The Entertainment Strategy Guide to 8-March-21
A Streaming Ratings Report, Covid-19 Tracking, A World Without Email 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.
I have some exciting news for this week’s newsletter. For those who haven’t seen it yet, I added a new feature to the website, a weekly streaming ratings report.
Going forward, I’ll be publishing this article in addition to my weekly strategy column. This article will be to the point, comprehensive, and focused on putting the growing body of streaming ratings into context. As the streaming wars heat up, the need to understand who is winning and who is losing will be more important than ever, and hopefully a weekly review of the ratings will do that.
As a bonus, this week I plan to send the “ratings report” out to this newsletter list. Let me know what you think and if you’d like me to keep sending this to the newsletter.
(If this email was forwarded to you, sign up to receive all future emails or follow me on Twitter, Linked-In or at my website.
The Best of the Entertainment Strategy Guy
“A Down Week Makes for Some Strange Ratings” and “Nothing Compares to Bridgerton in January” at my website.
Here are the first two editions of the “streaming ratings report”. The winner of January was Netflix’s Bridgerton by a long shot. In addition to that story, these two reports also take a look at kids content, how some of the Oscar films performed, the growing success of action/thriller library films on Netflix. And many more insights!
“Covid-19 Tracker: What Should Disney and Universal Do with Black Widow and Fast 9?” and at my website.
The story of the year will be the recovery from the coronavirus. That much is clear. What is less clear is—especially for studios and theaters—is when this will happen. In this article, I speculated that Disney and Universal had as many good reasons to keep their big tentpoles releasing in May as they did to move them. (This was based off my deep dive into vaccinations here.) Indeed, after this article went live, Universal moved Fast 9 to June.
The big story of the last week was Fast 9 moving backwards to June, but for the first time in a year, as many films moved earlier on the release calendar—Peter Rabbit 2, A Quiet Place 2—as moved later. Which became my story of the week. I also provided an “entertainment-focused” update to the Covid-19 data, including the efficacy of vaccines, the growth in vaccinations, and the state of theaters in Los Angeles and New York. Read about that big story plus DAZN’s new chair, Ion/Scripps smart strategy and more.
“Is Paramount Plus “Focused” on Winning? - Most Important Story of the Week” at my website.
The big news story to finish February was the (re)launch of Paramount+. Overall, I understand why the skeptics are bearish on ViacomCBS’ strategy, but Paramount+ is probably ViacomCBS’ most “focused” strategy in the streaming wars. I explain what that means, the DirecTV spin off, FCC auctions and more in this weekly column.
EntStrategyGuy in Other Places
I was quoted in the Times of London for their big article “Disney’s Star is rising” by Stephen Armstrong. (It’s behind a paywall.) Also I was cited at Observer and Whats-On-Netflix in two other good reads.
The Best Content of the Last Two Weeks
(These are the best reads, listens, newsletters, or social conversations I came across last week.)
Long Read of the Week - “Guessing the Line on US Sports Betting” by Frank Rinaldi
As a fan of data and a super fan of dismantling media narratives, I loved this article by friend of the website, Frank Rinaldi. You’ve probably heard the hype about the potential revenue for newly legal gambling in the US. Do the numbers back it up? Read Rinaldi’s whole piece to find out. (Spoiler: probably not!)
Other Long Read - “Two by Two” by Scott Galloway
Apparently Scott Galloway and I share a fondness for 2x2 matrices. And he’s right! They can illuminate problems when straight words often won’t do the trick. (Here’s my latest attempt at this.) In this article, Galloway turns his attention to any business seeking “attention” and ranks them using revenue figures.
Other Long Read - “TV Long View: 3 Numbers That Explain Broadcast's Lost Fall” by Rick Porter at THR
All of entertainment was disrupted by Covid-19, and broadcast TV wasn’t spared. The coronavirus could not have arrived at a worse time for the broadcasters, shutting down production right as pilot season was starting. In this article from back in December, Porter looks at three numbers that show how how that disruption played out. My weekly column from June of last year looked at this phenomenon as well, and these numbers are essentially the result.
Non-Entertainment Read - Cal Newport’s Latest in the New Yorker “A World Without Email”
Many books tout revolutionary ideas, but fail to live up to the hype; in his latest book, Newport recommends getting rid of email. Hard to be more revolutionary than that!
(I’ll level with you: I haven’t read this article yet. That’s because I pre-ordered Newport’s book and this article is an excerpt from it.)
In seriousness, I believe that Newport’s ideas will provide a profound competitive advantage to whichever studio or streamer adopt them first. (Not could, will.) If you think sitting in meetings all day while you send too many emails and get too many in return, while no one makes decisions or does actual work, is insanity, then you need to read this book. If you don’t think that’s a problem, and your competitors read this book, you’re in trouble.
Newsletter of the Week - Money Stuff by Matt Levine at Bloomberg
Perhaps the key journalistic skill in the 21st century is the ability to explain complex topics in simple language. Matt Levine at Bloomberg does this better than anyone else for incredibly complex financial topics. After taking off the fall for paternity leave, he’s back and a great (if voluminous) read.
Twitter Threads
Last week, I shouted out an article in the New Yorker on nuclear power, specifically how safe it is. A reader sent this excellent Kurzgesagt Youtube video on it, and frankly now I’ve watched a dozen or so of their fun videos:
For a good summary on earnings, here is the latest from the week of March 1st by Evolutionary Media Capital:
(Feel free to share this free newsletter to any and everyone you want. It helps spread the word.)
(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.)