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The Best/Most Popular Series I’ve Written
entstratguy
17 May 2023
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The 19 Best Articles I’ve Written
entstratguy
01 Jan 2021
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Nerd Corner – Explaining Entertainment Using Your Favorite Franchises
entstratguy
01 Jan 2021
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The “Business” of Entertainment…Explained
entstratguy
01 Jan 2021
Deep Dives
Introducing An Intelligence Preparation of the “Streaming Wars” Battlefield
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04 Nov 2019

Latest Stories...

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 Future of TV or Just Another Netflix Hit?

December 19, 2024 12:11am

(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.) I have about a dozen different competing ideas to introduce this article, but I’ll just go with this

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This Wasn’t the Podcast Election

December 13, 2024 11:03pm

(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, I’ve got a grab bag of data stories, featuring some items that got cut for space in my Streaming Ratings and “Most Important Story of the Week” columns over

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We Have a New Contender for Streaming Bomb of the Year…

December 10, 2024 10:33pm

(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.) Are we still in a streaming bubble? Or are we watching the last over-budgeted TV shows finally pop? I ask because Variety’s Andrew Wallenstein reported that Riot’s animated TV show,

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Netflix Dominates the Charts While Disney+ Has the Comeback Series of the Year

December 9, 2024 11:47pm

(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.) Wow. There’s a lot to get to this week, since it’s a double issue due to the Thanksgiving

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The Groundbreaking Diversity Report…That No One Is Talking About

December 4, 2024 11:16pm

(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.) Does it count as an “exclusive” if you’re just the first person to write about something?  Because my team (basically, my editor/researcher) uncovered a groundbreaking diversity report/academic paper that literally no

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Prime Video’s Straight-To-Streaming Films Were Bigger Bombs Than Red One

November 27, 2024 11:49pm

(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.) Luckily, it was a somewhat light week heading into the American Thanksgiving vacation. But as I wrote last

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Comcast Spins Off Its Cable Networks

November 25, 2024 4:47pm

(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.) Well…the pace of news has definitely picked back up. Everyone took a week off for the election, then it took a week

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Disney Needs to Create Some New Princesses

November 21, 2024 11:39pm

(Welcome to the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a newsletter on the entertainment industry and business strategy. I write a weekly Streaming Ratings Report and a regular 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!) A few years back, I listened to an NPR Planet Money

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How Did Streaming, er, TV’s Most Expensive Show on TV Fare in Season Two?

November 19, 2024 8:53pm

(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.) The streaming wars just can’t decide:  Have we hit peak TV or not? Some weeks, it looks like

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The Horror Misses Continue on Streaming and a Major Sports Docu-Series Flops

November 12, 2024 10:34pm

(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 stressed in my very last article, politics is not my bailiwick, unless it directly impacts the

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How the Streamers Can Survive The FTC’s New “Click to Cancel” Rule

November 5, 2024 7:15pm

(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.) Judging by my inbox, there’s an election today? And that will likely be a big news story, so let’s remind everyone of

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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

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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