Streaming service wars news and trends 4 4

[Bosco685]

 

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Streaming platforms swept the Emmys.

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[Bosco685]

And that's what happens when general audiences rush to all these animation-to-live cash grabs, Star Wars good to not so good legacy plays and MCU Phase IV hit-and-miss shows and movies. Disney hears...

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Less than a month after Nexstar Media closed a deal to take 75% ownership of The CW, the broadcast network has been hit with dozens of layoffs.

 

The exact number of departures is still becoming clear, but one person with knowledge of the situation pegged it at about 30 to 40. While Nexstar is known for local stations, the company also operates NewsNation, which it overhauled and reformatted from its prior incarnation, WGN America, after acquiring Tribune Media in 2019. The lower cost profile of news programming, a distinctly different neighborhood from the scripted fare that was briefly WGNA’s specialty, was the driving motivation of the makeover.

 

In recent weeks, the senior leadership team that guided the CW when it was a 50-50 joint venture of Warner Bros and CBS (or, more recently, Warner Bros Discovery and Paramount Global) had already departed. The exit of Paul Hewitt, longtime head of corporate communications, was announced earlier today. Dennis Miller, a former venture capitalist and media executive, has been installed as the new head of the CW.

 

Even more than in most M&A deals, it is Nexstar’s mission to aggressively slash operating costs in order to make the deal make sense.

 

[Bosco685]

 

[Bosco685]

It will be interesting to see how this impacts Disney+ since Chapek noted the billions Disney has lost of the streaming platform.

 

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Reeling from a roller coaster stock market and earnings misses, the Walt Disney Company is about to start cutting spending, cost, and staff, CEO Bob Chapek said today.

 

“I am fully aware this will be a difficult process for many of you and your teams,” Chapek wrote to Disney employees this Veterans’ Day. “We are going to have to make tough and uncomfortable decisions,” he assed in the memo. “But that is just what leadership requires, and I thank you in advance for stepping up during this important time.”

 

Like its media peers, Disney has felt the pain in 2022, with its stock down more than 40% and inflation, foreign currency fluctuation and the bruising streaming competition applying pressure to its operations. Earlier this week, the company reported quarterly earnings below Wall Street earnings expectations and also issued strikingly soft guidance for fiscal 2023 revenue and profit, further unnerving investors.

 

Pay-TV losses have hurt Disney, though the company has vowed to turn a profit in streaming by the end of fiscal 2024. Its austerity move and hiring freeze follow a series of reorganizations after it acquired most of 21st Century Fox in an industry-changing, $71.3 billion deal in 2019. It has gone to a simplified corporate structure with just two divisions: Parks, Experiences and Products and Media and Entertainment Distribution.

 

Edited November 11, 2022 by Bosco685

[drotto]

On 11/11/2022 at 5:39 PM, Bosco685 said:

It will be interesting to see how this impacts Disney+ since Chapek noted the billions Disney has lost of the streaming platform.

 

 

Just saw this, and put in a separate thread.   This sounds like it could effect every division, parks, streaming, merchandising, movies, etc. Think some movies and shows are about to see budgets cut, or lower starting budgets, and we thought some of the CGI already looks like spoon.

[Bosco685]

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The app itself will share similarities with Disney+’s platform, with Warner Bros. Discovery’s brands as individual tiles, the people said. HBO, Discovery, DC Comics and Warner Bros. will be among the landing hubs on the platform, the people added.

 

A Warner Bros. Discovery spokesperson said a name was still being discussed.

 

[alexgross.com]

for now disneyplus is now working. it asks me to confirm my birthdate and gender but no matter what i put i get a spinning beach ball and error message, on all devices. a brilliant move the day before they jack the prices. i'm thinking maybe i dont need it after all. on hold with a person in another country who knows little and keeps thanking me for my quickly eroding patience. 

[Cat]

On 12/8/2022 at 10:20 AM, alexgross.com said:

for now disneyplus is now working. it asks me to confirm my birthdate and gender but no matter what i put i get a spinning beach ball and error message, on all devices. a brilliant move the day before they jack the prices. i'm thinking maybe i dont need it after all. on hold with a person in another country who knows little and keeps thanking me for my quickly eroding patience. 

Thanks for being patient with me, Alex. Just stay on the line please... 

[Bosco685]

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When HBO Max departed Amazon’s Prime Video Channels platform in September 2021, executives reasoned that the decision, which would lose them 5 million subscribers, was worth it to have direct relationships with all of HBO Max’s users. “It’s important for us to own the customer,” HBO Max then-general manager Andy Forssell told Bloomberg at the time. “If the viewer is in the app, we can tailor the homepage to them. We can tailor what they show them next. We can respond to that in real time.”

 

There is a growing field of aggregators rising to meet this demand, offering multiple third-party streaming platforms through a single integrated interface and billing system. Prime Video Channels, which offers services such as Paramount+, Starz and AMC+ as add-on subscriptions through Amazon’s streaming platform, is just one example.

 

Apple also offers some services as “channels” that can be purchased and viewed within the tech giant’s TV app and billed through Apple. Alphabet’s virtual MVPD YouTube TV and new aggregation service Primetime Channels offer similar options.

 

[paperheart]

Warner Bros Discovery said today it now expects to incur total pre-tax restructuring charges of $4.1 – $5.3 billion, which includes $2.8 – $3.5 billion of content impairment and development write-offs as it takes a hatchet to its programming. That’s well above the merged company’s initial announcement of charges for $3.2 – $4.3 billion related to its restructuring and transformation initiatives, which included content impairment and development write-offs of approximately $2.0 – $2.5 billion

[kimik]

On 12/14/2022 at 2:55 PM, paperheart said:

Warner Bros Discovery said today it now expects to incur total pre-tax restructuring charges of $4.1 – $5.3 billion, which includes $2.8 – $3.5 billion of content impairment and development write-offs as it takes a hatchet to its programming. That’s well above the merged company’s initial announcement of charges for $3.2 – $4.3 billion related to its restructuring and transformation initiatives, which included content impairment and development write-offs of approximately $2.0 – $2.5 billion

How does Zaslav still have the CEO job?

[drotto]

On 12/15/2022 at 1:17 AM, kimik said:

How does Zaslav still have the CEO job?

He is still cleaning up someone else's mess and he is doing exactly what he was hired to do. The investors are willing to absorb short term losses with the hope he rights the ships and they become long term profitable.   This is being seen as a means to that end.

[media_junkie]

On 12/15/2022 at 3:22 PM, drotto said:

He is still cleaning up someone else's mess and he is doing exactly what he was hired to do. The investors are willing to absorb short term losses with the hope he rights the ships and they become long term profitable.   This is being seen as a means to that end.

Hope it works out better for Zaslav then it did Chapek at Disney.

[Bosco685]

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In just a few months’ time, streaming has gone from fountain of youth — a virtual Schwab’s Drug Store where 100-year-old media companies felt like they would be discovered again — to a cash-guzzling headache for both digital natives and newbies alike.

 

Even during the pandemic, streaming remained an all-consuming colossus and something of a fever dream. Over a six-month span from late 2019 through 2020, many billions were spent. Apple got into the game after years dithering dating back to the Steve Jobs era. Disney, WarnerMedia and NBCUniversal also entered the frenzy to catch up with Netflix after spending years contentedly cashing its checks. Discovery+ and the revamped Paramount+ followed a short time later.

 

“Capital intensity has increased significantly,” Morgan Stanley media analyst Ben Swinburne wrote in a recent 2022 recap, “and content asset turnover and returns have fallen.” He expects the net number of subscriber additions in 2023 across all streaming outlets to be roughly half what it was in 2021. “The industry is clearly heading into a new phase,” the analyst added, “one we think will be characterized by 1) cost rationalization, 2) consolidation (of services and/or companies), and 3) outright exits from the DTC business.”

 

With those sobering thoughts in mind, Deadline is taking a look at eight of the major players in subscription streaming, sizing up their 2022 performance and what challenges lie ahead for next year. Here’s our rundown (in alphabetical order):

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• STREAMER: Disney+
• 2022 HIGHLIGHT: Dancing With the Stars‘ move from ABC to Disney+ marked a milestone in streaming, and the service was booming with content from some of the company’s most popular IP, from Star Wars and Marvel to The Santa Clause and National Treasure.
• 2022 LOWLIGHT: Disney’s direct-to-consumer business, which includes Hulu and ESPN+, lost $4 billion this year, despite adding 12.1 million subscribers during the company’s fiscal fourth quarter. 
• KEY CHALLENGE FOR 2023: Getting back on solid footing after Bob Chapek’s departure as CEO and the dismantling of the media distribution unit’s centralized streaming structure.
• BIGGEST QUESTION FOR 2023: With Chapek out, will Bob Iger remain committed to Disney+ reaching profitability by fiscal 2024 — and at what cost?

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• STREAMER: HBO Max
• 2022 HIGHLIGHT: The Emmys, which saw HBO and HBO Max win a combined 38 trophies, doubling their 2021 tally.
• 2022 LOWLIGHT: Cancellations by the new Warner Bros Discovery regime, including in-the-can titles like Batgirl and Minx, which have drawn backlash internally and in the creative community.
• KEY CHALLENGE FOR 2023: The merger of HBO Max with Discovery+, with a delicate rebranding effort, which will likely remove the platinum HBO name.
• BIGGEST QUESTION FOR 2023: Can the revamp of DC — perhaps the ultimate remodeling effort embedded within the WBD empire — produce a Marvel-like growth engine for HBO Max (or whatever its successor will be called)?

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• STREAMER: Netflix
• 2022 HIGHLIGHTS: Massive viewership for series like Wednesday and Dahmer and event films like The Grey Man and Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.
• 2022 LOWLIGHT: The jarring early months of the year, with 70% of market value instantly erased by subscriber losses and the haphazard announcement of a decision to reverse course and accept advertising.
• KEY CHALLENGES FOR 2023: Gaining traction with the slow-starting $7-a-month ad-supported subscription tier; getting customers to pay extra to share their passwords; breaking through in video games.
• BIGGEST QUESTIONS FOR 2023: Will rivals narrow the gap? And will the company go against its stated aversion to theatrical exhibition and live sports, just as it reversed itself on advertising?

2023 shifts in streaming considerations hopefully leads to some necessary consolidation.

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