The stock market values of the American entertainment giants fell dramatically. The high costs of launching a product and investing in content for streaming services swallowed up billions. Disney is pulling the plug by freezing hiring and spending. Cinema is the old and new savior, with new concepts. An important signal for Germany, where public broadcasting is under pressure. However, the midterm elections in the USA also show the consequences of neutral reporting on opinion formation in a democracy. What will happen to us tomorrow can already be seen in the USA today.
Proud of the absence of state-dictated news, the American people follow two alternative sources of information on television. While Fox News serves the Republican camp and also incorporates conspiracy theories spread by bots into its narrative, CNN follows a more neutral approach. The latter is reflected almost 1:1 in German reporting. The division could now experience a healing impulse, especially through the failed protégés of Donald Trump. In Germany, we enjoy balanced reporting, despite all the scandals and potential for improvement in the dual broadcasting system.
The entertainment offering is also dual. While television is increasingly struggling to offer programs according to a fixed schedule, streaming is booming as the preferred form of consumption, even more so on public broadcasters. However, content for active selection must be prepared differently than programmed entertainment streams geared towards competition. Cinema and streaming differ less in this respect than television and media libraries. This is a challenge not only for program providers, but also for creatives and producers. The Americans are also providing solutions.
With a massive advertising campaign and a thorough programming in multiplex cinemas, the majors are pushing films to the masses. The aim is to achieve a level of visibility in society in order to become a topic of conversation. Once a film is being talked about at school and work or with friends, people want to be part of it. Marketing, i.e. the creation of a need for superfluous consumption, works through peer pressure. Gamification mechanisms are clearly visible in the advertising strategy. The initially generous appetizers are systematically becoming rarer. Anyone who still wants to have a say now has to go to the cinema. Once one thing has been talked about, the next one comes along. Competition is avoided as much as possible on the opening weekends. And this works particularly well when there are fewer films. A clear signal to the funding reform.
The findings to date are contradicted by the latter. Again, the concept is not a real development, but merely a concealment of substantial problems. We need fewer films with bigger budgets and real prospects for producers to participate in the success. The long overdue tax incentive, i.e. real, simple, plannable and reliable inbound funding based on the English model, seems a long way off. Strengthening the creative economy would be a simple solution, particularly given the looming exodus of old, energy-intensive industries. In the UK, funding led to the ultimate rise of the entertainment industry in terms of gross domestic product. The natural resources for crew and space are running out on the island. Germany would be the favored overflow to Europe. This makes studio initiatives such as those in Penzing and the Black Forest all the more important.
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(Author/Image: Markus Vogelbacher)