Analyst Rich Greenfield calls it the “arms dealer” model, selling content to all comers. But it’s really “arms dealer plus combatant,” since participants still want their own streaming affiliates as one of their monetization options.
Warner’s strategy presumably requires now a supercomputer to optimize monetization of hours upon hours of new and old movies and TV episodes, each decision complicated by back-end rights owed to producers and performers. Already we’re seeing some interesting outcomes, like its decision to bury a nearly complete, $70 million “Batgirl” movie in a vault where the public can’t see it, in favor of a tax write-off.
The deal last year to sell out AT&T’s stake was badly explained in the press—AT&T didn’t take a bath on the terms. It essentially sold 29% of Warner Media to Discovery in return for $40.4 billion in cash and assumed debt plus 71% ownership of the combined companies . The real question: Was this the best outcome for the high-quality Warner assets?
opinion Murdoch owns WSJ. Murdoch owns Fox. Murdoch is jealous of Netflix because Fox makes garbage that no one normal watches. Jenkins makes up nonsense to please papa Murdoch. getbackintotheseweryoucrawledoutfromyoucretin
opinion Netflix can turn it all around by avoiding woke politics in at least half of their productions or more. Be those guys. China isn't the only country that doesn't want to see that shit. A huge portion of America doesn't want it, either. You could tap that audience.
opinion Too much woke programming, “You” season 1 was excellent before it turned into a woke indoctrination program