YOUTUBE surpasses NETFLIX revenue in Q4 2021
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YOUTUBE surpasses NETFLIX revenue in Q4 2021
NY TIMES hits 8.8 Million subs / PARENTHOOD creator sets new series at APPLE TV+ / BUZZFEED sets spending freeze
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on WEDNESDAY February 2, 2022.
Where the race to sign Tom Brady, Football Analyst surely now has to be around the corner… Gotta think AMAZON is dangling a lot more than free Prime to come do Thursday Night Football this Fall - but obviously plenty of time for that endless speculation later.
A lot of great QB’s won SUPER BOWLS early in their careers (Brett Farve, Ben Roethlisberger, Joe Namath, Drew Brees), few ever get back to win again… much less Four more times. #Respect
ALSO: The NFL’s WASHINGTON FOOTBALL CLUB is now the WASHINGTON COMMANDERS. So am I the only one who kinda liked Football Club?
OOPS: Yesterday I forgot to get the link for “Nightmare Alley” on HBOMAX - here ya go. And here it is on HULU if you prefer.
AND: Country star Mickey Guyton will sing the National Anthem at the SUPER BOWL. 🇺🇸
PLUS: CBS moved their CMT AWARDS to Mon April 11, and from Vegas to… Nashville (🤷♂️), as the GRAMMYS kinda came and ruined their previous plan.
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
NETFLIX sets Jamie Dornan to co-star with Gal Gadot in “Heart of Stone” spy pic
SKYDANCE is producing (deal set before their new APPLE TV deal was signed), not much is known plot-wise other than it’s seen as a potential franchise.
Tom Harper (“The Aeronauts”) will direct. /THR
ALSO IN MOVIES
Taraji P. Henson joins WB’s “The Color Purple” musical, alongside the already-cast Corey Hawkins and H.E.R. Blitz Bazawule (BEYONCE’s “Black Is King”) is directing. /Variety
UNIVERSAL sets Prentice Penny (“Insecure”) to direct adaptation of Best-Selling graphic novel “New Kid”, about one of just a few kids of color at a private school. Lebron is among the producers. /Variety
FINAL SUNDANCE NEWS
SHOWTIME buys global rights to SUNDANCE docu “Nothing Compares” about Sinead O’Connnor. No price disclosed. /Deadline
BLEECKER STREET buys US rights to SUNDANCE pic “892” starring John Boyega and Michael K Williams, based on a true story. No price disclosed. /Variety
Nikyatu Jusu - director of SUNDANCE winner “Nanny” sets up next project at Jordan Peele’s MONKEYPAW at UNIVERSAL. Horror genre but nothing else known. /Deadline
IN THE HOLLYWOOD EXECUTIVE SUITE
WME Partner Brian DePersia leaves to launch his own management firm, COGNITION. He worked on the teams for a variety of clients like Pedro Pascal, Kate Mara, Mahershala Ali, and Peter Sarsgaard… but no word who he’ll be repping at his company. /Deadline
PARAMOUNT PICS brings back Lee Rosenthal as President of Global Production. He became a consultant last Summer after a 27 year career there, so sounds like his talents were missed. /THR
📺 THE TV SET
APPLE TV+ sets Connie Britton to star in new series from Jason Katims (“Parenthood”, “The Vow”)
And yes… this is also a “Friday Night Lights” reunion, as Jason ran that show too.
Called “Dear Edward”, about a 12 year-old dealing with the aftermath of being the only survivor of a plane crash that also kills his family.
Colin O’Brien who’s in the new movie “Wonka” is playing the kid, Taylor Schilling also co-starring as his aunt, and Britton has just a one-season deal to play someone who loses her husband in the crash.
Based on a best-selling book, 10 episode order, Fischer Stevens (“Palmer”) directing the pilot. /THR
NFL Ratings from Sunday
AFC on CBS: 48 Million, peaking at 61 Million for the pretty killer CINCY v KC finale. Biggest audience for this game since 2016.
NFC on FOX: 50 Million. Biggest audience for this game in 8 years.
Though I’m gonna double check these numbers cuz a couple years ago I remember being told repeatedly that Sports viewing was doomed because younger demos only want to watch highlights on their phones 🤔. /THR
AMC orders 2 new series
Both 6 episodes, and will premiere in 2023:
“Damascus” - Half-hour show about a 33-year-old Black man going on a journey of self-discovery via an innovative new technology that allows him to experience various versions of his life. From playwright Arvelle Chisholm (”Boomerang”).
“Invitation to a Bonfire” - A 1930’s psychological thriller set at an all-girls boarding school in Jersey. From writer Rachel Caris Love (writer on “Physical”, “Blindspot”) /THR
ALSO IN TV
PAR+ renews “Mayor of Kingstown”, “SEAL Team” and “The Game” for new seasons. /THR
ALSO: PAR+ hires Justin Simien (“Dear White People”) to write & direct their “Flashdance” as a series project. /Variety
NBCU moves
“Bridgerton: The Dating Show”“Pride & Prejudice: An Experiment in Romance” from PEACOCK to NBC. Also wisely changes name of the reality dating show to simply “The Courtship”. Will launch Sun Mar 6. /DeadlineWhoopi Goldberg suspended from “The View” for 2 weeks due to her comments about the HOLOCAUST. /Deadline
HULU sets deal with FOX to stream old seasons of unscripted shows (“MasterChef”, “Lego Masters” etc). Will also apply for all episodes of new/upcoming series as well. /THR
FOX also renewed “Hell’s Kitchen” for 2 more seasons. /Variety
CNN+ gives Don Lemon a weekly live-audience show. Said to be in the vein of “Donahue” and “Oprah”. Always good to aim modestly. /THR
💻 THE MEDIA BIZ
big #MediaNerd 🤓 day
YOUTUBE Q4 Ad revenue beats NETFLIX subscription revenue: $8.6 Billion to $7.7 Billion
However… Zero mention of an updated YOUTUBE TV subscriber count. Last official number was shared back in 2020 (it’s thought to be around 4 Million now but… 🤷♂️)
Although of note - YOUTUBE TV Ad revenue is included in the overall YT Revenue 💰 #… but also not broken out specifically. And with increased ‘shopability’ tech capabilities being added - YT has yet to come close to its earning potential. #ecommerceRevenue
OVER AT GOOGLE
Parent co GOOGLE/ALPHABET had $75 Billion in revenue from Oct thru Dec, +32% from Q4 2020. A big driver of this is advertising $$ from the boom in e-commerce / DtoC companies and increase in online shopping habits.
The stock will undergo a 20 to 1 stock split since that $2757 price is a bit much (ie. current stockholders will get 20 shares for every 1 share they currently own).
$20 Billion in Net Profit. For a 3 month period. /The Verge
NY TIMES Q4 end of 2021 Subscriber Numbers
8.8 Million total (+16% vs end of 2020)
DIGITAL NEWS: 5.8 Million (+14% vs end of 2020)
OTHER DIGITAL SUBS (Cooking, etc): 2.1 Million (+33%)
PRINT: 784k (-6%)
375k new total subscriptions from Oct thru Dec, down from 455k adds in Q3
18% of subscriptions are International.
30% of subscribers pay for more than one NY TIMES subscription product (News, Cooking, Crossword, etc),
7.6 Million total individual subscribers (when you eliminate those who pay for 2 different products), and they look to double that in 5 years to 15 Million.
ADVERTISING REVENUE: Print -17% vs 2019, Digital +20% since 2019
Profit was $94 Million in Q4, 2X the Q3 number… but not exactly GOOGLE 💵
ALSO: Tech + Social Media reporter Taylor Lorenz is leaving for The WASHINGTON POST. /Vanity Fair
BUZZFEED stock plunge & SPAC ramifications cause a hiring & new spending freeze
Only hiring for “critical roles” is now authorized. Revises 2021 projections for Commerce sales growth from 60% to “mid teens”, and still hasn’t set a Q4 earnings call date. /Axios
Although of note… the stock did pop 10% yesterday ($4.42). Though still about $6 below the price it went public at.
SPIDER-MAN boosts SONY PICTURES Q4 Profits 570% vs 2020 to $1.4 Billion
“Venom 2” and the NETFLIX check for “Seinfeld” also helped out here.
The Entertainment division drove more Profit than any other division… yes, including Gaming.
SONY PICTURES revenue overall in Q4: $4 Billion.
SONY total revenue as company in Q4: $26 Billion.
However - SONY PICS delivered 25% of SONY total profit in Q4. /Deadline
🏦 STOCK NOTES:
NETFLIX +7% ($457.13) Bet those folks who dumped the world’s most popular streaming service stock because of a mild, one-quarter projection are feeling a little silly right about now eh padre?
SIRIUSXM +6% ($6.76) The company’s revenue beat projections so… Wall Street chose to look at that instead of a drop in subscriber growth. Funny how a week and a stock rally changes one’s perspective on that kind of news…👆
AMC THEATERS +5% ($16.86) They gave a preview of their Q4 earnings showing “hey! Look at how much less money we’re losing!” 💪
IMAX +7% ($18.58)
If you don’t already SUBSCRIBE - here’s where you do it:
👩💻 NEW TO WATCH:
SPOTIFY and FACEBOOK earnings after the bell on Wall Street this afternoon
HULU “Pam & Tommy” - Stream Here
NETFLIX “The Tinder Swindler” docu - Stream Here
COMEDY CENTRAL “South Park” - New episodes return on a weekly basis at 8p
🎥 TRAILER HOUSE
PARAMOUNT+ “The Offer” teaser trailer - Series on the making of “The Godfather” - nice spot and love what Matthew Goode looks to be up to here as Bob Evans 🤝. Uh the Hollywood exec… not the Southern restraunteur. Premieres Thu April 28.
BBC AMERICA “Killing Eve” Season 4 trailer - Premieres Sun Feb 27.
AMAZON PRIME “I Want You Back” movie trailer - Rom-com about friends trying and break up their exes’s new relationships with Charlie Day and Jenny Slate. Apparently this did not premiere last Friday as previously planned and I had thought #mybad - now going up against all of the other new Fri Feb 11 rom-com options.
A24 “After Yang” movie trailer - Colin Farrell and Jodie Turner-Smith star in… kind of a Sci-Fi think-piece about a family whose life-like robot goes on the fritz. I liked this spot - intrigued… In Theaters Fri Mar 4.
D’OH! x2
The NETFLIX “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” trailer was for a movie not a series.
PANDORA ended 2021 with 6.4 Million subscribers, not 6.9 Million. It added about 50k total pay & free promo subs in 2021 on the whole.
🎧 PLAYING ME OFF
I mean at this point… I may just need to start singing you a song.
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-SEAN MCNULTY
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