TIME WARNER’S BEWKES: “NETFLIX IS OUR FRIEND”

While only a year ago Time Warner chief Jeff Bewkes was saying that Netflix was “like the Albanian army [trying] to take over the world” and predicting that the world — meaning media conglomerates like his — was bound to win. The company’s Warner Bros. unit has imposed a 28-day delay on the release of [...]

NETFLIX’S HASTINGS AGREES WITH CRITICS

Netflix chief Reed Hastings has echoed some of the criticism directed against him by financial experts and investors. Appearing at a media conference in New York on Tuesday, Hastings agreed that he had “got overconfident” and moved too fast in his effort to convert his DVD-renting customers into online streaming ones. “Our big obsession for [...]

MILCH TO FILM UNFILMABLE FAULKNER

William Faulkner, who knew a thing or two about turning other great writers’ novels into movies (he wrote the 1939 screenplay for Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep and the 1944 screenplay for Ernest Hemingway’s To Have and Have Not), will have some of his own works developed into movies for HBO. As part of a [...]

NETFLIX RESCUES ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT; WHO’LL RESCUE NETFLIX?

Netflix, which has been sharply criticized by some analysts for taking on content deals that threaten to break its back financially, is taking on another one. This time it’s the revival of the long-ago-canceled comedy series Arrested Development. Netflix said over the weekend that it plans to make an unspecified number of new episodes available [...]

HARRY POTTER FINALE LIFTS TIME WARNER

Time Warner’s earnings for the third quarter came in ahead of analysts’ predictions today (Wednesday), thanks mainly to the magic of Harry Potter. The company’s Warner Bros. unit reported its best quarter in history with profit up an extraordinary 153 percent, much of it coming from ticket sales for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: [...]

HBO ALREADY A BIG EMMY WINNER

HBO appeared to be a cinch to trounce all rivals at next Sunday’s Primetime Emmy awards after its Boardwalk Empire series picked up seven trophies in the Creative Arts Awards ceremony. Altogether, the Time Warner-owned pay-TV channel collected 15 trophies. The creative arts awards are a catch-all for a slew of miscellaneous awards that include [...]

ANALYST: STARZ LIKELY TO REMAIN WITH NETFLIX

BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield has expressed doubt that Netflix’s deal with Starz Entertainment is as dead as each side has made it out to be. In a note to clients, Greenfield suggests that Starz executives misjudged Netflix’s need for their content. Reportedly Netflix had offered $300 million to retain the Starz package, which includes mostly [...]

APPLE’S PLANS FOR ITUNES REPLAY STYMIED BY STUDIOS

On the surface, Apple’s concept for what it calls iTunes Replay seems uncomplicated and reasonable enough: buy a digital copy of a movie from the iTunes Store and watch it anytime, anywhere, on any device capable of downloading or streaming it. The movie would be stored permanently in its upcoming iCloud service. But, as with [...]

GLORIA STEINEM KNOCKS NBC’S PLAYBOY CLUB DRAMA

At the television critics summer press tour, Gloria Steinem, the feminist writer who famously worked as a bunny at the Playboy Club in order to write an article about it, was asked what she thought about NBC’s plans to air a dramatic series based on the goings-on at the Chicago club in the 1960s. “Are [...]

EMMY SHINES SPOTLIGHT ON FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS

Friday Night Lights, the critically praised but ratings-challenged drama, is going out with a bang. The show, which recently was able to stay alive by first being televised on DirecTV before being rerun on NBC, was nominated today (Thursday) as one of the five dramas in the best drama category in the 63rd Primetime Emmy [...]

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