Long before the M&A wave initiated by the streaming wars, the major studios aimed to corner the market for production and distribution. The (now-scrapped) Paramount Decrees tried to rein that in — but far-sighted executives saw television as a workaround.

A key member of Scene piracy group SPARKS has been sentenced to 22 months in prison. The 52-year-old Brit George Bridi, who pleaded guilty, apologized and showed remorse for his wrongdoing at a New York federal court. The sentence is lower than the 27 to 33-month term the U.S. Attorney had asked for.

The television news industry will finally be able to get hold of TV viewership data from March 17, 2022, after a 17-month hiatus. On Monday, BARC India announced the resumption of publishing of individual news channels ratings from Week 10 of 2022.

Mumbai: Zapped Technologies has announced the launch of its app Pocket Cinema which offers a gaming platform that allows users to watch OTT content of their choice and play a simple skill based game around it to win rewards. The app is being touted as a novel concept in the world of gaming and entertainment, denoted by a new name #GOTT – a combination of gaming and OTT.

Users spent a total of 4.35 billion minutes gaming on MX Player in 2021, the media company reported, with an average watch time of 56 minutes per day. The online gaming industry has seen an upward trend since 2020 on the back of a mobile first phenomenon driven by the lockdown. MX Player launched games on its platform in February 2020 and hosts over 100 hyper casual.

Meta has threatened to shut down its popular social media services such as Facebook and Instagram in Europe. The company has submitted a report to Securities and Exchange Commission, in which it has explicitly mentioned that it will be forced to suspend its products and services if a new transatlantic data transfer framework is not adopted.

Independent film producers and studios are increasingly relying on market research to test the viability of their film projects, star cast, scripts and box office potential, as they face stiff competition from web shows that have access to viewers’ data.

India’s Union Budget for 2022-2023 has been widely hailed for focusing on six pillars: health and well being of all Indians; physical and financial capital; infrastructure; inclusive development for aspirational India; reinvigorating human capital; innovation R&D and minimum government and maximum governance.

In its latest feat, the Sony and Marvel superhero blockbuster is passing up the original run of Avatar at the domestic box office to rank as the No. 3 movie of all time, not adjusted for inflation. The pic should accomplish the milestone by Tuesday.