☀️WBD Streaming biz loses $634 Mil, as Cable TV base cracks in Q3
LIONSGATE takes $1.5 Bil loss on STARZ / Lotta layoff & hiring freeze news / NETFLIX sets Guy Ritchie series
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on FRIDAY November 4, 2022.
Where the ASTROS are now 1 win away from the WORLD SERIES Championship. Game 6 is tomorrow night on FOX in Houston (Game 7 would be Sunday night).
And the audience for Game 4 (the historic no-hitter) crept up to 10 Million on FOX, and just over 12 Million including Spanish-language and streaming numbers.
ALSO: Thanks for the 24% of you who voted for me to get better jokes yesterday (I did too) - but I’ll take solace in the 30% of you who voted for the $3 ARPU tattoo option instead.
AND: AMAZON has paused hiring for… all corporate roles at the company for “the next few months” according to an internal memo sent to employees yesterday. They previously stated they were pausing hiring in the Retail group, but have extended it across divisions. If someone leaves, their role will be filled, and it sounds like small exceptions will exist but overall… yeah.
PLUS: Business Insider reported that APPLE is hitting the hiring pause in some areas as well, telling some job candidates that budgets are under review, and also may be pulling back on hiring for APPLE TV+.
ALSO: APPLE ($2.307 Trillion) was officially worth more than GOOGLE ($1.12 Trillion), AMAZON ($940 Billion) and META ($240 Billion) combined. Thanks Q3! (NETFLIX long dropped out of FAANG imo, at $119 Billion, although the way META’s going, it’s just gonna be AGA soon).
BUT WAIT: There was even more exec departure & impending layoff news yesterday in HOLLYWOOD, more details below in the EXECUTIVE SUITE section.
ALSO MISSING: Here’s a roundup of titles not on the NETFLIX ad-supported tier at launch, including “Arrested Development”, “Friday Night Lights”, “New Girl” and “House of Cards”. Plus all new SONY movies.
The Ad-tier is also not currently avail / supported on APPLE TV devices.
NOW: Time for the Box Office experts to chime in: goin’ straight up this week…
IN TODAY’S EDITION:
#MediaNerd🤓 goes into overdrive for a breakdown inside the WBD numbers, including how TUBI is beating WBD in a key Revenue metric, and what that could mean for DISNEY+’s ad launch next month
LIONSGATE preps their balance sheet for a sale / major outside investment, as STARZ sees worst US linear quarter in 2 years
SHOWTIME picks up former SPECTRUM ORIGINALS project
AMC NETWORKS also confirms all negative Cable TV bundle trends
Preview of all the new TV & Movies to stream & go see this weekend, some more of THE BOSS and well, just more in general as the busiest week in Q3 wraps up.