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Justice Department Warns Academy Over Potential Oscar Rule Changes Threatening Netflix
The Justice Department has warned the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences that its potential rule changes limiting the eligibility of Netflix and other streaming services for the Oscars could raise antitrust concerns and violate competition law. [...] According to a letter obtained by Variety, the chief of the DOJ’s Antitrust Division, Makan Delrahim, wrote to AMPAS CEO Dawn Hudson on March 21 to express concerns that new rules would be written “in a way that tends to suppress competition.” [...]
The letter came in response to reports that Steven Spielberg, an Academy board member, was planning to push for rules changes to Oscars eligibility, restricting movies that debut on Netflix and other streaming services around the same time that they show in theaters. [...]
“if the Academy adopts a new rule to exclude certain types of films, such as films distributed via online streaming services, from eligibility for the Oscars, and that exclusion tends to diminish the excluded films’ sales, that rule could therefore violate Section 1.” [...]
The letter reflects concerns that the Justice Department has been concerned about the ability of traditional media outlets to limit competition from new streaming video entrants, even those that have grown significantly in recent years like Netflix and Amazon Prime. [...]
Now if only Netflix could replicate the true theater experience of cell phones, crying babies and being searched like a criminal.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by DannyB on Thursday April 04 2019, @04:28PM (3 children)
> How on earth can the government decide over the rules in a competition?
That is over simplifying.
This is not just an award for art.
It is in fact something that makes films more marketable, and to a significant degree. And the industry deliberately makes it that way.
Thus excluding a competitor, for the express purpose of harming competition, which is the real reason, is indeed a violation of law.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 04 2019, @05:27PM (2 children)
Uhm, what's preventing these other movies from having a theatrical release? Aren't they the ones trying to harm competition?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 04 2019, @09:19PM (1 child)
Money? Real theatrical releases are not cheap.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 06 2019, @10:14PM
Bullshit. Netflix and other streaming services are running a monopoly on access to content.