TV/Movies Megathread

[The Larch]

Yeah, Netflix has been sustainable the past couple years. Before that they had to take on a lot of debt to sustain their production. The issue is whether the market is big enough for so many players, since Disney is also being very aggressive. HBO is already kinda pulling back.

I guess I'm a bit scarred by the Spanish TV bubble. That coupled with the recession nearly killed the industry over here.

Netflix is the only big international player producing Spanish language content nowadays, right? I guess that the sector is safe at least for as long as they want to keep increasing their libraries.

[Sheilbh]

The tv license is the cost :p

But if you've got an aerial you're already paying that.

And you can use iPlayer even if you don't have one - you just say you do

Edit: And interestingly I saw a football writer compare those LOTR/Knives Out costs with UK Premier League rights. Amazon bought the rights to 20 games per year in the UK only at a cost of £100 million (which was, apparently, about half the amoung Sky and BT Sport were paying in the same rights auction). So the cost of LOTR or all of Game of Thrones is about the same as the right to show some bank holiday Premier League games for four years.

From what I understand the justification for football rights costing so much is that they drive new subscriptions which is the key metric for Sky (for Amazon it's similar because it drives people to sign up for Prime; for BT it's slightly different because they were trying to stop Sky from muscling in on the broadband market).

Obvioiusly it just shows how crazily expensive football rights are - and I wonder if new subscriptions are still the main goal for Netflix/Amazon and, if so, how much LOTR/Knives Out will drive them. But I imagine all the streaming services are looking at sports rights as well and, in that context, I wonder if all this content is actually pretty cheap and cost-effective

[celedhring]

Yeah, Netflix has been sustainable the past couple years. Before that they had to take on a lot of debt to sustain their production. The issue is whether the market is big enough for so many players, since Disney is also being very aggressive. HBO is already kinda pulling back.

I guess I'm a bit scarred by the Spanish TV bubble. That coupled with the recession nearly killed the industry over here.

Netflix is the only big international player producing Spanish language content nowadays, right? I guess that the sector is safe at least for as long as they want to keep increasing their libraries.

Netflix has essentially replaced terrestrial TV as the main content producers in the country after the shock of the recession. There's Movistar, but they don't nearly have the volume Netflix does. Disney+ say they want to get in the action, but we'll see. Amazon and HBO wanted to invest in Spanish content, but they're cutting down on their plans (which is the reason why 30 Coins is still in the bubble).

By all accounts Netflix is hugely successful in Spain (30% of the population has a subscription, which is crazy), but the industry is becoming very dependant on them.

[Grey Fox]

The tv license is the cost :p

But if you've got an aerial you're already paying that.

And you can use iPlayer even if you don't have one - you just say you do

Edit: And interestingly I saw a football writer compare those LOTR/Knives Out costs with UK Premier League rights. Amazon bought the rights to 20 games per year in the UK only at a cost of £100 million (which was, apparently, about half the amoung Sky and BT Sport were paying in the same rights auction). So the cost of LOTR or all of Game of Thrones is about the same as the right to show some bank holiday Premier League games for four years.

From what I understand the justification for football rights costing so much is that they drive new subscriptions which is the key metric for Sky (for Amazon it's similar because it drives people to sign up for Prime; for BT it's slightly different because they were trying to stop Sky from muscling in on the broadband market).

Obvioiusly it just shows how crazily expensive football rights are - and I wonder if new subscriptions are still the main goal for Netflix/Amazon and, if so, how much LOTR/Knives Out will drive them. But I imagine all the streaming services are looking at sports rights as well and, in that context, I wonder if all this content is actually pretty cheap and cost-effective

Amazon just paid 10 billions for 16 NFL games/year for 10 years.

[Josephus]

Yeah, Netflix has been sustainable the past couple years. Before that they had to take on a lot of debt to sustain their production. The issue is whether the market is big enough for so many players, since Disney is also being very aggressive. HBO is already kinda pulling back.

I guess I'm a bit scarred by the Spanish TV bubble. That coupled with the recession nearly killed the industry over here.

Netflix is the only big international player producing Spanish language content nowadays, right? I guess that the sector is safe at least for as long as they want to keep increasing their libraries.

I saw 30 Coins which is a Spanish show produced by HBO Europe

[The Larch]

Yeah, Netflix has been sustainable the past couple years. Before that they had to take on a lot of debt to sustain their production. The issue is whether the market is big enough for so many players, since Disney is also being very aggressive. HBO is already kinda pulling back.

I guess I'm a bit scarred by the Spanish TV bubble. That coupled with the recession nearly killed the industry over here.

Netflix is the only big international player producing Spanish language content nowadays, right? I guess that the sector is safe at least for as long as they want to keep increasing their libraries.

I saw 30 Coins which is a Spanish show produced by HBO Europe

HBO's strategy has been, I think, aimed at lower volume but higher quality productions. I took a quick look and of the few original content they've produced all of it seemed to be linked to big names or prestige kind of projects. Netflix, on the contrary, seems to be more about higher volume volume but more run of the mill quality, as well as acquiring previous productions of proven success, like "La casa de papel" (Money Heist for international markets).

[Syt]

Speaking of:

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2021-05-16/why-att-is-spinning-off-hbo-cnn-warner-media-discovery

AT&T to spin off HBO, other WarnerMedia assets in a huge deal with Discovery. What went wrong?

[Josquius]

The tv license is the cost :p

But if you've got an aerial you're already paying that.

And you can use iPlayer even if you don't have one - you just say you do

I refuse to fund the Brexit Broadcasting Corporation so don't pay for my TV licence.
I'm also honest and/or a coward so do things properly and don't have a TV aerial or watch iPlayer. I have heard the BBC gets data from ISPs to check there.

We'll see in a year or two if I'm still living here, might want a satellite dish to get French TV for the bairn so will need a license for that.

Edit: And interestingly I saw a football writer compare those LOTR/Knives Out costs with UK Premier League rights. Amazon bought the rights to 20 games per year in the UK only at a cost of £100 million (which was, apparently, about half the amoung Sky and BT Sport were paying in the same rights auction). So the cost of LOTR or all of Game of Thrones is about the same as the right to show some bank holiday Premier League games for four years.

From what I understand the justification for football rights costing so much is that they drive new subscriptions which is the key metric for Sky (for Amazon it's similar because it drives people to sign up for Prime; for BT it's slightly different because they were trying to stop Sky from muscling in on the broadband market).

Obvioiusly it just shows how crazily expensive football rights are - and I wonder if new subscriptions are still the main goal for Netflix/Amazon and, if so, how much LOTR/Knives Out will drive them. But I imagine all the streaming services are looking at sports rights as well and, in that context, I wonder if all this content is actually pretty cheap and cost-effective

The football bubble has to pop someday. Surely?
Though I do find it fascinating the amount of people who just accept that this post-premier league big bucks centre of all life place it holds is the way things have always been.

[celedhring]

Yeah, Netflix has been sustainable the past couple years. Before that they had to take on a lot of debt to sustain their production. The issue is whether the market is big enough for so many players, since Disney is also being very aggressive. HBO is already kinda pulling back.

I guess I'm a bit scarred by the Spanish TV bubble. That coupled with the recession nearly killed the industry over here.

Netflix is the only big international player producing Spanish language content nowadays, right? I guess that the sector is safe at least for as long as they want to keep increasing their libraries.

I saw 30 Coins which is a Spanish show produced by HBO Europe

HBO's strategy has been, I think, aimed at lower volume but higher quality productions. I took a quick look and of the few original content they've produced all of it seemed to be linked to big names or prestige kind of projects. Netflix, on the contrary, seems to be more about higher volume volume but more run of the mill quality, as well as acquiring previous productions of proven success, like "La casa de papel" (Money Heist for international markets).

Rather than "quantity over quality", what Netflix does is cover all the audience niches. They want to have something for everybody. HBO is still focusing on the kind of prestige stuff they built their brand around.
Disney has the same issue. They have some superpopular stuff, but at the same time a very narrow brand and library. They created Star to try to widen the appeal of the platform, but it's still very barebones.

[Sheilbh]

I refuse to fund the Brexit Broadcasting Corporation so don't pay for my TV licence.
I'm also honest and/or a coward so do things properly and don't have a TV aerial or watch iPlayer. I have heard the BBC gets data from ISPs to check there.

Because our public service broadcaster is problematic v what people actually pay for

I think the ISP check is nonsense - it's a bit like the TV Licence vans. There might be a tiny amount of truth for it but it's not a real risk.

The football bubble has to pop someday. Surely?
Though I do find it fascinating the amount of people who just accept that this post-premier league big bucks centre of all life place it holds is the way things have always been.

Yeah - but that's one of those things that I think is true, but has also been predicted for most of the last 20 years and not yet happened

I mean they've just rolled over the previous domestic deal through to 2025 on the same terms (including price) which in the context of covid and expectations that TV money will fall, is an extraordinary deal for the Premier League. I think it's the first time they won't have earned more money on a rights deal, but standing still is winning at the minute.

And presumably part of the reason the broadcasters have agreed is because it's still basically a worthwhile deal for them in terms of new subscriptions v cost?

[Josquius]

I do think interest in football has dropped off a fair bit with corona. Though that might be just me.
I'm expecting an initial period of good crowds for those who've missed it then lower than average gate numbers for the rest of the year.
A steady cancellation in increased watch at home subscriptions will go alongside this.

[The Larch]

I do think interest in football has dropped off a fair bit with corona. Though that might be just me.
I'm expecting an initial period of good crowds for those who've missed it then lower than average gate numbers for the rest of the year.
A steady cancellation in increased watch at home subscriptions will go alongside this.

I'm predicting that you're going to be massively wrong about this. 

[Josquius]

Probably.
There's also the complicating factor of increased remote work and flight from London meaning more people with money are able to live closer to home and get to games more.

[The Larch]

Probably.
There's also the complicating factor of increased remote work and flight from London meaning more people with money are able to live closer to home and get to games more.

You're aware that there's an entire world outside the UK and London, right?

[Sheilbh]

I do think interest in football has dropped off a fair bit with corona. Though that might be just me.
I'm expecting an initial period of good crowds for those who've missed it then lower than average gate numbers for the rest of the year.
A steady cancellation in increased watch at home subscriptions will go alongside this.

I think in the UK there's a little bit of exhaustion that there's so much football. I think that's probably true across Europe too because seasons have been so condensed so there's many games in a short space of time - and this will carry on into next season with the Qatar World Cup in the middle.

In the UK I also think the fact we can watch all the games on TV is slightly weird and I feel like some people feel they need to watch all the games. But also there's just always a game going on. I'm not sure if the 3pm blackout will return

But in the same way as this time last year people were craving for the return of football as some new entertainment, I think after all this is over people will be craving human contact and crowded experiences. I don't think there'll be a long-term decline even if I do wonder if we're approaching the limit on how much money for TV rights they can get.