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Still thinking the business is just going to snap right back in a few months? Back to 1997, maybe?
It’s hard even to add up the toll brought upon the industry with the sweeping waves of change in the past few years: The Streaming Wars, Consolidation, Falling Box Office, Rising Tech Companies, Me Too, Oscars So White, the COVID shut down . . . . That’s just off the top of my head.
Some of these changes are immensely for the better and long overdue. Some of them, well, we’ll have to see how they play out. But there’s no question now that things will be different. As great as the upheaval has been, the bill for much of it is still outstanding.
Starting this week, with the latest studio to submerge under the waves of our changing times. What’s it all mean? In the big picture, it’s hard to imagine that the architects of these changes even understand themselves what they have wrought. But for our part, let’s pick away piece by piece and see what it adds up to.
On the menu today: The Goodbye MGM Blue Plate Special!
• Circa 1990 to about 2017, coverage of the tech industry was by and large a magnificent brew of fan worship and utopian fantasia that made trade reporting on Hollywood look sober and measured in comparison. Then the tide turned and we’ve seen a steady stream of stories about the various horrific side effects of the tech utopia—from the destruction of democracy to the ruination of dating and romance.
Just last week we saw another amazing account of the Amazon effect, as The Information reported on the spate of traffic deaths directly linked to the company’s relentless delivery needs.
Since the worm has turned, former wunderkinds Bezos, Zuckerberg, et al, have been recast as callous, even creepy, villains, undermining all they touch from within.
But the minute a deal like this is announced, all that goes out the window, and the media’s inner fanboy surges forth again. Oooohh, look how big it is! Amazon’s going to have so much!
Slight murmurs here and there pop up about: Well, they might have some antitrust speed bumps, if some senator is feeling grumpy. But as with the Warner-Discovery deal, the press sees its major role as to stand in awe of such wonders to behold, a deal the likes of which our forebears never dreamed!
Completely unexpressed is the question of why a $1.6 trillion company—one whose effects on our world are still being sorted out—needs to be any bigger. At this point, should we just let Amazon buy every company? Or if we’re feeling magnanimous, maybe we let Amazon and Apple just split all the companies between them?
The reports have focused narrowly on why Amazon wants to be bigger, which is interesting, to be sure, and I’ve got a few thoughts on that, too. But let’s not forget here, being that we’re still a titular democracy, when it comes to monopoly powers, there are other questions beyond how bad does this goliath really want this new thing?
Why at this point, as this piece asks, should Amazon be allowed to buy anything is a question bigger even than entertainment or the fate of Kevin Ulrich’s portfolio.
• As for the meaning of this, it’s like buy a ticket and try your luck guessing the weight of this deal. The massive 4,000 film library! Oceans of untapped IP! Bond! Robocop! Give people something to watch on Prime! Get people watching something on Prime so they’ll buy a subscription to Showtime from Amazon! Or they’ll pick up a glow-in-the-dark backyard trampoline! A vote of no confidence in Jen Salke! A vote of confidence in Jen Salke! Leave Apple in the dust! More expertise! More production facilities! They have $70 billion in cash, so why not!
All true! And equally not true.
Thing is, we’ve been trying to figure out what the meaning of Amazon’s strategy is for years now. Most of the answers are about as convincing as throwing darts at a board of business rationales and reading the random answer.
What could inspire a company to overpay by tens of millions for quirky indie comedies AND devote their resources to making the most expensive TV series in history, an adaptation of JRR Tolkien novels that were just massively adapted a few years ago?
To make moves that big, from the company that invented shopping (or so you’d be forgiven for thinking), there surely must be a brilliant, secret strategy at work! A master plan about to reveal itself!
This has been a sneak peek preview of today’s edition of The Ankler, the industry’s secret newsletter. To read the rest of this special issue on the Amazon/MGM deal, subscribe today for just $10 a month and don’t miss out on who’s in the hot seat next!
The Ankler’s Got People Talking!!
On Warner/Discovery in the LA Times!
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