Tentpole Position

Tentpole Position DVD-Day in Hollywood, Weekend Whats I didn’t know it at the time, but the future of entertainment depended on a single data point shared with me over a cup of coffee in the 90s. I was chatting with Marc Randolph, one of the co-founders of a small, just-launched company called Netflix. Even though the company had only rented a relative handful of DVDs at that point, Randolph was very bullish on its prospects because the founders had an answer to the one key question that they believed would ultimately determine the company’s success: Would consumers be willing to rent a DVD by mail? The early answer was yes. That answer upended the entire movie rental business, and it was followed by a series of additional yeses. Would bandwidth reach a level where we could reasonably download and then stream movies? Yes. Could Netflix successfully manage the transition and the competition associated with adapting to the streaming age? Yes. Could a tech upstart from the Bay Area establish itself as one of the most powerful, influential players in the business of Hollywood? Yes? And now the biggest yes of all: Would Netflix eventually become a 300 million subscriber behemoth so massive and valuable that it could win a bidding competition against the likes of Paramount and Comcast to buy one of Hollywood’s most storied studios? NYT (Gift Article): Netflix to Buy Warner Bros. in $83 Billion Deal to Create a Streaming Giant . “Netflix announced plans on Friday to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming business, in a deal that will send shock waves through Hollywood and the broader media landscape. The cash-and-stock deal values the business at $82.7 billion, including debt. The acquisition is expected to close after Warner Bros. Discovery carves out its cable unit, which the companies expected be completed by the third quarter of 2026. That means there will be a separate public company controlling channels like CNN, TNT and Discovery.” (I suppose this is an appropriate moment to look back at that moment in September of 2000 when Netflix offered to sell itself to Blockbuster for $50 million. John Antioco, CEO of Blockbuster, declined, saying, “The dot-com hysteria is completely overblown.”) + I’m not sure that morphing from a builder to a buyer is a smart move for Netflix. And I’m not sure that market consolidation will be good for consumers. And I’m going to be really worried if company executives announce that the new name for the combined streamer will be Netflix Max. But I am sure the deal’s announcement will set off a blockbuster debate among regulators, and that will include Trump administration officials who sure seemed to prefer the Ellison father and son backed Skydance/Paramount bid that could have been a big win for a Trump ally and put CNN into the hands of a MAGA-friendly owner. Netflix-Warner Bros deal faces political pushback even as company touts benefits . “Republicans in Congress have warned of potential antitrust problems with Netflix...

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