Category: ves
Streaming Wars – Why Did Netflix’s Value Plunge By Over 20% Overnight
www.cartoonbrew.com/business/why-did-netflixs-value-plunge-by-over-20-overnight-212642.html
Netflix is still leading by some way, with 221.8 million subscribers at the end of 2021. Amazon’s Prime Video had around 175 million active streaming users by Q1 last year, although it is not exclusively a streaming service. Disney+ had 118.1 million subs as of October 2021, and is targeting 230–260 million by September 2024.
Netflix’s stock price fell over 20% in after-hours trading, wiping nearly $45 billion from its market capitalization. … Disney shares are down nearly 6% this morning, Roku around 6%, and Viacom 5%. Anxiety spread as some investors worried about how much more the streaming market as a whole can grow. “They’re saying the streaming wars are over,” Rich Greenfield told CNBC’s Fast Money.
‘Winnie-The-Pooh’ And ‘Bambi’ Have Entered The Public Domain
It’s important to distinguish here that Disney’s (and other) adaptations stay under copyright, as do other books by the authors. Any adaptations, remixes, or extensions of these stories must be based on the original 1926 works. Also, Winnie-the-Pooh’s pal Tigger first appeared in a book in 1928, so will remain copyrighted for another two years.
Another important addition this year is a library of an estimated 400,000 sound recordings, all released prior to 1923. Due to quirks in how the law has developed, this is the first major batch of recordings to enter the public domain in one go. If you’re looking to soundtrack your film, you can start by exploring this trove of old blues, jazz, classical music, comedy skits, and more (listen to highlights here: www.archeophone.com/arsc-top-ten-nominees/#smith).
Streaming wars drive media groups to spend more than $100bn on new content, most at a loss
https://www.ft.com/content/ae756fda-4c27-4732-89af-cb6903f2ab40
From the Financial Times:
The top eight US #media groups plan to spend at least $115bn on new movies and #TV shows next year in pursuit of a video #streaming business that loses money for most of them.
The huge investment outlays come amid concerns that it will be harder to attract new customers in 2022 after the pandemic-fuelled growth in 2020 and 2021. Yet the alternative is to be left out of the streaming land rush.
Most of the companies — a list that includes The Walt Disney Company , Comcast , WarnerMedia and Amazon — are set to rack up losses on their streaming units. Including sports rights, the aggregate spending estimate rises to about $140bn.
But the fact that even the industry leader must invest heavily to churn out shows and keep pace with competitors has caused some investors to ask whether video streaming is a good business.
Netflix is set to spend more than $17bn on content next year — up 25 per cent from 2021 and 57 per cent from the $10.8bn it spent in 2020. The company expects to break even and become free cash flow positive in 2022.
“The market is increasingly concerned there is no pot of gold at the end of this rainbow”, the bank’s analysts said.
Alex McDowell’s mandala for non-linear virtual production
spring2013animationseminar.wordpress.com/2013/03/16/march-27-alex-mcdowell/
www.rinascimentodigitale.it/transmedia.html
“I think that it’s important now for people coming into the entertainment or pop culture business to know that all bets are off, … We don’t necessarily know that film making as we know it will exist in few years.
We don’t know that gaming is going to look the way it (now) looks or TV is going to look the way it looks. There is no doubt that there is convergence happening through these various media”
Autodesk announces acquisition of cloud-based animation pipeline software from Tangent Labs
adsknews.autodesk.com/news/acquisition-software-from-tangent-labs
Autodesk is acquiring LoUPE, the powerful cloud-based production pipeline technology for artists and studios, and the team that created it.
Tangent Labs founder Jeff Bell will be joining Autodesk with his development team.
Peter Jackson Selling Weta Digital’s VFX Tech Division to Unity for $1.625 Billion
https://www.fxguide.com/fxfeatured/unity-weta-deal/
variety.com/2021/digital/news/unity-acquires-weta-digital-1235107544/
Under the deal, Unity is obtaining the Weta Digital suite of VFX tools and technology and its team of 275 engineers, who will join Unity’s Create Solutions division.
Joe Marks, Weta’s chief technology officer, will join Unity as CTO of Weta Digital.
Weta Digital’s VFX and animation teams will continue to exist as a standalone entity, known as WetaFX, which is expected to become Unity’s largest customer in the media and entertainment space. WetaFX, with about 1,700 employees, will remain majority-owned by Jackson and led by CEO Prem Akkaraju. The proposed deal is expected to close before the end of 2021, subject to regulatory approvals.
Weta Digital and SideFX Bringing Houdini to the Cloud with WetaH
www.awn.com/news/weta-digital-and-sidefx-bringing-houdini-cloud
New WetaH collaboration marks leading VFX company’s second move to integrate top commercial and proprietary applications in a single cloud-based service.
Walt Disney Animation Amps Up Production With New Vancouver Studio
https://www.awn.com/blog/blame-canada-and-covid
deadline.com/2021/08/walt-disney-animation-studios-vancouver-studio-what-if-1234809175/
Effective next year, Walt Disney Animation Studios is throwing the doors open to a new facility in Vancouver, BC that will focus on long-form series and special projects for Disney+. The first in the pipeline is the anticipated, feature-quality musical series Moana.
Amazon Buys MGM for $8.45 Billion
variety.com/2021/biz/news/amazon-buys-mgm-studio-behind-james-bond-for-8-45-billion-1234980526/
For Amazon, snapping up MGM — which has more than 4,000 movies and 17,000 TV shows in its catalog — is a way to supercharge its Prime Video service with a slew of well-known entertainment titles.
In addition, Amazon is anticipating being able to mine Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer properties like the Pink Panther, Rocky and, the 007 franchises for new originals.
Your Career in Animation: How to Survive and Thrive – book by Veteran animation director and author David B. Levy
www.awn.com/animationworld/your-career-animation-how-survive-and-thrive-now-available
“The new edition of his book is filled with insight and advice from over 150 animation industry professionals, a wide-ranging tome of suggestions, reality checks, and inspiration on how to set your sights and blaze your own career trail. He shares practical tips on building a reel, portfolio, and resume; pitching and selling shows; and taking to heart and learning from on-the-job criticism.”
“Everyone seems to agree, and I certainly do, and it’s my POV in the book, that self-development is everything. You shouldn’t wait for anyone to make you anything, to give you opportunities you haven’t earned yet.”
The Rookies – Creative Industries Certification
The Rookies is working on an ambitious task to create a free online resource that will standardize the skills and knowledge for digital artists on a global stage. The resource will outline essential creative and technical skills required by all artists before applying for industry positions in VFX, video games and animation.
To get involved, give back and help others as they start their career pathing, click on links below and give your insights! Everyone has value to add!
3D Animation: https://lnkd.in/gSJPdFS
Visual Effects: https://lnkd.in/gk2-gNM
Games: https://lnkd.in/ghdGVbN
The Farm to acquire Technicolor Post and VFX in the UK
www.broadcastnow.co.uk/tech/the-farm-to-acquire-technicolor-post-and-vfx/5159141.article
The companies involved are the businesses operated under the ‘Technicolor Post’ and ‘Technicolor VFX’ brands, and not Technicolor-owned facilities such as The Mill and MPC.
FuseFX Acquires Rising Sun Pictures
www.awn.com/news/fusefx-acquires-rising-sun-pictures
FuseFX, a full-service, award-winning visual effects company with studios in Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, Vancouver, Montréal, Toronto, and Bogotá, is pleased to announce its acquisition of Rising Sun Pictures, a world-renowned, high-end visual effects studio headquartered in Adelaide, Australia
Netflix Remote Workstations for the Discerning Artists
netflixtechblog.com/remote-workstations-for-the-discerning-artists-8155a8fbd190
Netflix is poised to become the world’s most prolific producer of visual effects and original animated content. To meet that demand, we need to attract the world’s best artistic talent. Artists like to work at places where they can create groundbreaking entertainment instead of worrying about getting access to the software or source files they need. To meet this need, the Studio Infrastructure team has created Netflix Workstations.
Netflix Workstations are remote workstations that allow content creators to get to work wherever they are.
What if China no longer needs Hollywood?
www.cnn.com/2021/01/28/media/china-box-office-coronavirus/index.html
“In 2020, China overtook the United States to become the top movie market in the world. The country, perennially the second-largest movie market, brought in $3.1 billion at the box office in 2020, according to Comscore (SCOR) — nearly $1 billion more than the United States did last year.
“If China doesn’t need US movies, Hollywood studios will have to dramatically reduce their spending on big budget blockbusters,” Aynne Kokas, the author of “Hollywood Made in China,” told CNN Business. “The current budgets are unsustainable without access to the China market. That could fundamentally change the model of the US film industry.”
“Regardless of what happens with Covid, we have at a minimum entered a world where the Chinese and US box offices are equally important,”
So where do Hollywood and China go from here? That question, like so many in the film industry right now, has no easy answer. Yet whatever the future of the film industry is, it’s likely to be one where Hollywood and China remain the two major pillars holding up the global box office.
