Community Chat

[beckyb1012]

A billion is a billion when that kind of money is involved but The Wall Street Journal is reporting the sale at $72 billion.  Maybe Netflix had a coupon.  I read it was supposed to be bad news for CNN.

[Bookplate]

Unfortunately, the majority of our representatives in government have shown little to no interest in slowing down the hyper-consolidation of media, whatever the format. 

[geezerette]

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@Bookplate wrote:

Unfortunately, the majority of our representatives in government have shown little to no interest in slowing down the hyper-consolidation of media, whatever the format. 

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While I don't at all like the consolidation of our media (soon three of our four local news stations will be owned by the same company), often the alternative to mergers or takeovers is a failing company going out of business.

Then their assets are just grabbed up a fire sale prices anyway.🤷‍♀️

[THEY CallMe Mr Wilkes]

Two pieces to the complicated transaction:

First, WBD spins off most cable services like CNN and Discovery into a separate company, worth much, much less.

After that, Netflix will purchase the highly valuable remaining assets,  Warners movie and television studios and libraries and HBO.

[songbird]

HBO is part of our cable, do I do get their progamming.  I don't have Netflix.  Waiting to see what offers they are gong to do.

[mrshckynut]

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@willowbark wrote:

spits out coffee

Netflix to buy Warner Bros and HBO Max in $82.7  billion deal. 

What will happen to our streaming subscriptions?

@willowbark   depends on which ones you have subscriptions 

mrshckynut

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[shoekitty]

deregulation has its plusses  and negatives. Negatives seem to be, less choices and higher costs.  We pay for mergers, the consumer. The corporate and shareholders reap the rewards.  Only a few things to do..become the CEO, .buy stock, become a shareholder, or just bite bullet .  

seems like so much  has been eaten up. I am finding fewer choices, higher prices...but most of all I miss good customer service and pride in the  product. Today we have two choices, like it or lump it, lol. Oh, well I'm too old to worry about it. .  

[Snowpuppy]

@THEY CallMe Mr Wilkes  X is readying an expansion of Starlink into cell phone service. I don't have Starlink but I live very rural and people say it's far superior to Dish. 

I also owned WBD earlier this year, took the $ and ran.😉

I rarely watch tv. I have 0 streaming services.

[San Antonio Gal]

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@I am still oxox wrote:

Interesting since we do not pay for either directly Netflix come with our TMoibile phone contract and HBO is part of our Fios deal 

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@I am still oxox  -  I'm also enjoying free Netflix with my T Mobile plan.  I've had T Mobile for the past 15 years at least.

[gardenman]

"

While I don't at all like the consolidation of our media (soon three of our four local news stations will be owned by the same company), often the alternative to mergers or takeovers is a failing company going out of business.

Then their assets are just grabbed up a fire sale prices anyway."

Yeah. If your company is thriving, there's no reason to let someone else take it over. Most of the mergers come when one company is in trouble and needs a lifeline. Sometimes, both companies are in trouble and need help, and think combining into one can help. 

The entertainment industry is in all kinds of chaos now. Younger viewers watch more TikTok, YouTube, X, Instagram, Twitch, etc. than conventional TV. (Some of us older viewers, too.) Since that's where the viewers are, that's where the advertisers are going. There's not a lot of "must-watch TV" these days. Live sports still draw an audience, but the cost to acquire rights to air live sports has gotten insane. These are challenging times in the entertainment industry. I'm not sure acquiring $70+ billion in new debt is the ideal path forward, but Netflix disagrees. We'll see if they're right.

TV exists to sell advertising. (So do magazines, newspapers, and more.) If the advertisers aren't paying you, you need other revenue streams. Subscriptions are one revenue stream, but people are getting tired of paying for subscriptions. And if you're losing advertising revenue, you have to up the subscription prices, which drives away more subscribers. 

The entertainment industry is in a death spiral, and I'm not sure anyone knows how to pull it out of the spiral before it crashes. Advertisers are moving more to social media. Subscribers are tiring of paying ever-increasing subscription fees. Revenue streams are disappearing. These next few years will be interesting to watch.