Weekly Digest from the West - OSCARS 2020
Jean-Baptiste Piron
Cultural Attaché I Attaché culturel I Québec Office Los Angeles
-Live from Hollywood, the results of the 2020 Academy Awards, congratulations to all winners and nominees: https://oscar.go.com/winners
‘Parasite’ Becomes First Foreign-Language Film to Win Best Picture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isOGD_7hNIY
-YouTube is a $15 billion-a-year business, Google reveals for the first time: YouTube generated nearly $5 billion in ad revenue in the last three months, Google revealed today as part of parent company Alphabet’s fourth quarter earnings report. This is the first report under newly instated Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, who took over as the chief executive of the entire company late last year after co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin stepped back from day-to-day duties and promoted Pichai, formerly Google CEO, to the top spot.The announcement marks the first time in YouTube’s nearly 15 years as a Google-owned platform, since Google bought the website in 2006 for $1.65 billion, that the company has revealed how much money YouTube-hosted ads contribute to the search giant’s bottom line. On an annual basis, Google says YouTube generated $15 billion last year and contributed roughly 10 percent to all Google revenue. Those figures make YouTube’s ad business nearly one fifth the size of Facebook’s, and more than six times larger than all of Amazon-owned Twitch.Separately, Google says YouTube has more than 20 million subscribers across its Premium (ad-free YouTube) and Music Premium offerings, as well as more than 2 million subscribers to its paid TV service. Alphabet says revenues from those products are bundled into the “other” category, which made $5.3 billion last quarter and also includes hardware like Pixel phone and Google Home speakers. That makes it hard to gauge the specific performance of any one product bundled under that category.
-20th Century Studios’ Diminished Future: ? I Don’t Think the Label Means Anything Anymore": Ten months after Disney gobbled up 20th Century Fox as part of a $71.3 billion deal, Emma Watts was still working out of Building 88, the structure on the Fox lot with the gold doors through which studio founder Darryl Zanuck used to walk. Watts, who had served as vice chairman and longtime president of production at the studio, was one of the few top Fox execs to survive the Disney merger, and in remaining in Building 88, now inhabited by Lachlan Murdoch, the CEO of Fox Corp., she could symbolically hold onto what the studio once was. But on Jan. 30, roughly a week after finally relocating to a bungalow on the Fox lot, the executive resigned as chief of the newly renamed 20th Century Studios. After leading a major studio, Watts realized she couldn't stomach the diminishment in power and autonomy that came with running a pared-down fiefdom within Disney, sources close to her tell The Hollywood Reporter. The executive's departure also is a blow to Hollywood's small sorority of female studio executives. Rare among majors, Fox had boasted a deep bench of powerful women in its upper ranks. In the wake of the merger, Watts joins former 20th Century Fox chairman Stacey Snider, former Fox 2000 chief Elizabeth Gabler and former Fox marketing chief Pamela Levine out the door. Under Disney, 20th will now release about four movies a year theatrically, down from as many as six or seven, and focus equally if not more so on making content for Disney+ and Hulu. Fox's Marvel movies, such as Deadpool, now fall under Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige's purview. For Watts — who worked closely with Ryan Reynolds in bringing the Deadpool series to the big screen and also was behind the larger X-Men franchise — this meant handing over some of her prized projects. Disney's other production silos, like Marvel, Lucasfilm, Pixar, Walt Disney Animation and Searchlight, have clear identities, and the company's live-action studio, under the firm control of Sean Bailey, has found its billion-dollar niche remaking Disney's animated films, like The Lion King and March's Mulan. The answer to what makes something a 20th Century Studios film is murkier. The unit's biggest swing by far will be James Cameron's four Avatar sequels, set to hit cinemas in late 2021, 2023, 2025 and 2027. "The label means Avatar and Avatar means the label," says Avatar producer Jon Landau. Disney insiders insist that 20th can pursue anything outside of a family film and that adult-driven titles will be welcomed.
-Google Fiber kills its traditional TV service for new customers: Google Fiber, a service under the Access division of Alphabet that provides fiber-to-the-premises service in the U.S., today announced that it will no longer offer traditional TV bundles with news, sports, premium, and local broadcast channels. Current subscribers to Fiber plans that include TV won’t see their existing service modified or changed, but new customers won’t have the option of signing up for IPTV content going forward. “As we return our focus to where we started — as a gigabit Internet company — we’re also ready to challenge the status quo, to finally come right out and say it: customers today just don’t need traditional TV. The best TV is already online. And we want to help you watch it, in the ways that work best for your budget and your own viewing preferences,” wrote Fiber in a blog post. “[W]e’ll be happy to help everyone explore other options to get their favorite programming the way TV is watched now — over the Internet, with the virtually unlimited choice and control online viewing provides.” The writing was on the wall, it could be said. Fiber recently rolled out a partnership with YouTube that let customers sign up for its YouTube TV service at the same time they sign up for Google Fiber. (This perhaps contributed to YouTube TV’s success in 2019, a year it ended with over 2 million subscribers.) And this week, Fiber took wraps off of a partnership with FuboTV, an over-the-top streaming service that focuses primarily on channels that distribute live sports, including NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, MLS, and international soccer, plus news, network television series, and movies. Consider too that, according to The Washington Post, “the cost of acquiring video content was ‘the single biggest impediment'” to Fiber’s wider rollout, Fiber executive Milo Medin told an audience in 2014. Google was reportedly paying “twice as much” compared with more established service providers for video rights, in part because it lacked comparable vertical integrations and legacy deals.
https://venturebeat.com/2020/02/04/google-fiber-kills-its-traditional-tv-service-for-new-customers/
-Disney Plus Reaches 28.6 Million Subscribers, Hulu Hits 30.4 Million: Disney Plus has amassed 28.6 million subscribers after just three months in business. Walt Disney chief exec Bob Iger disclosed the figure on the company’s earnings call following its quarterly earnings release on Tuesday, the first subscriber figures for the streaming service that is leading the charge for Hollywood as the entertainment industry embraces the on-demand revolution. As of Dec. 28, the streaming service had attracted 26.5 million subs; the 28.6 million figure reflects the latest subscriber data as of Monday, said Iger. Disney also disclosed that the ESPN Plus service, which bowed in April 2018, has reached 6.6 million subscribers as of year’s end. Hulu, which Disney now controls, has hit 30.4 million subscribers. Of those, only 3.2 million also pay for Hulu’s live TV channel bundle, but that number has nearly doubled in the past year from 1.7 million. Hulu subs overall are up from 22.8 million in December 2018. Disney Plus’ fast start is a testament to the drawing power of Disney’s gold-plated brands and the decision in 2017 by chairman-CEO Bob Iger to go full-throttle on realigning the company to support the radical transition into direct-to-consumer distribution for its most prized content assets. “From zero to where they are now is unbelievable,” Michael Nathanson, veteran entertainment analyst and principal at research firm MoffettNathanson, told Variety last week. “The company should bask in the glow of what they’ve pulled off. They didn’t play it safe. But they did the right thing for the company.” As many as one-third of Disney Plus’ subscribers are expected to come from Verizon, which cut a deal with Disney to give a free one-year subscription to Disney Plus to all of the telco’s customers that pay for unlimited data plans. Nathanson praised that alliance as a smart move to quickly gain circulation for Disney Plus. Verizon is paying Disney for those subs, although likely at some discount from the retail $69.99 a year pricetag. Verizon has not released specific numbers but executives said during the company’s earnings call earlier this week that it lured more wireless subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2019 than expected — its highest wireless net adds in six years — thanks in part to its Disney pact. Verizon reported a net addition of 790,000 postpaid wireless customers, topping the average Wall Street estimate of 525,000 net adds, per FactSet. The one-year-free Disney Plus offer, available to eligible Verizon customers through June 1, 2020, was one of the factors for the lift, CFO Matt Ellis said. Disney lived up to its reputation as a marketing machine through the Verizon deal and other consumer marketing efforts for Disney Plus. The campaign started in earnest with the company’s April 11, 2019, Investor Day presentation, which generated crucial advance buzz among Disney-philes. On day one, Disney Plus generated some 10 million sign-ups for a weeklong free trial. The conversion rate from free trial to paying customer will also be a key focus for investors.
https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/disney-plus-reaches-26-5-million-subscribers-1203492187/
-Hulu Will Expand Internationally in 2021: While discussing subscriber numbers and the growth of Hulu during their Q1 earnings call, Disney commented that they have plans to expand Hulu internationally in 2021. We reported on these plans in November, though Hulu had already been working on international expansion for some time. Sources said that the plan was for Hulu to expand first to Latin America. Now, Disney has confirmed that international expansion will move forward, though no details were given about which areas would be first to have access to the service. Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger mentioned the expansion previously, commenting that the company would be investing more heavily in original content. This would make expansion more plausible, as many content licenses for existing content won’t extend to international markets. This news comes just after Hulu CEO Randy Freer announced he would be leaving the company. Hulu executives will now be reporting directly to Disney’s Direct to Consumer and International business.
https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/hulu-will-expand-internationally-in-2021/
-Facebook revamps Messenger Kids with new parental controls and children’s guidelines: In December 2017, Facebook launched Messenger Kids, a child-friendly alternative to the main Messenger app that allows parents or guardians to review the people with whom a kid connects. It targets users aged 6 to 12 and complies with the Children’s Online Privacy and Protection Act (COPPA), and it debuted first on iOS before expanding to Android in February 2018. Nearly two years after its arrival on Android, Messenger Kids is gaining new tools to better curate children’s experiences. Facebook announced a refresh this morning in every country where the service is available (including Canada, Peru, Mexico, the U.S.), along with an updated privacy policy governing the handling, management, and storage of Messenger Kids data. “Facebook has done a good job of balancing features that both deliver the right information to keep parents in the loop about their child’s use of Messenger Kids, while also allowing children to have fun and learn digital literacy skills,” said ConnectSafely.org CEO and internet safety advocate Larry Magid in a prepared statement. “It’s important to give parents the power to manage their child’s experience, like seeing what images and videos their children are sending and receiving.”
https://venturebeat.com/2020/02/04/facebook-messenger-kids-parental-controls-guides/
-New test for Snap vet: Prove Quibi doubters wrong: Talk to Silicon Valley or Hollywood insiders about Quibi, and you’ll likely hear a variation on this theme: The new premium video service would be doomed if it didn't have Jeffrey Katzenberg pulling the strings. Tom Conrad’s response: "Well, fortunately, we got Katzenberg." In reality, Conrad himself may be just as important to Quibi’s success. Conrad is Quibi's chief product officer. Before that, the seasoned executive was instrumental in Pandora's launch and growth, and he led Snapchat's product team during one of the service's most challenging times. "There are a very small number of true product visionaries," said Pandora founder and former CEO Tim Westergren. ? Tom is one of them." Now, Conrad's job is to package Quibi's content in a compelling product — an app that captures the attention of the millions of subscribers it needs to succeed. The plan is to build and launch a mobile-only streaming service that serves bite-size videos peppered with interactive features. It’s a complete reimagining of TV. atzenberg and Quibi CEO Meg Whitman announced the video service in August 2018. Armed with a $1.4 billion war chest, Quibi struck deals with major studios for shows with episodes that are 10 minutes or shorter, with production budgets similar to those of traditional TV networks. On the content side, Quibi's no slouch. When the service launches April 6, it will release more than three hours of those short episodes every day. Some of the marquee projects include a Steven Spielberg horror series, a ? Judge Judy" remake starring Chrissy Teigen, a comedy starring Dave Franco and Bill Murray, and a reboot of "The Fugitive" starring Kiefer Sutherland. Viewers will find news shows produced by NBC and the BBC, weather, gossip, and even a meditation series with cinematic visuals called "The Daily Chill." Quibi will charge $4.99 a month for a subscription that includes limited commercials and $7.99 for an ad-free version. The company hasn’t shown off its app yet, but during a keynote at CES in January, Conrad debuted Turnstyle, the feature that is meant to make Quibi's barrage of star-studded content stand out amid a flood of new premium video services. Every Quibi show will be optimized for full-screen viewing in landscape and portrait mode, and the app will stream both recordings simultaneously in the background, allowing viewers to switch back and forth simply by rotating their phone. Most Quibi shows are being recorded in 8K and then edited into the separate landscape and portrait versions for Turnstyle. Conrad also previewed a horror show that will let viewers switch between multiple camera perspectives.
https://www.protocol.com/quibi-tom-conrad-video
-Major League Wrestling May Be Coming to Amazon Prime: For some time now Major League Wrestling has been looking for a streaming home. Now, according to PWInsider.com, Amazon and Major League Wrestling are in talks to stream MLW on Amazon Prime. Amazon has reportedly been working hard to grow its sports lineup. In the United States, NFL football has been Amazon’s big deal. Now Amazon has slowly been reaching even more streaming deals to bring sports to Amazon Prime. The addition of Major League Wrestling will give Amazon even more sports content. PWInsider has also reported that Amazon may be looking at Major League Wrestling as a way to offset a possible Writers Guild strike. Right now, the Writers Guild who represents writers of many popular shows is getting close to locking out companies like Amazon out over a contract dispute. If that happens, most of the writers working on Amazon Prime shows will no longer be allowed to do so. Content like Major League Wrestling do not rely on the Writers Guild for content creation meaning they could continue to produce new content during a contract fight with the Writers Guild. Amazon is reportedly in talks to add more sporting events. For now, no deals have been announced, but look for official news from Major League Wrestling to come soon.
https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/major-league-wrestling-may-be-coming-to-amazon-prime/
-ESPN is Losing Subscribers Faster Than Ever as Cord Cutting Grows: During Disney’s Q1 2020 earnings call yesterday, the company was enthusiastic about the subscriber growth for Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+. All three streaming services owned by Disney exceeded expectations. However, when it came to cable networks, the news wasn’t as positive. ESPN reported that subscribers dropped 4.5% in Q1 2020. Previously, the loss was 4.0% in Q4 2019 and 2.5% in Q3 2019. Disney acknowledged the loss in ESPN revenue in their first quarter earnings report, citing an increase in costs and lower viewership. The decrease at ESPN was due to an increase in programming and production costs and lower advertising revenue, partially offset by higher affiliate revenue. Higher programming and production costs were driven by rate increases for NFL, College Football Playoffs and other college sports programming as well as costs for the ACC Network, which launched in August 2019. The decrease in advertising revenue was due to lower average viewership. Affiliate revenue growth was due to an increase in contractual rates, partially offset by a decrease in subscribers. The decrease in subscribers was net of the impact of the ACC Network. Overall, Disney’s cable networks saw a revenue increase of 20% for the quarter.
https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/espn-is-losing-subscribers-faster-than-ever-as-cord-cutting-grows/
-Here is Everything Coming to Comcast’s Peacock Streaming Service: NBCUniversal’s new streaming service, Peacock, will launch nationwide on July 15th, and even sooner for Comcast’s Xfinity X1 and Flex customers on April 15th. Peacock Free will have a free, ad supported tier with 7,500 hours of programming, including classic NBC shows. Peacock Premium will be free for Comcast and Cox subscribers. All others will pay $4.99 for an ad supported version, or $9.99 for an ad-free experience. Peacock Premium will include 15,000 hours of content, including originals and early access to late night shows. During a recent investor meeting, NBCUniversal shared some of the content we’ll see on Peacock when the service launches. Here’s the lineup so far.
https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/here-is-everything-coming-to-comcasts-peacock-streaming-service/
-Why big tech is betting big on gaming in 2020: Since the advent of modern technology in the 1970s, video games have often been considered a separate but not quite equal use of computing power. For much of the last five decades — as mainframes gave way to PCs, as the internet and portable wireless computers (sometimes called cell phones) reshaped most aspects of human existence — the mainstream technology business and the electronic entertainment industry have often had little to do with each other. With the exception of Microsoft, which introduced the original Xbox in 2001, the internet behemoths for many years tended to treat video games as an afterthought, a curiosity, a niche. That’s over. At more than $150 billion in annual revenue, the global game industry is now more than twice the combined size of the worldwide film box office ($42.5 billion in 2019) and the planet's recorded music business ($19.1 billion in 2018, including streaming). Roughly 2.5 billion people play games, even if many don't think of themselves as "gamers" (yes, Candy Crush counts). Big tech has taken notice. Over the last few years, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google have each joined Microsoft in making gaming a strategic priority. In 2020, games will become even more important to their bottom lines. "For many years the game industry was somewhat overshadowed by music and movies and was always trying to justify itself as a form of mainstream media and entertainment," said Phil Harrison, a Google vice president and general manager and longtime game executive. ? Now, games are far and away the largest entertainment medium on the planet from a digital perspective, so that global scale and size is attractive to the large technology companies as a way of bringing their products and services to more people." ? As a technology company, you simply have to be in games," said Phil Spencer, head of Microsoft's games business (and a direct report to chief executive Satya Nadella). In the coming year, each of the technology giants hopes to expand its presence in gaming. And each will face its own particular challenges. Here’s what to look for as the big tech companies try to win big at gaming, according to interviews with the people calling the shots.
https://www.protocol.com/tech-gaming-amazon-facebook-microsoft
-Warner Bros. and HBO Max launch a mini label to make streaming movies: Movie studio Warner Bros. and HBO Max are launching a new division that will specialize in making movies specifically for streaming, the companies said Wednesday. The unit is designed to produce films for HBO Max, the upcoming streaming service owned by the Burbank-based studio’s parent company, AT&T Inc. The new division is expected to make eight to 10 films a year for the direct-to-consumer platform, which launches in May. Movies produced by the new label, dubbed Warner Max, will carry production budgets of $30 million to $60 million, according to people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to comment. The initiative, a joint venture overseen by HBO Max’s Chief Content Officer Kevin Reilly and Warner Bros. Pictures Group Chairman Toby Emmerich, reflects a need among HBO Max and its competitors to fill their pipelines with original movies. “We are going to deliver a collaborative and lean process for talent, make a range of quality films, and provide a platform for each of them to have cultural impact,” Reilly said in a statement. The division also allows Warner Bros. to hedge its bets on mid-budget movies — such as romantic comedies and adult dramas — that have become less viable at the multiplex. Warner Bros., run by former BBC executive Ann Sarnoff, has long prided itself on its ability to make not only big-budget franchise films, but also the comedies and smaller dramas that once kept multiplexes humming. The market for those movies, however, has become increasingly challenging.
-People want Disney+ to match Netflix’s output, but Disney doesn’t care: After The Mandalorian ended, Disney+ subscribers were left wondering what to watch next. The Simpsons is one popular option. There are Marvel and Star Wars movies to watch, but how many times can someone watch Captain America: Civil War? Customers grew restless, and people began talking about how Disney+ had little to offer for people without kids. It’s a concern that investors raised with Disney CEO Bob Iger in yesterday’s earnings call, but Iger waved off the complaints. “Clearly, the original shows that we decided to invest in, led by The Mandalorian, have worked,” Iger said. “We knew when we launched that we were launching with a modest amount of original programming and that it would build over time. So as we look ahead, we’re really comfortable with volume ... I think the best thing about it all is that the decision that we made to go with quality and not just volume is working.” Disney+ has hundreds of TV shows and even more movies, so it’s not like the app is empty. The issue is that viewers are used to Netflix speed at this point: on Netflix, it feels like nearly every week a new show or two appears. There are reality series, prestige dramas, romantic comedies, kids shows, and everything else under the sun. Ironically, Netflix subscribers face a polar opposite issue — there’s so much to choose from, they enter a state of decision paralysis. Not everything on Netflix is good, but it doesn’t have to be; it just has to be new. Disney isn’t playing that game. Nor does it have any intention to do so in the future. Iger didn’t want to get into specifics about how many people are watching Disney+ on a daily or weekly basis, and how many are watching things that aren’t The Mandalorian or The Simpsons, but said the ongoing engagement rate was “extremely high.” He added that engagement beat their expectations, noting that “65 percent of the people who watch Mandalorian watch at least 10 other things on the service.” His point? Disney doesn’t have to increase its annual content budget to produce more in order to keep up with Netflix. No one, Iger reiterated to investors, is Disney.
-YouTube to invest $100M in kids’ content that showcases character strengths, like compassion and curiosity: YouTube in September announced a $100 million fund to invest in new children’s video content, following its $170 million settlement with the FTC over children’s privacy law violations. The fund was meant to help soften the blow for children’s content creators on YouTube, who are being financially impacted by the changes the FTC required of their channels. Now we have the first bit of insight into what sort of content YouTube plans to back with the fund’s resources. According to a report by Bloomberg, YouTube is looking to fund videos that “drive outcomes associated with the following character strengths”: courage, compassion, communication, gratitude, curiosity, humility, teamwork, integrity, perseverance, self-control, empathy and creativity. The details were shared in a note to partners, the report said. “All our programming will seek to support kids in uncovering their unique strengths and passions,” the note read. “Specifically, we want to develop content that inspires children to develop life skills and pursue their passions; establish healthy habits and care for themselves; increase their understanding of culture and diversity; and/or engage with and care for their community.” YouTube confirmed the report’s accuracy to TechCrunch. It said the company is now in discussions with partners, but further details on the kids’ content fund wouldn’t be shared until later this year. The planned $100 million investment, which will be distributed over the next three years, is meant to help set the tone for the sort of children’s video content YouTube wants to see more of on its video-sharing platform. Today, a number of creators in the kids’ space are gaining views for things like toy unboxings, pranks and family vlogs. For example, Ryan Kaji of “Ryan’s World” and “Ryan ToysReview” was YouTube’s highest-paid star of 2019, pulling in a massive $26 million.Parents, on the other hand, don’t often care for their kids’ addiction to this sort of lightweight, consumer-driven content. And thanks to updated screen time controls across iPhone and Android, they can now choose to limit the time their kids spend on YouTube. And with a growing number of streaming services on the market, including the kid-friendly Disney+, kids and families have other options.
-The Future of Pluto TV May Look Like Comcast’s Peacock: Last week we learned that ViacomCBS was working on a new streaming service that sounds strangely similar to Comcast’s Peacock. According to reports, ViacomCBS plans to offer a new streaming service that will include a free ad-supported tier and a paid higher end tier. Pluto TV will be included along with content from Nickelodeon, BET, and Comedy Central. This service will be built on top of Pluto TV with Pluto TV remaining free but there will be the ability to add additional content if you are willing to pay for it. This is similar to Comcast’s Peacock, which will have a free tier and a paid content tier. There have been reports that ViacomCBS wanted to use Pluto TV to promote its paid content. The best example of this may be how the new CBS All Access show Picard has streamed the first episode on Pluto TV to promote subscriptions to CBS All Access. We will have to wait until February 20 during ViacomCBS’s earnings call for the service to be officially announced.
https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/the-future-of-pluto-tv-may-look-like-comcasts-peacock/