The Entertainment Strategy Guide to 25 October 2019
NBA is Back, The Future of Fantasy TV and Streaming Metrics
Welcome to the Entertainment Strategy Guy Newsletter! My favorite reads, listens, socials and more to keep you informed on the business of entertainment, with the links to my recent writing on my website and elsewhere.
I’ve been working on two big series that should debut this month, right as the streaming wars kick off in earnest. Hopefully, before the news gets overwhelming, I can take a slightly larger view of the entertainment landscape. While this week will provide some first tastes of Disney+ marketing, AT&T planning and Apple TV+ watching, the real insights will take months to leak out.
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The Best of the Entertainment Strategy Guy
“The 2019-2020 NBA-to-Entertainment Translator: The Update” at my website.
My essay of the week was more fun than rigorous analysis, as I celebrated the return of NBA basketball. I updated my translator “ NBA-to-Entertainment” from the year before with all the news from the last year. The biggest miss was calling the Lakers “Disney” and the biggest hit was calling the Golden State Warriors “Netflix.” (Here are my articles from last year, Part I “The Eastern Conference”, Part II “The Western Conference”, and The Rest.)
Quoted in “Will His Dark Materials be the next Game of Thrones?” In the Sunday Times by Stephen Armstrong
This was my first time being quoted in a news article and I’m going to celebrate it. Stephen Armstrong probes how the next crop of big, big fantasy series are preparing replace Game of Thrones. I’ve been exploring the battle for fantasy in this big series on GoT vs LoTR here and my huge Decider article forecasting how much HBO made on GoT. (For other journalists, I’m always open to providing quotes.)
“Most Important Story of the Week: The Streaming Revolution Will Be Metricized” at my website.
The more numbers we all have the better the market (all the markets really) can operate. Thus, the current state of comparing TV viewership is “sub-optimal”. In this week’s column, though, I find myself optimistic that the future of streaming video metrics will be better than the present. That and Verizon/Disney, what Comcast dropping TCM means for customers, living room viewership data and more.
Twitter Threads
My first thread of the week involved UX, one of the biggest black boxes for analyzing company strategy for me right now.
My biggest thread of the week inspired my weekly column and discusses why I think for the most part “popularity is popularity” no matter how we measure it.
(By the way, feel free to send this free newsletter to any and everyone you want. It helps spread the word and is the best way to give back if you want to support my writing.)
The Other Takes on Most Important Story of the Week
The closest thing to a consensus “most important story” this week was Verizon-Disney deal. Second place would still be NBC News/Ronan Farrow story.
The Business - Rose McGowan suing Harvey Weinstein; Verizon/Disney+ deal
Screengrab - Ronan Farrow & NBC News revelations
TV Top Five - Marvel TV leadership changes; CBS renews 5 series
The Ankler - A review of THR’s “Power 100” list in two parts.
Streaming Wars Newsletter - Hulu Live TV fail during the MLB World Series/NBA Tip-off
TV Rev - Verizon/Disney deal; Facebook news app
PARQOR SVOD - Explosion of TV Production costs; Disney/Verizon Deal
Hollywood Torrent - A guide to the streaming wars; Apple’s debut lookahead
The Best of The Rest
(These are the best reads, listens, newsletters, or social conversations I came across last week.)
Long Read of the Week - “‘It’s an Explosion’: Inside the Rising Costs of Making a Scripted TV Series” by Michael Schneider in Variety
This article because it gets at precisely why it will be so hard to make money for streaming platforms in the next few years. The benefits of the streaming wars are going almost primarily to creators, with some overflow to customers. This remains the biggest challenge for all current and future platforms (channel or streaming) in entertainment. If anything, digital is accelerating this trend.
Other Long Read - “Twitter’s Growth Sags, But That Wasn’t the Worst Part” by Shira Ovide in Bloomberg
If Twitter goes away, I’m not sure how I’ll spend an hour plus each day, but every other earnings report makes that scenario feel somewhat plausible. Shira Ovide has a good take on Twitter’s latest earnings, and really how hard Twitter finds it to monetize their users. It makes me think the company as a whole is more fragile than it appears.
Non-Entertainment Read - “Reflecting on the Last Decade: 10 Things We Got Right & Wrong” by Give Directly
Give Directly is my preferred charity of choice, and in their latest update they reflect on ten years of success. I love the honesty in providing this look at how well they’ve done at philanthropy.
Listen of the Week - iFanboy celebrates 700 episodes
This episode launched a few weeks back, but I still wanted to celebrate my favorite podcast on the comic book industry. Congrats on the milestone guys.
Newsletter of the Week - Hollywood Torrent “Your Guide to the Streaming Wars” by Lucas Shaw
I’m a sucker for any run-down on the streaming wars. So this quick hits summary is right up my alley (and a good weekly read).
Non-Entertainment Newsletter of the Week - For The Interested
Josh Spector’s approach to building an audience is one I admire, and his latest post talks about treating an audience as a responsibility, not just something you have. While ostensibly for creators—he inspires my writing regularly—most streaming platforms should take the same approach.
Twitter Threads
A few good threads this week. First, TV Answer Man debunks the worst news story of the week:
Then Gregory Ellwood shares my dismay at what is happening to Box Office Mojo.
Finally, Bluegrass Capital launched a fun discussion on streaming here.
(If this email was forwarded to you, and you’re wondering who I am, The Entertainment Strategy Guy writes under this pseudonym at his eponymous website. A former exec at a streaming company, he prefers writing to sending emails/attending meetings, so he launched his own website. You can follow him on Twitter or Linked-In for regular thoughts and analysis on the business, strategy and economics of the media and entertainment industry.)