- Entertainment companies spent US$121 billion on original content last year (Variety)
- Thinking about keeping employees engaged in 2020? Have you considered a four-day work week? (Fast Company)
- It’s Disney versus Netflix at this year’s animated film BAFTA race (The Hollywood Reporter)
- TiVo is getting into the streaming wars with new channels and tech (TechCrunch)
- Missing Link won the Golden Globe for best animated feature, besting Disney and major franchises (CNBC)
- …And on the topic of the Globes, British TV and film execs won 40% of them this year (Deadline)
- Amazon’s Fire TV now reaches 40 million monthly active users, topping fierce competitor Roku (TechCrunch)
- A TV that plays vertical video and robot cat toys are all the rage at CES 2020 this week (CNN)
- In case you missed it over the holidays, Hasbro completed its US$3.8-billion acquisition of eOne (Variety)
- ViacomCBS has acquired a 49% stake in Miramax for US$375 million (Variety)
- To viewers Baby Yoda seems totally fresh, but to the industry it’s the culmination of all of this decade’s trends (The Hollywood Reporter)
- What content has defined the 2010s? (Vanity Fair)
- The problem isn’t going away: Fake and dangerous kids products keep popping up on Amazon (CNN)
- What novelists, teachers, therapists and critics let their kids watch (Vulture)
- Disney+’s impact on Netflix is already being felt…or is it? No study seems conclusive (Digital TV Europe)
- TiVo has scrapped plans to split itself up, and is instead merging with a tech firm for US$3 billion (Variety)
- Facebook is getting into the gaming game with the PlayGiga acquisition (The Verge)
- Amazon, Apple and Google are working together to create a standard for smart home tech (Recode)
- What happens when you get Netflix, Disney, Pixar and DreamWorks all in one room? It’s an animators’ roundtable! (The Hollywood Reporter)
- Madison Avenue is trying to pick a winner of the streaming wars (Variety)
- Most of the highest-paid YouTubers are kids (Forbes)
- …And these are the most-watch ads on YouTube this year (Tubefilter)
- Netflix is showing off its global user numbers for the first time (Vox)
- Media has always been an “adapt or die” business, but the 2020s’ streaming war could make things a whole lot worse (Variety)
- Hey Alexa, how come kids don’t trust you? Apparently adults believe voice assistants more than children do (CBC News)
- Look, they’re not crazy! Encouraging kids to talk to themselves might make them better at math (CNN)
- TikTok is moving in on Spotify’s territory and launching a music streaming app (Independent)
- No surprises here, but Frozen 2 has become Disney’s sixth film to cross the US$1-billion mark this year (Variety)
- US tariffs on Chinese imports have been delayed again, and won’t affect Christmas toys (Toy News)
- Hulu is rolling out a new ad format for people who binge-watch (AdWeek)
- Apple Arcade debuted with a lot of fanfare, but has the new service changed the gaming landscape at all? (CNET)
- The status of all the promises Hollywood has made about gender-parity so far (The Hollywood Reporter)
- Mock it all you want—and lots of people do—but digital net Brat TV is bringing in major cash (Digiday)
- Is the future of TV going to be all about making the best memes and redoing already beloved IPs? (New York Times)
- How Facebook is desperately trying to stay relevant to younger generations (Tech Crunch)
- Artists in Japan were hired to promote Frozen 2 on the sly, and then Disney got caught (The Hollywood Reporter)
- Toys “R” Us is back! And instilling confidence in shoppers by…tracking them? (WIRED)
- It’s been a decade of deals, but don’t expect the 2020s to follow suit (Wall Street Journal)
- Things aren’t looking so rosy for Netflix as analysts predict it could lose four million subs next year (Digital TV Europe)
- YouTube is changing its anti-harassment policy and getting mixed reviews (Recode)
- Comcast is optimistic that Peacock will break even by year five (Broadcasting & Cable)
- Marvel plans to shutter its television division and roll it into the studio (Variety)
- Is children’s TV too sanitized? Two of its hit makers think so (Telegraph)
- Anatomy of a box-office bomb: What happened to Playmobil? (The Hollywood Reporter)
- How the fight over Star Wars put the trilogy’s finale in jeopardy (New York Times)
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