Entertainment, Media and Publishing Industry: Disruption and New Business Models

VIRTUALIZATION

Article | June 10, 2021

The first half of 2021 has been a year of continued change and disruption for subscription video. The global incumbent subscription video on demand (SVOD) leaders, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, have been busy signalling to the financial markets how they intend to entrench their market dominance in light of the ongoing market acquisition pushes unleashed by the D2C disruptors following the D2C ‘big bang’ moment of Q4 2019 – Q2 2021. Netflix announced in January that it was no longer going to borrow on the financial markets to fund its day-to-day operations – specifically for its content acquisition budget, which is now driven predominately by commissioning original content for its service. This leaves the SVOD leader with $14.9 billion of outstanding long-term debt to service as it seeks to live within its means by commissioning future content from its ongoing cashflow. In Q1 2021 alone Netflix spent $500 million on servicing this debt pile versus $1.7 billion in net income generated over the same period.

Article | April 27, 2020

Ever since the Oculus Rift was first introduced, people have wanted a Mirror’s Edge VR game. Years later, Stride looks to deliver where EA hasn’t. The first footage for Stride, which debuted over the weekend, promises essentially a VR doppelganger of DICE’s beloved series. Players hop between rooftops using parkour, avoiding enemy gunfire and taking opponents down as they go. But while the game sounds similar to Mirror’s Edge, it looks practically identical; bleached-white buildings are peppered with vibrantly-highlighted objects you can use for progression.

Article | April 11, 2020

Ever since the adoption of VR gaming to the gaming market, it sure has seen upheavals—disruption by significant players in the industry like PSVR, Rift, and the Vive. PSVR has been the best-selling VR headset ever since its launch, selling over 5 million units on December 31st, 2020. While these numbers portray PSVR as successful, its hardware is lacking behind, and still, no sign of upgrades has been hinted by Sony. Speaking of which, a lot of gamers have long been waiting for a hardware upgrade or a hardware sequel—PSVR 2—from Sony, but very little or nothing has been said on this matter.

MEDIA AND BROADCASTING

Article | May 21, 2021

Movie producers often find themselves negotiating with talent and crew members, and/or their production union representatives, over pay and benefits. But a group of 108 producers flipped the script Thursday in announcing they were looking to form a union of their own.Higher minimum pay and health benefits were cited as the two major reasons. While the group, called the Producers Union, boasts some heavy hitters such as Chris Moore (Manchester by the Sea) and Rebecca Green (It Follows), they made it clear that the traditional image of a Hollywood producer is misleading. Many are just getting by, project to project, looking for a breakout hit to up their quote. According to a survey released this year, 41% of producers made less than $25,000 in the pre-pandemic boom times of 2019. The Producers Union has developed a constitution with provisions for dues and diversity initiatives, with the aim of eventually negotiating a collective bargaining agreement with distributors and other film financiers. Previous efforts by producers to unionize have been thwarted by the courts and the National Labor Relations Board, according to Variety, as the NLRB saw them as supervisors and employers – which creates a high barrier to organizing.