Weekly Digest from the West

-The New Hulu Looks a Lot Like the Future of TV: Did you see “The Good Fight”? How can you not be watching “Empire”? Hurry up and finish “The Handmaid’s Tale” so we can talk! We’re in a TV renaissance, but keeping up is a commitment. Who knows which channels and times anything is on—or which show you’ll be judged for not knowing next. If your remote ever feels like it could use its own valet, I’ve got good news: Watching TV is about to get better. Live TV-streaming apps like Sling TV and YouTube TV haven’t exactly delivered on the promise of rescuing us from giant cable bills, but they have invented some new ways to sort through gazillions of channels and shows. The newest and best, Hulu with Live TV, which starts at $40 a month, looks nothing like most cable systems—and comes much closer to how TV ought to work in 2017. The problem is you might hate it, at least at first. The new Hulu app looks so different, it’s freaking out people who have used the service for years to watch day-after shows on demand. And Hulu’s new live TV service completely axes the one part of watching cable every American has mastered: the channel guide. What Hulu gets right is that the live TV channel is dying—and needs to be replaced by something that looks a lot more like Netflix . Instead of listing what’s on 50 channels, Hulu opens up with a focus on one thing it thinks you’d most like to watch. Flick up for a different recommendation. It makes no distinction between the live big game, stuff from your DVR or on-demand episodes of “The Golden Girls.” Hulu isn’t the only service to recognize we need fewer choices, not more. YouTube TV, the Google live service that launched last month, puts search, trending shows and personalized suggestions front and center. Sling TV’s home screen has evolved to include the stuff you watch most. Even Comcast is leading traditional cable companies to adapt with a new X1 cable box that offers “for you” recommendations, plus a voice-commanded remote.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-new-hulu-looks-a-lot-like-the-future-of-tv-1494433910

-Comcast, Charter Strike Wireless Partnership: Comcast Corp. and Charter Communications Inc. have struck a wireless partnership as the cable giants look to get a piece of the cutthroat business. As part of the deal, which The Wall Street Journal first reported Sunday, Comcast and Charter have agreed not to make a material merger or acquisition in wireless without the other’s consent for one year. That agreement could stoke Wall Street speculation among investors and analysts that the two largest U.S. cable companies together could decide to make a play for a carrier like T-Mobile US Inc. or Sprint Corp. Neither company as a single entity could buy another wireless carrier for that time period as a result of that agreement without the other’s blessing or involvement. Wireless carriers are fighting it out in a fierce price war, while cable companies like Comcast and Charter are dealing with a saturated pay-TV business under assault from threats like cord-cutting and cheaper online video services. The cable companies view wireless phone service as an opportunity to create a new product to make their bundles more appealing and better retain existing customers. They hope that by offering a “quad play” of cable TV, home internet, landline phone and wireless service, customers will be less likely to drop their service and jump to a rival. Comcast recently released plans to offer a wireless service to its customers and purchased airwaves that could be used to help offer it in a government spectrum auction.https://www.wsj.com/articles/comcast-charter-to-strike-wireless-partnership-1494200087

-Amazon is launching live music gigs to attract more Prime subscribers: Called Prime Live Events, the gigs will see top musicians performing at iconic venues around London, reports the Guardian. The first Prime Live Event will feature Blondie at the Round Chapel in Hackney, London, on May 23. Other upcoming artists include Alison Moyet and Texas. In order to purchase tickets to the gigs, you'll need to be an Amazon Prime subscriber. And if you are, but don’t live in London, you can still watch recordings of the shows on Amazon's Prime Video streaming service, which is included with a Prime membership.

https://news.fastcompany.com/amazon-is-launching-live-music-gigs-to-attract-more-prime-subscribers-4037018

-Cannes Targets Netflix With New Rule Requiring Theatrical Releases, Starting in 2018: The Cannes Film Festival has issued a new decree to buck the controversy surrounding its choice to include two Netflix productions in this year’s main competition. Starting in 2018, in order to qualify for competition, films must have a theatrical release in France. Wednesday’s announcement comes a month after The French National Cinema Federation, a group representing the country’s theater owners, issued a statement calling on Netflix to play ball and roll out Noah Baumbach’s “The Meyerowitz Stories” and Bong Joon-Ho’s “Okja” on their screens. Both films are competing for this year’s Palme d’Or at the festival, which runs from May 17 – May 28. Netflix responded, saying it would consider a limited theatrical run for the films in France, “because similar to French exhibitors, we want to continue to contribute to the development and financing of films.” Cannes’ new rule makes that a requirement, as of next year. In its statement announcing the development, Cannes addressed “a rumor has recently spread about a possible exclusion of the Official Selection of Noah Baumbach and Bong Joon Ho whose films have been largely financed by Netflix.” “The Festival de Cannes does reiterate that, as announced on April 13th, these two films will be presented in Official Selection and in Competition,” confirmed the statement. “The Festival de Cannes is aware of the anxiety aroused by the absence of the release in theaters of those films in France,” it continued. “The Festival de Cannes asked Netflix in vain to accept that these two films could reach the audience of French movie theaters and not only its subscribers. Hence the Festival regrets that no agreement has been reached.

https://www.thewrap.com/cannes-targets-netflix-new-rule-requiring-theatrical-releases-starting-2018/

-Majority of U.S. adults own a streaming-enabled TV, according to IAB study: Vs with streaming video capabilities have made a big leap in the past two years — 56 percent of U.S. adults own a streaming-enabled television, up from one-third of adults in 2015. That’s according to the latest study on “The Changing TV Experience” from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and MARU Matchbox, with results based on an online survey. The study also says Viewers are actually taking advantage of those streaming capabilities, with the majority (54 percent) of TV-watching time now spent on content other than traditional, linear TV. Twenty percent of that non-linear time goes to digital video, a category that includes both original online content and network TV shows that are made available digitally. The survey asked about advertising as well, with 50 percent of streaming TV owners saying they’d rather watch commercials than pay for ad-free subscriptions, and 44 percent saying commercials in digital video are less intrusive than they are on linear TV. (Worth noting: The IAB is a trade group representing online publishers and advertisers — it’s currently holding its annual NewFronts event where publishers pitch their video content to advertisers.)

https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/10/changing-tv-experience-iab/

-Amazon Acquires Rights to 40 Films From SXSW, Paying $1.9 Million-Plus in Cash Bonuses (EXCLUSIVE): Amazon has swept up streaming rights to 40 films that screened the 2017 SXSW Film Festival — including “Most Beautiful Island,” the Grand Jury Award winner for narrative feature — saying it will pay out at least $1.9 million in upfront cash bonuses for the titles. The ecommerce giant snagged the SXSW selections through Amazon Video Direct’s Film Festival Stars program, designed to be a streamlined, no-haggle way for independent filmmakers to get paid for digital distribution. Amazon acquired 15 films from this year’s Sundance Film Festival under the program; it extended a similar offer to entrants in the Tribeca Film Festival and plans to take it to the Toronto International Film Festival, too. Since Amazon launched AVD a year ago, the company says users have streamed “billions of minutes” of content distributed through the program and Amazon has paid “tens of millions” of dollars in royalties to distributors, filmmakers and content creators across genres including independent films, comedy, classic TV, foreign and children’s programming. The payouts included $12 million in bonuses under the AVD Stars program, which divvies up a pool of cash each month to the top-performing content providers for the period. Under the AVD’s Film Festival Stars offer for SXSW films, rights holders are required to license their titles to Amazon for streaming exclusively on Prime Video for a 24-month window starting prior to the 2018 SXSW Film Festival. Amazon expects to finalize the contracts for the 40 films in the next few weeks.

https://variety.com/2017/digital/news/amazon-sxsw-40-films-most-beautiful-island-1202418686/

-Here Are The Canceled And Renewed TV Shows For 2017-2018: (VIDEO) For TV fans, spring is a double-edged sword. As the 2016-2017 season wraps up with a slew of highly anticipated season (and series) finales before summer TV doldrums hit, the major networks are determining which shows will make the cut and which shows will go the way of “Blood & Oil.” See, you already forgot that existed. Every year around May, TV essentially turns into the “Hunger Games” with ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and The CW debuting their fall TV slates to advertisers at the upfronts. Enter the cancellation bear quietly claiming its victims to make room for the new kids on the block. With an upcoming TV season full of reboots and revivals ― we’re looking at you “American Idol” and “Will & Grace” ― and a host of promising new shows that will seriously test your DVR storage capabilities, it’s time to pay our respects to the dearly departed and praise the TV gods for giving our faves another chance. Here are notable series that have been either renewed, canceled, set to end after the current season or are still awaiting a pick up.This is not a comprehensive list and we haven’t learned the fate of every single one of the HUNDREDS of shows that air each season. But as we learn more, we’ll be continually updating this list, so check back for the latest. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/here-are-the-canceled-and-renewed-tv-shows-for-2017-2018

-Amazon Video for Apple TV will reportedly be announced next month: The long wait to be able to stream TV shows and movies from Amazon on the Apple TV is nearly over. BuzzFeed News is reporting that an Amazon Video app designed for Apple’s set-top box will be announced at next month’s WWDC keynote. Recode revealed last week that Amazon and Apple were nearing an agreement that would bring to rest their years-long living room standoff. The Amazon app is likely to launch sometime this summer, though BuzzFeed News notes that the release timeframe could change. In exchange, Amazon will resume sales of the Apple TV. The online retail giant halted sales of the device in October 2015 because Apple’s box didn’t offer any way for Prime subscribers to access Amazon’s content. (Google’s Chromecast was also kicked off of Amazon for the same reason.)

https://www.theverge.com/2017/5/11/15626724/amazon-video-apple-tv-app-wwdc-announce-rumor