The Morning Fix: Oscar producers promise this time will be different. Amazon takes on Netflix. Clouds over Apple!
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After the coffee. Before figuring out when pay walls will end aggregating.
The Skinny: Oscar hype is starting to hit its peak. At this year’s show, you’ll be able to go behind the curtain to hear presenters practice their lame jokes. Then when you tweet about it, there’ll be some advertiser waiting to pounce on you. Aren’t 21st century media great?
Annoying you on all platforms. Not satisfied with overwhelming viewers with advertisements on television, marketers want to find a way to reach you when you go to tweet something about what you’re watching or when you post some witty status update on Facebook. Sunday’s telecast of the Oscars will see lots of companies trying to snag viewers when they put down the remote and pick up the laptop. Hopefully, they’ll realize soon it doesn’t work and leave us alone. More on the Oscars blitz from the Wall Street Journal. Meanwhile, the New York Times, following up on a Los Angeles Times story, looks at all the extra Oscar goodies that will be offered online. Now can we make it stop?
This time it will be different, I promise. Every year they tell us they’ve learned from their mistakes. They say they didn’t mean to insult us. They beg for another chance to prove their love when all they’ve done is cause pain. And we buy it every time. The Hollywood Reporter on what producers are promising for this year’s Oscar telecast and why it really will be unlike any other show.
Look out Netflix, here comes Amazon. As had been expected, Amazon wants to take on Netflix and on Tuesday said it would launch a rival streaming service. Amazon will offer up 5,000 movies and TV shows for streaming. Netflix, meanwhile, cut a new deal with CBS for old TV shows including ‘Star Trek’ and ‘Twin Peaks.’ For CBS, and other companies such as Disney that have entered similar deals, this is basically found money. Coverage from Variety and the Associated Press.
Stream ordered to dry up. Broadcasters took a round in their legal battle against Ivi Inc., a company that has been streaming the signals of network affiliates without permission. According to Bloomberg, U.S. District Judge Naomi Buchwald ruled that the broadcasters have ‘demonstrated a likelihood of success on the merits of their copyright claim ... They have also demonstrated irreparable harm, that the balance of hardships tip in their favor, and that the public interest will not be disserved by an injunction.” Ivi said it will appeal.
Lachlan’s turn. First on Sunday, the New York Times all but anoints James Murdoch successor to his father’s throne at News Corp. Then, on Monday, Murdoch’s daughter Liz sells her company Shine to her father and rejoins the company’s board of directors. Now Lachlan, the eldest son, makes news by being named interim chief executive of Australia’s Ten Network. Lachlan left News Corp. more than five years ago and is now a media investor. More on his latest news from C21Media.
Foreign affair goes awry. The Daily Beast says the best foreign language film category is a train wreck. Among the criticisms are that the panelists have to weed through too much content and overlook cutting edge material.
Not the king’s palace. It is likely to clean up at the Oscars this Sunday, but when ‘The King’s Speech’ was being made there was little help coming from the royal family. The producers couldn’t even get a look inside Buckingham Palace for some inspiration. The Los Angeles Times looks at how the film managed to find locations that could work as stand ins for the palace and other royal homes.
Plan your schedule. What’s Oscar week without a list of all the parties to crash? Fortunately, Deadline Hollywood has provided this vital information. Now you can find out where to go to see the people who passed on your script or looked at their Blackberry during your audition.
Inside the Los Angeles Times: Steve Jobs’ health has put a cloud over Apple.
-- Joe Flint
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