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Disney Poised to Win the Streaming Profitability Race

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 With Netflix the only streamer operating fully in the black, there has been much speculation about which streaming platform will be the first to break into true profitability, with many believing we will see this happen by the end of this year. As many have predicted, it seems Disney+ may be on the verge of taking this streaming milestone. Brandon Blake, our entertainment attorney Los Angeles at Blake & Wang P.A., breaks down the facts and figures.   Brandon Blake Significantly Reduced Streaming Losses For Q1 of 2024, which is Disney’s fiscal Q2, Disney’s combined streaming business, which now included sole ownership of Hulu as well as ESPN+, managed to reduce their losses to only $18M. While subs rose significantly, average revenue per user did slip a little. This is mostly thanks to growth from their recent deal with Charter, which introduced some reduced, wholesale pricing to the mix. Revenue came in at $6.2B. Surprisingly, if we remove ESPN+’s sports-focused streami
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Paramount’s Sony/Apollo Bid is Now Formalized— What Now?

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 Despite the (mostly unexpected, at least this early) announcement that CEO Bob Bakish will be replaced by a three-person-strong leadership team at Paramount and their continuing negotiations with Skydance and RedBird Capital, it seems Paramount will have another bidder to consider. Namely Sony and Apollo Capital Management in a joint bid. Blake & Wang P.A. entertainment lawyer , Brandon Blake, unpacks what we know. Brandon Blake Negotiating Window Ending Paramount and their controlling owner, National Amusements, have been in an exclusive negotiating window with David Ellison’s Skydance but that period will expire shortly. Sony and Apollo have now formally reached out to the Paramount special board committee with a formal $26B cash offer, news which pushed up Paramount’s ailing shares considerably as it broke.   While National Amusements and the Redstone family seem to be mostly focused on the potential Skydance deal, it is pretty clear that not all stakeholders in the Par
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Will 2024 be Animation’s Big Year?

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 While, historically, animations have tended to play a lesser role than live productions in the Hollywood ecosystem, we’ve seen some startling (and well-deserved) successes from the animated film market in recent years, including Sony’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse , The Super Mario Bros. Movie , and Studio Ghibli’s The Boy and the Heron . With some fantastic releases on the cards for animated productions, will 2024 see this sometimes-neglected niche get the love it deserves? Our local expert, Blake & Wang P.A. entertainment attorney Brandon Blake, looks at what is coming for animation lovers this year. Brandon Blake A Lot to Live Up To From the bittersweet swansong of what will likely be legendary animator Hayao Miyazaki’s last Studio Ghibli project, through to the unexpected (and massive) commercial success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie , which powered over the $1B international mark, 2023 brought some fantastic animated success stories to the table. While it is a l
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Documentary Makers Lead the AI Regulation Charge

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 While documentary filmmaking may not be the first genre you think of when the special effects potential of AI is raised, it is a genre where trustworthiness and veracity are key watchwords. So it should come as no real surprise that one of the first pushes to codify guidelines for the use of Generative AI have come, not from the blockbuster arena, but from this cinematic niche. Brandon Blake, our entertainment attorney in Los Angeles from Blake & Wang P.A. takes a closer look at their suggestions. Brandon Blake Primary Source Material First Created by a group of documentary filmmakers, producers, and archivists through the Archival Producers Alliance, the new guidelines seek to create a baseline for AI’s use in their niche of the industry. The use of ‘fake’ footage generated through AI has already crept into the documentary arena. While it opens up some wonderful doors for bringing the stories they tell to life, there is also considerably more potential for misfires and misle
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Amazon Dominates Both Theaters and Home Viewing

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 Amazon has been something of an underdog in the streaming and production market until recently. Despite the immense size of the Amazon Prime platform, their streaming service has always been incidental to the wider business of shipping people the goods they want fast and cheaply, and it is frustratingly unclear how many of Prime’s subscribers actually use the streaming platform. With two top-performing films this week, one controversially headed direct-to-streaming and the other with a stellar theatrical release, however, Amazon is making a splash on the PVOD lists. Brandon Blake, the entertainment lawyer at Blake & Wang P.A., unpacks the irony of two so different release strategies both paying off. Brandon Blake The Beekeeper : The Little Hit That Could The Beekeeper , which secured Amazon the Number 1 spot on both iTunes and Fandango, was a low-key $40M production Amazon MGM acquired for the US market. It secured itself a stellar $66M theatrical run and managed to sell itse
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Is Paramount Global Finally Going Under the Hammer?

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  Paramount Global has to take the 2024 record for the most intriguing will-they, won’t-they debate we’ve seen in the M&A space. However, it looks like we could finally be seeing a serious deal on the table for a major stake in National Amusements, Paramount Global’s parent company. Could we be close to a real deal? Brandon Blake, for your entertainment industry law advice entertainment attorney at Blake & Wang P.A. unveils the latest tantalizing details.                                                                           Brandon Blake A Skydance Deal It looks like the honor of taking over the Paramount mantle is set to go to Skydance Media chief, David Ellison, as has been widely anticipated. Both sides have now enacted a 30-day exclusive negotiation period to see if a final deal for National Amusements can be reached.   Under the auspices of the Redstone family, National Amusements controls over 75% of Paramount’s voting shares, and the industry has also been
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Hulu on Disney+ is Officially Here

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While the Hulu on Disney+ Beta bundle has been live since last year, we have officially reached the point of full integration. Intriguingly, much of the executive focus on the new bundle has been around the technical advancements needed to unite the two platforms. You could take a look at entertainment lawyer Brandon Blake, from Blake & Wang P.A., looks in more depth at the united offering.                                              Brandon Blake Technical Advancements While few viewers are likely to know (or care, frankly) about the backstage technology that powers their viewing experience, Disney executives have been keen to hammer home the potential for happier, healthier subscriber engagement and retention with the new tech shift. They have gone as far as to call it the “most extensive technical advancement” since launch. At this point, it is clear that they are also hoping a more advertiser-appealing platform with better metrics can be leveraged to boost their highly su
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