The Entertainment Strategy Guide to 28 February 2020
Iger, Iger, Iger, Bundles, CBS and More Star Wars
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.
With yesterday being “Super Tuesday” and coronavirus/Covid-19 worries swamping the news, the entertainment business feels less important than normal. But we’ve had a busy few weeks in Hollywood and beyond, with so many good reads. Here are my favorites from last week.
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The Best of the Entertainment Strategy Guy
“Most Important Story of the Week: Rumors! Bob Iger and Apple TV+ Edition” at my website.
Everyone had their take on Bob Iger (see below), and I had to hop on the train too. He really was a top CEO and changed the entertainment landscape. In addition to that big story, I’ve been hearing a lot of rumors about Apple TV+, specifically that their ratings are down. I dig into that looking at the publicly available data, like user reviews in a table like this:
Read about all that plus A&E licensing deal and Discovery news.
“Most Important Story of the Week: Youtube Offers HBO Max…and an “All Update” Column” at my website.
The streaming wars are really about two things: content streamers aggregating content and digital distributors bundling those streamers. A few weeks back, HBO Max and Youtube TV announced a partnership, which is an aggregator (HBO Max) joining a bundler (Youtube TV). While this isn’t the first OTT play by Youtube TV, it’s arguably the most popular, which I consider a big deal. My analysis on that story, plus a bunch of story updates from the Viacom “House of Brands” update to the Oscars. And more.
Twitter Threads
My thoughts on the Netflix Top Ten global roll out:
And an underreported story on Netflix’s quest to find a head of consumer products:
Next, separating out good strategy from simply having lots of money is missing in a lot of the the streaming wars discussions.
Finally, bundles!
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 - “How Should We Be Thinking About Netflix & Original Content?” at Ark Investing by Nicholas Grous
ARK Investingtakes a look at original content on Netflix using a slightly different methodology than I have. While I disagree with how they calculate cost compared to the costs of cable, they use that calculation to attribute revenue to a piece of content. It’s an interesting approach, which gets them to roughly the same place that I do with The Irishman, which is that Netflix didn’t make any money on it.
(For my articles on The Great Irishman Project, click here.)
Other Long Reads - The Best Bob Iger Reads
Everyone had their take on Iger’s departure. Here’s a few of my favorites:
Julia Alexander at The Verge. (This explains a lot of the back story of the politics at Disney.)
Frank Pallota at CNN. (This predicts that Iger will still be key to Disney’s plans.)
Bill Carter at CNN Business. (This provides good context on how unexpected Iger’s rise was.)
Other Long Read - “‘Star Wars’ May Never Recover From The Damage Done By ‘Rise Of Skywalker’” by Scott Mendelson
Given how much I’ve been writing about the Star Wars brand, this article from Scott Mendelson is a good competing take. He may be right that the damage is done to the brand. (Though he and I disagree on the cause; I blame the entirely trilogy, not just the finish.) For my take on Star Wars in 2019, go here.
Non-Entertainment Read - “America’s monopoly problem, explained by your internet bill” by Emily Stewart at Vox
Consolidation is a tremendous problem that I’ve emphasized in the entertainment space in particular. Emily Stewart takes another look at the issue in this big Vox piece, focusing on cable prices and their local monopolies.
Listen of the Week - Sports Media with Richard Deitsch
To stay on top of the latest sports media news, I highly recommend listening whenever John Ourand joins Richard Deitsch on his podcast. This usually jumps to the top of my listening pile given how plugged in Ourand is with the sports rights landscape. He’s been on twice recently, first to discuss NFL rights and then to discuss the big Romo-to-CBS news.
Twitter Threads
First, the Bearded Capitalist summarizes thousands of my words on Netflix’s biz model in one tweet.
Then Andrew Wallenstein updates us on the latest battle in the “Binge vs Weekly” debate.
Finally for the simplest Bob Iger explanation.
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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.)