Are You There, Aryeh? It’s Me, Shari…

Instead of pursuing bold acquisitions, he is now locked in pedestrian squabbles with cable operators and union leaders who refuse to be swayed, let alone charmed.

What is perhaps most debilitating for Iger, however, is the simple fact that the rules of the game have changed, and the ambitions have diminished. The glory days of growth and conquest that defined his first tenure have given way to a brutal battle for survival, one in which Iger may be forced to deconstruct the very empire he helped build, starti... See more

The legacy companies (Disney, NBCU, Paramount, WBD, Fox) are stuck in a purgatorial period between media systems, trying to wring out the massive but rapidly declining profits of the linear age while transitioning to the sports streaming era. It’s like that puzzle in Die Hard with a Vengeance where Bruce Willis and Sam Jackson must move exactly the... See more

With prices like $5 / month or $8 / month for a commodity mobile platform, the concern is that pricing will soon shift to a “first year free” model or be entirely free, shifting the economic model to one that emphasizes broadcast advertising sales patterns. While this could bolster early acquisition, it degrades Hollywood’s trust in the platform. W... See more

The current unbundling phase is unsustainable and the long-term media business could look more like the past newspaper model than expected

For context, the cable networks business is one of the most profitable industries in the U.S.; it represents the vast majority of major media companies’ profits; traditional TV networks revenue growth is, for the first time, stagnating; and traditional TV is far larger than the streaming market — roughly $100 billion in TV network affiliate fees an... See more

He shared on this memo that a digital-only recorded music company will be a much more profitable one after one-off restructuring costs. It will have lower revenue and higher margins. Its revenue will be very stable and grow with the overall digital music market growth. It will be a much more valuable company with its revenue base solidly coming fro... See more