We're Entering Untested Entertainment Territory

We're Entering Untested Entertainment Territory

Andy Marken November 6, 2024

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Ventress wants to face it. You want to fight it. But I don't think I want either of those things. - Josie Radek, Annihilation, Paramount, 2018

Depending on which segment of the film/show industry and your organization, things are good, pretty good or not so good but looking up according to the folks on Wall Street.

Theaters expect to bring in $42 B in revenue this year even though they still complain that their theatrical windows are too short.

Oh sure, the actual number of tickets sold were still off, but they still expect to gross $44B in 2026. No, the growth isn't magic or cooking the books. All you have to do is charge more for the tickets (especially for the big hitter projects), bump up the cost of concessions a little and sell more greasy popcorn and sugared water drinks.

Patient Care - Film production is suffering in the US, especially in Hollywood where shoot days are off dramatically. Greenlighted projects have smaller crews and lower budgets this year.

Even though movie production is down - again - in Hollywood from its peak TV levels by 40 percent; the home of the famous production companies, the US, will still manage to deliver 1,523 movies this year plus a wide assortment of TV shows.

India, the world's second-oldest film production country, delivered more films/shows - a lot more - followed by the UK, China (most available only locally and SEA -Southeast Asia), France, Japan, Germany, South Korea, Canada and Australia.

The slow decline of ticket sales never bothered studios before because they could count on booster shots from broadcast and cable networks.

You know, 500 channels to flip through but still nothing to watch.

But at least you didn't have to jump into and out of the different channels. You only had to scroll through the EPG (electronic program guide) to find the movie you heard was good, show you wanted to catch up on or the neat out-of-the-way project you were interested in.

Issues Hit Home - The cost of fixed TV bundles with a major amount of unviewed channels, the lack of new/interesting content and fixed programming have taken a toll on pay TV subscriptions as people move to more economic, flexible entertainment options. The bundles won't disappear but will be less important to younger generations.

But the bundle was taking too much out of the family budget and people wanted a better, less expensive option for their home entertainment.

On Demand - Consumers in developed countries quickly began to prefer streaming services that delivered entertainment when you wanted and where you wanted it. People in developing countries are increasingly moving from their pay TV as well.

VOD (video on demand) suddenly became the home entertainment resource of choice especially when you could watch what you wanted, when you wanted, on the screen you wanted, and the cost was less than 10 bucks a month (in the Americas).

A helluva deal.

No wonder Netflix grew from the tech company all of Hollywood looked down on - and were more than willing to make and sell content to - until the company became the clear and undisputed leader of streaming video that recently reported they had nearly 264.5M subscribers in 190 countries around the world.

Somehow, the stalwart Silicon Valley company had figured out how once film/show production shifted to digital that VHS, DVD, Blu-Ray were just stepping stones in the shifting entertainment landscape to personalizing content and entertainment delivery.

Of course, they also had a secret technical advantage.

Yep, they had data on the shows/movies people watched, how long they watched it and the screen they watched it on in every region of the globe.

Leader - Using regional and global viewer content interest and data, Netflix continues its streaming leadership by mixing movies, shows, live events and more to provide subscribers with local and international entertainment.

They continue to keep their foot on the gas to maintain their leadership in the streaming arena, constantly investing in new and acquired projects (shows/movies) until they slowed down.

It wasn't because they needed to show Wall Street profits because they have been and are.

They released 92 original seasons this year, down slightly from the prior year, along with a slew of acquired titles including a number of international titles that grabbed viewer interest/attention regardless of their home country.

In addition, they broadened their offerings with live events like boxing, WWE, wrestling and NFL football with more sports and live events sure to follow.

They probably would have liked to have some of the Euro 2024 and Copa America futbol action which was huge everywhere but North America where the sport is consistently misspelled.

Source - Paramount

Back for More - People may run through the shows/movies they've just got to see but live sporting events keep sucking them back into the various services they subscribe to. Some events are just too important to miss.

But there's always next year and other sport contests that suck people in who have to watch.

In addition, they surprised Wall Street (and the competition) by clamping down on password sharing, gaining subscribers rather than losing viewers. There's more work to be done in weaning folks off the sharing habit but they're doing it professionally and the content consuming public is coming around.

Actually, they are the only true streaming entertainment service but then:

We know YouTube is a streamer (and a huge one), but we still find it hard to view them as a real content development, creation, production, delivery company but rather an ad company that makes money from the stuff the creator generation puts up

Prime is a close number 2 to Netflix an

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