PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT
Fox 21 Television Studios and The Littlefield Company have optioned a book about the opioid crisis, Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America, by Beth Macy. Said Littlefield Company’s Warren Littlefield, “Until America better understands the issue it will remain a place where getting addicted is much easier than securing addiction treatment. Television can shine a klieg light on this.”
CBS nabbed family comedy The Little Things with a put pilot commitment. Project from married comedians Tom Segura and Christina Pazsitzky, Scott Marder (The Mick), 3 Arts and CBS TV Studios was inspired by Segura and Pazsitzky’s podcast, Your Mom’s House.
Watchmen, a series based on the DC graphic novel, has been ordered to series at HBO. Damon Lindelof will write and exec produce the superhero drama from White Rabbit in association with Warner Bros. Television.
Call for Judges: Cynopsis just wrapped up the call for entries for the 6th Annual Cynopsis Digital Awards and we’re looking for experts passionate about the space to join our panel. If you’re interested, please fill out this brief survey to apply. Judges will be recognized during the event, as well as appear in our program guide. We’ll celebrate the honorees and announce the winners live on stage at the awards event November 9th in NYC.
Top 10 Weekend Domestic Box Office Estimates: August 17-19, 2018
Crazy Rich Asians (Warner Bros.) $25.2 million, opening weekend
The Meg (Warner Bros.) $21.2 million (week 2), cume revenue $83.8 million
Mile 22 (STX) $13.6 million, opening weekend
Alpha (Studio 8) $10.5 million, opening weekend
Mission: Impossible – Fallout (Paramount) $10.5 million (week 4), cume revenue $180.7 million
Disney’s Christopher Robin (Buena Vista) $8.8 million (week 3), cume revenue $66.9 million
BlacKkKlansman (Focus Features) $7.0 million (week 2), cume revenue $23.0million
Slender Man (Sony/Screen Gems) $5.0 million (week 2), cume revenue $20.7 million
Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (Sony) $3.7 (week 5), cume revenue $153.9 million
Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! (Universal) $3.4 million (week 5), cume revenue $111.2 million
Source: comScore
NEW & RETURNING SERIES
New animated series Star Wars Resistance debuts with a one-hour premiere Sunday, October 7 at 10p on Disney Channel, DisneyNOW and Disney Channel VOD, with subsequent airings on Disney XD. Disney Channel’s new live action family comedy, Coop & Cami Ask the World, arrives five days later, on Friday, October 12 at 8:30p.
Season two of AT&T Audience Network’s Mr. Mercedes launches Wednesday, August 22 at 10p. Second season takes place a year after Brady’s Hartsfield’s thwarted attempt to perpetrate a second mass murder.
New series bowing on ID in the coming months include Blood Runs Cold on Thursday, October 25 at 10p and Deadly Silence on Tuesday, November 13 at 9p. Coming back for more are The Coroner: I Speak for the Dead on Thursday, October 4 at 9p; Home Alone on Tuesday, October 9 at 10p; Shattered on Wednesday, October 17 at 9p; and People Magazine Investigates on Monday, November 5 at 10p.
CASTING
William Levy (Girls Trip) is set to shine in season three of Fox drama Star as a series regular….Jacob Vargas (Sons of Anarchy), Maggie Geha (Gotham) and Cree Cicchino (Game Shakers) will serve as series regulars in upcoming Netflix comedy Mr. Iglesias…. Steven Ogg (The Walking Dead) landed a recurring role on TNT’s Snowpiercer….Shalita Grant (NCIS: New Orleans) will recur on season three of Netflix’s Santa Clarita Diet.
ADVERTISING
The Tonight Show and T-Mobile US are teaming for a fan event and show airing from Central Park on Thursday, September 13. “This collaboration represents the ultimate partnership through massive content collaboration and influencer talent,” said Linda Yaccarino, chairman, advertising and client partnerships, NBCUniversal. In the week leading up to the NYC event, T-Mobile will offer opportunities to win tickets at select T-Mobile stores, as well as be part of The Tonight Show’s special Veteran’s Day episode, aligning with the Un-carrier’s military support initiatives.
Brand uplifts generated from social media by Out-Of-Home power users - brands that allocate 15%+ or more of their media budget in OOH - was significantly greater than non-users of OOH, boosting brand trust by 24% and esteem (consumer perception of brand quality) by 106%, according to a new study from IPG Mediabrands’ Rapport, “Standing On the Shoulders of Giants, International Edition.” Another nugget: Those OOH power users generate greater long-term returns from their use of social media increasing market share and customer loyalty by 275%.
DIGITAL DATA
Amazon is developing a new kind of digital video recorder that would connect to Amazon’s Fire TV boxes, according to Bloomberg. The Frank DVR would include physical storage, and let users record live TV and stream the video to their smartphones.
Meanwhile, Amazon is seeing its smart speaker global market share get chipped away, according to Canalys, which reported that for the second straight quarter, Google Home shipments outpaced Amazon Echo’s. Toss in growth from China’s Alibaba and Xiaomi, and Amazon could claim just a quarter of the 17 million devices shipped in the quarter, versus 32% for Google. Back home, however, Amazon still dominates, with 70% of smart speaker market share; Google has 24% and Apple 6%.
The pace of cord cutting is slowing, according to the Q2 2018 U.S. Multichannel Subscriber Report by Kagan. Cable, DTH and telco video subscriber losses total 860,640 in the quarter, with the DTH platform accounting for 478,000. Count DirecTV Now and Sling TV, and losses decline by 45%.
Pandora struck a deal with T-Mobile to offer the carrier’s subscribers free access to Pandora Plus for a year, part of an effort to boost the number of its paid subs. The music streaming service boasts 71 million active monthly users, but only six million in its Pandora Premium and Pandora Plus tiers.
More news from busy T-Mobile: The carrier is replacing robots and automated phone menus with real, actual people for customer care. It’s Team of Experts cover specific areas, for an “entourage at T-Mobile dedicated to you and your happiness.” Photos of the local teams can be found in the T-Mobile App.
Classic Nickelodeon game show Double Dare is now the net’s first Facebook game. Players can face off against FB friends in trivia, and take the physical challenge mini-games based on the show.
As part of YouTube’s annual Reading Month initiative, literacy advocate Dolly Parton has created a playlist for kids and families. Also included are celebrity #Readalongs from Jimmy Fallon, Viola Davis and Kristen Bell reading their favorite children’s books.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Facebook is being sued for overstating to advertisers the number of people its ads could reach. In a class action complaint, Danielle Singer, owner of a business selling aromatherapy products, claims Facebook said in 2017 that its ads could potentially reach 1.9 people in Chicago A18-34, while Census data showed 808,785 in the demo.
In the latest brand safety incident, it was discovered that sponsored tweets were running on Twitter profiles created to promote the illegal sale of narcotics. Over 20 brands were affected, a source told Adweek. Twitter said the situation has been rectified. “We recently determined that ads were being served on profiles that were selling restricted products, amounting to 450 impressions and $1.34 in spend,” said the company. “Once we identified the issue, we immediately suspended the accounts in question and updated our systems. As we observe new behaviors attempting to get around the safeguards we have in place, we will continue to refine our tools to make Twitter a safe place for advertisers.”
