Epix nears launch date — more distribution deals coming?
Suddenly, after limited news over the past year, Epix has been very much the talk of the town in recent days. A number of publications, including Reuters, have picked up on some announcements out of the pay TV site jointly owned by Paramount, Lions Gate, and MGM.
The key bit of news, of course, was the announcement that it had reached its first distribution deal, with Verizon. Chief Executive Mark Greenberg suggested to us that other deals should be coming soon — that he is talking to everybody and “some are further along than others.”
This is key, in the eyes of Wall Street. Distribution deals are always a bit tricky, and even tougher in the current economic environment. But analysts want to see Epix sign a deal with one of the big players — one with a ton of subscribers. We’re talking about Cablevision, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, DirecTV. So far the reaction has been a little lukewarm from some of the big boys but that could just be a negotiating tactic.
That aside, there have been some other relatively significant bit of news. In case you missed…
- Epix will be launching in October, though hasn’t announced an official date. Sounds like they could be planning some sort of “event” or “special” to kickstart the channel
- The epixHD.com web site, which we’ve seen, is going to launch earlier. It’s currently in beta, and looks good. Has some of the feel of Hulu.com
- Epix, which will be home to some 15,000 films, including titles like “Iron Man” and “Star Trek” and the James Bond movies, just signed a content deal with independently owned Samuel Goldwyn Films.
Sun Valley: Reuters returns to Idaho
Nearly every powerful media and technology executive you can think of will be camping out in the idyllic and affluent ski resort town of Sun Valley this week. They have aimed their Gulfstreams squarely at Idaho so they can show up at the 27th edition of Allen & Co’s media and technology conference, which investment banker Herb Allen holds every summer here.
That means nearly every media reporter you can think of will be hovering among the hedgerows and parking lots (and in the bar, naturally), waiting to get a few precious seconds with super-wattage movie executives from DreamWorks’s Jeffrey Katzenberg to Paramount’s Brad Grey, technology heavyweights such as Michael Dell and Bill Gates, media kingpins Philippe Dauman and Rupert Murdoch and fresh-faced startup darlings like Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter’s Evan Williams and Ning’s Gina Bianchini.
Reuters, of course, will be among the press crew at the scene. Reporters Yinka Adegoke and Alexei Oreskovic will show up, as will I, and photographer Rick Wilking will be shooting the pictures that at Sun Valley often tell a more eloquent story than any text dispatch can.
We and a bunch of other journalists will be working around the clock (literally) to get these powerful, and often reclusive bigs to tell you what the next stunning media and technology deals will be. We’ll also be asking them how they are keeping their companies in business amid big changes in the ways people inhale their news and entertainment, as well as how they are dealing with the fallout of an economic crisis last year that nearly capsized the financial system.
Also, keep an eye out for the glamorous or the unusual. Sun Valley guests typically show up with their families, and the whole affair is supposed to be casual. That means there’s always the possibility that Murdoch could lose more than his wedding ring. And celebrities, such as investor Vivi Nevo’s wife, actress Zhang Ziyi, are often part of the program.
Check back with us at MediaFile, and remember to read Reuters’s dispatches from Sun Valley. Allen & Co might keep the press outside, but we’ll be working hard to bring you the inside story.
(Photo: Designer Diane von Furstenberg and her husband, IAC/InterActiveCorp CEO Barry Diller at last year’s conference. They are the kind of media star-power that cruises around Sun Valley, Idaho, for a few days every summer. Reuters/Rick Wilking)
Viacom has much riding on “Star Trek”
How big is “Star Trek” for Viacom?
The movie dominated the box office this weekend, taking in an estimated $72.5 million in North American ticket sales. Combined with $4 million grossed from Thursday evening’s preview screenings, “Star Trek” tallied $76.5 million in U.S. and Canadian receipts through Sunday.
Paramount could use a big hit. Last year, as the economy worsened, Paramount scaled by its film releases and cut costs by about $50 million. And this year’s first quarter didn’t offer a lot of cheer: Viacom’s entire filmed entertainment division posted an operating loss of $123 million.
“The weak economy continued to dampen the home entertainment market and Paramount was not immune to the impact,” Chief Executive Philippe Dauman said on the quarterly conference call. That put it mildly.
“Star Trek” will help the bottom line, if last weekend is any indication. But more is at stake than one quarter’s results. It’s about momentum at Paramount. The movie studio is hoping the big weekend sets up the rest of the year, with the “Transformers” sequel and a film based on “G.I. Joe” heading to the theater.
Or as The Wall Street Journal points out…
The debut of “Trek” may also mark the beginning of a new era for Paramount, which both produced and distributed the picture, which cost between $130 million and $150 million to make. In recent years, Paramount has been in reboot mode itself. In 2005, (Paramount Chief Brad Grey) was brought on board to revamp the studio after a long lackluster period, in which it experienced disappointments like “The Stepford Wives” and “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.”
It’s budget cutting time
In the media world, it looks like it’s time for a trim. Whether that’s jobs, travel expenses, or anything else, budgets are coming down… With the economy in the sick ward, what did we expect?
Yahoo is among those expected to outline ways to cut expenses, including further job cuts, a source tells Reuters. The announcement will likely come when it reports quarterly results on Tuesday:
The Internet company will discuss the scale and timing of the future layoffs, but specific details on the exact jobs to be eliminated will not be disclosed, the source said.
Over at NBC Universal, they are also cutting some costs. The Wall Street Journal says the media company wants to shave $500 million from its 2009 budget. That would be about 3 percent.
The question is can any of the other media companies be far behind?
Keep an eye on:
Ask.com goes for revamp — but will it work?
Barry Diller is not backing down. The media mogul’s IAC/InterActiveCorp has once again relaunched its Ask.com search engine — aiming to increase its share of the lucrative Web search market.
Ask.com Chief Executive Officer Jim Safka told Reuters in an interview that the revamped site — with its faster, better searches — would keep customers coming back for more. He said early tests showed a 16 percent increase in the rate at which customers returned to the search page.
The problem is that Ask.com has a long way to go. Google is the dominant Web search service in the United States, growing in August to more than 63 percent market share, according comScore, a Web audience measurement firm. Yahoo was second with a fall to 19.6 percent share and Microsoft dipped to 8.3 percent. Ask was fourth, growing slightly to 4.8 percent.
And, as the Wall Street Journal points out, this isn’t Ask’s first effort at redesign:
IAC first shifted away from the hallmarks of Ask Jeeves, which was known for answering search queries posed as questions. Then last year Ask tried again with the tech-savvy redesign, Ask3D.
Prior efforts haven’t lifted Ask above a minor competitor in the internet search business.
Still, Safka makes this effort sound promising. Reuters reports that “if a user searches for ‘What’s on TV tonight?’ the results will bring up licensed TV listing results for the user’s local cable operator based on their IP address or if the user types in a local zip code.”
It’s 8:00 p.m. — do you know where your TV is?
The new prime-time TV season is starting and that means all eyes are on Nielsen ratings. While that’s the case every fall, this one is a bit different — the industry is recovering from a writers’ strike that threw the 2007-08 season into disarray.
AdAge points out, for instance, that serialized dramas already appear to be having trouble getting their footing back. It says two NBC dramas, “Chuck” and “Life,” both opened the season to sharply lower viewing numbers for the 18-49 demographic than they did a year ago.
Both are indicative of how many serialized dramas lost media momentum last year due to the strike, and how hard it will be to rebuild it without the buildup of free media any new show receives
Unscripted shows might hold up better, the article says.
Since nature — and TV — abhors a vacuum, many viewers during the strike got sucked into reality shows like “Dancing With the Stars” and many are coming back.
Overall, the Wall Street Journal reports, the big five broadcast networks saw a 4.3 percent decline in viewership from the first week of the season a year ago. The article cites Nielsen figures.
General Electric’s NBC faced the steepest overall declines, with 16.3% fewer viewers. Older-skewing CBS, a unit of CBS Corp., was down 9.6% among viewers between the ages of 18 and 49. News Corporation’s Fox and The CW, a joint venture between CBS Corp. and Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros., were both up over last year, but still ranked Nos. 4 and 5 in viewers among the English-language networks, respectively.
