coronavirus

Media barons have long acknowledged that the future will be streamed.

Over the coming weeks, as the world’s largest media and tech conglomerates report earnings for the July-September quarter, it will become increasingly clear how well entertainment companies are handling the pivot away from cable bundles and theatrical releases, and toward streaming services. Investors expect to hear entertainment executives finally explain not only how they plan to compete in an ecosystem that’s historically been dominated by Netflix, but also to learn about the ways their companies will do business long after the COVID-19 pandemic subsides.

In the latest episode of Eric Bolling’s show from the Sinclair Broadcast Group, America This Week, the conservative broadcaster perpetuated misinformation about the origin of the coronavirus pandemic and measures that help slow its spread. In an interview on Friday, after the liberal media watchdog group Media Matters for America raised concerns about the episode, Bolling said the segment was being edited to remove some of his statements before airing over the weekend on dozens of Sinclair stations.

COVID-19 accelerated long-term viewership changes and channeled ever-higher numbers toward streaming and toward leaner cable packages, but broadcast remains a reliable and flexible buy for advertisers.

The Atlanta Falcons shut their facility Thursday following one new positive test for Covid-19. The team remains scheduled to play at Minnesota on Sunday. Defensive tackle Marlon Davidson was placed on the Covid-19/reserve list this week, and the addition of a second unidentified person caused the Falcons to act out of caution. All team activity will be done virtually.

A single week’s worth of entertainment business news demonstrates just how much movies and television have been upended by covid-19. Assessing the magnitude of change in a single industry is a good way to consider how different the world could look by the time we feel safe enough to emerge from seclusion.

As production resumes during pandemic, fear of contagion is changing everything about making television; ‘Are we crazy to be doing this?’

CBS will begin rolling out its scripted series in November, joining its fellow broadcasters in ramping up its traditional fall schedule in the weeks before Thanksgiving. The 10 series represent half of CBS’s planned scripted lineup for the 2020-21 season and will give the network at least some original hours across five nights — Sunday through Thursday. The network is currently using a mix of acquired series, unscripted and news programs and reruns to fill out its schedule.

NBC’s daytime drama Days of Our Lives is shutting down for two weeks after a member of the production team tested positive for COVID-19. The soap will pause filming until Oct. 26 following the positive test, which came as part of the show’s testing protocol. The person who tested positive is now in isolation, and people who had close contact with the person are also quarantining.

Since August, Anderson Cooper has been producing his Full Circle program thrice weekly via smartphones in his Hudson Yards office. The remote production was “quick, simple and cheap,” says CNN’s Jason Holterhaus, and signals that CNN is starting to take its digital-only shows as seriously as its linear broadcast.

Employees at NBC’s New York O&O claim they’re being treated like second-class citizens when it comes to the company’s coronavirus testing policies. They are demanding they receive COVID-19 tests like their colleagues at NBC News, MSNBC and even Saturday Night Live, who are being tested at least once a week, sources close to the situation say.

The list of scripted shows canceled because of issues stemming from the pandemic continues to rise. Above, Netflix’s GLOW.

Americans’ attention to coronavirus news has declined, from a high of 57% following that news very closely in late March to 35% who say the same in September. And the degree of attention that Americans are paying to news about the coronavirus also reveals partisan differences, with substantially fewer Republicans now following that coverage closely than Democrats. That’s according to a survey of 9,220 U.S. adults conducted Aug. 31-Sept. 7 (prior to the first presidential debate and Trump’s subsequent positive test for the virus).

Remotely working broadcasters are increasingly seeing the advantages of IP routing systems to easily control equipment and monitor feeds. Those who adopted IP routers prior to the pandemic were “well ahead of the game,” says one vendor. Above, the BBC’s SMPTE 2110 facility in Cardiff, Wales.

ViacomCBS won’t be offering merit increases to salaried employees this year due to the economic hit of COVID-19, CEO Bob Bakish told staff at a town hall meeting Wednesday. A source at the company also confirmed that Bakish told staffers the company’s offices will not be opening in  January. In a memo update several months ago, he had said offices could be opened in January at the earliest but clarified that today so employees could plan, the person said.

Some theories on why viewers have unexpectedly turned away in droves.

Facebook has deleted a post in which President Trump had claimed Covid-19 was “less lethal” than the flu. Twitter hid the same message behind a warning about “spreading misleading and potentially harmful information”.

Three more Vancouver-based series — the CW’s Riverdale and Batwoman and Netflix’s Maid, all from Warner Bros TV — have been cleared to resume production today after receiving the delayed COVID-19 tests for their casts and crews. The trio, which had been dark for more than a week, are the first WBTV series impacted by the lab delays to go back to production. Several other WBTV shows remain idle, with the CW’s The Flash said to be poised to kick off filming later this week.

Technology executives from ABC News, NBCUniversal Owned Stations, ABC Owned Television Stations and Hearst Television will explore how pandemic-necessitated at-home production has overhauled the industry’s thinking at TVNewsCheck’s virtual TV2025 event in October. Register here.

Three reporters have tested positive for COVID-19 in recent days while covering a White House described as lax, at best, in following basic safety advice like wearing masks. Discomfort only increased Monday with news that press secretary Kayleigh McEnany had tested positive. Above, a member of the cleaning staff sprays The James Brady Briefing Room of the White House on Oct. 5.

In a memo sent to NFL teams Monday after a conference call involving the league and club executives, Commissioner Roger Goodell reiterated the need to adhere fully to all of the league’s health and safety guidelines. The NFL was forced to reschedule Sunday’s game between the Steelers and Titans when Tennessee had the league’s first coronavirus outbreak, which has affected 20 organization members, including 10 players. That game was moved to Week 7, causing adjustments that also impacted the Baltimore Ravens.

Trump’s expected return Monday evening comes as the scale of the outbreak within the White House itself is still being uncovered. Press secretary Kayleigh McEnany announced she had tested positive for the virus Monday morning and was entering quarantine.

American Idol was one of the first major entertainment formats to battle through the COVID-19 production shutdown to finish its last season with a series of episodes filmed remotely. The talent competition is now heading into production on its fourth season for ABC and is back at its usual scale, albeit safely.

Long-running CBS game show The Price Is Right is heading back into production with a redesigned, COVID-friendly set and all of its usual rounds, but, for the first time in its nearly 50-year run, it will be without its rambunctious audience.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany tweeted today that she tested positive for Covid-19 on Monday morning. She says she is experiencing no symptoms and had no knowledge of Hope Hick’s testing positive before her briefing last Thursday. She said in a statement posted on her Twitter account that she will begin to quarantine.

The network premiere of Pop TV’s One Day a Time reboot of the Norman Lear classic, originally slated for Monday, Oct. 5, has been pushed by a week, to Monday, Oct. 12. The reason is the move of the New England Patriots game against the Kansas City Chiefs from Sunday, Oct. 4, to Monday, Oct. 5, after Patriots star quarterback Cam Newton and then Chiefs practice squad quarterback Jordan Ta’amu tested positive for the coronavirus. CBS will carry that game, which starts at 7 p.m. ET.

The show will go dark on Monday after a member of the production came down with the novel coronavirus.

The NFL has postponed Sunday’s highly anticipated game between the New England Patriots and the Kansas City Chiefs to Monday or Tuesday after Cam Newton, the Patriots’ star quarterback, and the practice squad quarterback on the Chiefs tested positive for the coronavirus.

The White House said the visit of “a few days” to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center was precautionary and that Trump would continue to work from the hospital’s presidential suite, which is equipped to allow him to keep up his official duties.

President Donald Trump often makes news on Twitter, but of all the tweets he has ever tweeted, none had the gravity of what he sent out Friday morning.