Explaining the Business of Entertainment
(Except on rare occasions, we only like to send out two newsletters a week to keep from spamming your inbox. But this is a rare occasion, since the EntStrategyGuy is putting up a paywall on Friday, 17-June-2022. Subscribe here! This article lays out my data philosophy , so we felt that it was important to send out to everyone. I’ve also written a series of articles debunking myths about streaming ratings,
One of the pieces of advice Substack gives you when you start trying to “monetize” is to keep putting out lots of good content for free subscribers. They recommend this because most people’s gut—including my own!—is to do the opposite, hoarding your good stuff behind your paywall like Smaug hoarding gold in the Lonely Mountain. While I won’t put out quite as much free content as Substack recommends, this advice
[Editor’s Note: As you may have read, I’m putting up a paywall on 16-Jun-2022. For the next month, you can expect a few reminders from me about this. I’m trying to balance the thin line between being obnoxious and also making a living writing about entertainment strategy. If you haven’t signed up yet, I strongly recommend getting in now for the special “Founder’s Price” of $120 per year forever. I
We’ve got a lot of interesting/important news stories to get to, but before we get to that, I want to give everyone a head’s up that I have a big, big, big announcement coming from me later this week. So stay tuned. Before the stories, a celebration. EntertainmentStrategyGuy Turns Four! This website (and associated newsletter, social feeds and what not) is officially four years old, having launched on 8-May-2018. As
Well, last week we had pretty big news: the Warner Bros (formerly Warner Media) and Discovery merger officially closed. I had covered this topic in-depth when the deal cleared the final regulatory hurdles in February, if you want my thoughts. But what about the political machinations of last week, like the departure of some key Warner Bros execs? (Jason Kilar and Ann Sarnoff in particular…) That MUST be the story
Normally, I’d tell you that awards shows don’t matter. The Emmys? The Grammys? The Golden Globe? (May they rest in peace…?) When it comes to business strategy, they don’t really matter Frankly, it’s fun to find out who wins or loses awards, but rarely impacts actual business strategy. But if you’re writing a business strategy column, you’d be hard pressed to find any other stories to write about! So for
After what felt like a few slow weeks—or months—without huge news, this week had some pretty big developments. MGM and Amazon is happening! Netflix is testing their strongest response to password sharing yet! Disney got Indian Premiere League rights! With all that news, my “most important story of the week” feature will return next week. But for now, it’s time for some streaming ratings. There was a bit of a
If this week has a theme, it’s Halloween, since the ratings period covered by Nielsen—October 11th to 17th—is smack dab in the middle of October. But honestly you know what is scarier for others streamers? How well Netflix is doing. (If you missed it, my thoughts on Black Widow’s disappointing streaming debut went up at the Ankler on TUESDAY. Check it out!) (Reminder: The streaming ratings report compiles data from
I know what you’re here to read this week: my analysis on Squid Game launching from 3.4 million hours in its first weekend to 31.8 million hours in its second week. Yikes, that’s a jump! Well, I’m going to disappoint. My Squid Game thoughts were so good, I sent them over to the Ankler. (Trust me, there might be my favorite chart I’ve made this year in there.) But that
Folks, last week I promised you a show down of straight-to-streaming films, and by golly, we got it. Given the datecdotes, Nielsen ratings and creative auspices of the films involved, the battle lived up to the hype. (Reminder: The streaming ratings report compiles data from Nielsen’s weekly top ten viewership ranks, Netflix datecdotes, Top Ten lists, Google Trends and IMDb to determine the most popular content. While most data points