Producing Various and Sundry

Now Playing: Detailed Public Viewership Stats for Netflix

I still should work on a wrap-up post regarding last year’s Hollywood Strikes, but one of the outcomes the unions were able to negotiate was visibility about the success of shows on streaming services. In what definitely feels like an effort to guide that narrative, Netflix released a heretofore unprecedented amount of data publicly in December regarding how many people watched what on their service. You can get a summary, watch a half hour press…

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Reviews

Cry Havoc and Let Slip the Reviews of Red Envelopes!

The final month is upon us. DVD Netflix is going away. This departure will blow a hole in the movie-watching habits of many of us… and leave us ever more at the mercy of ephemeral licensing deals and capricious streamers, both of which may conspire to leave us without certain perfectly good films that deserve to be seen. As Beth Greenfield notes on Aol.com (yes, the irony of that article’s location is not lost on…

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Reviews Various and Sundry

One Last Ride into the Sunset: Red Envelope Reviews

Not quite three months ago, I, along with a couple million other people, got the sad news that Netflix was finally shuttering its films-by-mail service aka, the DVD rental business with “no late fees” that started it all. Now, there’s also over 200 million other Netflix subscribers who likely didn’t realize you could still get DVDs and Blu-Rays by mail. That doesn’t change the fact that this Postal method was and is a great way…

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Various and Sundry

The Red Envelopes of Netflix Ride Off into the Sunset

I was all ready with another post for today when this popped into my inbox yesterday afternoon: You can learn more about the decision in these articles in The Hollywood Reporter, Gizmodo, and Reuters among others. Even though this decision makes perfect sense –I guess there have to be less than 2 million of us red envelope cinemaniacs left– it’s quite the bummer. For almost all of those 25 years, I have been the recipient…

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Various and Sundry

Schadenfreude, thy name is Netflix

So, the news that Netflix lost subscribers last week has generated more online articles this week than… well, new shows dropping on Netflix any given week (spoiler: it’s a lot). It seems many people are delighting in the fact that the streaming disruptor is now finding its plans disrupted. Now, I’ve been a Netflix subscriber going back to when they were only DVDs by mail. In fact, I still get DVDs by mail in addition…

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Various and Sundry

Netflix Says “Game On”

Evidently, this month had gotten away from me –at least in term of blog updates– so this is most definitely old news, but remember how I noted that Netflix was getting into podcasts? Well, apparently they’re getting into video games as well. Per the Vox/Recode article, they’re looking to start with games based on their existing properties (e.g. Stranger Things) and their hire of a former Oculus executive may bode a move towards virtual reality…

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Producing Various and Sundry

Do You Hear What Netflix Hears?

The podcast hills may soon be alive with the sound of Netflix. That’s what I’m gleaning from this Bloomberg article about the new Netflix executive in charge of podcasts. N’Jeri Eaton comes to Netflix by way of Apple and NPR. An award-winning storyteller, she has roots in documentary filmmaking, something near and dear to many a DC filmmaker. While that’s all cool, the big surprise from the article for me was that not only that…

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Various and Sundry

James Bond Will Return… With Free Shipping

Last week, I mentioned the big news that was AT&T’s retreat from WarnerMedia (still to be approved). And, as many people have noticed, media consolidation continues apace. This week’s revelation? Amazon is looking to buy MGM. Now, since MGM has been trying to sell itself for a while, this may not come as a surprise, but what this means for consolidation… well, who knows?

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Various and Sundry

Disney+ has added a lot of subscribers

I guess this is turning out to be the week that my eye keeps catching articles about streaming services, given Monday’s post. Yesterday, Peter Kafka over in Vox mentions how Disney+ now has over 28 million subscribers. While that’s nothing compared to Netflix’s well-above 160 million subscribers, it is impressive on top of its already impressive debut in November with 10 million subscribers. It also makes Disney’s stated goal to get to 60-90 million subscribers…

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Various and Sundry

Netflix and a “Less is More” Strategy

I know I’m not the only one who’s noticed how much content seems to be slipping away from Netflix as more and more companies take their metaphorical Matchbox cars and go home. And by “home,” I mean “create their own streaming service.” Rani Molla, writing in Vox, goes into how Netflix is trying to do more with less content, including more subscribers and more awards. The article itself covers a number of topics, including how…

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