TV Gets Chopped in the Content Blender
After a dizzying Upfronts week in New York, I take stock of what the blurred lines between TV, movies and even Twitch streams means for the near future
Remember the TV Upfronts? So pre-pandemic. In perhaps the greatest sign — this week, at least! — that the way Hollywood conducts business has changed drastically, the theme of this year’s TV upfronts seemed to be . . . movies! And streaming! And IP! The media conglomerates laid out all their wares on the table in New York this week, like so many counterfeit Louis Vuitton handbags in Times Square.
What better signal do you want that it’s all now just “content” than seeing everyone playing up films — films! — in their presentations to ad buyers that were historically reserved for fall TV schedules?
NBCUniversal, for one, handed over a chunk of the spotlight to upfronts’ first-timer and chief content officer-slash-film head Donna Langley, who showed off a meaty trailer for the Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo adaptation of Wicked. Amazon, in its upfronts debut, chose to feature the sequel to Road House as its first major announcement (accompanied on stage by a rather subdued Jake Gyllenhaal, who, in contrast to the many enthusiastic stars who followed, did not seem like he wanted to be there). Disney — the parent company of storied broadcaster ABC, cable staple ESPN and prestige TV sweetheart FX — opened its more than two-hour upfront with an intro from . . . Cruella and Poor Things’ Emma Stone, a veritable movie star.
Even the seawall of TV and movies seems to have been breached. During Amazon’s presentation on Tuesday morning, Keke Palmer popped up not only to talk about her new movie but also her Wondery (owned by Amazon) podcast and her Amazon Original short stories and her Twitch (owned by Amazon) stream —none of it television but rather a multitude of opportunities for brands to extend their tendrils to consumers, all available at the so-called Everything Store. To try to separate what counts as “TV” this week from all the other projects on display increasingly feels like an antiquated exercise.
It probably shouldn’t be surprising, given what the corporate blender has done to Hollywood (mashing together legacy studios, absorbing struggling movie houses into Silicon Valley giants), and what technological advancement has done to the way we watch TV (migrating our viewing from an analog box with bunny ears to a vast and endless digital river accessible from screens both little and big). We watch everything, everywhere, so it follows that studios and networks would want to appeal to advertisers with everything, everywhere.
So how does anyone who five days ago thought they were in the TV business navigate this new world — before it changes again? In this issue, you’ll learn:
Why all those Peacock limited series aren’t what they seem
Amazon Prime Video’s clearly-defined genre and demographic strategy
Disney’s apparent retreat from scripted network TV
Netflix’s last sacred cow in deviating from network TV and how that’s eroding
WBD’s anomalous TV-centric approach
YouTube’s winning DIY gambit
How streaming has now cemented the change in how TV gets made