☀️ NETFLIX Ends Subs Reporting — Why & What it Means for Streaming
Big questions on SONY entry to PAR fray / Top Hollywood Exec Salary Reveal Day / 'Fleischman' creator sells new show to APPLE
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty (connect here on LINKED-IN if ya like) and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on FRIDAY, April 19, 2024.
Where first, NETFLIX essentially doubled the amount of subscriber adds that Wall Street analysts were expecting in Q1 . . . then Taylor announces her new album is actually a double album. 31 songs / 2 hours of music to start your morning (link here) . . . with exclusive TIKTOK features, ahem 👀.
I kinda feel inadequate just sending you one newsletter this morning, but uh, it does have more gifs than usual! 🥴💪
AND: If Zaz owes ya money, he’s good for it (I told him taking the WARRIORS to win the NBA Finals was a bad call, but 🤷♂️). Yes, it’s payday! And at $49.7 Million for David Zaslav in 2023 . . . it’s almost as much as Richard makes 🤫. That’s up about $10 Million from 2023, and includes:
Salary: $3M
Cash bonus: $22M
Stock options: $23M
Other top execs total packages:
JB Perrette: $20.1M (up from $14M)
Bruce Campbell: $18.3M (up from $13.7M)
Gunnar Wiedenfels: $17M (up from $13.5M)
Gerhard Zeiler: $13.3M (up from $10.2M)
Great job on the 2023 free cash flow everyone! Enjoy those WBD stock options.
PLUS: Here are the TV events for Tribeca this June, including premieres for APPLE TV+’s Presumed Innocent series with Jake Gyllenhaal and an ESPN doc project on Serena Williams.
THEN: The DGA Awards will be on Feb. 8 next year. The Independent Spirit Awards will be on Feb. 22.
OK: Not Hollywood news per se . . . but it kinda is — this WSJ read on how many people are getting their Ozempic advice — and the drug itself — via social media is pretty fascinating (often not mentioned online is how many people who initially touted the drug, stop taking it due to the “random vomiting” side effect).
This piece just sounds like an SNL sketch in the making — as The Ankler’s David Lidsky responded when I sent it to him this morning: "Ask your influencer if Ozempic is right for you" 🤌.
NOTHING TO SEE HERE 👀: China has ordered APPLE to remove popular (and encrypted) messaging apps like WHATSAPP, SIGNAL and TELEGRAM from the APPLE App Store in the country. APPLE’s statement was “We are obligated to follow the laws in the countries where we operate, even when we disagree.”
About 18% of APPLE’s Q4 ‘23 revenue came from China.
WAKEUP BOX-OFFICE POLL RESULTS
Looks like we’re mostly thinking Abigail should land as planned . . .
IN THIS EDITION
NETFLIX is going behind the curtain with two of its biggest reporting metrics starting in 2025 — subscribers and ARPU. Why? Remember that in Hollywood — if someone has news they want you to know about . . . they don’t hide it. If they’re hiding it, well, #nuffsaid. Take a look at what the Q1 global numbers tell us that likely led to this decision.
Plus — how’s that ad tier going? Well, no one likes to hear “under monetizing” associated with one’s product. More below on that and everything else NETFLIX to know in Q1.
Oh and its top exec payday reveal day for NETFLIX too.
Yes, the PARAMOUNT sweepstakes have a new entrant in SONY. And yes, this doesn’t seem to make much sense either . . . but hey, sure, why not — take a look at a consideration, for your consideration.
NEW ANKLER PODCAST EPISODE!
NETFLIX uh, Makes More Money!
I’m really gonna need to start diving into my creativity tool bag on these NETFLIX earnings report section titles, aren’t I?
While the stock is down about -6% this morning, that’s mainly because Wall Street probably wasn’t too happy about losing data come 2025, plus NETFLIX’s Q2 projections were a little below expectations — although any other streamer would probably give away remake rights to their favorite ‘90s sitcom to make $2B of profit in a quarter.
But it’s hard to find any fault with the Q1 numbers . . . other than as of next year — it’s no longer going to be telling us a lot of them!
NETFLIX is taking 🤐 stance on subscriber data come 2025
Yes, NETFLIX subscriber count updates are going away come Q1 2025 (a year from now), outside of random, self-chosen milestone notifications (hey, we crossed 300M global! etc). But that’s not all . . . by any means.