Our weekly highlight of the news, focused not on the buzzy stories, but on the most important story for entertainment industry professionals.
Category: Most Important Story of the Week
Apple Enters the Podcast Wars and HBO Max Enters the Advertising Wars – Most Important Story of the Week: 4-May-2021
With all the earnings news last week–including reports from Amazon, Google, Apple, Comcast, Discovery and more–you’d think we’d have gotten really juicy news. But I didn’t see it. Lots of “interesting” stuff, but nothing truly groundbreaking. However, two separate product announcements drew my attention. And I’ll be honest, I think both plans have big flaws. ...
What Amazon’s Half a Billion in Lord of The Rings Costs Mean for the Streaming Wars – Most Important Story of the Week – 23 April 21
I may be cheating a pinch this week. I’m not sure this is the most important story, but it’s the one I think needs the most explaining. In a lot of ways, Amazon paying nearly half a billion dollars (to start) to make the most expensive TV series in history says more about the “streaming ...
Is Netflix Finally Feeling the Covid-Induced Production Slowdown? And What Does It Mean for the Streaming Wars? – Most Important Story of the Week: 16 April 21
As the self-appointed judge of what is “most important” in entertainment each week, I often remind myself that “story” doesn’t mean “event”. That’s why I’m so excited about this week’s story. If a trend is happening slowly, sometimes it flies under the radar, and we miss it entirely. Which doesn’t mean the trends aren’t important, ...
Who Won The Big Sony-Netflix Film Deal? – Most Important Story of the Week: 9 Apr 21
The theme of the week is “context”. For the second week, Netflix is spending hundreds of millions of dollars for film rights. To put that in context requires entsplaining everything from “content arms dealers” to “portfolio theory” to “pay-1 theatrical films”. (And if you don’t know what those terms are, I’ll explain that too.) So ...
A Skinny Bundle Murder Mystery (And Knives Out Thoughts) – Most Important Story of the Week – 2-April-2021
Much like Benoit Blanc, the title character of a film series I’m about to write about, every week I find myself hunting for clues. Tidbits. Hints. Insights to answer one, yearning question: What was the most important story this week? This week required a bit more searching than usual. (I don’t interview suspects, I read ...
Is This Black Widow’s Last Move? Explaining the Latest Covid-Theater Disruption – Most Important Story of the Week – 26 March 21
The big story of last week is fairly obvious: Disney moved Black Widow to July, along with changing the distribution strategies for Luca (now straight-to-streaming) and Black Widow (now going to theaters and premium VOD). (Sign up for my newsletter to get all my writings and my favorite entertainment business picks from the last 2 ...
The Odds and Ends of the NFL Media Rights Deals – Most Important Story of the Week – 19 Mar 21
Last week the NFL media rights story went from “potential” to “actual” news. (The latter happens, the former is rumors.) Not to toot my own horn, but I wrote last week that the Disney-NHL deal would set the template for the NFL deal (and all future rights deals). And I was right. That’s our story ...
ESPN Grabs NHL Rights, Setting the Sports Media Rights Template – Most Important Story of the Week – 12 Mar 21
(Sign up for my newsletter to get all my writings and my favorite entertainment business picks from the last 2 weeks or so. Next issue goes out early next week.) I love when a weekly column like this ends up having a “theme”. This week, that’s the difference between “actual” and “potential” news stories. The ...
Cresting the Covid Hill – As Many Films are Moving Earlier in the Year for the First Time in This Pandemic – The Most Important Story of the Week – 5 Mar 21
When the biggest story of the week is essentially the same story as the previous week–Paramount+ launched to customers this week after they announced specifics at the previous week’s investor’s day–then you know it is a quiet week for news. Despite this, dare I say this week had some stories that could be described as ...
Is Paramount Plus “Focused” on Winning? – The Most Important Story of the Week: 26-Feb-21
Sometimes, I can only fight it so much. As much as I want to pivot and pick a unique story from every other analyst, sometimes I just can’t. The top story is what it is. Yes, every columnist wrote about Paramount Plus investor presentation this week. But it really was the story of the week. ...