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Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/1491529
Zaslav feels their “B” movies need to hit the theater where they earn five times more than going direct to streaming and is looking for real subscribers to pay real money. Aaahhh … yeah! Another house that is struggling is Comcast/NBCUniversal’s Peacock which is being sustained largely by sports. Picking up this year’s Premier League soccer in partnership with Telemundo and Premiership Rugby with BBC might lift their subscriptions in 2023 … could be a great shot in the arm! But Comcast’s Brian Roberts is used to playing the long game. The largest broadband provider in the US owns Sky Group, Europe’s largest media/communications conglomerate and one-third of Hulu, which Disney’s Chapek and now Igor wanted to flush out the mouse’s services. Roberts is in the perfect cat position (excuse the pun). He’s willing to retain status quo, buy out Disney’s two-thirds for the right price or “sacrifice” his portion for an even better price. If he sells, he can turn the company’s attention to purchasing a beat-up, chewed up and desirable WBD. Industry crystal ballers are betting he already has April 2024 circled when the legal hurdles preventing the WBD sale/purchase are out of the way. Despite certain antitrust concerns, Roberts could mix the two together, producing a formidable content development, production, delivery organization. Speaking with Kara Switzer at last year’s 2022 Code Conference, Disney CEO and investor in a series of start-ups, Bob Iger best summarized the content industry and especially streamers. He noted that linear TV is dying, cinema business will continue to be a communal experience but smaller and that all streamers aren’t created equal … and they won’t all make it. There will be haves and have nots, the House of Mouse boss added, noting that Netflix has a strong global content production/viewer base and appears to be well positioned for tomorrow. He also felt Disney had a strong future because the company had leaned hard into streaming, lessening its dependence on the firm’s traditional media businesses. The Disney CEO felt the leading streaming services would embrace Madison Avenue and