jikAlamo Drafthouse Won’t Join Theater Chain Boycott Of Netflix Moviede

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Though Netflix is giving Beasts of No Nation a simultaneous release in theaters and on its subscription service, the film will have limited early theatrical screenings to qualify for awards consideration.

Yesterday, Netflix announced that it would be releasing a new movie, Beasts of No Nation, later this year simultaneously on its streaming service and in theaters, leading the nation’s biggest exhibitors to cry boycott and say they will refuse to show the film. But not Alamo Drafthouse, which doesn’t seem fazed by having to compete for consumers who can just stay home and see the movie.

The four largest theater chains — AMC, Regal, Cinemark, and Carmike — have all said they won’t show the movie about child soldiers in Africa from True Detective director Cary Fukunaga, because Netflix is violating the traditional minimum 90-day window between theatrical release and appearing online.

But Tim League, CEO and founder of the growing Texas-based Alamo Drafthouse chain tells Variety he’s “agnostic” about these long-observed divisions between theatrical and home video releases.

“I look at films I want to play and I play them regardless of the release strategy,” he explains, saying that he’s had success with films like last year’s hyper-violent sci-fi flick Snowpiercer, which did well for Alamo while it was simultaneously available on-demand for home viewers.

“I don’t look at myself as a competitor to Netflix,” explains League. “I think that argument is a little bit of a red herring. I watch a lot of movies at home, but there comes a time where I want to get out of the house. I look at cinemas as one of those options that compete with restaurants or baseball games or all of those things I can’t do in my living room.”

There have been a growing number of films hitting on-demand video services like Amazon Instant Video, Google Play, or iTunes while they were still in theaters, but many have been very small art-house productions that get poor theatrical distribution outside of the major metropolitan markets.

And even though Beasts boasts a hot young director and the starpower of lead actor Idris Elba, it probably still wouldn’t have played more than a few hundred theaters during its theatrical release.

What seems to have raised exhibitors’ ire is that Netflix itself is releasing the movie and that the film will be available for no additional cost to Netflix subscribers.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

jikMcDonald’s To Use Chickens Raised Without Controversial Antibioticsde

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(Morton Fox)

Last week we expressed hope that new McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook would do more than pay lip service to concerns about over-use of medically important antibiotics in farm animals, and today there appears to be some not-bad news coming out of the Golden Arches. The fast food mega-chain says it will only source chickens raised without the use of antibiotics that are important to humans and will offer milk that doesn’t contain artificial growth hormone.

“Our customers want food that they feel great about eating,” explains McDonald’s U.S President Mike Andres in a statement, “all the way from the farm to the restaurant – and these moves take a step toward better delivering on those expectations.”

Antibiotics are commonly added to animal feed, primarily for their growth-promoting effects. While this is good for farmers, scientists and public health advocates have long warned that over-use of antibiotics — especially those deemed medically important to humans — can engender the development and spread of drug-resistant pathogens.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than 2 million people in America become ill with drug-resistant infections every year; about 430,000 of them from food-borne bacteria.

McDonald’s restaurants buy a significant chunk of chicken raised in the U.S. It joins the ranks of other chain eateries like Chipotle, Panera, and Chick fil-A that have either already stopped sourcing chickens raised on medically important antibiotics or are in the process of phasing those birds out.

Additionally, two of the country’s biggest poultry companies — Perdue and Tyson — have each agreed to curb antibiotic use in their birds.

“McDonald’s believes that any animals that become ill deserve appropriate veterinary care and our suppliers will continue to treat poultry with prescribed antibiotics, and then they will no longer be included in our food supply,” said Marion Gross, senior vice president of McDonald’s North America Supply Chain.

The news is being welcomed by advocates who have called for reductions in the use of antibiotics in farm animals, which currently account for around 80% of all antibiotics sold in the U.S.

The group Keep Antibiotics Working labels McDonald’s decision an important first step.

“While we know that change won’t happen overnight, we’re committed to working with the company as it moves forward with its implementation plan,” reads a statement from KAW senior analyst Steve Roach. “Antibiotic resistance is an urgent public health threat and the fast food industry has an important role to play in driving change, especially given the inability of Congress to address pressing problems and the weak response from the regulatory agencies.”

The Natural Resource Defense Counsel’s Jonathan Kaplan writes that, “The battle between humans and antibiotic resistant bacteria shifted favorably toward the humans today,” and the fast food giant’s decision is “good news for McDonald’s customers and anyone else who might someday need an effective antibiotic.”

The second announcement from today involves milk from cows treated with the artificial growth hormone rbST.

The company contends that “no significant difference has been shown between milk derived from rbST-treated and non-rbST-treated cows,” but acknowledges that some customers simply don’t want it.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

jikTelemarketers Accused Of Using Political Robocalls To Pitch Caribbean Cruise Packagesde

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A diagram from the FTC complaint showing how millions of automated marketing robocalls were made each day under the guise of a political survey.

While people at various points on the political spectrum may disagree about many topics, one sentiment many of them share is a distaste for prerecorded phone calls from political organizations. Like them or not, they’re generally legal even if the recipient is on the federal Do Not Call list. But when you use a supposedly political telemarketing call to ultimately shill for a cruise line, you’ve crossed over into the dark side.

In a complaint [PDF] filed yesterday in a federal court in Florida, the Federal Trade Commission and the attorneys general of ten states (Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Washington), accuse Florida-based vacation-seller Caribbean Cruise Line Inc. and various telemarketing operations of violating federal and state laws related to telemarketing.

Between Oct. 2011 and July 2012, the defendants allegedly made between 12 to 15 million calls per day, according to the complaint, resulting in billions of calls made during the 10-month period.

A typical prerecorded message would go something like:

“Hello, this is John from Political Opinions of America. You’ve been carefully selected to participate in a short 30 second research survey and for participating you’ll receive a free two day cruise for two people to the Bahamas, courtesy of one of our supporters. Gratuities and a small port tax will apply. To begin the survey, please press 1 now. To decline the survey and be removed from our list, press 9. Thank you.”

Those who didn’t hang up immediately and actually took the survey were eventually instructed to press 1 if they were interested in receiving the “free” cruise. This directed the caller to a human telemarketer who informed that there were $59/person “port taxes” for the cruise. They would also try to upsell the consumer on hotel stays, cruise excursions, enhanced accommodations, and other travel packages.

At the same time, other telemarketing services companies were allegedly aiding in these illegal calls by helping the callers spoof their Caller ID information so that fake numbers appeared on recipients’ phones. Spoofing is not illegal — except when used in an effort to defraud or deceive someone. These companies are also accused of hiding the identity of the cruise line and the telemarketers when subpoenaed by law enforcement and attorneys in civil cases.

Caribbean Cruise Line and two other companies, Linked Service Solutions LLC and Economic Strategy LLC, are accused of violating the Telemarketing Sales Rule by either making robocalls for marketing purposes or using robocalls to generated sales leads.

These three companies and their various principals have agreed to settle with the FTC. The deal proposes a civil penalty of $7.73 million against CCL, which will be partially suspended after CCL pays $500,000. Linked Service Solutions faces a partially suspended civil penalty of $5 million upon payment of $25,000, while Economic Strategy only has to fork over $2,000 to suspend the rest of its $295,000 penalty.

The FTC has not reached a deal with the operator of the interrelated companies accused of assisting and facilitating the illegal calls.

“Marketers who know the ropes understand you can’t steer clear of the do not call rules by tacking a political or survey call onto a sales pitch,” said Jessica Rich, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

jikTarget To Cut Headquarters Jobs, Put Up Some Mannequinsde

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(Mike Mozart)

Earlier this week, we shared the news that Target plans to make some changes to its food offerings to appeal to a different group of consumers, especially millennials. Changes at Target will go beyond the grocery department. The company announced a $2 billion cost-cutting effort over the next two years that will result in layoffs and a reorganization at the company’s headquarters in Minneapolis.

In a different part of their balance sheet, though, Target plans to invest more money in other parts of their business. CEO Brian Cornell announced yesterday that they plan more than $2 billion in capital expenditures, investing in stores and infrastructure. A big part of that infrastructure will be technology. More of that money will go toward technology than in past years, since Target hopes to increase online sales in the next year. That’s what their change to a $25 minimum for free shipping was about, of course.

While expanding store grocery sections in the last few years has been great for getting people into the store, those customers haven’t been buying more profitable non-food items.

Target to cut $2B in costs, including several thousand jobs [Associated Press]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

jikSling Users Get More Streaming TV Today With Addition Of AMC, IFCde

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AMC is now live on Sling, several weeks in advance of the April 5 start of Mad Men’s final season.

One of the most common knocks against Dish’s Sling TV streaming service is that it just doesn’t offer you enough channels for the $20/month subscription, but today Sling will get more attractive to some as AMC and IFC are added to the base package of channels at no additional cost, while users also have the option of a $5 premium bundle from Epix.

It’s good timing for Sling to add AMC as users will still be able to catch some of the current season of The Walking Dead and Better Call Saul, and there are several weeks to go before the final season of AMC’s flagship show Mad Men kicks off.

IFC is a much smaller fish, especially since the former Independent Film Channel has long since moved away from its mostly commercial-free beginnings. But hey, it’s another option and it doesn’t cost Sling users any more money.

While AMC and IFC have been added to Sling, neither allows users to employ the service’s online rewind or pause functionality, and neither currently offer an archive of recently aired shows, so if you missed the Walking Dead you’ll have to wait until it airs again live.

For ad-free movies, you’ll need to ante up another $5 for the EPIX bundle we told you about a few weeks back. The “Hollywood Extra” package will give subscribers access to EPIX, EPIX2, EPIX3, EPIX Drive-In and SundanceTV. That last channel is an interesting inclusion as, like IFC, it’s part of the AMC Networks family and is not really considered a premium channel by many viewers, even though movies are shown without ads.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

jikFDA Warns: If Your “Low T” Is Just From Getting Older, Don’t Use Prescription Testosteronede

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In recent years, makers of prescription testosterone treatments like AndroGel began throwing around the term “Low T” in TV ads, blaming low levels of the hormone for various problems — sex drive, flagging energy, moodiness — that have long been associated with simply growing older. But the FDA is now acknowledging that these drugs pose “a possible increased risk of heart attack and stroke” and are warning against their use for the treatment of anything other than very specific medical conditions.

Prescription testosterone is only FDA-approved for men with low testosterone levels due to disorders of the testicles, pituitary gland, or brain that cause a condition called hypogonadism.

But in an announcement made Tuesday afternoon, FDA notes that “testosterone is being used extensively in attempts to relieve symptoms in men who have low testosterone for no apparent reason other than aging.”

Citing the possible increased cardiovascular risk, FDA is requiring labeling changes for all prescription testosterone products to “reflect the possible increased risk of heart attacks and strokes associated with testosterone use.”

The agency is asking doctors and other health care professionals to alert patients of the risks associated with testosterone. Patients using testosterone should seek medical attention immediately if symptoms of a heart attack or stroke are present, such as: chest pain, shortness of breath or trouble breathing, weakness in one part or one side of the body, or slurred speech.

“We are also requiring manufacturers of approved testosterone products to conduct a well-designed clinical trial to more clearly address the question of whether an increased risk of heart attack or stroke exists among users of these products,” reads the announcement.

The FDA first announced that it was investigating the potential cardiovascular risks of these gels in Jan. 2014 after two studies raised safety questions.

The first study, published in 2013 in the Journal of American Medical Association, looked at a group of men (average age: 60) with low serum testosterone. The results of the research indicated that men undergoing testosterone treatment may be at a 30% increased risk of stroke, heart attack, and death.

A second study observed an increased risk of heart attack in both older men and in younger men with pre-existing heart disease, who filled a prescription for testosterone therapy. For men over the age of 65 who were being treated with testosterone, researchers claimed a twofold increase in the risk of heart attack in the first 90 days after beginning treatment. For younger men with a pre-existing history of heart disease, the study found a two- to threefold increased risk of heart attack in the first 90 days. The study did not see any increased risk for heart attack in younger men.

In Feb. 2014, health safety advocates at Public Citizen petitioned the FDA for a “black box” warning on testosterone packaging about cardiovascular risks, or at least a patient medication guide. In June 2014, FDA rejected the petition, claiming “insufficient evidence.”

Around the same time, regulators in Canada concluded that studies on testosterone treatments “provide evidence in support of this possible association when considered as a whole.”

“In the seven and a half months since the Canadian action, approximately four million [testosterone] prescriptions have been filled in the U.S.,” reads a statement from Public Citizen. “Had the FDA made this announcement last summer when the Canadian government acted, it would have reduced the number of U.S. prescriptions for and damage from testosterone, a medication of questionable effectiveness for a large proportion of users and one that increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes.”

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

jikWhy Is Amazon Mom Called Amazon Family Outside Of The U.S.?de

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(Chris Routly)

Amazon does business in many different countries, and knows how to market to people all over the world. The Amazon Mom program started a few years ago, providing special discounts and fast shipping on items needed for babies. Yet why is it called “Amazon Mom?” Most primary caregivers are mothers, but there are plenty of children being raised by single fathers or two fathers: don’t they buy diapers, too?

This isn’t even really about insulted dads or political correctness. Parents who don’t like the Amazon Mom brand aren’t objecting to a discount on baby supplies because of a three-letter word. Here’s the thing: while Amazon has this program in many countries, and in other countries it’s not called Amazon Mom. It’s called Amazon Family. Why?

Canada isn’t that different from us, is it?

Germany’s version is called Amazon Family, which isn’t even a German word.

Cute babies in ducky towels are the one universal language.

This cause has suddenly become popular because a dad and blogger who popularized the issue. Oren Miller found it funny but also problematic when he would receive e-mails addressed to him “as a mom.” Miller died last week, and other parents are taking up the Amazon Family cause in his honor.

Families come in different configurations, and there are many fathers who are primary caregivers. Some families even share child-raising responsibilities. This means that dads also know what brand of diapers to buy. For all of its mastery of data, why doesn’t Amazon get that not everyone who buys diapers is a mother?

We contacted Amazon and asked, very simply, why the name for the same program varies, even between countries that speak the same language. We’ll update this post when they get back to us.

Change the name of the Amazon Mom program to Amazon Family. [Change.org]

Why You Should Sign the Amazon Mom Petition [A Blogger and a Father]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist