Now the company is considering 'build or buy' pivots away from Microsoft   After Netflix decided to add a lesser costly tier with ads last July, the company announced a partnership with Microsoft as part of a pact expected to generate billions in advertising revenue for the online streaming service. It didn't work as smoothly as expected, and now Netflix is considering alternative options on how to run its operations with potential outcomes, including the streaming giant in-housing its ad [...]

For the NBCUniversal executive, it's essential to build a solid library and gain the trust of subscribers.   After producing long-running serials, generally a few seasons of 24 episodes each, streaming services started to consider miniseries: they are cheaper, very well received, and easier to create. There is just one problem: more is needed to build a library. The matter was the center topic of a panel at the SXSW festival, recently hosted in Austin, Texas. NBCUniversal's chairman of entertainment [...]

Italy Meets Hollywood and Italy for Movies join forces to bring the movie industries of Italy and American closer together.   Italy for Movies (www.italyformovies.com), is the Italian portal for locations and film and audiovisual production incentives. Born in 2016 with a specific target: to increase the attractiveness and visibility of our territories in terms of tourism through film and audiovisual production. Created by Cinecittà in collaboration with the Italian Film Commissions association and under the coordination of the General Directorate for Cinema and Audiovisual of the Ministry of [...]

Even if it helps its competition.   Isn't it the dream of every sports fan? A single sports network with all the sports events in it? Disney+ ESPN is trying to make this dream reality creating a hub for all live sports streaming — even for its competition, writes Alex Sherman on the CBNC website. "The sports network has held conversations with major sports leagues and media partners about launching a feature on ESPN.com and its free ESPN app that [...]

2022 has been an excellent year for Universal Music.   The company got $11 Billion in revenue, a soaring 21.6% more than the previous 2021. Jem Aswad on Variety writes that the good results are driven by streaming and a strong performance from its recorded music and publishing divisions: "Recorded music's revenues from streaming and subscriptions were up around 19% to over $5.6 billion, while digital revenues from the publishing division were up a whopping 50% to $1.05 billion." Top [...]

They will lose 4% of their tax credit allocation.   Under a proposal from the California governor's office, entertainment productions that fail to meet their diversity goals will lose 4% of their tax credit allocation. The provision - writes Variety - is part of a five-year extension of the state's $330 million tax credit. Productions that receive the credit will be required to submit a diversity "work plan," under which they must commit to hiring a crew that is "broadly [...]