Quration 12: Wed, 18th Nov 2020
Amazon Pharmacy, YouTube advertises to kids, and quick-release movies!
Each day I wade through the Cambrian explosion of news to find stand-out stories and then create short summaries for my followers.
You can read the newsletter below or listen to the AI-enabled podcast version🎙️
Amazon begins its battle with Big Pharma
⇨ This brief comes from a company announcement released by Amazon earlier this week.
Amazon announced the next phase of its push to dominate every major consumer industry. This week, it’s prescription medication.
As usual, Amazon promises to be faster, more convenient, more reliable and less expensive than the competition.
This will be a tremendous service. Medication compliance (people taking the right dosage of prescribed medication) sits at around 50%, when it should be at 80%+. A system that makes it easier to fill and track prescriptions will be profoundly beneficial.
Amazon Pharmacy promises that:
You’ll never be in line at a pharmacy;
You can always speak to a Pharmacist (they have them on staff, 24/7);
You’ll never worry about your medication (they’ll chase your insurance and doctors); and
Your medical information is protected.
There are a number of standout elements to this strategic play.
First, Amazon is establishing the position of middleman between you, your physicians, and your insurance company. That’s a tough role to fill, but if they do it well - and they will - Amazon will cement themselves as part of your ongoing health regimen.
Next, this service gives Amazon the perfect reason to begin collecting, storing and managing your health data. People like Microsoft and Google have failed in their attempts to create an Electronic Health Record (EHR) before, and it will be a key feature for Apple Health and their services. Now Amazon enters the mix, with a compelling reason to share private medical data.
The good news is that the world’s largest and most innovative companies will be fighting each other to provide us all with better health solutions. Let’s face it, there is a desperate need for disruption, and this foray from Amazon is a brilliant tactical start.
Faster, cheaper, more convenient, more reliable - better. No wonder key competitors like CVS and Walgreens took a big hit on their stock price the day Amazon Pharmacy was announced!
Kids on YouTube are seeing way too many ads
⇨ This brief comes from an article written by Mark Bergan and published on Bloomberg.com
Young children are watching a wide range of videos on YouTube that are chock full of advertisements, sometimes have violent footage and offer little educational value, according to a report from academics and Common Sense Media, an advocacy group.
The study provides one of the more detailed snapshots of children’s viewing behavior on YouTube, said its lead author, Jenny Radesky, a pediatrician at Michigan Medicine C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital.
Children watched an average of 39 minutes of videos a day, double the amount from 2017, the researchers found. About 5% of the videos in the study had “high educational value,” which the researchers defined as teaching topics that went beyond simple concepts and were developmentally appropriate.
According to the study, 30% of the YouTube footage contained “mild physical violence” and only 24% showed a diverse representation of race and gender. The study relied on a rating system similar to what Common Sense uses to grade footage for parents. (The group’s nonprofit unit worked on the research. Its for-profit arm is building a media service that will compete with YouTube.)
“We were surprised by the amount of long videos that appeared to be put together just to attract young viewers, even if they didn’t have substance,” Radesky said. “It really works to keep kids occupied. They don’t need to think.”
The research doesn’t accuse YouTube of serving targeted ads to children. And the study found that many children watched the YouTube videos that researchers classified as highly educational. Relative to other clips, however, YouTube’s recommendation system rarely surfaced these.
“You’re going to need to seek out those hidden gems,” Radesky said. “They’re not being elevated by the algorithms as much.”
Universal agrees on earlier home release for new movies
⇨ This brief comes from an article written by Lisa Richwine that was published by Reuters.com
Movie theater operator Cinemark Holdings Inc struck a deal that will allow Universal Pictures to offer its movies in homes as soon as 17 days after they debut in theaters, the companies said on Monday.
Under the arrangement, Universal could offer movies for sale via premium video-on-demand after they have played for at least three weekends in theaters, a statement from the companies said. That would shrink the exclusive window a movie plays in theaters from the roughly 74 days that was typical before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down cinemas.
Movies that open with more than $50 million at box offices would be exclusive to theaters for at least five weekends, or 31 days, before they could be offered on demand. That would likely include Universal’s big franchises such as “Fast & Furious” and “Jurassic World.”
“That was a concept that was very important to us, the concept of having a dynamic window instead of a static, one-size-fits-all (approach),” Cinemark Chief Executive Mark Zoradi said in an interview.
Universal is one of the few major studios sending movies to theaters in the coming months as many movie houses remain closed due to the pandemic. The studio will debut animated film “The Croods: A New Age” on Nov. 25, Tom Hanks drama “News of the World” on Dec. 25 and three other movies before year’s end.
If you'd like to see more of what I'm exploring, you can follow me on twitter. If you've come across something you think I'd like, hit reply and let me know why it's worth checking out (articles, lectures, podcasts, books, exhibitions… whatever).