Veteran media industry consultant Ed Hersh returns to my podcast platform to explore the multiple seismic changes shaking the Documentary / Unscripted sector and what producers need to know. We discuss how the term ‘Perfect Storm‘ captures the confluence of: Covid impacts, The shift by viewers from channels to direct-to-consumer (DTC) platforms like Netflix and …
The U.S. Pay TV distribution footprint is forecast to shrink by a record 2.5 million subscribers in Q2 2020. This follows a previous record drop of 2 million subscribers in Q1 2020. In the past 12 months, 6.5+ million customers have cut the cord. The forecast loss for Full Year 2020 is 8-9 million subscribers. …
In a webinar moderated by PACT‘s Dawn McCarthy-Simpson, the veterans Dan Salerno and Michael Hoff joined me to explore the COVID-disrupted condition of the production and programming pipeline for U.S. Factual networks. The big question: Are we heading into a “Content Desert?” Watch the May 19 webinar or read our detailed notes here! My guests …
Quibi is a dud, as I predicted. Even with a free 90-day trial, the Quibi app has been installed by less than 3.5 million consumers. It ranks #125 among free iPhone app downloads. That’s behind Duolingo, the language app where I recently failed to learn much Swedish (“Hej, hej!”). Founder and Hollywood mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg …
Monthly News Highlights is a co-publication with Sunny Side of the Doc. Netflix takes Wildlife genre to the the dark side TIGER KING: Murder, Mayhem and Madness is a True Crime docuseries that pulls its punches on animal cruelty as it dives into the outsize characters and high stakes of Big Cat world. It is emerging …
The criminally disastrous Fyre Music Festival was covered in two documentary features that were released in January 2019: Fyre Fraud from hulu, Netflix’s Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened. Who won? hulu reports 30 million subscribers against Netflix‘s 158 million. hulu was the surprise clear winner. That’s per the ‘audience engagement’ measurement developed by Parrot …
How is non-fiction storytelling evolving in the age of Netflix? I talk with Ed Hersh of consultancy StoryCentric about his work with producers and channels. His focus is on how Netflix and a host of new Direct-to-Consumer subscription platforms are challenging the storytelling conventions that once dominated in the Linear/Cable/Satellite era. You’ll hear about: Program …
Here are our top stories for December ’19, curated with our friends at Sunny Side of the Doc. Losing Yves Jeanneau: Read a selection of tributes to Yves Jeanneau, Sunny Side of the Doc co-founder, executive director and our friend, who passed away on November 14 // Sunny Side’s Official Announcement // Peter Hamilton // Realscreen // TV France International // Telerama and many more. Development …