Streaming
“Alexa, Gimme the Biggest Screen You’ve Got”: Amazon Unveils First Smart TVs
Well, it was just a matter of time. After the success of their third-party Fire-TV devices, Amazon is taking the leap into the physical television business this October. The debut of the Amazon Fire TV Omni Series marks the next phase of Amazon’s small screen empire. These new units are set to be priced starting at $410 and will come equipped with some of the company’s most notable features, such as Alexa voice connect, and popular software like TikTok. Amazon is also planning to release a value-priced version, the 4-Series smart TV, starting at $370. According to Daniel Rausch, VP of Amazon’s Entertainment Devices and Services division, “At Amazon, deep selection is important ... We’ve reimagined what a TV can do by building it with two of our most popular experiences at the core — the intelligent, always-available power of far-field Alexa, and Fire TV’s content-forward approach to entertainment.” You’ll even be able to ask Alexa for program recommendations. Only time will tell how long she’ll take endlessly browsing her streaming options before giving up and putting on Bachelor in Paradise.
Commercials
It's a Blowout: Ad Space Almost Gone Already for This Year’s Super Bowl
If you were in the market for a Super Bowl ad to tout your burgeoning homemade jewelry business, you’re out of luck. Almost all the ad space for this year’s February event have been sold, bringing NBCUniversal around $6.5 million for each 30-second spot. This year’s pricing is up 18% over last year’s game on CBS, no doubt due to the uncertainties the Covid-19 pandemic brought with it. Major advertisers who sat out last year are jumping back into the fold in a big way. This year’s game will likely have a more optimistic tone than last year’s cautious even, with full stadiums and (mostly) vaccinated players. The Super Bowl will take place on February 13 at the SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, and ad space is vanishing at quite a pace. According to Dan Lovinger, EVP of ad sales at NBC Sports Group, “It’s fairly slim pickings. What we’ve tried to do is hold back a couple of units that are next to each other so that, if an advertiser comes to us with a 60-second creative, we can accommodate it. But other than that, we really are out of A positions.” At present, there are fewer than five spots remaining, so get ‘em while they’re hot.
Music
Breaking Records While Making Records: BMI Has Landmark Fiscal Year
It’s a good time to be BMI! The company announced its highest distribution rate ever, administering a huge sum—$1.335 billion—to its songwriters, composers, and publishers. Those levels are up almost 8% from last year. Despite the inevitable challenges BMI faced with the pandemic, they’ve set growth records and seen their domestic licensing revenue exceed $1 billion for the first time, thanks to the digital sector. Mike O’Neill, President and CEO of BMI, said, “In a year marked by incredible challenges, the power of music is stronger than ever. BMI was once again able to demonstrate record growth, both in revenue and with the largest royalty distributions in our history. I am very proud of the team at BMI who, throughout the year, continued to focus on our top priority of mitigating the financial impact of the pandemic on our creative community. We are very pleased to not only provide this stability to our songwriters, composers and publishers, but also to grow the value of the BMI repertoire now and into the future.” I can’t wait to tell my personal trainer that there are finally high BMI numbers to be excited about!
Film
“You Up … for a Career-Changing Moment?” How a Group Chat Led to ‘Shang-Chi'
Just when you thought group chats were exclusively for dad jokes, Meng’er Zhang flips the script. The Shang-Chi actor is currently basking in the huge success of the film, which opened last week to Marvel-sized numbers, but her road to the role of “Xialing” had an unexpected start. Zhang spotted a casting call in a group chat (not knowing, of course, that the audition was for the MCU project) and set in a self-tape on a whim. “I didn’t know I was auditioning for a Marvel film,” she says. “I saw that audition call in a group chat and it said they needed a girl who could speak Chinese and English, so I thought, ‘I can do that.’ I sent my self-tape and I got a callback. They flew me to do a screentest with Simu and that’s when I found out I was auditioning for Shang-Chi.” And if that wasn’t enough, Zhang met her husband, action designer Yung Lee, while making the film. “We didn’t prepare anything for our marriage, we just decided to get married because that just felt right. The production through a very big celebration party for us and Simu took us to a Disneyland trip. He surprised us, and Awkwafina booked a whole venue to celebrate for us. We are a big family. It’s really special.” Boy, bet she can’t wait to see what happens with the sequel...
Industry
AMC Invests in Itself: Theater Giant Spends $25 Million To Bring Moviegoers Back
AMC is putting its money where its mouth is. The world's largest cinema chain is spending $25 million on a promotional campaign that hopes to lure people back to the movies. Joining forces with actor Nicole Kidman, AMC has commissioned a series of 15-to-60-second TV spots that wax poetic about the magic of the movies. The fact that the campaign’s $25 budget is more than several studio releases have brought in through limited pandemic releases is not lost on anyone, but the company feels the push is important amidst the threat of the Delta variant. “As we have said repeatedly of late, thanks to the billions of dollars we have raised this year, AMC is strong, and it is time for AMC to play on offense again,” says AMC CEO and chairman Adam Aron. “For more than a century, movie theatres have not only survived but thrived. Through all the changing times in the world, through prosperity and despair, through emerging technology and expanding entertainment options and despite repeated imminent threats to the cinema business over the decades, movie theatres have remained a vital part of the cultural fabric of our society the world over.” It’s been an up and down year for the company (and the industry as a whole), but this push shows how serious AMC is about putting people back in seats. Sign me up, Ms. Kidman!
High five! Another Friday Five is going live next week—same time, same place. We know what caught our eyes, but we’re all ears. Tell us what you’d like to learn more about in our upcoming editions by following us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Be sure to tag #FridayFive in your comments.
See you next Friday at 10 a.m. (PT).