Analysis
0 CommentsStreaming TV doubled its original shows in 2016, while cable TV’s roster declined
The trend in premium networks and cable television ordering more and more scripted TV series came to an end in 2016, while streaming services doubled their offerings.
FX’s research team released their annual numbers on the state of television, and one aspect of the report stands out above the rest: Netflix and other streaming services are prepared to spend to dominate. This year still saw a record number of original, scripted programming — 455 series in all — but streaming services provided most of the growth. New series declined on cable and premium channels.
The team released an informational chart (below), which clearly shows the huge increase streaming saw in just one year. In 2015, 46 new original series were ordered for a total of 421 scripted series on broadcast, cable, premium...
Streaming
14 CommentsNetflix is still the platform for misfits, and its new show The OA proves that
After a week of odd promotional tweets, videos and a puzzling Instagram account full of riddles, Netflix’s new show, The OA, debuted.
[Warning: The following contains spoilers for The OA.]
The show is about one woman, the “Original Angel,” who is recounting her time held in captivity by a crazed scientist to a group of local high school teenage boys and their teacher. She’s trying to remember her adoptive family while decoding the world around her. The series takes place in two different time periods: the current day, which features the 28-year-old angel — who also goes by Prairie Johnson — and the seven years she spent in captivity.
The main thesis of the show, however, is about the importance of questioning. In each episode, the boys question what the OA is saying, researching...
Analysis
10 CommentsThe Senate’s concerns about the AT&T-Time Warner merger should also be yours
This week, AT&T’s CEO, Randall Stephenson, is sitting before a Senate subcommittee and attempting to explain how the company’s merger with Time Warner wouldn’t be consequential to consumers.
When AT&T executives announced that they had reached a deal with Time Warner to acquire the content provider for $85.4 billion, the company received blowback from critics, lawmakers and politicians about what that deal could mean for consumers. The biggest concern that has been brought up repeatedly is whether or not AT&T decides to heavily limit or restrict the distribution of Time Warner content to other providers like Verizon or Sprint. For example, networks like HBO and CNN would be cheaper or, at the most dramatic, exclusive to AT&T subscribers.
Effectively, this means that other providers...
Analysis
13 CommentsMarvel and ABC’s online series could solve a lot of problems over the midseason hiatus
Every winter, the networks take anywhere from two weeks to a month for a hiatus.
The idea is to not compete with holiday programming, but it also allows the writing teams to take time off and return with new ideas. The midseason hiatus also allows companies to focus on scheduling episodes during “sweeps,” the months in which Nielsen spends more time collecting and reporting ratings. If networks schedule bigger episodes during those months, they can report higher numbers to advertisers.
Networks want to make as much money as possible, so it doesn’t make sense to have the hiatus in the sweeps months of November or February. The networks would lose out on potential advertising deals and face other financial risks. Having the biggest episodes air at the end of November and the first week...
Analysis
59 CommentsHere’s why FX, HBO and other networks are scared of Netflix
Netflix plans to double the original series it offers to subscribers next year, equating to more than 1,000 hours of content and introducing 20 unscripted shows. Netflix is also going to spend $6 billion with the goal of making at least half of its content produced or owned by the company by the end of 2017. Netflix also intends to pursue top-tier award nominations, overtake the conversation in the TV press, and hire some of the best talent around.
Netflix’s goal is clear — to dominate the television landscape — and networks like CBS, FX and ABC are terrified.
At a media conference in New York on Monday, CBS president Les Moonves spoke about the company’s relationship with Netflix. Although Netflix remains a huge competitor for the network, CBS has teamed up with the streaming...
News
15 CommentsStudy: PS4 tops Black Friday store sales, Xbox One grabbed most online sales
The retail hoopla surrounding Black Friday tends to move a lot of game consoles in a very short period of time and this year was no different.
But unlike last year’s sales results, a majority of which were made up of Xbox sales, according to data sales tracking site InfoScout, both Microsoft’s and Sony’s platforms seemed to do equally well. This year, the company decided not to track Wii U or 3DS sales.
Within that data, the PlayStation 4 accounted for 58 percent of all consoles sold in brick and mortar stores, thanks in large part to the PlayStation 4 Uncharted Bundle, according to InfoScout.
But the Xbox One made up 55 percent of all console sales online, not including Nintendo’s platforms, largely due to the 500GB Xbox One S model, according to the company.
...
Analysis
6 CommentsNetflix's chief has every right to worry about net neutrality in a Trump administration
Net neutrality policies have been a hot topic this week, and Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s chief content officer, said that under the changing administration in the White House, the public’s best interests were not being taken into consideration.
Two years ago, President-Elect Donald Trump voiced his opinion on President Obama’s support for net neutrality, calling it a “top down power grab” that would ultimately target conservative media. Since then, Trump has been relatively quiet about his beliefs on technology policy, but services that rely entirely on streaming, like Netflix, have been vocal on how crucial federal government prevention of the implementation of fast lanes from some internet service providers is.
Talking to Variety at an event in Los Angles, Sarandos said because of...
Analysis
31 CommentsXbox Games With Gold gave out $930 worth of games in 2016. Was it worth it?
Last week, Xbox Live announced its schedule of Games With Gold for December, bringing to 48 the number of free games it offered in 2016. Were they any good? What would they cost otherwise? In short, what do the numbers say about the value of this Xbox Live Gold benefit?
We’ll try to answer that question this year as we have the past two. To that, however, we’ve added a few more questions: How old is the game? and Did Microsoft publish it? Did these appear earlier on PlayStation Plus?
These questions may shed light on where these free games programs are headed are headed, particularly as the previous console generation ages and the Xbox One’s backward compatibility program continues to pile up old titles.
What about PlayStation Plus?
• That analysis is here.
Getting Started
In all, there...
Analysis
19 CommentsPS4, Xbox One holiday sales blow NES Classic out of the water on eBay
While the grey market for Nintendo’s impossible-to-find-in-stores NES Classic remained strong on eBay during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, it was crushed by sales on the service for both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, according to statistics provided to Polygon from eBay.
On Black Friday, the PlayStation 4 sold the quickest on eBay with one sold every 20 seconds in the U.S., according to the service. One Xbox One sold every minute on Black Friday. By comparison, sales for the NES Classic were almost slow, with one selling every two minutes.
On Cyber Monday, the Xbox One quadrupled its selling speed, with one sold every 15 seconds. That compared to the PlayStation 4, which slowed slightly to one sold every 30 seconds. The NES Classic remained at one selling every two minutes.
The sales...
Streaming
21 CommentsWhat AT&T’s $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner could mean for streaming's future
On Saturday, AT&T announced it was acquiring Time Warner today for $85.4 billion, giving the telecommunications conglomerate ownership over all of its subsidiaries, including film studio Warner Bros., game developer Warner Bros. Interactive. and networks like CNN and HBO.
The $85.4 billion acquisition marks the largest deal of the year, but the bigger question is what that means for AT&T and Time Warner subscribers. Similar questions about a merger of this size and what it meant for consumers popped up in 2011 when Comcast purchased a 51 percent stake in NBC Universal for $13.75 billion, and again in 2013 when Comcast purchased the remaining 49 percent for $16.7 billion from General Electric. Both Comcast Ventures and NBCUniversal are investors in Polygon’s parent company, Vox Media.
B...
Analysis
28 CommentsNintendo Switch battery life: everything we know and what we should expect
Nintendo revealed its hybrid console the Nintendo Switch yesterday, and we finally got a few concrete answers. We know the name of the console, its form factor and a sense of its size, and we were even given a brief glimpse of how it operates. But there are still some big questions yet to be answered.
One of those questions revolves around the battery inside the Switch’s portable "tablet" element. Nintendo hasn't given any answers on how long the expected battery life is. When asked about the battery life, a representative for the company told Polygon, "We will announce more hardware details later, but we are developing Nintendo Switch so that consumers can comfortably enjoy games away from home." Without a list of detailed specs, it's hard to know any kind of concrete range; however,...
Analysis
19 CommentsEverything we know about Super Mario Switch, based on 5 seconds of footage
Nintendo announced the name and details of its next-generation console, the Nintendo Switch, earlier today, while also teasing a handful of new games, ports and what appear to be Wii U remasters. Perhaps the most intriguing tease was for a new, untitled Super Mario game. With just five seconds or so of footage, what can we glean about Mario’s next adventure? What if we just keep staring at it, advancing frame-by-frame, over the course of a few hours? Surely there’s something good in there.
Let’s take a look at what Nintendo’s very short teaser tells us. Here’s a GIF of the Super Mario Switch footage, for your looping pleasure.
Mario can triple jump
Mario’s staple move, the three-part flip jump that was popularized in Super Mario 64 but missing from his more recent 3D...