Streaming Wars takes another from broadcast TV

LOS ANGELES — TV viewers got a loud -- and very clear -- signal this week about the future of television. Expect more news, sports and other live programming on network and cable TV, as the people who create hits continue to jump ship to the streamers, and broadcast and cable adapt to the new realities. 

Ryan Murphy departed his longtime home at 21st Century Fox this week for a new mega-deal with Netflix, worth a whopping $300 million, per the Hollywood Reporter. 

For many Talking Tech readers, you might be saying “Ryan Who?” Here's the story: he’s one of the most prolific and successful TV show runners, the force behind such hits as Glee, American Horror Story, The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, 9-1-1 and Feud, which have run on the Fox broadcast network and FX cable channel.

And he's just the latest Hollywood player to switch allegiances. 

Within the last few months, legendary director/producer Steven Spielberg, producer Shonda Rhimes (Grey’s Anatomy) actors Reese Witherspoon (Big Little Lies), Jennifer Aniston (Friends), Elizabeth Olsen (Wind River), Kerry Washington (Scandal) and even basketball great Kevin Durant have joined the movement, signing up with Netflix, Amazon, Apple and Facebook to star in or produce shows for the streamers.

And Jennifer Salke, who has run NBC's prime-time programming as the president of NBC Entertainment since 2011, responsible for hits like This is Us and The Good Place switched sides, inking a deal to become the new head of Amazon Studios. She's expected to pivot Amazon from independent, arthouse fare like Transparent and Mozart in the Jungle to mainstream, broadcast style hits. Amazon has its answer to HBO’s Game of Thrones awaiting production--a TV series adaptation of Lord of the Rings for streaming.

You could argue that traditional television is dying and that many in Hollywood are awakening to the fact that they have to adapt. Or simply, there’s new, serious money out there, as the streaming companies spend wildly to build audiences.

Netflix isn’t shy about saying it will spend $8 billion in 2018 on programming. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Amazon is countering with $4.5 billion, Hulu $2.5 billion and $1 billion for Apple. The iPhone maker just launched a programming initiative, headed by two former top TV chiefs from Sony Pictures Television, and have started bankrolling several shows, including a remake of Spielberg's Amazing Stories anthology, and a new series with Witherspoon and Aniston playing talk show hosts. Apple hasn't said where any of these new shows will actually appear.

Meanwhile, in traditional TV land, Disney recently offered $52 billion to acquire most of 21st Century Fox, save for the news and business cable channels, TV stations and the broadcasting network. And Disney, which recently said it would remove its programming from Netflix, plans to launch an ESPN sports streaming service this spring and a Disney streamer in 2019. 

This week, at the Code Media conference near Los Angeles, Peter Rice, the president of Fox, said people shouldn’t be astounded by the size of the Netflix programming budget. It’s a natural sum for a company trying to compete.

“So Netflix spends $8 billion,” he said. “Fox will spend $12 billion on programing,” just for the TV network, “and Disney will probably spend $15 billion. Look at the expanse of Hollywood. Maybe Netflix is spending 10% of the overall content spend of Hollywood. That’s not a monopoly.”

No, but it’s a newfound, big competitor that is changing what we see on TV -- and how we watch. Analysts expect the broadcast and cable networks to compete by doing what they do best - live events (news, sports, awards) as many of the hit shows move to the streaming companies. 

Expect more Ryan Murphy types to continue the exodus in 2018.

In other top tech news this week

Apple's HomePod will stain your furniture.  Apple’s new $349 HomePod smart speaker has been discovered to leave a white ring on some wood furniture. Apple's response: "try placing your HomePod on a different surface.”

Facebook friends are going away. Facebook is losing young users at an even faster clip to Snapchat than previously forecast, according to new research from eMarketer. Less than half of U.S. Internet users ages 12 to 17 will use Facebook this year for the first time, the research firm says.

Google looks to modernize e-mail. The Internet giant announced a plan to bring graphics, surveys and recipes to e-mail, without having to leave the inbox. Additionally, users of Google's Chrome Web browser could start seeing fewer advertisements thanks to new controls in the browser. 

Snapchat users mad about redesign. Petitions and online grumbling accompanied the redesign for the messaging app, aimed at drawing a line between communications with friends and content from publishers, the produced short, text-heavy videos from outlets like Vice or Cosmopolitan. Based on reactions from Snapchat users, many hate it. The app currently carries an average rating of 1.9 out of 5 stars on Apple's App Store, suggesting that many users went on and posted negative reviews, driving the rating downward. 

This week's Talking Tech podcasts

Meet the Industry Standard's Barry Katz, the Hollywood manager who gives a behind the scenes look at Tinseltown in his popular podcast. 

Flipboard expands in 2018: The personalized magazine app looks to add book recommendations, more video and podcasts this year, according to CEO Mike McCue. 

Review: Mavic Air is your best drone choice. We compare this year's hot drone model to last year's Mavic Pro and conclude that the newer, smaller and less expensive model is the one to buy. 

Google looks to modernize e-mail. Our take on Google's ambition to bring visuals to static e-mail. 

Attention flower fans -- early Mother's Day alert! -- don't buy your next bouquet from Amazon. We ordered the Valentine's special bouquet from Amazon, but they arrived late and looked sad.

That's it for this week's Talking Tech weekend wrap. Please subscribe to the TalkingTech newsletter via this link. Follow me on Twitter, @JeffersonGraham. And if you haven't checked out the daily #TalkingTech podcast yet, now's the time. You can listen on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to online audio.