Vince McMahon has made one thing clear about WWE’s strategy since the departure of its co-Presidents in January: WWE is a content arms dealer. George Barrios and Michelle Wilson worked to turn WWE into a modern, vertically-integrated media company, with direct-to-consumer relationships playing a vital role in the company’s future; McMahon immediately declared he was…
When it comes to sports viewership, there is suddenly cause for concern. As we awaited the return of sports, massive ratings were a foregone conclusion with people still spending more time at home, pent up demand, and the proliferation of sports betting. It has been the opposite, capped by NBA Finals and Stanley Cup viewership…
As we do each quarter heading into Netflix’s earnings interview, here are the eight questions investors should be asking management tonight (our Q2 2020 questions can be found here). 1. Key Employee Turnover. Changing management is nothing new at Netflix and certainly ties to Reed Hastings’ recent book, No Rules Rules, which talks extensively about “The…
T-Mobile is leasing more 600 MHz spectrum, following the smaller than expected lease agreement with Dish. We review how much they got and what deals might be next. We also discuss some new comments from Verizon about their early DSS deployments. Why does T-Mobile need more spectrum again? We view 600 MHz as a stop-gap…
The 5G iPhone is here and AT&T slapped a record breaking subsidy on it. That’s good news for Apple, which would benefit if the 6-year lengthening of the replacement cycle inverted. It was also a good day for Verizon’s Hans Vestberg, who got to flip the switch on his 5G network on Apple’s stage with…
At Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV+, there is only one place for content to go: streaming. At legacy media companies that are trying to pivot to streaming, there are a wide array of choices including theaters, broadcast TV, cable TV, streaming, and sometimes even multiple streaming services. In turn, we were really excited…
Despite all the noise, we still believe a combination of the satellite Pay TV business of AT&T and Dish is inevitable. If anything, the noise by the press is an indication that it might be drawing near. While AT&T may elect to take a multi-step approach that involves private equity, we believe the end game…
Netflix has consistently stated in their long-term view that “streaming entertainment is replacing linear TV,” which is consistent with Roku’s view (link) that the “massive TV ecosystem is moving to modern platforms with streaming at the center of a more dynamic and innovative approach to content distribution.” Legacy media finally agrees and while Disney is…
Netflix stock has surged far beyond the price target we set in October 2019 (link). At that time, fears around the coming onslaught of competition from Disney+ and AppleTV+ were peaking, and investors were looking ahead to HBO Max and Peacock entering the “streaming wars” in 2020. Netflix not only shrugged off competition, the COVID-19…
“Lower price for longer duration” is the messaging coming out of the new Master Lease Agreement (MLA) signed between T-Mobile and American Tower. But what does that mean and why would a tower company need more duration given the historically low churn? We crunched the numbers in an attempt to answer those questions and come…
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