THE PURPOSE OF THE TRADEVINE IS TO ENCOURAGE THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY TO READ THEIR TRADES: VARIETY, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, BACK STAGE, ETC. ENJOY LEARNING ABOUT YOUR INDUSTRY.

EACH FRIDAY, THE TRADEVINE SEEKS OUT A FEW OF THE INFORMATIVE TRADE ARTICLES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED. VISIT THE TRADE, ITSELF, FOR THE ENTIRE ARTICLE.

Hello everybody, I’m Mary Jo Gruber of the Actors Reporter and welcome to the TradeVine. We’ve collected some great articles this week that you should be sure not to miss. Our goal here at the TradeVine is to help you stay informed and to keep up with the trades, such as The Hollywood Reporter, Daily Variety, and Backstage.

Back Stage, October 13th – October 19th – Happy 50th Birthday Back Stage. The actor’s bible celebrates a half-century of service. The road from newspaper to multimedia publication was not always clear and easy, but, much like the aspiring and established performers who read it online every day and in print every week, Back Stage has met each challenge, has adapted to unexpected situations, and continues to grow.
Congratulations on 50 years of amazing work.

The Hollywood Reporter, October 21st – “Qwikster in the Dumpster,” by Paul Bond. After a beleaguered Netflix abruptly changes course, users cheer and analysts are confused. Customers may have endured a 60% price hike, but asking them to arrange their DVD queue at some website called Qwikster was too much. So after hearing the complaints, Netflix dropped its spinoff gambit less than a month after announcing it. This means no change for Netflix users: one website, one account, one password. Netflix dropped Qwikster thinking it might hasten the decline of DVD by-mail. DVD by mail is still used by 14 million of Netflix’s 24 million subscribers.

Daily Variety, Friday, October 14th – “CW’s online bonanza,” by Andrew Wallenstein. The sheer volume of Netflix deals with content companies these days makes any single accord easy to overlook, but the pact for programming from the CW is more for all involved than just another licensing arrangement. For Time Warner, which splits ownership of the CW with CBS Corp., it’s a major entry into a rapidly evolving new supplement to the traditional syndication marketplace. For Netflix, this TV show agreement is unusually broad as it amounts to an exclusive output deal covering current and future CBS and Warner Brothers TV-produced series for CW. The deal does not give Netflix access to episodes from a current season, rather all shows will be available on a one-season delay. So if you need to catch up on any of your favorite CW shows, Netflix is the place to go.

Daily Variety, Monday, October 17th – “Retooling the tube,” by Chris Morris. The television set seems ripe for a reinvention, whether by Apple or someone else. With hundreds of TV channels to choose from, thousands of on-demand shows at people’s fingertips, plus thousands more from third party services like Netflix and Hulu, and near infinite amount of online content fighting for viewers’ attention, the way consumers interact with their sets is severely outdated. But, it looks like change is on the way. At the Consumer Electronics Show in January, user interface was a major buzzword. Reinventing the TV isn’t just a matter of making it easier to find programs, though. The TV is becoming an entertainment and communications center for many homes. And, as more third-party content services explore cloud distribution, some think the TV will become a major part of that ecosystem. The TV could be on its way to becoming an interface to the Internet. It will be interesting to see where our TVs will take us in the future.

Well, that’s it for the TradeVine this week. I’m Mary Jo Gruber. Thank you very much for watching. And remember, You heard it through the Tradevine!