While the Trump administration has moved on from when it was first talking about offering federal-level incentives to rehome US production, the industry, it seems, has not. At a time when the US as a whole is now forced to compete with lower-cost foreign destinations to attract productions, it could be an interesting sweetener, as our Blake & Wang P.A. best entertainment lawyers in los angeles, Brandon Blake, shares.

Brandon Blake

The US Production Flight

For those tracing the flight of productions from US shores, there has long been one piece of the puzzle missing: a federal film office, or even a tax incentive that could put the government to work to rebuild the domestic location industry. 

While the initially proposed “100% tariff” on film production outside the US was dead in the water to start with, we are finally seeing some more grounded proposals reach lawmakers, as well as several high-profile celebrities trying to rally attention for the cause. 

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Growing Momentum

The same talk reached this year’s CinemaCon, where the MPA Chairman and CEO noted that the campaign is making progress, as well as highlighting recent changes in New Jersey and California. 

If, as he said, they are indeed engaging at the Congressional level to try and implement a federal film tax incentive and making meaningful progress, this could be the missing piece of the puzzle needed to support the domestic film industry at a national level, instead of relying on states alone. 

It’s not much to go on (for now), but it’s the most concrete sign that something is underway that we have seen so far. Should such an incentive finally see daylight, there would be a lot of refinement needed, from whether it will be capped to who will be eligible, and there would doubtless be an interval for the states themselves to weigh in. However, it’s good to know a helping governmental hand could still be in the works- and one a lot more realistic and workable than another tariff, too.

As Nielsen releases another edition of its streaming Gauge report, it’s time to check in with what’s happening across streaming networks and what properties are seeing the most traction with their audiences. Entertainment Attorney Los Angeles Brandon Blake, at Blake & Wang P.A., fills us in on the latest.

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Zootopia Wins Again

In what will be a surprise to no one, the streaming charts for March 9 to March 15 were dominated by the streaming debut of Zootopia 2. The sequel had immense success at the box office and as a premium SVOD release, and it continued with its broader debut, drawing 1.72B minutes of viewing time from its March 11 release. Zootopia also saw a resurgence of interest, at 381M, more than double compared with the week before.

Other Strong Releases

This week, however, Zootopia 2 was not alone. One Piece, a Netflix offering that hasn’t seen screen time for just over 2 years, came back to its best weekly streaming total to date, closing in on Zootopia with 1.62B viewing minutes. Its best prior total was 1.39B. Virgin River, which ironically came in at the same 1.39B, also continued to do well, despite being in its seventh season.

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The other premier of the week, Scarpetta, based on the Patricia Cornwell books featuring the title character, brought in 952M, enough to take 6th place among all titles, and 4th for original series. It was beaten out by the ever-popular The Pitt, at 1.02B.

Given that Nielsen’s streaming ratings only cover US watchers using a TV set, and don’t include viewers accessing from other sources, such as computers and mobile devices, that’s quite an achievement for a mid-March week. It will be interesting to see if Zootopia 2 continues to pull in audiences in its second week of release, or if it is simply the lure of a new Disney film for families with little ones to keep entertained while waiting for spring to arrive.

Given the major push towards ad-supported tiers we’ve seen from the largest streaming platforms over the last few years, you may have walked away with the distinct impression that they’d really love you to take on an ad-supported package. But, as streaming matures, that may not be the case, as Brandon Blake, our entertainment lawyer at Blake & Wang P.A., is here to break down.

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A Return to Prime Time?

If you’ve been paying attention to the streaming environment of late, it might be starting to feel a lot like the heyday of broadcast. First, we saw the ads return. Then it was mid-programming advertising and lower-cost, ad-supported tiers. And now, live sports and simpler programming, like reality TV, is being increasingly used to both lure in subscribers and pad up slates that can no longer sustain the splashy big-budget productions that were once top of the streaming food chain.

However, the price tags associated with streaming look a lot different from the Pay TV era. And, currently, the price hikes keep coming. 

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The Advertising Irony

This also raises a rather ironic catch-22. Advertising has become increasingly important for streaming and is one of the major current revenue drivers for the streaming model. Not just through raw advertising dollars, but also through the lure of those cheaper ad-supported tiers.

However, advertising has never been a seminal part of a good user experience, and most platforms still want to offer a way for users to bypass ads. 

Yet, as price increases widen the value gap between the two categories of tiers, and more and more households carry multiple subscriptions, ad-supported is becoming the go-to. And with enhanced targeting and new ad offerings, many streamers are seeing their ad tiers become a whole lot more lucrative than their non-ad offerings. 

It looks like the Pay TV mechanism may have passed its heyday, but the same lure of ad-supported programming lives on after all.

With a splashy world-first drone show to drive home the message, it’s now official: HBO Max has arrived on the UK and Ireland’s shores, as an entertainment lawyer from Blake & Wang P.A, Brandon Blake, is here to share.

Brandon Blake

A Launch Long Coming

The UK has had some access to HBO Max through licensing deals with NOW and Sky. However, direct subscription was itself held back due to those deals. With those agreements expiring this year, a local launch is now possible. 

This will bring even more popular HBO content, including the hit show The Pitt, which has been unavailable in the UK for a while now, to UK and Irish screens alongside older library titles and other current shows.

Those with existing subscriptions to Sky Cinema, or the NOW Entertainment HBO Max offering, will be partially grandfathered in as part of the new launch. Multiple tiers will be on offer, starting at £4.99 and culminating, of course, in the Premium tier with an ad-free subscription.

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Splashy Celebration

The launch was celebrated last week at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, with HBO’s lineup of actors and shows creating a star-studded lineup. And, of course, the attention-stealing flight of 500 drones, bringing to life some of HBO Max’s most iconic titles in a splashy light show that was itself a world-first.

While there are some questions hanging over the HBO Max platform, given that Paramount, the upcoming new owners of Warner Bros, has its own streaming platform, HBO Max has become such a globally recognized brand that it is likely to live on in some form or other, even post-merger. But for now, at Warner Bros at least, it seems like business as usual- and now the UK can enjoy its offerings as well.

Now in its post-Warner Bros phase, what lies ahead for Netflix? Whatever the future holds, it will include even more festival acquisitions, as Blake & Wang P.A. entertainment lawyer, Brandon Blake, shares with us. 

Brandon Blake

Festival Activity Ahead

Netflix film chief, Dan Lin, who has greenlit 88 films in his 2-year tenure at Netflix, has shared that they should release seven movies a month going forward. Now including four different event films each year, with Greta Gerwig’s Narnia set to be this year’s Thanksgiving release.

That’s an awful lot of movies for a streamer without its own significant studio arm. It’s also clear that Netflix has noticed the value that the legacy studios have uncovered in their content libraries, and is now keen to build its own licensable library to sell on.

However, for many, the question is whether Netflix is still the major acquisitions player it once was, when its deeper pockets allowed it to be the pace-setter for the indie film markets across Cannes, TIFF, and Sundance. Perhaps it’s the record amounts those sales went for that’s really being missed. 

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Eying Cannes Already

While Lin was quick to note that they are still building their own movie releases and aren’t fully reliant on acquisitions, he reiterated that they intend to be aggressive in the acquisitions market as well, with Cannes their next target for prestige potential.

It’s worked for him before. Emilia Pérez, one of his first acquisitions, did magnificently for Netflix, and they also saw success off the back of Train Dreams more recently, even earning an Oscar Best Picture nomination. 

However, Netflix was noticeably quieter at Sundance this year, and we have also seen a swing to more commercially-targeted titles from them as well. Will they be putting their money where their mouth is, as the old saying goes? We’ll have to wait and see what happens on this year’s Croisette. 

Is a streamer also a broadcaster? For the UK, at least, that answer is a strong “Yes.” There are big changes coming to streaming regulation in the UK, as an entertainment attorney at Blake & Wang P.A., Brandon Blake, examines below.

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More Like Broadcasters

This change will mean new standards and new accessibility codes for streamers with more than half a million UK users operating in the UK. A number which now includes Netflix and Disney+ alongside Prime Video. The regulation happens through the UK media regulator, Ofcom.

These changes will be brought into the Media Act 2024 as secondary legislation. While there are a number of shifts and changes to understand, effectively, they will now face the same Ofcom scrutiny and rules traditional broadcasters do. 

Tier 1 Services

The biggest change will be streaming’s promotion to “Tier 1” services. That means a new VOD standards code, aimed at keeping harmful and offensive material out, and driving accurate impartiality as a standard. Ofcom will gain powers to investigate and take action where that code is breached. There will also be minimum accessibility feature requirements. For example, 5% must be sign language accessible, while a tenth of the catalog must be audio-described.

 

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This is a change that, perhaps, was inevitable in many ways. As streaming becomes everyone’s de facto way of enjoying entertainment, it has to move from the looser privileges of an emerging tech into a fully mature format. It’s really no surprise that the UK would be one of the first to move on to tighter regulation. It’s had a tough approach to these issues for a while now. 

With this now the first regulatory framework to see such updates, there’s a core question still to be answered: will this now be the “new normal” for streamers operating internationally? Or remain in the UK alone?

Roku may have finally gained some mainstream prominence, but it remains one of the least considered streaming services. Despite that lack of real market saturation, the company continues to perform strongly, with December 2025 now its all-time high month, as Brandon Blake, check entertainment attorney Los Angeles with Blake & Wang P.A., is here to share

.

Brandon Blake

Positive Net Income

Alongside that monthly high of 6.3% of all TV streaming, Roku also had a strong fourth quarter. Their $1.5B of net revenue is a 16% uptick on the year and managed to exceed Wall Street expectations. Net income was $80.5M, or $0.53 per share. Platform revenue was the bulk, at $1.2B, an 18% boost driven mostly by video ads and interface improvements.

This was also their biggest quarter so far for premium subscriptions, which includes Roku’s third-party bundles. Quite logical, really, given this was also the festive season, and so holiday promotions would have lured in some new eyes. Roku has also been busy with expanded sports offerings, which, considered alone, saw a 75% uptick in interest.

Full Year Results

Given this was the last quarter for the company, we also have their full-year performance. That sees $4.7B in net revenue, or 15% up for the year. Platform revenue again did fantastically, at 18%, or $4.1B. They also saw a fully positive year, hitting $88.3B for net income. To round out the picture, they accounted for 145.6B streaming hours over the year, another 15% gain.

That’s a strong place to start the new year off, too. Currently, they are predicting $1.2B in revenue and $50M in income for the coming quarter, expanded to $5.5B in revenue and $325M for income over the year.

With a new streaming service recently launched, called Howdy, Roku is definitely starting its new year in a very strong place, even though it does not report its full subscriber numbers.