ICYMI: What's Replacing Cost-Plus Deals; Where to Work After Cable; WBD Woes
ICYMI: What's Replacing Cost-Plus Deals; Where to Work After Cable; WBD Woes
Catch up on our recent best
We’re on the other side of this quarter’s earnings season for Hollywood after this week’s reports from Fox, Disney, WBD (whoo boy, that one!) and Paramount. I know folks lament the town’s relatively newfound obsession with company earnings calls; given our own obsession, Sean McNulty and I joke that we’re the “earnings call cool guys” (inspired by a Richard Rushfield comment), but this week is proof positive that we all need to be.
Paramount announced a 15 percent layoff on its call with Wall Street analysts about five minutes in. Both Paramount and WBD revealed startling write downs in the value of their cable assets totaling more than $15 billion. It’s agonizing to think about the thousands of people doing great work in difficult circumstances who’ll lose their jobs or have their jobs get harder in the wake of these moves. When Sean puts together his brilliant breakdowns of these company reports in The Wakeup, he’s also arming you with insights and questions that you can and should be asking of your boss and yourself. In sum, what’s the plan here?
Our original reporting this week rounded out this picture. Elaine Low explored what it’s like right now to work at a “zombie” cable network and where to look for a job now. And don’t miss Claire Atkinson’s incisive look at the often “dead wrong” Wall Street analysts who cover media and entertainment stocks and how their calls can steer CEOs into dead ends.
On a lighter note, thanks to all who came to our first-ever Prestige Junkie Live podcast event in L.A. There was overwhelming demand to see our awards editor, Katey Rich, interview Fargo creator and showrunner Noah Hawley and season five stars Juno Temple and Lamorne Morris, and I can’t wait for everyone to hear the conversation next week. Subscribe to the Prestige Junkie podcast (if you haven’t already) and the special episode will appear in your feed.
As you can tell, we had a big week here, but in case you missed anything, let’s go!
Deep Dive: How TV Deals are Changing. Again
There’s a running joke that every few years Silicon Valley reinvents the bus (i.e. something that already exists and works). In Dealmakers (paid subscribers only), Ashley Cullins reports how that’s exactly what Netflix, Amazon and Apple are doing after years of cost-plus deals, with details on how each is rethinking their standard deals, which one is still demanding worldwide rights — and the type of project Netflix will bend its usual rules for:
The Analysts CEOs Listen To. Even When They’re Wrong
Rich Greenfield and Jessica Reif Ehrlich recently beefed over their opposing views on WBD’s future. Now Claire Atkinson interviews both (plus Craig Moffett, Michael Pachter, Ben Mogil and Brian Wieser) about Hollywood’s sometimes self-destructive dependence on analysts, a look at analysts’ good calls and bad calls and a business almost as imperiled as the one it covers:
What to Do if You Work in Cable TV
In the wake of arguably the most disastrous week in cable history, Elaine Low’s Series Business newsletter (for paid subscribers only) checks in on how it feels inside the “zombie networks” as employees hold on for dear life. Also: advice on where to start looking for jobs now in a post-cable future:
Deadpool & Wolverine and the New Gen Z Marketing
Why did Deadpool & Wolverine director Shawn Levy and Ryan Reynolds share illegal clips from their own movie on social media? What does Gen Z have to do with it? Everything. Matthew Frank explores piracy as viral marketing and its long-term implications in this Ankler Feature:
A (Creepy?) Free TV for Your Thoughts
With everyone worried about a recession, a free TV sounds pretty good, right? The catch: always-on ads and cameras and sensors that track you (they’ll even count how many people are in the living room with you) and your viewing habits. Peter Kiefer sits down with Pluto TV cofounder Ilya Pozin to talk about his new startup Telly that offers this devil’s bargain:
Kamala and the Hollywood Conundrum
Democratic politicians love Hollywood money. But voters don’t necessarily love what Hollywood stands for. Mike Murphy, the veteran political consultant, talks to Richard Rushfield how, more than ever, the industry’s political advocates need “adult supervision,” adding that “celebrity can be a weapon, but only when it’s wielded by pros, not narcissists”:
Todd on the Town
Parties and premieres don’t take summer vacation, and neither does our roving photog, Todd Williamson:
PRESTIGE JUNKIE
When Katey wasn’t presiding over our stellar Fargo event, she was talking to comedian Nikki Glaser about her post-Tom Brady roast glow up, director India Richardson about her new film, the aptly titled Good One — and getting a jump on Oscar season by doing the reading:
THE WAKEUP
During a hectic, anxiety-inducing earnings week, there is nobody more indispensable than Sean McNulty, who finds the telling details you need to understand what’s really happening at Disney, Fox, Paramount and WBD:
🎧 PODCASTS
THE ANKLER
WBD Financial Panic: No Way Out A new earnings report reveals David Zaslav’s mounting woes — and need for a plan:
👓 THE OPTIONIST
FINAL HOUSEKEEPING!
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