TheFutureParty
A Community-based Media Company
Comcast officially moved forward with its proposed plan of spinning off the majority of its cable assets into a separate company. Plugged In: Spinning off its declining cable brand frees NBCUniversal to focus on its stable or growing businesses without the extra weight on its balance sheet. Between the Spinoffs: The new cable-focused company, dubbed “SpinCo” for now, is ready […]
Moana 2, set for release over the Thanksgiving weekend, has the potential to become Disney’s highest-grossing release of all time. The Big Picture: While 2016’s Moana was a hit, it was nowhere near the runaway success of other Disney animated titles. But streaming (especially on Disney+) turned the movie into an enduring cultural juggernaut, showing the power of families watching […]
New data shows that a record number of customers aren’t outright canceling their streaming services when they run out of titles to watch — they’re pausing them. The Big Picture: The uptick in people pausing their streamers instead of canceling them complicates the easy math of companies gaining and losing subscribers. Those numbers can ebb and flow […]
Netflix is ramping up its push into live TV with a growing slate of programs that could catapult the streamer into dominating the exact model it disrupted. The Big Picture: Netflix has officially won the streaming wars. By making live TV a new cornerstone for the company, Netflix could ensure that advertising revenue is juiced from all its customers… not […]
Consulting company Owl & Co. has created a new way to gauge the popularity of shows and movies on streaming platforms — taking into account the share of subscribers that watch a show or movie on any given platform. The Big Picture: The traditional TV measurement system hasn’t fully evolved with siloed user bases of streaming. A unified, […]
NBCUniversal is building a permanent haunted-house destination in Las Vegas’ new AREA 15 entertainment district. The Big Scare: Interactive destinations are all the rage for media companies these days as fans want to deepen their engagement with the IP they love. Considering horror’s cultural dominance and the success of Halloween Horror Nights, NBCUniversal could conjure a reliable revenue stream. Between […]
Amazon invested an undisclosed amount in creator-economy startup Spotter to sink its teeth further into the influencer industry and bolster Prime Video with more content. The Big Insight: Big media brands keep looking for ways to leverage the power of social media stars… but most strategies feel like putting a square peg in a round hole. So, maybe […]
Netflix and Amazon are offering unprecedented incentives to either win projects from top talent or keep hit filmmakers with existing projects at the streamers in the fold. The Big Picture: Hollywood has nearly reached a consensus that launching a movie on the big screen is the best way to turn them into events theatrically and on streaming. That’s […]
California is set to double its film and TV tax credits to lure productions back to the entertainment industry capital of the world. The Big Picture: Even though California is home to Hollywood, most movies and shows now shoot in locations with generous tax credits — Georgia, Louisiana, New York, the UK, Australia — as a way to […]
Stanford researchers are studying how movies can literally rewire our brains to feel more empathy for subjects or individuals — the first academic study of its kind — starting with the 2019 drama Just Mercy. The Big Thought: It’s always been known that art has the power to shift our perspective and make us feel… […]