Did A Chinese Streaming Company Make A Knock Off Squid Game?

On October 28, 2021October 28, 2021 By Noah Furcht-HeafitzIn Brand, China, coverage, Distribution, Netflix, Streaming, UncategorizedLeave a comment

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-58991127, BCC NEWS

The Chinese streaming company Youku Has recently begun pushing promotional material for its new series “Squid Victory”. The promotional material in question is a poster that looks remarkably similar to the poster for Squid Game. Squid Victory is a variety show In which contestants compete in large-scale childrens’ games. Netizens were quick to chastise the “shameless” Youku for the obvious thievery of intellectual property at play. In response, Youku has issued an apology and alluded to the idea they will change the poster at the heart of this issue stating it is, in their words, just a “draft” poster. Regarding this issue The company also stated:

“Due to a work error, the first draft of the new Game’s Victory show – which was shot down before – was mistakenly used in promotional activities at a trade fair,”

This statement which was written on the Chinese Twitter equivalent “Weibo” was posted alongside a notably distinct poster design for their newly re-titled program “Game’s Victory”. These steps however have done little to quell online outrage.

“It sounds like such a lame cover-up. Obviously, they had tried to rip off Squid Game because of how popular it is,” another Weibo user posted.

This debacle has brought up the fact that many Asian citizens are “fed up” with how often Chinese producers plagiarize Korean content. Netizens cite the similarities between the South Korean program “Show me the money” and the similar Chinese program “The Rap Of China” as being a particularly egregious example of this trend as well.

“Why can’t our producers come up with our own ideas? This is so embarrassing,” another poster on Weibo commented.

This all comes as a result of Squid Game’s becoming a nationwide phenomenon in China despite its not officially being released there. As Netflix is not available in China the show has gained a following exclusively through illegal means such as torrenting sites. Youku being one of China’s most popular streaming platforms with between 90 and 100 million active users decided capitalizing on Squid Game’s situation was potentially very profitable. This controversy comes on the heels of a multitude of similar culturally-based arguments that China and Korea have taken part in in recent years. Last year for instance Korea accused China of “stealing culture” when the country stated it “led the kimchi industry”. This controversy was born of The language barrier between the two countries. In China, kimchi is called “pao cai” – this being the same name as a Chinese pickled dish. China was also criticised for stating that the Korean national dress handbook originated there.

To answer the question posed by the title of this article “no”. I’m writing this article because I firmly hold that opinion. I don’t think taking surface-level elements from a popular television program and incorporating them into a show of a completely different genre is as bad as it’s being made out to be. To be clear, I’m glad that the name “Squid Victory” and the poster that represents the centre of the controversy were changed because they were deliberately misleading. I would however like to call into question why the Chinese and Korean governments are bickering like children about cultural stuff? Lastly, I beg the question, who cares if some Chinese body makes a rip off of a game show or of a drama that can’t legally be accessed in China? If said shows aren’t good enough to stand on their own merits won’t they just be cancelled anyway? Is mimicry not the greatest form of flattery?

NEWS, BBC. “Squid’s Victory? China Streaming Site Accused of Copying Squid Game.” BBC News, BBC, 21 Oct. 2021, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-58991127.

Facebook Just Invested 5.3 Billion Into An Indian Company–It’s Largest Investment To Date

On April 22, 2020 By Kirsten BeachIn Brand, Data, Distribution, facebook, Marketing, Media Covergence, News Media, Social Media, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Yesterday, Facebook made its largest single investment into Jio Platforms of India which was a huge bet on the developing company.

Because Facebook wants to appeal more to the Indian audience, they felt the investment was essential, especially since over the past four years, more than 388 million people in India have been connected to the internet.

Mark Zuckerberg spoke on this in a Facebook post saying,

The country is in the middle of a major digital transformation, and organizations like Jio have played a big part in getting hundreds of millions of Indian people and small businesses online…With communities around the world in lockdown, many of these entrepreneurs need digital tools they can rely on to find and communicate with customers and grow their businesses.

Jio Platforms itself is a subsidiary of Reliance Industries (which is one of India’s biggest multinational companies and a major provider of cellular and internet services in the country,) therefore, the investment proves to be something that will propel the company forward and will ultimately help the Indian people to stay connected through the internet.

Although the Coronavirus pandemic has created a very fragile time for large tech companies when it comes to moving forward with investments, Facebook felt that taking a risk with Jio Platforms was necessary during this time and wants to display perseverance during this difficult period.

With this deal, Facebook will incur a 9.9 percent stake in Jio Platforms, and the respective money from Facebook will help Reliance to reduce some of their debt and invest further into its network (which it needs to do after regulators delayed approval of a high-profile $15 billion deal to sell 25 percent of its energy business to the Saudis.)

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/21/technology/facebook-jio-india.html

The Department of Defense is Warning People Not To Use Tiktok And Here’s Why:

On April 13, 2020 By Kirsten BeachIn Cable, China, Consumer behavior, Content Restriction, Distribution, Gaming, Marketing, Online Safety, UncategorizedLeave a comment

The App Tiktok has taken over social media it seems, with tens of millions of Americans downloading the app just this year, but with these increased downloads came a great deal of controversy surrounding the app.

For those who are unfamiliar with the app, TikTok is a popular social media app that allows users to express themselves by uploading and share short-form videos. However, because the app is developed by a Chinese company, there has been a lingering concern that information of U.S. citizens could be compromised or revealed. For this reason, the Defense Department is particularly worried–especially as it relates to military personnel.

Specifically, The Department of Defense created an advisory memo in regards to the app which stated that:

TikTok (formerly Musical.ly) application 12.2.0 for Android and iOS performs unencrypted transmission of images, videos, and likes. This allows an attacker to extract private sensitive information by sniffing network traffic.

Now, although changes have been made to the app since then that claim that user information is safe, there have still been national concerns surrounding the app and security.

If you are an avid Tiktok user, how does this make you feel?

What is going to happen to Olympic Sports and other Sports Broadcasters?

On April 8, 2020 By David SonIn Cable, Comcast, Consumer behavior, coverage, Distribution, Media Covergence, National coverage, Sports, TelevisionLeave a comment

The Tokyo Summer Olympics will not be happening this year. For obvious reasons, athletes and sporting federations have chosen to push back the Olympics to hopefully next year. The Olympics have been postponed three times in history. Once because of World War I and another because of World War II. The Prime Minister of Japan has insisted the Olympics to not be cancelled but postponed to next year. Although Japan has made great progress in dealing with this crisis, the rest of the World has not. Not until 2 weeks ago, people were insisting that the Olympics go on, but it is becoming seen as impossible and seriously ill-advised to do so.

NBCUniversal has already signed contracts with local stations and distributors for them to use their production. Now that the Olympics are pushed to next year and their contract extended, NBCUniversal could make them end up paying double.

But given the long-term relationships with these companies, NBCUniversal will most likely come up with accommodations in order to not decimate these local stations. On the other hand, NBCUniversal would probably end up facing serious lawsuits if they chose to make their partners pay double. No decision has been made yet.

Media executives worry politicians may carry-out a plan to have all TV bills be paid back to their consumers. A large domino effect that comes from no sports being paid.

There are campaigns for sports networks to refund some of the paid subscription back to the consumer for no sports. This would result in hundreds of millions of dollars, but sports broadcasters are trying to come up with accommodations in order to not lose out on so much money. Many broadcasting stations are figuring out ways to keep the consumer’s happy by rearranging release dates and payment plans. The Michael Jordan documentary was supposed to be released in July but has been pushed up to keep consumers happy.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/01/coronavirus-sports-cancellations-set-up-media-fights-over-refunds.html

Sports Broadcasting Services and their Providers; What happens?

On April 8, 2020 By David SonIn Brand, Cable, Comcast, Consumer behavior, coronavirus, coverage, Distribution, Media Covergence, Partnerships & Copyright, Sports, TelevisionLeave a comment

One would think because of the Coronavirus pandemic, people would more likely be inside spending time watching T.V. Although this seems logical, because many of these people are becoming unemployed, they are more likely to cut cable to save extra money. The FCC has already issued warnings to distributors and local T.V. stations about renewed contracts.

As this crisis ensues, cable operators and programmers have called a temporary truce to set aside questions regarding refunds on undelivered programming, such as the NBA, NHL, Olympics, and many other big television marketing programs.

Distributors agreed to pay programmers a certain amount of money based on the shows the are supposed to deliver. Many sports media channels are the reason consumers pay big bucks too, so a resolution must be brought up.

“CBS is not going to pay for this season and have no financial recourse at all,” Pilson said. “The networks are not paying for games that aren’t delivered. They may have a formula where certain monies change hands and eventually they’ll get credit for that.”

AS the NCAA basketball tournament has been cancelled, the effect chain goes further than professional sports. The colleges that had a contract with programmers that are now diminished as well with the fees.

Professional sports on the other hand, may have a more difficult time with the contracts they had with distributors. Professional sports like, NBA and MLB don’t have clear provisions on how to demand refunds in case of a unavoidable cause. While there are mentions of natural causes such as tornados, hurricanes, or what have you, there is no specifications for pandemics.

NFL is working on renewing TV rights with their partnerships, like ViacomCBS, NBCUniversal, Disney and Fox. While they are most likely to stick with these distributors until 2022, there are programmers who are on the fringe of stealing a partnership. Companies such as Apple, Google, and Amazon are likely competitors.

These distributors payed a lot of money for these games to be broadcasted. NFL and MLB hold a lot of weight, in being able to not refund the broadcasters fully for what they have paid. Streaming service DAZN has informed leagues that it will not pay rights fees for any games that have been suspended. CBS, ESPN, and NBC all have not demanded refunds or threatened to withhold payment for games yet.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/01/coronavirus-sports-cancellations-set-up-media-fights-over-refunds.html

Zoom Sued for Sharing Personal Data with Facebook

On April 1, 2020 By David SonIn Censorship, Consumer behavior, coronavirus, Data, Distribution, facebook, Online SafetyLeave a comment

Zoom Video Communications is under serious scrutiny as they have been caught giving personal data of users to outside companies such as Facebook. The popular web-camming company that has gained popularity due to the Coronavirus outbreak is under serious legal troubles.

A lawsuit filed Monday stated that Zoom’s software would give information about the user such as the device the person is using, device’s model and the device’s advertising identifier.

“The unique advertising identifier allows companies to target the user with advertisements,” the lawsuit states. “This information is sent to Facebook by Zoom regardless of whether the user has an account with Facebook.”

Zoom officials have said they have changed the practices after they were caught.

After a news report by Vice Media, CEO of Zoom, Eric Yuan, said the data sharing began after a user signed up for Zoom through facebook. He says, “Our customer’s privacy is incredibly important to us, and therefore we decided to remove Facebook SDK (Software Development Kit) in our client and have reconfigured the feature so that users will still be able to login with Facebook via their browser.”

The lawsuit goes further, claiming Zoom was being paid to share data. Court documents won’t disclose how much money Zoom allegedly received.

New York Attorney General Letitia James is asking Zoom to provide details on how they will change their practices to ensure user privacy. Zoom may have a hard time transitioning privacy practices because of the already intact data sharing system.

As Zoom is becoming more popular due to the work from home lifestyle everyone is adapting to, more hackers are using it as a medium to spread hate messages. Also as stocks have been hit hard, Zoom’s stock has soared 46%.

Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/zoom-app-personal-data-selling-facebook-lawsuit-alleges/

Accessibility of Online Learning

On March 19, 2020 By Aidan PlunkettIn coronavirus, Distribution, Diversity, Education, Media Covergence, News Media, Political, Regulation, Social Issue(s)Leave a comment

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, there have been major shutdowns across the country and around the world at large for many businesses, schools and universities. These shutdowns have let to demand and necessity for online learning resources. Many upper-level education institutes and organizations have made the decision to move to online learning indefinitely. As a student at Temple University, we moved to online learning for the rest of the semester in mid-March. My mother is a math teacher at a high school in the suburbs of Philadelphia, and they have made the decision to move to online learning indefinitely.

This makes me begin to think about many things…

A decade ago, switching to online learning or mandating that students learn via online resources would not have been possible. Technological advancement and globalization have led to an increase in technological capabilities and increase in the number of people who have access to technology and the internet. That same globalization is what has enabled the spread of the COVID-19 virus around the world.

The spread of this virus has therefore created a demand and necessity for online learning resources and accessibility. The media has portrayed the COVID-19 virus as extremely bad, yet last year the flu had 350 Million cases and over 20 thousand deaths in the United States alone. Has the over-scaring tactic of the media facilitated the demand for online learning? Obviously we need to be cautious, and I understand the idea of ‘flattening the curve’, but I can’t help but wonder who’s profiting most while many people suffer.

I wrote this article because I recently learned about Community Learning Center, an adult literacy nonprofit organization in Philadelphia that provides low-income adults with free education classes and services. While large institutions like Temple can provide the technology or resources for students to participate in online learning, smaller, nonprofit organizations like CLC don’t have the funding or resources to equip all of their students with the necessary technology to participate adequately in online learning, if at all. However, the potential of online learning capabilities being accessible to everyone poses benefits for many people across many levels of education.

An entire community under one roof? Coronavirus?

On March 18, 2020 By Aidan PlunkettIn coronavirus, Distribution, Social Issue(s), TechnologyLeave a comment

An article from NPR brings up Whitter, Alaska, an extremely small town on the west side of the Prince William Sound. Positioned in an aesthetically pleasing location in the valley of two mountains. However, there are no tiny houses huddled together or lining the streets, but rather a 14-story tall building that looks like a mediocrely maintained hotel called Begich Towers.

The former army barracks are where the majority of the 200 Whitter residents call home.

Walking along the hallways of the entrance, the building gives a high-school-esque feeling with colorful bulletin boards on top of yellow-painted cinder blocks.

In a remote area of Alaska, Whitter sees some of the most brutal weather with winds that often top 60 mph. This is why the residents of Begich Towers have everything they need under one roof. There’s a laundromat, convenience store, health clinic, school, and even a church in the basement.

I found this article extremely interesting as Whitter is obviously an extremely small town with not much more than 200 residents, but also how people are comfortable living their entire lives essentially in one building.

I decided to write about this article now because, amidst the coronavirus pandemic that we’re now in, we have ways to socially distance ourselves. In the greater Philadelphia area, we have access to some of the best medical professionals on earth- but what would happen to the residents of Begich Towers if the COVID-19 reached their remote town? What about all the Americans- all the people in the world without access to the medicine we have, or even funds to be able to stock-up during potential quarantining. Let us use this article as a reminder to be thankful for what we have.

https://www.npr.org/2015/01/18/378162264/welcome-to-whittier-alaska-a-community-under-one-roof

Game of Streams – ViacomCBS

On December 6, 2019 By Chris ColeIn Distribution, Movie, Political, Sports, Streaming, Technology, TelevisionLeave a comment

Viacom and CBS Corp. are officially joining forces after 14 years since their split. Viacom and CBS first merged in 1999 and split in 2005. Since the two merged, ViacomCBS is now a massive media empire with a collection of cable channels, broadcast networks, and film and publishing divisions. The company celebrated its partnership with a ceremonial ringing of the opening bell at the Nasdaq Market Site in New York’s Times Square. The company’s Nasdaq ticker symbol is VIAC.

The two companies bring a lot of content to each other. Viacom has the right to BET, Comedy Central, MTV, and Paramount movie studios. CBS properties include the CBS Television Network, CBS News and 15 CBS-owned TV stations, as well as the cable network Showtime and the publisher Simon & Schuster. ViacomCBS is valued at an estimate of $30 billion when the merger was announced in August. The company has a lot of competition. Between recent streaming platforms like AppleTV, Disney+ and Netflix, there is a lot of pressure to not only come with good content but how will ViacomCBS make streaming distinct for them.

According to CBSNews, Both CBS Corp. and Viacom have long been controlled by Sumner Redstone and his daughter, Shari through their family’s privately owned company, National Amusements. This company operates in movie theaters in the U.S., U.K. and Latin America. Shari Redstone is the president of National Amusements and has served as vice-chairwoman of CBS and Viacom before their merger. Shari has recently become chair of the combined ViacomCBS board.

The two companies have a history of trying to merge; they have tried several times in recent years but their management teams could never see eye to eye. Last year, CBS’s board went through a lot go change following the departure of longtime CEO Leslie Moonves over misconduct allegations. This helped make room for the merger. Hopefully, Viacom’s content can help create a bigger name within the streaming platform. It will be interesting to see what content they will make specifically for their platform.

Current Issues In Media Management

Category: Distribution