DIS Shareholders and Stock Info ONLY

[RivShore]

https://variety.com/2023/music/news...l-film-tv-music-publishing-assets-1235652398/

Warner Bros. Discovery Negotiating $500 Million Deal to Sell Film and TV Music Publishing Assets
Jun 22, 2023 12:44pm PDT
By Jim Aswad

Warner Bros. Discovery is negotiating to sell around half of the storied Warner studio’s film and TV music-publishing assets for approximately $500 million, three sources confirm to Variety. The news was first reported by Hits.

While it is unclear exactly which assets are on the table, one source says that the rights to “slightly less than half” of the catalog, with a price of around $500 million, are likely to go to a major label, with Sony said to be in the lead. The catalog is believed to include music from such films as “Purple Rain,” “Evita,” “Sweeney Todd,” “Rent” several “Batman” films and many more titles, as well as songs included in films such as “As Time Goes By” from “Casablanca” — iconic titles to be sure, but again, it is unclear exactly which rights are in play. Top attorney Allen Grubman is said to be overseeing the deal for Warner Discovery CEO David Zaslav.

However, some observers cast a skeptical eye on the deal, saying that many of the company’s assets are more than a half-century old and are “declining” in value and difficult to exploit. They are said to consist largely of film themes and cues — with comparatively few conventional songs — that would seem to have little familiarity or resonance in the present or future. The catalog is currently under a multi-year administration deal with Universal Music Publishing.

Reps for Warner Discovery, Sony and Universal either declined or did not respond to Variety‘s requests for comment.

If reports are accurate, the deal would be a welcome one for the company and its investors at a tumultuous time that includes a writers strike that has crippled Hollywood and 100 layoffs across its Discovery and Turner brands (with more expected in the coming months), not to mention Zaslav’s recent firing of his personally selected CNN CEO Chris Licht after just one year, and the network’s controversial town hall with former president Donald Trump.

The windfall from such a sale — coming at the top of a still-booming market for music catalogs — would help the company to pay down a $49.5 billion debt.

The report also comes amid a drastically changing environment for the television business as a whole. Domestic cable channels — including Discovery, TNT, TBS, TLC, HGTV, Food Network and CNN — were once the envy of the industry in terms of viewership and profitability. But the fast-changing pay TV marketplace and the rise of on-demand streaming has upended the reliable cable TV earnings power that made the former Time Warner a dynamo in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Interesting way to monetize some stuff lying around the attic. No after hours action, so I guess WS isn't too impressed.

 

[OKW Lover]

The windfall from such a sale — coming at the top of a still-booming market for music catalogs — would help the company to pay down a $49.5 billion debt.

So, instead of $49.5 billion, their debt would be $49.0 billion. I suppose anything helps but...

 

[HokieRaven5]

It all circles back around to who will be the next CEO? Time is ticking. Disney has always been really really bad at succession planning. Rightly or wrongly, we now have Iger's vision instilled back in the company. I am not sure how much time they spend on succession planning but I sure hope the front-runners are on the same page.

Gotta wonder where Disney would be if the Board/Iger didn’t let Perlmutter have as much sway as he had a few years ago. He also was close with Chapek and likely helped push him up to the CEO.

Remains to be seen if the Board/Iger have learned their lesson.

 

[clarker99]

Gotta wonder where Disney would be if the Board/Iger didn’t let Perlmutter have as much sway as he had a few years ago. He also was close with Chapek and likely helped push him up to the CEO.

Remains to be seen if the Board/Iger have learned their lesson.

Speaking of Ike and the unfortunate sway he had… Externally, there are a couple of former DIS executives running another media company that should never have been allowed to leave DIS. Would only cost like $5-10B to bring them back into the fold.

 

[wabbott]

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/warner-ceo-david-zaslav-having-130000534.html

Warner CEO David Zaslav Is Having a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Month
Sharon Waxman
Fri, June 23, 2023 at 8:00 AM CDT

It’s been a rough month for Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav.

Getting booed at a university commencement was one thing, but having to fire a news network chief, seeing a major superhero film tank and getting skewered for everything from throwing a party in Cannes during a labor stoppage to slashing costs at the beloved TCM classic movie channel has been nothing short of brutal.

Zaslav has made misstep after misstep, said one veteran Hollywood executive, pointing especially to that celebration of Warner’s 100 year anniversary party at the Hotel Du Cap in Cannes with Air Mail’s Graydon Carter as a tone-deaf move during a strike. “It’s the most transparent drug-like addiction [to celebrity] that I’ve even seen,” the executive said.
Added the executive: “All the guys were rooting for him. Now the whisper around town is ‘What a buffoon.'”

It started with what should have been a fun, ego-boosting exercise, giving the commencement speech at Boston University on May 21. But instead he was loudly booed by the student body for his role in the Hollywood writer’s strike.

Then on May 23, a long-planned streaming strategy set sail with the launch of Max, a bold branding change that rolled three Warner Bros. Discovery brands — HBO, HBO Max and Discovery Plus — into one streaming platform. The jury is still out on whether Zaslav’s bid to draw in middle America for the price of HBO will work. But right out of the gate, he managed to piss off the Hollywood creative community with his team’s ham-handed move of grouping credits on the new platform together under the catch-all “creators.”

The Hollywood guilds were furious, with the DGA President Leslie Linka Glatter calling it “a grave insult to our members and our union.”(One social media user found the change on “Raging Bull,” which listed director Martin Scorsese, writers Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin and producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff all under the singular “creators” category.)

Bad luck. Two days later Zaslav flew to the Cannes Film Festival to give the star-studded party at the swanky Hotel du Cap. It was meant to be Zaslav’s coming out party at the fanciest film festival of the year, covered gamely in the New York Times. And while movie stars like Leonardo di Caprio and directors like Martin Scorsese showed up, there was not-so-quiet grumbling that the party was in bad taste as the industry was put on hold by a strike. Wrote Shawn McCreesh in New York magazine: “Thousands of miles away from the writers’ strike that has paralyzed and polarized a post-pandemic Hollywood, Warner Bros. celebrated its centennial… from the rarefied clifftop confines of the Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc outside Cannes.”

Maybe a bad call there. Could happen to anyone. But things have only gotten much, much worse as the month has worn on.

* On June 7, Zaslav had to fire his hand-picked CEO of CNN, Chris Licht, after a humiliating takedown of the executive for a failure to lead the news network in The Atlantic magazine and a staff revolt in which it was clear that Licht had “lost the room” — the newsroom. The PR debacle took over the news cycle for days.

* On the weekend of June 16, the DC superhero movie “The Flash” — a movie on which Zaslav had personally put his stamp of approval – bombed at the box office, taking in just $55 million, below even the most measured expectations. “Whither DC?” came the analysis from box office experts.

* Then on June 20, a new round of layoffs began, including widespread cuts at TCM, the classic movie channel tied to the Warner archive that is beloved by filmmakers, cineastes and classic movie buffs alike. The reaction was all the more severe because Zaslav made the unusual move of showing up at a recent TCM festival to talk about his love for film with Steven Spielberg and Paul Thomas Anderson. A damage control call with Spielberg, Scorsese and PTA followed on June 21 after the layoffs continued to spark online venom.

Steven Spielberg (left), Paul Thomas Anderson, David Zaslav and TCM host Ben Mankiewicz during the 2023 TCM Classic Film Festival on April 13, 2023, in Hollywood. (Getty Images)

* On top of all that, the news leaked that HBO was in talks to license its content to Netflix, heretofore a serious rival, starting with Issa Rae’s “Insecure,” and to sell parts of the music and movie library for cold cash.

It’s getting very uncomfortable for David Zaslav, who finally has in hand the prize he has coveted for so long, a legacy Hollywood studio.

“David Zaslav had a chance to come into the business and take the chair of Lew Wasserman,” said the veteran Hollywood executive, referring to the former MCA-Universal mogul’s respected position in resolving labor disputes. “He could have gone in the room with creatives and studio heads — say ‘I’m a fan of the creative community’ — and gotten it resolved.”

But it’s been a rough ride ever since Zaslav managed to convince AT&T to merge the cable empire of Discovery with the legendary Warner Bros. brand, spun off from the telecom giant. From the start, he needed to cut thousands of jobs to meet the $5 billion in cost savings required to meet a crushing debt load that financed the deal.

And despite his most full-throated support for a Warner theatrical strategy, for supporting filmmaking in general, and for traditional Hollywood, Zaslav has managed to rub the creative community the wrong way, repeatedly. From “Batgirl” star Leslie Grace to CNN star Christiane Amanpour to national treasure Martin Scorsese, the famously charming Zaslav keeps stepping in the soup.

Why — you may ask?

“The real story here is why does Zaslav behave the way he behaves,” said one knowledgeable, longtime observer of the mogul. “All he wanted was to get the Warner deal. He’s sitting on this perch. In his psyche he has proved himself by breaking something. In his mind he is a breaker of norms. That’s how he thinks.”

Perhaps. But he still has to operate this legendary prize that he has won. Zaslav continues to be caught between the demands of Wall Street — where the WBD stock continues to suffer from the pressures of a $49.5 billion debt load — and his desire to be a lovable, old-style Hollywood mogul, friend to the stars, habitue of the Polo Lounge.

“He really believes that for this company to succeed, you’ve got to be a friend to the creative community, to greenlight more films, to be a loud champion of theatrical,” said an individual with knowledge of his thinking. But this person agreed that Zaslav has had a serial run of bad news of late.

“Coming one after another, the timing makes it easy to string [bad news] together,” adding: “It’s a complicated time around the writers’ strike.”

A Warner insider pointed out that even as the Chris Licht debacle was going down, the company announced it would be achieving cost-saving targets faster than expected, which drove the stock up 20%. (The stock has since drifted back down.)

But the optics are brutal. People are talking. One thing is for certain: Zaslav is in a position of his own doing, and his own choosing. And he will not find a path to success through more cuts. He’s going to need a couple of breaks and to see some strategies work out.

For the moment, though, he might just want to hide out in the Hamptons and wait for this month to be behind him.

 

[BrianL]

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/warner-ceo-david-zaslav-having-130000534.html

Warner CEO David Zaslav Is Having a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Month
Sharon Waxman
Fri, June 23, 2023 at 8:00 AM CDT

It’s been a rough month for Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav.

Getting booed at a university commencement was one thing, but having to fire a news network chief, seeing a major superhero film tank and getting skewered for everything from throwing a party in Cannes during a labor stoppage to slashing costs at the beloved TCM classic movie channel has been nothing short of brutal.

Zaslav has made misstep after misstep, said one veteran Hollywood executive, pointing especially to that celebration of Warner’s 100 year anniversary party at the Hotel Du Cap in Cannes with Air Mail’s Graydon Carter as a tone-deaf move during a strike. “It’s the most transparent drug-like addiction [to celebrity] that I’ve even seen,” the executive said.
Added the executive: “All the guys were rooting for him. Now the whisper around town is ‘What a buffoon.'”

It started with what should have been a fun, ego-boosting exercise, giving the commencement speech at Boston University on May 21. But instead he was loudly booed by the student body for his role in the Hollywood writer’s strike.

Then on May 23, a long-planned streaming strategy set sail with the launch of Max, a bold branding change that rolled three Warner Bros. Discovery brands — HBO, HBO Max and Discovery Plus — into one streaming platform. The jury is still out on whether Zaslav’s bid to draw in middle America for the price of HBO will work. But right out of the gate, he managed to piss off the Hollywood creative community with his team’s ham-handed move of grouping credits on the new platform together under the catch-all “creators.”

The Hollywood guilds were furious, with the DGA President Leslie Linka Glatter calling it “a grave insult to our members and our union.”(One social media user found the change on “Raging Bull,” which listed director Martin Scorsese, writers Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin and producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff all under the singular “creators” category.)

Bad luck. Two days later Zaslav flew to the Cannes Film Festival to give the star-studded party at the swanky Hotel du Cap. It was meant to be Zaslav’s coming out party at the fanciest film festival of the year, covered gamely in the New York Times. And while movie stars like Leonardo di Caprio and directors like Martin Scorsese showed up, there was not-so-quiet grumbling that the party was in bad taste as the industry was put on hold by a strike. Wrote Shawn McCreesh in New York magazine: “Thousands of miles away from the writers’ strike that has paralyzed and polarized a post-pandemic Hollywood, Warner Bros. celebrated its centennial… from the rarefied clifftop confines of the Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc outside Cannes.”

Maybe a bad call there. Could happen to anyone. But things have only gotten much, much worse as the month has worn on.

* On June 7, Zaslav had to fire his hand-picked CEO of CNN, Chris Licht, after a humiliating takedown of the executive for a failure to lead the news network in The Atlantic magazine and a staff revolt in which it was clear that Licht had “lost the room” — the newsroom. The PR debacle took over the news cycle for days.

* On the weekend of June 16, the DC superhero movie “The Flash” — a movie on which Zaslav had personally put his stamp of approval – bombed at the box office, taking in just $55 million, below even the most measured expectations. “Whither DC?” came the analysis from box office experts.

* Then on June 20, a new round of layoffs began, including widespread cuts at TCM, the classic movie channel tied to the Warner archive that is beloved by filmmakers, cineastes and classic movie buffs alike. The reaction was all the more severe because Zaslav made the unusual move of showing up at a recent TCM festival to talk about his love for film with Steven Spielberg and Paul Thomas Anderson. A damage control call with Spielberg, Scorsese and PTA followed on June 21 after the layoffs continued to spark online venom.

Steven Spielberg (left), Paul Thomas Anderson, David Zaslav and TCM host Ben Mankiewicz during the 2023 TCM Classic Film Festival on April 13, 2023, in Hollywood. (Getty Images)

* On top of all that, the news leaked that HBO was in talks to license its content to Netflix, heretofore a serious rival, starting with Issa Rae’s “Insecure,” and to sell parts of the music and movie library for cold cash.

It’s getting very uncomfortable for David Zaslav, who finally has in hand the prize he has coveted for so long, a legacy Hollywood studio.

“David Zaslav had a chance to come into the business and take the chair of Lew Wasserman,” said the veteran Hollywood executive, referring to the former MCA-Universal mogul’s respected position in resolving labor disputes. “He could have gone in the room with creatives and studio heads — say ‘I’m a fan of the creative community’ — and gotten it resolved.”

But it’s been a rough ride ever since Zaslav managed to convince AT&T to merge the cable empire of Discovery with the legendary Warner Bros. brand, spun off from the telecom giant. From the start, he needed to cut thousands of jobs to meet the $5 billion in cost savings required to meet a crushing debt load that financed the deal.

And despite his most full-throated support for a Warner theatrical strategy, for supporting filmmaking in general, and for traditional Hollywood, Zaslav has managed to rub the creative community the wrong way, repeatedly. From “Batgirl” star Leslie Grace to CNN star Christiane Amanpour to national treasure Martin Scorsese, the famously charming Zaslav keeps stepping in the soup.

Why — you may ask?

“The real story here is why does Zaslav behave the way he behaves,” said one knowledgeable, longtime observer of the mogul. “All he wanted was to get the Warner deal. He’s sitting on this perch. In his psyche he has proved himself by breaking something. In his mind he is a breaker of norms. That’s how he thinks.”

Perhaps. But he still has to operate this legendary prize that he has won. Zaslav continues to be caught between the demands of Wall Street — where the WBD stock continues to suffer from the pressures of a $49.5 billion debt load — and his desire to be a lovable, old-style Hollywood mogul, friend to the stars, habitue of the Polo Lounge.

“He really believes that for this company to succeed, you’ve got to be a friend to the creative community, to greenlight more films, to be a loud champion of theatrical,” said an individual with knowledge of his thinking. But this person agreed that Zaslav has had a serial run of bad news of late.

“Coming one after another, the timing makes it easy to string [bad news] together,” adding: “It’s a complicated time around the writers’ strike.”

A Warner insider pointed out that even as the Chris Licht debacle was going down, the company announced it would be achieving cost-saving targets faster than expected, which drove the stock up 20%. (The stock has since drifted back down.)

But the optics are brutal. People are talking. One thing is for certain: Zaslav is in a position of his own doing, and his own choosing. And he will not find a path to success through more cuts. He’s going to need a couple of breaks and to see some strategies work out.

For the moment, though, he might just want to hide out in the Hamptons and wait for this month to be behind him.

Man, for all the talk around here about how Disney is a mess, they are nothing compared to the mess at Warner Bros.! It's insane over there.

 

[wabbott]

Man, for all the talk around here about hod Disney is a mess, they are nothing compared to the mess at Warner Bros.! It's insane over there.

To be clear, and this is my opinion only, DIS has a great, great suite of products. I wouldn't spend my time here trying to learn how better to enjoy my parks experiences if I didn't think so. And spending thousands on park travel every year.

As I have often posted, Disney has been a huge part of my life for nearly 70 years. 20,000 Leagues still gives me chill bumps when I watch it. I want it to last for generations to come.

Can it be better? Absolutely. Much of the mistakes now being made by management have been made before. But when making money gets too easy, management gets lazy and complacent. Not a new business phenomenon.

And the solution? Hard work, discipline, execution, focus. All day, every day.

 

[mdmost]

Man, for all the talk around here about hod Disney is a mess, they are nothing compared to the mess at Warner Bros.! It's insane over there.

It's really feeling like we've hit peak moment with superhero movies. I think WB is in a world of hurt if James Gunn's time doesn't pay off as they detonated a lot of franchises with his entry as the main creative. I think Disney is definitely seeing that with Marvel now. It's hard to get people as excited now after Avengers Endgame since that will go down as the ultimate superhero movie. The closest is the Spider-verse movies and that speaks very much to the writing and animation being fairly groundbreaking. Sony can keep cranking out Spiderman movies that should do well but Marvel is now facing a real malaise with characters that just aren't as appealing as the ones before. Even that appears to be straining with the last Thor movie.

 

[BrianL]

It's really feeling like we've hit peak moment with superhero movies. I think WB is in a world of hurt if James Gunn's time doesn't pay off as they detonated a lot of franchises with his entry as the main creative. I think Disney is definitely seeing that with Marvel now. It's hard to get people as excited now after Avengers Endgame since that will go down as the ultimate superhero movie. The closest is the Spider-verse movies and that speaks very much to the writing and animation being fairly groundbreaking. Sony can keep cranking out Spiderman movies that should do well but Marvel is now facing a real malaise with characters that just aren't as appealing as the ones before. Even that appears to be straining with the last Thor movie.

Yeah, but the mid-tier Marvel movies are at least still doing okay - they're not flops. DC movies have been a mess for awhile, and I actually don't have a ton of faith that Gunn will right the ship considering the projects he has slated.

 

[BrianL]

To be clear, and this is my opinion only, DIS has a great, great suite of products. I wouldn't spend my time here trying to learn how better to enjoy my parks experiences if I didn't think so. And spending thousands on park travel every year.

As I have often posted, Disney has been a huge part of my life for nearly 70 years. 20,000 Leagues still gives me chill bumps when I watch it. I want it to last for generations to come.

Can it be better? Absolutely. Much of the mistakes now being made by management have been made before. But when making money gets too easy, management gets lazy and complacent. Not a new business phenomenon.

And the solution? Hard work, discipline, execution, focus. All day, every day.

No, I get that. Disney has some problems right now - but, MAN, WB has got some PROBLEMS, and the first one starts with a "Z"!

 

[wabbott]

https://www.investors.com/news/tech...ervices-face-subscription-fatigue/?src=A00220

Consumers Are Cutting Back On Subscription Streaming Video Services
PATRICK SEITZ

• 11:11 AM EDT 06/23/2023

Cost-conscious consumers are trimming the number of subscription streaming video services they pay for, providing another headwind for those businesses. But some services, such as Netflix (NFLX), are proving stickier than others.

An annual survey of broadband-subscribing TV watchers in the U.S. by Hub Entertainment Research showed a drop in usage of subscription video-on-demand, or SVOD, services in the most recent poll.

"Most people are doing that for economic reasons, because of inflation or they're worried about the economy," said David Tice, a consultant with Hub.

The percentage of consumers subscribing to at least one SVOD service dropped to 82% in 2023 from 89% in 2022.

Meanwhile, the percentage of respondents getting two or more of the top five SVOD services dropped to 61% this year from 71% last year. Those getting three or more of the services fell to 43% from 50%. The top five SVOD services are Netflix, Amazon (AMZN) Prime Video, Hulu, Walt Disney's (DIS) Disney+ and Warner Bros. Discovery's (WBD) Max.

Netflix Is Hard To Walk Away From

The results of the Hub survey point to more SVOD service trimming in the year ahead. Just 27% of respondents expect to sign up for a new TV subscription in the next six months. That's down from 33% last year.

The change in consumption by U.S. TV watchers comes as the major streaming services have shifted their focus to profits over growth. To bolster their streaming video businesses, companies have raised prices, lowered spending on new content and reduced their streaming libraries.

As consumers shrink their bundle of TV services, they are giving priority to some over others.

"Netflix is still the 800-pound gorilla in the room and it takes a lot to get people to walk away from that," Tice said.

Meanwhile, Amazon has other Prime services, such as free delivery of e-commerce purchases, to keep customers loyal, he said. And Disney has kids programming and hot franchises like Marvel and Star Wars, Tice said.

Smaller players like Paramount's (PARA) Paramount+ and Comcast's (CMCSA) Peacock will need to consider consolidation or bundling to stay in the game, Tice said. Some studios even might abandon their direct-to-consumer streaming video offerings and switch to a traditional content licensing model, he said.

JPMorgan Survey Also Shows Drop

Results of a JPMorgan survey this month also showed a decline in the number of SVOD services consumers are using. The average SVOD subscriber now takes 4.2 services, down from 4.7 in the first quarter and 4.8 in the fourth quarter last year.

Price increases and weaker content slates could explain the drop in SVOD usage, JPMorgan analyst Philip Cusick said in a note to clients.

Consulting firm Deloitte pointed to "subscription fatigue" among consumers as another reason for the drop. In the firm's latest Digital Media Trends survey, about half of respondents said they "pay too much" for SVOD services, while about one-third said they intend to reduce their number of entertainment subscriptions.

Around half of consumers (47%) surveyed said they have made at least one change to their entertainment subscriptions because of their current financial situation. That includes canceling a paid service or switching to a lower-cost, ad-supported version of a service.

Streaming Video Services Are Easy To Switch

Other consumers are keeping the same number of SVOD services by dropping one and adding another.

"People have gotten much savvier about how to juggle the different services," Tice said. "One of the great things about the streaming services is that they're very frictionless. You can start and stop them when you want to."

He added, "There's a subset of people out there who will subscribe to Apple TV+ for a month or two and watch everything they want to watch on that and then cut that subscription and subscribe to Peacock or something else for the next two months and catch up on that."

In the first quarter, Netflix added 1.75 million subscribers worldwide, pushing its total to 232.5 million. But most of those new subscribers were in the Asia Pacific region. In the U.S. and Canada, it added just 100,000 subscribers.

Meanwhile, Disney's flagship streaming video service, Disney+, lost 4 million subscribers during the first three months of the year. Its total subscribers dropped to 157.8 million.

 

[Mikey15]

It's really feeling like we've hit peak moment with superhero movies. I think WB is in a world of hurt if James Gunn's time doesn't pay off as they detonated a lot of franchises with his entry as the main creative. I think Disney is definitely seeing that with Marvel now. It's hard to get people as excited now after Avengers Endgame since that will go down as the ultimate superhero movie. The closest is the Spider-verse movies and that speaks very much to the writing and animation being fairly groundbreaking. Sony can keep cranking out Spiderman movies that should do well but Marvel is now facing a real malaise with characters that just aren't as appealing as the ones before. Even that appears to be straining with the last Thor movie.

Certainly there’s nothing that’s come out recently with the weight and build-up of Black Panther, Infinity War, and Endgame, and the traditional ‘blockbuster’ carried the day last year (Avatar $2.3b, Top Gun $1.5b, Jurassic World $1.0b, all sequels themselves…), Marvel’s films remain a big box office draw.

Last year, Dr Strange, Black Panther, and Thor were good for #4, #6, #8, and $955m, $859m, $760m.
No Way Home, releasing the year before and technically Sony but still MCU was good for #1 and $1.9b.
This year, even the “took in less than its predecessors” (not by much) Ant-Man sits at #5 with $476m, while James Gunn’s Guardians conclusion is #2 with $823m. Audiences are choosier with what superhero movies they will pay the box office to see, but there’s still a lot of money here. Quality of releases will continue to make the difference.

 

[Jrb1979]

https://www.investors.com/news/tech...ervices-face-subscription-fatigue/?src=A00220

Consumers Are Cutting Back On Subscription Streaming Video Services
PATRICK SEITZ

• 11:11 AM EDT 06/23/2023

Cost-conscious consumers are trimming the number of subscription streaming video services they pay for, providing another headwind for those businesses. But some services, such as Netflix (NFLX), are proving stickier than others.

An annual survey of broadband-subscribing TV watchers in the U.S. by Hub Entertainment Research showed a drop in usage of subscription video-on-demand, or SVOD, services in the most recent poll.

"Most people are doing that for economic reasons, because of inflation or they're worried about the economy," said David Tice, a consultant with Hub.

The percentage of consumers subscribing to at least one SVOD service dropped to 82% in 2023 from 89% in 2022.

Meanwhile, the percentage of respondents getting two or more of the top five SVOD services dropped to 61% this year from 71% last year. Those getting three or more of the services fell to 43% from 50%. The top five SVOD services are Netflix, Amazon (AMZN) Prime Video, Hulu, Walt Disney's (DIS) Disney+ and Warner Bros. Discovery's (WBD) Max.

Netflix Is Hard To Walk Away From

The results of the Hub survey point to more SVOD service trimming in the year ahead. Just 27% of respondents expect to sign up for a new TV subscription in the next six months. That's down from 33% last year.

The change in consumption by U.S. TV watchers comes as the major streaming services have shifted their focus to profits over growth. To bolster their streaming video businesses, companies have raised prices, lowered spending on new content and reduced their streaming libraries.

As consumers shrink their bundle of TV services, they are giving priority to some over others.

"Netflix is still the 800-pound gorilla in the room and it takes a lot to get people to walk away from that," Tice said.

Meanwhile, Amazon has other Prime services, such as free delivery of e-commerce purchases, to keep customers loyal, he said. And Disney has kids programming and hot franchises like Marvel and Star Wars, Tice said.

Smaller players like Paramount's (PARA) Paramount+ and Comcast's (CMCSA) Peacock will need to consider consolidation or bundling to stay in the game, Tice said. Some studios even might abandon their direct-to-consumer streaming video offerings and switch to a traditional content licensing model, he said.

JPMorgan Survey Also Shows Drop

Results of a JPMorgan survey this month also showed a decline in the number of SVOD services consumers are using. The average SVOD subscriber now takes 4.2 services, down from 4.7 in the first quarter and 4.8 in the fourth quarter last year.

Price increases and weaker content slates could explain the drop in SVOD usage, JPMorgan analyst Philip Cusick said in a note to clients.

Consulting firm Deloitte pointed to "subscription fatigue" among consumers as another reason for the drop. In the firm's latest Digital Media Trends survey, about half of respondents said they "pay too much" for SVOD services, while about one-third said they intend to reduce their number of entertainment subscriptions.

Around half of consumers (47%) surveyed said they have made at least one change to their entertainment subscriptions because of their current financial situation. That includes canceling a paid service or switching to a lower-cost, ad-supported version of a service.

Streaming Video Services Are Easy To Switch

Other consumers are keeping the same number of SVOD services by dropping one and adding another.

"People have gotten much savvier about how to juggle the different services," Tice said. "One of the great things about the streaming services is that they're very frictionless. You can start and stop them when you want to."

He added, "There's a subset of people out there who will subscribe to Apple TV+ for a month or two and watch everything they want to watch on that and then cut that subscription and subscribe to Peacock or something else for the next two months and catch up on that."

In the first quarter, Netflix added 1.75 million subscribers worldwide, pushing its total to 232.5 million. But most of those new subscribers were in the Asia Pacific region. In the U.S. and Canada, it added just 100,000 subscribers.

Meanwhile, Disney's flagship streaming video service, Disney+, lost 4 million subscribers during the first three months of the year. Its total subscribers dropped to 157.8 million.

I'm not surprised with this news. People went to streaming originally as it was cheaper than cable. When you have 3 or 4 it starts to get back to the same price as cable.

 

[RivShore]

Speaking of Ike and the unfortunate sway he had… Externally, there are a couple of former DIS executives running another media company that should never have been allowed to leave DIS. Would only cost like $5-10B to bring them back into the fold.

I always thought Kevin would have been a good choice. If it's going to happen, they need to get that buyout going soon...unless the old/new CEO decides to re-up for another year or two.

 

[RivShore]

Man, for all the talk around here about how Disney is a mess, they are nothing compared to the mess at Warner Bros.! It's insane over there.

The list of not messed up media companies is very short I think.

 

[RivShore]

But when making money gets too easy, management gets lazy and complacent. Not a new business phenomenon.

Plus you can borrow at near zero interest rates. It all leads to a loss of discipline and that always comes back to bite you.

 

[wabbott]

https://nypost.com/2023/06/21/espn-scraps-keyshawn-johnson-jay-williams-max-kellerman-radio-show/

ESPN scraps radio show with Keyshawn Johnson, Jay Williams, Max Kellerman as more layoffs loom
6/21/23
Andrew Marchand

ESPN is scrapping its national morning radio show featuring Keyshawn Johnson, Jay Williams and Max Kellerman, The Post has learned.

The move is part of the restructuring of the company, which will include significant on-air layoffs to come as early as next week, according to sources.

It doesn’t mean that Johnson, Williams or Kellerman will be let go, though Kellerman is in jeopardy.

He is a big-money guy who now is going to be out on radio and the time slot for his TV program,” This Just in,” will be taken over by “The Pat McAfee Show” this fall.

Johnson’s and Williams’ futures also are in flux.

ESPN signed Johnson to a four-year contract worth around $18 million last year, according to sources.

As part of the upcoming layoffs, ESPN is expected to buy out some deals, a way to reduce numbers on the books, while still actually paying people the money they are owed.

The concept only makes sense to Wall Street.

ESPN declined comment.

The network could offer buyouts, which could grant Johnson free agency and make him a possible sparring partner for Skip Bayless as a replacement for Shannon Sharpe on Fox Sports 1’s “Undisputed.”

Johnson lives in Los Angeles, where Fox Sports is located.

ESPN and Johnson would have to negotiate an agreement to allow that possibility to play out.

ESPN could also choose to expand Johnson’s NFL role, especially with “Monday Night Countdown” expected to be hit by layoffs and Johnson already a regular on ESPN’s daily program, “NFL Live.” The Post has previously reported that analyst Steve Young is in jeopardy.

Williams, whose contract is up at the end of the summer, is someone that ESPN likes and may try to keep, but his role would be different if he were to remain with the network.

ESPN had targeted the end of June to begin talent layoffs, so next week is still likely, but there is a chance it could drag later.

The approach to non-needle movers is one ESPN is expected to take in the coming months and years ahead when contracts expire. ESPN executives believe that will help save behind-the-scenes jobs because Disney expects the network to meet certain financial targets.

On Wednesday, ESPN made some big organizational moves that will impact the approach to programming.

The executive ranks of ESPN have always been like “Game of Thrones” with factions teaming up.

ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro and president of content Burke Magnus gave longtime executive Norby Williamson more power.

He will oversee the NFL, while Dave Roberts had expanded duties added to his NBA authority.

Stephanie Druley, who was the head of the NFL, was moved to content operations.

Magnus and Pitaro wanted to streamline the decision-making.

The feeling with the prior setup of Williamson, Roberts and Druley, was there were three people doing jobs that were better suited for just two.

Williamson also had control of Talent Office, which basically gave him authority over all contracts.

In the new setup, Magnus will assume that responsibility.

Williamson still will oversee radio, which ESPN hit hard with early non-talent layoffs, which made the idea of a move on its morning show more likely.

The “Keyshawn, JWill and Max” program was already off the air in New York, replaced by Rick DiPietro and Dave Rothenberg’s local show.

ESPN will have a new national show, but the hosts are unlikely to make millions as the network is looking to invest its audio money in podcasting than radio.

 

[RivShore]

Any of you Disney news junkies seen anything on this?

https://www.disboards.com/threads/who-framed-roger-rabbit-no-longer-licensed-by-disney.3922590/

 

[Elijah Abrams]

I always thought Kevin would have been a good choice. If it's going to happen, they need to get that buyout going soon...unless the old/new CEO decides to re-up for another year or two.

Disney buying Candle Media would be a bad idea, because the latter owns Cocomelon, and I do NOT want Disney to milk Cocomelon! Also, the board should not reup Iger. He’s getting older.

 

[RivShore]

Disney buying Candle Media would be a bad idea, because the latter owns Cocomelon, and I do NOT want Disney to milk Cocomelon! Also, the board should not reup Iger. He’s getting older.

Me thinks getting a good CEO is more important than you love of Cocomelon, whatever the heck that is!