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The Entertainment Strategy Guy March 25, 2025 9:31pm

The Surprise Hit Film of 2024

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Latest Stories...

A Meh Week in Streaming

March 12, 2025 5:48pm

(Welcome to my weekly streaming ratings report, the single best guide to what’s popular in streaming TV and what isn’t. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. If you were forwarded this email, please subscribe to get these insights each week.) Before we begin today’s Streaming Ratings Report, I want to note the passing of Kevin Drum, one of

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Hulu’s Ticket to Paradise…and a Bunch of Theatrical Films Underperformed on Streaming

March 7, 2025 10:09pm

(Welcome to my weekly streaming ratings report, the single best guide to what’s popular in streaming TV and what isn’t. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. If you were forwarded this email, please subscribe to get these insights each week.) At the end of December, Freevee (Prime Video’s AVOD/free streaming service, formerly the very awkwardly named IMDb TV)

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The Spy Show Who Streaming Ratings Me

March 6, 2025 2:12am

(Welcome to my weekly streaming ratings report, the single best guide to what’s popular in streaming TV and what isn’t. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. If you were forwarded this email, please subscribe to get these insights each week.) Since this report comes out well after these shows come out—due to Nielsen’s four-week ratings delay—I’m definitely not

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The Saga of Venu…And What It Says About the Future of Sports Right

March 1, 2025 12:07am

(Welcome to the “Most Important Story of the Week”, my bi-weekly strategy column analyzing the most important (but often not buzziest) news story of the last two weeks. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. Please subscribe.) I treat the subject of “entertainment” pretty broadly in this newsletter/website. For some folks, “entertainment” seems to boil down to just Hollywood

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Streaming Football Got Much, Much, Much Bigger in 2024…

February 26, 2025 10:38pm

(Welcome to the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a newsletter on the entertainment industry and business strategy. I write a weekly Streaming Ratings Report and a bi-weekly strategy column, along with occasional mini-dives into other topics, like today’s article. Please subscribe.) Every week I have to figure out the best way to use numbers to tell the viewership story of a given show, film, sport or special. If one rule guides my

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Apple TV+ Achieves a New Streaming Milestone

February 21, 2025 8:32pm

(Welcome to my weekly streaming ratings report, the single best guide to what’s popular in streaming TV and what isn’t. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. If you were forwarded this email, please subscribe to get these insights each week.) It just makes my day whenever I get quoted in another outlet, so indulge me in some self-congratulation

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Now That We Have Seven Weeks of Data We Can Say: WWE Raw is Still WWE Raw

February 18, 2025 10:31pm

(Welcome to my weekly streaming ratings report, the single best guide to what’s popular in streaming TV and what isn’t. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. If you were forwarded this email, please subscribe to get these insights each week.) As I mentioned last week, I wanted to wait until we got more data on WWE Raw moving

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Do the Traditional Media Companies Even Know What They’re Doing?

February 14, 2025 9:43pm

(Welcome to the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a newsletter on the entertainment industry and business strategy. I write a weekly Streaming Ratings Report and a bi-weekly strategy column, along with occasional deep dives into other topics, like today’s article. Please subscribe.) There’s a narrative out there that old Hollywood/the traditional entertainment companies are “losing” to tech companies because they’re too “stupid/stodgy/old fashioned/out of touch…” and so on. Obviously, that’s a crass

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Is Super Hero Fatigue Real?

February 12, 2025 10:38pm

(Welcome to the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a newsletter on the entertainment industry and business strategy. I write a weekly Streaming Ratings Report and a bi-weekly strategy column, along with occasional deep dives into other topics, like today’s article. Please subscribe.)  Today’s article is free for all to read. If you’d like to cross-post it to your newsletter, feel free!) Is “superhero fatigue” real? No one is a bigger superhero fan

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Procedurals Finally Make Their Way to Streaming…

February 10, 2025 10:03pm

(Welcome to my weekly streaming ratings report, the single best guide to what’s popular in streaming TV and what isn’t. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. If you were forwarded this email, please subscribe to get these insights each week.) To start the new year, the streamers didn’t put out very many new movies or TV shows. It

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Romantasy, a Genre That Lives Up to the Hype?

February 5, 2025 5:01pm

Today’s newsletter is a bit of a change of pace, a guest article from Kris Longfield of Fanthropology on the romantasy genre, a genre I’ve had my eye on for a while. Full disclosure: I’ve done some consulting work with Kris. As she says at the end, she’s running a seminar on Romantasy later this morning, 11:00 AM PST on 5-Feb, with replays available after. Check it out! You may

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Thoughts on the Wildfires, Local News, TikTok, Oscar Nominations, and a Whole Lot More

February 3, 2025 10:42pm

(Welcome to the “Most Important Story of the Week”, my bi-weekly strategy column analyzing the most important (but often not buzziest) news story of the last two weeks. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. Please subscribe.)  In the past few weeks, I’ve read some pretty dour, pessimistic (mostly online) takes on the future of Los Angeles after the

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Squid Game is HUGE! So Is the NFL!!!

January 30, 2025 11:44pm

(Welcome to my weekly streaming ratings report, the single best guide to what’s popular in streaming TV and what isn’t. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. If you were forwarded this email, please subscribe to get these insights each week.) As I wrote in my recap of Beast Games earlier this week, we’ve got one last Streaming Ratings

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Beast Games Is…Mid

January 28, 2025 7:41pm

(Welcome to my weekly streaming ratings report, the single best guide to what’s popular in streaming TV and what isn’t. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. If you were forwarded this email, please subscribe to get these insights each week.) Here’s the craziest thing about Beast Games, the new reality competition show from YouTuber Mr. Beast that premiered

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Carry-On versus Red One versus It Ends With Us

January 22, 2025 10:51pm

(Welcome to my weekly streaming ratings report, the single best guide to what’s popular in streaming TV and what isn’t. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. If you were forwarded this email, please subscribe to get these insights each week.) Before we get to this week’s absolutely jam-packed Streaming Ratings Report, I wanted to share some recent EntStrategyGuy

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LeBron (Probably) Isn’t a Billionaire Anymore

January 17, 2025 10:49pm

(Welcome to the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a newsletter on the entertainment industry and business strategy. I write a weekly Streaming Ratings Report and a bi-weekly strategy column, along with occasional deep dives into other topics, like today’s article. Please subscribe.) Just because you’re good at one thing, doesn’t mean you’re good at everything. Take, for example, LeBron James. He’s one of the top three basketball players of all time, but

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Did Santa Bring Christmas Gifts or Coal to These Straight-to-Streaming Holiday Films?

January 15, 2025 9:40pm

(Welcome to my weekly streaming ratings report, the single best guide to what’s popular in streaming TV and what isn’t. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. If you were forwarded this email, please subscribe to get these insights each week.) Like last issue, I’m going to dive right into this week’s Streaming Ratings Report without any wry asides.

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Binge vs. Batch vs. Weekly vs. Batch-to-Weekly vs. Triple Batch…So Many Ways to Release a TV Show

January 10, 2025 8:58pm

(Welcome to my weekly streaming ratings report, the single best guide to what’s popular in streaming TV and what isn’t. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. If you were forwarded this email, please subscribe to get these insights each week.) Usually, I try to open the Streaming Ratings Report with a light-hearted or wry observation/tangent, but this week,

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My 2025 Plea to the Academy Voters: Nominate More Popular Films For Best Picture

January 7, 2025 9:05pm

(Welcome to the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a newsletter on the entertainment industry and business strategy. I write a weekly Streaming Ratings Report and a bi-weekly strategy column, along with occasional deep dives into other topics, like today’s article. Please subscribe.) I don’t personally dabble in cultural criticism.  Sure, everyone has an opinion (and I do too!) but you come here for strategic advice or data analysis, not movie reviews. Occasionally,

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The 26 Biggest Myths in the Entertainment Industry…Debunked

January 4, 2025 12:03am

(Welcome to the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a newsletter on the entertainment industry and business strategy. I write a weekly Streaming Ratings Report and a bi-weekly strategy column, along with occasional deep dives into other topics, like today’s article. Please subscribe.) Like I did last year, I want to close out this year by sharing a few of the “biggest myths” I debunked in 2024. That will mean re-running last year’s

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The Entertainment Strategy Guy
The Entertainment Strategy Guy

@SriduttN I think you're two cents are right on here. My gut is their raise is similar to NFL, or maybe NHL. But not that much higher. Read More

Jul 28 2021
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The Entertainment Strategy Guy
The Entertainment Strategy Guy

@MasaSonCap Not at all, and even with the extra inventory, they aren't the NFL. But good to take control of the narrative! Read More

Jul 28 2021
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The Entertainment Strategy Guy
The Entertainment Strategy Guy

Yes, this headline is about the NBA. And Live Sports. Does it have implications for the streaming wars? You bet. Essentially, right as Live Sports are propping up linear bundles, the new OTT sports services need to buy sports rights. So it's boom town. Read More

Jul 28 2021
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The Entertainment Strategy Guy

🚨🚨🚨Folks, he's going threading! 🚨🚨🚨 Must read... Read More

Jul 28 2021
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The Entertainment Strategy Guy

RT @Denisgreen10: The NBA Final’s Ratings Were Down. Does It Even Matter? by @EntStrategyGuy #NBA #Finals Read More

Jul 28 2021
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The Entertainment Strategy Guy

RT @TimCushing: My employer, @techdirt, brings you great takes on Section 239, the First Amendment, and all sorts of govt malfeasance. And… Read More

Jul 28 2021
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