Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Tuesday, October 17th, 2023

A Warner Bros. Discovery exec talks AI. And Netflix's little-known live stream.

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Tuesday, October 17th, 2023. 

PROGRAMMING NOTE
My apologies for the lateness of today's newsletter. It's been quite a day and I may be reaching maximum bandwidth.

NETFLIX ADDS SOME RANDOM SPORTS, BUT DON'T READ TOO MUCH INTO IT
Netflix is set to release its Q3 earnings, so in a bit of PR jujutsu, the company announced today that it is adding its first live competitive sports event. The newly created Netflix Cup is a made-for-television event which features Formula 1 and PGA Tour athletes from the company’s popular Drive To Survive and Full Swing docuseries partnering together for a "celebrity" golf tournament. It's good branding for the streamer and as stunt events go, this is a kind of low hanging fruit. And officially announcing it now drowns out a lot of those annoying "what will Netflix's Q3 numbers be?" stories that would otherwise be filling the entertainment press industrial complex today.

The announcement shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who pays close attention to the company, given that executives had revealed earlier this year that Netflix's first sports-ish live event would be a celebrity golf tournament. But given the reaction by some analysts, you would think Netflix had nailed down the rights to the Super Bowl. Takes ranging from "Netflix is getting into sports" to the predictable, "Netflix's entry into sports lags behind rivals."

The problem with all of those wide-ranging hot takes is that the Netflix Cup fits right in to where company executives have described as being their overall strategy towards sports. "We’re not anti-sports, we’re pro-profit," said Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s co-CEO, at an investor conference late last year. And during this year's Q2 investor call, the executive reiterated that Netflix would be sticking to "sports adjacent" programming for the foreseeable future.

A major reason for that is financial. In recent years, Netflix made a bid for Formula 1 media rights and attempted an outright acquisition of the Premier Lacrosse League. But the company has been adamant that it would not get into sports simply for bragging rights. In a recent background interview I had with one Netflix executive, the NBCU streamer Peacock was used as an example of what Netflix did not want to do. "It's losing money, but it's not the fault of scripted programming," I was told. "They have spent billions on sports rights and that's great. They've built themselves a streaming sports hub to compliment their other programming. But they're spending billions to essentially rent eyeballs, and we have no intention of doing that."

It's not a coincidence that many of the people arguing Netflix should dive deeper into live sports are the same people who have a vested interest in seeing that the value of sports rights deals continues to increase. But what seems to be pretty clear is that Netflix executives wouldn't mind having some live sports. But only if the price is right and if they have some sort of ownership in the programming.

SPEAKING OF NETFLIX
Because Netflix releases so many seemingly random titles each week, it's easy for outsiders to miss trends. Especially when the streamer has gotten very proficient at not promoting things if they aren't a priority.

For instance, did you know that Netflix has been experimenting with another live feed the past couple of weeks? Last Thursday, the video service premiered a nearly two-hour live animal cam from Cleveland Metroparks. The live stream featured otters, baby rhinos, gorillas and orangutans and there will be similar livecasts for the next three Thursdays. My guess is that it's an effort to test live stream capabilities while providing some low-cost family programming. But that's just a guess, since I haven't been able to convince anyone at Netflix to comment on it on the record.

A WARNER BROS DISCOVERY EXEC TALKS ABOUT RESIDUALS, BONUS PAYMENTS
Yesterday, I posted an excerpt from an interview I conducted with a high-level Warner Bros Discovery executive, who talked about some of the issues currently being battled over in the SAG-AFTRA/AMPTP negotiations. Or at least, they were being battled over until Disney's Bob Iger and Netflix's Ted Sarandos apparently decided to shut down discussions for the time being.

Today's excerpt concerns the issue of AI and its many complicated permutations. I'll be posting the full interview tomorrow on AllYourScreens. The interview has been lightly edited for clarity and in order to remove several identifiable references:

Q: So where do we start with AI? I feel as if the phrase is so ill-defined that it has a different meaning for nearly everyone who uses it?

A: (Sigh). Exactly. And since every person seems to their own take on which aspects are must-haves or worst-case scenarios, there seems to have been a lot of talking past each other during the actor negotiations.

I want to make clear again I don't speak for anyone in particular or for my company. I just feel it would be helpful to hear a studio perspective on some of the these issues that isn't filtered through the lens of what might sound good in one of the trades.

The biggest challenge is that everyone is scared and in the back of all our minds - at least from the studio side -  is that a deal will be made that will limit our ability to compete. We're trying to look out several years and predict where this technology might lead and try and protect our interests based on hypotheticals. I suspect that calculation is similar to the one being made on the SAG-AFTRA side and that fear can lead to some entrenched and frankly bone-headed proposals.

Given all of the uncertainty, I think that AMPTP's initial proposal to set up some ongoing working group that includes representatives of the unions as well as the studios is a smart idea. Not that the issues that arise over the next several years will be solved by this group. But by meeting regularly and hashing out the issues, as an industry we would have a framework in place for what matters during the next round of negotiations down the road. Taking all of this up a couple of months before the current contract is up is just lighting a fuse and hoping the bomb doesn't go off.

The thing is, the idea ended up being completely ignored by the union side, because it was just presented as the sole AI proposal from the studios. So of course the idea is going to be seen as some half-hearted attempt to ignore the very real issues surrounding whatever we're calling AI. Instead of the working group being an important but not primary answer to the challenges.

Q: So from your perspective, what are the important issues? Or at least, highlight a couple of them for me.

A: I mentioned fear is a big component of this and once you understand that, a lot of seemingly hard to understand decisions make more sense. One of the big SAG-AFTRA issues is the requirement that consent for scanning actors - creating that digital replica - is currently being proposed to happen on day one of the production. The union I think rightfully believes this puts an enormous amount of pressure on actors to give consent because they're afraid they won't be able to start work that day if they don't agree. And honestly, while I don't know for sure, I suspect that is part of the reason why the studios proposed it. But that's also when the paperwork would be processed in the most efficient manner and I don't believe it was necessarily an evil proposal by the studios. But given the optics, pushing it back might be a bit more difficult. But you more than make up with that with goodwill.

From the actor's side, I think there is a bit too much fear-mongering. Not that these aren't important discussions. In fact, if I was on the SAG-AFTRA side, I would pushing as hard as I could to protect my people. But right now, it feels like a situation where someone is holding a gun on you and you keep focusing on how big the gun is. Yes, that matters. But that's not the primary reason the situation is dangerous.

But getting back to the definition of AI...we can't even decided that that entails. Is it motion-capture that will be used in later productions? Is it using someone's voice to help in ADR? What if you want to use that to create an entirely new audio work? The actors want to be able to be protected by having to provide their consent to any use of their image, voice or digital replica. As people on the business side, we worry that could cause of nightmare of misunderstandings and possible misuse. 

Q: So if this is so complicated. what is the solution?

A: If I had that answer, I would be in the room everyday making it happen. My gut tells me that instead of the current set-up where issues are discussed at a high-level and then brought back into smaller rooms for discussion, we would be better off if many of these AI issues were hashed out directly at a lower level. Between the people who are going to have to implement whatever guidelines we arrive at on the ground level. Let them work out the general parameters both sides can agree on and then bring back the framework to the CEOs and union heads for them to polish up.

But as I said, it's not my call. 

And if you have any feedback, reply directly to this newsletter or email me at rick@allyourscreens.com

ODDS AND SODS
* Andy Dehnart runs the web site Reality Blurred and he has the Love Is Blind cast contract and production's employee handbook and it is just as abusive as you might expect.

* Jimmy Fallon's game show That's My Jam has been renewed for a third season by NBC. 

* Molly Yeh, the star of the Food Network's Girl Meets Farm, talks recipes, what songs make her dance in the kitchen, and Thanksgiving advice.

* Leighton Meester and Robbie Amell play former flames finding romance during the Christmas season in the Freevee film EXmas, which premieres on November 17th.

* Sesame Street has released a list of some of the celebrities making an appearance in Season 54 and they include Quinta Brunson, Ariana DeBose, Brandi Carlile, Kal Penn, Eugene Cordero and Dan Levy.

* The concert film BTS: Yet to Come will premiere on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories starting November 9th.

TWEET OF THE DAY

WHAT'S NEW TODAY AND TOMORROW:

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17TH:
* Binged To Death (MTV)
* Celebrity Squares Series Premiere (VH1)
* Crush (Paramount+)
* Dark Side Of Comedy (Vice)
* Fatal Injections Series Premiere (MHz Choice)
* Heather McMahan: Son I Never Had (Netflix)
* I Woke Up A Vampire Series Premiere (Netflix) 
* Navajo Police: Class 57 (Max) 
* Street Outlaws vs The World: After Hours (Discovery)
* The Devil On Trial (Netflix)
* The Oval Season Premiere (BET)
* The Sea Beyond Series Premiere (MHz Choice)
* This Farming Life (Britbox)

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18TH:
* Coleen Rooney: The Real Wagatha Story (Hulu)
* Heaven Official's Blessing [dubbed and subtitled] (Crunchyroll)
* Kaala Paani Series Premiere (Netflix)
* Living For The Dead Series Premiere (Hulu)
* Married At First Sight Season Premiere (Lifetime)
* Ms Pat Settles It Series Premiere (BET)
* Nature (PBS)
* Sistas Season Premiere (BET)


Click Here to see the list of all of the upcoming premiere dates for the next few months.

SEE YOU THURSDAY!

If you have any feedback, send it along to Rick@AllYourScreens.com and follow me on Twitter @aysrick.