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Amazon Nears Deal to Buy Hollywood Studio MGM

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Re: Amazon Nears Deal to Buy Hollywood Studio MGM

#21

Post by slg »

dogma1138 wrote: post #18
MattGrommes wrote: post #14

What does Amazon get if they buy a Hollywood studio, besides the content library? Is MGM just a holder of copyright for various popular franchises or does the company actually make things?

You’ve just answered your own question. A huge catalog of classics as well as franchises that can be developed into new shows and movies. The Bond franchise alone probably is worth half of what this deal is gonna cost.

>The Bond franchise alone probably is worth half of what this deal is gonna cost.

Probably not. MGM doesn't "own" Bond in the same way that Disney owns Star Wars. There are complicating factors to the Bond movies that reduce the brand's value to MGM and any new prospective owner.

Re: Amazon Nears Deal to Buy Hollywood Studio MGM

#22

Post by echelon »

jonny_eh wrote: post #9
Kye wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Owning proven stuff is probably a more reliable investment than hoping one of your darts in the wall develops the cultural cachet of any of these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer_f... How many Netflix productions come even close for all the tens of billions they've poured into it? Reliable names mean customer retention.

As attractive as catalog content can seem, it's not the reason why new customers join, and stay with, a streaming service. New content is King.

Tell that to the owners of The Office.

Peacock making anything new and relevant?

Re: Amazon Nears Deal to Buy Hollywood Studio MGM

#23

Post by walshemj »

echelon wrote: post #20
ashneo76 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This purchase should be illegal yesterday

Monopolists are going to downvote you, but they're wrong. These megacorps shouldn't be allowed to enter fifteen different industries and kill off the incumbents. This is absurd. Amazon is internet services infra, shopping, logistics, fulfillment, consumer hardware, networking, a payments stack, publisher, grocery store, and now a fucking entertainment company. They track us, turn us into non-owner subscribers, and pr…

But all those rich news paper /media moguls get a pass then

Re: Amazon Nears Deal to Buy Hollywood Studio MGM

#24

Post by WheelsAtLarge »

Amazon tends to beat the creative parts out of the companies they buy. I bet it's related to the financial efficiencies they apply to them. Creativity is expensive without any guaranteed return.

Most of the new prime video content, that I've seen, seems to have a very safe tone to it. Yes, it's new but it's safe. No one will be surprised or insulted by it. It starts to get boring very quickly.

As new owners, I hope they don't have such a hard hand that they ruin the brand.

Re: Amazon Nears Deal to Buy Hollywood Studio MGM

#25

Post by ipsum2 »

echelon wrote: post #20
ashneo76 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This purchase should be illegal yesterday

Monopolists are going to downvote you, but they're wrong. These megacorps shouldn't be allowed to enter fifteen different industries and kill off the incumbents. This is absurd. Amazon is internet services infra, shopping, logistics, fulfillment, consumer hardware, networking, a payments stack, publisher, grocery store, and now a fucking entertainment company. They track us, turn us into non-owner subscribers, and pr…

> Amazon is internet services infra, shopping, logistics, fulfillment, consumer hardware, networking, a payments stack, publisher, grocery store, and now a fucking entertainment company.

How many of these do they have a monopoly on? Keep in mind, the definition of monopoly is: "the exclusive possession or control of the supply of or trade in a commodity or service."

Re: Amazon Nears Deal to Buy Hollywood Studio MGM

#26

Post by fareesh »

dogma1138 wrote: post #16
space_ghost wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Expanse was cancelled and then saved by Amazon within a year, Stargate has essentially been a dead property for 10 years.

There is a difference between saving a show and saving a franchise. The Star Trek movies saved the franchise which lead to TNG, DS9 and Voyager, they didn’t save the original series tho. I only hope is that they won’t turn Stargate into Discovery like show.

Chevron 7 locked

"waaaaaaaaaa"

Re: Amazon Nears Deal to Buy Hollywood Studio MGM

#27

Post by Judgmentality »

WheelsAtLarge wrote: post #24

Amazon tends to beat the creative parts out of the companies they buy. I bet it's related to the financial efficiencies they apply to them. Creativity is expensive without any guaranteed return. Most of the new prime video content, that I've seen, seems to have a very safe tone to it. Yes, it's new but it's safe. No one will be surprised or insulted by it. It starts to get boring very quickly. As new owners, I hope t…

> Most of the new prime video content, that I've seen, seems to have a very safe tone to it. Yes, it's new but it's safe. No one will be surprised or insulted by it. It starts to get boring very quickly.

Overall I agree with your point and I'm extremely confident Amazon buying MGM will completely and utterly fuck over any creative potential that company has (similar to what's happening with AT&T and HBO), but - if you're looking for something good to watch on Prime, take a look at Invincible. I was actually about to give up on it and then I got to the end of the first episode and I binged the rest of the show in less than a day.

It's the first time in years I've looked forward to the next season of a show that isn't a comedy.

Re: Amazon Nears Deal to Buy Hollywood Studio MGM

#28

Post by subsubzero »

WheelsAtLarge wrote: post #24

Amazon tends to beat the creative parts out of the companies they buy. I bet it's related to the financial efficiencies they apply to them. Creativity is expensive without any guaranteed return. Most of the new prime video content, that I've seen, seems to have a very safe tone to it. Yes, it's new but it's safe. No one will be surprised or insulted by it. It starts to get boring very quickly. As new owners, I hope t…

Agree, I think the same thing happened when Disney acquired Fox film studios. Disney is notorious for low pay and alot of the fox execs/creatives were extremely worried after the acquisition, same thing going on with with Amazon/MGM.

I know amazon paid a fortune for Tolkien's Silmarillion TV rights and we haven't seen a single thing about that situation. My big worry is amazon screws around with the Bond franchise and ruins it, it seems to be doing extremely well with top directors and large blockbuster returns.

Re: Amazon Nears Deal to Buy Hollywood Studio MGM

#29

Post by kuang_eleven »

echelon wrote: post #20
ashneo76 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This purchase should be illegal yesterday

Monopolists are going to downvote you, but they're wrong. These megacorps shouldn't be allowed to enter fifteen different industries and kill off the incumbents. This is absurd. Amazon is internet services infra, shopping, logistics, fulfillment, consumer hardware, networking, a payments stack, publisher, grocery store, and now a fucking entertainment company. They track us, turn us into non-owner subscribers, and pr…

They are the dominant player in only a few of those, and even in those dominant markets, they are far from a monopoly.

Now, if they use a dominant position in one industry to gain advantage in another, that is a different story, but also a harder thing to show.

Re: Amazon Nears Deal to Buy Hollywood Studio MGM

#30

Post by echelon »

ipsum2 wrote: post #25
echelon wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Monopolists are going to downvote you, but they're wrong. These megacorps shouldn't be allowed to enter fifteen different industries and kill off the incumbents. This is absurd. Amazon is internet services infra, shopping, logistics, fulfillment, consumer hardware, networking, a payments stack, publisher, grocery store, and now a fucking entertainment company. They track us, turn us into non-owner subscribers, and pr…

> Amazon is internet services infra, shopping, logistics, fulfillment, consumer hardware, networking, a payments stack, publisher, grocery store, and now a fucking entertainment company. How many of these do they have a monopoly on? Keep in mind, the definition of monopoly is: "the exclusive possession or control of the supply of or trade in a commodity or service."

They can enter new industries well below market cost and destroy all of the existing businesses. They then soak up everything. In the end, everything becomes Amazon.

They did it to open source, bookstores, retail.

Maybe you don't see the end goal, where every restaurant is Amazon and you rent your home from Jeff Bezos?

Maybe you're not worried and you trust these people?

Maybe you don't want to compete and you just want to be an employee?

I don't know. But this is wrong. You can't compete with this, you're forced to work with it. It decreases degrees of freedom and angle of attack for everyone else.

From Amazon's perspective, their moat becomes an ocean. That's hard to swim in.

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