Age ratings are coming to a platform you most likely use -- from TikTok rolling out content with a maturity rating system to prevent young audiences from seeing inappropriate videos to content regulators worldwide who have increased the extent to which they examine content for age and cultural appropriateness. We've previously discussed regulators' increased focus on violence , LGTBQIA+ , and cultural issues in film and television. As demonstrated by three announcements this past week, age ratings are making their way onto all types of media platforms.
As Covid-19 concerns persist and stay-at-home/social distancing continues, it's difficult to find a single industry unchanged. Even streaming companies, most of whom just gained a bevy of new subscribers, have changed their services. In early April Netflix dropped streaming quality in order to ease overworked broadband servers as people increasingly plopped down in front of the TV to escape the current state of things. In addition, the streaming company announced that they will alter specific elements of the parental control features. Among the changes-in addition to rating-is a new capability to filter based on titles . Though the broadband restrictions are easing as the pandemic limitations ease, the filter settings are the new standard.
Following the latest VOD and OTT company M&E earnings, subscriber reports, and layoffs, one of the observations is that content acquisition budgets will shrink worldwide. There are several reasons for this: increased competition, increased production costs due to global price inflation, resulting pressure on studios to reduce costs to maintain profitability, and the concern that Netflix's subscriber loss will spread to other parts of the industry.
From the first commercial television broadcast at W3XK in Washington DC in 1928 through the inauguration of the first basic cable TV station ( WTCG ) until the launch of streaming video-on-demand (VOD) by Netflix in 2007, how and what people watch on television hasn't changed much. Television sets were how entertainment, sports, and news entered people's homes. Large networks created shows aired by their affiliates, broadcasting in communities across the country. Station and network operations, including content creation, were funded through commercial advertising. Even the programming schedule was primarily determined by the station or network's ad sales. Most stations went off the air at midnight and returned at 5 AM the following day.
During 2020’s lockdown, we all found ways of coping. For a growing number of people, Korean TV shows and films offer an enchanting escape from pandemic reality. Netflix has reportedly seen a “370% increase in viewership of Korean content in 2020” over the previous year, and this order of growth is expected to continue as lockdown restrictions ease. In 2017 there were only two Korean series, “White Nights” and “Man to Man”; now there are hundreds of K-Dramas available to viewers on Netflix, proving that the “Hallyu wave,” or rise in the popularity of Korean content, will continue to grow.
ndia is the fourth largest film market on the planet. Besides Hollywood releases, the country’s Bollywood industry churns out film and TV shows at a prodigious rate, adding $2.4B annually to the Indian GDP. As readers of this blog are aware, India is one of 53 countries that have governmental film review or censorship boards. India’s regulator is known as the Central Board of Film Certification ( CBFC ). The CBFC reviews content intended for release for compliance and cultural appropriateness. If they find something they don’t like, they can mandate cuts, edits, change classification ratings and, in extreme instances, ban titles altogether. Up until April 4, 2021, content creators who did not agree with the CBFC rating or decisions could appeal to the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT) for redress.
In a recent announcement , Sri Lanka’s Information Minister, Keheliya Rambukwella, shared that the country is drafting a new law to check the spread of fake news on social media platforms. “The spread of false information on the internet poses a serious threat and is seen as being used to divide society, to spread hatred and to weaken democratic institutions.”