Disney said it would cut 7,000 jobs from its global workforce, part of a multibillion-dollar cost-cutting initiative aimed at streamlining the company’s operations in a period of media industry turmoil.
Disney had about 220,000 workers as of October 1, of which approximately 166,000 were employed in the United States. A cut of 7,000 jobs represents about 3{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of its global workforce.
“While this is necessary to address the challenges we’re facing today, I do not make this decision lightly,” said CEO Bob Iger, who returned to lead the company in November when the board fired Bob Chapek as the company’s leader. “I have enormous respect and appreciation for the talent and dedication of our employees worldwide, and I’m mindful of the personal impact of these changes.”
Iger also took steps to reward shareholders, while Disney employees will feel pain from the job cut announcement.
The company had suspended its dividend payments during the pandemic. Iger announced it expects that to return.
“Now that the pandemic impacts to our business are largely behind us, we intend to ask the board to approve the reinstatement of a dividend by the end of the calendar year,” he said. “Our cost-cutting initiatives will make this possible. And while initially, it will be a modest dividend, we hope to build upon it over time.”
The job cuts come as part of a cost-cutting effort also announced Wednesday. Iger said the company is aiming for $5.5 billion of cost savings across the company, with $2.5 billion of that coming from annual savings in “non-content” operations. Content operations refers to business units such as movies and television shows.
It said 50{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of the cost savings would come from marketing expenses, 30{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} from labor savings and 20{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of the cost savings would come from less spending on technology, procurement and other expenses. Since Disney is a major advertiser, a $1 billion reduction in annual marketing expenditures signals more difficulties ahead for other media, as well as tech companies.
The sweeping job cuts were announced by Iger after the company released better than expected financial results for the fourth quarter of 2022. Disney revenue in the quarter rose 8{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} to $23.5 billion, edging past estimates of $23.4 billion from analysts surveyed by Refinitiv.
Earnings per share, while slightly lower than a year ago, shot past forecasts, coming in at 99 cents excluding special items. That’s down from the $1.06 per share it earned on that basis a year earlier, but far better than the forecast of 78 cents a share.
The company said the results were helped by strong box office showings, including for the hit “Avatar: The Way of Water,” and exceptionally robust theme park revenue.
The company reported that it lost Disney+ streaming subscribers in the last quarter, but also managed to trim its losses from the previous three-month period. Disney cut the marketing expenses for streaming, and also adjusted pricing plans in an effort to attract more profitable subscribers.
The number of subscribers was down only 1{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809}, to 162 million from 164 million, at the end of the quarter that ended October 1. But its other streaming businesses, including ESPN+ and Hulu, in which it has a stake, both had subscriber numbers rise 2{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809}.
That helped Disney to trim it losses in the overall streaming segment to $1.1 billion in the quarter, down from $1.5 billion in the quarter ending October 1, although it was nearly double the $593 million loss it reported a year earlier.
Disney’s streaming services, highlighted by its Disney+ offering, had been reporting increases in both subscribers and losses in recent quarters.
The company reaffirmed its guidance that Disney+ remains on course to be profitable in the next fiscal year, which runs from October through September 2024, although it cautioned that could be affected by an economic downturn.
With consumers cutting the cord on cable services, the need for a money-making streaming offering is seen as critical. Disney had profited for years from cable subscriber fee revenue.
Iger said increased attention to improving profitability in the streaming business does not mean that the company is moving away from it as a key to its future.
“The streaming business, which I believe is the future and has been growing, is not delivering basically the kind of profitability or bottom line results that the linear business delivered for us over a few decades,” he said, referring to programming on television or in movie theaters.
He said that streaming “remains our #1 priority. It is, in many respects, our future, but we’re not going to abandon the linear or the traditional platforms while they can still be a benefit to us and our shareholders.”
Shares of Disney
(DIS) jumped 6{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} in after-markets trading following the announcement of cost cutting and the return of the dividend. Shares of Disney
(DIS) lost 43{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of their value in 2022, but are up nearly 22{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} since Iger’s return was announced in November, through Wednesday’s close. That isfar better than the overall market but behind the gains in the same period at some other media companies, such as Netflix
(NFLX) or Warner Bros. Discovery, the owner of CNN.
This was Iger’s first quarterly report since returning as CEO. While he had previously announced some changes, many investors had been looking to this quarterly earnings for clarity on Disney’s strategic direction going forward.
Iger announced that he will be combining all its media and content businesses globally, including streaming, into a new segment to be known as Disney Entertainment. He said the reorganization is a key to a “return [of] creativity to the center of the company.”
And he took shots at the way the company had been structured under Chapek.
“Our company is fueled by storytelling and creativity,” he said. “I’ve always believed that the best way to spur great creativity is to make sure that people who are managing the creative processes feel empowered. Therefore, our new structure is aimed at returning greater authority to our creative leaders and making them accountable for how their content performs financially. Our former structure severed that link and it must be restored.”
He also dismissed the idea that Disney would move to get rid of ESPN, as some have suggested in the past.
Volkswagen Group of The united states has filed suit in federal courtroom in Illinois in the hopes of rolling again a transform to condition franchise legal guidelines that demands automakers to reimburse sellers for guarantee operate at the similar fee a retail purchaser pays, which the automaker reported value it in excess of $10 million previous 12 months.
The fit, submitted last thirty day period in U.S. District Courtroom for the Northern District of Illinois, normally takes difficulty with the Multiplier Act, a improve in the state’s Motor Car Franchise Act that was signed into regulation in 2021. The Multiplier Act removed the common time tutorial warranty payment method and mandates as a substitute that automakers fork out the same amount for a coated repair as a retail purchaser would. The improve in guarantee flat amount time reimbursements equates to a 50 {cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} maximize for every services procedure, the accommodate claimed.
The new guarantee reimbursement provision went into outcome Jan. 1, 2022, and the German automaker contends in its match that from that day via the close of November, it had been forced to pay practically $10 million much more to its 28 VW and 12 Audi outlets in the state for guarantee function.
“Simply just set, the Multiplier Act is crony capitalism at perform: redistributive legislation that normally takes hundreds of thousands and thousands of bucks from some (but not all) motor vehicle makers and, for no community goal, deposits that money specifically into the pockets of politically favored Illinois dealers,” the accommodate stated.
It names quite a few condition officers as defendants, as effectively as members of the Illinois Motor Car or truck Critique Board, and asks the courts to declare the Multiplier Act unconstitutional on numerous grounds, which include that it only applies to legacy automakers with franchised sellers.
The Multiplier Act — also called the Warranty Reimbursement Act — was championed in the legislature by a combination of franchised sellers and organized labor, ostensibly to encourage technician shell out, and was passed on a bipartisan foundation.
VW is the only automaker to challenge the constitutionality of the Illinois statute. Neighboring Wisconsin handed a related provision into its condition franchise legal guidelines a lot more than a 10 years ago.
“All work justifies reasonable payment, and I am happy that the bill I’m signing today makes sure car mechanics are compensated reasonably for the crucial competent labor they offer,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker claimed in a composed statement when he signed the act into regulation in July 2021.
Auto dealers in Illinois are not essential to move along the more reimbursements to professionals. Nevertheless, labor agreements with unions representing professionals in metro Chicago now consist of provisions that go the further reimbursements through to personnel, claimed 1 seller representative who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The individual said dealers who failed to pass by the additional reimbursements risked shedding their technicians to dealerships that did. Even so, in its fit, VW known as out the absence of clarity, indicating that the law “does not require sellers to enhance technician shell out one cent. Nor does it address experts employed by suppliers that market immediately to buyers.”
A spokesman for VW Team of The us mentioned the automaker would have no added remark outside of the match.
“We’re pleased the bill went by and the governor signed it,” said Joe McMahon, executive director of the Illinois Auto Dealers Affiliation. “We feel their efforts in federal courtroom to take away this legislation are form of frivolous. All we stated during the legislative procedure was that we wished dealerships and technicians to be compensated fairly, and our associates agreed.”
Provide out the fabrics, cameras, stars and the influencers: New York Manner Week is back again!
The initial of the two significant vogue seasons in 2023 the place American designers put their newest collections on display screen is scheduled to kick off Feb. 10, with a several displays getting position right before the official begin day.
The February 7 days of manner brings returning designers including Sergio Hudson,Christian Siriano, Proenza Schouler and Brandon Maxwell as perfectly as New York Trend 7 days very first-timers Kate Barton, Heron Preston and Zimo, all showcasing their Tumble/Winter season 2023 collections.
Here is every little thing to know about NYFW 2023.
Rodarte is the initially of 74 labels on the CFDA calendar to current a runway show of its new collections for the February 7 days of vogue. CFDA’s 2022 accent designer of the yr, Luar, will shut the week with a clearly show on Feb. 15 at 8 p.m.
Traditionally, New York Trend Week has served as a way to showcase designers’ creations with presentations and runway demonstrates for manner journalists and shop purchasers. From 1993 to 2009, the exhibits transpired beneath white tents at Bryant Park in Midtown Manhattan, relocating farther uptown in 2010 to Lincoln Centre prior to locating its current dwelling downtown at Spring Studios in 2015.
The events each season let editors, customers, superstars and consumers to preview designers’ collections.
NYFW plan highlights
Thursday, Feb. 9
Christian Siriano.
Victor de Souza.
Friday, Feb. 10
Rodarte.
Collina Strada.
Prabal Gurung.
Dion Lee.
Saturday, Feb. 11
Proenza Schouler.
Region.
PatBo.
Sergio Hudson.
Sunday, Feb. 12
Ulla Johnson.
Jason Wu.
Non-public Coverage.
Kim Shui.
Monday, Feb. 13
Dennis Basso.
Mentor.
Tory Burch.
Tuesday, Feb. 14
Brandon Maxwell.
Naeem Khan.
Altuzarra.
Christian Cowan.
Wednesday, Feb. 15
Michael Kors.
Badgley Mischka.
Willy Chavarria.
The Blonds.
What celebs will show up at New York Style 7 days?
Though the guest checklist of vogue 7 days is generally held below lock and essential, celebrity watchers can assume stars with the most excitement to attend exhibits. But certainly, one can anticipate Vogue Editor-in-Main Anna Wintour to attend some of the demonstrates in the entrance row.
Many NYFW displays are invite-only, but there are options if you want a initially appear at most up-to-date collections.
The Council of Vogue Designers of America will be streaming runway reveals on Runway360. A lot of of the reveals on the program will be electronic-only demonstrates, including presentations from Theo, Black Boy Knits and Lapointe.
Share on PinterestAccording to new research, there are three top factors that contribute to caloric intake at mealtime. Image credit: Carol Yepes/Getty Images
Researchers investigated the effects of different meal characteristics on caloric consumption.
They found that meals that are eaten quickly and that contain high-energy density, as well as highly palatable foods are linked to higher caloric intake across four diets.
They noted that further research is needed to confirm their findings.
The main cause of obesity is long-term energy imbalance — consuming more calories than the body gets a chance to burn. Research into dietary practices for weight loss is thus key for treating obesity.
Studies have shown that eating quickly and higher energy density foods — foods that have more calories per gram — is linked to greater food intake. Other data have shown that highly palatable foods may be artificially rewarding to consume.
Meanwhile, higher protein intake has been linked to increased satiety and lower energy intake. Understanding more about key dietary characteristics could aid the design of diets to treat obesity.
Recently, researchers investigated how meal characteristics affect caloric intake in four different dietary patterns.
They found that meal energy density, how quickly meals were eaten, and consumption of hyper-palatable foods influenced caloric intake.
“I am not surprised by the findings — this is what I would have expected,” Prof. Alberto Ascherio, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, not involved in the study, told Medical News Today.
“‘Hyper-palatable foods’ means just that — that they are designed to make you eat more. The food industry works hard to design these foods, with several tasting rounds to perfect the recipe, and the most reliable measure that you like a food is that you eat more.”
The researchers analyzed data collected from 35 individuals who participated in two inpatient feeding studies. All participants were aged between 18 and 50 years and had a stable weight for the previous 6 months.
During the studies, they were exposed to either minimally processed diets, which varied widely in carbohydrate and fat content, or diets with moderate levels of carbohydrate and fat that varied in ultra-processed and minimally processed foods.
Participants were exposed to two different diets with 7-day rotating menus for two weeks each. They were asked to eat as much as they wanted from each dietary condition.
All in all, the researchers had complete data for 2,733 meals, including their energy density, protein content, speed of eating, and percentage of hyper-palatable foods consumed- defined as those high in fat, sodium, fat, and sugar, or high in carbohydrate or salt.
In the end, the researchers found that energy density, percentage of highly palatable foods consumed, and eating rate all correlated with increased energy intake across all diets: low-fat, low-carbohydrate, a diet based on unprocessed foods, and a diet based on ultra-processed foods.
They found, however, that higher protein intake correlated with increased energy intake only in unprocessed and ultra-processed diets with moderate levels of carbohydrates and fat.
They further found that previous meal protein consumption was linked to greater energy intake in subsequent meals in the low-fat and low-carbohydrate diets, but reduced intake during the ultra-processed diet.
The researchers wrote that their findings suggest that energy density, eating rate, and percentage of protein and highly palatable foods consumed are important predictors of energy intake.
To understand how higher energy density foods might increase caloric intake, MNT spoke with Dr. Dana Ellis Hunnes, assistant professor at UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, who was not involved in the study.
“Energy density means how many calories are [in] a certain amount of food,” she explained. “The higher the energy density of something, the less of it you need to take in to have [a] higher calorie intake. For example, one tablespoon of peanut butter has roughly 100 calories in it versus one tablespoon of cooked oats has 15 calories.”
Kimberly Spatola, a registered dietitian at Novant Health Heart and Vascular Institute in Charlotte, NC, not involved in the study, also told MNT:
“Hyper-palatable foods also tend to be energy dense and higher in refined carbohydrates, which make it easier to eat a large amount of these foods without being truly satisfied. Speed of eating can also make a big difference in how much you eat. It typically takes about 20 minutes for the fullness signals from our stomach to reach our brain. Therefore, if you are eating a large meal in only 10 minutes, it will take some time before you actually register your fullness cues.”
When asked about the study’s limitations, Dr. Kevin Hall, section chief of integrative physiology at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the senior author of the study, told MNT that “[t]he study is limited by the fact that it was a secondary analysis of previously published feeding trials in inpatient research participants housed at the Metabolic Clinical Research Unit at the NIH Clinical Center.
“While this environment allowed for accurate and precise measurements of food intake and provided excellent control over the food environment, it is difficult to know how our results extrapolate to more natural environments,” he cautioned.
Spatola added that the findings might also be limited due to their small patient sample size.
“Also the adults were all relatively young with the mean age being 29-31 years old, [and] fiber intake was not taken into consideration, which can greatly affect energy density consumed. […] More research would be needed to see if the patterns are consistent among other age groups,” she continued.
Dr. Hunnes explained: “As with anything in nutrition, one implication would be to consume a widely varied diet to get a wide range of caloric-density foods — such as low density from broths and salads, and high density from foods like nuts. Another implication of these findings would be that eating slowly is beneficial in terms of regulating overall calorie intake as is eating the least-processed/unprocessed foods possible.”
“When we eat unprocessed/ least-processed foods, we are getting a lot more water from the food- think fruit or vegetable rather than ‘veggie-flavored crackers,” she added.
“So, when we eat foods that are unprocessed, we eat fewer calories, and they are less calorically dense. These things all matter in terms of eating! A whole-food, plant-based diet fits this bill very nicely.”
The media industry is in the middle of change. There’s little doubt legacy cable TV will continue to bleed millions of subscribers each year as streaming takes over as the primary way the world watches television.
Still, the details of what’s about to happen to a transitioning industry are unclear. CNBC spoke with more than a dozen leaders who have been among the most influential decision-makers and thinkers in the TV industry over the past two decades to get a sense of what they think will happen in the next three years.
CNBC asked the same set of questions to each interviewee. The following is a sampling of their answers.
In three years, will legacy TV effectively die?
Peter Chernin, The North Road Company CEO: It will continue to be in decline. It will be crappier. Budgets will get cut. More scripted programming will migrate away to streaming. There will be more repeats. But it will continue to exist. One of the really interesting questions here – this will be fascinating – the core of linear TV is sports rights. The NFL deal starts next season and is double the price of the previous one. That will suck even more money out of programming budgets. Then you’ve got the NBA deal, those renewal talks will happen this year. That will probably double in price. So you’ve got increasing prices of the most high-profile sports and declining number of homes watching. That will eat away at everything else.
Peter Chernin
Getty Images for Malaria No More 2013
Kevin Mayer, Candle Media co-CEO: It only has a few years left. It’s nearing the end. For entertainment that has no need to be viewed at any specific time, that’s already done. It’s already largely shifted to streaming. Next will be the end of scripted programming on broadcast networks. There’s zero need for that. That’s going to come to a close in the next two or three years. When ESPN finally pulls the plug, the bundle is effectively over. And that will happen relatively soon. Linear TV is in its final death throes.
Barry Diller, IAC chairman: It’s dying, but while syndication is around, even if its diminished, it will still be here. The tail end of these things lasts much longer than anyone predicts.
Ann Sarnoff, former Warner Bros. chairwoman and CEO: The linear bundle will definitely be around in three years, but the number of subscribers will continue to decline, and the average age of the viewers will continue to increase steadily. One big X factor regarding how the cable channel universe evolves will be sports and how big a role streaming services play in sports. The fragmentation of sports rights is good for the leagues but confusing for consumers. The most passionate sports fans will subscribe to everything and find their sport wherever it is, but fragmentation creates a delicate tightrope for the leagues to walk in terms of maintaining mass appeal and engagement, which have driven a stellar sports advertising business.
Bill Simmons, The Ringer founder: Three years feels way too short to me. I think it’s going to play out like it has with terrestrial radio and digital audio. Five years ago, you could have said radio would absolutely be dead soon, and nobody would have challenged you. But it’s still limping along even with much heavier competition from podcasts, streaming, TikTok and everyone else. Even with ad markets dwindling and the advertising being much more localized, it’s not close to being dead yet. It’s like when Michael Corleone says how Hyman Roth has been dying of the same heart attack for the last 20 years. That’s radio. And linear TV will be the same way. It will have a Hyman Roth death, not a Sonny Corleone death.
Bill Simmons at the 2017 Code Conference on May 31, 2017.
Asa Mathat for Vox Media
Jeff Zucker, former CNN president: It will continue to exist. Obviously it will have fewer subs than it does today. News and sports will keep it alive.
Richard Plepler, former HBO CEO: While linear is obviously not the wave of the future, cash flow is cash flow, which means it still hangs on to some form of life.
Bela Bajaria, Netflix chief content officer: Since I started in this business in 1996, people have always talked about linear TV dying. Definitely the pie will be smaller in three years. But there are so many people who watch linear TV, especially sports and news. It will be smaller, but not gone.
Kathleen Finch, Warner Bros. Discovery U.S. networks chief content officer: Linear TV will absolutely still be here. When you look at the size and scope of the linear TV business, it’s huge. People still like to sit down as a group in front of the TV. It’s very communal. And advertisers love it — whether they’re selling a new movie coming out or launching a car sale. The linear TV business will be healthy for a long time. Obviously people’s habits are changing, but as a business, it’s a large, robust, high-margin business. One of the other things so important about linear is it provides the financial ecosystem to feed a lot of streaming platforms. In our group at WBD, it makes about 4,000 hours a year of content, and it’s a huge amount of content that we make to feed the networks. A lot get a second life on streaming – or a first life based on what we determine. To fund the content just for streaming is a bit of a challenge. But because we really have a great margin with a dual revenue system, we super serve that audience on linear.
Byron Allen, founder, chairman, and CEO of Entertainment Studios and Allen Media Group, speaks during the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, on May 2, 2022.
Patrick T. Fallon | Afp | Getty Images
Byron Allen, Entertainment Studios founder and CEO: I think linear TV will exist for a very, very long time. I believe that all of these various platforms – they’re not instead of, they’re additive. Look at human behavior and how we consume content, we’ve only made a richer landscape. When there was the industrial revolution, it was fueled by oil and gas. This is the digital revolution, and it’s fueled by content. Local TV will still be here and much needed. You need local news. And let’s not forget the networks — ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, the big four broadcasters — have locked up the true religion of America, the NFL, for the next 11 years. So you will be watching those networks for sports. Not just on streaming. I think that contract tells you the bundle is here for a while.
Wonya Lucas, Hallmark Media president and CEO: I don’t think this is the death of linear. I just don’t. I think that linear will still be alive and thriving. I do think there will be some shakeout in terms of which services survive and which ones don’t and which ones are bundled together, and there will be some consolidation. I don’t think everyone can have independence. But I think when we start bundling the cost of all the streaming services, you’re looking at the same cost of a cable package at some point.
Chris Winfrey, Charter Communications CEO: It won’t be effectively dead, but it will be significantly more expensive and have fewer subscribers. A lot of that has to do with the rising cost of sports rights. The new NFL rights extension deal will generate about twice as much cost per year starting in the 2023-24 season. That cost is now being distributed over an increasingly smaller base of subscribers, which is pushing up the overall cost of content. But in the next three years, there will still be customers who can afford it. It’ll just be much, much smaller and more expensive. Eventually there will have to be a restructuring of the business.
In three years, which major streaming services will definitely exist?
Ex-CNN boss Zucker: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Apple and the Disney suite [Hulu, ESPN+ and Disney+]. The fifth could be a combo of the remainders: HBO Max, Paramount+ and Peacock.
Jeff Bewkes, former Time Warner CEO: Netflix, Amazon, Disney, HBO Max. Maybe one more that doesn’t make much money or is about break even and hovers near death.
North Road’s Chernin: All of them with the caveat that there may be some combination of Paramount, Peacock and HBO Max. The big guys don’t want to buy any of them with exception with HBO.
IAC’s Diller: There’s only one streaming service that’s dominant, now and forever, and that’s Netflix. But many others will exist.
Chairman and Senior Executive of IAC/InterActiveCorp and Expedia Group Barry Diller walks to a morning session at the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference on July 07, 2021 in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images
Jeffrey Hirsch, Starz President and CEO: Disney, Netfilix, Warner Bros. Discovery, Amazon … and of course, Starz.
Candle Media’s Mayer: Apple TV+, Disney+, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Max, probably. Paramount+ will be folded in, Peacock will folded in. Maybe they’ll be combined with a smaller service like Starz.
The Ringer’s Simmons: You have Hulu, Peacock and Paramount out there as candidates to get swallowed up by a bigger streamer, but who’s doing it? Apple never does anything. Amazon doesn’t need to do anything. HBO/Discovery just went through two mergers in six years. Netflix never does anything. Disney/ESPN seems more likely to shed stuff than buy stuff. So unless Comcast goes on a crazy spending spree, I don’t see anything changing — I think everyone will still be around, just with less employees and way less original content.
Netflix’s Bajaria: Netflix, of course. Disney+ has such a strong library. Many of the others will be interesting. You’re already seeing Showtime and Paramount+ come together. Does Hulu stay in Disney, or does Comcast buy their share out? Does Warner Bros. Discovery stay with Discovery+ and HBO Max, or does it merge with another company? There will be a lot of movement and changes in the streaming landscape.
Will there be a cable-like bundle of several major streaming services?
Candle Media’s Mayer: Yes, I think so. I don’t know if we’ll see bundles between entertainment companies, but there will be some version of a bigger bundle of content you’ll be able to buy at your choice.
Aryeh Bourkoff, LionTree chairman and CEO: It’s more about self-bundling content and other offerings to generate platform and brand loyalty from the consumer. What I think you will also see is the eventual release of exclusive premium content to multiple platforms to better monetize the best content, but the most successful platform relationships will be self-bundled.
Ex-Time Warner boss Bewkes: I doubt it. I don’t see why you’d need it. Any aggregator’s role would be taking any of the leading streamers and attaching what are laggard, subscale channels. I’m not sure it’s compelling.
Randall Stephenson, then-chairman and chief executive officer of AT&T and Jeff Bewkes, then-chairman and chief executive officer of Time Warner, a few days after the AT&T acquisition of Warner was announced in October 2016.
Patrick T. Fallon | Bloomberg | Getty Images
IAC’s Diller: I do think there will probably be a more efficient way of buying more streaming services, but I don’t think it will be analogous to the cable bundle. One central warehouse who deals with all players and sends one bill — that I don’t think is going to happen. I think it will be somewhat chopped up. But there may be multiplicity, where there may be a much easier way to access a group of streamers than dealing with them individually.
Naveen Chopra, Paramount Global CFO: I think it’s very possible but not necessarily inevitable. On one hand, bundles have tremendous value in terms of increasing acquisition costs, lowering churn and the convenience for consumers. It’s something we definitely embrace. We’ve done a lot of bundles and partnerships that we’ve been very successful with, whether that’s with Sky in Europe or Walmart or T-Mobile in the U.S. A broader bundle that incorporates multiple streaming services could offer some of the same benefits. But there are two really big things you have to solve in trying to effectuate that kind of bundle. The economics is one dimension, and the other is the user interface and customer relationship. Today, streaming services have independent user interfaces and streamers like to own the relationship with the customer. So, you have to give up some economics to be part of that bundle and still have a way of sharing information and enough control over the UI to help build and maintain audiences around the content. There is some experimentation going on with all of these things, and with all sorts of challenges. But I definitely think there’s a possibility of a cable bundle with streaming. It takes time to evolve.
Ex-Warner Bros. boss Sarnoff: It’s hard to understand the economics of how that will work. Can there be an aggregator so people wouldn’t have to subscribe to a bunch of different offerings? The problem is always who goes in the middle. That’s the thing: most media companies have wanted to move away from someone controlling their audience, like cable operators, and determining the value of the programming. Bundling makes sense from a consumer perspective, but as a supplier, it’s much more complicated. Paying one rate is simpler, but there’s an imperfect value equation in there for the content supplier/programmer.
Ann Sarnoff attends the 32nd Annual WP Theater’s Women of Achievement Awards Gala at The Edison Ballroom on March 27, 2017 in New York City.
Mike Pont | WireImage | Getty Images
North Road’s Chernin: I don’t know. A full-blown stand-alone bundle is hard to do. There’s not an obvious aggregator who is going to benefit. Whose best interest is it to subsidize losses to bundle these things together? It’s pretty tough to figure out the economics. The big guys won’t want to take a discount. It would take very complex negotiations.
Mark Lazarus, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming chairman: I think bundles are definitely in the future. It’s sort of already headed in that direction. What’s not there is the ability to replicate the cable bundle user experience. It’s cumbersome, to have to go in and out of every app. It’s buffering. You can’t flip between any two channels, which is instantaneous. It needs to get to a point where the user interface or user experience lets you seamlessly enter or exit content if we’re going to live up to consumer expectations.
Starz’s Hirsch: Yes. In 18 to 24 months, you’ll start to see a repackaging of the linear business into the digital business. The value of aggregation is really important. You’ll start to see more people partnering up. Right now, everyone is seen as a channel. Ultimately, the big folks will become platforms, much like Amazon is doing today. The big guys are going to become platforms. You’re seeing it now with Showtime as a tile within Paramount+. Other companies’ content will become branded tiles within the larger streaming platforms.
Starz CEO Jeffrey Hirsch
Source: Starz
Which companies will dominate as the main hub of streaming?
The Ringer’s Simmons: I believe Apple will be the dominant platform because of its connectivity to user behavior through Apple TV and our phones. They make it so goddamn easy; their main page allows you to order movies, see all the new releases, see where you left off on any show or movie you were watching on every other platform … it’s amazing. That’s the only streamer that acts like a one-stop shop for everything I care about. And they will get better and better at perfecting that. Plus, you can keep logging into your different platforms on there through your iPhone. It’s really smart. All roads lead through Apple.
North Road’s Chernin: YouTube, Amazon and Apple.
Candle Media’s Mayer: There will be three categories. The cable guys could repackage streaming offerings. They’re already doing that with their linear offerings. You’ve got the telcos (T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon), and then you’ve got the big digital players — Google, Apple and Amazon.
Kevin Mayer, co-founder and co-chief executive officer of Candle Media, chairman of DAZN Group, speaks at the Milken Institute Asia Summit in Singapore, on Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022.
Bryan van der Beek | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Starz’s Hirsch: You’re seeing Amazon become a platform, and Warner is now starting to become a platform. In the next three years, we’ll also see compression technology that will allow wireless companies to be true aggregators of streaming services — T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon. They’ll become real challengers.
Charter’s Winfrey: There are a number of platforms — Roku, Apple TV and Amazon Fire — that are trying to aggregate streaming content. But I think cable has a real advantage. It’s what Comcast and Charter are putting together with our joint venture, Xumo. We will take the voice remote from Comcast, the technology assets from Sky and Xfinity, the leading live video app in Spectrum TV — you combine all that with the fact that Comcast and Charter have a much broader array of programming relationships than anyone else in the market. We also have a powerful distribution channel to deliver this operating platform, both to existing customers who pay for broadband and TV and new sales from our different sales channels — stores, platforms — to put these boxes and smart TV sets in customers’ hands. I think we have the best set of assets and existing relationships to be able to put it together that none of these other platforms can do.
LionTree’s Bourkoff: There hasn’t yet been an aggregator that has incorporated all of video, audio and gaming content — and we don’t foresee one anytime soon. That would be the beacon for consumers in their search for entertainment, in the broadest sense. Absent that, any other aggregation tool would have a different definition for different customers. For example, younger demographics are increasingly moving towards short-form content on TikTok, YouTube and other platforms. Would that be included? The definition of content we want to consume and where we consume it is always changing, particularly in a mature, scarce environment.
Entertainment Studios’ Allen: I don’t know if there will be a primary aggregator of this content, but I do believe the consumer is very smart and resourceful and will figure out how to get their needs met at a very efficient price. The key here is to look at the world’s biggest streamer, which is YouTube, and how it is completely free. Good luck putting something in that search bar and it doesn’t come up.
What happens to cable entertainment networks? Will they be sold? Shut down? Or will it look the same?
Paramount’s Chopra: I do think there’s the potential for additional consolidation of cable networks over time. I think in the near term, we’re going to see an evolution of the type and mix of programming you see on cable networks, given the audience declines in that area. The economics of producing expensive original content isn’t going to work for every cable network. They will have to look at different formats, relying on more lower-cost content, library content, etc., but it will definitely evolve.
Ex-Time Warner boss Bewkes: If you’re a network with news and sports, those can last. General entertainment network subscribers and cash flow will decline. Some might get sold to private equity to harvest cash flow in the three or four years. It’s not like they’ll go bankrupt, but they’re not good for public equity ownership.
Warner Bros. Discovery’s Finch: It’s hard for me to say because things seem to change so quickly in this industry. One of the most valuable things is a brand that stands for something. Brands really, really matter. A more generic cable network that lives on older content doesn’t necessarily offer something to someone on a nightly consistent basis. People don’t surf the way they used to. That’s not really how people are wired to watch content anymore. They come to a decision based on how they feel. So it’s true it is more challenging if you’re more of a general entertainment network. You need highly specialized content. Without it, you can’t survive or drive the kind of ad revenue that we can. When you have a HGTV you have endemic advertisers. If you’re Home Depot or Lowe’s, you have to be on HGTV.
Charter’s Winfrey: The question comes down to what is the value of the content they’re providing? If they’re providing reruns but you can’t find it elsewhere, then it still provides value to the customer. But what you have today is programmers selling us content at increasingly higher prices and asking us to distribute that to largely all of our customers, and at the same time, selling that exact same content either into streaming platforms or creating a direct-to-consumer product themselves at a much lower cost. And many of those services have a much lower security threshold than cable, so customers are able to share passwords and access the same content for free. So, our willingness to continue to fund that for programmers when that content is available for free elsewhere is declining. That means within the linear video construct, you’ll see an increasing number of distributors deciding it no longer makes sense to carry certain content, because customers are already can access it either for free in a pirated fashion or just paying for it at a lower rate.
NBCUniversal’s Lazarus: I don’t think it’s a one-size-fits-all strategy in the future. I think we’ll see some networks combine, like we’ve done. Some will close down that don’t make meaningful contributions to the bottom line. There’s so many networks today. Even with the erosion of the pay-TV bundle down to 50 million, these networks are still a meaningful contributor of revenue and EBITDA to companies like ours. So closing them isn’t necessarily a great answer because you’re giving up profit. Even if it’s a declining profit, it’s still profit. I think that part gets lost a bit in the conversation now. Yes, we are managing a decline and streamers are there to make up for lost revenue and profitability, but those businesses still kick off, in many cases, hundreds of millions of dollars in profit. Companies just don’t give that up.
What’s one thing that will become a TV standard that doesn’t exist today?
North Road’s Chernin: Windowing. That’s the most likely change. Right now, the current economic model is two things: pure vertical integration, where you produce and own everything, and long-term exclusive licenses. Neither make sense. You can’t produce enough good content and it’s wildly overexpensive. What’s the value of 5- to 10-year-old shows? Right now, a huge amount of money is spent for those shows. Media companies would be better off doing three-year licenses and saving 20{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} to 30{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} on the cost. Cable networks will be interested in buying old reruns from other streaming platforms. It’ll be brand-new programming to a different audience. What defines programming is what’s new. When “Sopranos” aired in syndication on A&E, it’s didn’t make HBO any weaker. You’ll see streamers start selling programming to cable and to one another, and it will produce value both to the company that owned it and the company that bought it in syndication.
The Ringer’s Simmons: I believe Apple, out of nowhere, will start making their own awesome televisions that have Apple TV embedded in them. It’s kind of incredible that this hasn’t happened yet. They have every other piece of the streaming puzzle in place — literally, all of it — except for the actual TV. Why would they want Samsung, LG and whomever else to keep innovating on their smart TVs and eventually cut Apple out of the entire ecosystem? They’ll just make a better TV and crush them. I wish I could bet on this.
Ex-Warner Bros. boss Sarnoff: A “metaverse” which offers commerce, gaming, social interaction, sports, news and entertainment is inevitable, but I think we’re quite a ways from that being the primary way people consume media. It will be interesting to watch the metaverse evolve in parallel to streaming and other direct entertainment offerings. The offering that best engages and entertains the consumer will win.
Chairman, WarnerMedia Jeff Zucker attends CNN Heroes at American Museum of Natural History on December 08, 2019 in New York City.
Mike Coppola | Getty Images
Ex-CNN boss Zucker: The ability to bet and/or gamble while you’re watching sports on TV will be much easier. You’ll be able to go through the TV to place a bet with a remote control, or your voice. It requires partnership from the betting companies, but that shouldn’t be a problem.
Starz’s Hirsch: Content without borders. Artificial intelligence technology will make subbing and dubbing of content simple. AI will allow you to watch content in your home language without a third-party dubbing it for you. The world shrinks that way from a content perspective.
Netflix’s Bajaria: More people will have access to incredible global stories on demand. The average person will gain access to more content than ever before.
Entertainment Studios’ Allen: I think we’re going to see more AI integrated into content, and it’s going to be more intuitive, so when people watch the content it’ll be far more advanced in recommending content for you. I think AI is going to help understand the touch points in content and how to make it better and more compelling and engaging.
Charter’s Winfrey: Unified search. You’ll have a discovery and recommendation engine combined with a voice remote that allows for a seamless experience for the customer living inside a single platform. That will allow a viewer to pick and choose what content they want month to month — either live video or streaming.
LionTree’s Bourkoff: Sports is being unlocked in a big way. It’s the last major bastion of content that must be watched live, which begs a different approach. As owners of valuable IP, professional sports leagues may increasingly go direct, either on their own or via a partnership model, and monetize in other ways — from advertising and sponsorships to commerce and experiences, including gaming and sports betting. We are witnessing early stages of this dynamic with deals like “NFL Sunday Ticket” on YouTube and the MLS deal with Apple TV.
Los Angeles Chargers running back Austin Ekeler, center, runs for extra yardage while Tennessee Titans linebacker Monty Rice, left, and safety Andrew Adams (47) attempt a tackle during the second half at SoFi Stadium on Sunday, Dec. 18, 2022 in Los Angeles, CA.
Allen J. Schaben | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images
Warner Bros. Discovery’s Finch: There is something that is beginning to exist now that I’m absolutely fascinated to see where it goes. It’s the technology that allows viewers to choose the content they watch as they are watching. Like the Netflix show “Kaleidoscope.” Handing the editorial decision-making to fans is so seductive. It’s an opportunity for a piece of content to be watched multiple times. There’s just a few pieces of content that’s tried this, but the technology is there, and it’s an exciting new development in content creation and consumption. It gives the audience an interactive way to view these things. It’s just beginning to be utilized and a lot of people are experimenting.
NBCUniversal’s Lazarus: Much of TV consumption is being done on the biggest, best screen in your home. It’s all coming through your living room flat-screen TV. What we see, and I think will change over the next three years, is the amount of customization people are able to have to curate their own abilities and to bundle themselves. How do you order your streaming apps? While it’s not a seamless user experience to go between Peacock and Netflix or something else, you can place them in whatever order you want on the screen. The degree of customization is there. That’s coming to the individual streamers, too. We’re working on a lot of customization for our consumers. Consumers would like to have that interactivity. If you’re on a live sports channel, you can curate your own replays and then bounce back to live. It’s the next iteration of interactivity.
WATCH: CNBC’s full interview with IAC Chairman Barry Diller
Disclosure: CNBC is part of NBCUniversal, which is owned by Comcast.
Treasury and the IRS in December sought to assist customers with a new checklist of cars that may perhaps be suitable as of Jan. 1 or later. Nevertheless, the listing experienced raised fears over how the automobiles are being categorized.
Treasury did not classify the Cadillac Lyriq as an SUV, for example, indicating its retail price could not exceed $55,000. The Lyriq, which Automotive Information classifies as a midsize crossover, starts at $62,990. Under the new motor vehicle classification specifications declared Friday by Treasury, the Lyriq would be regarded a tiny SUV.
Typical Motors claimed last month it was addressing the issues with Treasury and the office “need to leverage current U.S. government definitions and tactics, utilizing criteria and procedures related to that utilized by” the EPA and the Electricity Department.
In a statement Friday, GM said it appreciated Treasury’s alignment with the automobile classifications on FuelEconomy.gov, noting that qualifying shoppers now will be equipped to acquire the $7,500 tax credit rating for the Lyriq.
“The alignment on classification will offer the desired clarity to shoppers and sellers, as perfectly as regulators and suppliers,” GM reported.
Another instance was Tesla’s foundation Design Y in the U.S. The Product Y’s two-row edition skilled as a sedan, but the fewer well-liked 3-row edition qualified as an SUV, according to how Treasury was beforehand classifying autos.
Prior to producing substantial price cuts to the Design Y, Tesla CEO Elon Musk complained on Twitter about the classification of the two-row Product Y as a vehicle and urged Tesla supporters to complain directly to the IRS.
The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents GM and other main automobile corporations, stated automakers really should self-certify to Treasury what classification a car is marketed as, in accordance to reviews submitted to the office in November.
“A pretty good final decision that clears up some EV tax credit history confusion and quickly can help clients procuring nowadays (and tomorrow) for an electric powered crossover or SUV,” John Bozzella, CEO of the alliance, explained Friday in response to Treasury’s announcement.
Treasury on Friday also mentioned it is still scheduling to difficulty proposed steering on the shopper tax credit’s critical mineral and battery component demands in March after missing its yr-close deadline in 2022. People requirements do not consider result right until soon after the advice is issued.
The delay and adjustments to car classifications have potentially capable additional vehicles for the full credit score in the interim.
However, U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who helped craft the Inflation Reduction Act and EV tax credits, claimed permitting vehicles to get the credit rating without assembly the sourcing regulations goes in opposition to the law’s congressional intent.
Manchin introduced legislation very last month that would immediate Treasury to promptly stop issuing $7,500 buyer tax credits for EVs that do not meet up with the strict crucial mineral and battery ingredient specifications.
