The topsy-turvy world of streaming is making more headlines than it wants to.
Netflix was knocked for a loop by Wall Street after losing 200,000 subscribers in Q1 & predicting a 2M subs drop in Q2. Now Netflix is talking about adding new revenue with an ad-supported tier. Media buyers will likely seize the opportunity to reach Netflix’s 222M global subs, including some 75M domestic.
What doesn’t make sense is Netflix also wants to crack down on password sharing with new fees. That’s a recipe to lose more subs as people fight inflation by shedding the easiest costs to cut. If you want to monetize subscribers, why do anything to lose some?
Netflix’s $54B in wiped out market capital dwarfs Amazon’s $8.45B acquisition of MGM. Amazon’s not keeping MGM Motion Picture Group chairman Michael De Luca & president Pam Abdy, whose leadership helped make the studio worth that price. Amazon‘s streamers will be taking over. Yes, there’s a great library of IP to turn into series, sequels, reboots & reimaginations, which Amazon values at $3.4B. De Luca & Abdy know how to make the kind of movies people will pay to see in theatres — but, apparently, Amazon doesn’t value that.
Meanwhile, news streamer CNN+ is dead just 3 weeks post-launch. Clearly, not a vote of confidence in streaming by the new Warner Discovery team.