The Oscars Are a Week Away, but How Many Will Watch? – TV ratings for awards shows have been in free fall, especially during the pandemic, and Hollywood doesn’t want the viewing public to toss its premier showcase into the entertainment dustbin. [NYT]
Netflix Is Chill About Pandemic’s End – The Covid-19 pandemic helped Netflix solidify its place on the TV dial. The streaming company now needs to show it can stay there—profitably.
Netflix was one of the first tech companies to show a distinct benefit from the pandemic. The company added a record-breaking 15.8 million net new paid subscribers in last year’s first quarter as the coronavirus outbreak sent people rushing home with little else to do. Netflix will report first-quarter results on Tuesday, and the results are expected to look tame by comparison, with both the company and Wall Street projecting about six million new paid subs. [WSJ]
Comscore Reports TV Viewing Engagement for Week Ending April 4, 2021 – “As expected, the men’s NCAA basketball championship took the trophy for this week’s broadcast rating and stickiness, but Spanish-language programming notably continued to garner significantly strong audience loyalty despite being lower on the ratings side, demonstrating the value for advertisers seeking to reach engaged audiences,” said Paul Dergarabedian, Senior Media Analyst, Comscore. [Comscore]
Alfred Molina Details Doc Ock’s Return in ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’: ‘The Tentacles Do All the Work’ – Neither Sony Pictures nor Marvel Studios, which are co-producing “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” has confirmed Molina’s return, but news of his casting leaked last year, along with reports that Jamie Foxx will also appear as Electro, the villain he played in “The Amazing Spider-Man 2.” Later, Zendaya — another “Spider-Man” lead actor — seemingly confirmed Molina’s casting during a conversation with Carey Mulligan for Variety‘s Actors on Actors series.
The casting of Molina and Foxx would unite the three generations of Spider-Man movies: The Maguire/Raimi cycle, the Marc Webb/Andrew Garfield installments and the newest Spider-Mans, starring Holland and directed by Watts.
“No Way Home” is currently scheduled to be a Christmastime release on Dec. 17, 2021. [Variety]
Roku Closes Nielsen Transaction, Including Acquisition of AVA Business – Roku has closed on the acquisition of Nielsen’s Advanced Video Advertising (AVA) business, including Nielsen’s video automatic content recognition (ACR) and dynamic ad insertion (DAI) technologies, which will accelerate Roku’s launch of an end-to-end DAI solution for traditional TV. In addition, Nielsen and Roku have entered into a long-term strategic partnership to integrate complementary Nielsen ad and content measurement products into the Roku platform and further advance Nielsen ONE, Nielsen’s cross-media measurement solution.
‘F9’ Filmmaker Justin Lin Breaks Down Trailer and Teases Trip to Space – Space is the final frontier in the new F9: The Fast Saga trailer, which after years of speculation, confirms the franchise is going where it has never gone before. Filmmaker Justin Lin notes going to space is an idea he’s kicked around for years, but he wanted to find the right emotional arc to make it more than just a gimmick. After coming up with the idea for F9, he drove over to star Vin Diesel’s house to pitch it to him. Both men agreed the time was right, and that the right character arc was there. [THR]
