Netflix Wins Emmy Nom Crown from HBO

TWIN: Netflix broke HBO’s 17-year reign as the network with the most Emmy nominations, snagging 112 nominations to HBO’s 108 in this year’s race.

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MCN Take: With plans to launch 1,000 new movies and series this year alone, Netflix was bound to take the crown eventually on sheer volume. Among the SVOD pioneer’s nominated shows are Stranger Things,GLOW and The Crown, while HBO received nominations for Game of Thrones and Westworld, among others.

See the full story at Multichannel News.

Subscriber Expectations High for Q2

TWIN: Netflix is scheduled to release Q2 results on Monday (July 16), and expectations are for substantial subscriber growth, both domestic and internationally.

MCN Take: After a blowout earnings report in April, Netflix added about $43 billion in market value, according to Bloomberg, with consensus estimates at 1.2 million U.S. customer additions and 5.06 million internationally, about even with company guidance.

See the full story at Bloomberg 

Netflix Taken to Court in India Over Portrayal of Former PM

TWIN: Netflix was taken to court in India by a politician who has objected to the portrayal of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in the series, Sacred Games, a thriller set in Mumbai with a cast of police officers, spies and politicians.

MCN Take: Nikhil Bhalla, a lawyer and member of the opposition Congress party, which Gandhi headed for seven years before his assassination in 1991, objected to the use of the word “fattu” to describe the former Prime Minister in the series. Fattu means “coward” in Hindi.

See the full story at Reuters.

Queer Eye Renewed for Season Three

TWIN: The reality makeover series reboot is scheduled to begin production on its third season in Kansas City, Mo., on July 16. The show snagged Emmy nominations for the categories of structured reality program, casting, picture editing and cinematography.

MCN Take: The reboot, with co-hosts Antoni Porowski, Bobby Berk, Karamo Brown, Jonathan Van Ness, and Tan France will premier its third season in 2019. Already the series has caught on with audiences and has been a hit with critics.

See the full story at Variety.

Blast From the Past: Remember When Netflix Was Just DVDs?

TWIN: Reddit harkens back to ancient times, when dinosaurs roamed the earth and Netflix only sold DVDs, advertising them with oversized movie stubs sent to households via an Old-Timey precursor to streaming, the U.S. Postal Service.

MCN Take: A Redditor apparently found an old Netflix ad from 1999 (also known as the Pre-Streaming Period) in his parent’s attic. Note that the monthly charge was $20 – about twice what Netflix charges today for a basic streaming service.

See the full story on Mashable.

The World According to Netflix

TWIN: Netflix has already conquered the U.S. subscription VOD market, now it is setting its sights on beefing up its international presence.

MCN Take: According to Sanford Bernstein media analyst Todd Juenger, Netflix could nearly double its global subscribers to 300 million by 2026, an estimate even he says is conservative.

Read the full story at Broadcasting & Cable.

Netflix Renews '13 Reasons Why' for Third Season, Despite Controversy

TWIN: The third season will commence sometime in 2019, according to Netflix. The controversial series, about a high school girl who commits suicide, has received a torrent of complaints from parents groups since its 2017 debut, claiming it glorifies teen suicide and bullying.

MCN Take: Despite the criticism, the show is one of Netflix’s most popular. The second season, which debuted May 18, drew an average audience of more than 2.6 million viewers, with viewers watching an average of more than four episodes of the 13-episode series during its first weekend, according to Nielsen data.

Read the full story at Multichannel News.

Netflix to Adapt Dolly Parton Songs for Series

TWIN: The country music icon will executive produce an anthology series for which Parton’s songs will supply the plot. Eight Parton songs will be adapted into standalone episodes.

MCN Take: It won’t be the first time a Parton song will be adapted for video – her song "Coat of Many Colors" has been adapted for NBC’s Dolly Parton’s Coat of Many Colors in 2015 and a 2016 follow-up, Dolly Parton’s Christmas of Many Colors.

Read the full story at The New York Times.

Rock Tells Obamas to Make Money Elsewhere

TWIN: Comedian Chris Rock commented on the reported 8-figure development deal former President Barack Obama and his wife, former First Lady Michelle, made with Netflix, telling The Hollywood Reporter that he did not want to “live in a world where President Obama is worried about his Rotten Tomatoes score.”

MCN Take: Rock, who signed his own $40 million deal with the streaming service two years ago, said he wanted the former President and First Lady “above that at all times,” adding he wants the Obamas to make money, just not like that.

Get the full story at The Hollywood Reporter.

Netflix Announces 'Orange Is the New Black' Season 6 Premiere Date

TWIN: The sixth season of the Jenji Kohan-helmed drama will drop on July 27, a little more than a year after its Season 5 debut, which depicted a riot at the minimum security women’s prison after one of its own, Poussey, played by actress Samira Wiley, was killed by a corrections officer. In a cryptic trailer for the new season, a wrecked prison cafeteria is shown, followed by a prison bus under the header "To the Max," suggesting that the women could find themselves in the maximum security section of the facility.

MCN Take: Kohan signed a multi-year deal with Netflix in November – she also is behind female wrestling-themed series Glow, whose second season will air June 29. Orange Is the New Black continues to be one of the most popular series on the streaming service.

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Read more at Deadline.com.