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Shonda Rhimes attends the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in Beverly Hills on February 24, 2019. Hills, California [+] Rhimes is forging forward in the expanding podcast industry. Shondaland, Rhimes’ firm, said on Wednesday that she will serve as executive producer for iHeartMedia-distributed podcasts. Shondaland Audio, Rhimes’ firm, has struck a three-year podcast partnership with iHeartMedia and is launching. (Image courtesy of Evan Agostini/Invision/AP/File)
AP Photo/Evan Agostini/Invision
By strengthening its deal with showrunner icon Shonda Rhimes, Netflix is making big ambitions with its original content offerings in the aim of reaching a wider audience. The multiyear agreement covers new media formats such as gaming, merchandise, virtual reality, and live events in addition to television and film. Netflix has struggled with diversity difficulties, and an expanded arrangement with Rhimes will include financial backing for her Shondaland company’s diversity project aimed at raising the proportion of women and people of color in the entertainment sector.
Following a long stint at ABC, where she developed the smash dramas “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Scandal,” and “How To Get Away With Murder,” Rhimes secured a multi-year agreement to produce programming for the streaming platform in 2017 for a rumored $100 million. She was one of the first major television producers to join Netflix. Her most recent cultural sensation, “Bridgerton,” a modern take on a Jane Austen-style historical romance, premiered more than three years after she signed her agreement, and has already become a tremendous smash for Netflix, with three additional seasons already ordered.
According to Horowitz Research, Black viewers are also content trend-setters, with 58 percent stating that they want to be the first to know about new material and are more likely to watch shows that reflect their lives. In addition, 74% of Black TV viewers said they watch some of their shows online. Facts like these explain why Netflix has made Black content and talent a main feature of its original programming endeavors, according to CultureBanx.
Netflix has racked up multi-million dollar deals with Black content creators such as the Obamas’ Higher Ground Productions and Kenya Barris, who has since departed and joined Viacom CBS; Tiffany Haddish, Spike Lee, and director Ava DuVernay have also worked with Netflix.
Chill & Quarantine:
Netflix’s meteoric rise to 208 million customers around the world may be slowing as lockdown rules begin to relax. In the first quarter, the streaming powerhouse acquired four million new customers, a figure that was 40% fewer than the six million forecasted by analysts.
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When it comes to traditional TV viewing, Nielsen discovered that shows with a mostly black cast or a main storyline centered on a black character attract a sizable non-black audience. Streaming firms such as Netflix, which have a considerably larger audience than traditional television, stand to earn a lot by investing heavily in Black producers. Rhimes’ contract terms were not published, although she will remain one of Netflix’s highest-paid creators./nRead More

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