‘Resident Evil’ Heading To TV

Over the past few years, Constantin Film has proven quite effective at the box office, producing a number of movies based on such popular licenses as The Mortal Instruments and Resident Evil. Now, it’s giving television a try with these franchises, according to Variety.

The German production studio has confirmed that both Mortal and Resident will be getting TV series spin-offs. Executive board chairman Martin Moszkowicz confirmed the news this weekend in Cannes, during the launch of the company’s newest TV show, Shades of Guilt.

The company dabbles quite a bit with television development, but this is the first time that major franchises will be utilized, offering a new goal for it to reach. “We are increasing our TV activities substantially both in Germany and internationally,” said Moszkowicz, also emphasizing that fictional products will retain a huge focus.

When it comes to the development of such series, “we are moving rapidly,” he said. “Constantin has a lot of feature film brands and we are moving them into television. For instance, we own the rights to the book series The Mortal Instruments and we just hired a showrunner in Los Angeles, and our offices in Los Angeles and Canada are starting production next year on at least two or three international shows.”

That showrunner is none other than Ed Decter, who worked on such previous shows as Unforgettable, The Client List and In Plain Sight.

This is a new move for Mortal Instruments, especially following the news that the second film in the series, City of Ashes, was shelved due to the lackluster box office performance of last year’s release City of Bones.

Meanwhile, Resident Evil will continue to invade theaters, as a “final” chapter of the series is in the works for next year, with lead star Milla Jovovich returning. There’s no word yet if she’ll be involved with the show.

How Are Teens Listening To Music?

If you believe the recent Piper Jaffray report that shows that MP3’s in all their early-aught glory are still the preferred method for kids to listen to music, you may not have gotten the full picture. While the survey includes streaming sites like Pandora, lumping other streaming sites like Spotify into “other,” it leaving out glaring omissions. Where’s SoundCloud Where’s YouTube.

Graph from Piper Jaffray

A Nielsen report from two years ago showed that YouTube was teen’s go-to place for listening to music for 64 percent of respondents, although that report excluded streaming altogether.

Due to ommisions from of these prominent reports, what we actually know about teen’s music listening preferences are murky and unreliable. So what do we believe

Based on what we know from Nielsen’s most recent report on the matter, we know that digital music sales have come down by 6 percent and streaming has increased by 32 percent, in direct conflict with Piper Jaffray’s purported 13 percent increase in MP3 listeners. We would be less inclined to believe that the MP3 business is somehow booming and more inclined to believe that music is going in the direction of the cloud, through streaming.

The proclivity of these surveys to exclude streaming or lump types of streaming into an innocuous pile called “other” doesn’t reflect reality. For a more accurate picture, we need to break out streaming as a category and pay attention to where the shift in music is actually taking place.

 

Hulu Considering New Ad Model While Netflix Says No To Ad Deal

When it comes to online paid TV, viewers are clearly voting with their dollars and the dollars are going (mostly) to Netflix and Amazon. It’s increasingly hard for Hulu with only 6 million subscribers to Netflix’s 50 million and with Amazon’s ever-increasing content library.

The key difference between Hulu’s service and Netflix and Amazon’s is, of course, the ads. Hulu took cues from traditional TV in alternating viewing content with metered ads, but now viewers have had a taste of the alternative, the paid subscription with no ads model, it’s evident that in order to retain its position with the big leagues, Hulu will have to find a new way to integrate ads.

Netflix is continuing to show a hardline position on video ad integration, recently saying no to a deal with Ritz Crackers. Netflix’s CEO, Reed Hastings spoke strongly at the last earnings call: “It’s fundamental to that control orientation that we don’t cram advertisements down people’s throats.”

The paid subscription model continues to be wildly successful for Netflix, so we likely won’t be seeing ads on the platform any time soon. Hulu, however, is apparently not moving to shifting away from ads entirely as it is beholden to traditional TV networks Fox, NBC, ABC and more. Word is they are considering a pay-for-no-ads model similar to music platform Spotify.

How advertising will fit into the picture in the future of online video remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure: viewers will decide.

 

Tweens On Gender Roles And The Rise Of Femvertising

SheKnows‘ new project Hatch has purpose: “helping girls find a voice of their own.” After surveying 600 women, an enormous number (81 percent) felt that it was important for younger generations to see ads that postively portrayed women.

While changes are certainly happening and the term “femvertising” has been coined, it is evident that it’s not happening fast enough. Enter these intelligent and aware tweens whose opinion of current marketing tactics, gendered products and ideas of social media show that they see right through the noise.

You’re in for some great advice and insights and a peek of what’s coming from Gen Z: