Bloom in Tech

I sat down to talk with Adweek CEO Juliette Morris and Sr. Producer Al Mannarino about their new podcast network and what it means for the trade publication going forward, the state of podcasting and advertising, and more. And I have some thoughts about the future of Apple as it ventures in live sports streaming with Friday Night Baseball on Apple TV Plus, alongside a bunch of big new advertising partners. Will this change Apple's approach to streaming, privacy, advertising and other not-so-little subjects? Stay tuned. 

There's been a whole lot of talk about That Slap, but I'm more interested in what happens to the Oscar broadcast now that the Motion Picture Academy has embraced streaming enough to hand out awards for Best Picture, Animated Feature, Documentary Feature and other major categories for projects that were mostly or solely online. How long will Oscar remain a broadcast event, rather than one that is mostly streamed online? And what more can you do once the event is online? I have a few ideas. I also talk with Andrew Walraven, CEO and founder of a very interesting free mobile app called Topico, that allows you to create a very different kind of newsfeed than the one on social media that's been so problematic. Topico focuses on, yes, topics rather than the people or outlets posting the story, and relies on only vetted real news sources, with no user-generated content, memes, videos, etc. It's an intriguing approach to one of journalism's worst problems, and I quite like it. Give a listen. 

Netflix alone has 10 films with at least one Oscar nomination, part of a phalanx of top contenders for the movie business's most glamorous awards. Which streaming-first or streaming-mostly projects are lining up for a big night in Sunday's Oscars? Will Netflix flex The Power of the Dog? Has Apple TV Plus cracked the CODA for success? Can Disney Plus exclusive Encanto enchant Oscar voters as much as viewers? Bloom in Tech looks at the chances for the many streaming-connected films filling this year's Oscar brackets. 

The 2022 Oscars are fast approaching, and films that mostly or solely appeared on streaming services are set for a big night. Bloom in Tech looks at which streaming-first films are likely to take home a Little Gold Man or six as the Oscar broadcast unfolds. Netflix has 10 films with nominations, and several other services have at least one or two. It's going to be quite a night. 

Logan Paul and Floyd Mayweather had a boxing exhibition this week, and yes, someone punched Logan Paul in the face. Also, both participants made a huge amount of money. They won't be the last to try this either, as influencers lace up the gloves for a similar chance to build their fan base, generate new sponsors and make business deals far beyond whatever thing first made them Online Famous. 

I talked with Robert Ellin, the CEO of LiveXLive Media, which has another big-dollar event coming this weekend, involving 14 more online influencer/fighters, interwoven with performances by big music names such as DJ Khaled, Migos and Lil Baby. Given the money and fan attention in these pay-per-view events, expect plenty more events like these to come. 

I talked with Javon Frazier about his work creating games, board games, subscription boxes, toys and more for fans while at Marvel for nearly a decade, and then at online-video company Studio71, before launching his own company, Maestro Media, over the past year. A self-described "black nerd" as a kid in South Los Angeles, he grew up reading comic books voraciously before picking up an MBA at NYU Stern School of Business, where he was the first African-American head of the Stern student body. After a stint at Atlantic Records, Frazier ended up at a dream job, creating merchandise, video games and other spinoffs of Marvel comic books. After the company's sale to Disney, he went on to Studio71, and  worked with notables such as influencer Guava Juice, the creator of cult hit video game "The Binding of Isaac;" Dark Horse Comics' Umbrella Academy, Jeopardy king Ken Jennings and Magic: The Gathering creator Richard Garfield on projects, He's built a sophisticated process that leverages Kickstarter to market test and improve projects, and generate both startup capital and buzz We also talked about the responsibilities he feels as a Black entrepreneur and father of two young girls to build a more inclusive world of games, toys and other fan favorites. 

Tastemade creates video about "food, travel, home and design" for social-media sites from YouTube to TikTok, skinny bundles such as Hulu Plus Live, ad-supported services such as Tubi, and more. Co-founder and CEO Larry Fitzgibbon has been there from the start, and tells what its like to create video for every new distribution platform as it comes along, for wildly different audiences across most of the planet; why 2020 was a "watershed" year not just for audiences but advertisers; and how Tastemade is getting slice of the $60 billion TV advertising pie, among much else. 

The big streaming-video services were more important than ever in 2020 as the pandemic sent viewership and subscription levels soaring even as several big new services launched, and struggled to get their feet under them. So how did they do, and where are they headed in 2021? I go through my end-of-year grades for Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Disney+, Apple TV+, HBO Max, and Peacock, and look at some of the major trends likely to transform the streaming-video industry in 2021, well beyond just the Big Seven. Let me know what service and shows you watched most in 2020, and which you're looking forward to most in 2021. And don't forget to rate, review, share and subscribe. Happy new year! I hope it's a safe and sane one for you and all you care about. 

WarnerMedia stunned Hollywood this past week when it announced that its entire 17-film slate will debut on streaming service HBO Max the same day the films arrive in theaters, blowing up decades of lucrative "windowing" in the movie business. Those day-and-date releases include some hotly anticipated projects, like the latest version of sci-fi classic Dune, another Matrix sequel, Wonder Woman 1984 (technically announced earlier, and for Christmas Day this year), Godzilla vs. Kong, Lin-Manuel Miranda's In the Heights,  Clint Eastwood and Denzel Washington projects, and much else. I explain why WarnerMedia and owner AT&T likely had little choice, and why other studios likely will follow suit. It should make for a very good time for streaming subscribers, but a much less good time for movie theaters, and for many who make those movies. 

We've finally come to the end, more or less of the 2020 election season, helped along in part by significant changes by the big social media platforms in some of their most problematic "engagement" tools. Let's keep those tools on ice, and consider some other changes in the role that YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other platforms played in our civic (if sometimes uncivil) discourse on the way to Election Day. Let me know what you think about changes that might be needed and where we might go next, now that the voting's finally done. 

I'd been expecting the Quibi collapse for a year before the mobile video site even launched,, but that doesn't mean there aren't lessons to learn from its just-announced and still-unfortunate fall. I talk about those lessons in this episode, plus share my recent conversation with Govind Balakrishnan, the CEO and co-founder of subscription audio app Curio, which takes meaningful stories from such top journalism sites as The Economist, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Wired, and Bloomberg, and turns them into professionally produced, highly targeted audio for subscribers. Govind delves into the huge opportunity for "screen-less media;" why they are only part of a potentially huge sector subscription sound of all kinds that includes Audible, Spotify, Calm, Headspace, and podcasts; "the experience side of content;" and the international opportunity for more audio that can traverse the globe. 

Tubi is the biggest ad-supported video service in streaming, and was bought by Fox earlier this yea for a hefty $440 millionr. I sat down with Adam Lewinson, the company's chief content officer, this week as part of the virtual NATPE Streaming Plus conference. We covered a lot of ground, talking about all the company's news about big jumps in viewership, new territories and sections, whether they'll ever make original shows, and why ad-supported video is going to be the way most people watch TV in the streaming future. 

Labor Day Weekend is normally a dumping ground for the movie business, but not in 2020. Two blockbusters, "Mulan" and "Tenet," are using very different platforms to reach audiences this weekend. One is a pricey premium addition to streaming service Disney+, the other is available in whatever theaters across the country are open amid the pandemic. How each of these $200 million blockbusters does on its respective distribution platform will help shape Hollywood's next steps with its highest-profile products for months or even years to come. 

Three of entertainment's biggest media companies - Disney, NBCU and ViacomCBS – helped make it a red letter week in the history of Hollywood's grudging embrace of streaming video, as all three took actions that will pivot them ever more sharply toward online distribution platforms for their shows. Add in significant actions by Cinemark, Regal, the U.S. Department of Justice, Microsoft and TikTok, and the week was one for the ages. I share my thoughts on where this is all heading (fast), but would love to hear from you too. You can follow me on Twitter (@DavidBloom) and LinkedIn (/davidlbloom), and leave a voice message on Anchor.fm. What's your prediction for where Hollywood is heading over the next 18 months? Let me know. 

Universal, the big movie studio, cut a landmark deal this week with AMC, the nation's biggest theater chain. The business of showing movies may never be the same, though not just for what it means for those two big companies. This episode of Bloom in Tech looks the direct impacts of the deal for Universal and AMC, how likely other studios and theater chains are to copy it, and what might come hereafter with the big subscription video services as big tech and media companies start to integrate  the possibilities here with so much else. Amazon Theaters/Shopping/Whole Foods/Esports Arenas? Apple Store/Movie Palaces? Think Very Big Deal.

Peter Y. Levin is a partner in Griffin Gaming Partners, which invests in the game business, and chairman of Immortals, the big esports team with backers such as AEG, Meg Whitman and Michael Milken. Before all that, Levin was a founder of Nerdist, and former head of interactive for Lionsgate and Legendary, among much else. I talked with Peter about building the Metaverse, and how games such as Fortnite and Minecraft are helping us get there. We also talk opportunities in esports, mobile, marketing and educational content in games and much else. The real opportunity may be in building the Metaverse, which we're thinking about more and more as the pandemic forces us to spend more and more of our lives online in virtual environments. 

I talked with Dan Weinstein, the head of Studio71, the big online-video distributor, about "blocking and tackling" during the pandemic, new opportunities in streaming, why the OTT industry is loving what's on Studio71's shelf, and what's up with Quibi. We also talked about just-launched trivia board game "Half Truth," created by Jeopardy star Ken Jennings and Magic the Gathering creator Richard Garfield, and the challenges the company is finding launching a game meant for groups of grownups at a time when the pandemic has turned our social lives upside down. . 

As big parts of the economy get hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, social-media influencers and creators have an opportunity to do well, reaching audiences stuck with little to do. But it's not the time for hype and huckstering. We need strategies to inform, entertain and most of all comfort each other during this extraordinary time. In this episode, I suggest a few areas that are set to do well, and some approaches to creating content that can make a difference for everyone. I also would love to hear from you about what you're doing to entertain, inform and comfort yourself. What shows are you watching/streaming? What other media are you using? What else are you doing? Send me an audio comment through Anchor, or contact me on Twitter @DavidBloom or on LinkedIn /davidlbloom. I'd love to hear from you, especially now, when normal human connection is so fraught and complicated. Be careful out there. 

Hollywood's studios and TV networks used to exist in their own separate universes, with little crossover in on-screen talent, business models, or awards seasons. In the new era of Netflix and other subscription video services, such old-school differentiation no longer exists. For the same reason, those old-school awards seasons don't really exist anymore either. Here a few days before the big Oscar telecast, where Netflix has 24 nominations including two for Best Picture, I talk about why a streamer's work is never done. 

We're about to see a flood of "deepfake" videos, which superimpose one person's face on another's body. Most of them will be fun and innocuous, thanks to new tools from social-media sites such as Snapchat and TikTok as well as stand-alone apps such as Zao, Doublicat and Morphin. Facebook and Instagram, meanwhile, are trying to crack down on the most abusive "manipulated media" images and video as part of a newly announced policy. But with a looming election, and an incumbent who has repeatedly shown willingness to spotlight fake material that attacks his opponents, this could be a long election season filled with dubious video. More importantly, are we sophisticated enough as video consumers to know when we're seeing deepfakes, especially ones that reinforce our own negative feelings toward a candidate? Buckle your seatbelts, dream babies. It's going to be a bumpy ride. Listen to my latest Bloom in Tech episode for more. 

After high-profile launches in November, and early success with shows such as The Morning Show and The Mandalorian, new subscription streaming services Disney+ and Apple TV+ are now moving into new and uncertain territory. Subscribers may have seen the shows they wanted to see, and may be considering moving on. In this episode of Bloom in Tech, we talk about the Churn Zone, and what it means for Disney, Apple and other subscription video services launching this spring. 

Apple's big week of announcements included some bargain prices  on its new TV+ and Arcade video- and  game-streaming services. In turn, I suggest that may be a source of headaches for competitors such as HBO Max and Quibi.. As well,  last week I moderated a panel of executives from several smaller online video services (Condé Nast Entertainment, Whistle, Ellation, and College Humor's Dropout). We talked about what companies such as theirs need to do to thrive amid all the new big-name competitors. One big hint: be everywhere. And I talk about how. The next few months will see the business of online video move to a very different new level.

After winning four Oscars last year, Netflix is betting even bigger this year with special theatrical runs and awards handling for a whopping 10 films. Martin Scorsese's pricey mob picture, The Irishman, might be the most expensive bet, but there are plenty of other contenders in the Netflix portfolio, including films from Steven Soderbergh, David Michod, Fernando Meirelles, and Noah Baumbach, featuring a large truckload of Oscar-winning actors.  Netflix is giving all these prominent films a longer exclusive run in theaters (usually, films just appear on Netflix, like everything else). But this year, with more competition coming and stalled-out subscriber numbers, the stakes are bigger than ever for Netflix  this Oscar  season.  We'll have plenty to watch for beyond just a batch of extremely promising movies. 

A flurry of deals and deal-related news this week, led by the Viacom-CBS merger's long-anticipated merger and Verizon's dumping of former social-media giant Tumblr got me thinking about what it all means for the tech-centric entertainment world we're entering. I also have lots to say about a deal that didn't happen, Facebook's acquisition of Houseparty., among other hijinks at the social-media giant. Can ViacomCBS survive even as a combined standalone unit? Is Tumblr really only worth $3 million? And could the fear of antitrust keep Facebook on some sort of straight and narrow path away from jerkdom? Give a listen, then share your thoughts through Anchor.fm's audio comment function, or send me a Tweet and LinkedIn message. 

Ninja (Tyler Blevins) has been the best-known star in the booming business of live-streaming online about games. Until the first week of August, he did that for Amazon-owned Twitch. Then he turned the business of live-streaming upside down when he announced he would jump to Microsoft's Mixer service, which has been in fourth place among game streaming services. The move has lots of implications, and I talk about them on this episode of Bloom in Tech. Give a listen. 

Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey have been running World of Wonder, their Hollywood-based TV production company, for nearly three decades. For the past 10 years, World of Wonder has produced RuPaul's Drag Race, featuring perhaps the best-known drag queen ever. The show's format has now been copied into local versions in several additional countries, just one of the ways Barbato and Bailey have diversified, survived and thrived in an era increasingly hostile to independents. In my conversation onstage with Barbato and Bailey at the recent VidCon in Anaheim, they talk about opening a retail store on Hollywood Boulevard, launching DragCon events in New York and Los Angeles, creating a social-media powerhouse, nurturing outsider creative talents, getting into long-form documentaries, and turning those docs into scripted programming. It is indeed a wondrous world for World of Wonder. Give a listen. 

I've been gone for a little while, undergoing a huge move that's left me without virtually any of the traditional physical media that I've gathered over many years. That's all great. But as I and millions of others go full KonMari, are we giving up some crucial ways to signal to others around us the culture, books, music, film, TV that matter to us? This is a quick episode, just some thinking stimulated by days and days of getting rid of much of my physical belongings, and tipping into a headlong embrace of the digitally based life I already have been in and around years. Give it a listen, and let me know what  you think. You can leave an audio message through Anchor.fm's tools around this podcast. Please rate, review and share the episode if you like what you hear. And if you really like what you hear, you can become a supporter of it through Anchor.fm, throwing a few bucks in the kitty. 

Long-time pals Danny DeVito and Michael Douglas sat down together at the recent Produced By conference on the Warner Bros. studio lot to talk about, well, a lot.  They met when Douglas was still in college in Santa Barbara, and have worked together as actors, producers, directors and friends for half a century since. In this conversation, they talked about making the Oscar-winning One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Taxi, Streets of San Francisco, The Kominsky Method, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Romancing the Stone and so much else. Along the way, they have some great advice for producers and would-be producers of film and TV, and some thoughts on the challenges and opportunities of the streaming-video era, and what Quibi means. It's funny, fond, occasionally Falstaff-ian and a downright entertaining conversation. Give a listen. 

Mindy Kaling made a splash as an actress in The Office and The Mindy Project and just released Late Night, an Amazon Studios feature that she wrote, directed, produced and stars in. Nancy Meyers started as the writer of such films as Private Benjamin and Irreconcilable Differences, then became a director and producer, known for iconic rom-coms such as Something's Got to Give and It's  Complicated. The two sat down together at the recent Produced By conference to talk about being multi-hyphenate female creators in Hollywood, with all the challenges, experiences and opportunities that have unfolded since. 

The announcements were coming fast and furious at Monday's opening session of Apple's World Wide Developers Conference, but the stuff that caught my attention was perhaps a little more subtle: Apple is trying to get us old-school computer-wielding types to move away from the increasingly problematic World Wide Web, with its trackers and data violations, to an app-based universe that looks a lot more like its iOS mobile universe. Give a listen, then take advantage of Anchor's audio comment button to let me know what you think, and what you thought was most interesting from Monday's presentations. There was lots to chew on, especially that smoking hot Mac Pro, which ought to have Hollywood's video editors, visual-effects specialists, VR creators and others really excited. But trust me, for everyone else, an app-y place can be a happy place. Give a listen. 

I talked with actor/writer/director Emilio Estevez about his latest film, 'The Public,' set in a Cincinnati library during a brutal cold snap. The librarians are thrust into the roles of first responders and social workers, helping the homeless who come there for shelter.  And on this lethally cold night, the homeless refuse to leave at closing time, leading to a confrontation with police. Estevez produced, directed, wrote and stars in the film, alongside a great cast. And the project came about after Estevez learned of the challenges libraries and librarians face these days, and not just from technological change. Estevez and I were joined in our conversation by Rich Hull, CEO of Pongalo, the Spanish-language video service that partly backed the film. There's lots to talk about when it comes to libraries and their importance as one of the basic building blocks in democracy. Give a listen. 

We're finally seeing some of the cards being played by some of the big players in this poker game known as the streaming-video wars. Disney+ showed a lot of its hand last  week, and Apple sort of showed its plans a couple of weeks earlier. Meanwhile, Netflix continues add millions of subscribers around the globe and is actually running a functioning, highly optimized business. Disney+ almost certainly will be successful in the long term, but I suspect they'll be losing quite a bit of money in the short term. I explain why here. Give it a listen. 

A suit in federal court  is challenging whether Donald Trump, as the most Twitter-reliant president yet, can legally block people from his feed. At the same time, Twitter may start flagging Trump posts that violate its policies, and adding notes to explain why. All this conversation  prompts a question about what social media would be like if we all had  to take  responsibility for the stuff we post on social media, and what the Internet might be like. Give a listen, then let me know what you think. 

Apple made a lot of big announcements this week, many of which sounded a lot like what Amazon is doing in games, reading material and video, alongside their rather similar music and audio initiatives. Just as importantly, the Apple-Amazon approach strongly contrasts with the data-milking approach of Facebook and Google, a point that Tim Cook subtly made throughout Monday's presentations. 

Critical. Role started as a group of actor pals playing Dungeons & Dragons while a camera rolled on Twitch and YouTube. That unlikely start has become a huge Kickstarter hit, raising $7.7 million and counting to create an animated series called "The Legend of Vox Machina,"  based on the story lines and characters of the long-running games. I sat down with Sam Riegel and Travis Willingham, two leaders of Critical Role, to talk about O.G. D&D (that's me), creating an unlikely cross-platform media machine, and what they're going to do with all that loot to make a great animated series that will run....somewhere. C'mon, roll the dice. Give it a listen.  

Mark Zuckerberg wants people to believe Facebook is pivoting toward privacy. It's not, and I explain why. More importantly, however, social media as we know it is undergoing significant shifts to new paradigms that put Amazon in a particularly advantageous place, and may hinder the power of Facebook and Google going forward. My latest Bloom in Tech episode explains what's happening and where we're headed. Give it a listen. 

The business of sports online is taking off, with lots of venture capital coming to numerous sites and AT&T making a big statement by centralizing all its sports operations under CNN chief Jeff Zucker. I also sat down with Conde Nast Entertainment Studios EVP Alexander Edgington to talk about their new Netflix sports-related documentary series, "Cricket Fever," about India's biggest cricket tournament. It's an important effort by Conde' Nast and Netflix to grab some attention in the vast and complex Indian market. Al talks with me about what it all means in the second part of this episode 

Netflix spent heavily during this awards season, but didn't snag the biggest prize of all, the Best Picture Oscar. But it still ended up a big winner, grabbing multiple other Oscars and winning useful credibility with both its subscribers and Hollywood's great auteurs. I explain why in this episode of Bloom in Tech. 

Cinemark CEO Mark Zoradi joined me during Oscar Week on Bloom in Tech to talk about the big theater chain's new ventures in virtual reality with Spaces and The Void, its esports venture with Super League Gaming, large-format screens, new projection technologies, better food, better seats and a whole lot of other changes arriving in the very old-school business of putting a movie on a screen. 

The No. 3 U.S. theater chain is also the largest in South and Central America. Zoradi, a long-time Disney veteran, is trying to steer the company forward at a time when teens love their mobile phones, Instagram, YouTube and Netflix. Give our conversation a listen. 

Amid all the art and craziness of Frieze LA and seeming countless satellite fairs, openings and events, I was most intrigued by a panel at Neuehouse Hollywood featuring director and "Transparent" creator Jill Soloway and conceptual artist Jill Magid, herself now a director of the upcoming Oscilloscope Laboratories feature documentary, 'The Proposal." The Jills ranged widely, from the joys of directing, to the challenges of gender and work,  to the ways Magid pokes at and interacts with police, intelligence and other organizations that create limits and structures. It's a fascinating conversation between, on one side, a creator focused on breaking down boundaries and creating spaces for marginalized people, and on the other, a creator focused on engaging with and interrogating the many boundaries that limit and structure our lives. 

I hosted a great panel on the future of content marketing at this week's Digital Entertainment World conference in Los Angeles, with top executives with Twitch, Fandango, Machinima and CreatorIQ. Content marketing can include everything from movie trailers to live events to influencer partnerships to what the video game Fortnite did last week with EDM star Marshmello. And as the contest for audience attention gets tougher and tougher, more brands are opting for content marketing as a way to reach engaged, highly targeted audiences. Give a listen to what some of the best in the business are doing in this burgeoning field. 

Late January is the dog days of Hollywood's long, expensive awards season. Smaller events unfurl several times a week, and every win becomes a chance to further handicap the Oscar chances for major contenders. This past week, the Final Draft Awards honored Callie Khouri, who wrote "Thelma & Louise" and created the "Nashville" TV series with its Hall of Fame Award.  

The next night, the Lumiere Awards unspooled a few miles away, on the lot of a different movie studio, and handed out a lot more statues. And there, Tom Cruise surprised even the man being honored, the writer-director Christopher McQuarrie, who is his long-time collaborator. I talked with Khouri and captured Cruise and McQuarrie all talking about the joys and challenges of making movies for this episode of Bloom in Tech. Give a listen. 

Adrian Gonzalez has had a long and distinguished career as an All Star first baseman for the L.A. Dodgers and Boston Red Sox. Now he's taking a swing at another kind of game, creating fan-friendly custom apps that connect (for now) baseball stars and their fans directly, instead of through social media or their teams' online presences. PopFly XP is debuting apps for Gonzalez and former Dodgers' teammate Justin Turner, trying to create new ways for baseball stars to connect, sell custom merchandise and build new kinds of businesses. I talk with Gonzalez and PopFly's CEO, former Dodger partnerships executive Jesse Nunez, about what they're trying to accomplish. 

Netflix has spent heavily this awards season on several films, part of a strategy to differentiate it from competing media companies that soon will have their own video-streaming services. The strategy paid off big time with today's announcements of Oscar nominations; Alfonso Cuaron's 'Roma' grabbed 10, tied for the most of any film and the first film from a streaming service to get a Best Picture nomination. I talk about what it all means. Give a listen.  

Companies such as EscapeX, Whalerock Industries and Beachfront have standalone apps that help big influencers generate more money from their most devoted fans. What are the opportunities here? I talked with the CEOs of EscapeX and Beachfront, and CreatorIQ COO Tim Sovay about the possibilities and challenges in helping influencers move beyond  their dependence on social-media platforms when connecting with their super fans. Give it a listen. 

I talked recently with two top NBCUniversal executives about Blueprint, their revamped hobbyist learning site, which combines lessons in nearly dozen categories with lean-back content, community, e-commerce operations and a healthy dose of celebrities and influencers. The site, now a subscription video-on-demand operation, is busy cross-pollinating with other parts of NBCU, and will be the basis for extending e-commerce functions throughout many parts of the media giant, the executives told me. It's a smart and provocative vision of the future of SVOD video sites and one I expect Amazon and others will be copying soon enough. You heard it here first. Give it a listen, won't you? 

Over the holidays, Netflix debuted its biggest ever hit and an intriguing interactive experiment, picked up multiple Golden Globes, saved hundreds of millions of dollars and hired a CFO. It faces more competition than ever in 2019, but I talk about how these various initiatives are helping the company evolve and succeed in the face of all those deep-pocketed challengers. Give it a listen. 

Influencer marketing was bigger than ever in 2018, despite a string of scandals hitting some of the major platforms. I talked with several top influencer-marketing agencies, data companies and consultants – including CreatorIQ, Tubular Labs, Pex, WhoSay and Michelle Merino – about what trends are shaping the industry as we move into 2019. Give it a listen. 

In this episode, I look at a  string of virtual-reality projects, technologies and venues that have arrived in Los Angeles recently, as the bad mojo of 2017 has evolved into a promising industry again in 2018. I also talk with Bruce Vaughn, the former Disney Imagineer and current CEO of Dreamscape Immersive, the Steven Spielberg-backed company creating story-driven VR experiences such as "Alien Zoo." Dreamscape just opened its first permanent venue in an upscale Los Angeles mall. This episode is not quite a year-end retrospective, despite the timing, so much as a rundown of cool stuff I've seen the last several months, in an industry that's finally starting to look sustainable, and fascinating. Give a listen.

Two media companies went away, and most of another is buying bought for parts. #MeToo and tech giants continued to reshape the physical, fiscal and emotional landscape of Hollywood, with much more to come in 2019. I take a look back at the notable changes and shifts. What's your pick for biggest changes of 2018? What's coming next year? Give a listen.