October Entertainment Highlights
• With more ad-supported tiers available, educating brand marketers on the impact that integrations have when paired with advertising is becoming more important
• Audiences want to engage with content wherever they choose with the free-flowing nature of entertainment between screens big and small
• Content and storytelling drives culture. The new ‘Wizard of Oz’ remake is the latest to update a popular and well-known allegory and use it to reflect the updates to society
• For the past decade, Universal Music Group has been prevented from buying certain assets. Now the hold has expired and is causing a ripple across the European music businessIf TikTok’s platform Resso pays pays its artists more favorably than other options
Netflix With Ads Will Cost $7 Per Month at Launch, Nielsen Will Measure
The streaming giant’s ad tier, called “Basic with ads,” will launch with 4 to 5 minutes of ads per hour. Nielsen will add Netflix viewership in the U.S. to its Digital Ad Ratings product in 2023. Netflix with ads will cost $6.99 per month in the U.S. and will launch in 12 countries beginning in November. The new plan will complement its existing ad-free plans: Basic ($9.99 per month), Standard ($15.49), and Premium ($19.99). Other countries will have local pricing, all at effectively the same price point. — READ MORE
‘Glass Onion’ to Hit U.K. Cinemas as Netflix Strikes Deals
Netflix has struck deals with European cinema giant Vue International and Cineworld to put “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery”—made by the streaming giant for its platform—in British movie theaters. The film, which releases on Netflix on Nov. 23, is set to screen at select Vue and Cineworld cinemas across the U.K. Tim Richards, founder and CEO of Vue International, said: “This is an exciting moment in our relationship with streaming platforms and for the wider ecosystem as a whole.” — READ MORE
‘Wizard of Oz’ Remake has LGBTQ Representation to ‘Reflect the World’
LGBTQ representation will be featured in the upcoming “Wizard of Oz” remake. “The original was an allegory and a reflection of the way the world was at the time with things like the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl,” says Kenya Barris, who will write and direct the reimagining for Warner Bros. — READ MORE
The Handcuffs are Coming Off Universal Music Group in EU
The most significant music business news right now isn’t about a music company buying someone’s copyrights for mega-money. It’s actually about a music company’s right to do so. That’s a direct result of restrictions put on UMG by the European Commission (EC) back in 2012, when the Sir Lucian Grainge-led firm acquired the world’s then fourth-largest major record company, EMI Music, for approximately USD $1.9 billion from Citibank. — READ MORE
ByteDance Negotiating to Expand its Music-Streaming Platform Resso
Some leading figures in the global music industry are calling on ByteDance to commit to a “revenue-share” model on TikTok, whereby music rights holders are rewarded with a fixed percentage of revenue generated by videos that contain music. Currently, TikTok’s licensing agreements with music rights holders are based on so-called “buy-out” deals, under which ByteDance pays rights holders an upfront check for a blanket license for the use of music in short-form video clips. Another cause for concern for some music rights holders are the payouts they’re seeing from Resso, which operates both an ad-funded and subscription tier. — READ MORE
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