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Amazon CEO Asks His Hollywood Studio to Explain Its Big Spending

bloomberg.com

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Re: Amazon CEO Asks His Hollywood Studio to Explain Its Big Spending

#11

Post by afavour »

lockhouse wrote: post #8
purpleblue wrote: post #4

I'm at the precipice of getting rid of most of my streaming services. I only keep Amazon video around is because it's free. The only show I watch on that is The Boys. I'm waiting for Netflix to ask me to purchase a second account for my sibling who I share my Netflix account with, and when that happens I'll immediately cancel it. There's nothing there I watch anymore. Disney+ has a slew of failed Marvel shows and I c…

> Everything else, I will pirate without guilt. Are you unwilling or unable to pay for the remaining content you plan to consume? I’ve never understood how flippant HN is about piracy. The entire tech industry is built on intellectual property.

I suspect your view is going to be unpopular but I agree with you. It's fine to find today's selection of streaming TV awful. Just don't watch it. "I'm going to watch this awful thing, I'm just not going to pay for it" isn't really all that defensible as a viewpoint.

Declining streaming revenue means the expensive, good shows will get cancelled and replaced by shitty, cheap to make reality TV. And then people will moan about how all the good TV they used to pirate got cancelled.

Re: Amazon CEO Asks His Hollywood Studio to Explain Its Big Spending

#12

Post by malfist »

xyst wrote: post #6

Interesting. I always thought of Prime Video and Amazon Studios as loss leaders. Also they were investing so much into the studio as to become the dominant leader in 20 yrs as they streamline the process and pump out IP more efficiently (similar to AWS). Seems like they are going backwards or current CEO doesn’t have the backbone to make it happen.

Full disclosure: disgruntled amazon employee

It seems like lately a lot of our CEO's decisions lack backbone or conviction. It seems like he go the role of CEO by yes-maning Bezos (See brain double quote here: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/03/technology/andy-jassy-ama...)

A lot of the decisions made by our CEO lately have been justified with "not invented here" logic. Announcements for both RTO and layoffs have been justified with "other leaders are doing it" statements. Unpopular decisions (like RTO) are made days after a public forum where our CEO could have announced it.

Re: Amazon CEO Asks His Hollywood Studio to Explain Its Big Spending

#14

Post by Apocryphon »

mikece wrote: post #7
purpleblue wrote: post #4

I'm at the precipice of getting rid of most of my streaming services. I only keep Amazon video around is because it's free. The only show I watch on that is The Boys. I'm waiting for Netflix to ask me to purchase a second account for my sibling who I share my Netflix account with, and when that happens I'll immediately cancel it. There's nothing there I watch anymore. Disney+ has a slew of failed Marvel shows and I c…

> Everything else, I will pirate without guilt. I ask this without irony: is there even anything worth sourcing from the high seas these days? Entertainment has largely turned to crap in my opinion.

For one thing, there is all of the material getting removed by streaming services either for controversial content or simply because it is no longer profitable for the services to host them.

Re: Amazon CEO Asks His Hollywood Studio to Explain Its Big Spending

#15

Post by miohtama »

cs702 wrote: post #2

For a while, before Jassy became CEO, people at the company would sometimes jokingly refer to Amazon Studios as "the loss leader for Bezos's sex life." Now that subscriber growth is slowing down at most streaming services, the end of the "golden age of TV" is at hand. Welcome to the "bean-counting age of TV," in which streaming services try to milk subscribers for as much as possible without pissing them off too much…

I’m expecting more BitTorrent.

Re: Amazon CEO Asks His Hollywood Studio to Explain Its Big Spending

#16

Post by fabian2k »

I haven't watched it as the reviews indicate it's likely not worth it, but Amazon's Citadel does seem kinda absurd in terms of money spent compared to the result. There are certainly series where you can see the money they spent, that kind of quality might not get you a mainstream audience anyway but even if it is not a commcercial success you can still understand why it was expensive.

It doesn't seem surprising that a very expensive series that doesn't look expensive and at the same time fails to attract a mainstream audience would trigger some scrutiny.

Re: Amazon CEO Asks His Hollywood Studio to Explain Its Big Spending

#17

Post by willcipriano »

mikece wrote: post #7
purpleblue wrote: post #4

I'm at the precipice of getting rid of most of my streaming services. I only keep Amazon video around is because it's free. The only show I watch on that is The Boys. I'm waiting for Netflix to ask me to purchase a second account for my sibling who I share my Netflix account with, and when that happens I'll immediately cancel it. There's nothing there I watch anymore. Disney+ has a slew of failed Marvel shows and I c…

> Everything else, I will pirate without guilt. I ask this without irony: is there even anything worth sourcing from the high seas these days? Entertainment has largely turned to crap in my opinion.

My plex server is probably 90% things that are over 10 years old. I relatively recently finished Columbo. I don't really have much of a problem pirating something where most of the people who were involved are dead or in a nursing home.

Re: Amazon CEO Asks His Hollywood Studio to Explain Its Big Spending

#18

Post by [deleted] »

afavour wrote: post #11
lockhouse wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Everything else, I will pirate without guilt. Are you unwilling or unable to pay for the remaining content you plan to consume? I’ve never understood how flippant HN is about piracy. The entire tech industry is built on intellectual property.

I suspect your view is going to be unpopular but I agree with you. It's fine to find today's selection of streaming TV awful. Just don't watch it. "I'm going to watch this awful thing, I'm just not going to pay for it" isn't really all that defensible as a viewpoint. Declining streaming revenue means the expensive, good shows will get cancelled and replaced by shitty, cheap to make reality TV. And then people will mo…

[deleted]

Re: Amazon CEO Asks His Hollywood Studio to Explain Its Big Spending

#19

Post by monsieurgaufre »

mikece wrote: post #7
purpleblue wrote: post #4

I'm at the precipice of getting rid of most of my streaming services. I only keep Amazon video around is because it's free. The only show I watch on that is The Boys. I'm waiting for Netflix to ask me to purchase a second account for my sibling who I share my Netflix account with, and when that happens I'll immediately cancel it. There's nothing there I watch anymore. Disney+ has a slew of failed Marvel shows and I c…

> Everything else, I will pirate without guilt. I ask this without irony: is there even anything worth sourcing from the high seas these days? Entertainment has largely turned to crap in my opinion.

Hard to get documentaries, live bootlegs from the users' favorite bands, ...

The "long tail" has moved to the high seas. At least, in my case.

Re: Amazon CEO Asks His Hollywood Studio to Explain Its Big Spending

#20

Post by tiffanyh »

cs702 wrote: post #2

For a while, before Jassy became CEO, people at the company would sometimes jokingly refer to Amazon Studios as "the loss leader for Bezos's sex life." Now that subscriber growth is slowing down at most streaming services, the end of the "golden age of TV" is at hand. Welcome to the "bean-counting age of TV," in which streaming services try to milk subscribers for as much as possible without pissing them off too much…

Can you explain more your "loss leader" comment.

What's the background on why that comment was being made?

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