Paul Thomas Anderson accepts a Directors Guild of America Feature Film Medallion for ‘One Battle After Another’ (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
🏆 The DGA Awards crowned their winners Saturday night. Paul Thomas Anderson finally nabbed the top feature film prize for 'One Battle After Another,' after previous noms for 'There Will Be Blood' and 'Licorice Pizza' came up empty. The ceremony at the Beverly Hilton was hosted by Kumail Nanjiani and marked the first under new guild president Christopher Nolan. On the TV side, 'The Pitt' won dramatic series while Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg took comedy for 'The Studio,' dedicating their win to the late Catherine O'Hara. The DGA has matched the Best Director Oscar all but eight times in its history, so the odds are looking pretty good for Anderson come March 15.
⚖️ The DOJ is investigating Netflix itself, not just its Warner deal. A recently surfaced civil subpoena sent to a rival entertainment company reveals the Justice Department is asking competitors and business partners broad questions about whether Netflix has leveraged its dominance to stifle competition. That goes well beyond what Netflix calls a routine review of its proposed $72B Warner Discovery acquisition and looks more like a monopoly investigation. The DOJ is also probing how past studio mergers affected competition for creative talent. If fewer companies are competing for writers, directors, and showrunners, it could put downward pressure on deal terms across the industry. And if the DOJ decides Netflix has too much market power, it could block the deal entirely.
📺 YouTube is breaking up the TV bundle. For years, TV customers have wanted to pay for only the channels they actually watch, and for years, media companies said no. Now that’s changing: YouTube will soon roll out more than 10 smaller, cheaper live TV bundles built around sports, news, and entertainment, with the sports plan starting at $65/month. YouTube actually tried to make this happen years ago, but companies like Disney and NBCUniversal shot it down because bundling propped up their weaker cable networks. After the pay-TV industry lost 30M+ subscribers over the past decade, YouTube had enough leverage to force the issue. That shift could have real implications for future carriage negotiations, as YouTube is now the third-largest pay-TV provider in the country.
How do you feel about Paul Thomas Anderson's chances at the Oscars? Let us know in the comments.
