Warner Bros. Discovery announced plans Tuesday to purchase and operate an $8.5 billion film studio in Nevada, contingent on the successful passing of a state tax credit.

The global media company said the commitment is part of a long-term collaboration with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and Birtcher Development.

The 34-acre facility will be located at UNLV Harry Reid Research & Technology Park in Southeastern Las Vegas. It will feature full-service film and TV studios, and will be named “Warner Bros. Studio Nevada,” WBD said.

Also Read: Is Warner Bros. Discovery’s Financial Health Really ‘Better Than It Appears?’

Part of the planned partnership will include the Nevada Media and Technology Lab, a teaching facility that will provide opportunities for UNLV students to learn and work in the industry.

Warner Bros.’ commitment of roughly $500 million a year depends on the outcome of a proposal, initially introduced by Nevada Senator Roberta Lange during the 2023 legislative session. 

Lange unveiled the massive proposed expansion to the film tax credit program, with a $190 million proposed price tag. Under her new proposal, that number would go down to to $95 million annually over 17 years.

“Warner Bros. Studios Nevada represents a great opportunity to further expand our facilities to accommodate these productions,” Warner Bros. Studios chief operating officer Simon Robinson said in a statement. “We are confident it will be a win-win for the state of Nevada, the Las Vegas community and WBD as we look ahead to our next 100 years of exceptional storytelling.” 

It’s common for states and cities to offer similar subsidies, which are attractive to Hollywood studios as they struggle to maintain productivity amidst growing production costs.

In May, the Dallas City Council unanimously approved a request for designation as a “media production and development zone,” which would let the city offer sales and tax exemptions for projects involving media production.

The National Conference of State Legislatures has reported that at least 18 states have enacted measures to implement or expand film tax incentives since 2021.

Netflix managed to impress Wall Street with better than expected subscriber performance in Q3, silencing its critics for the time being and causing at least one analyst to wonder if the streaming video pioneer could knock The Walt Disney Co. from its perch atop the media landscape.

Netflix added about 4.4 million subscribers in Q3, ahead of its guidance of 3.5 million additions. That performance comes after a Q2 when the streaming giant added just 1.54 million new customers and caused some industry pundits to speculate that the company was headed for a prolonged subscriber slowdown, exacerbated by the pandemic and increased competition from other streaming services. 

The subscriber beat comes shortly after another streaming juggernaut, Disney Plus, said last month that its fiscal Q4 customer additions would be in the single-digit millions, well below past quarters. But as analysts are changing their perceptions about Disney and its streaming service, at least one believes that Netflix, which earlier this year announced plans to enter into video game production and has ongoing forays into merchandising and film and TV production, could replace the Mouse House as the premier entertainment conglomerate. 

In a research note Wednesday (Oct. 20), Barclays Group media analyst Kannan Venkateshwar noted that about eight years ago, Netflix co-CEO and chief content officer Ted Sarandos’s goal was to “become HBO faster than HBO becomes us.” 

With a strong content slate expected to drive subscriber increases through Q1 2022, growth opportunities in Latin America, strong margins and the company’s unique approach to content, Sarandos may have been selling himself and the company short nearly a decade ago, according to the analyst.   

“Now HBO isn’t even in Netflix’s rear-view mirror,” Venkateshwar wrote. “Management framing of new opportunities seems to indicate that the benchmark now may be to surpass Disney’s flywheel.”

The Barclays analyst pointed to Netflix's entrance into gaming earlier this year and that other new business lines like merchandising — which he estimated is a $5 billion annual business for Disney — and the way the company sees its content as “continuous experiences” across video, gaming and live entertainment platforms, only adds to the momentum.

“This in turn could make Netflix’s business model and engagement almost impossible to replicate for most, except maybe some of the gaming platforms,” Venkateshwar wrote. 

The comparisons to Disney weren’t lost on Netflix management either. On Netflix’s quarterly video interview call, chairman and co-CEO Reed Hastings said while it could take several years, the plan is to integrate interactivity, gaming, and consumer products into its content.  

“Maybe imagine three years from now and some future Squid Game is launching, and it comes along with an incredible array of interactive or gaming options and it‘s all built into the service,” Hastings said. “And then, of course, you've got your off-Netflix aspects, the experiences that we're building out, consumer products, all of that coming together. 

“So a company like Disney is still ahead of us in some of those dimensions of putting that whole experience together, but boy, are we making progress,” Hastings continued. “And so exciting over the next three to five years, kind of closing that gap. And hope to pass them on that spectacular all-around experience.”

Netflix could more than double its total subscriber additions in the second half of 2021 as its original content slate expands, while Q2 growth, fueled by children’s programming and international series, should be in line with guidance, according to Canaccord Genuity media analysts Maria Ripps and Michael Graham.

In a note to clients issued Wednesday (July 14), the analysts estimated that Netflix would report about 1.1 million customer additions in Q2, slightly above company guidance of about 1 million additions. But Ripps and Graham expect bigger gains in the second half of the year — about 14 million customer additions (more than twice the five million added in the first half of the year) — fueled by the return of several popular series and a slew of new originals.

Netflix is scheduled to report its Q2 results on July 20. 

Ripps and Graham expect Netflix to end 2021 with almost 223 million total paying subscribers, up 19.2 million from the prior year, but still behind the 36 million it added in 2020. In 2022, the analysts predict Netflix will have nearly 250 million global customers, up 26.6 million.

After a sluggish first half in 2021, Canaccord expects Netflix’s second half content lineup to have “significantly more firepower,” with the July return of series Atypical, Virgin River, Never Have I Ever, and one of its most popular shows of 2020, teen drama Outer Banks.    

Reality dating show Sexy Beasts debuts on July 21 and similarly themed reality hit Love Is Blind comes back a week later for a three-episode reunion. On the film side, the third installment of teen drama The Kissing Booth premieres on Aug. 11 followed by He’s All That (featuring the acting debut of Tik Tok star Addison Rae) on Aug. 27, and action comedy Red Notice, starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Gal Godot and Ryan Reynolds on Nov. 12. Lin-Manuel Miranda musical Tick, Tick … Boom!, season two of The Witcher, and Don’t Look Up are also slated for fourth quarter release.

New episodes of past hits after a COVID-induced hiatus should goose next year’s subscriber rolls even further, according to the analysts. 

“The content pipeline for 1H22 and beyond is also robust as COVID-driven production delays pushed out new seasons of some of the biggest titles like Stranger Things, The Crown and Ozark into next year, and Netflix continues to invest in unique content both in the U.S. and around the world which is helping to strengthen its competitive positioning and differentiate its library from those of rivals,” Ripps and  Graham wrote. 

Netflix has been shaking up its content mix of late, which is reflected in Canaccord’s own top 10 rankings. Animated children’s fare like The Mitchells vs. The Machines, Dog Gone Trouble and Wish Dragon have dominated Canaccord’s TV Power Rankings, while at the same time strengthening Netflix’s position against rival Disney Plus, the analysts wrote.

Original content is still a core growth engine for Netflix, and despite a lighter than usual slate in the past few months, about 64% of the SVOD service’s top ten shows in Canaccord’s power rankings were originals, compared to 63% in Q1 and 59% in Q4. 

As production for its tentpole titles was on hold, Netflix boosted its commitment to children’s content, licensing The Mitchells vs. The Machines from Sony Pictures, which stayed in the top ten rankings for each day of the quarter after rights were purchased. Kids movies also made up six of the top ten films in Canaccord’s power rankings  during the quarter, including Netflix-produced Dog Gone Trouble and Wish Dragon joining licensed fare like Home, Madagascar 3 and The Secret Life of Pets 2. 

Ripps and Graham expect that trend to continue, adding that Netflix already has a handful of kids series in the pipeline — A Tale Dark & Grimm and Dogs in Space slated for fall 2021 and Super Giant Robot Brothers expected in 2022.

Investments in local language content also are showing results across the board, with the popularity of series like Mexican mystery Who Killed Sara? placing second during the quarter in Canaccord Genuity’s TV Power Rankings and French thriller Lupin, Norwegian fantasy drama Ragnarok and Spanish teen drama Elite spending significant time in the top ten.

Netflix began producing local language series back in 2015 with the Colombian Cartel-themed Narcos, and followed that somewhat surprising hit with shows like Money Heist (Spain), Dark (Germany) and others. Now such shows are regular hits with viewers.

“...This segment of Netflix’s library serves not just as a tool to drive subscriber acquisition and engagement in international markets, but also as a key differentiating factor compared to other streaming services,” Ripps and Graham wrote. 

The analysts noted that Netflix plans to step up its already impressive local language output on several fronts.

In South Korea, where it has about 3.5 million subscribers, Netflix has invested about $700 million in two product facilities and local language content, and plans to spend another $500 million on movies and TV series produced in the country. The SVOD pioneer has spent about $420 million in India on content over the past two years and said that it plans to spend more than that on 41 new shows and movies it will release in 2021. 

Other countries will see similar investment. Netflix is opening a new office in Italy in the second half and plans to double the number of Italian original series next year; in the Nordic region, where it has 4.5 million subscribers, Netflix has already produced more than 70 original series and plans to open an office there in the second half of 2021. 

Netflix already has spent about $175 million producing shows in Colombia over seven years and plans 30 new projects before the end of the year. In Spain, where it has produced more than 50 titles and opened its first European production hub in Madrid in 2019, plans are to double the number of sound stages from five to 10 in addition to building new post-production facilities, a film lab and high-tech editing suites. In Russia, Netflix has announced plans to produce its first Russian original series — Anna K — a retelling of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, while in Mexico it plans a remake of hit comedy movie Nosotros Los Nobles.

Sometimes art imitates life a little too closely.

For the hit AMC show The Walking Dead, the lockdowns, social distancing and related protocols associated with the COVID-19 outbreak, which is nearing its one-year anniversary, presented a particular challenge. How do you keep arguably the largest cast and crew in scripted series production safe while at the same time ensuring that new episodes of the still-popular show continue to be produced? For AMC Studios, the production arm of parent AMC Networks and the producer of The Walking Dead, it was a truly collaborative effort. 

All across the television industry, distributors and programmers have walked the fine line between being able to get out their products, satisfy their audiences and customers and meet growing demand, all while keeping their employees safe. For cable operators and networks, that has meant adhering to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) protocols and finding new ways to deliver products to consumers. For programmers, it has also meant in some cases finding ways to limit cast sizes and production crew exposures in unique ways. 

The premise of The Walking Dead comes uncomfortably close to an all-too-familiar reality — a global pandemic of questionable origins causes widespread death leading to a zombie apocalypse and forcing the non-zombie survivors to find a safe haven. For the show, which finished its 10th season in 2020 and was headed into its 11th and final season later this year, the dilemma was how to keep the cameras rolling and the 250-person crew — including 22 actors — safe during a real-life pandemic. After some thought, executives, producers, showrunners and writers on the series came up with a unique solution, creating six episodes as an extension of its 10th season that would focus on specific characters and require smaller casts. 

“Creative people are creative,” The Walking Dead executive producer and showrunner Angela Kang said in a Twitter video on making the extended 10th season. “If there is any superpower that we have as people that are making television or movies, is that we are supposed to think of out-of-the-box ways to do things. So I think you’ve really seen people stepping up to figure out how to make these processes possible at a really difficult time for everyone.” 

AMC Networks chief operating officer Ed Carroll said the decision to produce the six extended episodes was made to keep people safe, but it also resulted in some of the best programming in the show’s decade-long run.

“Many of the best episodes of The Walking Dead are the ones that are based on character,” Carroll said in an interview, adding that the show wouldn’t have lasted as long if it relied only on the zombie scare. “You really need to care about the characters. … We were able to do that and get everyone back to work safely, and take a very big show and make the set quite a bit smaller, but I think creatively accomplish some of our best storytelling.”

Character-Driven Episodes 

The first of those six episodes aired on Feb. 28, titled “Home Sweet Home” and focusing on Maggie Rhee, who left the series in season nine and is played by the returning Lauren Cohan. Other episodes are focused on Saviors’ leader Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam). 

COVID-19 protocols were the same on the TWD set as in all other AMC Studios productions — having an on-site epidemiologist; constantly testing and monitoring crew and actors for the virus; thoroughly cleaning before, during and after shooting; practicing social distancing; and essentially keeping people segmented. But in the six new episodes, the writers and producers crafted narratives that gave them the ability to use two different directors and shoot them in a sequence that kept one unit away from another. 

“What you have to do is rethink the entire operation, so your actors are only with the actors they need to be in a scene with and the crew is only coming into direct contact with other crew members that are essential to do their job,” Carroll said. “You’re minimizing the number of people on an active set, and I include network executives in that. We would normally be making set visits for all sorts of reasons. We’re just not doing that. We’re having our interaction with the cast and crew via Zoom or Teams. When you take a big show that is a multifaceted compilation and you reduce it as best you can, you break off small segments of the operation and keep them as discrete as possible.”   

The Walking Dead was unique in that it lent itself to character studies. Other series on the AMC slate won’t likely go the same route.

 “As we’ve all gotten better at the protocols, we think we can go back to a larger canvas of storytelling for season 11 and certainly for our other shows as well,” Carroll said. “Ideally, if you think about years from now, if people are catching up on a show, you wouldn’t want them to be able to say, ‘Oh, those must have been the COVID episodes,’ because they look and feel different.”

AMC Studios is getting back into its production stride, Carroll added. Better Call Saul was expected to start production on its final season in early March, and season 11 of The Walking Dead is in production in Georgia. Prequel Fear the Walking Dead started production earlier near Austin, Texas, although there were some delays because of the frigid weather in that state.

AMC also is more than halfway through shooting the premiere eight-episode season of Kevin Can F**k Himself, and is starting production on the second season of  Walking Dead: World Beyond. Later this month, production starts on 61st Street, a criminal-justice series based in Chicago. Production for many of WE tv’s reality programs has been ongoing, either via Zoom or other means.  

Other Production Restarts

Many other content companies have resumed production in one form or another, including Fox Entertainment, which said it is adjusting and adapting for the “new normal” when it returns, with all scripted series — 9-1-1, 9-1-1 Lone Star, Prodigal Son, The Resident and Last Man Standing — in production. 

In addition, all of the studio’s pilots that were ordered last year have been in production and are scheduled to deliver in mid-to-late March, including comedy This Country from Jenny Bicks and Paul Feig, based on the BAFTA-winning BBC format, for 2021-22. Fox Entertainment is also creating new pathways for projects, including opening writers’ rooms for two dramas with an eye toward series orders: Our Kind of People, a co-production with 20th Television, based on the acclaimed novel, from executive producers Lee Daniels and Karin Gist; and an untitled music drama. 

Fox Entertainment added that its animation efforts, including its in-house studio Bento Box, which produced The Great North, Bob’s Burgers, Duncanville and upcoming series Housebroken, has been largely unaffected by the pandemic. Bento Box has added new crew members since the pandemic began and also will produce an untitled Dan Harmon animated comedy scheduled to premiere in 2022. 

It was about a year ago, March 11, 2020, that the World Health Organization called the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic, with the first statewide stay-at-home orders issued shortly thereafter. To date, the pandemic has claimed more than 2.5 million lives globally (including more than 500,000 in the U.S.), forced millions of people to work or go to school from their homes and impacted nearly every aspect of everyday life. While hopes have been heightened by the slow but increasingly steady rollout of COVID-19 vaccines and the deceleration of cases in the U.S. and elsewhere, for the TV industry it is anything but business as usual.

For starters, the pandemic is far from over, even as there appears to be some light at the end of the tunnel. While the number of daily cases was down in the U.S. in January and early February, according to the Center for Disease Control, it began to tick up toward the end of the month. According to reports, there were 77,804 new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. as of Feb. 25, up from 55,195 as of Feb. 21. That number started to trend down again — there were 50,925 cases on Feb. 28, down 26% in the past two weeks, with 1,129 new deaths, down 21%. New strains of the virus were found in Houston and other parts of the country, but as vaccinations increase and funding for more widespread deployment is baked into the $1.9 trillion federal COVID-19 relief bill currently before the Senate, optimism that cases will continue their steady decline is high. 

Stay-at-home orders, implemented to halt the spread of the virus, also helped drive cable broadband subscriber growth to record highs, as the top three publicly traded cable operators added more than 4 million high-speed internet customers in 2020. While that level of growth isn’t expected this year, many operators are looking how to address the market as more consumers return to the office. 

At Mediacom Communications, the focus has been on making higher speeds available to its customers. Broadband speeds of 1 gigabit per second are now accessible in all of its markets, and the payoff has been strong.

The need for speed has been evident at the company. Mediacom reported a threefold increase in 1 Gbps customers year-over-year, and said 14.6% of its broadband subscribers take the 1 Gbps tier. That compares to about an 8.5% take rate for 1 Gbps service on average nationwide, according to OpenVault Broadband Insights.  

While most operators aren’t expecting the same broadband growth this year, some are looking closely at how their customers’ work habits could change. Some anticipate a hybrid approach between office and home will become more of the norm. 

“As things start to open up, we see customers that will still work from home permanently or on a hybrid basis and will continue to want to have a better connection that can give them that comfort that they can get their work done,”  Mediacom senior VP customer service and financial operations Tapan Dandnaik said.

To that extent, Mediacom has raised speeds for some levels of service and boosted usage allowances. The current usage allowance levels are 1, 2 and 6 Terabytes for its 100 megabits per second, 300 Mbps and 1 Gbps tiers. 

“We want customers to get the best speeds and the best service and make sure what we have for the customers is the appropriate service at the appropriate price point, so there is value in what we’re offering,” Dandnaik said. 

Charter Communications added more than 2 million broadband customers in 2020. While the No. 2 U.S. cable operator did see some customers migrate to higher speeds, chief operating officer John Bickham said that for the most part, subscribers found they could do a lot with less. Charter raised minimum speeds in most of its markets to 200 Mbps last year, and offers 400 Mbps and 1 Gbps service as well. Bickham said there are a few markets where 100 Mbps is still the minimum.

“We saw some upgrading,” Bickham said. “But fundamentally, if you have a 100 Mbps level of service in your home and it’s solid, there is hardly anything you can do that requires more speed. ... If people want a high level of speed, we’ll sell it to them.”  

Cable operators across the board moved to incentivize workers that had to remain in the field, either through bonuses or other means. Charter pledged to raise the minimum wage it paid hourly workers to $20 per hour by 2022, and said it is well on the way toward that goal. 

Charter also has teamed up with healthcare company Matrix Medical to vaccinate employees who want it on-site. According to executive VP, human resources Paul Marchand, the plan is to establish 50 to 60 megasites at Charter facilities across the country, working with local and state health departments to secure dosages and vaccinate employees that request it. 

Marchand added the company realizes that employees do and will have alternatives to get the vaccine — some are already getting it if they qualify — and that is OK, too. But he added that vaccines are expected to become more widely available in the coming weeks and Charter wanted to be prepared. 

“I can envision in the next four to six weeks on-site, maybe starting in one or two locations and building over time, we will be able to provide shots to our employees,” Marchand said. 

The pandemic accelerated cable’s long-desired plans to move toward self-installation. Comcast claims that more than two-thirds of its total installations are done by the customer. At Charter, self-installs are at about 80%. That pace is likely to continue.

“Don’t undersell self-installation,” MoffettNathanson principal and senior analyst Craig Moffett said. “It’s here to stay, and the MSOs will only get better and better at it.”

Remote Control

While all the emphasis has been on the general public working from home, most cable employees had to perform their tasks remotely and have performed amazingly well under the circumstances. For some workers — especially customer-service representatives — remote work could be permanent. 

“Work-at-home CSRs are a game-changer, particularly if we go back to having a tight labor market like we had pre-pandemic,” Moffett said.  “Among the biggest costs in running call centers are recruiting and training new employees, and one of the biggest reasons for turnover in call centers is lack of childcare. The ability to have CSRs working from home is transformational.”   

At Mediacom Communications, about 95% of CSRs work remotely, Dandnaik said. But he added that anything could change. 

“The thing is, we’re in March and if you asked me the same question in June, I hope to be able to say we have some kind of rotation,” Dandnaik said. “I think things are evolving. At some point in the future, I don’t know when, we will come up with the ideal hybrid approach to make sure we are adjusting to the new normal.”

Mediacom will be flexible with its employees and take their personal situations into consideration, he added. 

“We operate in 22 markets,” Dandnaik said. Where our call centers are, we have 10 or 12 locations. Every market is different and every situation is local.”  

Bickham said he expects the return to normalcy will most likely happen at a gradual pace.

“I think it goes away very slowly in terms of the impact on how people behave and where they work and how they go to school,” Bickham said. “It happens over an extended period of time. It’s not going to be like it was a year ago, when everyone went home and all of a sudden you had this very dramatic change.”  

Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts, in a January conference call with analysts to discuss fourth-quarter results, said moving customer-care workers from offices to work from their homes has worked so well, the company is “leaning towards embracing this model permanently.” In 2020, agent-handled calls were reduced by more than 16 million, Roberts said. 

“We are working hard with our communications and marketing efforts to enhance awareness of all we have to offer, which enables us to take cost out of the business while delivering a better experience for our customers,” Roberts continued. 

More than half of Charter’s CSRs are working remotely, but the hope is that once the pandemic subsidies, more will be able to return to the office. 

Although Charter came under some criticism for its approach during the early days of the pandemic, Marchand said the priority has always been to adhere to CDC standards, as well as the varying standards by state. And while Charter is complying with all federal and state requirements, once the pandemic is over, it would like to get as back to normal as possible. 

Weighing an Office Return

Charter has in some cases started a scheduled approach, where some workers would work one week in the office, some two weeks remotely and so on. While there will always be exceptions, he said, overall the company would like to get back to a place where most workers are in the office.  

“In the end, we think work is best done when we are together in person,” Marchand said. “We think collaborating, innovating, leading training, on-boarding all is best done, is most efficient, effective and rewarding and frankly, the best employee experience, when we’re all together. That doesn’t mean some situations don’t necessitate some people working remotely, and that in the future we may continue to have that.” 

AMC’s Carroll said he too misses the days when most of the team was at the office. While there have been some benefits to working remotely — Zoom meetings, he said, can sometimes run more efficiently than in-person ones — he said personal interaction is important on both sides of the business.

“On the client side, we do miss the client contact,” Carroll said. “We are doing it remotely, and that seems to be OK, but
you don’t find out as much about what’s happening with your clients on a 30-minute Zoom call as you do over lunch.”   

While some programmers and operators may crave a return to in-person meetings, the pandemic may have dealt the final blow to large conventions. 

The shift from huge trade shows to smaller, regional and local confabs had already been happening years before anyone had even heard of COVID-19, primarily due to massive industry consolidation. In 2017, NCTA–The Internet and Cable Television Association, ended its annual cable show, INTX, after 65 years. In a blog post at the time about the decision, NCTA president and CEO Michael Powell wrote: “Large trade show floors, dotted with exhibit booths and stilted schedules, have become an anachronism.”

But Moffett said the ultimate demise of the large cable convention shouldn’t be blamed on COVID. “There’s no need for a big centralized show if the alternative is making one visit to Philly, one to Stamford, one to Atlanta and one to Denver, and then calling it a day,” he said.

Other more regional shows managed to survive, even through the pandemic. ACA Connects and the National Cable Television Cooperative held their annual get-together, The Independent Show Reimagined, virtually Sept. 29-Oct. 1, 2020, and said the event had a record 848 registered participants. Plans are to hold a hybrid event July 11-14 in Minneapolis. 

But larger shows like CES, which was held virtually Jan. 11-14, drawing about 81,000 attendees (down from 170,000 in 2020) — have come under more intense scrutiny. In 2022, the CES event is expected to be a hybrid live and online event.

The Consumer Technology Association, which produces CES, declined comment. 

It may be too early to predict the long-term effect on events, NCTA senior VP of strategic communications Brian Dietz said. He noted that smaller or more-focused conferences like the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers-International Society of Broadband Experts (SCTE-ISBE) Cable-Tec Expo, the Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT) Leadership Conference and National Association for Multi-Ethnicity in Communications (NAMIC) conference were still very strong.

Virtual Events Draw Crowds

Attendance at the virtual SCTE-ISBE Cable-Tec Expo 2020 broke records, according to the group. WICT said registered attendance at its virtual 2020 Leadership conference was 860, besting the previous mark set in 2018 of 818 attendees. NAMIC said attendance for its virtual 34th Annual Conference was up 40% over the prior year. 

The SCTE plans to hold its next Cable-Tec Expo in Atlanta in October, the same month as the WICT Leadership Conference is scheduled for New York. The 35th annual NAMIC Conference is scheduled for Oct. 5-6 in New York.

The consumer-focused San Diego Comic-Con, used by TV programmers as a showcase for their newest offerings, also postponed the live event set for July 23-25 to 2022. Organizers said they will hold a virtual event this year, as well as a potential smaller live event in November.

But the jury is still out for larger conferences.

“I think it will be more interesting to see what happens with conferences like CES in which 150,000-plus gather in tight quarters for a week,” Dietz said. “That concept certainly seems to be more at risk because we are all now so much more educated about public health safety and how germs can spread rapidly.”

Whether big changes come and stick is about as uncertain as predicting when the pandemic will eventually peter out. But it is obvious that after a year (and counting) of relative isolation and disruption to the normal way of doing business, something has to give. Whatever it is, hopefully it will lead to a year ahead of living a bit less dangerously. 

The unions that represent the production teams for TV shows and movies have agreed to a COVID-19 testing regime that will allow productions to resume filming. It includes a compliance supervisor who must be on site "from crew call to wrap."

It is based on the "Safe Way Forward" report issued by the unions in June and developed with the guidance of epidemiologists and other experts.

“SAG-AFTRA members, along with their peers in other entertainment unions, are anxious to get back to work, but safety has to be the highest priority," said Gabrielle Carteris, president of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG/AFTRA). "This agreement establishes sensible, science-based protocols that allow members to return to doing the work they love while managing risk. I am grateful to our sister unions, who pulled together during this extended crisis, as well as to the studios for collaborating on this important issue.”

Basics of the new protocols include testing regimes, zone-based systems* and use of PPE.

The regime also includes COVID-19-related sick leave and quarantine pay.

Issuing the new protocols were the Directors Guild of America (DGA), International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), Teamsters and the Basic Crafts, and Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), in conjunction with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

According to the protocols each cast and crew member will be tested on the first day of work, then periodically throughout the production. Some form of lab-based test will be required. Antigen and antibody tests will not be accepted. Cast members will be tested more frequently given that they "are not able to utilize PPE and physical distancing when cameras are rolling" (unless, of course, those are part of the storyline).

For others, the frequency will be 1) a minimum of once a week for those who work on set but not when performers are present; 2) every two weeks for workers in areas other than the set, like the production office; and 3) on the first day for remote workers not in the actual production environment.

All employees get 10 days of COVID-19 paid sick leave, which could be used for testing positive, exhibiting symptoms, taking care of a sick household member, isolation, or quarantine. There are exceptions, but, generally, employees will receive quarantine pay.

* Zone-based systems are "barriers within which those on set can flow based on proximity to cast, level of testing, PPE and the extent to which physical distancing can be observed in the performance of their work."

As the NBA and the NHL gear up to begin their seasons inside their respective living “bubbles” to thwart the spread of the coronavirus, ESPN is wrapping up its nearly two- month bubble experiment in Las Vegas surrounding its summer boxing series. 

The network restricted more than 40 production staffers — as well as numerous fighters and their camps — to a specific area of the MGM Grand in Las Vegas as it produced more than 50 fights across 12 ESPN-televised cards since June 9. Its July 21 event is the final fight card before the production staff can officially leave the bubble and go home. 

ESPN boxing production director Aladdin Freeman is currently living in the bubble, and recently talked to B+C about his experiences working and living in MGM Grand’s highly restrictive confines. An edited version of the interview appears below. 

B+C:  How are you holding up in the bubble? 

Aladdin Freeman: It’s going well. I’ve been here since June 6, but we’re almost done. The thing I miss the most is exercising and using actual weights. We do have cardio machines, but you have to be creative with regards to weights. And obviously you miss the family. 

B+C: Are you cordoned off in a specific area in the hotel? 

AF: Everyone who is on the ESPN side of it is on the 12th floor of the MGM Grand hotel, and we have a couple of wings. The fighters are on the same wings, too, but [the network] tries to keep us separate. We have a service elevator that we take to the other areas available to us. That’s where our meals are and we go there three times [a day]. If you want to get a meal beyond that you can order something and they can drop it off, but I haven’t done that yet. For me, I try and limit the exposure I have around people in general.

B+C: How often are you tested? 

AF: Every Sunday, you’re given a time to take the test. The first day we got here as soon as you got tested, you had to go to your room for the rest of the day. On Monday, you get a band that says we’ve been tested and that you are negative. You get tested again on Wednesdays.

Have there been any positive tests among the production crew? 

AF: No. There have been positive tests within the fighters’ camps. I feel most comfortable when I’m at the [arena] site, as well as the actual place where we eat and where we do everything. 

B+C: Have the restrictions within the bubble affected your ability to effectively do your job?

AF: Doing the job is fine once we all got into a groove. We have had some issues, like a camera guy may have broken the bubble so they left. We’ve had people with different issues outside of the actual COVID-19 that had to leave the bubble, but on the whole it’s been pretty successful for the most part. 

B+C: What would you recommend to those players and production people at the NBA and other sports entering a bubble environment?

AF: It’s going to be a lot harder with team sports, but I think for all those people the easy part is doing the actual work. If you’re a director or a camera guy,  doing your job is going to be the easy part. It’s all the other stuff. I’m not going to lie … you lose sleep on the nights when you test, because you’re kind of worried and anxious. That’s something that you have no control over. You also don’t have control over the people around you. You have to have faith and trust that everyone is going to do the right thing. 

You also have to find time to do something that gives you an escape. My escape, believe it or not, has been walking about a mile around the garage at night, no matter what — I don’t care if it’s 120 degrees. You have to kind of have some sort of escape, whether it’s books, whether it’s Face Time-ing your family. You need that part of it so you don’t go stir crazy.

Former Saturday Night Live comedian Jay Pharoah was named host of Nickelodeon’s Unfiltered, a game show that will be remotely produced because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has shut down TV and movie production.

Nick is making six episodes of the show, which features panelists Darci Lynne, Lex Lumpkin and Gabrielle Nevaeh Green.

The panelists must guess the identities of celebrity guests who are disguised with an animated 3D filter and voice changer. The filters will be available to home viewers, so they can play at home.

Unfiltered is executive produced by Pharoah and Shaina Farrow. Ben Pluime also serves as executive producer. Production for Nickelodeon is overseen by Ashley Kaplan, senior VP, Digital Studios; Luke Wahl, VP, Digital Studios; and Paul J Medford, VP, Unscripted Current Series.

Nickelodeon previously aired another remotely produced series, Group Chat, hosted by Annie LeBlanc and Jayden Bartles.

For a platform like Comcast/NBCUniversal’s Peacock, the pandemic represents the best of times and the most challenging of moments, all rolled into one. 

Speaking to reporters last week the day before the streaming service conducted its limited launch on Comcast’s X1 and Flex video platforms, Peacock Chairman Matt Strauss lamented the massive disruption the COVID-19 pandemic wrought on NBCU’s original national launch plan for Peacock, which was tied directly to the Tokyo Olympics in mid-July.

Those Olympic Games may have been pushed back to 2021, but quarantined audiences across North America and Europe are consuming record amounts of linear and OTT television. Strauss acknowledged a “historic” opportunity for platforms like Peacock to find audiences that have never been so ready to engage.

Rather than pull back on Peacock’s mid-summer plans, Strauss said his group might launch the streaming service even earlier than July 15. 

“Now more than ever,” Strauss declared, describing the urgency and relevance of his video service. Just a few months ago, some wondered if Peacock—along with Apple TV Plus, Disney Plus, HBO Max, Quibi, and all the rest of the “combatants” involved in the so-hyped “streaming wars”—were wading into a business with not nearly enough eye balls to support it all. 

Well, these days, eyeballs they got. But with Hollywood’s production studios shut down, and operatives largely confined to post-producing whatever is already shot and in the can, or whatever can be shot from remote home-office locations, SVOD services could soon find themselves facing a pandemic-era dilemma your local grocery store chain is already real familiar with: Sure, the lines are out the door, but there’s no eggs or toilet paper. 

Strauss, for example, conceded that many of Peacock’s planned originals now won’t be available until 2021. 

With this mind, we surveyed the SVOD services in an effort to determine which are stocked up and ready to meet the increased audience demand, and which ones might run into trouble. Here, in no particular order, is our service-by-service analysis of how the major SVOD services stack up amid the pandemic production panic. 

NETFLIX
Introducing his “Quarterly SVOD Tracker” report last week, MoffettNathanson  analyst Michael Nathanson said there’s a reason why Netflix just saw its stock spike to record levels. 

“The world is trapped indoors, live sports on TV is non-existent, theaters are closed, unemployment is spiking to terrible levels, and new content is impossible to produce,” Nathanson wrote. “Who wins? The one company with an incredibly cheap price point, a gargantuan library of new and original content to satisfy most demand and broaden distribution.”

Just this past Friday, Netflix introduced complete first seasons of two new series: Kenya Barris sitcom #blackAF and reality/dating show Too Hot to Handle. The service’s Tiger King, which launched in March and seemed to come out of nowhere, is now one of its most-watched series historically. Eight new shows will be available for streaming on Netflix this week. And Ryan Murphy's WWII-era limited series Hollywood is set for a May 1 debut.

Even if it scales back to half that number each week, Netflix should be positioned well.

Netflix’s library is smaller than in year’s past, but its selection still includes more than 2,000 TV shows and nearly 4,000 movie titles, according to a tally published by Reelgood in February. 

“Netflix is in a class of its own, and its success did not come overnight,” said Robert Russo, president of consulting company RNR Media. “It was years of planning, a tremendous investment for a wide array of quality content, and a model that set the mold for this new online platform. Whoever has the most programming they have stocked up on, and I do believe that is Netflix, is best positioned to weather this storm.”

AMAZON PRIME VIDEO and HULU
Like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Hulu have built their digital brands around a steady flow of original content and library product. Neither spends nearly as much as Netflix and its $17.3 billion content budget for 2020, according to BMO Capital Markets. But each has plenty of originals in the can, and at this point, a more diversified content portfolio. 

Amazon Prime Video, for example, is augmented by a transactional video business and services like Amazon Channels. And for now, it has originals like the just-premiered latest season of Bosch to keep viewers hooked. 

Hulu, meanwhile, has the benefit of Disney’s myriad content channels. The newly established “FX on Hulu” pipeline, for example, just yielded the Phyllis Schlafly biopic series Mrs. America. 

“Overall, I think the ‘rich will stay rich’ among these streaming services during this quarantine. They have enough product available to endure, even if they have to slow down on releasing new product,” noted Robert Russo. “But if this production shutdown lags on, the norm for now will have to be finding new ways to produce content remotely while placing a greater emphasis on the library product.”

PEACOCK
For the national rollout of its $4.99-a-month subscription premium tier ($7.99 without any ads) in mid-July, Peacock is touting 15,000 movies and TV shows, with a flurry of originals highlighting the mix. (As mentioned, the service is already deployed into select Comcast pay TV homes.)

Aldous Huxley adaptation Brave New World is “essentially done,” Strauss said. He added that he’s “optimistic” that reboots Punky Brewster and Saved By the Bell will be done for this year, as well. Beyond those shows, much of Peacock’s plan for scripted originals will likely have to wait until 2021, with production studios shut down. 

Also read: Comcast’s Peacock Streaming Service Created From Traditional TV’s Winning Recipe

Given that reality, Peacock has pivoted to promoting its robust library of recent-era sitcom hits—30 Rock, Parks and Recreation, and Two and a Half Men were highlighted in last week’s press release, for example. It’s also plugging late-night shows like Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers that can be remotely sustained in their hosts living quarters. 

“The advantage for Peacock, among other services with significant libraries, is this evergreen product,” said Robert Russo. “It gives you plenty of content to access. But with fewer original shows at launch, you have to wonder if these shows many people have already seen will be able to carry it.”

Strauss thinks they can, at least for a while.

“We’re really fortunate that we have such a vast library of content that we know is going to resonate,” Strauss said. “Viewers are seeking programming that’s comfortable, that’s familiar and nostalgic. And families are spending a lot more quality time together. This provides a unique opportunity to share common experience, to revisit some of their favorites. It plays to our strengths.

Strauss also noted that Peacock will also exists as a skinnier (7,500 series without originals) free, ad-supported service. Given the new market dynamics, Peacock could actually thrive in that iteration, he said, adding, “Nothing’s more affordable than free.” 

HBO MAX
AT&T/WarnerMedia’s $14.99-a-month entry into the streaming wars is still set to launch in May (date still not specified) with an announced 10,000 hours of content, including movies and shows from Warner Bros., New Line, DC Entertainment, TNT, TBS, truTV, and the Cartoon Network.

WarnerMedia kept the original series announcements humming all through the winter and early spring. But even the most anticipated among that flurry—the unscripted Friends reunion special—couldn’t get done before the sudden COVID-19 shutdown. 

Also read: HBO Max: Everything You Need to Know About the Big OTT Service AT&T Has Its Entire Future Riding On (No Pressure!)

Again, WarnerMedia has a library to fall back on—notably, the HBO vault.

“Given the caliber of many of its shows, I can see the audiences discovering or revisiting dramas like The Sopranos and The Wire on HBO Max,” noted Russo. “This could be enough to carry them for now.”

Some current HBO shows like Real Time with Bill Maher, meanwhile, are being shot remotely, with the host situated in front of a blue screen at his home. 

Appearing on CNBC over the weekend, Jeffrey Hirsch, CEO of HBO rival Starz, said much of his premium network’s content is shot a year in advance. So for now, it’s a matter of remotely conducting aspects of post-production from remote locations, and Starz’s production pipeline is minimally impacted. At least on the HBO side of the business, it’s probably not unreasonable to suspect a similar production workflow is in place. 

“The internet is still our lifeline, more so than ever before” said Mike Tankel, partner at marketing and development firm To Be Continued. “But, for now, the challenge is keeping the momentum going at a time when production is at a standstill.”

DISNEY PLUS
Considering the breakout success of recent ABC special The Disney Family Singalong, an early example of a show that can be produced from remote “distanced” locations, viewers at the moment seem hungry for inspirational programming. And that alone can make the content in Disney Plus—which recently surpassed 50-million paid subscribers globally—even more appealing.

“Disney Plus, like Amazon Prime, was smart enough to lock us in to year-long deals, and that can make a huge difference if this quarantine extends indefinitely,” Tankel said. “Then there is its library, which includes the Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar, Nat Geo and Disney brands.”

Also read: Disney Plus: How It Went From Zero to 28.6 Million in Less Than Three Months

Launched in the U.S. in November, Disney Plus touts a library of about 7,500 TV show episodes and 400 films. Those films include Onward, which wasn’t able to finish its U.S. theatrical window before the shutdown. 

But there could be trouble ahead. According to Nathanson’s latest “SVOD Tracker,” research firm HarrisX found that while Disney Plus managed to reach 27% of U.S. streaming households by March, there’s been a recent drop of -1,000 basis points among people who use the service on a daily basis.

This, Nathanson concluded, “may signify the need for more original content,” a need that’s emerging at a particularly bad time. 

APPLE TV PLUS
Nearly six months after launching, Apple’s big SVOD play is still only used in about 7% of U.S. streaming homes, according to HarrisX data. 

This, Nathanson said, “speaks to its very limited content offering and lack of library.”

Apple has offered its $4.99-a-month streaming service for free to purchasers of new Apple devices. At this point, only around 43% of the service’s limited user base is paying for a subscription. 

Also read: Is It Already Too Late for Apple TV Plus?

At the end of the year, when Apple starts asking many of those subscribers to pay, will any of them be enticed? With what limited content it already has at its disposal, Apple is trying. 

As another sign-up incentive, for example, Apple TV Plus has made some of its original shows free to watch for anyone during the pandemic. New and upcoming shows include Spike Jonze's upcoming Beastie Boys Story and special Oprah Talks on COVID-19. And just last Friday, Apple TV Plus introduced docuseries Home. Drama Defending Jacob, comedy Trying, and animated musical Central Park are expected in May. 

So far, only drama The Morning Show has generated early buzz. 

“Apple TV Plus still has not hooked me with a show,” Tankel noted.   

QUIBI
In its first week, Quibi launched with 50 individual shows, with another 175 shows planned to roll out by year end. But, with productions on host and minus the library content, Quibi is asking producers to shift to programming options that can be produced remotely and turned around quickly.

With the pandemic disrupting production of Quibi’s slate of current events-driven shows, which the mobile-first programming service umbrella-brands under the moniker “Daily Essentials,” producers are finding new, remote ways to tell their stories. 

Also read: Can Quibi Build a Brand From Scratch Amid Stiff Streaming Competition?

For example, Tim Kash, who hosts music show Pop5, moved his scaled-down set into his garage. And Jimmy Mondal, host of videogame-themed show Speedrun, is shooting from his living room.

“On the majority of our shows, our partners have been very entrepreneurial," Quibi founder Jeffrey Katzenberg told The Hollywood Reporter just before the service’s April 6 launch. "And, you know, they’re delivering." Katzenberg told THR that he was expecting the premieres of only two shows to be delayed, including Hot Off the Mic, which relies on recent footage of comedy club sets, and the 60 Minutes-inspired 60 in 6, which is on hold after an outbreak inside CBS News.

Various metrics, including app downloads, point to a slow start for Quibi, however. And the pandemic seems to be posing a more existential challenge to Quibi than the toughened task of getting its shows made. 

Essentially, consumers are asking, why do I need to watch TV on my phone when my living room TV set is right here?

Netflix is planning to create a production hub in New York, bringing hundreds of additional jobs and up to $100 million in investment to the city, according to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

According to the Governor, the production hub will include an expanded office in Manhattan that will directly create 127 high-paying executive content, marketing and production development jobs over the next five years, and six sound stages in Brooklyn with the capacity to hold thousands of production crew jobs within five years.

"Netflix is innovative, creative and bold - just like New Yorkers - and the expansion of this cutting-edge company in New York once again demonstrates the Empire State is open for business," Governor Cuomo said in a press release announcing the move. "We're proud Netflix chose New York to grow its business, and we look forward to the jobs, economic activity and world-class productions this project will bring."

Netflix's new corporate offices will take up approximately 100,000 square feet at 888 Broadway in Manhattan's Flatiron District. The offices will house the 127 new executive content acquisition, development, production, legal, publicity and marketing positions in addition to Netflix's 32 current New York-based employees.

In return for creating jobs, Netflix will receive up to $4 million in performance-based Excelsior Tax Credits over ten years from Empire State Development, which are directly tied to real job creation. To receive the full incentive, Netflix must create the 127 jobs by 2024 at its new executive production office and then retain those new jobs and their existing 32 office jobs for another five years.

"New York has created a film-friendly environment that's home to some of the best creative and executive talent in the world, and we're excited to provide a place for them at Netflix with our production hub," said Netflix’s director of worldwide studio operations & real estate Jason Hariton in a press release.

Netflix has a long history of production in New York -- Orange is the New Black, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, She's Gotta Have It, The Irishman, Someone Great, Private Life and Russian Doll were all produced in the city. The leased Brooklyn space will enable the company to build six sound stages and support stages, which are expected to house thousands of production jobs within five years.

The founding duo of TV production company Magical Elves, Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz, are exiting the company, parent company Tinopolis Group said Wednesday.

The duo, which created such successful reality shows and Top Chef, Project Runway and Nailed It!, will depart the company they founded in 2001 to return to their “entrepreneurial roots” as independent producers, according to Tinopolis, which acquired the company in 2014. Magical Elves will remain within the Tinopolis portfolio.

Cutforth and Lipsitz will continue to work on the company's current shows, including Bravo's Top Chef and Project Runway, as well as Netflix's Nailed It and Sugar Rush, WE tv's Braxton Family Values; and Oxygen's Cold Justice, according to Tinopolis. 

"Dan and Jane’s creativity and professionalism have been their hallmark and those values will continue to be nurtured within Magical Elves through this transition and beyond,” said Tinopolis Group founder and chairman Ron Jones and CEO Arwel Rees.

Cutforth and Lipsitz added: “We’re proud to have created a culture of collaboration and risk-taking, so core to the success of the work we all do. As independent producers, we’re excited to continue telling stories that showcase extraordinary, creative people and innovative voices. We are grateful to Tinopolis for being great partners on every front, for their consideration in respecting our choice, and for working with us on a transition that puts our shows and talent first.”

The regional sports network with the largest reach is now enhancing its telecasts from a state-of-the-art production center and studio.

After a six-month renovation, Fox Sports South unveiled a new state-of-the-art facility at its Colony Square location in midtown Atlanta last month.  There, the RSN is currently producing pre- and post-game shows and other  flanking programming for the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks and Memphis Grizzlies, as well as college sports fare that airs on other Fox networks is syndicated to other RSNs.

The 1,800-square-foot studio is one of the most technologically advanced for an RSN, utilizing Viz Multiplay from Vizrt that provides the production team with a simple, flexible way to control content across multiple studio screens from a single interface.

“This is not used widely on the regional level,” said Fox Sports South senior vice president and general manager Jeff Genthner, who leads the service that counts 13 million subscribers in Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee and the Carolinas.  

The studio also sports a modern, broadcast network look. “We were lucky to have Gary Hartley work with us,” he said, referring to Fox Sports Media Group executive vice president and creative director, the man responsible for designing the NFL on Fox studio set and Fox Sports robot.

“With the studio renovation, our intention was to create a sense of ‘place’ for the fan,” said Hartley. “We hope they feel that this is their home - for their teams - and that the studio feels comfortable and approachable.”

The process began last May, when Genthner said the facility was “put off line and personnel relocated throughout the building.” It also meant that the RSN wielded an upgraded truck, as Atlanta Braves games and related fare all were produced remotely through the end of the 2014 MLB season.

With construction and the updrades completed, the studio reopened in mid-October, with fresh editions of The New College Football Show and ACC Gridiron Live!

“It’s all been great right out of the box,” said Genthner. “There haven’t been any hiccups.”

The main studio now showcases 10 monitors: five large screens behind the desk, which is flanked by a pair on either side, and one within the central structure (pictured, above).

The facility also provides versatility, with separate studios featuring sport-appropriate designs where discussions and demonstrations surroud basketball (court), football (field) and baseball (diamond).

Genthner said Fox Sports South is contemplating a hockey addition. Presently, flanking fare for the network’s pro hockey clubs,’ the Nashville Predators and Carolina Hurricanes, is being produced on-site and from the road.

There is also “a conversation deck,” where players and team executives engage in front of an appropriate plexiglass backdrop, say for Hawks’ baseball, or the Fox Sports globe (pictured, right).

Genthner said all of Fox Sport South’s major “customers” demand high-level productions.

“With the high-definition format and digital signals, viewers expect a network quality experience from regional sports networks,” he said. “Our MPVD partners want us to providing high-quality, high-production value throughout the week, and sponsors want to run their commercials from top-level programming."

As for teams, Genthner said there are three options: “They can go elsewhere, or start their own network, or they can renew. You certainly want them to return. We want to provide great presentations for all of our constituents.

A fifth group is also benefiting from the upgraded facilities. As mentioned earlier, the first shows produced from new studio in mid-October The New College Football Show and ACC Gridiron LIVE!,  run on other Fox RSNs or are syndicated to other sports networks like MSG Plus.

“By running the shows across the RSN and selling to others, we’re generating revenues. That helps justify the investment," which Genthner put in the “multiples of million dollars.”

FS South is also considering adding weekly ACC basketball show. “It’s on the chalkboard,” he said.

It’s all a far cry from when Fox Sports South bowed in 2005 with 25 Braves games. Today, the network holds the rights to all of the MLB squad’s regional games.

Last month, Fox Sports South renewed a long-term deal with the Hawks. Genthner also said the RSN has a long-term pact in place with the ACC, and signed the Hurricanes and Predators to new deals over the past two or three years.  For their part, the Grizzlies and Hornets are in the Fox camp several more seasons. 

“We’re in good shape from a rights’ perspective,” he said.

Fox Sports South is also in a good Nielsen place with its pro hockey and basketball teams early in their 2014-15 campaigns.  

After 14 games on spinoff Fox Sports Tennessee, Predators’ ratings have surged 88% in the Nashville DMA from the corresponding span last season.

On the hardwood, Hawks’ ratings on Sports South were up 30% in the Atlanta area through the first 10 telecasts, while Hornets ratings rose 50% through 15 games in the Charlotte DMA.

As for the Grizzlies, the holder of the NBA’s best record, the Marc Gasol-led club has generated ratings of 4.2 better in three of its last four games in Memphis.   

Key Specs for Fox Sports South Revamped Studio Facility in Atlanta

StudioSize:

Over 1,800 square feet

Production Floor (four sections):

Anchor desk

Demonstration area with multiple floors

Baseball field

Hardwood basketball floor

Football turf

Seated interview area

Green screen wall

Monitors: 11 total

Five 75-inch monitors and two stacked columns with two 55-inch monitors each surrounding the news desk that are all controlled by the Viz Multiplay system

One 46-inch monitor in the seated interview area

One 55-inch monitor in the anchor desk for interchangeable program titles and presenting sponsor branding

·Cameras:

Four Ikegami news cameras; three on pedestals and one on a jib

·Anchor Desk:

State-of-the-art, four-person desk modeled after the Fox Super Bowl and Fox World Series desks – the first of its kind for a Fox Sports regional network

Interchangeable LED lighting for consistent team branding and colors

Green Factor:

The all LED lighting reduces room heating load leading to decreased cooling needs and less electricity usage, bringing significant cost savings in the long term

Fox Sports South is the first regional studio among the Fox Sports Regional Networks to use all LED lighting

Key Principals:

Texolve, Oakmont, PA – Systems Integrator

Tishman Speyer, Atlanta – Building Management

Turner Construction Company, Atlanta – Construction/Contractor

Source: Fox Sports South