Netflix acquires Nickelodeon deal to compete with Disney+

On November 14, 2019 By Chris ColeIn Consumer behavior, Content Restriction, Media Covergence, Netflix, Partnerships & CopyrightLeave a comment

As the war for streams starts to become more crowded, Netflix decides to change the game with a production deal, valued at 200$ Million dollars, with Nickelodeon. According to the New York Times, Netflix announced its partnership with Nickelodeon a day after the release of Disney+; a very strategic move to stir conversation and try to shift focus. Children’s media has always been a huge market for media companies, and now that Disney has their own streaming service, the ante is raised to a new level.

Disney owns the rights to the content that millions of children, young and old, grew up loving and watching. Many consider Disneyworld to be the place where dreams come true and often referred to in moments of celebration. How can a streaming service compete with that? Netflix responded with a network that is just as important in the lives of young children; Nickelodeon. Its genius because they can now produce shows with characters like Spongebob Squarepants, Danny Phantom, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Jimmy Neutron and Timmy Turner, etc. which is huge for many people because these some of these shows still air today and there is still the sentimental aspect of these shows that lives within multiple generations. Since these shows aired in the late ’90s to early 2000s, the ages that can connect to these shows will vary between children, teens, and young adults. According to the article, Brian Robbins, Nickelodeon’s president said, “Nickelodeon’s next step forward is to keep expanding beyond linear platforms, and our broader content partnership with Netflix is a key path toward that goal”.

It’s interesting that Viacom, the company that owns Nickelodeon, decided not to create their own streaming service. They certainly have enough shows given that they also own MTV and BET. However, this is a good choice because it allows Nickelodeon to test the waters, so to speak and Netflix is already an established streaming service, which is less work for them as opposed to starting a new streaming platform in the midst of a bunch of other streaming services releasing. Netflix will continue to create and produce original animated feature films and television series based on Nickelodeon’s mass library of characters, with the opportunity to create new characters. I am excited to see the adventures that Spongebob and Timmy Turner will go on now that they have a new company writing their stories.

Should High-Quality Film Production Be Used for TV Series?

On November 14, 2019 By tuj52701templeeduIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

It’s assumed that people have a preference for shows with high production values as they are attracted to displays of cinematographic sophistication.

A tv show the appears as such would be upcoming “The Mandalorian” tv series. Where visually-detailed and vivid scenes that the content as whole appears to be more similar to that of a movie than a television series.

Creators would have to invest a large amount in order to achieve this level of quality for a Tv series. According to THR, “The Mandalorian,” is priced at $15 million an episode.

That’s just $5 million less than what it costs to make an episode of Game Of Thrones.

Top-tier producers are starting to enter huge deals with both streamers & regular tv studios and are offered near limitless budgets for production. The article also hypothesizes that this will create a higher demand for more high quality produced show.

The washing post article feature also mentions that high-budget shows like “The Mandalorian” has the potential to do what directors like Scorsese and other older directors fear may happen due to changes in technology, and potentially steer consumers away from movie theaters.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2019/11/14/mandalorian-is-first-tv-show-that-actually-looks-like-movie-that-might-be-problem/

https://variety.com/2019/tv/features/cost-of-tv-scripted-series-rises-1203378894/

Tyler the Creator gambles on Drake, loses.

On November 14, 2019November 14, 2019 By Jackson ProffittIn Music1 Comment

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/nov/11/drake-booed-camp-flog-gnaw-festival-tyler-the-creator

Image result for camp flog gnaw 2019

Tyler the Creator held his 8th annual Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival in Los Angeles over the weekend. 45,000 people came from far and wide to see artists such as Thundercat, Brockhampton, and Tyler himself. When putting out the lineup for the festival, Tyler blocked out one of the headliners, putting a series of question marks in their place. It was widely speculated that this mysterious headliner would be Frank Ocean. Frank is coveted in the music world owing to the rarity of his performances. He doesn’t tour and North American performances are few and far between. Being that Frank and Tyler are old friends and former members of Odd Future, people believed that he would be the mystery performer. “His name was all you heard while standing in line, as if the infamous recluse could be wished into existence.”

When Drake walked out, the crowd was unamused. While Drake is a stadium-filling, more-top-10’s-than-the-Beatles-having artist, he represents mainstream pop-rap; the antithesis of Frank Ocean. While Drake is a manicured, establishment rapper, Frank is a sexually fluid, multigenre artist who has rejected the world of ghostwriters and controlling record companies.

Drake could tell that the crowd wasn’t feeling his set, and seemed to be fighting for attention. He asked multiple times if the crowd wanted him to keep going, even asking “Can I do one more? Is that all right with you?” When he received boo’s and little positive reaction, he humbly ended his set, telling the crowd, “It’s all love.”

Now, who’s fault was this? While many artists at the festival are similar to Frank in their alternative take on pop, rap, and r&b; many others were mainstream artists. Artists such as YG, DaBaby, and 21 Savage all fall into the same mainstream rap category as Drake. There are two issues at hand here, and Tyler seems to be at fault for both. Tyler has been known to have ultimate creative control over his content. He designs his clothing and produces/arranges all of his own music. If it wasn’t his idea to put “???” as the headliner, he sure as hell signed off on it. If Drake had been named as the headliner from the get-go, people would probably have enjoyed it. They would not have felt let down by not seeing Frank. The second issue deals with Tyler changing as a person and an artist. Tyler has historically been an anti-establishment musician. If you told someone at the first Flog Gnaw Carnival (of which I attended) that Drake would be headlining in a few years, they would laugh in your face. Drake represents everything that Tyler always hated. Perhaps money has changed him. While he used to rap explicit lyrics condemning designer clothing, he can now be seen sporting extravagant garments from Commes de Garcon and Louis Vuitton.

All criticism aside, the Carnival is a testament to Tyler’s genius, as well as his work ethic. At 28, he has already built an empire for himself (and helped many of his friends along the way). Tyler breaks down racial and sexual stereotypes. He is a self-made, black entrepreneur. He is a rapper with lines such as “I been kissin’ white boys since 2004.” He is getting young people to dress like old golfers, and making it cool. It’s unfortunate that he decided to book Drake, and more unfortunate that he inadvertently led people to believe that Frank would headline, but all in all the festival was a success.

Sorry Drake.

(not really)

Disney Reports 10M ‘Sign-Ups’ For Disney+ One Day After Launch

On November 13, 2019 By niarobIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/343309/disney-reports-10m-sign-ups-for-disney-one-day.html

Disney has announced that their highly-anticipated streaming service app Disney+ has already racked up about 10m+ subscribers after its launch this Tuesday. Although Disney has not stated whether or not this number includes pre-sales or the company’s 7-day free trial. It is very possible that most of these subscribers are from Fios, since they are offering their customers a free year of the Disney+ to their new and existing Verizon Wireless unlimited customers, new Fios home internet customers and new 5G home internet customers. Once customers get the free trial and utilize it for a year, they will probably want to keep the service and buy it after the free trial is up. Either way, the numbers are amazing and Disney has forecast that Disney+ will have 60 to 90 million subscribers by the end of 2024.

Disney has no plans to release the platform outside of the company, and debuted in 3 countries Tuesday– United States, Canada and the Netherlands. The streaming service is slated to be released in more countries in the coming weeks. It will debut in European markets on March 31, 2020 which should bring in a huge amount of subscribers and revenue.

I found it interesting that Disney warns subscribers streaming content on Disney+. that they may encounter “outdated cultural depictions” while watching some older Disney content. Some of Disney’s classics such as Dumbo, The Aristocats, The Jungle Book, and Lady and the Tramp. Disney warns their customers that they are about to see content that will trigger some people due to its negative depictions of minority races. In my opinion, Disney is making sure to keep a close eye on its content now that it is presenting it on a single streaming platform to a 2019 audience who is a lot more racially aware.

How do companies maintain a positive image around their brand?

On November 13, 2019 By Jared GiovanIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Visual_The-Do’s-and-Don’ts’s-of-Dealing-with-Negative-Comments-Online-1

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiaiqjBh-jlAhUEVN8KHSE3APoQjRx6BAgBEAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.firstpagedigital.sg%2Fresources%2Fsocial%2Fthe-dos-and-dontss-of-dealing-with-negative-comments-online%2F&psig=AOvVaw10bnBkZ_qyOXkqGvcwijWI&ust=1573764426307486

Do you ever wonder if what you are seeing on social media is true to how consumers ACTUALLY feel about a product? Recent news about negative social media comments states that what you are seeing online doesn’t actually tell the full story. Respondology, a Colorado-based brand safety firm, has rolled out a new service titled “The Ad Mod”. The Ad Mod is a new technology that combines AI and human monitoring to automatically delete negative comments on paid ad content. The service is specifically designed for paid advertisements through social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

The company’s first partner, Horizon Media, used the service for the launch of the Popeyes Chicken Sandwich. Horizon Media used the service to track comments on professional athlete’s Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube accounts who were paid to promote the new sandwich. While using “The Ad Mod”, the campaign saw a 10.8% increase in engagement.

Companies that use Ad Mod will be able to launch their posts through a dashboard and see which comments are screened by Ad Mod. The service screens all comments on a selected post with machine learning. The machine automatically removes comments that are seen as negative towards the brand, as well as racist, sexual and violent comments.

In my opinion, I think this app can be good and bad. I feel like this app can be great for removing comments that are seen as racist, sexual, and violent, however I think it is wrong to hide comments that are seen as “negative” towards a brand. Removing negative comments promotes a false narrative or image around a brand, especially if a majority of individuals feel poorly about a product or brand. It seems kind of shady, especially if 8/10 comments on a post are removed because they are negative.

https://www.adweek.com/digital/brands-can-remove-negative-comments-paid-social-posts-ad-mod/

Google Cracks Down

On November 13, 2019 By tue65232In Google, Uncategorized1 Comment

Google, which is known by its employee as a company that provides an open and transparent company morale is now cracking down on policies and procedures which is causing backlash from its employees. Google recently had to fire one employee and put two others on leave because the company feel they went against their privacy policy. The first employee was let go from the company because they leaked employee names and other personal information to media outlet, which the media outlets that the information was leaked to has yet to be released to the public. The second employee was put on leave because they continuously accessed documents that they were asked not to on multiple occasions because the documents were related to their job. Lastly, the third employee was put on leave because they were tracking other employee calendars that were in other departments which ultimately made those employees feel unsafe at work and out of work.

“The firing and employee suspensions have been the subject of intense discussion within the company in recent weeks, as employees worry that Google — which has traditionally been known for its open and transparent culture — is attempting to crack down on dissent by punishing those who openly disagree with management.”

This situation at Google is concerning because this is invading these employee’s security and privacy. Privacy and security are issues that these large companies such as Google and also Facebook are constantly struggling with. These concerns cause the public and employees to rethink about such as: if they are comfortable at their workplace or if they should continue using these platforms.

Is Facebook Spying on Users?

On November 13, 2019 By rachelshelley22In UncategorizedLeave a comment

Photo Credit: https://www.cnet.com/news/facebook-bug-has-camera-activated-while-people-are-using-the-app/

Article Credit: https://www.cnet.com/news/facebook-bug-has-camera-activated-while-people-are-using-the-app/

“Multiple people have found and reported that their iPhone cameras were turned on in the background while they were looking at their feed.” This is the alarming introduction to an article detailing how Facebook may be running your camera application while you browse through your everyday feed.

The reports claimed that after watching a Facebook video in fullscreen, returning to normal would cause Facebook’s interface to shift a bit to the right and in the open space on the left, you could see your camera activated in back. Yikes!

Facebook officials have released statements on Twitter saying this was obviously a glitch in the system and the company is currently looking into the matter. However, in the meantime I would have to say that staying off Facebook seems like a pretty good resolution.

The company also told users that there is no evidence of any photos or videos being uploaded, but individuals are still wary of the privacy breach. As they should be.

This article is surprising to me because such a massive company like Facebook shouldn’t be experiencing bugs and glitches. Especially bugs and glitches that cause users to fear their information os being compromised. It seems Facebook really hasn’t learned anything from its past mistakes. As a media company in this digital day and age, professionals should know that data privacy is of the utmost importance to its millions of users. This raises questions and fears in the minds of what I imagine to be its entire population.

Disney Stock Rising Despite Technical Glitches in Streaming Service

On November 13, 2019 By dylanmajerusIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Image result for disney plus errors

Disney Stock Rises As Investors Overlook Tech Glitches Hitting Disney+ Debut – Update

Disney Plus has finally arrived, but it’s not entirely flawless. The expected high demand of the service was forecasted by analysts and Disney executives, but they did not expect this much of an incredible response. After its luanch date, more than 8,000 Disney Plus subscribers experienced technical issues , according to DownDetector.com.

Many users complained that they were having trouble logging in with their passwords or were frustrated that the Disney Plus app was not easily accessible on the App store. Other subscribers reported that their attempts to watch Disney Plus content were met with error messages.

The company highlighted the fact that the unexpected amount of high volume could be causing some of these errors, but Disney is no stranger to losing its digital footing. Although the company reported that it had successful trial runs over the last several months, internet issues have haunted Disney in the past, as redesigned and struggled to create a viable main website over the course of three times in five years from 2007-2012. These problems are dated, but still preface the issue that a company of Disney’s size and scale should be able to project these type of occurrences.

Although the first day has had some incurring obstacles, we shouldn’t be surprised by user overload. Disney has since resolved the matters, and even stock investors don’t seem to mind.

Disney reportedly led the Dow Jones Industrial Average higher, rising 1.5% to close at $138.74 on twice its normal trading volume.While the gains were slim and most media and tech issues moved only slightly, Disney Plus’ inevitable rise amongst the streaming wars will not deter a majority of investors–especially on the first day.

National TV Ad Spending Skyrockets As New Streaming Services Release

On November 12, 2019November 14, 2019 By William HauserIn Streaming, TechnologyLeave a comment

Disney_Plus_Debut_25906

Image Source: AP Photo/Richard Drew

Today is a significant day in media history as the brand new streaming service Disney + dropped at midnight. Apple TV’s streaming service also was made available to consumers within the past couple of weeks leaving many researchers asking questions on what the future of streaming will hold as some of the top media organizations in the world now operate fully functional media streaming services.

One of the biggest outcomes we have been seeing from these new platforms being released is a massive jump in television advertisements by organizations like Walt Disney preparing for their products release. Disney Plus in specific over the last two months has spent around $24.9 million dollars on TV advertisements with 21 different creative pieces that aired a total of 2,516 times.

This kind of aggressive marketing by the Walt Disney organization comes with hopes that Disney + will catch fire with its loved and box office breaking film/television selections including popular production companies they own such as Marvel Studios, Pixar, and National Geographic. Apple TV in contrast has made an even bigger mark in television ad spending over the past couple of months, leading the industry with an astonishing $47.7 million dollars spent and over 3,176 total airings.

Both Disney + and Apple TV commercials have been appearing during similar program slots that contain a high quantity of ratings such as NFL Football, MLB World Series, The 71st Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, and The Walking Dead.

Although brand new releases, Disney + and Apple TV are not the only streaming platforms that have caused the dramatic spike in TV ad spending recently. Other platforms well established in the industry such as Amazon Prime Video ($36.6 million total spending) and Hulu ($28.2 million total spending) have also been marketing themselves aggressively since September. Many believe this comes in response to these companies trying to compete with Disney + and Apple TV’s new platforms and try to remain the top subscription platforms in media.

I am personally very curious to see how the introduction of new streaming platforms will change how/who consumers will subscribe to. Clearly after industry leaders like Netflix and Hulu have made millions of dollars off of media streaming, other major players want a piece of the pie. Over the past couple of years platforms like Netflix offered content from many different media production companies including Disney. Thus, as these giant contracts begin to expire in the next coming years, it is anticipated that the companies like Walt Disney will make their productions exclusive and only capable of being accessed through a subscription to Disney +. Clearly the impact of streaming video and audio has changed the media world entirely and will continue to grow well into the future.

Sources:

https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/343208/streaming-services-amp-up-national-tv-ad-spending.html

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/peak-streaming-tv-upsides-challenges-four-new-services-1251054

Facebook to limit ads in 2020

On November 12, 2019 By William StroughIn Consumer behavior, Content Restriction, Fake News, TwitterLeave a comment

Facebook has recently announced that in 2020 they will start to limit the amount of advertisements a page can release on their site. A crazy idea that Facebook would turn down potential ad revenue and limit advertisers may not seem like such a crazy idea. Coming with the announcement Facebook said that only a small percent of advertisers and companies will be affected by this change. But when asked about why they are starting to limit the amount of ads they are allowing on their site they responded with “quality”.

Facebook plans to increase the quality of the advertisements by limiting the amount of ads a company can run. When a company can run as many ads as they want they produce low quality, potentially dangerous ads that do not serve the public’s best interest. And more importantly running too many ads leads to overall worse “ad performance”. Flooding the market with low quality ads takes away from the high quality ads and tarnishes Facebook’s ads results. When Facebook’s ad results get tarnished it lowers the price per ads and hurts Facebook in the long run.

One of the latest ways Facebook has joined the movement to rid the platform of fake news. More and more media companies like Facebook and Twitter are starting to take a look at how their platforms are starting to affect the world outside of their platforms. Twitter not running political ads and Facebook limiting ads are ways these companies can keep a check on outside influence and interference with the American People.

Source: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/facebook-will-implement-limits-on-how-many-ads-a-page-can-run-in-2020/566605/