Alex Ellerson

Whether to merge or bundle with each other, or to bend the knee to #Google, #Apple and #Amazon, a good article about the decisions that await the media industry and their streaming businesses. I tend to believe old will be new again with bundling and a return to the wholesale model. #bundling #streaming #media

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Range Media Partners just raised big $$ from Liberty Global, Wildcat Capital Management. It's an M&A warchest so they don’t fall behind their peers.  Let’s break it down… BACKGROUND ON RANGE • Mgmt and prod co founded in 2020 by Peter Micelli and other top agents from CAA / WME / UTA • Goal = extend beyond trad film / TV representation • Has expanded into music, sports, gaming, digital, music pub M&A + CAP MARKETS HISTORY • Merged with film / TV prod co Automatik in Jan 2023 • Bought upstart athlete mgmt co Stoked Management Group in Sep 2023 • Existing investors incl Steve Cohen’s Point72 Ventures and A+E Networks (also has prod deal) NEW INVESTMENT • Last week closed significant minority investment by John Malone’s Liberty Global, TPG founder’s Wildcat Capital, and family entertainment co Playground Productions • Former CAA film finance exec Rick Hess, and The Forest Road Company were also involved (either as investors or advisors, can’t tell exactly from press release) • Use of Funds: M&A, scale in US, int’l growth, add more talent rep and prod services What you need to know about this deal 👇... It's not surprising when you consider all the other fundraising and M&A amongst Range’s peers in talent representation.  The influx of capital and high dealmaking volume is driven by a belief that outsized returns will go to rep firms who are fastest to scale, in a winner-take-most market. Because scale makes it easier to sign more talent clients, work with the largest brand marketers, hire the best talent agents and managers, package up the largest Hollywood projects, and launch the most exciting new talent-led ventures. Particularly in a world where scaled access to audience (which talent and influencers bring in a post ATT world) is the top driver in capturing share of high-growth IM spend, which is est at $7B in 2024, up 15% YoY. So it’s a race to the top. And that race is being fueled by large M&A war chests from big investor backers… Companies to watch here are: - Crestview-backed Gersh (just bought A3’s digital team) - Coral Tree-backed Loaded (just bought GG Talent) - Providence-backed Wasserman (13 deals in 2 years) - TCG-backed Night (just bought LFM and Roost Podcast Network) - The big 3: CAA, UTA, Endeavor And after last week, I expect Range Media to ramp up its acquisition activity. Particularly in athlete and digital-native representation. Curious to see what they do next with the $$. Will definitely add them to our buyers list as we bring more deals to market. —- I’m the founder of RockWater Industries. We do M&A and strategy advisory for media, agencies, and creator economy. My DMs are open. #media #agency #creatoreconomy

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UTA just promoted 24 new partners. What's driving this? Promotions can be part of a retention strategy as competition for talent, and their reps, heats up. Particularly when new firms like Range Media Partners, which was the result top agent defections from the Big 3 Hollywood agencies in 2020, are growing fast and raising growth capital (see my analysis 👇). Some questions worth asking... - How is the agency's employee retention rate trending? - How does the % of promotions compare to prior years? - What agency depts are seeing more promotions? e.g. fast-growing areas like digital? - What are the benefits of being a partner? - What type of commitment is required from partners, if any? - How does all this compare to peer agencies? Many talent reps are thinking through decisions about staying VS leaving at bigger co's, starting their own firms, staying independent, and more. This is important info to track. For both those starting out their agency careers, and more seasoned agency execs thinking about their next career step. #media #agency #creatoreconomy

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WBD - Iceberg ahead "Warner Bros. Discovery to split its streaming and studio units from its legacy TV networks as one option to boost its lacklustre share price. The FT reports chief executive David Zaslav was weighing strategic options, including spinning off its Warner Bros movie studio and Max streaming service into a new company unburdened by most of the group’s current $39 billion net debt." Clearly something is going wrong at WDB, it seemed a while ago a streamer with incredible potential, and Zaslav at Discovery was a key adovcate of the eco-system idea, at a time when Disney under Chapek was going all in on streaming, and cutting ties with the world of #paytv and #lineartv Now, in proposing this spin-off, it seems that roles are reversed, that Disney under Iger once more is looking more stable as they look at building partnerships again and licencing content, and WBD are looking at outlandish ideas. "A break-up appears to be the strongest option with most of its debt remaining with the mature pay-TV networks business (where most of the cashflow still is) in such a scenario. But analysts at Bank of America have warned that such a split could have a “potentially devastating” impact on bondholders, and WBD rival Lionsgate recently faced a creditor revolt after separating its Starz pay-TV network." The spin-off doesn't seem like it would solve the problems. While unloading the debt would help the shareprice, it doesn't boost Max's chances going forward in a competitive environment, where they've entered late into the game in most markets, and in European Sky markets UK, Germany Italy haven't even come in yet. Also, what kind of red tape bureaucracy would that create between the pay-TV side of the business and the SVOD platform when licencing content. Remember also, as the article says, the bulk of the revenue is with the legacy business. So either the SVOD service rapidly grows subscribers & sells advertising and becomes profitable, or it could end up looking like Disney, hitting a roof quickly and then struggling to move forward and entering into a maliase. It doesn't make sense to me at least. Perhaps Zaslav could look at himself, and what he has brought or not to WBD. He's one of the best paid TV executives in the world, getting record raises year-on-year and yet commercially, WBD have been doing worse. This outlandish path could lead to more problems down the line too, as the market is so fragmented and competitive, de-linking Max from the pay-TV side could bring negative consequences for the business. #tvindustry #television #streaming #streamingplatforms #streamingmedia #max #wbd https://lnkd.in/eAymF5Be

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As Paramount Global evaluates its strategy for all of its linear and streaming assets, multiple sources tell me that Pluto TV’s co-founder and current CEO of Paramount Streaming has been in discussions with the company about repurchasing it. These discussions started before the Skydance deal was announced, but I’m told no valuation has been placed on Pluto TV, and no official offer numbers have been exchanged. Interestingly, during the Paramount Global all-hands meeting on June 25th, employees say the company didn’t mention or include any reference to Pluto TV during the newly announced go-forward plan. Those who sat in smaller internal meetings also say the brand was absent from the discussions. Since the Skydance deal was announced, Skydance has featured Pluto TV as one of the six core pillars of the company on slide ten of its presentation. However, that doesn’t guarantee that Pluto TV, or any other content brand, will be part of the company going forward. During a call with investors after the Skydance deal was announced, Jeff Shell stated, “Current management is also talking about a couple of transactions that, if they get the right price, we’ll be supportive of.” So Paramount Global’s current management team can sell off assets and make deals they think will help the new management team as long as the new management team is consulted. Full story: https://lnkd.in/eNuRDyxi

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Billion-dollar PE buyouts are ramping, just see today's Squarespace news. Investors in media x agency deals should pay attention... Global deal activity is up 24% for 2024 YTD, with a total deal volume of $726B. Could be the beginning of a cyclical M&A rally, since deal volume was super depressed over the past couple years... ...and investors need to put money to work! Below are some recent public-to-private highlights, including a large media co deal where I did a deep analysis 👇 May 13 • Permira buying website builder Squarespace • Went public in 2021, closed 1st trading day at $5.9B valuation • $6.6 billion May 6 • EQT Group buying US digital consultancy Perficient • EQT also backs UTA, which has grown through M&A • $3 billion April 2 • Silver Lake buying diversified media co Endeavor • WME / UFC parent co TKO Global will stay public • $13 billion April 1 • Advent International buying payments processor Nuvei • Nuvie backed by celeb Ryan Reynolds • $6.3 billion Similarities across these recent deals include... - founder / CEOs staying on post deal - belief that targets are undervalued in public mkts - desire for more flexibility to grow, do M&A, and drive ent value for new owners That last point is key, as I think there's a strong desire to grow through M&A in a market where there are many sellers who can get picked up at good/fair prices VS the crazyness of 2020/2021. This is timely because... Last month I wrote about public-to-private deal dynamics in my Silver Lake / Endeavor analysis, check it out here --> https://lnkd.in/gtprBx7U I'm also working on an active client deal with similar characteristics, and it's important to know where capital is flowing, and why. Are you all seeing a similar trend?? -- I'm the founder of RockWater Industries. We do M&A and strategy advisory for media, agencies, and creator economy. My DMs are open. #media #agency #creatoreconomy

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SiriusXM reported its Q1 earnings this morning, and the headlines are justifiably focused on its loss of subscribers (nearly 500k). Like all radio, its subscription business is highly vulnerable with the move to digital audio, especially in cars. But a bright spot? If you paid attention to Spotify's earnings, you wouldn't be surprised: "off-platform revenue." For SXM, this includes Pandora and podcast revenue, which saw a 7% revenue increase. During their investor call, they signaled the growth for podcasts, explicitly saying, "Podcasting revenue saw a 22% year-over-year lift in the quarter, while programmatic podcast revenue increased 12% sequentially and 97% year over year." I'd love to see SXM break out the podcast numbers even further, but if you look at what they do provide, it's easy to conclude that podcast revenue is growing much faster than other segments. For example, Pandora continues to bleed users (64k paid subs in Q1 alone), so podcast revenue seems to be the tide lifting all "off-platform" boats. When asked about their podcast initiatives, Scott Greenstein said, "One is, you know, the podcast thing and industry is really still in the second or third inning, so it's evolving." He is 100% right. SXM also signaled that it will continue to license more podcast content and is not closing the book on exclusive content. One more fun nugget: On today's call, podcasts were mentioned 30 times. Pandora was only mentioned ten times, SmartLess nine times, and Howard Stern... zero point zero. Where do you think their priorities are moving forward? Read more: https://lnkd.in/eRQTM2Kq ---- I'm the CEO and founder of DWNLOAD Media, a fund focused on acquiring majority stakes in podcast companies. With continued audience and revenue growth, podcasting continues to be the most under-valued medium, making it time to invest in audio. If you're interested in investing in the podcast space, DM me! #podcasting #audio #siriusxm #sxm #earnings #investor #investing #podcasts

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Music Business Association Music Biz 2024 coming up in May. Find out more about Reactional Music and what we are delivering across interactive music, music personalisation, in-game economies, generative composable music and the possibilities for creators, composers, artists and developers

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Some highlights from the recent discussion between Tony Maglio, M.S. (Journalism), MBA and John Halley on IndieWire about the Paramount Streaming success story hiding in plain sight: 🔵 "Here is the complete list of streaming services with more subscribers than Paramount+: Netflix, Disney+, and maybe Max. (Warner Bros. Discovery does not break out linear HBO from its Max/Discovery+ number.) That’s it." 🔵 "Pluto TV is unquestionably a success story." 🔵 "Paramount management has the streamer pegged to turn a profit in the U.S. in 2025. It’d be a shame to close something that has lost billions of dollars right before it starts to make money." 🔵 "Per a recent Antenna study, in 2023, Paramount+ had 13 percent of all U.S. premium-SVOD subscriptions, second only to Hulu and Netflix." A differentiated #strategy and superior #execution are paying off for Paramount Global in a scaled global direct-to-consumer business.

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I couldn't agree more with Jason Kilar, CEO of WarnerMedia prior to the Discovery takeover: the #streaming business can be incredibly attractive for media companies and investors. Kilar recently quoted Charles Darwin, stating, “It’s not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." We see this natural selection playing out in the #Media industry today. Some companies are adapting, while others are leaning back. To be clear: there is a path to growth, scale, and attractive margins for legacy media companies in streaming. But it requires leaving behind many old management practices and thinking and embracing change and innovation. #Strategy #BusinessGrowth #Innovation #DigitalTransformation #MediaEconomics #Netflix #Leadership #Investing

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“Apple Music is rolling out a new ‘premium’ data analytics toolkit for its record label and distributor partners. The new ‘Apple Music Partner Program’ features various tools for Apple Music’s partners to track trends on its streaming service as well as global radio plays using Shazam technology. According to the landing page for the platform, it offers “access [to] more tools to break the next talent, spot emerging trends, and uncover new insights about your content”. “Apple Music already runs another analytics platform in Apple Music For Artists, which was made available for every artist on Apple Music in August 2019. Apple Music For Artists allows artists to monitor the volume of their streaming plays on Apple Music, all within a data set that updates daily. Spotify launched its own Spotify For Artists app in 2017 (an evolution of the ‘Fan Insights’ tool it introduced two years earlier) to provide artists and their teams with information pertaining to their popularity on the service. Like Spotify for Artists, the Apple Music For Artists service is available as both a desktop interface and a standalone mobile app.” #Apple #AppleMusic #Artists #RecordLabels #Spotify #Fans #Fandom #Streaming #StreamingRoyalties #Royalties #RecordedMusic #StreamingServices #StreamingMedia #MusicTracks #MusicStreams #Music #MusicBusiness #Musica #MusicIndustry #Musique #Musik #MusicBiz

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This is a buzzy article about the titans who lead the streaming companies. By the way, they are all white men, which is sort of odd in 2024. Anyhoo - some interesting takeaways for us as consumers or people selling into the streaming universe, which is all traditional TV is now. 1. 200 million is the new number. That's the number of subscribers needed to run a profitable service. Netflix, Prime, and Disney are there. 2. Ads are growing - and probably the only way to make TV work long-term. 3. The HBO model of critical successes that makes you want to pay - is declining. It's all about weekly/monthly engagement. 4. So - with that in mind. You need sports. 5. You need shows that don't win awards but are great light entertainment. 6. When the shakeout is done, all anyone knows is Netflix will be the king of the mountain. For us Canadians, it seems clear - for originals, it's highly local stuff that can scale globally, and it better be cheap. (Squid Games is the #1 show on Netflix ever - and it didn't come from the LA system). Or we can be a great branch plant economy for Hollywood—which we already are—with skilled technicians and lower overall costs. And if you care about English Canadian culture - I wonder whether something more radical is in order. No matter how well-meaning or skilled commissioners are at Bell, Rogers Communications, CBC or what's left of Corus Entertainment you can't afford many new shows. And you only get hits by making lots of shows. One radical idea - how about providing a creators fund? - similar to what Tik Tok or Youtube have offered in the past. If you're a Canadian citizen or permanent resident here's a $5000 grant to make stuff this year and try to make a go of it. If the IP goes anywhere here's a higher tier - say $20,000 - to develop it with a Canadian producer to try and sell it somewhere. We need to move to guerrilla tactics in the content wars. We ain't making aircraft carriers and ICBMS in Canada. #streaming #tv #cancon https://lnkd.in/giS__uhY

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Tubi launches in the UK - OTT overkill? "Tubi, the free advertising-supported streaming service owned by Fox Corp., is looking to bring its success formula to the U.K., launching in the market on Tuesday, July 2. The streamer, led by CEO Anjali Sud, the former head of Vimeo, now has about 80 million monthly active users....In the U.S., its strategy has differed from other FAST platforms. For example, 90 percent of viewing on Tubi is focused on on-demand movies and TV series, compared to peers’ focus on live, linear channels. And per the Nielsen Gauge from May, Tubi made up 1.8 percent of all TV viewing in the U.S. for that month, tied with Disney+." "“Tubi has spent the last decade honing our approach to vast, free and fun streaming in North America, and we feel that now is the perfect time to bring that recipe to U.K. audiences,” said Sud in unveiling the U.K. debut. “We are launching with one of the largest and most diverse content libraries in the U.K., designed to indulge viewers in everything from blockbusters to original stories to hidden gems.”" Tubi's different approach has had success in the US, and the logic goes, if it can work in the US, it can work anywhere, especially in the UK given the common language. However, that's a lazy comparison to make. Despite the commonality in language, the UK as a TV market is much more like Europe than it is the US. The UK has several free alternatives, and more focused on the local market, ITV X, BBC iPlayer, Channel 4, plus the growing range of #fastchannels on offer in the market. Added to that the paid #svod services, Disney+ Prime, Netflix, Paramount etc. Then of course there's still #lineartv with freeview offering around 50-70 channels for free. "Much of Tubi’s early work will be “listening” to consumers’ usage, reaction and input. “This is about putting the U.K. viewer at the center,” argued Sud. “Right now, our perspective is it’s day one, let’s earn the right to deeply understand this audience.”" - Well in my opinion, the only way to do this, is to invest in originals and make an impact on the UK, meeting the market at its level. That is what the competition is doing, rather than sending US series for a US audience to the UK and expecting the same results. Of course, like in all markets it has its place, and will have interest, given Tubi's Fox catalogue. However, there's a ceiling on that approach. They're indicating they'll focus on Bollywood productions. But the UK has a big Bollywood-focused media already, what is Tubi bringing that's new? "management will remain open-minded. “It’s not prescriptive,” Sud said. “It’s a bottoms-up culture, it’s not a top-down approach.” - Remains to be seen, my bet is its more the latter. https://lnkd.in/eqWZu7mT

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📺 **Battle for the Living Room**   The race to dominate the smart TV operating system (TV OS) market is heating up, with major players like Roku, Google, Amazon, Samsung, and LG vying to enhance user experience and capitalize on new business opportunities through data and advertising. Despite this fierce competition, a key question emerges: do consumers actually care about which OS their TV uses? 📊 **Market Potential**   At the StreamTV Show in Denver, experts discussed the benefits of owning a TV OS, such as controlling user data and enhancing ad revenue. Analyst Alan Wolk noted that around 40% of smart TVs globally lack a dedicated TV OS, presenting a significant market opportunity. Even small gains in market share can translate to substantial financial rewards, making the competition highly lucrative. 💡 **Consumer Preferences**   Panelists at the event debated whether consumers prioritize the TV OS in their purchasing decisions. Google’s Rob Caruso argued that factors like size and price still dominate, with the OS being a secondary consideration. However, Vizio's Katherine Pond and LG's Matt Durgin highlighted that content availability and user experience offered by the TV OS could influence consumer choices, particularly for those seeking quality and value. 🎬 **Content and User Experience**   Ultimately, while the current focus for consumers might not be on the specific TV OS, the content and seamless user experience provided by these systems are crucial. Companies like Vizio and Samsung emphasize the importance of offering desired content and a smooth interface, hoping that improvements in these areas will eventually drive consumer preferences toward specific TV OS platforms. #TV #TVOS #Streaming #SmartTV

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