Woke Hollywood In a Panic As All Signs Point to a "Full-Scale Depression" in the Industry

From January: More and more customers are cancelling their streaming services.

And Hollywood bet everything on streaming services.

Customers canceled their streaming subscriptions at a higher clip than last year as services like Disney+, Netflix and Hulu jacked up their prices, according to a report.

Defections across premium streamers rose 6.3% in November from 5.1% a year earlier, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

Over the past two years, roughly 25% of those who subscribed to AppleTV+, Amazon's PrimeVideo, Max, Peacock, Paramount+, Nettflix, Hulu and Disney+ have canceled at least three of those options -- an increase from 15% before hikes pushed the combined tab of the ad-free monthly costs for those eight streamers to $112.42 a month, the outlet said, citing November data from analytics firm Atenna.

In late March, Variety reported that few people are watching the new shows that streaming services are making. They're mostly re-watching old shows, back before the Culture-Killer known as "wokeness" infected Hollywood.

Data revealed by Variety in March confirmed that, other than the top 20 shows, pretty much no one is watching any of that woke crap on America's lousy streaming services.

"As series output soared to historic heights in 2022, with nearly 1,000 original titles released on the major [streaming] platforms," the useless, far-left Variety reported without ever explaining why "viewership on most services was concentrated among fewer than two dozen shows."

"Data ... shows the top 20 most-watched TV seasons" on every streaming service other than Netflix "accounted for the vast majority of original series viewership on almost all of the major U.S.-based [streaming] platforms in 2022."

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Disney+ "released 50 original series in 2022 (not counting kids' content)," and the ten most popular "seasons captured nearly 80% of original series viewing time; the next 10, just over 16%."

Disney seasons that were not in the top 20 "accounted for only about 5% of viewing time." Other than Peacock's three percent, that is the worst of all the major streamers.

The following is by far the most important revelation... The all-important rewatchable factor:

This data also indicates that most streaming originals do not have the rewatch value offered by many older series. Whereas beloved library shows such as "Grey's Anatomy" reliably chart among the most-watched titles on streaming week after week, year after year, new originals are hard-pressed to keep viewers coming back.

Looking again at Disney+, only two of the top 10 original seasons in 2022 reappeared among the top 10 the next year: "The Mandalorian" Season 2 and limited series "Andor," both "Star Wars" properties. (The former actually saw its share of viewing time rise year over year, likely bolstered by the third season's premiere.)

Deadline from March 18: Industry heading for a "major contraction," some call it a "full-scale depression."

LinkedIn is usually used by professionals for networking with people in their field, posting updates when they get a new job or congratulating friends on their promotions.

These days, as one former industry type put it, "it's become a therapy site for unemployed entertainment executives" who share their frustrations over the lack of opportunities in Hollywood amid a major contraction.

"I've seen lots of downturns, lots of job losses but I've never seen anything like this," one veteran top TV executive said. "This is a full-scale depression for the entertainment industry."

Over the past year, there have been waves of layoffs at Disney, Warner Bros Discovery, Paramount, NBCUniversal, Amazon MGM Studios, Lionsgate (which acquired eOne), Netflix, Sony, Fifth Season and most talent agencies including CAA and UTA.

The dire situation, "bordering on worst-case scenario," the seasoned TV executive said, was created by a perfect storm of Covid, strikes and "poor management decisions coming home to roost" driven by short-sighted moves by media companies aimed at goosing their quarterly reports to appease Wall Street.

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"I have certainly an influx of executives that reach out and say, they're looking for their next [job]," said top Hollywood executive recruiter Jamie Waldron, Senior Partner, Global Head of Sports, Media + Entertainment, at Modern Executive Solutions. His "conservative estimate" is that "a good 20%" of the VP-and-above executive workforce in media and entertainment is out of work from a year ago.

That would qualify as a "depression" in the industry. At the height of the actual depression, 25% of able-bodied men were unemployed.

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Most of those that have met with Waldron have put on a brave face, saying they feel great about taking a break and are happy to spend time with their kids. "And some are honest, 'No, I'm scared,' " he said.

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Things bounced back [after prior contractions]. People are divided whether the same would happen this time.

"It's not even remotely coming back," a veteran TV executive said.

Hollywood will be cutting the number of scripted shows it makes by 25% over the next few years.

That means, of course, about a 25% loss in jobs.

FX topper John Landgraf in February declared Peak TV over as the number of original English-language scripted series fell 12% to 516 from the all-time high of 600 in 2022; he projected a further slide to 400-450 series within the next few years. The year 2022 was pivotal, with the industry shifting gears to kick off the current contraction.

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There is an asterisk with that projection: potential mergers. As rumors continue to swirl about Paramount's future as a stand-alone company, there may be more media consolidation in the next year or so, with Warner Bros Discovery also a target of merger speculation.

Speaking of Paramount: Paramount is at risk of bankruptcy as their bonds take on "junk" status. (Junk bonds are bonds which are judged to have a low likelihood of actual repayment.)

And experts are already forecasting that 2024 will be bust.

After a disastrous 2023 at the global box office, Hollywood's 2024 is already predicted to be even worse.

"Gower Street Analytics has revised its 2024 Global box office projection to $32.3 billion," reads the press release. This is a little better than the original prediction of $31.5 billion, but still "down about 3% from the $39.9 billion grossed in 2023 based on current exchange rates."

Here's the key figure: "It would also be 18% lower than the average of the global box office totals between 2017-19."

Even with population and ticket price increases over the last five to seven years, the movie business is looking at nearly a 20 percent drop.

Wow.

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The problem is also not a lack of brand titles or a lack of franchises. The problem is that Hollywood's woke crusade has obliterated its customer base. The problem is that Normal People know movies aren't very good anymore. The problem is a lack of appealing movie stars. The problems is that what had once been two hours of escapism is now 2.5 hours of lectures, insults, hectoring, and gay sex.

posted by Disinformation Expert Ace at 04:18 PM

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