Rafael Brown’s Post

🔴🔴🔴 Check out this compelling article from the Financial Times where David Ellison discusses Paramount's transition into a 'media and tech' company. The shift in focus indicates exciting changes ahead for the company and the industry as a whole. It's going to be interesting to see how this evolution unfolds. What are your thoughts on this? #Paramount #MediaTechEvolution #FutureOfEntertainment https://ift.tt/3vU75mc

I'm intrigued by the potential acquisition of Paramount by Skydance. If Paramount doesn't find a better suitor in their 45-day "go shop" period, Skydance will have successfully integrated a media behemoth into its portfolio. This is a monumental move for a company founded in 2006, made possible by the Ellison family's wealth and deep roots in technology through their stewardship of Oracle. Key quotes from Skydance CEO David Ellison: "We believe that understanding of the symbiotic relationship between art and technology is essential to be able to meet this moment." "There are a lot of technology companies that are rapidly expanding into media. We believe it is essential for Paramount to expand its technology prowess, to be both a media and technology enterprise." Ellison's vision for Paramount includes leveraging technology by expanding cloud and streaming systems for filmmaking and animation, aligning Paramount IP with robust game development, and utilizing AI tools across all facets of their creative and technical processes. Presumably, Paramount will serve as a showcase for Oracle's products and services. From a business perspective, the key question is: will it work? Ultimately, success will depend on content — new tools can help, but creative vision is paramount. What are your thoughts on the intersection of technology and media in this acquisition? How do you see it impacting the industry? #MediaAcquisition #Skydance #Paramount #TechAndMedia #DavidEllison #CloudComputing #Streaming #Animation #AI #GameDevelopment #Oracle #Innovation #Technology #ContentCreation #LegalInsights #BusinessStrategy https://lnkd.in/ebg9Ccd8

Disney boss declares new era after job cuts Image source, Disney Image caption, Guardians of the Galaxy was 1 of Disney's occurrence stories By Natalie Sherman Business reporter, New York The large problems astatine Disney person been fixed, the brag of the amusement elephantine has told investors. Boss Bob Iger said helium believed the institution was entering a caller "era of building", aft a achy twelvemonth focused connected occupation cuts and restructuring. He said the moves were paying disconnected successful bigger savings and different growth. "While we inactive person enactment to bash ... our advancement has allowed america to determination beyond this play of fixing and statesman gathering our concern again," helium said. Disney has been grappling with a crisp diminution successful its accepted tv and movie business. Last year, the committee of the institution abruptly recalled Mr Iger from status and reinstated him arsenic main executive, arsenic the institution grew alarmed by large losses incurred by its caller streaming business, Disney+. The company's banal terms has dropped by much than fractional since its 2021 peak, and it has remained the people of activistic investors who are impatient for improvement. Losses successful its streaming concern are narrowing, Disney said. The halfway streaming offering, which does not see Hotstar successful India, added astir 7 cardinal subscribers implicit the 3 months ended successful September, arsenic films specified arsenic Guardians of the Galaxy 3, Little Mermaid and Elemental drove radical to the platform. The unexpectedly beardown gains helped to shrink operating losses to $420m (£341m), compared with much than $1.4bn astatine the aforesaid clip past year. Disney has been making different moves to heighten its online offerings, which besides see the sports-focused ESPN+. It besides precocious announced it would determination guardant to get the 3rd it did not already ain of Hulu, which offers wide assemblage material, arsenic opposed to household oregon children-specific viewing. Mr Iger said the company, which precocious raised its prices, would motorboat a proceedings mentation wrong weeks that combines Hulu and Disney+ shows. "Integrating Disney+ on with Hulu and ESPN successful the aboriginal volition enactment the institution successful a beardown presumption to thrust [subscribers], engagement and importantly gross either done subscription oregon advertising," said Paolo Pescatore of analysts PP Foresight. Mr Iger said the amusement elephantine was connected way to slash expenses by $7.5bn - a boost of immoderate $2bn much than his archetypal target. The determination follows much than 8,000 occupation cuts astatine the institution and coincides with a onslaught by Hollywood actors, which has...

Better Uses For Paramount's $1.5 Billion in New Cash Than Streaming On Monday, likely Paramount acquirer David Ellison told investors “when you look at the landscape as it exists today, there are a lot of technology companies that are rapidly expanding into media companies, and we believe it is essential for Paramount to be able to expand its technological prowess to be both a media and technology enterprise." He offered a basic outline of three technology priorities in an accompanying presentation (see image). The slide certainly mirrors my argument in Monday’s essay: Investing in emerging technologies may be as important, if not more important, than investing in intellectual property (IP). Marshall McLuhan's “the medium is the message” continues to be true and emerging new technologies are transforming the value of IP outside of linear and theatrical. That is as much a competitive challenge as it is an existential challenge for the long-term value of content libraries. But, Ellison frames the purpose of the investments with the competitive challenge of “technology companies that are rapidly expanding into media companies.” The contrast highlights two questions: 1. Is rebuilding a DTC platform the best use of Paramount's balance sheet for its shareholders? 2. If not, what is an alternative investment strategy that both protects IP and delivers returns from tech investments? [see comment below for link to full essay] ✳️Key Takeaway✳️ The strategic focus of the new Paramount should not be on “technology companies that are rapidly expanding into media companies". Rather, the focus should be on investing the $1.5 billion influx of cash in businesses expanding the value of IP beyond film and TV. Total words: 1,300

The way we enjoy movies has transformed dramatically, moving from traditional cinema visits to streaming from the comfort of our homes or on mobile devices while on the move. In Hollywood, old order is being disrupted and some of the world’s largest technology companies are leading the charge to remake the global entertainment industry. They are challenging the six big Hollywood studio owners: Comcast’s NBC Universal; Japan’s Sony Corp, which owns Columbia Pictures; Walt Disney’s 20th Century Pictures; Warner Bros Discovery (WBD); Paramount Global; and MGM, now owned by Amazon. This transition has placed significant financial pressure some of these names, says columnist Assif Shameen. WBD has US$43.7 billion of debts in the current higher-for-longer interest rate environment; Paramount Global has US$16 billion in debts. Right now, Paramount Global, which owns a film studio, linear TV network CBS, and Viacom the cable network that owns MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central, is on sale. Clearly, the best route would be industry consolidation with tech giants like Alphabet’s Google, Apple, possibly Meta Platforms and even Microsoft buying debt-laden studios. Yet, there are several roadblocks here. The Biden Administration doesn’t want the dominant cash-rich tech giants or “Magnificent 7” to grow even bigger. The Paramount deal will be a template for future entertainment industry consolidation, says Shameen. How will it impact markets like Asia? As a new generation of movie- and TV-watchers emerge, it is likely that state-owned channels will embrace the business model of global streamers or indeed even cut deals to ride with them to gain audience, subscription fees and, of course, advertising. Read more: https://lnkd.in/dA97e82Y #TheEdgesg #businessnews #sgnews #news #finance #streaming #hollywood #livestreaming #contentcreation #filmindustry #media

Image source, Disney Image caption, Guardians of the Galaxy was 1 of Disney's occurrence stories By Natalie Sherman Business reporter, New York The large problems astatine Disney person been fixed, the brag of the amusement elephantine has told investors. Boss Bob Iger said helium believed the institution was entering a caller "era of building", aft a achy twelvemonth focused connected occupation cuts and restructuring. He said the moves were paying disconnected successful bigger savings and different growth. "While we inactive person enactment to bash ... our advancement has allowed america to determination beyond this play of fixing and statesman gathering our concern again," helium said. Disney has been grappling with a crisp diminution successful its accepted tv and movie business. Last year, the committee of the institution abruptly recalled Mr Iger from status and reinstated him arsenic main executive, arsenic the institution grew alarmed by large losses incurred by its caller streaming business, Disney+. The company's banal terms has dropped by much than fractional since its 2021 peak, and it has remained the people of activistic investors who are impatient for improvement. Losses successful its streaming concern are narrowing, Disney said. The halfway streaming offering, which does not see Hotstar successful India, added astir 7 cardinal subscribers implicit the 3 months ended successful September, arsenic films specified arsenic Guardians of the Galaxy 3, Little Mermaid and Elemental drove radical to the platform. The unexpectedly beardown gains helped to shrink operating losses to $420m (£341m), compared with much than $1.4bn astatine the aforesaid clip past year. Disney has been making different moves to heighten its online offerings, which besides see the sports-focused ESPN+. It besides precocious announced it would determination guardant to get the 3rd it did not already ain of Hulu, which offers wide assemblage material, arsenic opposed to household oregon children-specific viewing. Mr Iger said the company, which precocious raised its prices, would motorboat a proceedings mentation wrong weeks that combines Hulu and Disney+ shows. "Integrating Disney+ on with Hulu and ESPN successful the aboriginal volition enactment the institution successful a beardown presumption to thrust [subscribers], engagement and importantly gross either done subscription oregon advertising," said Paolo Pescatore of analysts PP Foresight. Mr Iger said the amusement elephantine was connected way to slash expenses by $7.5bn - a boost of immoderate $2bn much than his archetypal target. The determination follows much than 8,000 occupation cuts astatine the institution and coincides with a onslaught by Hollywood actors, which has enactment productions connected hold....

From Variety: David Zaslav came to market Friday morning with a fourth-quarter earnings report that delivered enviable free cash flow and put another sizable dent in Warner Bros. Discovery’s heavy debt load. But it wasn’t enough to stop a 10% slide for the company’s already battered share price that took place minutes after the results were unveiled. Investors were clearly surprised by the depth of the year-over-year declines in revenue and earnings at WB Discovery’s studio and linear networks divisions. These are the company’s profitable pillars, the earnings engines keeping the light bills paid while streamer HBO Max and HBO chomp through investment capital as both entities are reinvented for a new era of television. Anyone who has paid attention to #Hollywood in the past year should have anticipated a rough Q4 for the Warner Bros studio. The October-December frame encompassed the tail end of two brutal strikes by actors and writers unions that wiped out seven months of production and development activity. But a 30% decline in adjusted earnings for the studio and a 9% drop in revenue were bigger blows than most WBD watchers expected. This was signaled by the muted tone that Zaslav, WBD’s usually ebullient CEO, adopted in his opening remarks. He asserted that 2024 would be a year of strong “momentum” for the company, but he had no choice but to add a sober addendum. “This business is not without its challenges,” Zaslav said. No doubt he and other corporate leaders were watching the stock price plummet in pre-market trading as he spoke. “We continue to face the impacts of ongoing disruption in the pay #TV ecosystem and a dislocated linear advertising ecosystem. We are challenging our leaders to find innovative solutions.” WBD is in the same leaky #streaming boat as The Walt Disney Company , Comcast and #Paramount Global when it comes to squeezing out a profit from its direct-to-consumer ambitions. The solution for all of them seems to be moving away from the “direct” and “consumer” parts of the equation and back to the B-word: Bundling. WBD, like its rivals new and old, is also banking heavily on international growth to improve the fortunes of Max in the coming years. HBO traditionally had a checkerboard approach to international distribution. By 2026, WBD expects to detach HBO content from Comcast-owned satellite distributor Sky in the U.K., Germany and Italy in order to launch dedicated streaming platforms in both markets. That sounds a lot like an un-bundling effort. JB Perrette, CEO and president of global streaming and gaming for WBD, suggested that the company believes that it is leaving Euros and pounds on the table by not going it alone with Max in large European markets. “Having our own direct-to-consumer product in those markets is a core strategic initiative of ours,” Perrette said. “And we’re already in business aggressively in those markets.”

From Variety: #Comcast and #Disney last week signed a modification to their agreement to bring forward the timing of their sale talks for Comcast’s stake in Hulu to Sept. 30, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said. Currently, Comcast owns one-third of #Hulu and had set a pact with Disney (which owns the other two-thirds) to begin talks to sell its stake to the Mouse House in January 2024. Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology investor conference Wednesday, Roberts said all the synergies around Hulu could be worth $30 billion, before you even ascribe value to Hulu itself. The previous minimum $27.5 billion valuation for Hulu was a “hypothetical” set when The Walt Disney Company “had control of the company,” per Roberts, with the company “way more valuable” today than it was when that number was set five years ago. “We’ve seen analyst reports that a buyer, depending on who they were, if it was to scale them up, they could have a couple billion dollars, or who knows what, of synergy,” Roberts said. “Just that piece of the synergy and the churn benefit could be worth $30 billion. And that’s before you ascribe any value to the actual Hulu. And of course when you go into one of these really robust auctions — and I think if you were selling all of this as-is — there’d be a line of bidders around the block to actually buy all the content, all the bundling of Hulu, that that business we’ve never seen. And so usually buyers in robust auctions pay for it all, and the seller gets all the benefits of the synergy.” Roberts disclosed that Goldman Sachs has been brought into the appraisal process, and that “it will take a little time for this to play out, but both companies wanted to get it behind us so we pulled the date forward.” The Comcast CEO did not give a timeline for the sale from there, but said both companies are “well served” to have “clarity for our investors.” “No one’s ever sold a pure play or auctioned off a pure-play #streaming asset that’s in this kind of position; that’s a scarce, kingmaker asset,” Roberts said. During his session at the conference, Roberts was asked for his thoughts on the Disney-Charter Communications dispute, and the CEO offered that he is “not completely surprised.” “It’s not the first dispute and probably won’t be the last dispute,” Roberts said. “Clearly, we all know the video ecosystem is changing. I think [Comcast] is really well positioned for that change, but change can have disruption and, ultimately, I hope people are looking at, what is the consumer saying? I think the consumer wants simplicity, somebody to help aggregate and have the most bang for their buck. This dispute is putting tension around some of those issues. I hope they work it out. I think that’s in the interest of consumers.”

New Post: Why a Warner Bros.-Paramount Does (and Doesn’t) Makes Sense - The wrinkles in a potential media mergerMedia deal makers aren’t waiting until 2024 to get started on potential big-ticket M.&A.News that David Zaslav, the C.E.O. of Warner Bros. Discovery, expressed interest in combining with Paramount set tongues wagging about a possible union of Hollywood’s top deal candidates. But it’s unclear whether this will be the combination that gets completed, DealBook’s Lauren Hirsch and Michael de la Merced write.A deal could make sense. Their streaming platforms — Max and Paramount+ — are far smaller than Netflix or Disney+, so putting them together might create a more robust competitor. (Of note: Both companies own valuable sports streaming rights, which could help draw subscribers.)And it could give the united business more leverage in negotiations with cable providers on the fees for carrying legacy television networks like Comedy Central and Discovery, especially as those channels suffer from falling ratings and stagnant ad sales.But there are plenty of reasons not to do a deal. Warner Bros. Discovery has $40 billion in debt and $5 billion in free cash flow, while Paramount has negative cash flow and $15 billion in debt. In other words, the combined company would have a crushing debt load and little money to pay that down or spend on content — potentially forcing Zaslav to cut more costs, after previous efforts torched his standing with content creators.The new business would also be heavily reliant on declining TV channels, a situation that investors don’t like. (Paramount, however, may be able to sell BET and VH1 to a buyer such as the media mogul Byron Allen.)Investors aren’t enthusiastic about the potential combination: Warner Bros. Discovery shares fell almost 6 percent on Wednesday after Axios scooped the talks, while Paramount’s stock declined 2 percent.There are other unknowns:Shari Redstone, who runs Paramount’s parent, may be up for a deal, given that she’s exploring selling a controlling stake in her company to Skydance, a studio backed by the investment firm RedBird Capital. But is the media mogul John Malone, who sits on the Warner Bros. Discovery board, also game?The Biden administration’s antitrust enforcers, who just finalized an aggressive overhaul of merger rules, is likely to be skeptical of such a combination.How far can talks go without running afoul of I.R.S. rules that would impose a big tax hit on Warner Bros. Discovery if it does a big deal before April?Some observers think there’s a Kabuki element to these talks. CNBC’s Alex Sherman and The Information’s Martin Peers wonder whether Zaslav’s approach to Paramount, and its quick leak to the media, was a market trial balloon — or a way to draw out Comcast, whose NBCUniversal has long been considered a potential buyer of Warner Bros. Discovery. (NBCUniversal, with its deeper pockets, is financially a more attractive partn

Out today on the Antenna Insights Blog, we take a closer look at the Warner Brothers Discovery (WBD) Max rebrand. One nugget to highlight: of users who canceled Discovery+ and then subscribed to Max, 66% maintained the same plan tier, meaning they switched from ad-free Discovery+ to ad-free Max or vice versa. This is important given the price differential among the services: ad-supported Max is currently $9.99/mo versus $4.99/mo for Discovery+; ad-free Max is $15.99/mo versus $6.99/mo for Discovery+. Check out the full analysis: https://lnkd.in/gV8-YQen #svod #streamingvideo #media #data #subscriptioneconomy #mediaindustry #analytics