The Entertainment Strategy Guide to 31 January 2020
A Netflix Data Dive, More Irishman, Peacock thoughts and more
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.
The newsletter got a pinch lost in the shuffle of my January. (I could give specifics but “kids” is the best one word description.) Today’s newsletter will be a little heavy on catching up with all my January articles, and a few good reads I came across. As always, I try to back date these to the last week covered.
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The Best of the Entertainment Strategy Guy
“A Netflix Data Dive: What does their “annual” top ten lists reveal about their biz model?” at my website.
Netflix ended 2019 with a bit of foreshadowing about how they planned to track metrics going forward. They shifted from counting customers who watched 70% of a piece of content down to watching 2 minutes. Even with this change, the top ten lists by territory provided a nice little data set to draw some conclusions, which I did in this first analysis article of the year.
“Commentary: Can best picture Oscar nominee ‘The Irishman’ make money for Netflix? It’s complicated” at The Chicago Tribune
Nina Metz of the Chicago Tribune reached out after reading my “Great Irishman Project” series. She does a fantastic job of taking my dense series and distilling the essence in her article. She also collected some quotes from industry leaders I really respect, which makes it a great summary of my series.
“Should Netflix Become A Content “Arms Dealer”? How A Show Like ‘Grace And Frankie’ Reveals Netflix’s Strategy” at Decider with Downloadable Content!
Grace and Frankie has quietly become one of the longest running shows on Netflix, with 96 episodes. In my latest at Decider, I ask, as they approach the traditional milestone for syndication, what could Netflix make if they sold G&F to someone else? Along the way, I coin a new acronym “F-BOSSS” for the six biggest US comedy series, use Google Trends to gauge interest, and explain why or why not Netflix won’t sell (or allow to be sold) this series to anyone else.
Also, as a bonus, at my website, I’m letting folks download the Excel spreadsheet of my numbers and data I used.
“Most Important Story of the Week: The Most Important Question of 2020” at my website.
My first column of the year is an exploration of a slightly larger question. I hear a lot about the “new” economy and how much disruption is changing entertainment. Which helped crystallize this question in my mind: for streaming, what really is new and what is different? The answer probably explains who will win the streaming wars. I also cover College Humor’s demise, Twitch not making much money, and the new peak TV milestone.
“Most Important Story of the Week: The Optimistic and Pessimistic Strategy Cases for Peacock” at my website.
The reveal of Comcast/NBC-Universal’s Peacock service was big enough to get the full column devoted to one issue. Am I bullish or bearish? Honestly a bit of both, with an admiration that unlike HBO Max, Apple TV+ or Disney+, Peacock really seems to have some innovative new features. Read for all the details, including thoughts on the content strategy, the difficult task of pleasing multiple masters and the impacts on competitors.
“Most Important Story of the Week: Why is Facebook Unfriending Scripted Originals” at my website.
Facebook is quietly pulling back from making scripted originals and this story should be bigger news. Much bigger! So I try to explain why scripted content doesn’t work on Facebook, from Facebook specific problems to the challenges with “social video”. That plus Disney+ drama, Netflix releasing some DVDs, Netflix’s data from their earnings report and more.
Twitter Threads
My twitter threads of January focused on the Oscars, Peacock’s launch, Netflix Earnings and Netflix’s change in viewership.
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 - “Big Data Comes to Hollywood: The Brewing Antitrust Battle of the Streaming Era” by Eriq Gardner in The Hollywood Reporter
I try to read everything Gardner puts out and this is another good long view at a major regulatory hurdle that could face streaming. The most important aspect is that antitrust regulators are already looking at the big tech companies, and this just gives them another potential avenue to tightening the regulatory screws. Also, it won’t just be the Googles and Facebooks of the world, but even the Disneys and Netflixes.
Other Long Read - “Whatever Happened To ‘Mr. Robot’?” By Alex Zalben at Decider
I had to hold off on reading this for fear of spoilers until my wife and I caught up on Mr. Robot. Which we finally did this year. (Meaning we’re some of the people who dropped out after season 2 and tanked the ratings.) Zalben delivers an excellent summary of the last five years of TV to streaming transition in this history of Mr. Robot. Well done.
Non-Entertainment Read - “Barons of Crap: The disruptors who didn’t change anything” by Robin Kaiser-Schatzlein in The Baffler
When I let my politics subtly slip into this feed—and I try to avoid them—it’s usually about inequality or corporate consolidation. This review of the book Billion Dollar Brands is fascinating for what is says about the state of entrepreneurship in America. If you follow media coverage or Shark Tank, you’d think all is well. Anyone can start the next billion dollar brand. If you read this review, you find out—and if you watch Shark Tank very closely, you’ll notice this too—it turns out that it really, really, really helps to have extremely wealthy parents and/or go to Ivy League business schools.
Newsletter of the Week - “The Anklets: The Last Awards of 2019” by The Ankler’s Richard Rushfield
To have a lighter look at 2019, check out The Ankler’s last issue of 2019, which has all the doses of cynicism one needs to cover this indusry.
Twitter Threads
Richard Broughton of Ampere Associates has one of those threads filled with data I just love. In this case, the share of revenue of cable globally:
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(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.)