Larry Ellison, who's certainly involved, wants to add CNN to his pro-Israel network of networks, this much is obvious. This despite the fact that no one under 40 pays any attention to CNN, or CBS, or what have you. It's still an area where he wants to flex his muscles.
Netflix didn't want CNN, though, which probably means that the Ellisons could have bought it separately. So Larry Ellison seems to be supporting the ambitions of son David. And David actually does want to be a big studio head.
Looking into Skydance Media, though...They've backed some hits, but these were mostly part of established franchises. Other movies weren't hits. But in both cases, they've been silent partner financers. They haven't actually been in distribution, which is what a film studio primarily does. What I take away is that while the Paramount people have the money to do this takeover, there's not much reason to expect it to work in the long run.
1 comment:
I love watching movies but I can't say I've thought much about this deal. It would appear you're right that a Netflix purchase may have been marginally better from a financial perspective but the fact is the company hasn't proven to be exactly visionary makes me doubt they'd be any more successful. But what do I know, anyway - I've just read that Netflix is the most successful streaming service in the world. Boy, we're in worse trouble than I'd imagined.
Warner has a long history with film production but never figured out how to deal with the switch many people made to watching movies on their tv sets. I don't envision any modern corporation bringing back theaters but considering how corrupt this whole process has been, the results of bad people remaking reality in culture is deeply saddening. Besides, the merger will raise prices, eliminate thousands of jobs, lower competition, and take away consumer choices.
The last I heard CNN had an average daily viewership of about half a million people. Not a good bet for a new owner since it's losing ground every day, but Larry Ellison is a big supporter of Israel so I guess he feels owning the network will give him an ideological boost. Control of the Washingon Post hasn't served Bezos that well so we'll see what happens.
I've looked at the list of movies Skydance has supported and can't say any of them are very impressive. I agree with you there's not much reason there to expect the takeover to work in the long term.
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