Business Features
Netflix Is the King of Streaming. Is It a Benevolent Dictator?
In Netflix’s global smash hit Squid Game, the penultimate challenge sees the last few surviving competitors make their way across a glass bridge. One wrong move, and the player falls to their demise. But as the players progressed, they hit upon a revelation: Yes, there will only be one winner of the final game, but […]
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Behind Netflix Film Chief’s Exit — And What It Means for Streaming Movies
The end of Scott Stuber’s seven-year tenure as head of film at Netflix did not come as a shock. But it had seemed to be coming for so long that one producer who’s done business with the streamer says when he heard that it had finally happened, he didn’t know whether to believe it. “I […]
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In Sports Media, Athletes Now Run the Show — and Bring Upheaval
By 2018, Will Compton, a 28-year-old backup linebacker on a one-year contract with the Tennessee Titans, knew his playing days were numbered. Contemplating a career after football, he considered going into real estate or coaching but couldn’t muster much enthusiasm for either. Driving home after a game one evening, he called Taylor Lewan, an offensive […]
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L.A. Times’ Billionaire Owner (and His Family) Ignite a Tug-of-War Over Paper’s Future
According to his resignation announcement, Kevin Merida’s abrupt Jan. 9 exit as executive editor of the Los Angeles Times came about through a “mutual agreement” with the paper’s owner, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, a biotech magnate turned publishing dilettante. This may well be true. From everything that can be gleaned about Merida’s less-than-three-year bumpy tenure as Soon-Shiong’s […]
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Amazon Is About to Eat the TV Universe
Mark your calendar: On Jan. 29, Amazon will unleash what one top advertising executive calls a “tornado” that will “upend” the streaming video landscape. The company will flip a switch and turn on ads for all of its Prime Video viewers. Users will have the option to pay $3 a month to remove the ads, but […]
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The Vultures Are Circling: Who Will Walk Away With Paramount?
The most consequential entertainment business story of 2024 was kickstarted by two pro operators having a pre-Christmas meal. The Dec. 19 lunch between Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav and Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish, held at Paramount’s New York office, instantly ignited a firestorm of “what ifs,” as the future of the storied studio […]
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Bob Iger Prepares for Ike’s Pirate Ship to Fire at Disney
“You broke my heart.” That’s what former Marvel Entertainment chairman and CEO Ike Perlmutter said to Bob Iger, according to The Wall Street Journal, when Iger made it clear in 2015 that he was not going to name veteran Disney executive and Perlmutter favorite Jay Rasulo as his eventual successor. (He anointed Tom Staggs instead, […]
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Fears, Hopes and Megadeals: Hollywood’s New Year’s Burning Questions
It’s fair to say that many in Hollywood are wishing good riddance to 2023. Between the brutal Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes, a crumbling TV advertising market, and looming uncertainty over the economy and generative artificial intelligence, it was a year to forget for the business. While the strikes are over and everyone […]
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Streaming Giants Weigh Costs of Big Licensed TV and Movie Libraries
As the streaming industry has come down from its blank-check era, it has rediscovered a time-honored way to keep revenue flowing: licensing TV series and movies to other outlets. Acquired shows are among the most watched programming on streaming — it’s the year of Suits, after all — and shows with high episode counts help […]
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See You in 2025? Box Office May Take $2B Hit Next Year Amid Delays
Don’t be surprised if top Hollywood studio executives and theater owners aren’t feeling the Christmas spirit this year. They’re bracing for a tumultuous 2024 ride at the domestic box office after a slew of high-profile tentpoles were pushed to 2025 because of the lengthy writers and actors strikes. In a major blow to the post-pandemic […]
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“For Sale” Sign on Paramount Will Shape Shari Redstone’s Legacy
The entertainment company that everyone in Hollywood is talking about is based in a nondescript three-story office building in the Boston suburb of Norwood, Massachusetts. Nestled between an indoor ice-skating rink and a Home Depot distribution center is the headquarters of National Amusements, Inc., a movie theater operator with 22 cinemas in the U.S., almost […]
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Sports Rights Arms Race Reshapes the Streaming Wars
To understand the connection between sports and streaming video, consider this: Amazon’s $1 billion per year deal to stream Thursday Night Football is literally changing U.S. internet habits. Comcast president Mike Cavanagh, speaking Dec. 4 at a UBS conference, said Amazon’s TNF game “comprises roughly 25 percent of all internet traffic on Thursday nights” and that it single-handedly […]
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