Rebranding is a staple of modern TV
Television, for lack of a better term, continues to evolve. Epix, a premium cable fixture and home to movies and original series, has been rebranded as MGM+.
If you watch Epix fare on your cable television, your experience will be largely unchanged. Now part of the Amazon universe, the rebranded MGM+ is selling itself as a standalone streaming platform that will set you back some $6 a month.
This rebranding coincides with the season three premiere of “The Godfather of Harlem” (9 p.m., Sunday, MGM+), starring Oscar-winner Forest Whitaker (“Last King of Scotland”) as the real-life Bumpy Johnson, a Black gangster who was a rival and sometime collaborator with the Genovese crime family in the 1960s. His story coincides with the civil rights struggle of that era and the rise and assassination of Malcolm X.
Forthcoming series on the network/platform include “A Spy Among Friends” debuting March 12 and starring Damian Lewis (“Homeland”), Guy Pearce (“Mare of Easttown”) and Anna Maxwell Martin (“Line of Duty”). On Feb. 5, MGM+ launches “Murf the Surf,” a limited series about one of the 20th century’s most celebrated thieves, created and directed by documentarian R.J. Cutler and executive produced by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer.
At a time when even giant streamers like Netflix and HBO Max are merging and contracting, it remains to be seen if smaller boutique offerings like MGM+ can attract subscribers. AMC and Sundance have made a similar move from a cable-based identity to a streaming service. And while they have had notable hits including the new Anne Rice offerings “Interview With the Vampire” and “Mayfair Witches,” their fortunes have changed as cable subscriptions (and attendant advertising) have not been adequately replaced by streaming revenue.
Over the past decade, streaming has brought a cornucopia of programming choices. But in the end, somebody has to pay for it. And some 10 years after Netflix first streamed “House of Cards” on Feb. 1, 2013, the industry has not quite sorted that out.
In another sign of change, the annual Miss Universe pageant will not air on broadcast television this year — or perhaps ever again. The Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants were a yearly tradition on CBS, dating back to 1955. More recently, they were purchased by the casino operator and multiple bankrupt who became the 45th president of the United States and were broadcast on Fox. Steve Harvey made headlines by botching the announcement of the winner of the 2015 Miss Universe contest. This gaffe did not prevent him from hosting subsequent pageants.
But now Harvey has lost the job. The Miss Universe pageant will stream live from New Orleans on the Roku streaming channel (7 p.m. Saturday). Harvey has been replaced this year by new hosts Olivia Culpo (a former Miss Universe) and Jeannie Mai Jenkins (“The Real”).
This live event marks the next step in Roku’s evolution. Once known primarily as a plastic device used for streaming, Roku developed its own channel to aggregate free content. Not unlike Pluto and Crackle, Roku has since developed its own content, most notably the 2022 biopic “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.”
Miss Universe isn’t the only annual event to change addresses. The 2023 Screen Actors Guild Awards, long a fixture of TNT and TBS programming, will stream this year on the Netflix YouTube channel on Feb. 26. Beginning in 2024, the SAG awards will stream on Netflix.