It’s “shakeout” time as losses of Netflix rivals top $5 billion
arstechnica.com
Disney, Warner, Comcast, and Paramount are contemplating cuts, possible mergers.

The world’s largest traditional entertainment companies face a reckoning in 2024 after losing more than $5 billion in the past year from the streaming services they built to compete with Netflix.

Disney, Warner Bros Discovery, Comcast and Paramount—US entertainment conglomerates that have been growing ever larger for decades—are facing pressure to shrink or sell legacy businesses, scale back production and slash costs following billions in losses from their digital platforms.

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“TV advertising is falling far short, cord-cutting is continuing to accelerate, sports costs are going up and the movie business is not performing,” he said. “Everything is going wrong that can go wrong. The only thing [the companies] know how to do to survive is try to merge and cut costs.”

  • Che Banana@lemmy.ml
    602·
    11 months ago

    The only thing [the companies] know how to do to survive is try to merge and cut costs.>

    I mean, you could put out some quality programming…naaahhhhhhh

    • MrFappy@lemmy.world
      514·
      11 months ago

      Netflix does that, but then they cancel the shows before they can truly succeed.

      • Fisk400@feddit.nu
        302·
        11 months ago

        That’s because of all the depressed people sitting in their bed forts and watching Friends for 10 hours a day every day. Why make a good new shows when the old garbage steamrolls them all in watch time.

        • MrFappy@lemmy.world
          72·
          11 months ago

          Hey, their new garbage gets a lot of views too. Look at Wednesday. I wasn’t a fan, even though that should’ve been right up my alley, but I still watched, and so did everyone else apparently, based on the numbers they released anyway.

      • alucard@sopuli.xyz
        6·
        11 months ago

        Indeed. Netflix is the new FOX TV network. The shows that I loved the most on Netflix are gone and replaced with lower budget reality. Such a bummer.

    • ersatz@infosec.pub
      20·
      11 months ago

      That’s what HBO used to do. They didn’t have a dozen new shows a week, but what they did have was largely high quality. But with the Warner/Discovery merger I think those days are numbered. They’ll be devoured from within and the quality will take a hit across the board.

    • Khrux@ttrpg.networkEnglish
      2·
      11 months ago

      I mean a merged service wouldn’t be an issue. If I could pay once for one big thing including Disney+, Paramount+ and HBO Max, I’d actually consider it to have enough content to be worth people signing up, instead of it all being scattered like now.

      I’d still not pay for it but I don’t pay for shit no matter how much content and convenience the service offers, it’s a miracle i haven’t started shoplifting.