#viacomcbs investor day 2021

[avatar-news]

Avatar Studios masterpost!

Here’s absolutely everything there is to know about the big Avatar news from today’s ViacomCBS Paramount+ Streaming Event and investor day!

Summary of facts

Avatar Studios is a new studio at Nickelodeon. Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra co-creators and showrunners Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino are the co-Chief Creative Officers of Avatar Studios.

Avatar Studios will create original movies, series, and shorts set in the world of Avatar.

The first project is an animated theatrical film set to start production later this year.

One or more Avatar Studios Paramount+ Original Series will be among the 50 original shows coming to Paramount+ in its first two years.

The above image has been included in many articles and official social media posts. It’s presumably the current official logo of Avatar Studios.

That is a distilled list of the cold, hard facts from the whirlwind of news that has come out today, from many different sources. With that out of the way, the rest of this post will delve deeper into everything we’ve learned, including full-length quotes from the people involved.

Today’s event

Today, ViacomCBS (the company that owns Nickelodeon, and thus Avatar) held their “Streaming Event” and investor day. ViacomCBS is launching their big streaming service, Paramount+, on March 4th. It’s a rebrand and relaunch of their current streaming service, CBS All Access. Paramount+ is meant to be their big push to compete in the streaming wars with Disney’s Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+; WarnerMedia’s HBO Max; NBCUniversal’s Peacock; Apple’s Apple TV+; and, yes, Netflix’s Netflix by Netflix in collaboration with Netflix.

Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra are already on CBS All Access in full, and they, like all the rest of the content on the service, will automatically transfer over to Paramount+. (Currently we know absolutely nothing about when or if either show will leave Netflix. They’re currently on both Netflix and CBS All Access, so it’s possible they’ll remain on both Netflix and Paramount+ for some time.)

Here’s my livetweet thread from today’s event. Below, I’ll cover the notable stuff:

The first big mention of Avatar was when it was called out by the CEO as one of the ViacomCBS properties that were big hits on other streaming services last year.

It’s notable that it was mentioned among a list of exclusively adult, live-action series.

This is totally in line with the earlier stuff where the CEO mentioned it as having potential for Paramount+ original content.

The presentation also included something along the lines of: if you helped make one of our properties popular on another streaming service, there’s a good chance originals will be coming to Paramount+.

Basically, they saw how huge Avatar was on Netflix last year, and that visibility was up to the highest levels of the company.

And of course, finally they announced the creation of Avatar Studios. This was actually a few minutes after the news went up officially online, so at that point I lost track of the stream as I covered the news. But, I do know they didn’t show/announce anything else in the event besides the news that went up online.

Official quotes/statements

Here are the official quotes about Avatar Studios sent out today:

Joint official statement from Bryke:

“It’s hard to believe it’s been 19 years since we created Avatar: The Last Airbender. But even after all that time, there are still many stories and time periods in Aang’s world that we are eager to bring to life. We are fortunate to have an ever-growing community of passionate fans that enjoys exploring the Avatarverse as much as we do. And with this new Avatar Studios venture we have an unparalleled opportunity to develop our franchise and its storytelling on a vast scale, in myriad exciting ways and mediums. We are exceedingly grateful to Brian Robbins and Ramsey Naito for their enthusiasm and respect for the Avatar property and us as its stewards. From the start, they’ve supported our ambitious plans and created a positive, proactive environment for us. We’re excited to be back at Nickelodeon where Avatar began, doing what we do best in the biggest way possible. We can’t wait to build the great teams and productions to make all of this fantasy a reality.”

via Entertainment Weekly

Bryan on his Instagram and Tumblr:

“Bryke is back at Nickelodeon in a big way. ⚡️💙⬇️💙⚡️ Mike and I are heading up a new studio dedicated to expanding the Avatarverse.”

Mike on his Instagram:

“BIG announcement! @bryankonietzko and I are returning to #Nickelodeon as co-chief creative officers of Avatar Studios to develop new animated projects in the #avatarverse and oversee the franchise. Couldn't be more excited and inspired!”

Brian Robbins:

“Avatar: The Last Airbender and Korra have grown at least ten-fold in popularity since their original hit runs on Nickelodeon, and Ramsey Naito and I are incredibly excited to have Mike and Bryan’s genius talent on board to helm a studio devoted to expanding their characters and world into new content and formats for fans everywhere. Creator-driven stories and characters have long been the hallmarks of Nickelodeon, and Avatar Studios is a way to give Mike and Bryan the resources and runway to open up their imaginations even more and dive deeper into the action and mythology of Avatar as we simultaneously expand upon that world and the world of content available on Paramount+ and Nickelodeon.”

via Deadline

Brian Robbins was referred to as the president of Nickelodeon on Entertainment Weekly, and “President, ViacomCBS Kids & Family” on Deadline. Ramsey Naito is the president of Nickelodeon Animation.

Press release

The post-event ViacomCBS press release mentioned Avatar in two places:

First, right up at the top:

“Over 50 original series to premiere on Paramount+ over next two years, including Halo, Frasier, Criminal Minds, iCarly, The Real World, Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies, shows from the Avatar, Yellowstone, Star Trek and SpongeBob SquarePants universes and more”

The wording makes it unclear if it will be multiple shows from each of the final four franchises mentioned, or if it’s plural because it’s listing multiple franchises. It’s talking about the first two years specifically, so it’s likely that in that timeframe only one Avatar show would be ready, but in general it’s basically guaranteed that there will be multiple in the coming years.

The second place it’s mentioned is in the “Expansive Slate of Upcoming Paramount+ Original Series” - “Kids & Family” section:

“Avatar – Nickelodeon’s new animation studio division dedicated entirely to creating content based on the wildly popular world of Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra. Led by the series’ original creators Mike DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, in partnership with the Nickelodeon Animation Studio, Avatar Studios will produce for Paramount+ a wide-range of Avatar-inspired content, ranging from spinoffs and theatricals to short form.”

Info from news

Across the many news sources today (sites, social media, etc.) this info has sort of coalesced:

What is Avatar Studios?

It has been referred to as a studio, a venture, a division of Nickelodeon, an animation studio division, etc. etc. etc.

As far as we know, it’s not an animation production studio and so doesn’t employ animators who draw the frames of animation themselves.

What does Avatar Studios make?

The various sources have said they’re making series, movies, and short-form stuff. The first two are pretty self-explanatory. The third, shorts, remains to be seen what it is. I could honestly see official TikTok videos or something, but that’s just my speculation. 😂

Right now it has been said that Avatar Studios will be making Avatar stuff only. Various wordings like “based on” and “Avatar-inspired” and “in the Avatarverse” have been used.

The question of live-action has arisen. Some places, including Mike’s post, specifically say animation, while Bryke’s official statement also says “myriad [...] mediums”. It’s highly likely there will be both animation and live-action at some point. Currently it’s probably animation-focused, with the first project being an animated movie.

Where will Avatar Studios content come out?

Another case where there have been various wordings used throughout the different news sources.

It has been said that Avatar Studios’ content will be made for Paramount+, Nickelodeon’s “linear” (meaning old-fashioned live TV) and digital outlets, third parties, and theaters.

Paramount+ is self-explanatory, that would be Paramount+ Originals streaming exclusively on Paramount+.

Nickelodeon complicates things a bit. I find it a little hard to believe that within a few years, new Avatar shows specifically for Nick’s TV channel will start being made. It’s possible statements to this effect are indicating the content will also end up aired on TV. ViacomCBS’s Star Trek universe’s first Nick show will be taking that route: first on Paramount+ and then later airing on TV on Nick, so I’m guessing something similar could be the case here. As for Nick’s digital side, they have episodes to watch on their website and apps, so I’m guessing that’s what that refers to-- I wouldn’t read into it too much. Nick itself is one of the sections on Paramount+, which also just makes my head spin a bit more.

Mention of third parties is also a little weird at first. ViacomCBS does double-dip a lot, so maybe Avatar Studios will also end up making shows for, like, Netflix and others, but it just seems like a weird business decision when they just announced Paramount+. One thing this could be referring to is potentially other mediums like books and games, for which it would make sense to be for other companies.

Lastly, theatrical. In their movies strategy, ViacomCBS announced that Paramount movies like the Mission: Impossible franchise will still be in theaters, but go to Paramount+ exclusively after a reduced 30-to-45-day theatrical window. (Some movies will also have the regular window, also a little confusing.) Some movies will also just be Paramount+ Originals in the first place, like the newest SpongeBob movie. Avatar Studios’ first project has been exclusively called a theatrical animated film. This seems to suggest that it will be in theaters at first, then a Paramount+ Original shortly after (probably the shortest, 30-day window if I were to guess). This is interesting because if it’s theatrical, that could suggest a big budget, especially if this is their first project they intend to make an impressive splash with. It could also potentially suggest 3D/CGI animation rather than 2D, but I personally don’t find that super likely. However, it could mean fancier 2D animation than we’re used to, and that’s saying a lot because we’re used to some pretty good animation from the Avatar franchise! The wording of “theatricals” could also just be used as a synonym for “films”, to indicate prestige, theatrical release quality and budget rather than made-for-TV or direct-to-DVD vibes.

In summary, it seems like right now, they’re covering all the bases, but if Paramount+ is as successful as they want it to be, it’s likely they would eventually (maybe quite soon) move more and more stuff into it exclusively. Currently, there’s also still a lot of uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and so the new state of the theatrical, linear, and streaming marketplaces hasn’t really crystallized yet either. The world does seem to be moving to streaming quite hard though, so while they’re covering all the bases right now, again, it’s likely most of this stuff will end up mainly as a Paramount+ thing.

And again, I mentioned TikTok as a possible experimental place for short-form content. Maybe. Especially if they make the next Avatar after Korra modern day?! Ok, let me not get ahead of myself...

Who will work at Avatar Studios?

We only know about Bryke so far. They’re the co-Chief Creative Officers.

Brandon Hoang, who was working with Bryke on live-action ATLA at Netflix, has confirmed he’s not involved. He also left Netflix at some point; not sure if it was at the exact same time or for the same reasons as Bryke, but he’s neither here nor there, as it were.

No, I don’t have anything to tell you about Jeremy Zuckerman. :)

Given that there will be multiple shows and movies, it’s likely that lots of different people will end up working on them. Bryke’s official statement said that they will “build [...] teams and productions” at Avatar Studios, and Mike also said that they will be “oversee[ing] the franchise”. Right now, we don’t know what exact role Bryke will have. They might write/direct/showrun some stuff themselves, or they might oversee other creatives they hire for those roles, or, likely, both-- different levels of involvement for different shows and movies.

As mentioned previously, Avatar Studios (probably) isn’t an animation production studio. This means they will still hire animation production studios, like Studio Mir, to do the animation itself. I say “like” Studio Mir, because I’m not sure if Studio Mir itself is free right now. They recently officially partnered with Netflix and have plenty of things on their plate there. So, it remains to be seen who will be doing the actual animation for Avatar Studios’ projects.

Lastly, this is an awesome opportunity to have the “culturally appropriate, non-whitewashed cast” assurance Bryke originally made for live-action ATLA both on and off the screen at Avatar Studios!

Netflix and live-action ATLA

There has been no news or updates on the live-action adaptation of ATLA being developed at Netflix, which Bryke was originally showrunning but left (to do all this!) over creative differences.

No, it’s not cancelled.

I suppose this makes it a little more likely that Netflix would choose to give up on it, but right now there have been no changes. The existence of Avatar Studios almost definitely has no effect on the licensing rights Netflix obtained to make a live-action ATLA adaptation-- that stuff is usually pretty iron-clad. Again, maybe in light of all this Netflix will choose to not go through with it, but they also might want to make it even more now to compete with Paramount+ on Avatar. We don’t really know the stances of the decisionmakers at Netflix, so we’ll have to wait and see.

Personal note

Over the last few months I’ve gotten a lot of, err, rude comments and messages whenever I said there could be new stuff coming. I’m really not here to say “I told you so”, because I don’t care-- I run Avatar News for fun.

But, I hope this goes to show that I wouldn't be posting things if I didn't have good factual reason to believe them, and that very much panned out very correctly here. Sometimes it’s directly or indirectly based on stuff I can't say publicly. I always have and always will post in a trustworthy, fact- and reason-based manner.

In light of that, and for just a bit of “I told you so”, here’s a timeline of all the Avatar News posts that led up to today. Definitely had a lot of fun re-reading these just now:

August 12th, 2020: Bryke left the Netflix live-action ATLA series two months ago. It’s not the end of the world.

September 15th, 2020: ViacomCBS is relaunching their streaming service next year as Paramount+, the future home of Avatar shows and movies?

September 17th, 2020: Anonymous asked: Do you think now that the original creators left the live action remake that they will make a new avatar animated series?

November 6th, 2020: CEO says Avatar franchise has potential for new original series on Paramount+, the new streaming service launching next year to compete with Netflix, Disney+, and HBO Max

January 4th, 2021: “This also brings up another interesting point, which is that Bryke actually originally pitched this storyline to Nick as an animated movie after the show. That obviously didn’t happen, but now that Paramount+ is coming and teasing potential new Avatar content…”

January 5th, 2021: Investor day announcement

January 21st, 2021: The Fire Nation Awaits 🌺 An in-depth look at the ever-elusive islands in the era of Korra and when we will finally pay them a visit. See section: Are they saving the Fire Nation for an animated movie?

February 12th, 2021: All seven seasons of Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra are coming to Paramount+ on March 4th!

February 20th, 2021: The musical themes of Avatar: An Avatar News interview with Jeremy Zuckerman. See section: “So, another streaming service: Paramount+.”

February 24th, 2021: Avatar Studios masterpost :)

[thesevillereport]

In Focus: The Robinhood IPO Pt II

In 2012 a company the entire world was waiting on to go public finally did. It priced its IPO at $38 a share and went public on May 18 of that year, and out of the gate it was a dud.

The stock would trade downwards over the next 16 weeks falling below $20 a share. Again, this was a company a large portion of the investment community was waiting on to go public. Many expected the stock to go to the moon right out of the gate, but it didn't. 22 weeks after the IPO, the stock started to catch its footing and would go on a massive run upwards. That company was Facebook (FB), and the stock price now is $365.30 per share.

This week Robinhood (HOOD) went public at $38 per share and it wasn't a great outing. The stock currently trades at $35.15 as of this writing and there has been a lot said about Robinhood and its IPO. At its IPO price Robinhood was valued at $35 billion, and that may have turned some investors off. At $35 billions Robinhood would be more valuable than American Airlines (AAL) ($13 billion) and United Airlines (UAL) ($15.6 billion) combined, and more valuable thanAmerica's number one pure play grocer Kroger (KR) ($30 billion). Robinhood has value, but investors weren't convinced that $32 billion was it, and for good reason.

In Robinhood's S1 filing it noted 18 million accounts with $81 billion of assets under custody. In 2020 Morgan Stanley (MS) paid $13 billion for E-Trade, which had only 5 million accounts but $360 billion in assets.  Looking at it that way, the numbers don't add up for Robinhood.

Then there's the payment for order flow issue. It's the reason why Robinhood can offer commission free trading and the reason the company became public enemy number one earlier in the year. Never forget, Ted Cruz and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were concerned and on the same side on the same issue, and the issue revolved around Robinhood.

There's a belief that there are major changes in the works around payment for order flow, and that the practice could be banned in the U.S. as it is in the U.K. In Q1 2021, more than 80% of Robinhood's revenue came from order flow. If the practice were to be banned, that would be a massive hit to Robinhood, and the company would be a shell of its former self, and may not be able to survive without being acquired.

$35 Billion?

When Robinhood's IPO price started to make the news, I asked myself why does Robinhood's founders and its underwriters believe it's a $30 billion company? Then I remembered, it's because it's tech, and in this day and age investors are overpaying for "tech." Don't believe me, compare GM (GM), Ford (F), and Tesla (TSLA), an $82 billion company, a $56 billion company, and a $680 billion company respectively. In 2019 GM delivered 2.8 million vehicles,  Ford sold 2.4 million vehicles, and Tesla delivered 376,000 vehicles. GM and Ford have long been considered automobile manufacturers, but Tesla, Tesla is a tech company that makes cars, like Apple (AAPL) is a tech company that makes phones and Netflix (NFLX) is a tech company that leases, produces, and displays content. In the old days, Netflix would be a broadcast company or a movie studio, but today it's a tech firm, so we'll pay 53x earnings to own it over the 9x earnings to own ViacomCBS (VIAC), a simple broadcast company.

Since around the time of 2012,  it didn't matter what a company did, what mattered was what box we put the company in, and this is why Robinhood's stock will be a winner in the end.

Remember E-Trade was acquired for $13 billion dollars, and while it offered everything Robinhood does and more, it was considered a discount brokerage firm, not a tech firm and not a FinTech, just a plain old boring brokerage. Same for TD Ameritrade, another company with more assets ($1.3 trillion) but less accounts (12 million) than Robinhood. TD was acquired by Charles Schwab (SCHW) for $26 billion, and like E-Trade, TD offered everything Robinhood offers and more, but it wasn't considered tech. That simple four letter word, "tech" makes all the difference in how Wall Street values a company.

For Robinhood, unfortunately, their tech isn't as free to grow as "tech" in some other industries. Robinhood has major regulations to abide by that prevent it from spreading its wings as far as it wants to. Remember how long it took the company to get its cryptocurrency purchasing arm online and how long it took the company to offer debit cards to its account holders. Being a steward of the public's money comes with serious restrictions, and Robinhood has to balance that with the tech attitude of go fast and break things.

There are issues, but I'm still a believer in Robinhood and it's primarily because of its social status. The company is everywhere, good news or bad news, Robinhood always seems to find its way into an important timeline or news feed.

While many of us, myself included, tend to harp on the GameStop debacle that Robinhood created, there was a lot of good happening on the app before they halted trading on GameStop and other meme stocks that week. Before the halt, regular people were making big money, and enticing others who had never thought about investing before to join in. Those new investors signed up to Robinhood, because that's the user interface they saw on their timelines. When people see +$10,000 of total returns on a green and white background, they're not going to go and open a WeBull or Public account, they're going to open a Robinhood account.

As bad as the GameStop debacle was at the time, and as much as people say they're still upset about it, people are still using Robinhood and finding their way to Robinhood. When the next meme stock takes off, it will only attract more people to sign up to the platform.

Assuming that the government does nothing about payment for order flow (which I don't think they will), Robinhood's best days are ahead of it. For many young companies, investors who buy in at the growth stages have little to no idea what the destination is for the company. When Netflix was delivering DVDs, we didn't know it would transition into a streaming giant. We didn't know the iPod would turn into the iPhone or that Google search would turn into Google Maps, Google Docs, G-Mail, and Android, or that Musical.ly would turn into Tik Tok, but we know exactly where Robinhood can go.

Robinhood has to grow into the "tech" version of E-Trade and TD Ameritrade. It also has to convince its 18 million users to not leave for better platforms when those customers build up their accounts. There is still this idea that having $5,000 in a Robinhood account is okay, but $50,000 needs a better place to rest, and Robinhood has to tackle that kind of thinking. That's the goal for Robinhood, that's what you're hoping for if you're a Robinhood investor now, that the company will continue to expand its offerings, grow its customer base, keep more of its users than it loses from quarter-to-quarter, and hopefully be properly funded so that it can be on the right of history when the next GameStop comes around, and it will come around.

Since the Facebook IPO, I've been attracted to big names with slow starts out of the gate and Robinhood fits the bill. Overthe past few years I've done well grabbing Corsair (CRSR), Palantir (PLTR), and Slack (CRM) after their not so spectacular debuts, and all have performed great. What I learned watching Facebook is that professional money managers are like kids, they like it if someone else likes it, but no one wants to say they like it first. Robinhood definitely has its issues, but hey, it's tech.

[aion-rsa]

Mark Wahlberg Movie Infinite Signals That Paramount Plus Will Evolve Beyond Star Trek

https://ift.tt/3en8OgH

Paramount+, once known as CBS All Access, has mainly defined itself with an overwhelming wave of Star Trek television content. However, surrounded by high-end competition from Disney+, HBO Max, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, the rebranded streamer is looking to live long and prosper beyond the space-faring franchise, having announced grandiose plans to expand its movie content. Most notably, sci-fi film Infinite, directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring Mark Wahlberg, will be the service’s first theater-skipping feature offering; a surefire sign of things to come.

Obviously, the boat of box-office-bypassing movies already left its proverbial dock some time ago; a notion recently exemplified by streaming’s dominance of the 2021 Academy Awards via Best Picture winner Nomadland (which debuted on Hulu in the U.S.), along with The Sound of Metal (Amazon Prime Video), Judas and the Black Messiah (HBO Max), Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Netflix), Mank (Netflix) and Soul (Disney+)—embarrassingly-shrunken television audience for the ceremony itself notwithstanding. Indeed, while Paramount’s plans were likely long-gestating, there had to be a feeling that its insurgent steaming service missed said boat after fellow streamers cleaned up at the Oscars. This is especially the case as the theater-free phenomenon’s pandemic-related circumstances rapidly evolve in the post-vaccine era. Yet, today’s earnings call with ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish shows a company embracing the old adage, “Better late than never.”

Paramount announced a rather auspicious acquisition in director Antoine Fuqua’s Infinite, which stars a reliable headliner in Mark Wahlberg, joined by an ensemble consisting of Dylan O’Brien, Toby Jones, Rupert Friend, Jason Mantzoukas, Kingsman: The Secret Service standout Sophie Cookson and, notably, 12 Years a Slave Oscar nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor as the villain. The film, which originally had Marvel’s Captain America, Chris Evans, tapped as its star, was shot back in 2019, and, interestingly enough, was originally scheduled to hit theaters on May 28, 2021. Those plans, of course, have since dramatically changed, with Infinite now set for a U.S. streaming premiere on Paramount+ in late-June, with international plans to be revealed at a later time.

Read more

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The Paramount+ arrival of Infinite will unveil famed director Fuqua’s first feature since 2018’s The Equalizer 2. The ambitious sci-fi actioner—officially teased as “a classic story of good vs. evil with an epic twist”—was scripted by John Lee Hancock and Ian Shorr, who adapted D. Eric Maikranz’s 2009 novel, The Reincarnationist Papers. Bearing a plot that somewhat resembles the Assassin’s Creed video game series (and its 2016 movie adaptation), the film focuses on a secret society, called the Cognomina, whose members have the helpful ability to recall details from their past lives. However, things unravel as the haunting memories of Wahlberg’s formerly-Chris-Evans-cast character—a schizophrenic newcomer to the organization named Evan Michaels—uncover dangerous secrets. Thus, a film that could have been lucrative box office fodder for the popcorn crowd will instead become a bellwether offering for the streamer similar to HBO Max’s recent premium-free premieres of action-packed crowd-pleasers like Wonder Woman 1984, Godzilla vs. Kong, Mortal Kombat and the upcoming Dune.

Indeed, Bakish promises a release strategy that will see the consistent arrivals of even more pandemic-era pictures purloined from their planned theatrical releases, stating, “All of this is a preview to a substantial ramping up of original movies next year, when we expect to begin averaging an original movie a week in 2022.” The move complements news revealed to investors back in February that Paramount-hailing major releases such as A Quiet Place II and the untitled Mission: Impossible 7 will premiere on Paramount+ within a small 45-day window from their designated theatrical releases; news that’s more immediate, since the former is set to hit theaters by the end of the month, May 28, to be followed next year, on May 27, 2022, by the latter.

Interestingly, the effect of Paramount Plus’s acquisition of Infinite will be felt as immediately as early-June, during which 1,000 movies will be added to the platform’s existing film library, bringing its total to 2,500. It’s a dramatic transformation for the streamer, which, in its former life as CBS All Access, failed to make much of an industry impact outside of Star Trek—even with Jordan Peele’s heralded reboot of The Twilight Zone. Of course, that is not to say that the platform is moving away from Star Trek, since it’s still home to exorbitantly-produced returning live-action series Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard, which will be joined by a spinoff show of the former, the U.S.S. Enterprise-set Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and, prospectively, an untitled series focused on elusive intelligence agency Section 31 starring Michelle Yeoh’s Emperor Philippa Georgiou—not to mention current animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Nevertheless, the ViacomCBS CEO is effectively hyping the Paramount platform’s imminent influx of films as a “Mountain of Movies,” setting up a course correction to the platform’s hitherto tardiness on the original movie front. While no serious prognosticator expects Infinite to make any kind of dent at the 2022 Oscars akin to its aforementioned dramatic streaming peers, its move does carry implications. The continued adherence to a socially-distanced distribution scheme is a consequential shift to Paramount+ itself, and also reinforces the idea that the pandemic’s effects on the industry could become permanent.  

The post Mark Wahlberg Movie Infinite Signals That Paramount Plus Will Evolve Beyond Star Trek appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[ramascreen]

Paramount+ Is Now The Home of Star Trek. Here's First Image of STAR TREK: PRODIGY

Paramount+ Is Now The Home of Star Trek. Here’s First Image of STAR TREK: PRODIGY

ViacomCBS has announced that the Star Trek Universe will head to Paramount +. The news was revealed during ViacomCBS’ Investor Day event for its highly anticipated new streaming service. Included within the line-up is the upcoming all-new animated kids’ series STAR TREK: PRODIGY which will now premiere on Paramount+ in the U.S. in 2021. Developed and produced by Nickelodeon and CBS Studios,…

[legok9]

Star Trek: Prodigy

ViacomCBS today announced that the Star Trek Universe will head to Paramount +. The news was revealed during ViacomCBS’ Investor Day event for its highly anticipated new streaming service. Included within the line-up is the upcoming all-new animated kids’ series Star Trek: Prodigy which will now premiere on Paramount+ in the U.S. in 2021. Developed and produced by Nickelodeon and CBS Studios, Prodigy is the first Star Trek series for the kids and family audience and will bow later this year on Nickelodeon.

A first-look image of the Star Trek: Prodigy bridge crew was also released today.  In Prodigy, six young outcasts know nothing about the ship they have commandeered – a first in the history of the Star Trek franchise, but over the course of their adventures together, they will each be introduced to Starfleet and the ideals it represents. Kate Mulgrew was previously announced as reprising the iconic role of Captain Kathryn Janeway to lead this brand new Prodigy bridge crew.

I didn't know what to expect from Prodigy and I'm still surprised!

It's an odd choice to make the characters brand new alien species, but I like the designs and general style. If this were an original sci-fi series I would have no qualms. I'd wager the goal is to make this series accessible to kids who have never seen Star Trek, so they invented brand new species.

Hopefully this will "feel like Star Trek" when we see Janeway and some Starfleet uniforms.

Oh, and apparently Thadiun Okona from TNG will return...

[orbemnews]

AT&T Just Undid a Big Deal. Here’s What Comes Next. Counting the cost AT&T is painting a rosy picture for the future of its media business, which it will spin off and merge with Discovery. That new streaming giant is a formidable stand-alone competitor to Netflix and Disney. The move leaves AT&T to focus on its telecom business, which looks less bright after being overshadowed by its expensive — and ultimately futile — deal-making binge in media and entertainment under its previous chief, Randall Stephenson. Here’s how AT&T got here, in three key deals: A $39 billion bid to buy T-Mobile. After regulatory pushback, in 2011 AT&T walked away from an effort to become the country’s largest wireless company. T-Mobile paired up instead with Sprint, and the two went on to buy huge amounts of spectrum in the high-stakes battle for 5G, leaving AT&T behind as it lobbies regulators to step in. The failed deal hit AT&T with a $3 billion dollar breakup fee, at the time the largest ever. The $67 billion acquisition of DirectTV. In 2015, AT&T bet on cable TV as a way to amass customers whom it could eventually convert to streaming. But DirectTV bled subscribers as customers cut the cord, and AT&T unloaded a stake in the company last year to TPG that valued DirectTV at about a third of its acquisition price. The deal also cost AT&T about $50 million in advisory fees, according to Refinitiv. The $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner. In 2018, Stephenson called the deal a “perfect match,” but the combined group struggled to invest in its telecom business while also spending enough to compete with the entertainment specialists at Netflix and Disney. Three years later, AT&T is now spinning off the company so it can (re)focus on its quest for 5G market share. AT&T paid $94 million in advisory fees to put the two companies together and an estimated $61 million to split them apart. (Side note: Kurt Simon, who advised AT&T on the purchase of Time Warner while he was at JPMorgan, also advised AT&T on the deal with Discovery as a banker at Goldman Sachs.) Up next: debt reductions and dividend cuts. AT&T is sitting on more than $170 billion in debt. As part of the deal with Discovery, AT&T will get $43 billion to help reduce its debt load. (The spun-off media business will begin its independent life with $58 billion in debt.) AT&T also said it would reduce its dividend payout ratio — effectively cutting the amount it pays in half, according to Morgan Stanley. “You can call it a cut, or you can call it a re-sizing of the business,” John Stankey, AT&T’s chief executive, told DealBook. “It’s still a very, very generous dividend.” AT&T’s shares closed down 2.7 percent yesterday, and they’re further in the red in premarket trading today. There will probably be more deals. Yesterday’s transaction could kick off more consolidation among content providers as they race for scale to compete against another giant. Candidates include what John Malone, Discovery’s chairman, calls the “free radicals” — like Lionsgate, ViacomCBS and AMC, as well as NBCUniversal and Fox. Meanwhile, Amazon is in talks to buy another independent studio, MGM. In a sign of the pressure that players face to spend big to bulk up, shares in Comcast, which owns NBCUniversal, fell 5.5 percent yesterday. Elliott Management is taking a victory lap. The activist hedge fund took on AT&T in 2019, arguing that the company should cut costs and, later, consider separating out WarnerMedia. Stankey engaged with Elliott, and — to the hedge fund’s surprise, DealBook hears — quickly moved to strike the DirecTV and Discovery deals. “AT&T has now executed on its promise,” Jesse Cohn, the Elliott executive who oversaw the investment, said in a statement. Who stays, and who goes? David Zaslav, who will shift from running Discovery to taking over the combined group, didn’t commit to naming his team yet. But Jason Kilar, the current head of WarnerMedia — who didn’t learn of the deal talks until a few days ago — won’t be part of it. Who will is now the talk of Hollywood: Richard Plepler, the well-liked former head of HBO, could come back; Jeff Zucker, the departing head of CNN, could decide to stay; and Warner Bros. could be set to go through another wrenching executive shake-up. What does this mean for your favorite shows? The Times’s Ed Lee and John Koblin address this and other lingering questions about the blockbuster deal. HERE’S WHAT’S HAPPENING Walmart posts bumper earnings. The retail giant reported a first-quarter profit of $2.7 billion, far exceeding analyst expectations. It also raised its forecast for the rest of the year, citing “pent-up demand” among shoppers. Elon Musk faces pressure on multiple fronts. California’s Department of Motor Vehicles is investigating whether Tesla misled customers by touting “full self-driving” technology. Michael Burry, the short-seller featured in “The Big Short,” has made a big bet against Tesla. And the F.T.C. warned that Musk impersonators had stolen over $2 million over the past six months through cryptocurrency scams (for more on that, see below). New York and New Jersey expand their reopening plans. New York will lift most mask requirements for people vaccinated against Covid-19 — except for places like public transit and health care facilities — beginning tomorrow. And New Jersey said that public school students would return to in-person learning in the fall. Countries are warned to drop fossil fuels, fast. The International Energy Agency urged nations to stop approving new coal-fired plants and quickly phase out gasoline-powered vehicles as part of a detailed road map to slash carbon dioxide emissions to net zero by 2050. Installations of solar panels and wind turbines must also quadruple by 2030 to meet this goal. The World Economic Forum cancels its in-person meeting in Singapore. The gathering, which had been postponed twice and moved from its traditional home in Davos, Switzerland, was “impossible to realize” amid uneven global vaccination programs and the spread of new coronavirus variants. Overwork kills Long working hours are leading to hundreds of thousands of deaths per year, according to a new study by the World Health Organization and the International Labour Organization. Working more than 55 hours a week in a paid job resulted in 745,000 deaths in 2016, the study estimated. About 398,000 of these deaths were due to stroke and 347,000 due to heart disease. Both physiological stress responses and changes in behavior (such as an unhealthy diet, poor sleep and reduced physical activity) are “conceivable” reasons that long hours have a negative impact on health, the authors suggest. Here are the biggest takeaways from the study: Working more than 55 hours per week is dangerous. It is associated with an estimated 35 percent higher risk of stroke and 17 percent higher risk of heart disease compared with working 35 to 40 hours per week. About 9 percent of the global population works long hours. In 2016, an estimated 488 million people worked more than 55 hours per week. Though the study did not examine data after 2016, “past experience has shown that working hours increased after previous economic recessions; such increases may also be associated with the Covid-19 pandemic,” the authors wrote. Long hours are more dangerous than other occupational hazards. In all three years that the study examined (2000, 2010 and 2016), working long hours led to more disease than any other occupational risk factor, including exposure to carcinogens and the non-use of seatbelts at work. And the health toll of overwork worsened over time: From 2000 to 2016, the number of deaths from heart disease due to working long hours increased 42 percent, and from stroke 19 percent. Dr. Maria Neira, a director at the World Health Organization, put the conclusion bluntly: “It’s time that we all, governments, employers and employees wake up to the fact that long working hours can lead to premature death.” Today in Business Updated  May 17, 2021, 12:48 p.m. ET Read our recent weekend edition on the health impact of overwork — and why it can be so hard to stop. “If policymakers leave private funds under-regulated, we may not know how many others are following Archegos’s dangerous playbook until it’s too late.” — Alexis Goldstein of Americans for Financial Reform, in a Times Opinion guest essay on loopholes in the oversight of family funds and other private money managers. Crypto scams are spiking New data from the Federal Trade Commission shows a sharp rise in consumer reports of cryptocurrency scams. The spike suggests that scammers are taking advantage of the recent buzz around digital assets while also benefiting from the ignorance of some investors, with younger people seemingly most susceptible. “There seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding of cryptocurrency,” Emma Fletcher, an F.T.C. program analyst, told DealBook. Nearly 7,000 people reported combined losses of more than $80 million in the six months to March. That’s about 12 times more people reporting frauds than in the same period last year and a nearly 1,000 percent increase in the amount of money lost to crypto scammers. The frauds take various forms. Some start with a “tip” on an online forum, others on dating apps or with celebrity impersonators urging a crypto transfer. Many begin on social media. All raise the same red flag — buying cryptocurrency is an investment itself, yet the scammers ask people to transfer their digital assets in order to make more crypto. Fear of missing out may be fueling investor credulity, said Christopher Leach, an F.T.C. attorney. “Crypto is hot and new,” he said. That is a boon to scammers, who use old tricks of the trade, like creating time pressure or promising guaranteed returns. “There are obviously some cryptocurrency opportunities that are legitimate,” Leach said, though he added that investors should still “think once, twice, three times” before transferring cryptocurrencies for reasons that may seem too good to be true. THE SPEED READ Deals The oat milk maker Oatly is riding healthful food trends to a huge I.P.O., a payday for investors like the Chinese government and Blackstone. (NYT) Canadian National Railway’s takeover bid for Kansas City Southern will be judged under stricter rules than a rival offer from Canadian Pacific. (Bloomberg) Elliott Management has pushed Duke Energy, the big power utility, to consider breaking itself up into three companies. (WSJ) Politics and policy Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York is set to be paid $5.1 million from his book about leading during the pandemic — which is the subject of investigations into his use of state resources to write and promote it. (NYT) Nearly a quarter of respondents to a Fed survey on economic well-being said they were worse off financially now than they were a year ago. (NYT) Tech Apple has often touted its commitment to civil liberties and privacy, but internal documents show that it has made huge concessions to Beijing that put the data of customers in China at risk. (NYT) The S.E.C. has begun an inquiry into the electric vehicle start-up Canoo, which went public via a SPAC merger last year. (The Verge) Best of the rest The former Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin and the former Lehman Brothers C.E.O. Dick Fuld each sold homes for about $32 million — both at discounts to their asking prices. (Bloomberg, WSJ) Investors who put millions into a luxury student dorm say they were ripped off. (NYT) We’d like your feedback! Please email thoughts and suggestions to dealbook@nytimes.com. Source link Orbem News #AT&T #Big #deal #Heres #Undid

[avatar-news]

CEO says Avatar franchise has potential for new original series on Paramount+, the new streaming service launching next year to compete with Netflix, Disney+, and HBO Max

The CEO of ViacomCBS, the media conglomerate that owns Nickelodeon, specifically mentioned Avatar in a recent earnings call while discussing the upcoming launch of Paramount+:

“In terms of Paramount Plus, we have announced some new entertainment franchises that we’re bringing to Plus, the Godfather, SpongeBob, the Criminal Minds spinout. But, under the covers, our preview launch showed that there’s other franchises that work too that have potential, things like MTV’s reality show, The Challenge; things like Nick’s animated library series, Avatar, and all this is really the tip of the iceberg. And we do have other franchises in the Company. So, you can safely assume that upcoming announcements will include new original variants of them for Paramount Plus. We will of course have some non-franchise-based new originals to keep things fresh. But, I’m not going to get ahead of things and reveal them until we get much closer to launch.”

(From transcript, emphasis mine.)

To be clear, there have been no announcements of any sort yet, but the CEO calling out Avatar by name like that is a pretty big deal. Gears are turning, and it’s inevitable that something will be coming.

Read more about the Avatar franchise’s place at Paramount+ and Netflix here.

(Above artwork is a mockup.)

[avatar-news]

All seven seasons of Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra are coming to Paramount+ on March 4th!

Paramount+ is ViacomCBS’s new streaming service launching on March 4th (a rebrand and relaunch of its current one, CBS All Access). This is meant to be a big push to compete in the streaming wars with Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, etc. 

Currently, all episodes of both ATLA and TLOK are streaming on CBS All Access. There hasn’t been any information about whether they will transfer to Paramount+ at launch (besides the implied assumption that all CBS All Access content will be), but now that Korra has shown up on the Paramount+ home page, and the official Twitter account posted about ATLA, I’m taking that as confirmation!

It’s not known whether/when the two series will be leaving Netflix, where the third series in the Avatar franchise, the live-action adaptation of ATLA, is still in the works as a Netflix Original. However, it is safe to assume that moving forward, Paramount+ will be the franchise’s new main home, and any further entries will likely be Paramount+ Originals. Right now, nothing has been announced, but the CEO of ViacomCBS did hint at it by name. ViacomCBS’s investor day “Streaming Event” is on February 24th, where they will outline their streaming strategy for Paramount+ (probably similar to the Disney investor day late last year where they announced all those new Disney+ shows). IF there are going to be any announcements about Avatar (or just further hints/teases), this is our current best bet.

[avatar-news]

(Screenshots from The Hollywood Reporter)

ViacomCBS is starting to drum up hype for their investor day ahead of the launch of Paramount+, their new streaming service that will compete with Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, etc.

Previously, the CEO called out Avatar by name as having potential for new original content on Paramount+. Anything that will be available at launch would already be in production now, so don’t expect a new Avatar series this year or anything like that, but it is possible they announce one.

Now that we’re in the streaming era, exclusive originals are the main driver for growth in the form of new subscribers, and if Avatar’s record-breaking success on Netflix this year proved anything, it’s that a huge, underserved audience is right there. Right now, it’s a race to be the first to tap it with new content: will it be Netflix with their much-delayed big-budget live-action adaptation, or will it be Paramount+ with, potentially, new animated show(s) and/or movie(s)?

There have been two recent major plays in the streaming wars. First, WarnerMedia disastrously announced that their entire 2021 theatrical slate would premiere on HBO Max, followed by Disney’s investor day bonanza in which they announced that everything and the kitchen sink is coming to Disney+, to much applause. ViacomCBS surely wants to make a splash like Disney, and to do that, they need to announce Paramount+ originals that make good use of their “brands and franchises”, as described in the above screenshots. This would be the perfect place to show that they plan to use Avatar to its full potential, so I for one am keeping my eyes open for anything from further lowkey mentions to outright official announcements.

Neither the investor day nor the launch of Paramount+ have dates yet.

Update: We have dates! Investor day will be February 24th, followed by the launch of Paramount+ on March 4th!