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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

#41

Post by andsoitis »

theonlybutlet wrote: post #31
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.

Yes the tech industry is built on intellectual property but the movie/TV industry is built on false scarcity. The music industry used to follow this model until the advent of Spotify. We had a brief time at the advent of streaming where it looked like Movie/TV was going this way, but they reversed course. I have a Netflix subscription, if you want a cut of that subscription, by all means show your content on Netflix…

> the movie/TV industry is built on false scarcity

What is the “false scarcity”?

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

#42

Post by browningstreet »

oflannabhra wrote: post #21
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…

We cut the sub on Netflix last year when they hiked the price. We've re-subbed a single month since then, during the holidays, and we didn't even fill up the month with enough to watch. I'm not sure if that's a discoverability problem, but my sense is that it is a quality problem. We've now moved to a carousel of rotating subscriptions between Hulu, Disney, HBO, Peacock, etc. It's much cheaper although annoying to ma…

Services like https://www.justwatch.com make it easier to track shows as they move from service to service, as well...

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

#43

Post by solardev »

mikece wrote: post #5

High costs for studios seems to be something experienced by everyone in Hollywood; the difference for Amazon is that the studios sell their product on a pay-per-view basis upon launch whereas Amazon gives it away for free to everyone with Prime (at least for now... maybe Prime will start doing PPV on initial release adn then free for Prime members later?). I've had Prime for years and wish the service was bifurcated…

Funny, I wish there was a way to pay for streaming media without the shipping.

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

#44

Post by lockhouse »

Apocryphon wrote: post #25
afavour wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Plenty of good shows get cancelled even without piracy, though. One wonders what’s the best way to signal to the suits that a show is in hot demand. Maybe by buying it directly or by being a Nielsen viewer.

When it comes to streaming content, the suits have all the data. It comes down to the simple formula of does this show keep and attract subscribers in sufficient numbers to make its production costs worthwhile.

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

#45

Post by Arkhaine_kupo »

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.

> The entire tech industry is built on intellectual property.

The entire tech industry is built on free proyects, open source and collaboration. Modern tech is all about walled gardens and patent rent seeking because most modern tech leaders are awful.

See the always relevant xkcd: https://xkcd.com/2347/

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

#46

Post by malchow »

hgdfhgfdhgdf wrote: post #40
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…

Fortunately, capitalism ensures you will have other choices besides Amazon.

Or the choice to buy no tv content at all, a choice that our less-capitalist forefathers in the UK do not have !

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

#47

Post by andsoitis »

thebooktocome wrote: post #29
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.

Software intellectual property is (for better or worse) primarily enshrined in patents, which have a limited exclusive lifetime. The content industry’s intellectual property is primarily enshrined in copyright, whose exclusive lifetime greatly outstrips most human lifespans. It’s not contradictory to be for the first and against the second.

Are you for software patents?

I find it more palatable to be for copyright than for software patents.

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

#48

Post by explorigin »

Apocryphon wrote: post #25
afavour wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Plenty of good shows get cancelled even without piracy, though. One wonders what’s the best way to signal to the suits that a show is in hot demand. Maybe by buying it directly or by being a Nielsen viewer.

Like flying a banner over Bezos house? Like The Expanse fans did.

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

#49

Post by crossroadsguy »

miohtama wrote: post #15
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.

Yes, indeed. MUBI is the only one that, even though it’s kinda the costliest, doesn’t not make sense. I somehow like for its nature and the way it has so far stuck to it. “Good” cinema and no gimmicks and just for its target audience. Not sure whether they’re making money.

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

#50

Post by iamleppert »

It’s about time that tech companies go in and clean up Hollywood. There needs to be a year of efficiency imposed on these spendthrifts. The Hollywood elite needs to be held accountable, if they are not delivering ROI and maximizing shareholder value.

It should not cost so much for a TV show or movie. YouTubers with more views are producing hit after hit with nothing more than an iPhone these days. Directors should streamline their operations with AI, and on-screen talent and team members should be paid an hourly wage that is only time they are actually in front of a camera, delivering value. If they really believe in a project, they can choose to give up cash compensation for the privilege of purchasing options of a TV show. This helps align incentives and optimize risk to capital and stakeholders to do more and deliver faster with less.

Amazon and others should think about relocating production to areas outside of California where the costs are out of control and in a locale where the regulatory environment is optimized for business returns. TV shows and movies need to be evaluated on a quarterly basis and KPI’s should be enforced at all levels. To minimize risk, investment into AI that can be trained to emulate consumer watching behavior is needed and production should be run in a data-driven agile process.

If a show can’t be monetized, it isn’t worth being produced. Entertainment needs to be in the service of moving ad inventory, growing or retaining paying subscribers, or improving conversion of existing profit centers.

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