Hot List: Everywhere Is War
“This transaction was always a ‘nice to have’ at the right price, not a ‘must have’ at any price.” – Netflix statement on backing away from Warner Bros.
And Everywhere is War…
First Larry/David Ellison got command of Paramount/CBS, then TikTok, the most addictive video experience known to humans, now just a Warner away from an enormous, cross-platform attention engine. Still, another shoe may drop on this as regulators get involved. How many shoes are there, anyway?
People who fear too much centralized media power forget the monopolistic cable cabal that once ruled pay TV and still owns the data to your door. Speaking of which, the less sexy $34.5B Cox and Charter merger made its way through regulatory approvals this week.
Are we ready for the new media empires to go to war over living room access and metered throttling?
Nah, we have real, actual global wars to consider, cultural wars to be fooled by, and our own war on robots taking the next generation of jobs to contend with.
Plus, no matter what massive media conglomerates own and influence what /how we see the world might take a dominant position, our attention will surely remain on ad auction and subscription. Scattered into a billion daily bites, regardless of the victors.
Let’s be honest, we have no idea what our content consumption will look like in 20 years when all IP is flowing through AI engines, but personalization and choice will likely be a driving force. So what do we have to worry about :-) ?
Geez, that got kinda dystopian, sorry. On the brighter side:
TVREV, IRL! Come check out the TVREV track in NYC March 11 with our partners at Marketecture Live III. Agencies and brands go for free, discounted tickets available using TVREV as a code. Get some!
This week’s hotlist is packed with hot takes and our new FAST report —written by Alan Wolk, the inventor of the term— has the industry buzzing with ah-has and oh-yeeas!
Have a great week everyone!
