Jason Hall

It's one that I actually really like.

I'm generally not a fan of large acquisitions.

We'll talk about it later in the show.

But history is not good in measuring the performance of those sorts of deals.

But in the video entertainment industry for the past couple of decades, we've seen a tremendous amount of consolidation, especially amongst the studios.

Just look at what Disney has accumulated.

That went incredibly well for a long time and hasn't gone so well over the past few years.

But through that consolidation, as streaming has become obviously the next phase in the way that this kind of video entertainment is distributed and consumed,

There's been an explosion of competition as everybody fights to carve out a share of consumer spending and also their screen time.

It's really ultra-important right now because viewing habits continue to trend away from traditional media consumption.

I'm not just talking about linear TV.

I'm thinking about the impact of social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram.

And then, of course, one of the huge winners right now is the kind of somewhere in between that is YouTube that honestly is about as big as Netflix.

And in recent years, Netflix's share of viewership in the U.S.

is actually stagnated.

Sure, the revenue's grown, the profits have grown, but the actual viewership data is not great because of all of those options beyond linear TV.

Now, on the defensive aspect of what Netflix is acquiring, it's locking up access to that deep Warner Brothers content library.

Also, getting HBO's content and its streaming platform under the Netflix umbrella.

This is pure consolidation, and it's been inevitable.

As we've seen this land grab with the streaming platforms out there, so many of them are not profitable as standalone entities that we're going to see that consolidation happen.