Netflix has been through some well-documented ups and downs, but for those who still have doubts about the company, Netflix had a resounding answer this week: 27.15 million. That’s the number of American homes that presently subscribe to the streaming service, a number exceeding even the company’s own expectations for the fourth quarter of 2012. Continue reading Netflix Strategy Takes Root, Numbers Surge in Fourth Quarter

According to a new study from research firm GfK Media, consumers are streaming online video more than ever before, but only a reported 17 percent of pay TV subscribers have watched cable programming online using TV Everywhere services. The study represents the “latest bad news” for the TV Everywhere initiative, reports the Wall Street Journal. Continue reading New Research Indicates TV Everywhere is Not Yet Everywhere

Worldwide spending on watching movies last year reached $62.4 billion, up from $61.1 billion in 2011 and $60.1 billion in 2010, according to IHS Screen Digest. The numbers include theatrical releases, disc rentals, pay TV VOD and digital retail purchases and rentals. North America accounted for 41 percent of global movie revenue in 2012, although spending on physical media saw a decline. Continue reading Report: Worldwide Spending on Movies Up $1.3 Billion in 2012

The latest project from showrunner Tom Fontana, writer/producer of acclaimed shows such as “Homicide: Life on the Street” and “Oz,” is not currently available via cable or broadcast in the U.S. Instead, the historical Vatican drama “Borgia” was launched without a network, has aired in France, and is now looking to additional options, including streaming. Adweek talks with Fontana about the unorthodox path the show has taken. Continue reading Vatican Drama Borgia Takes Unconventional Distribution Path

Apple CEO Tim Cook said he believes China will become Apple’s most important market. He was optimistic about his latest talk with China Mobile, although he wouldn’t go into detail about it — and he recently met with Miao Wei, minister of China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which is responsible for approving Apple products before they’re launched in China. Continue reading Tim Cook Goes To China Again, Seems To Be Making Progress

In the home entertainment space, consumer spending on software rose for the first time since beginning a steady decline in 2006. The Digital Entertainment Group reports that at the end of the third quarter 2012 consumer spending on home entertainment as a whole — including disc, rental and digital distribution — was up by about 1 percent. IHS Screen Digest predicts that spending will total $18.7 billion, 5 percent higher than last year. Continue reading Home Entertainment: Distribution Models Finally Working Together

Activision announced yesterday that “Call of Duty: Black Ops 2” beat its own record by earning $1 billion in just 15 days (last year’s “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3” reached $1 billion in 16 days).

“‘Black Ops 2’ earned $500 million in the first 24 hours,” reports PCMag. “Since its release, Activision reported that gamers have logged more than 150 million hours playing the game on Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network.” The game is currently available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U and Windows PC.

“Last month, millions of fans descended on 16,000 midnight openings at retail store worldwide,” notes the post. “Within 24 hours, ‘Black Ops 2’ was a Twitter trending topic in 23 cities worldwide.”

According to Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, the game’s release “has been one of the most significant entertainment events of each of the last six years.”

Since the “Call of Duty” franchise launched nine years ago, Kotick says cumulative worldwide revenues have exceeded the global box office numbers for the top 10 grossing films of 2012.

“This is an incredible milestone for an incredible franchise, and I want to thank every passionate, talented, committed person on our team who made it happen,” added Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg, who referred to “Call of Duty” as an “entertainment juggernaut.”

The following are some notable comments from a panel at this week’s Futures of Entertainment conference at MIT.

Panel: “Creating with the Crowd: Crowdsourcing for Funding, Producing and Circulating Media Content”

• In the pre-production phase, to start a crowd going, you should have fans help you create simple and small ideas. The simple interactions will slowly draw people into the idea. Once they start participating more, then you can move to give them harder tasks — the hardest task/request being funding.
• Having a community financially invested in a film not only produces funds, but can leverage the community’s time and energy after the film has been released to promote.
• One of the keys to successful crowdsourced projects is making sure that if you fail, you need to be able to fail fast.
• When it comes to crowdsourcing, you must find the balance between what you’re asking your crowd to do and what you’re giving them.
• The success of crowdsourcing demands transparency. There should be a mechanism to let the crowd know how their input has been used. The sense of participation feeds the crowd to continue to participate.
• Must provide a simple platform for crowds to engage and use.
• In crowdsourcing there needs to be a person that ultimately decides what goes in to the content. Crowdsourcing isn’t necessarily a democracy, there needs to be a benevolent dictator/editor.
• Crowdsourcing may become a fad if there are too many projects that are too broad. The more Kickstarter projects there are, for example, the harder it is to support them all. People will ultimately select projects that they are intensely interested in.
• Who’s the crowd? When the term “crowd” is used, it’s really just an excuse because you don’t know the audience/group’s identity.
• Right now a vast majority of projects that use the crowd, use it to build funds, or gather ideas. There are very few examples of crowds changing media from the creative aspect.

Speakers:
Mirko Schäfer (Utrecht University, The Netherlands)
Bruno Natal (Queremos, Brazil)
Timo Vuorensola (Wreckamovie, Finland)
Caitlin Boyle (Film Sprout)