Media Business Matters Podcast - Amanda D. Lotz

The self-isolation of early 2020 inspired Alex and me to sort out the time zones and revisit what had happened since our last edition. Recorded in mid April 2020, here’s some thoughts on what happened in media industries in 2019. We mostly set aside commentary on Covid implications as unknowable, so it holds up surprisingly well given its mid-year release. The conversation is a little looser than normal; my repeated laughter (painful to listen to) reveals just how welcome the conversation was amidst weeks of isolating.

Amanda and Alex take on the annual rite of end of summer doom and gloom stories about the box office to explore whether the domestic box office is a meaningful measure of anything for different sectors of the film industry. We also talk MoviePass and what it might tell us about new strategies in exhibition.

This is the third of four special episodes recorded at the Future of Digital Media Businesses Symposium hosted by the University of Michigan. In this episode, Amanda Lotz, Professor of Media Studies at the University of Michigan and Fellow at the Peabody Media Center, explores how digitization has affected the television industry.

Amanda and Alex recap the bounty of portal news breaking in early August and the various strategies emerging. CBS All Access, Disney's announced portals (ESPN), Seeso shutting down, FX+, the future of Hulu...Amanda explains what is and isn't happening in these deals. And we only talk a very little bit about Netflix.

Alex talks with Barry Grove of the Manhattan Theatre Club to learn more about the business strategies useful to not-for-profit theaters competing alongside Broadway.