As summer 2020 is nearing an end, we thought it would be useful to highlight some of the key issues we are thinking about: Music Streaming, HBO Not So Max, SVOD Bundles, NFL Rights, Comcast’s Suboptimal Structure, Mulan PVOD, TikTok’s Future Home, Can the NFL Overcome COVID, Twitter Aging Down, Android TV Getting Better, plus…
With the passing of media industry icon, Sumner Redstone, we are reminded of the immortal phrase that he coined, “Content is King.” Spend 35 seconds and listen to Sumner at his best below: LightShed Partners · Content is King The content versus distribution battle remains an industry focal point, only it is evolving. The biggest…
Last week, we highlighted how Disney’s move to accelerate direct-to-consumer streaming would hasten the demise of the already struggling multichannel video ecosystem (link). While Disney has certainly enjoyed tremendous success with the launch of Disney+ last November, there are two key questions at hand: (1) How do they maintain their momentum in DTC? (2) Do…
Disney’s Fiscal Q3 (June) 2020 earnings call earlier this week marked an important inflection point for the media industry as a whole: “the incredible success we’ve achieved to date has made us even more confident about the future of our direct-to-consumer business and our ability to be more aggressive in our approach. Going forward, this…
Disney is set to report fiscal (June) Q3 2020 earnings after the close tonight. Earnings are expected to be awful, with virtually every part of Disney severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic except for Disney+/Hulu, which have been notable beneficiaries. What will be far more important to investors is how management discusses their plans to…
Last Friday, just as the US government appeared to be closing in on making a decision to ban TikTok, we learned of Microsoft’s interest in an acquisition. However, it remains unclear whether the Trump administration will allow a sale to a US company. On Sunday afternoon, Microsoft issued a formal statement making their acquisition interest…
With broadband access even more of an essential service in a remote work/school world, Comcast’s cable business was unsurprisingly solid. The most noteworthy thing about this quarter’s call was what did not get addressed or asked: no question about the threat of Title II regulation coming back if Vice President Biden defeats President Trump in…
Since the collapse of WWE stock last year, we have been waiting for the right entry point. In June, we considered that now may be the time. From a financial standpoint, the company has dealt well with the pandemic, managing costs down while fulfilling contractual content obligations. Street estimates appeared too low for 2020 (albeit…
We are raising our ATVI price target to $92, as we believe the company could notably exceed earnings expectations in the second half of 2020 with continued Call of Duty strength (even as we are not far above Q2 consensus). While the exact timing of key Blizzard releases remains up in the air, we have…
We were surprised to see ink spilled by our peers about the relatively tame promotion that T-Mobile announced on Wednesday. To be fair, the reaction was less dramatic than some of the notes that followed Sprint’s dud promotion of a Free Year of Service. That was fun. Nevertheless, we felt compelled to address this week’s…
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