Quark's

While I would argue that the writer is confusing the distinction between digital and physical vs digital and analogue, this piece is interesting.

Also, I now really want to visit that shop in Hamner, Ontario.

As the US financial markets, politicians and entertainment media obsess about mergers and moving production of US scripted shows back to the United States, this seems like an enormous reality check. The United States provides less and less of the scripted entertainment globally.

It squashes the long held beliefs that the world watches/prefers American popular entertainment exports over those made at home or in other countries and regions.

There’s a new global leader in greenlights.

Over the first half of 2026, Asia surpassed both North America and Europe to become the world’s leader in streaming scripted orders, the researchers at Ampere Analysis have found. From January through June, 36 percent of “first-run scripted TV orders from the leading global streamers” (Prime Video, Apple TV+, Disney+, HBO Max, Netflix and Paramount+) originated in the APAC (Asia-Pacific, which encompasses countries in East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania) region.

What’s unfortunate for members of this instance is that, in this process, it’s science fiction and fantasy that are being crowded out on the major streamers. (Perhaps that’s because English speaking science fiction and fantasy viewers are less willing to give scripted shows in and films in other languages a try…? )

Here’s a chart of the trends :

As a Canadian, who sees many of our Canadian productions obscure that they are set in Canada or even outright pretend to be in the USA even when based on Canadian source material, I hope that this means that we can tell our own stories without having to obscure our identity for distribution to international audiences.

I highly recommend it, short and sweet and action packed. It felt very much like something from the Twilight Zone. I would have never guessed it was the same person who wrote the sensitive teenage Klingon episode (which is also maybe my favorite from Academy).

As there has been a fair bit of interest when I shared information on a recent Mainland Chinese science fiction movie, I thought it would be worthwhile to let the users here know about the top ranked urban fantasy television series Mystic Nine that is the hit of the summer with a 30% market share in China.

If you’re looking to try a 20th century fantasy show with a touch of horror and monsters, timey wimey shenanigans, lots of humour, cute dogs, great vfx and the kind of fantastic action scenes that Chinese television excels in, this is the one. (If you are a fan of Moopsy in Star Trek Lower Decks, this show definitely has something for you.)

Mystic Nine (2026) is a 30 episode x 40 minute series produced for Youku but more easily accessible internationally through Rakuten Viki.

It’s part of a larger Lost Tomb IP novel and television franchise that involves 9 clans responsible for the 9 gates of the city Changsa in the Republican Era. Think of Raiders of the Lost Ark meeting Republican Era factionalism.

This entry takes place in 1935 and the book author was reportedly closely involved in the adaptation. It’s a good entry into the IP and the opening credits give a nutshell summary of the clans.

Since Ellison committed to hold off on the merger until the case was resolved, based on this decision,, the merger is years away if happening. Paramount is unsurprisingly unhappy at such a late trial date as they’d asked for a trial date no later than November 2026.

The judge hearing the antitrust case seeking to block the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger has issued a preliminary scheduling order, with a trial set to start in March 2027 — considerably later than Paramount was hoping for.

Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin on Tuesday issued a ruling that said the trial will run a total of 12 court days, beginning Tuesday, March 2, 2027, and ending March 19. In her order, she said a final pretrial conference will be held Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2027. The judge said the parties must submit a joint case management statement by no later than noon on Aug. 13, 2026, for an initial case management conference on Aug. 19.

Star Trek got a nice shout out in the first episode too!

If you're not familiar with how Lemmy/the Fediverse works, basically everything you read at StarTrek.website is hosted by us, even if the content originated elsewhere. That means we are responsible for everything here and we have to decide if we are comfortable boosting content from other instances.

If you're curious, the final straw here was learning that db0 explicitly allows hosting discussions about hurting people, which needless to say goes against our instance values and we simply don't have the manpower to moderate that volume of content incoming from their server to a degree that we feel meets our quality standards, which left defederating as the only viable option.

In keeping in line with past trends we're announcing this because is is a larger instance and don't want to leave any of the crew confused as to why something may be missing.

EDIT: Just to be crystal clear, this change ONLY affects users on THIS instance, if your account is on a federated instance then it doesn't apply to you and your experience will remain unchanged.

EDIT 2: Locking this because it's getting downvote brigaded by accounts from other instances which is preventing local accounts from seeing it. Local users feel free to DM me or another admin if you have questions.

David Ellison announced yesterday, as financial markets closed, that the Paramount-WB merger would be paused until mid 2027 in response to ongoing antitrust concerns. The 12 intervening states successfully obtained a restraining order last Monday.

From the Gizmodo article:

Paramount has agreed to a delay of its merger with Warner Bros. Discovery after a group of 12 states sued to stop the $111 billion deal. The states, led by California, brought the lawsuit over antitrust concerns, and Paramount has agreed to close the deal until five days after a potential trial is held or June 1, 2027, whichever comes first, according to a court filing.

The development is accompanied by a changing of the guard at the top. Stephen Wacker, a respected veteran comics editor who also earned an Emmy nomination for his work in the company’s forays in animation, has been named Marvel’s new editor-in-chief, replacing outgoing chief C.B. Cebulski, who had steered the division since 2017.

This coverage by Variety of the legal challenges to the Paramount-WB merger is intriguing.

Are blockbuster films a separate market? Or are they interchangeable with other forms of entertainment?

The $111 billion Paramount–Warner Bros. merger may hang on that question. On July 13, a coalition of 12 states sued to block the deal, arguing that it will lead to excessive concentration in the theatrical and basic cable markets. The strongest claim may be that the combined entity will control 30% of the market for “anticipated top-grossing films.”

📣 REMINDER: Next The Ark Mastodon watch / rewatch party will this upcoming Saturday, July 11th 3:00 pm EDT (UTC-4).

S1E7 A Slow Death is Worse

S1E8 Every Single Person Matters

I host there from my account @AlsoPaisleyCat@tenforward.social.

We took a hiatus for the US national holiday last week but will be continuing with the first season this Saturday.

Please feel welcome to join in. There’s a groupbot to help boost posts and federate. If you would like to participate or just lurk, please make a follow request to to the fedigroups bot and I will approve.

Just watched the Mainland Chinese movie Per Aspera Ad Astra on Netflix. It’s the summer movie I’ve been wanting.

It had a cinematic release earlier this spring and was released on Netflix June 18th.

While set in space, it’s focused on virtual reality and AI. Some have described as a mix of EEAAO and The Matrix. I’d add in a fair dose of high concept Star Trek too.

It’s a fun ride with a good message. Highly recommend it for sci-fi fans looking for a well executed story with competent problem solving and positive values.

Dylan Wang He Di, Victoria Song Qian and Wang Duo deliver a compelling and action packed tale. While I watched with subtitles because the cast all voiced their own parts in the original Mandarin, the English language dub is reportedly excellent. I found the special effects well done (but would really welcome the views of experts here ).

Here’s the synopsis from Netflix:

An AI system lets people live their dreams during space travel, but when a crisis arises a technician must enter the dreamscape to save the passengers.

And here’s a translation of the original promotion for the movie:\

High school student Zhang Qi Meng, focused on preparing for exams, is pulled out of the examination hall by a stranger named Brother Biao, who breaks through the window. He is then informed of a shocking fact: his world is just a virtual metaverse program. In reality, Qi Meng is an astronaut in hibernation, and at this moment, disaster is rapidly approaching their spaceship...

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