For some time, we've been fixated on how enjoyable but fast-food-quality-level drama series on Starz, such as the overwrought wrestling-themed Heels, could end up with Rotten Tomatoes scores meeting or surpassing serious, all-time classic benchmark-setters like The Sopranos.  

Wednesday's Vulture exposé of the Web 1.0-era critics aggregation platform, now controlled by Comcast operating units Fandango and Universal Pictures, laid bare why our obsession is wasted on Rotten Tomatoes metrics that hold way too much sway not just in the theatrical motion picture business, but also streaming in general. 

The article begins with a recounting of how, in 2018, a boutique Hollywood marketing firm, Bunker 15, allegedly drummed up extra positive reviews in order to prop up the 46% Rotten Tomatoes score of its client's film, a "a feminist retelling of Hamlet" titled Ophelia. 

The alleged scheme felt not too cynically dissimilar to former President Donald Trump calling Georgia election officials in the wake of his 2020 election loss and asking them to "find" him 11,000 more votes. Bunker 15, according to Vulture, recruited "obscure, often self-published critics who were nevertheless part of the pool tracked by Rotten Tomatoes," and asked them to craft positive reviews for the Ophelia. 

Bunker 15 was also accused of getting critics to "quarantine" their bad reviews on sites Rotten Tomatoes didn't track. 

Rotten Tomatoes, the report contends, has become easy for Hollywood to hack, especially since the platform opened its ranks to self-published critics several years ago. 

“Audiences are dumber. Normal people don’t go through reviews like they used to. Rotten Tomatoes is something the studios can game. So they do,” filmmaker Paul Schrader told Vulture. 

Comcast is combining the brand power of its recommendation platform, Rotten Tomatoes, with the heft of its clip and trailer curation channel, Movieclips, to form the Rotten Tomatoes YouTube Network.

The collection of more than 100,000 movie and TV show trailers, as well as assorted entertainment-related clips, launches with a base of 90 million subscribers out of the gate.

In addition to providing movie and TV scenes and trailers, the new channel will feature original shows with top Tomatometer-rated movie and TV lists, celebrity interviews, entertainment news, coverage of industry events and festivals, and Rotten Tomatoes’ fan debates and discussions.  

“Combining the global brand recognition and trust of Rotten Tomatoes with Movieclips’ legendary library of clips and trailers, we can be an even more comprehensive resource for fans for content recommendation and engagement across the growing world of movies, TV and streaming," said Mark Young, senior VP and general manager Rotten Tomatoes.

Both Rotten Tomatoes and Movieclips operate out of Comcast's Fandango division. 

Movieclips has been building content heft and subscriber mass for 11 years. It was purchased by Comcast. 

Rotten Tomatoes, meanwhile, resided at Warner Bros., along with Flixster, when both were picked up by Comcast in 2016 for an also undisclosed price. 

Rotten Tomatoes and its “Tomatometer” are going over the top with the launch of a linear streaming channel on the Roku Channel starting today, and soon on Xumo and Peacock. 

Spawned 23 years ago in the Web 1.0 era by three Berkley college undergrads, Rotten Tomatoes aggregates reviews of films and TV shows, combining critical reception through its trademark 0-100% “Tomatometer” score. 

Now 75% owned by Comcast and 25% owned by WarnerMedia, and under the management of Comcast’s Fandango Media unit, Rotten Tomatoes reported a 157.4% increase in audience visits to its editorial pages in 2020. 

And now its trying to cash in through video, launch a channel that starts with 10 originally produced shows and more than 100 hours of content. 

Shows include Countdown, which showcases the top-rated movies and TV series on the Rotten Tomatoes platform; The Vault, a “nostalgic” look back at some of the best interviews, red carpet chats, games and other assets from the Rotten Tomatoes archives; and Five Favorite Films, in which filmmakers and movie starts talk about the flicks they like best. 

The lineup doesn't answer every pressing question a viewer might have--such as, how could a middling premium cable show like Survivor's Remorse score higher on the Tomatometer than The Wire and The Sopranos? But there are a bunch of other shows in the launch stable. 

“The channel will not only deliver an around-the-clock celebration of entertainment but continue our brand promise to help fans find what to watch, by delivering the best movie, TV and streaming recommendations,” said Sandro Corsaro, Rotten Tomatoes senior VP & chief creative officer. 

The feds signaled this week they have no issues with the acquisition by Comcast/NBCU's Fandango movie ticket web site of movie review sites Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes from Time Warner's Warner Bros. 

Time Warner gets an equity stake in the deal, which was announced last month.

The Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department combine to do Hart Scott Rodino antitrust reviews of deals over approximately $75 million (the exact figure is occasionally adjusted), but grants early termination of that review if they find no reason to block or condition the deal.

The FCC has no involvement in the review since no FCC licenses are involved, so the deal is now free to close.

Fandango, which recently acquired M-Go and, off that purchase, will launch a transactional VOD service called FandangoNOW later this month, continues to be a subsidiary of NBCU.

-Multichannel News technology editor Jeff  Baumgartner contributed to this story

Fandango, the movie ticket buying service that’s part of NBCUniversal, dipped into the M&A poll again and, this time, pulled out Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes.

Flixster operates a web site and mobile app for discovering movies, and claims to have more than 50 million app installs. Rotten Tomatoes, a service that collects and aggregates audience and critic ratings and reviews for movies and TV shows, will be extending its ticketing capabilities to the Flixster app in the coming months. Notably, NBCU corporate cousin Comcast has integrated Rotten Tomatoes rankings with its X1 platform.

Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes, which reach 20 million unique visitors per month, will remain consumer-facing brands, Fandango said.

Fandango, which is acquiring those properties from Warner Bros. Entertainment, announced the deals less than a month after locking up M-GO, the movie and TV electronic sell-through/rental multiscreen service that was a J.V. of Technicolor and DreamWorks Animation. Fandango said M-GO will be rebranded later this year and become part of Fandango’s digital network.

As a result of the deals for Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes, Warner Bros Entertainment will take a minority equity stake in Fandango and become a strategic partner.

Fandango, which will continue to operate as a unit of NBCU, said its recent string of deals will enable it to expand its core theatrical ticketing business and “create the industry’s premier digital network for all things movies.”

“Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes are invaluable resources for movie fans, and we look forward to growing these successful properties, driving more theatrical ticketing and super-serving consumers with all their movie needs,” Fandango president Paul Yanover said in a statement. “Our new expanded network will offer unparalleled capabilities for all of our exhibition, studio and promotional partners to reach a massive entertainment audience with innovative marketing and ticketing solutions that benefit from original content, home entertainment products, ‘super tickets’, gifts with purchase, and other new promotional opportunities.”

“Combining the expertise and assets of Fandango, Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes will create an incredible resource for consumers to fulfill all their moviegoing needs,” added Thomas Gewecke, chief digital officer and EVP, strategy and business development at Warner Bros. “Bringing these properties together into a single, integrated portfolio creates an opportunity to truly accelerate innovation in movie discovery and ticketing, making moviegoing an even more compelling experience.” 

Verizon Communications has begun to roll out a new version of its FiOS TV interactive Media Guide for set-tops that tack on new features and several enhancements in areas such as search and discovery, personalization and management of the customer’s DVR.

Word of the features overhaul began to spring up on the DSL Reports message board and the ZatzNotFunny blog. Verizon confirmed Tuesday in this blog post that the enhancements to FiOS TV IMG will be rolled out across the FiOS footprint “over the course of a few months,” and are getting underway today (Septebmer 30) in Harrisburg, Buffalo, Syracuse and Albany.

On the search and discovery side, the new IMG, which is accessible through the traditional remote control or the FiOS Mobile App, provides search results and recommendations based on viewing behaviors, ties in Rotten Tomatoes and FiOS TV star ratings of movies and shows, presents cast and crew biographies and filmography.  Some networks, including HBO, are also providing direct links to VOD content via the guide.

For more personalization, the revised guide now offers a My FiOS TV Feature that directs viewers to their favorite content and shows what’s trending on FiOS and Twitter. 

Some of those features, such as tighter integration to Rotten Tomatoes rankings and what’s buzzing on Twitter, are among the kind that Comcast offers on its recently upgraded cloud-based X1 user interface for set-tops and mobile devices.

Verizon has also added new DVR-facing elements that lets viewers sort and filter recordings into groups, reduces duplicate recordings, provides an automated prompt to extend recording time when shows or events are selected for recording, and introduces an improved indicator to show how much time is left in a TV show or movie.

Verizon, which ended the second quarter with 5.41 million FiOS TV subs, recently completed the rollout of FiOS Quantum TV, a platform that is anchored by the Verizon Media Server, an Arris-made device that’s outfitted with six tuners and 1 terabyte of DVR storage.