AllThingsD » DreamWorks Animation

Netflix Reboots "Arrested Development" with an Exclusive Streaming Deal

Peter Kafka — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 02:49:20 +0000

Yes, Netflix is still writing checks for new content deals: The video service is reviving “Arrested Development,” a canceled-but-beloved Fox comedy, confirming rumors that have circulated for the past few months.

Netflix will foot at least part of the bill for an unspecified number of new episodes, which will be produced by News Corp.’s 20th Century Fox studio (News Corp. also owns this Web site) and will start running in 2013. The new shows will be exclusive to Netflix streaming video subscribers, at least for its initial “window.”

That fits the content strategy CEO Reed Hastings has been laying out for a while: He wants to create an $8-a-month version of HBO, delivered over the Web, stocked with stuff you can’t get anywhere else.

That’s why Hastings has spent the last year or so cobbling together a slate of exclusive movie deals (like a recent DreamWorks pact) and TV shows (like a recent deal with CW), and that’s why he’s already committed to a deal to produce “House of Cards,” a new Kevin Spacey/David Fincher miniseries next year. At the same time, he is losing a Starz deal that gave him access to movies from Sony and Disney.

Netflix has been noodling with the notion of using digital distribution to revive dormant TV shows or extend the life of ones that are about to be canceled, for some time.

Others are contemplating the same thing: Producer Jeff Kwatinetz, for instance, is trying to get financing to film new episodes of two ABC soaps — “All My Children,” which went off the air in September; and “One Life to Live,” which goes off the air in January.

Saving old shows that couldn’t generate enough viewers to justify a broadcast network’s support, but which still have a loyal following, has particular appeal to Netflix. The company’s executives believe they can “algorithmically bring an audience to a show,” using recommendation engines, over an extended period of time.

In this case, the company is bringing back a show that’s been off the air for five years, but which still has a very vocal fan base. In October, show creator Mitchell Hurwitz said that “nine or 10″ new episodes of “Arrested Development” were in the works, which would function as a prelude to a to-be-filmed movie.

Has Netflix Put Its Checkbook Away?

Peter Kafka — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 13:23:22 +0000

If you’re waiting to hear about more big Netflix content deals in the near future, you may be disappointed.

J.P. Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth reports back from a recent huddle with Netflix managers, and says he thinks they’re done writing checks for a while: “We believe the vast majority of Netflix’s domestic streaming spend for 2012 … has already been announced or committed. Accordingly, we would not expect Netflix to spend aggressively or announce major new deals until management has better visibility on U.S. subscriber growth.”

Anmuth gives himself some wiggle room in his prediction — it’s possible that CEO Reed Hastings still has some whopper deals he’s signed but hasn’t announced yet — but the winking and nudging seems to indicate that the checkbook has gone away.

Part of the Netflix pitch in recent months has been that it’s going to be spending a lot of money beefing up its streaming video catalog, in part because it won’t be spending it on a Starz deal that gave it access to Disney and Sony movies. And Hastings says that, increasingly, Netflix is going to be paying a premium for stuff you won’t be able to find anywhere else — it’s one of the reasons his content bill is jumping to $3.3 billion, up from $1.2 billion a year ago.

Recent Netflix deals include a new pact to stream DreamWorks Animation movies, which used to run on Time Warner’s HBO, and a deal to grab reruns from the CW, the broadcast joint venture between Turner and CBS. And the company has made one high-profile commitment to original content, via “House of Cards,” the Kevin Spacey/David Fincher miniseries that will run next year.

Are those kind of deals enough to keep Netflix subscribers happy, or to lure new ones back to the service? We may get some hints from Hastings and company in the next few weeks, as they hit the investor-conference circuit. Netflix CFO David Wells will appear at a Credit Suisse gathering on Nov. 29, and Hastings will speak at a UBS conference on Dec. 6.

Will Zynga's CastleVille Be Able to Top CityVille?

Tricia Duryee — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 03:00:36 +0000

Since Zynga launched CityVille nearly a year ago, it has dominated the top of the social games charts.

So the big question is whether Zynga’s newest ’Ville, which comes out in the next couple of weeks, will be able to top it. It’s a good problem — one that any game maker would love to have.

On one hand, the social game maker would love to stretch out the life of the game for as long as it can. But CityVille is nearly a year old, and other games, such as Electronic Arts’ the Sims Social, are nipping at its heels.

In other words, it’s time for a new franchise hit, especially with the company’s IPO looming.

Zynga unveiled CastleVille last month at a press conference in San Francisco, and now it’s prepping to launch the game on Facebook in the next couple of weeks.

With CityVille, it took just 24 hours for more than 290,000 people to move in, which beat Zynga’s biggest game launch ever — FrontierVille. Although Zynga has launched several games since, CastleVille will be the first ’Ville title since CityVille went live last December.

CastleVille does not stray far from the ’Ville genre. Players are challenged with building the castle of their dreams. They meet peasants, princesses and pirates in the medieval world, exploring new areas while decorating and building a kingdom of their own.

Bill Jackson, creative director of CastleVille, says the game is a natural extension of the franchise. FarmVille was about freedom of expression and sharing with friends, and FrontierVille added the concept of narrative and storytelling. “CastleVille expands on that,” he said.

Jackson said Zynga built the game to be more fast and efficient. For instance, there are fewer prompts to share accomplishments with your friends. Instead, Zynga will rely on Facebook’s new “open graph” feature, which allows some of these things to appear automatically in the top-right ticker rather than in your main news feed.

Zynga also spent a lot of time — and money — on the music. Zynga hired a full orchestra to create all the background music and sound effects. While many people mute their games since they play at work, Jackson recommends a pair of headphones so you don’t miss out.

The game also has a lot more detail and animation: Fish jump in the pond, frogs croak, and trees reverberate with each chop of an axe. The illustrations are inspired by a number of themes, including DreamWorks’ “Shrek.” (Is it just a coincidence that Jeffrey Katzenberg, the CEO and co-founder of DreamWorks Animation, is on Zynga’s board?)

When asked whether this will steal away CityVille’s audience, Jackson said, “Players who played CityVille will find this one interesting, as well.”

When CastleVille launches in the next couple of weeks, it will be available in 17 languages around the world.

DreamWorks Announces Netflix Deal

Peter Kafka — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 10:43:17 +0000

DreamWorks Animation, the people who brought you “Shrek,” will be bringing their movies to Netflix. The company announced the deal Sunday, confirming earlier reports that it was exiting a deal with Time Warner’s HBO a year early. Netflix needs new content deals to help attract new customers and appease dissatisfied ones, but this one won’t help for a while — DreamWorks movies won’t arrive until 2013.

Netflix Grabs DreamWorks Deal From HBO

Peter Kafka — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 11:18:49 +0000

More movies you’ve heard of should end up in your Netflix queue — in a couple years.

The video rental company is reportedly finishing up a streaming rights deal with DreamWorks Animation, the studio behind “Shrek” and other animated hits. The contract would replace an existing pact with HBO.

The Hollywood Reporter thinks the deal will kick in sometime in 2012, while Bloomberg thinks it will be the beginning of 2012. In any case, this won’t be a flood of films — DreamWorks only produces a handful of movies a year.

It’s also worth noting that it doesn’t appear that HBO tried too hard to hang on to the movies, as it’s letting DreamWorks out early of a deal that wasn’t set to expire till 2014.

Still, the deal has nice a bit of symbolism, since Netflix is increasingly lining up as a direct competitor with Time Warner’s pay TV service, despite CEO Reed Hastings’ insistence that this isn’t so. And every big-name rights deal is helpful for Netflix, which is trying to convince both investors and consumers that it will have enough stuff in its digital catalog to pull off its move from DVD-by-mail company to Web streaming company.

Netflix shares are down more than seven percent from their all-time peak earlier this month, when it announced a 60 percent pay hike for customers who wanted both DVDs and Web streaming. But they’re still up by more than 50 percent since the beginning of the year. The company reports Q2 earnings this afternoon.

Groupon Appoints Mellody Hobson to Board of Directors

Tricia Duryee — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 22:57:33 +0000

Groupon has added Mellody Hobson to its board. Hobson is president of Ariel Investments, a Chicago-based money management firm, but she may be better known as a spokesperson for financial literacy and investor education and as a regular contributor to “Good Morning America” and other shows. She is also a director for DreamWorks Animation, the Estée Lauder Companies and Starbucks.

Zynga Gets Kung Fu'd Following DreamWorks Board Addition

Tricia Duryee — Fri, 20 May 2011 15:41:22 +0000

Last month, Zynga added Jeffrey Katzenberg, the CEO and co-founder of DreamWorks Animation, to its board of directors, hinting at its aspirations to add more Hollywood-like entertainment to its social games.

Today, it announced a promotion with DreamWorks and Paramount Pictures to bring “Kung Fu Panda 2,” which debuts in theaters next Thursday, to its most popular Facebook game, CityVille.

The more than 88 million monthly players will have the chance to own a “Kung Fu Panda 2″-themed drive-in movie theater in their city. Those who opt to place the theater in their city will also receive collectible items, such as members of Kung Fu Panda’s Furious Five. When all five items are collected, players will earn an exclusive “Po the Panda” statue (Po is pictured here).

San Francisco-based Zynga said nearly a third of all Kung Fu Panda fans on Facebook also played CityVille. Manny Anekal, global director of brand advertising at Zynga, said: “The integration is a natural fit and something we think our players will love.”

Earlier this week, Zynga partnered with Lady Gaga for a promotion on FarmVille to pump the pop artist’s upcoming album, and another social game maker, Electronic Arts, is working with celebrity Chef Jamie Oliver for its Restaurant City game.

In-game advertising is a natural fit for social games since most are available for free and are monetized through virtual goods, but given that it’s still an industry in its infancy, it’s unclear how many promotions and branded virtual goods users will tolerate inside the games.

Gaming at CES to Span Kinect-Like Controls for PCs, But Nothing Major From Nintendo

Tricia Duryee — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 01:38:45 +0000

Nintendo will be exhibiting for the first time at the Consumer Electronics Show in 16 years, but don’t expect the game-console maker to announce anything substantial this week.

Rather than competing among the throng of exhibitors attempting to be noticed at the show, Nintendo will host a private event in two weeks to preview its 3DS, a new handheld game player that provides a 3D experience without the need for special glasses.

Invitations to the Jan. 19 event in New York City have already been sent to reporters, who will have the opportunity to play games on the device, watch demonstrations and hear a presentation from President and COO of Nintendo of America Reggie Fils-Aime.

So, without major news coming from Nintendo, what else can we expect at CES from the gaming space?

We’ll be watching for news from among more than 35 exhibitors that are attending from the games industry. They include AMD, HP, Intel, LevelUp, Logitech, Microsoft, Nintendo, Nokia, Sony, Alcazar Entertainment, Cosmi, DC Comics/Warner and DreamWorks Animation, and gaming retailers, such as Amazon and GameStop.

One of the stars will likely be Microsoft’s Kinect, the Xbox accessory that uses cameras to track a player’s movements to allow them to play games without a traditional controller.

In all likelihood, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who kicks off CES with a pre-show keynote address on Wednesday, will use the venue to brag about the Kinect’s runaway success.

This holiday season Microsoft expected to sell 5 million Kinects after saying it sold 2.5 million Kinects in the first 25 days. It’s been sold-out at many retailers for weeks, but we haven’t heard whether it met its 2010 target. At least, not yet.

Microsoft is banking on the Kinect to widen the demographic of the Xbox beyond the hardcore gamer, so widespread adoption will be key.

Another company that is already getting attention in the days leading up to CES is PrimeSense, which Microsoft licensed the core Kinect technology from.

The Israeli company is planning to show how the motion-controlled interface can be used for the PC.

The device will be similar to the Kinect because it will allow users to interact with a PC without a mouse or keyboard. It won’t be only for gaming, but also for typical PC activities, like accessing the Internet and browsing media.

The device is expected to be ready for the PC next year — but this time, not from Microsoft, reports BusinessInsider.com. Rather, PrimeSense is teaming up with PC and peripheral maker Asus.

Dreamworks Animation SKG CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg at D8: The Full, Uncut Video

Beth Callaghan — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 15:02:36 +0000

Here’s the interview with Dreamworks Animation SKG CEO (DWA) Jeffrey Katzenberg, whose company is at the forefront of digital animation.

In his session with Walt Mossberg, Katzenberg spoke about the advent of 3-D, the future of the entertainment industry and his ideas on how Hollywood should adapt.

Here’s the full video of the session:

[ See post to watch video ]

Want to see it bigger? Click here.

D8 Video: DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg on 3-D TV

John Paczkowski — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 18:23:33 +0000

For home theater aficionados these days, one question is top of mind: To buy 3-D TV or not to buy 3-D TV. DreamWorks Animation (DWA) CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg spoke about this during his D8 appearance today, saying that the industry doesn’t expect viewers to run out and replace their current TVs with 3-D versions, but does expect they will in the next few years.

[ See post to watch video ]

Watch Hollywood Crater in a Single Sentence

Peter Kafka — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:57:03 +0000

DVD sales are collapsing, nearly as quickly as music sales did over the last decade.

It’s important to remember this whenever you see stories about Hollywood’s resurgence, measured by box office receipts. Because box office receipts don’t do that much for Hollywood’s bottom line–that’s the role of DVDs.

It’s also important to remember this when you see stories about Hollywood’s conniption fit over “windowing” and the lawsuit/hardball deal combo the studios have used with Redbox and Netflix (NFLX). Because the studios’ desire to wring every last penny from DVDs is what’s driving those moves.

Ditto for Hollywood’s desire for a 3-D boom: The studios are in desperate need of a new revenue stream to replace the disappearing discs.

So here’s the one-sentence story I promised, which illustrates the collapse. It comes via Edward Jay Epstein’s dissection of MGM’s blowup, published on Defamer (nice get!):

In the US alone, MGM’s net receipts from DVDs fell from $140 million in its 2007 fiscal year (which ended March 31, 2008) to just $30.4 million by 2010.

That clarifies things, no?

Yes, you can add plenty of caveats if you’d like. For instance, MGM has been more or less dormant except for its Bond films the last couple years, and studios rely on new releases to juice DVD sales. And the DVD slump hasn’t hit all studios equally–Disney (DIS) and DreamWorks Animation (DWA) have done less poorly, because parents still need to buy stuff to occupy their kids.

But that’s still a staggering 78 percent drop in a couple years. So even if you’re running a studio whose DVD sales don’t look that bad, you’re looking at plummeting sales. Scary stuff.

Are You Ready for 3-D in Your Living Room? Hollywood Can't Wait.

Peter Kafka — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 11:30:09 +0000

3-D was a big buzzword at last year’s Consumer Electronics Show, and it’s even bigger this year.

It’s hard to find a TV manufacturer that isn’t showing off sets promising to let you replicate the “Avatar” experience at home. And programmers are promising to produce entertainment you’ll want to see in three dimensions. Sony (SNE), in particular, is making a big bet here.

But even if you believe there’s an audience for this stuff, the 3-D advocates have one big problem in front of them: Lousy timing. American consumers are finishing the end of a major TV replacement cycle, which means it will be some time before they’re ready to plunk down big money again for new screens.

If you want a reality check on 3-D’s impact on consumer electronics and the entertainment industry, check out this brief interview I conducted with DreamWorks Animation head Jeffrey Katzenberg yesterday (apologies for crypt lighting and distracted camerawork–you can at least hear him, though).

Katzenberg is definitely a believer–his studio just announced that all of its future releases will be available in 3-D–but even he thinks it will be “a ways down the line” before DreamWorks (DWA) sees a lift from the sale of 3-D DVDs.

Katzenberg, along with Disney’s (DIS) Bob Iger, can afford to wait a bit for the 3-D boom because both studios cater primarily to families who are still buying DVDs, even if those numbers are dipping.

The rest of Hollywood will be more impatient. The industry depends on home video for a large part of its revenue and an even bigger slice of its profits, and those sales have been dropping off dramatically.

The high-def Blu-ray format was supposed to spur consumers to buy more discs, but it took years for the industry to settle a costly format war, and Blu-ray is only now starting to get a little bit of traction. The studios can’t wait that long for 3-D to take off.

[ See post to watch video ]

Sony CEO Howard Stringer at CES: "I Wish I Could Tell You That I'm Recession-Proof"

Peter Kafka — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:25:06 +0000

Just a few years after Sony went through a painful reorg, the company is at it again, cutting thousands of jobs and dumping deadweight divisions. But CEO Howard Stringer didn’t get on stage today to talk about any of that.

Introduced by an entertainingly giddy and sardonic Tom Hanks, who happens to star in a new Sony (SNE) movie (“Angels and Demons,” a prequel to “The Da Vinci Code”), but still made fun of his employer (“They write the lies, but I tell the truth”), Stringer showed up to show off cool stuff.

Highlights included a superthin and flexible OLED screen, a Chumby-like Internet-connected TV screen, and a series of 3-D clips. (We’ll be seeing a lot of 3-D this week).

We also got appearances from dueling animation kingpins. Disney (DIS) animation guru John Lasseter showed up to sing the praises of Blu-ray and show off a clip of “Up,” the next Pixar movie. And so did Dreamworks Animation’s (DWA) Jeffrey Katzenberg, who came to talk up the possibilities of 3-D (See? Told you. More to come.) and show off a clip of “Monsters vs. Aliens.”

The oddest Sony product: Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Oprah Winfrey-endorsed doctor who is about to have his own Sony-produced TV show. He offered health tips and measured Stringer’s waist–40 inches, or 39 if Stringer really sucked in his gut.

But to his credit, Stringer didn’t promise a cure-all for the consumer electronic industry ills: “I wish I could tell you that I’m recession-proof.”

(By the way, the image here is from Stringer’s 2008 appearance at The D Conference, but from what I can see, he’s dropped a few pounds since then. I’ll update with something more current if possible.)