“We need to rebuild it from the ground up. I believe AI can help us do that, because as it lowers the cost threshold to produce stuff, and as every month goes by, it lowering it and lowering it, we can do more for less, and we can hopefully retain more ownership of those projects." - The Guardian
Is it time for Hollywood to concede that a lot of moviegoers in North America are never coming back? That movie theaters have permanently lost 20 to 25 percent of their customers? Those questions, which started as horrified whispers in studio hallways last year, have become more openly discussed in recent months. - The New York Times
“Sports is defying ratings gravity, exerting even more influence with each passing season as by far the dominant genre that people prefer to watch live, which has significant implications for sponsors pushing products on a schedule.” - TheWrap (Yahoo!)
When AI searchbots, with Meta (52% of AI searchbot traffic), Google (23%), and OpenAI (20%) leading the way, clobber websites with as much as 30 Terabits in a single surge, they're damaging even the largest companies' site performance. - The Register
“Our attention span — or patience — for enduring these far-too-frequent tragedies appears to be shrinking. The horror persists, but the novelty is fading, fueled by a sense of numbness, or perhaps a desire, faced with an inability to change or adequately address the situation, to simply tune it out.” - TheWrap (Yahoo!)
WGBH, the bellwether public TV station in Boston, has laid off the 13 people who worked on the history series “American Experience” and announced that no new documentaries will be produced for the show until further notice. - The New York Times
The director's new film is partly funded by MUBI. On the company's investor with ties to the Israeli military: “All corporate money is dirty. ... You can avoid it and not make films at all. But films are how I carry what I like to say.” - Variety
“Most of the 1,300 Voice of America journalists had already been fired or remained on paid leave prior to these layoffs. Only 100 journalists and other staff members remain employed by the organization.” - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo)
“TIFF, long considered the people's festival because screenings are open to the public, is preparing to host its 50th edition.” But brands are blocking fan access - and the people are not thrilled. - CBC
“Even as the subjects reported trusting online content less after the quiz, they still ranked (Süddeutsche Zeitung, Germany’s largest circulation broadsheet daily) highly and turned to it more after being confronted with a quiz that showed how difficult it can be to tell fake from real.” - Nieman Lab
“The move follows last month’s congressional rescission of more than $1 billion in federal public media funding. Vermont Public CEO Vijay Singh said the station will lose $2 million from its current budget.” Fifteen employees have been laid off; two further positions were reduced from full-time to part-time. - Inside Radio
The sometime-director of blockbusters hasn’t worked in Hollywood since getting fired from Bohemian Rhapsody in 2017. He moved to Israel several years ago and has reportedly completed a feature starring Jon Voight (another figure in the industry’s doghouse) set during Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon during that country's civil war. - Variety
The problem is that you aren’t downloading the movie, to own and watch forever; you’re just getting access to it on Amazon’s servers – a right that only lasts as long as Amazon also has access to the film, which depends on capricious licensing agreements that vary from title to title. - The Guardian
Algorithm movies usually exhibit easy-to-follow story beats that leave no viewer behind; under this regime, exposition is no longer a screenwriting faux pas. - The Guardian
