Video Age International October 2015

36 October 2015 V I D E O A G E L.A. Screenings distributors because other OTT companies — and especially Telcos — boosted their program offerings with multiple library acquisitions in order to better compete. Next year, the L.A. Screenings will take place earlier. Twentieth Century Fox has already announced that their LATAM 2016 L.A. Screenings will start one day earlier than usual, on Thursday, May 19. In this case, the indies will have to move their start date one day earlier as well, starting on Monday, May 16. This year, the indies opened their suites at the Century Plaza Hotel on a Tuesday, which fell on May 12. And even then, most LATAM buyers did not show up until the next day. Additionally, Upfronts in New York City (which in recent years have started the second week of May), will begin later than usual on Monday, May 16 and end on Thursday, May 19. What is still unclear is whether the major U.S. studios will each push their LATAMScreenings one day earlier, or if they’ll keep their traditional days and leave a gap on Friday, May 20, which could most likely be filled by Lionsgate and Paramount. If, on the other hand, the major studios push their screenings one day earlier, it is possible that Lionsgate and Paramount will move their LATAM screenings up to Wednesday, May 18, leaving barely two full days to the indies. As for the General Studio Screenings, they will start on Monday, May 23 and end on Friday, May 27, before the Memorial Day holiday weekend. Considering the increasing number of buyers who arrive earlier and earlier (and the Canadians who are always the first in town), it is possible that the General Screenings will also start before that Monday. To summarize next year’s anticipated dates, they are: Indies: May 16-18; LATAM Screenings: May 19-25; General Screenings: May 22-27. The 2016 U.S. (Anglo) Broadcast Week Upfront Calendar: May 16: NBC (Morning) May 16: FOX (Afternoon) May 17: ABC (Afternoon) May 18: CBS (Afternoon) May 19: The CW (Morning) their quality programming. And the public is responding well, as demonstrated by the strong TV award shows’ viewing numbers. The 66th Primetime Emmy Awards, for example, bagged an average of 15.6 million viewers, the second-biggest overall crowd for the franchise in eight years. No easy feat, considering that the CBS Emmycast had to compete against the highly-rated NBC Sunday Night Football (Chicago/Pittsburgh), which averaged 20.5 million viewers. The most recent Golden Globes on NBC averaged 19.3 million viewers overall. The Globes were the top-rated primetime entertainment series in the 18-49 demographic and total viewers on any network since ABC’s telecast of the Academy Awards last March (43.6 million viewers overall). During its 65-year history, television has faced many challenges, but always adapted and transformed itself. Plus, it has been pointed out that TV viewers are not abandoning television. Indeed, more people are watching television than ever before, albeit in different ways (the living room is out of favor) and via different transports (streaming, for example). Not lost to analysts is the observation made by VideoAge in its January 2014 Issue that HBO (a business similar in size to Netflix) made $4 billion in profit (mostly because of the efficiencies of the traditional TV business), while Netflix’s streaming platform made only $50 million. However, the Netflix phenomenon has had a positive effect on U.S. studios and independent (Continued from Page 34) NBCUniversal International TV Distribution’s Belinda Menendez with VideoAge ’s Dom Serafini Disney Media Distribution’s Ben Pyne having fun with the cast of Oil In terms of new product at the Screenings, cable saved the day for the studios. U.S. TV broadcasters ordered fewer new series compared to last year CBS Studios International’s Armando Nünez with some of the stars of the new series Sony Pictures Television’s Marco Cingoli, Ian Durndell, Keith Le Goy with Bryan Cranston and Mediaset’s Zelda Stewart.