate future. “Although some of our members are being paid for up to two weeks after their shows shut down, based upon the reality of the health care crisis we now face, it is highly unlikely that productions will resume after so short a period of time,” the message said. “This problem is likely to continue for months, not weeks, and our concerns about health, benefits and economic stability are shared by the entire membership. Your health and safety and the well-being of your families are paramount to us.” “You have many questions about your benefit hours and the ability of the plans, both active and retiree, to withstand a period of diminished contributions and an uncertain investment environment. It is important to note that both plans currently have months of reserves and are not threatened at this moment.” The leaders said the next step will be for the labor and management trustees of the Motion Picture Industry Health Plan to meet and look for methods to help plan participants. “To ensure the safety of our employees and their families, all our regional offices have closed or are minimally staffed,” the leaders said. “Transitioning our entire organization to work remotely is complex and will take some time to work out, but the staff is on it full time. Every action taken serves the goal of reducing transmission, protecting the health care system from collapse and giving medical professionals and researchers the time they need to identify and implement measures that reduce the devastation.”
https://variety.com/2020/film/news/entertainment-industry-crew-jobs-lost-coronavirus-1203538740/
-This app lets you self-report COVID-19 symptoms to your company: As the coronavirus spreads around the country, businesses are trying to track confirmed and potential cases among their employees so that they can take proactive measures and keep everyone as safe as possible. But for large organizations, keeping track of who among their staff has symptoms or has tested positive quickly becomes a logistical nightmare. That’s why Appian, which sells a platform that enables its clients to quickly build apps using very little code, is releasing a comprehensive COVID-19 response system. The app simply asks all employees to self-report their health symptoms and status to their company, and it’s free for six months for businesses with more than 1,000 employees (which is the target market for Appian’s platform). It also provides a hub where people can volunteer, request help, and learn more about a company’s plan for addressing the coronavirus crisis. The application, as well as all of the data, is hosted in Appian’s HIPAA-compliant cloud. The goal? With more data, an organization will be better equipped to see patterns among its staff, which could help it stop the virus from spreading within its facilities. “If you have data, you can shut down transmission,” says Appian’s CEO, Matt Calkins.
As the coronavirus continues to infect more people, one of the biggest problems has been the lack of widespread testing. The COVID-19 test shortage means there’s very little definitive information about how the virus is making its way through communities. And while many corporations have already asked all employees who are able to work from home to do so, some others—such as grocery stores, factories, and other businesses tied to the supply chain—depend on in-person work, which makes monitoring people’s health critical.
https://www.fastcompany.com/90479573/this-app-lets-you-self-report-covid-19-symptoms-to-your-company
-This is Twitch’s moment - Live-streaming is more popular than ever: These are unprecedented times. It’s fun to joke about the apocalypse — gallows humor being the incredible coping mechanism that it is — but it’s way less fun when that particular societal realignment is happening outside your door. Not that you should really be going outside much. We are in the early days of something so big that it’s really impossible to conceptualize how it’s going to change the world. Even so, there are some things we can measure now, like Twitch. According to the streaming software company StreamElements — which conducts regular surveys of the streaming landscape with its analytics partner Arsenal.gg — viewership on Twitch is up. By a lot. Over the last week, it’s increased by a full 10 percent. As StreamElements CEO Doron Nir wrote in an email, that reflects “the popularity of the livestreaming medium now that people are consuming higher volumes of entertainment at home.” Translation: because we all have to stay inside now to flatten the coronavirus’s infection curve, everyone is watching streams. Nir writes that he expects those numbers to increase with the number of stay-at-home mandates issued by governments around the world. You can see the effect locally, too. StreamElements found that in Italy, live-stream viewership (in terms of minutes watched) grew more than 66 percent since the first week of February and when the quarantine there began. Nir again: “In addition to individual channels growing in size, we have ... seen the amount of channels being watched almost double.” Apparently, Nir says, according to reports from Telecom Italia, there has been an increase of more than 70 percent of internet traffic over their landline network — traffic they attribute to gaming. While other platforms have also seen growth — YouTube Gaming viewership was up by a full 15 percent over the last week, for example — this moment has been particularly good for Twitch. It’s the marquee name in live-streaming, and now that people are stuck inside and thinking about what to do with all the time they’re not spending with other people, it’s become the place people go. I’ve personally seen an increase in viewership on my own channel; I’ve also gotten a ton of inquiries from friends who are interested in starting to stream and aren’t quite sure about how to configure OBS, the open-source software that’s behind a lot of your favorite streams. (Friends who are interested in joining Twitch: try Twitch Studio.)
-YouTube Follows Netflix in Reducing Streaming Quality in EU: Netflix announced its decision to reduce streaming quality in Europe to ease internet congestion, after a member of the European Commission reached out to the streaming service with concerns about the increased strain on the internet recently. Today, YouTube became the second company to act. YouTube announced today that it will reduce streaming quality in the EU to ease internet strain as many Europeans are spending more time at home, working remotely during the day and streaming videos in the evenings, according to a report from Reuters. Reportedly, EU industry chief Thierry Breton spoke to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai and YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, urging them to make the move. “We are making a commitment to temporarily switch all traffic in the EU to standard definition by default,” the company said in a statement. We don’t know yet whether streaming platforms will make the same decision to reduce streaming bit rates in the US or elsewhere around the world.
https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/youtube-follows-netflix-in-reducing-streaming-quality-in-eu/
-Coronavirus: TV’s Fictional Hospitals Are Helping Real Hospitals in Need: With the rise of the number of COVID-19 cases, television medical dramas are donating their props and costumes to local hospitals and governments for actual use. As TV shows are shut down, with productions closed and series going into hiatus, medical dramas such as Fox’s The Resident, NBC’s New Amsterdam and ABC’s The Good Doctor, Grey’s Anatomy and its spinoff show Station 19 have decided to donate their surplus medical supplies from sets to real hospitals and locals in need. “At Station 19 we were lucky enough to have about 300 of the coveted N95 masks which we donated to our local fire station — they were tremendously grateful,” the show’s executive producer Krista Vernoff, who also works on Grey’s Anatomy, told The Hollywood Reporter. When Station 19 heard that the City of Ontario, California’s fire department was out of masks and recycling the ones they had, the show decided to donate its stock in addition to giving masks to the Station 35 firehouse in Los Angeles' Los Feliz neighborhood. Grey’s Anatomy donated “backstock gowns and gloves” from its costume department, which it gave to local L.A. hospitals.
-SLING TV launches ? Stay in & SLING! ? - an initiative to provide free news and entertainment as nation grapples with outbreak: LING TV today launched "Stay in & SLING!," an initiative to provide Americans with cost-free access to news and entertainment, as the nation confronts the COVID-19 crisis. SLING TV is providing news, plus thousands of shows and movies for the whole family, with no paid SLING TV account required. "To stay informed in these uncertain times, Americans need access to news from reputable sources," said Warren Schlichting, group president, SLING TV. ? With many Americans finding themselves staying at home, we have an opportunity to use our platform to help them deal with this rapidly evolving situation." The SLING TV free experience currently includes news from ABC News Live, a 24/7 streaming video news channel for breaking news and live events. In addition, SLING TV offers thousands of movies and shows suitable for kids and families.
-Netflix Pledges $100 Million in Relief to Out-of-Work Production Community: With a continued lack of clarity about how the government plans to aid those workers hit hardest by coronavirus-related work stoppages, several institutions are pledging money to help those most affected in Hollywood. Netflix on Friday announced that it has set up a $100 million relief fund for out-of-work production professionals, including the hundreds of thousands of crew and cast without jobs. In a letter from one of the Hollywood’s most visible creative executives, Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos noted the unprecedented effects that the pandemic has had on the community — particularly electricians, carpenters and drivers, many of them paid hourly and project to project. “Most of the fund will go towards support for the hardest hit workers on our own productions around the world,” wrote Sarandos. “We’re in the process of working out exactly what this means, production by production. This is in addition to the two weeks pay we’ve already committed to the crew and cast on productions we were forced to suspend last week.” There have been widespread calls for the government to offer economic support to various businesses, most notably the restaurant and service industries that have been decimated nationwide, sending unemployment skyrocketing, but the entertainment industry standstill has been particularly hard on below-the-line workers, including Hollywood’s Teamsters. Netflix’s relief pledge is not limited to its own productions. “Beyond helping workers on our own productions, we also want to support the broader film and television industry,” Sarandos continued. “So $15 million of the fund will go to third parties and non-profits providing emergency relief to out-of-work crew and cast in the countries where we have a large production base.” Pledges to current non-profits aiding workers include $1 million to the SAG-AFTRA Covid-19 Disaster Fund, the Motion Picture and Television Fund and the Actors Fund Emergency Assistance in the U.S and $1 million between the AFC and Fondation des Artistes.
-WhatsApp Is at the Center of Coronavirus Response: The Covid-19 pandemic is impacting communities around the world. For the 2 billion of those people who also use the encrypted communication service WhatsApp, now more than ever is a time for calling, messaging, and seeking trustworthy information. So the World Health Organization is going where the people are, launching a new tool called WHO Health Alert on WhatsApp today. When you text "hi" to +41 79 893 1892 over WhatsApp, you'll receive back a text from the WHO that includes a variety of menu items for the latest information, like novel coronavirus infection rates around the world, travel advisories, and misinformation that should be debunked. Think of it like a hotline: Text 1 for the latest statistics, 4 for mythbusters, that type of thing. The WHO can also send out proactive alerts as needed to everyone who’s signed up. The WHO isn't the first to enlist WhatsApp in this manner. The Facebook-owned app’s ubiquity and experience handling disinformation has made an obvious choice for governments and international organizations, placing it squarely at the center of the novel coronavirus response—with all the responsibility and controversy that entails. "We already have over one million people signed up even though we haven’t even announced it yet," says Will Cathcart, who runs WhatsApp, of WHO Health Alert. "It's great. There seems to be a lot of appetite from people for ways to get good, accurate information and we’re happy to do what we can there to help. ? Helplines are preferable in many ways to landing pages, social media profiles, or massive open channels, because they allow governments to use WhatsApp like regular users, having one-to-one interactions with constituents. The only difference is that the responses are automated. Organizations can find out their options for setting up similar chatbot mechanisms at this landing page for WhatsApp's Coronavirus resources. The bots run through WhatsApp’s business application programming interface, which maintains WhatsApp’s encryption and allows entities to manage their services. All the new institutional uses combined with widespread social isolation means that more people than ever are using WhatsApp for messaging—and an especially large volume of phone calls and video chats. To keep up with demand, Cathcart says that WhatsApp has nearly doubled its server capacity in the last few weeks. "We don’t know what’s coming, and we view WhatsApp as a lifeline for people to communicate when they need it. And the core thing we offer is that it’ll be there and work," he says. "We’re hearing all these amazing anecdotes especially out of places on the front lines of things like health care workers using WhatsApp to communicate with patients, to communicate with each other. Schools using it to try to do remote education, people using it to keep in touch with their friends and family, either through messaging, but actually exceptionally through video calling and voice calling. And we’re seeing that in the data with a ton of extra usage. ?
https://www.wired.com/story/whatsapp-coronavirus-who-information-app/
-Disney Plus to Cut Bandwidth Use by 25% for Europe Launch, Debut in France Delayed: Disney has joined other streamers in cooperating with the European Union to temporarily curtail bandwidth usage of Disney Plus — and reduce video quality — for its scheduled launch next week in several countries during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. In addition, the Mouse House said it is pushing back the launch of Disney Plus in France for two weeks, with it now slated to go live in the country April 7, at the behest of the French government. Disney Plus is still set to debut next Tuesday (March 24) in the U.K., Ireland, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria and Switzerland. But out of the gate, Disney Plus’ European subscribers will get temporarily degraded video quality, as the EU has requested that streaming-video providers limit their video bit-rates during the coronavirus emergency so as not to overload internet networks. Disney’s announcement follows moves by Netflix, YouTube, Amazon and Apple to similarly scale back their bandwidth consumption in Europe. That’s in response to lobbying efforts by Thierry Breton, the European Union’s commissioner for internal market, who this week urged streaming-video providers to downgrade to standard-definition format — and forgo HD — to conserve bandwidth as governmental stay-at-home edicts put stress on the region’s networks. Kevin Mayer, chairman of Disney’s Direct-to-Consumer and International division, announced the decision Saturday. “In line with Disney’s longstanding commitment to act responsibly, we are responding to the request of European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton to work together to ensure the smooth functioning of the broadband infrastructure,” Mayer said. Mayer continued, “In anticipation of high consumer demand for Disney+, we are proactively instituting measures to lower our overall bandwidth utilization by at least 25% in all of the markets launching Disney+ on March 24th. In the coming days, we will be monitoring Internet congestion and working closely with iInternet service providers to further reduce bit rates as necessary to ensure they are not overwhelmed by consumer demand. We look forward to the launch of Disney+ and hope it will provide a much-needed respite for families in these challenging and trying times.” Regarding the delay in France, Mayer said, “To our French fans, the Disney+ service is coming, but at the request of the French government, we have agreed to postpone the launch until Tuesday, 7 April 2020.”
-Comcast, Charter, Verizon, and dozens of other internet and phone providers have signed an FCC pledge to ‘keep Americans connected’ even if they can't pay during disruptions caused by coronavirus: The FCC has issued a pledge on Friday for internet and telecommunications companies to "keep Americans connected" during the disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The pledge means that for the next 60 days, a participating internet service provider should:
? Not terminate service to any residential or small business customers because of their inability to pay their bills due to the disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic;
? Waive any late fees that any residential or small business customers incur because of their
economic circumstances related to the coronavirus pandemic; and
? Open its Wi-Fi hotspots to any American who needs them.
Dozens of telecoms companies have endorsed the pledge already, including numerous regional companies, as well as larger entities like Charter, Comcast, Google, Sprint, and Verizon. You can see a full list of those companies that have endorsed the pledge here, although it’s unclear if this list will be updated as more companies participate. Some companies have also separately taken action to make it easier to stay connected online. On Thursday, AT&T lifted its overage fees for customers on internet plans with data caps. Also on Thursday, Comcast announced that it's offering its $10-a-month Essentials internet service designed for low-income households for free for 60 days. It's also increasing the speeds of its Essential internet service.
-TV Has Mostly Stopped Production. What Happens Next? As production grinds to a halt amid a global pandemic, the television industry is navigating unchartered territory. And while there are many more questions than answers, The Hollywood Reporter polled all corners of the business to try to get a read on where everything is — and is headed. What, for instance, will come of the traditional TV season? How about the 60 broadcast pilots that are suddenly on hold? And what about a potential writers strike, which was supposed to be the thing that stopped production this spring? In every case, writers, reps and executives — all experimenting with virtual providers like WebEx and Zoom for the first time — would only speak on the condition of anonymity given the rapidly changing nature of our current world. Two types of ? shutdowns" have emerged. The first, impacting mostly broadcast shows, refers to the abrupt end to a season. So, you'll have hours and half-hours that will not resume production on the one or more episodes that remained of their current seasons. For series that will be renewed, or in some cases already scored early pickups, the outstanding episodes will likely be "rolled" to the 2020-21 season, whenever that begins (more on that later). The downside for viewers: The shows that hadn’t yet completed their seasons will not wrap up storylines or have traditional finales this spring — and those that won’t be renewed will end prematurely, potentially limiting their ability to sell or stream elsewhere. The second type of "shutdown" can be thought of as a hiatus, which is more typical of cable and streaming shows that don’t adhere to a strict calendar the way broadcast does. Take Fargo, which will simply shift its planned premiere, previously set for April 19, later in the year since it had two episodes of 10 outstanding when the outbreak forced a stoppage. Doing so isn’t without fallout here, too. Consider this: Fargo had been a key piece of the network’s 2020 Emmy strategy, with Noah Hawley’s award-winning series expected to be a major contender in the limited series category.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tv-has-stopped-production-what-happens-next-1285099?