- How will Hollywood make it safe on movie and TV sets once lockdowns lift? (Variety)
- Borderless storytelling is evolving kids production models, according to Nickelodeon’s Nina Hahn (TBI Vision)
- Did you know that NBCUniversal’s Peacock had launched? Neither did most people, but that might be a good thing (Digiday)
- New financial aid announced out of Canada and Australia (Kidscreen)
- Remember when Magic Leap was the next big thing? Now, it’s laying off 1,000 employees and shutting down headsets (The Verge)
- A lot of streamers are giving the goods away for free…but will those users turn into paying customers when lockdowns end? (Variety)
- …Meanwhile, Netflix is looking to raise another US$1 billion (Deadline)
- After the success of Trolls World Tour, Warner Bros. is eyeing a digital release for its new animated feature Scoob (The Verge)
- Why Disney is furloughing employees, and other media giants aren’t (CNBC)
- This probably won’t come as a surprise: The numbers are in, and Animal Crossing dominated game sales in March (Business Insider)
- Prix Jeunesse is looking for info on what COVID-19 has meant for kids media companies—check out the survey (Prix Jeunesse)
- Marvel has used force majeure to terminate some overall deals, which could happen to more Disney creators (The Hollywood Reporter)
- So much for Walmart running a streaming service: The retail giant has sold Vudu to NBCU-owned Fandango (AdWeek)
- Twitch users have streamed two billion hours of video gameplay during the pandemic (Quartz)
- Facebook wants in on the gaming action with its own app (The New York Times)
- Disney+ was delayed in a few countries, but that may have given it a leg up (Digital TV Europe)
- Venice Film Festival still plans to take place in early September…but we’ll keep an eye on it (Variety)
- Even without new releases, drive-in movie theaters are thriving (The Hollywood Reporter)
- The US federal government has released some information on when and how movie theaters could reopen (Variety)
- The influencer economy is hurtling towards its own recession (WIRED)
- …Meanwhile, YouTubers are opening up about their declining ad dollars during the pandemic—and it’s not good (Tubefilter)
- As TikTok grows in popularity during lockdown, the app maker is introducing new parental controls, including disabling DMs (Tech Crunch)
- Are electric skateboards going to be the next big thing? One of the companies behind the e-scooter craze is hoping so (The Verge)
- Netflix is worth more than Disney, as one stock surges and the other plummets (Variety)
- Bumped premieres and straight-to-digital releases—if Hollywood has written off 2020, what does that mean for the future of movies? (Vulture)
- AVOD was seen as the shining light, while broadcast advertising suffered…but now it’s following suit (TBI Vision)
- …Speaking of which, YouTube ad prices dropped 20% (Digiday)
- …And it should be noted that kids content is the reason YouTube’s viewership is up (Bloomberg)
- Is the lockdown going to help or hurt Peacock’s launch? (The Hollywood Reporter)
- March retail sales were down 8.7%—the largest drop on record in March (Wall Street Journal)
- Disney+ has been editing older movies to make them more PG…does this signal something worrying about the streaming age? (The Verge)
- How influential can an influencer really be while on lockdown? (WIRED)
- It’s all about the llamas this year, apparently…though we did tell you that last year (New York Times)
- eOne’s chief strategy officer has left, the first big exec to depart following the Hasbro acquisition (Playback Daily)
- It looks like Universal’s digital-first strategy worked—Trolls World Tour is the new biggest ever on-demand release (Variety)
- Amid all of the furlough announcements, Disney has entered into a new US$5-billion credit agreement (Reuters)
- Kidtech execs got together to chat about the state of kids media, and how COVID-19 is changing things (TechCrunch)
- How do you get to Sesame Street? Through Zoom, of course (The New York Times)
- Amid news that Disney will furlough 43,000 employees, it’s also reportedly frozen development budgets (New York Times)
- A lot of companies aren’t paying their mortgages right now, and the ripples of that could cause a huge financial crisis (Vanity Fair)
- Since global lockdowns aren’t likely to lift soon, it might be time to rethink kids’ relationship with screens (National Geographic UK)
- Maybe cool it with all of the Zoom calls, as fatigue is starting to settle in (Digiday)
- Is the fact that Trolls World Tour is skipping theaters a sign of the times, or the future of film releases? (Variety)
- How the global film market is working to quell massive layoffs (The Hollywood Reporter)
- Disney+ has reached 50 million paid subscribers (Digital TV Europe)
- Sony is investing big money in Chinese platform Bilibili (Reuters)
April 23, 2020
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