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 …
David Attenborough went head-to-head with Joe Exotic in the battle for the ‘Most Popular Launch of a Netflix Unscripted Series.’ Tiger King failed to deliver a knockout blow over Our Planet, instead winning on points. That’s the finding from Parrot Analytics‘ online Demand analysis — a methodology that scoops up and ranks all of a …
SUNNY SIDE OF THE DOC is France’s great international documentary market. My guest is MATHIEU BÉJOT, Sunny Side’s strategy director, who is locked down and safe in Paris. Sunny Side 2020 is branded “The Connected Edition” to capture the many layers of digital Content, Trend-spotting and Networking that delegates will experience from June 22-25. Podcast …
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 …
In these hectic early weeks of the crisis, I thought that it would be helpful to take some time out to reflect on the seismic changes that our industry is experiencing. Veteran consultant Ed Hersh joins me in a pod-versation to provide a cautious snapshot for our colleagues. We focus on three questions: Is there …
Nielsen published a fascinating report yesterday concerning the increased media consumption of U.S. consumers during our Coronavirus shutdown. The analysis is based on a study of Total Usage of Television (TUT) during two severe weather crises: Hurricane Harvey in Houston (2017) New York’s ‘Snow-pocalypse‘ (2016) HOUSTON TUT usage in Houston was up 56% versus the …
As New York City moved into Coronavirus shutdown this weekend, I wondered about the effects of the increasingly restrictive response to the epidemic on program production and delivery schedules. NBA Started It When the NBA cancelled its season, most of the world’s leading Sports franchises followed. Next came Late Night Talk shows with their live …
How is Canada’s documentary sector navigating the Netflix Era? I turned to Stephen Ellis who I first met in the ‘Eighties when he was a high-volume program supplier to my client, the fledgling Discovery Channel. Stephen was CEO of Ellis Entertainment which he sold in 2011 after 47 years in the business. He is now …