Variety is launching a major new initiative: Variety Intelligence Platform.

Considering we’re regarded as the bible for the media and entertainment business, you might assume this storied brand has seen it all over the course of its 115-year existence. But there’s nothing like the era the industry finds itself in today.

Technology continues to unleash profoundly transformative forces, and we’re just beginning to understand how the coronavirus crisis will do same. Keeping up with all this change requires us to take additional steps to stay on top of it all.

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But Variety is here to help with Variety Intelligence Platform. VIP offers high-level professionals in and around the media industries with in-depth analysis of the subjects that matter most to their business. It’s actionable insights necessary to succeed at a time of unprecedented disruption.

“For 115 years, everyone from industry titans to consumers understands that Variety is the most trusted source for entertainment news in the world,” said Chairman and CEO of PMC Jay Penske. “The Variety Intelligence Platform takes Variety’s singular entertainment offerings to the next level, providing business leaders with invaluable insight and analysis to boost the bottom line.”

We are making VIP available at a special introductory price of just $399.99 a year with the first month free, or $39.99 a month. Discounted pricing is also available for corporate customers looking for multiple licenses/seats.  Click here to learn more details.

There’s a lot that comes with a VIP subscription.

  A new deep-dive special report every month

  Frequent provocative commentary on recent news

  A weekly e-mail newsletter with even more insight

  A video library drawn from recent Variety events

  Compelling decks stacked with need-to-know data charts

Here’s more detail on these offerings:

Every month, subscribers receive at least one new deep-dive special report on a subject of pressing importance to those working in media. There’s nothing like a VIP report to gain a complete understanding of an aspect of the business that requires your attention.

Best of all, VIP plans to revisit the subjects covered in its many reports in order to update them with the latest information. Get a sense of how we do this our newly released third edition of a report on the streaming wars, which we first issued in early 2019 while VIP was still in beta mode.

To help spread the word about VIP, we will share our first original report free thanks to our launch partner Pluto TV, a ViacomCBS company. Variety will collaborate with ViacomCBS on a number of fronts in the coming months, including the sponsorship of this inaugural report, which focuses on the free ad-supported streaming TV category, where ViacomCBS is proud to call Pluto TV a market leader.

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This release is on top of the library of reports we’ll have available that we’ve already prepared over the past 12 months, including topics as diverse as production incentives, the impact of legalization of sports gambling in the U.S., the role of blockchain in media, and branded entertainment.  As you’ll see, VIP casts a wide net in its coverage, from core businesses like TV and film to the outer reaches of the industry, including virtual reality and artificial intelligence.

What you’ll notice about our special reports will also be evident on a more frequent basis via opinion-driven articles we’ll often publish to help understand industry news. Our aim is to examine the latest developments with a critical eye, either applauding shrewd decisions or panning ill-advised strategic moves.

The best of what the VIP team creates will be curated each week into our “Take 5” newsletter. As we do with everything we write, the newsletter will have a real point of view that pulls no punches.

One of the key features of VIP across both long-form special reports and short-form commentary will be a heavy emphasis on data. Cutting-edge graphic design renders charts and tables in almost everything we publish, including the occasional deck like our “Top 19 Media Trends of 2019” presentation.

But VIP is not just text and numbers. We are quickly building up a repository of exclusive video captured at many of Variety’s leading conferences. Gain from insights some of the industry’s leading lights including Peter Chernin, Dana Walden and Mark Cuban. VIP will also draw on Variety archives in other ways, including revisiting some of the best business stories on Variety.com and supplying updated information.

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It’s important to note VIP complements the existing Variety news offerings, which you can continue to access as you always have. Our content is generated by a team of analysts who operate separately from the newsroom, with industry experience gleaned from leading research companies, from Ipsos to Business Insider Intelligence.

As much as VIP has to offer at launch, there’s still so much more to come, including multimedia and interactive content. And we’re also open to commissioned special reports, customized to meet the individual needs of industry professionals interested in getting more than their subscription entails.

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