Bundling and Unbundling
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Winners and losers from the Disney-Charter stand-off, as The Great Re-bundling begins
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Charting ESPN’s rise, including how it build leverage over the cable TV providers, and its ongoing decline, caused by the Internet.
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Cable companies survived the great unbundling thanks to selling Internet service; they may be best place to make the bundle of the future.
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The state of bundles in 2020: Netflix, Disney, Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple. Plus, Microsoft’s purchase of ZeniMax.
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TV is moving from a world where distribution dictates business models to one where business models need to fit the jobs consumers want done. That is the best way to understand Disney’s latest announcement.
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It’s trivial to say that the Internet changed media; what is more interesting is unpacking how different types of media were affected, and why — and what might happen to TV.
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Spotify Subscription Audiobooks, Casual Fans and Bundles, Spotify’s Goals
Audiobooks on Spotify will not be available for “free” to Spotify Premium subscribers. It’s a move that makes sense for Spotify, and is one that authors should embrace.
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Hollywood Writers End Strike, The Utah Jazz and Las Vegas Knights Go Direct
Hollywood writer’s ended their strike and claimed victory, but the losses are coming regardless. Plus, what studios want from AI, and how new NBA local rights deals show how unprepared the NBA is for a new reality.
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Max Gets Sports, The Fox Linchpin, Disney’s Taylor Swift Era Confirmed
Max adds sports, and Fox might want to shore up its position in the bundle. Then, Disney confirms it is in its Taylor Swift era, and investors are not impressed.
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Charter-Disney Winners and Losers
Winners and losers from the Disney-Charter stand-off, as The Great Re-bundling begins
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The Rise and Fall of ESPN’s Leverage
Charting ESPN’s rise, including how it build leverage over the cable TV providers, and its ongoing decline, caused by the Internet.
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Disney Earnings, A Split Disney?, ESPN’s Advertising
Disney’s earnings point to the importance of advertising going forward; that’s also the best argument for keeping Disney a conglomerate.
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Disney’s Taylor Swift Era
Not even Taylor Swift can fight the devaluation of recorded music, but she makes it up in physical experiences; Disney isn’t much different, but it looks much worse given the company’s old business model.
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Bob Iger on CNBC, The End of Linear TV, ESPN and Strategic Partnerships (and Apple?)
Bob Iger teased what might be next for Disney in an expansive interview, including the end of linear TV and hints about the future of ESPN.
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Cord-Cutting and YouTube TV, Disney Earnings, Pay TV’s Vision Cycles
YouTube TV may be the sports bundle, and then Disney’s earnings offer a framing to discuss how and why the bundle unraveled, and the best way to rebuild around streaming.




