Meanwhile, the writers' strike is getting closer.   While the WGA, whose contract expires May 1, is currently in complicated negotiations with the AMPTP, and a strike is looming (98% of the writers said yes to the walkout in the recent WGA members vote), another important category in Hollywood, actors, will start talks soon with its counterparts. SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers have agreed to begin formal contract negotiations on June 7. In a joint [...]

They aim to spend less, says Deloitte's 2023 survey.   Deloitte's latest Digital Media Trends survey shows worrying data for streaming services. As streaming video competition intensifies, subscription growth rates across the industry have slowed, and churn rates have increased. Insiders call it "Subscription fatigue." The increased cost of living is to blame. Deloitte's survey found that U.S. consumers pay, on average, $48 per month for subscription-video services. About half of those surveyed agreed they "pay too much" for SVOD services. [...]

"It can be very harmful."   "AI can be very harmful if deployed wrongly," Alphabet Inc. and Google Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai said in a CBS 60 Minutes interview that caused a stir. Pichai underlined "the urgency to work and deploy it," but at the same time, we have to be careful, and the matter needs strong regulation. The California tech giant develops and implements AI across its services. "Software like Google Lens and Google Photos rely on the company's [...]

The referendum will gauge union members' willingness to fight.   On Tuesday, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) began holding a strike authorization vote that will continue until April 17. A YES vote would allow the union to call a strike when the current three-year contract expires on May 1. The WGA has 4,700 members in the WGA East and over 24,000 in the WGA West. "While a strike authorization vote does not ensure a writers' strike will occur, it [...]

It will help its sport-related area of investments.   YouTube TV and Fubo already do that, and now Apple TV is working on a similar option: allowing sports viewers to follow multiple games by developing a 'multiview' feature. Sarah Perez with TechCrunch writes: "Though Apple's streaming device already supports a picture-in-picture mode, new code discovered in the latest iOS beta points to a possible four-up multiview feature in the works." The decision "makes sense not only because of the broader [...]

Women won 15% of this Year's Academy Awards. It was 23% last year.   A study commissioned by United Nations says we'll need 300 hundred years to reach equality between men and women at this pace. The Oscars confirmed: women won 15% of this Year's Academy Awards, down from 2022, when women's prizes were 23%. Still, there is something to celebrate, writes Kristen Lopez and Harper Lambert in The Wrap: "Actress Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian woman to win [...]