Though total TV advertising is set to top $60 billion this year, according to media agency Zenith, the market is expected to shrink by 4 percent in 2021, which creates an incentive to stop digital giants from stealing business. - The Hollywood Reporter
Hoo-boy. "The new Netflix Hub at Walmart will bring Netflix-branded gadgets, clothes, music and games to Walmart's online store exclusively. … (It) will also include programs … like a crowd-sourcing feature called 'Netflix Fan Select' that allows fans to vote on which merchandise they'd like to see." - Axios
Ted Sarandos wrote that, although some people may find stand-up comedy to be “mean-spirited,” “our members enjoy it, and it’s an important part of our content offering.” - Washington Post
Ian Fleming, who introduced the Bond character in his novel Casino Royale, back in 1953, was a devoted jazz fan. His tastes were a bit old-fashioned, but he was hardly the only British writer to prefer traditional jazz even in the face of bebop and other modernist movements. - Ted Gioia
"The wildly popular dystopian drama pits the heavily indebted against each other … for an unimaginably large cash prize. But (the) desperate situation is real – (there's) a large and growing number of ordinary South Koreans who find themselves choked by debt." - The Guardian
"How is it that a quintessentially democratic cultural activity — buying a ticket and some popcorn and finding a seat in the dark — has been reclassified as a snobbish, specialized fetish?" A.O. Scott has an answer to that question. - The New York Times
It’s not that social-media platforms aren’t newsworthy—Facebook consistently dominates headlines. But TikTok is all too often regarded as an unserious thing to write or read about. That’s a mistake, and it’s one that Congress is making as well. - The Atlantic
“For better or for worse, film is an incentivized industry. Around 38 states have programs to incentivize film production. We are always at the bottom of that list.” - Seattle Times
It helps if you're also the writer-director of the documentary, or the sister or parents of said writer-director. But the intense focus is far from easy. - Los Angeles Times
The Harder They Fall is "righteous and rowdy" - and has a Black British musician director who says that his music and films come from the same place: "When I’m writing and these words are coming out, so are melodies and song and score." - The Guardian (UK)
That seems wild, since this year's version was recent - and grim. "The Oscars’ class of 2020 included plenty of good films ... seen only on small screens, unleashed upon an isolated and atomized populace, in the middle of a brutal pandemic winter." - Vulture
Fiona Lamptey's vision: "I really want to bring back our stars, like people that have to leave their home to go make a film that feels aspirational, or ambitious, and that they can get paid for ... those projects that kind of feel big for the U.K." - Variety
Whether episodes are released week by week (Only Murders in the Building) or all at once to binge (Squid Game), well, experts haven't yet seen "any data proving one strategy is definitely and consistently better than the other." But: Viewers like choice. - Vulture
These are some of the stories IATSE members have been sharing: "Eighteen-hour workdays with no lunch breaks. Car accidents caused by sleep deprivation. A crew member who returned to set the day after a miscarriage." - The Atlantic
