Welcome to the Eighth Edition of the LightShed Earnings Scorecard – our attempt to hold companies and analysts accountable for the quality of earnings calls. We also have been able to track the rapid increase in interest in AI and quick disinterest in discussing Inflation on these calls. This quarter, we tracked 71 companies. We…
The lifeblood of Disney, more than any other media company, is its content. Quality content, especially franchise content, drives an unparalleled global flywheel spanning streaming, linear TV, theme parks, consumer products, interactive entertainment and more. Unfortunately, Disney’s content engine is sputtering relative to its own high bar. Compared to the last few years of Disney…
Dish issued a press release this morning indicating that it hit their buildout requirements to cover 70% of the US population. It has 30 days to file a report that certifies this with the FCC. Unfortunately, we do not expect the FCC to comment on the matter for the foreseeable future, if ever. We believe the…
The Netflix upfront was largely unexciting, no different than all the other television industry gatherings this past week – profiling their upcoming content and making their pitch to ad buyers. Thankfully Netflix’s presentation was shorter than others and included access to the Internet (you know who we’re talking about). What struck us as a watershed…
May is a big month for Warner Bros. Discovery. Not only are they releasing Q1 2023 earnings tomorrow, they are also preparing for the rebrand of HBO Max into Max by incorporating the vast majority of Discovery+ content. Yet, we are far more intrigued by WBD’s strategic decisions over the past six months, starting with…
The drumbeat to ban TikTok grew meaningfully louder throughout March, ahead of TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew’s appearance before a Congressional subcommittee. Two Congressional bills were introduced during this period: the Deterring America’s Technological Adversaries (DATA) Act and the Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology (RESTRICT) Act. While both…
We are updating our stale estimates and price target on Snap following a challenging 2022. Snap was far too slow adjusting to the ad-targeting headwinds caused by Apple’s IDFA/ATT, which crushed profitability given a cost structure that required far faster revenue growth. On top of that, Snap played a key role enabling TikTok’s explosive growth…
Here are our ten key questions for Netflix management on tonight’s Q1 2023 earnings interview (our Q4 2022 questions can be found here). 1) When do you expect to rollout password sharing in the US? While you did not explicitly state the timing of the domestic password sharing crackdown, many investors assumed that it would…
The current contract between the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and Hollywood studios (The Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers, AMPTP) expires on May 1, 2023. Both sides are actively preparing for a strike, with the WGA seeking a strike authorization from guild members this week. The last WGA/AMPTP negotiation in 2020 could have…
The HBO Max brand was first revealed in Summer 2019, ahead of an investor day in October 2019 (link to our reactions). The premise behind HBO Max was to broaden and deepen HBO’s content to increase engagement, reduce churn, and appeal to a broader audience (prior to the launch of HBO Max, core HBO subs…
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