Explaining the Business of Entertainment
Entertainment topics simple and complex explored in-depth.
Last summer, when Warner Bros. Discovery started removing TV shows from Max, people weren’t worried. Everyone blamed the famously cost-conscious David Zaslav, since he’d just taken over Warner Bros. Discovery. Folks just assumed that this move was a cynical tax ploy from a famously cost-conscious manager, not a harbinger of
Whenever the subject of “copyright” comes up, one character inevitably comes up: Mickey Mouse! Mickey’s copyright protections are ending! Next year! And the horror stories are limitless. Non-Disney companies will be printing off Mickey Mouse shirts like crazy! There will be new “Mickey Mouse” shorts and films. And unscrupulous creators
(Welcome to the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a newsletter on the entertainment industry and business strategy. I’m a former business-executive-turned-entertainment-journalist and each week, I write a Streaming Ratings Report and a strategy column, along with occasional deep dives into other topics, like today’s article. If you were forwarded this email, please
Last year, four days after I published my not-seminal-but-it-should-be article, “The Algorithm is a Lie”, HBO’s Barry had this scene: The fake executive in the episode literally says, “The algorithm felt it wasn’t hitting the right taste clusters.” as if the “algorithm” is a thing that actually exists. (Or that
Today, I’m revisiting one of my least favorite Hollywood talking points, that the vaunted Netflix “algorithm” makes decisions about what TV shows and movies Netflix (and other streamers) should make. Since last year, I’ve been collecting examples of people complaining about the “algorithm” and I’ve collected a far-from-complete list of
Negotiations have a sort of Kabuki theater aspect to them nowadays. (By the way, I’m not an expert in high-level negotiations like, say, an agent or M&A banker, but I have done a few high-level negotiations, so I’m not a know-nothing novice either.) See, at this point, everyone has been
The coverage of the WGA versus AMPTP” negotiations has left me a bit wanting. My initial takeaway from 95% of the news coverage is that… Nothing happened? Not that nothing happened, per se, after the initial call to go on strike, there wasn’t really anything noteworthy. I mean, strike signs are
Over the last few weeks, the WGA leadership has been fairly consistent in their discussion about the dire state of screenwriting. Like, say, this: “I’ve also spoken to other writers who even though they sold a pilot and staffed on a show, they still filed for EBT that year in
(Just a reminder: every article in this series is being collected in one giant substack post/article here. It’s sort of like a little e-book for all of my subscribers.) PART III – Customer Reviews, Awareness & Interest Metrics Though I always push myself to question my assumptions, conclusions and data—hence
Yesterday’s article may have been a let down for some folks. I promised a big, deep analysis, and it only included four charts! Well, time to get on with it. With a ton of charts. Over twenty! But first, some more throat-clearing, explaining Nielsen’s data and dataset. And then trust me,