CMU School of Drama


Thursday, May 05, 2022

From Netflix Stock Drop to Mass Layoffs, Anxiety Grips Hollywood

Variety: Fear and loathing are on the rise in Hollywood as top execs and rank-and-file employees grapple with growing uncertainty about their place in a rapidly changing entertainment industry. One pervasive concern: that the streaming-fueled content bubble has finally burst, with more consolidation on the way.

5 comments:

Hikari said...

Talk about the economy and stocks have never been my strong suit, and I still have a hard time wrapping my brain about it. This article, however, was explained really well and I think I was able to understand the gist of it. It was no surprise to me to hear that Netflix has hit its plateau. I feel like there has been talk about Netflix's downfall for a while, but then they have its new hit like Squid Game or Bridgerton that keeps it afloat. It was quite a shock, however, to learn that Netflix lost 54 billion dollars of market value in one day. To me that seems like quite a lot haha. It is quite scary and a gamble to be in such an unsteady spot, and it makes it almost seem that Netflix is doing quite well if they are able to stay afloat with such an unstable market. There are just so many, countless number of streaming sites now, that subscribing to all of them seems a foolish waste of money. So, once the season of the show you are watching ends, it makes sense that people unsubscribe for the meantime.

Andrew Morris said...

This news that has been grasping the entertainment industry the past few weeks has been particularly interesting for me because It’s shooting a big shift in our current entertainment landscape. Netflix is the company that I would be the most scared to be a part of right now. They blew up the entire concept of streaming and then had Ben able to capitalize of if it to create production studios that started producing some of the most successful movies and winning awards in all genres from documentaries and documentaries series to feature films. There was a point where Netflix was dominating the game so hard that I would have never thought this day would come. Our free market economy allowed the opportunity for other major studios to develop their own streaming services and its been about 2 years since the launch of Disney +, peacock and paramount + . As a result, Netflix has lost money this quarter for the first time in their history! I find this short very interesting considering how well they were doing but they seem to have reached a plateau. The over saturation of streaming sites is leading to worse business for the entire industry.

Liberty Lapayowker said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Liberty Lapayowker said...

I often have trouble wrapping my head around how streaming services function and how they make a profit. I have always been curious about how their deals with outside “Netflix Original” shows work financially and how they are acquired or chosen in the first place. This article uses the term “Hunger Games ethos” to describe Netflix’s content and it is genuinely something that struck me in that moment because I know that is true but I was unable to identify such a specific commonality that truly suits the brand. I guess this plays more into the role of answering my question as to how certain tv shows/movies are chosen over others. But I am sure it has partly something to do with who produced the movie in the first place? I hope to learn more about this process because I have noticed many of my frequented show watching are released through streaming platforms.

Nick Huettig said...

This is an interesting look into a side of entertainment that I've been vaguely tracking, but not paying all that much attention to. Netflix's position within the market has always been something that I'd kept tabs on, because from my point of view the company has doubled down on choices that aren't just short-sighted, they're actively anti-consumer. With the rise of other streaming services and shows continuously getting pulled for said other services, they really doubled down on the Netflix originals, which has had limited success. The constant price hikes and crackdown on password sharing though? Yeah, in the current streaming market I have no idea how they thought they could get away with that. Looks like it's back to piracy for a lot of consumers.

There was something interesting brought up in this article too that got me thinking - just how many shows got axed due to these financial concerns and consolidating, or new seasons of shows that will never see the light of day? No wonder why people are concerned about their jobs.