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Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

reuters.com

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Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#361

Post by geodel »

johnchristopher wrote: post #267
DrBazza wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Piracy is competition to bad content behavior I really wish we had the bandwidth we have now, back in the Napster-era. Napster, and others forced, persuaded and cajoled the music industry to consolidate, whether they liked it or not, on Spotify, and iTunes. If we'd had easy free sharing of movies, it's not hard to envisage something similar to what we see now in the music industry forced on the movie companies. Now…

> Frankly, I'm glad I have a waning interest in modern movies as I get older, and I'm actually more interested in watching old black and white movies that are "free to air" in my country. My mother recently gave me a sub-account to Netflix and while I was thrilled to rewatch some shows I liked (like the OA or good old star trek) I was quickly submerged by the sheer amount of YA novels adapted in TV shows or movies th…

> I feel like I am swimming in an ocean of never ending content produced with the same recipe.

This is what machine learning, pattern recognition will get us.

I watched one show in Amazon prime. One shocking thing I noted besides repetitive plots every few episodes, is that one character say something and after few minutes or next episode another character spoke exactly same sentence in different situation. And it happened so many times I thought I knew what is about to be said.

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#362

Post by seanicus »

bsedlm wrote: post #333
scyzoryk_xyz wrote: post #23

So what we're seeing is a repeat of the film industry from 1930's-1950's. You want to see a Paramount movie, you must go to a Paramount theater. Today you want to watch an Apple show you must go to Apple's VOD. We could really use laws that force, once again, some sort of separation between production and distribution. Better stuff gets made in this kind of ecosystem.

> Better stuff gets made in this kind of ecosystem too bad it's not about making better stuff but more profit. it's like the market has been distorted out of its ability to better reward better stuff.

Exactly. When the movie star system died, it took a lot of material made for adults with it. Even Robert Downey Jr. can't carry a movie that's not a popular IP. Now everything is a $200M sequel to something else or a $1M movie that's financed by 18 different companies. The TV golden age was serving adults for a while but seems to be dying off now.

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#363

Post by magicalhippo »

dalbasal wrote: post #300

The meaninglessness of $8.45b relative to amazon's scale is mind boggling. It represents 0.5% of their market cap, 20% of their cash-on-hand, nevermind their borrowing capacity @ near 0%. If a problem is worth the Jeff/Andy's personal attention, it's worth spending $8bn on. I'm a broken record but, current equity prices and financial climate generally makes massive consolidation very likely. Antitrust, or fear of is…

> The meaninglessness of $8.45b relative to amazon's scale is mind boggling.

My coworked compared it to the Dogecoin marketcap of $44b... kinda puts things in perspective.

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#364

Post by snarf21 »

scyzoryk_xyz wrote: post #23

So what we're seeing is a repeat of the film industry from 1930's-1950's. You want to see a Paramount movie, you must go to a Paramount theater. Today you want to watch an Apple show you must go to Apple's VOD. We could really use laws that force, once again, some sort of separation between production and distribution. Better stuff gets made in this kind of ecosystem.

We have the laws and organizations but the FTC and SEC have failed us in the 21st century. There is no consideration of the consumer or marketplace, only shareholder value.

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#365

Post by GistNoesis »

WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #66
scyzoryk_xyz wrote: post #23

So what we're seeing is a repeat of the film industry from 1930's-1950's. You want to see a Paramount movie, you must go to a Paramount theater. Today you want to watch an Apple show you must go to Apple's VOD. We could really use laws that force, once again, some sort of separation between production and distribution. Better stuff gets made in this kind of ecosystem.

> We could really use laws that force, once again, some sort of separation between production and distribution. Piracy is competition to bad content behavior. It's a meaningful consumer response to monopoly, balkanization and other anti-consumer practices.

Piracy doesn't solve the more dangerous underlying problem of influencing opinions.

For example all Apple TV shows are full of Apple product placement every minute or so.

It's not something new, Disney creates most of their characters with merchandising in mind. Look at baby Yoda.

But it also goes deeper, when it aims to spread ideologies and behaviors.

Now that a James Bond villain write the show, I wonder who the bad guy will be.

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#366

Post by linuxftw »

scyzoryk_xyz wrote: post #23

So what we're seeing is a repeat of the film industry from 1930's-1950's. You want to see a Paramount movie, you must go to a Paramount theater. Today you want to watch an Apple show you must go to Apple's VOD. We could really use laws that force, once again, some sort of separation between production and distribution. Better stuff gets made in this kind of ecosystem.

It's outrageous. If you want to buy a new Chevy, you need to go to a Chevy dealer.

Seriously though, who cares? It's just mindless time wasting entertainment. It's an art form who's time is rapidly passing.

Let's get back to doing things together, like live music, any kind of hobby, just anything other than watching moving pictures.

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#367

Post by syshum »

scyzoryk_xyz wrote: post #23

So what we're seeing is a repeat of the film industry from 1930's-1950's. You want to see a Paramount movie, you must go to a Paramount theater. Today you want to watch an Apple show you must go to Apple's VOD. We could really use laws that force, once again, some sort of separation between production and distribution. Better stuff gets made in this kind of ecosystem.

We need FRAND for Copyright, if you are going to license your copyright in a commercial setting you must license it to all platform in a way fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory method

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#368

Post by jerf »

qilo wrote: post #226
jerf wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I consider it hands down better than any Star Trek except possibly TNG. And that's giving TNG some grace due to being a bit older; take that away and I'll give SG-1 the prize. I will agree that people can reasonably disagree about Deep Space Nine vs SG-1. But that's the level of quality we're talking about, in my opinion. It's top tier, and much less well known. Also strongly recommend binging the first season in par…

> I kinda recommend the Stargate movie first... [...] But I will say that if you kinda dislike it, continue on to SG-1 anyhow. Thanks for pointing this out. Watched the movie as a kid, didn’t like it, and thus never even bothered to check out the tv series.

Then I'd also add that while SG-1 does improve in my opinion as it finds its own footing as most shows do, if you don't at least somewhat enjoy the first episode of SG-1 you can walk away with your head held high. I don't think you have to give it half-a-season like many shows (or 2 seasons like TNG...), they came out very strong at the beginning. It's not the best episode by any means, but it's a fair representative.

(Also as mentioned elsewhere in the thread the third episode is pretty weak.)

(Some versions may have a quite literally gratuitous nudity scene in the first episode. Apparently Showtime demanded one, but a bit bizarrely, left them alone after that and that's the last such thing in the series. I suppose in this era of Game of Thrones this will seem less bizarre than it may have at the time, but it is worth pointing out this is a one-off. So if that happens to be the only reason you like SG-1's first episode, you can stop. :) )

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#369

Post by gentleman11 »

kangaroozach wrote: post #275
DrBazza wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Piracy is competition to bad content behavior I really wish we had the bandwidth we have now, back in the Napster-era. Napster, and others forced, persuaded and cajoled the music industry to consolidate, whether they liked it or not, on Spotify, and iTunes. If we'd had easy free sharing of movies, it's not hard to envisage something similar to what we see now in the music industry forced on the movie companies. Now…

We have not yet approached the pre-streaming willingness to pay (WTP). People used to pay $150 to $200 plus onDemand for the whole package with their cable provider. Today you can have YouTubeTV, HBO, Netflix, Prime, AppleTV+, Disney+, and Spotify for less than that. So perhaps the average will hover around $100 with many paying closer to $200 a month. We are creeping back up to those numbers because people will pay.

Instead of having cable, I used to rent or buy movies. It’s no fun to rent now and the terms and duration suck and it’s hard to get a physical copy now so you’re tied to some service for life if you “buy”

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#370

Post by jxramos »

DrBazza wrote: post #244
paganel wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or we could fall back to watching movies made from the ‘30s to the ‘50s, that’s what I have been doing for more than half a year now and it has been wonderful for my mental well-being (they really knew how to make comedies back then, even after the Hayes code).

I've just made this comment myself. It's amazing how much casual violence there is in modern films that you just don't notice because it's everywhere. I've watched more black and white classics in the last 15 months than I have in the last 20 years. Particularly the old sci-fi, horror, and slapstick films. Harold Lloyd, The Three Stooges, and Chaplin. Plus all the old St Trinians, and Sherlock Holmes. Abbot and Coste…

oh yah, my family totally dropped out of modern media, and man whenever we go to visit extended family and other stuff and they happen to be watching something on TV or a movie or whatever holy smokes it's pretty incredible how resensitized we have become to that violence. I can't stomach it. Probably took several years to happen quietly in the background, not even doing anything particular other than not consuming such media.
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