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: 2) by bzipitidoo on Thursday April 04 2019, @08:59PM
Yes, money. That's often the real reason for a whole lot of things. Heck, it's even written into a lot of laws that once the amount involved in a crime passes some magical number ($10k is popular), the crime is upgraded from misdemeanor to felony.
Anyway, like a good referee, the government should be involved. Yes, a discriminatory change such as this proposal to exclude streamed movies needs scrutiny and vetting. What if they made a blatantly racist decision that the only movies eligible had to have a majority white cast? Absolutely, the government would and should blow the whistle on that one. Heck, maybe the proposal to exclude streaming is motivated by racism. Perhaps movies released on streaming platforms tend to have more brown people, in part for financial reasons, on both sides? That is, poor people go to the movies less often. And maybe movies with lots of poor people can be produced with less expense? And we know that poverty has a racial correlation.
Spielberg, the racist?