☀️ Q1 Streaming TV Output: How Bad Was It?
NETFLIX signs up Claire Danes / Alamo Drafthouse for sale / Kassan brings new lawsuit
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty (connect here on LINKED-IN if ya like) and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on FRIDAY, Mar 29, 2024.
Where, sure, $11 Billion for the PARAMOUNT studio is great . . . but the real action these days, as we all know, is in the building material supply business 🤑 — as HOME DEPOT just closed an $18 Billion deal for SRS DISTRIBUTION, according to Axios.
SRS’s majority owner was a private-equity firm (I know, right? 🤯) called LEONARD GREEN, which paid $3 Billion for its ownership stake in 2018 from good ol’ BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY, which still had a minority stake, and likely also profited nicely here.
So, a $3 Billion investment in 2018 . . . turned into the large majority of an $18 Billion payout . . . just six years later, and I’m gonna guess BERKSHIRE is also gonna tout their SRS investment profit a bit more than its initial Q1 2022 PARAMOUNT investment.
PARAMOUNT was trading at about $50 a share in spring 2018, in the low $30s in Q1 2022, and is now at . . . $12.
So, anyone wanna invest in some linear cable TV networks in 2024? 🥴
THEN: The new GOOGLE headquarters in the frankly made-up NYC neighborhood of Hudson Square just opened last month, and BI of course has all of your office space porn (not that kind — don’t be weird, Bill).
It’s all here! From the amazing free breakfast . . . to the spin studio . . . to the yoga studio . . . to the micro kitchens with $20k espresso machines . . . to the uh, dedicated foot-washing station. Okay, that one I did not see coming.
PLUS: Apparently TIKTOK success doesn’t always pay off in the music business . . . especially if you sample copyrighted material, ahem 😬.
Rapper Trefuego was ordered to pay SONY MUSIC more than $800k for sampling music from 1986 by Japanese composer Toshifumi Hinata in his track “90mh,” which went viral on TT and got 170 Million+ streams on SPOTIFY. However, Hinata’s music is owned by SONY, and thus, welcome to the music business Trefuego.
OH: Michael Kassan is bringing a $125M lawsuit against UTA’s outside council Bryan Freedman for defamation. Great.
AND: In the “We knew this was coming . . . although it totally makes sense” category — the APPLE Vision Pro has its first streaming service!
Meet SWAN DIVE, which charges $12/month for access to its streaming library of “immersive films” according to the Lowpass newsletter (although the business model is in the very early stages according to the service’s CEO).
THEN: Yeah, this near smoking gun on the LIVE NATION business is quite a read from Matt Stoller.
Essentially, a Congressman found evidence of hidden rebates, or in more plain speak, kickbacks, which keeps certain event revenue . . . well, not off the books per se, but at minimum out of the business lines where they should be, so the company can spin the “we really don’t make any money on this” line (while its top two execs took home $139 Million and $54 Million in compensation respectively in 2022).
It also seemingly falsifies statements made by company executives. Always a good sign. Quite a read — have fun with that LIBERTY MEDIA.
A REST IN PEACE: Goes out to legendary actor Louis Gossett Jr., who died at the age of 87 earlier this morning — the first Black actor to win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 1982 for An Officer and a Gentleman, in a career with many other memorable roles.
WAKEUP BOX-OFFICE POLL RESULTS
Well, apparently Godzilla x Kong caused pretty much a three-way split!
PARTING READ FOR THE WEEKEND: This recent column from Mike Allen at Axios was one of the best things I’ve read in quite some time on the state of teen mental health in the U.S., and social media’s effect upon it. Plus, it dives into what we can do to help kids improve their mental development, and the time-proven benefits of boredom and creativity!
So, if you have teens, or younger kids in your life — a highly recommended read.
OH: Four Canadian school boards (including Toronto and Ottawa) are the latest to sue #BigSocial over to the harmful social media effects they see in their students, and subsequently have to spend numerous additional 💰 resources to address “the devastating impact that compulsive social media use has on the student population and on their mental health.”
NEW ANKLER PODCAST EPISODE
Q1 Streamer output scorecard: What is the ‘New Normal,’ so far
One of the most popular questions in Hollywood these days is how much will TV series output be reduced in “the new normal” (which is increasingly feeling like “the old normal,” aka 2014).
While still predominantly a speculative question here, as we’re now 4 months and counting post-strikes — the funny thing about time is that eventually you find out!
Thus as Q1 comes to a close today — it turns out we have our first pretty good snapshot at what’s afoot to date, so let’s take a look at what streamers actually did in U.S. scripted TV and movie volume in Q1 2024 vs. Q1 2023.