Disney Lawsuit Settles Before Reaching Courts

Walt Disney Co and Scarlett Johansson have officially resolved the legal dispute stemming from the Black Widow release and claimed breach of contract. While the exact terms of the settlement have not been released, we asked Brandon Blake, entertainment lawyer and resident entertainment business expert, to break down what we do know.

Brandon Blake– Managing Partner at Blake & Wang P.A

Johansson moved to sue Disney in July this year, citing breaches in contract regarding the hybrid release of the film. Primarily, the fact that it was not given an exclusive theatrical window, but instead had a simultaneous release on their streaming service, Disney+.

The crux of the complaint was that the dual release affected her agreed compensation, calculated with profits from the expected theatrical run in mind. Business as usual? Not quite. This lawsuit was also quite notable as one where we saw Disney hit back with unexpectedly personal references in their statements through social media. Despite this, there’s been amicable statements on the resolution from both parties with promises of future collaboration.

The dispute is part of a key overall trend currently being tested, as we run into the issue of how to reshape star’s contracts in an era where studios are releasing films with an eye on creating premium content to lure subscribers to their streaming networks, not necessarily for traditional theatrical runs.

With that in mind, it’s probably a key reason the suit was not allowed to see the inside of a courtroom. We’ve seen in a recent news break that Disney is, in fact, revisiting how it formulates contracts with its stars in the post-pandemic era to reach a fairer resolution to this exact issue. A court’s opinion (and precedent) on what was and wasn’t a breach of content in the Johansson case could have considerably weakened their bargaining position in the matter.

As it stands, it will be interesting to see how these matters are handled going forward. We will, as always, be watching closely.

Fox launches $100M fund for international unscripted productions

Fox is on the warpath to assemble more international format credentials, it would appear. With the announcement last week of a new fund worth $100M to secure their next generation of unscripted formats for the global market, it’s clear they mean business. We asked entertainment lawyer and well-known entertainment business figure, Brandon Blake, for further details.

Brandon Blake– Managing Partner at Blake & Wang P.A

It will be administered through their unscripted production arm, Fox Alternative Entertainment, with the funds directed to securing new IP for their international assets and co-producing relevant properties. FAE is a relatively new addition to the Fox stable, and was the driver behind The Big Deal. This competition series, co-produced by FAE and made specifically for Ireland’s Virgin Media Television, is Fox’s first international creation and has performed on a level with its peers to date, suggesting there’s fertile ground to bolster their ambitious plans.

The fund will be under the control of Rob Wade, the current President of Alternative Entertainment and Specials at Fox. The idea behind it’s creation is that it’s more-or-less identical budget-wise to fund and own an unscripted format as it is to produce a pilot, and there’s better data to be gleaned (and better control of the property) taking that route.

With these new formats identified and curated, they can access a more diverse content library, as well as creating properties with international appeal as streamers begin to fight over international market saturation. The fund is primarily aimed towards variety series, dating shows, and other non-scripted shows. The eventual idea is to bring some of these internationally-orientated projects home to the U.S, too, with the hopes they will have an Idols- like appeal and success on the home front.

As the streaming arena (and precious market share) becomes more globalized, it’s a strategy that could stand them in good stead. We will be watching with interest.

Nielsen’s Woes Keep On Coming

As we enter the digital age, data is king. Without an adequate idea of what budgetary spend is bringing in return, no one can operate- be it content creators, streaming platforms, or advertisers. For decades, Nielsen has stood as the epitome of viewership data, but it is finding itself more and more hopelessly out-of-date. Enough so that it has even had its accreditation suspended. Yet, is there any viable alternative? Entertainment attorney Brandon Blake unpacks this critical conundrum for us.

Nielsen’s loss of accreditation would have been disastrous for them- if any alternative existed. Yet there isn’t. Of course, people threatening to leave Nielsen is hardly new, either- but for once, we’re seeing ongoing and sustained pressure, not a spat here and there. This is a new era, and it well could have been a move to a new service, if there wasn’t a notable gap in the market.

The main complaints against Nielsen are that they have underreported figures, and that the overall standards, size, and quality of their data has slipped. Big names, from Disney to ViacomCBS, have been quick to pile on the criticism in the wake of the accreditation loss.

On the practical side, however, nothing has changed. Nielsen will continue to gather and distribute data even past the September 20th loss of accreditation. We’ve seen no big names actually drop them, and no competitor has arisen to grasp at their legacy. Yet the overall marketplace, especially for ad-driven services, will demand better as time passes- a non-standardized solution will not do it.

Will Nielsen fall out of favor, and who will take over, or will they manage to claw their way out of another loss of trust? Proprietary measurement tools like the ones Netflix is using could have a market, but that secretive atmosphere is unlikely to cut it for ad-based businesses, who will want new and transparent standards and a common measurement tool.

For now, hoping Nielsen can mend its ways may be the best way forward. But without major reform, it shouldn’t simply assume the industry will wait on it forever. All it needs is one viable competitor, and the marketplace is wide open for one right now. It remains to be seen what will happen from here.

HBO Max and YouTube partner with Spectrum TV

Spectrum Guide will be rolling out both YouTube and HBO Max on eligible devices throughout their service areas, allowing them to be accessed centrally from the Spectrum TV platform. It’s yet another sign of the evolving digital landscape we now produce entertainment in, so we sought out Brandon Blake, entertainment lawyer Los Angeles at Blake & Wang P.A, to break the implications down further for us.

Customers will now be able to tune directly to both streamers through eligible Spectrum Devices using Spectrum Internet. The HBO Max side of the deal alone will allow Spectrum customers access to well over 13,000 hours of WarnerMedia content, including subsidiaries like Adult Swim, Turner Classic Movies, and, of course, HBO. A subscription to the streamer will still be needed for viewers, but they can organize this directly through Spectrum if interested.

YouTube, of course, is a little different from the average streaming service. It won’t carry a separate subscription cost by default, although there are premium tiers people can consider. It will instead allow users to access the hottest aspects of ‘social media video’ through their TVs, as well as allowing them to stream it in 4k through their TVs.

With Roku and YouTube still sitting very uneasily with each other, this does offer Spectrum TV a unique chance to gain some extra traction in the market. YouTube, particularly, has been a drawcard for the smart device industry, and is loosely considered an essential by many in the market. HBO Max has become an attractive on-demand service as well, with WarnerMedia finally able to play at the top tiers of streaming society alongside Netflix and Disney. As with Netflix, they’re also trying to further expand their originals market with new content, all to gain extra market position in a crowded environment

It’s a neat two-for-one deal from SpectrumTV, and one that will doubtless prove enticing for shoppers looking for great deals on compatible devices as we head into the year-end frenzy of gadget buying. Will it gain extra traction as an OTT internet TV service? That remains to be seen.

Oscar Digital Screening Room Now Open

While the Oscar season is once again coming up fast, we’ve yet to slide the delta variant and its many concerns into the rearview mirror. While last year’s need to swiftly adapt the Academy Award season to a world gone abruptly digital may have been slightly rushed, this year the Academy goes into planning a hybrid awards season with a wealth of experience. As the Emmy votes wrap up and Oscar season kicks off, we see the launch of the Academy Screening Room to help voters choose their picks. One of the best entertainment lawyers in Los Angeles and Oscar’s expert, Brandon Blake, lets us in on the details.

To the surprise of no one who weathered the shaky waters of 2020 and 2021 with us, the first 4 films to have their moment in the bright lights of the brand-new screening room are all from streamers. Namely:

Netflix’s The Mitchells Vs The Machines
Amazon’s Anette
The Tomorrow War(also an Amazon title), and
Coming 2 America (Again for Amazon, directly from Paramount)

This makes this year’s Oscar season the first to skip physical screeners altogether. Anyone looking to enjoy the AMPAS contenders for this year will have to head over to the digital screening room to take them in. It’s a feature of last year’s Oscar season that was well-received among Academy voters, and it nets the Academy at least $12500 (as of last season) per title from studios and distributors, too, so it’s easy to see why it looks set to become an integral part of the Oscar hype train going forward.

Where to from here for the digital screening room? Documentary contenders, which will not have entry charges, will be shown in a different section. Likewise, International Feature entries and special sections will be expanded on as the season heats up. We will, as always, be keeping a careful eye on developments as we get nearer to crunch time.

ViacomCBS directly tackles the Disney+ Market with Paw Patrol: The Movie

Is ViacomCBS attempting a gentle turf war with Disney? With the new Paw Patrol movie hitting the big screen, we asked entertainment lawyer Brandon Blake to unpack the ramifications for us.

Paw Patrol will be accompanied by a marketing campaign that’s stretched into 8 figures and 1,800 TV ads. Partnerships with over 200 companies will come to fruition, be it through tie-in toys or other products, including free trials of Paramount+. And none of it is accidental. ViacomCBS is openly gunning to cut in on some of the childhood streaming market by leveraging franchises like SpongeBob, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and iCarly as well as, of course, Paw Patrol. To date, childhood is an arena heavily dominated by Disney.

ViacomCBS has been somewhat lacking in the streaming wards to date, avoiding the game-changing revolutions we’ve seen at WarnerMedia and Disney. In fact, this marks the first time they will have a film released to streaming alongside a theatrical release this year, citing worries around the Delta variant and their young audience. The Paw Patrol campaign represents one of the largest they’ve ever distributed, too. It’s also the first time they’ve aggressively positioned Paramount+, the streaming service they fused from the CBS/Viacom merger, as part of those efforts.

It’s ambitious, at a time when consumer buy-in is not guaranteed and parental concerns about venturing out the home will be the highest they have been in ages. Unlike Marvel and other pieces, there’s a very limited audience pool for Paw Patrol and most of them are not the familial decision-makers. ViacomCBS can also only front 42 million streaming subs, in comparison to Disney’s 174 million.

Yet it’s only part of ViacomCBS’s many-pronged attempt to carve itself a latecomer’s streaming niche. We’ve seen them actively pursue organic growth as well as partnerships to echo the Amazon/MGM and Discovery/AT&T assets over the last few months, too, as well as the launch of their joint streamer, SkyShowtime, with Comcast.

Will they be able to leverage Nickelodeon’s childhood appeal to secure some of the Disney+ market? Only time will tell, but we will be watching closely.

Disney+ heads into Asian territories

We’ve looked in greater depth at the stir surrounding the Quarter 3 Disney earnings this week, but with so much news for investors to drink in, one exciting addition to the Disney+ slate could be easily overlooked. Luckily, we have Brandon Blake’s expert eye watching the entertainment business news for us. Here’s everything you need to know about this new Disney development.

Disney+ will be expanding into Taiwan, Hong Kong, and South Korea as of November 2021. The existing Japanese streaming service will also be expanded with greater general content from October. Alongside their existing presence in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Indian subcontinent, as well as New Zealand, this will catapult their Asia-Pacific market share to new heights.

What’s driving the sudden expansion? The existing Disney+ services have been incredibly well received by viewers seeking ‘diverse entertainment content’ who are ‘drawn to (their) portfolio of brands and franchises’, in the words of Luke Kang, the president for their Asia Pacific services. In hard figures, there’s been booming subscriber growth in the area. For Thailand, Disney+ has topped app store charts since its June launch. For Indonesia and Malaysia, it’s a leading SVOD service. Demand is high, and they would be foolish indeed not to leverage it.

While we don’t have any further firm facts on the matter, we’ve been promised full details will follow soon. Disney+ currently operates in 61 countries and offers services in 21 languages globally. In addition to the North American and European markets, it also has a thriving Latin American presence and the booming Asia Pacific division to capitalize on.

While Disney was a relative latecomer to the streaming market, in its short existence Disney+ has become a dominant part of both their balance sheet and brand strategy, with the company reforming around streaming and digital formats earlier this year. Expansion into the Asian market will doubtless serve them well over time. This entertainment lawyer will be keeping a careful eye on further news for the expansion. Of course, we’ll keep you in the loop when it does.

Roku reached 55 million active users

This week we see Roku reveal that 1.5 million new active accounts have been added during the second quarter, bringing the overall total to 55.1 million active users. All the same, their balance sheet shows a slight decline in growth as we emerge into the post-pandemic landscape. Entertainment attorney Los Angeles Brandon Blake looks deeper into what these numbers could mean for future growth.

Overall net revenue for Roky topped out at $645M for Q2, with $338M of that as profit. Yet we also see player gross profit fall off badly, with a 180% year-on-year decrease and a $6.7M hole in their pockets. Streaming hours also lagged behind Q1 by 1 billion hours, although when the overall total was 17.4 billion, that’s not all that bad in context.

The driving factors for the decline are also logical. Out-of-home entertainment has been a big focus for people in developed countries as vaccine programs lead to the easing of pandemic restrictions. A broader dip in streaming and overall TV hours is being seen across the board, and even the Roku CFO noted this. Overall, streaming hours on active accounts appear to be leveling out at 3.5 hours a day, similar to Roku’s own pre-COVID levels and suggesting a solid entrenchment in the market that should continue to deliver well.

More positively for their bottom line, monetized ad impressions have doubled year-on-year, indicative that mainstream marketing has finally noticed the potential of streamers. Roku itself also added the Quibi library to their own, rebranded as Roku Originals, and Roku seem very happy with the acquisition. With 8 shiny Emmy nominations for Roku Original shows, it’s hard to argue. Intriguingly, stats suggest that many of the users coming on board for the new content are first-time viewers, too, suggesting a broadened market appeal through the acquisition.

Overall, while there is some slackening on the pandemic boom, Roku’s balance sheet and future profile are looking strong.

Universal Sends Films to Peacock Within 4 Months of Opening

This week, Universal Filmed Entertainment Group has announced a major development in how their film pipeline will work going forward. BLAKE & WANG P.A entertainment lawyer examines what we know.

Brandon Blake– Entertainment Lawyer

As of 2022, Universal released films will open on Peacock within four months of their theatrical opening. This is, of course, a considerable acceleration in the traditional pay-one home entertainment window, which would once have been at least 6 months. It’s not the first move like this we’ve seen, however, with Disney, Paramount, and WarnerMedia all planning early releases for their prime titles on their streaming services.

The Universal model is a little different, however. Its 18-month pay-one window is specifically designed to allow content distribution over several platforms. Peacock takes over the first 4 months and the last 4 months. However, the intervening 10 months will allow other partners- namely Amazon Prime Video and IMDb TV- to take over. Intriguingly, HBO, their current pay-one partner, does not seem to be taking a share of the cake. The deal will include not only Universal titles, but those from Focus Features, Illumination, and DWA as well.

Offered reasons for the intriguing pipeline include reaching the broadest possible audience and maximizing profit from their vast film library. As the Universal theatrical schedule for 2022 includes anticipated titles like Jurassic World: Dominion and Illumination’s Minions: The Rise of Gru, results could be interesting. Peacock has languished a little since its launch, primarily due to the surge of focus on streaming by industry heavyweights. Despite meeting 42 million sign ups in April, that covers only 10 million paid subscriptions. It was also hoped that the planned 2020 Olympics could be used to promote the service after launch, only to have the international sporting event delayed until this Summer. Of course, this may well be the boost the service needs.

Universal has, to date, been something of a ‘pioneer’ in seeking to collapse the traditional theatrical window. We’ve already seen them controversially create a ‘premium VOD’ window a mere 30-45 days after theatrical release. Warner Bros, too, have announced their entire slate for this year will debut on day-and-date only, with immediate HBO Max access.

Will this be the future for theatrical release? It’s tough to say. One thing is for certain, however. This interesting new release pipeline will be well worth watching.

Improved working conditions during the pandemic may have stalled union negotiations

This week we see IATSE and AMPTP fall into an awkward hiatus with no resolution in sight. While talks will resume on July 6th, far in advance of the 31st July contract expiration, it’s still a strained situation. BLAKE & WANG P.A entertainment law firms Los Angeles examines one potential factor behind the failure to meet common ground.

Union reps have stated that there seems to be no meeting in the middle on key aspects they wish to address, hence the reason for the deadlock. Our industry contacts suggest some of this could well be linked to the swift and decisive response to the pandemic that allowed many sets to reopen and continue working throughout the troubled past year.

This, it is claimed, demonstrated that safe and thoughtful workplace management is possible, and thus the union feels that key changes to what it claims are ‘dangerous working conditions’ can easily be made. Think meal breaks and rest periods, as well as better handling of ‘Fraturdays’, long shoots that extend late in the night on Friday and Saturday.

Brandon Blake– Managing Partner at Entertainment Attorney Blake & Wang P.A.

The news isn’t all gloomy, however. IATSE leaders have told members that good progress has been made on diversity and inclusion matters. The primary hitch seems to lie in economic matters, including funding for the Motion Picture Industry Pension and Health Plan. Companies want greater cost-sharing from workers, while the union is pushing for funding from streaming residuals.

Overall, it’s not been looking good, and it’s easy to see why the talks have stalled to the extent they have. Let’s hope that with the break until July 6th, cooler heads can come back to the negotiating table and a better set of compromises can be found. As the contracts in question expire on July 31st, there will be time pressure to consider when talks resume. BLAKE & WANG P.A one of the best entertainment lawyers in Los Angeles will, of course, be watching the situation carefully.