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After strikes, Hollywood's industry 'bible' gets an overhaul
Picket signs during the Hollywood strike pointed to possible scenarios.
(
Mandalit del Barco
/
NPR
)
Topline:
The business of television has been upended in the last several years, but all the promised innovations of the streaming era have not panned out and the industry would do well to re-embrace long-established ways of doing business.
Why it matters: After the escalation of streaming and ensuing mergers and layoffs (and then a global pandemic and two drawn-out strikes), the business has changed for the worse and sent the economics of the industry into a state of panicked chaos. Now more than ever, it’s important to be able to step back from it all and look fresh at the economics of television that provided stability and normalcy for decades before the recent disruption.
Back to the future: Ken Basin, a veteran business affairs executive, wrote the definitive bible of how the industry works in 2018’s The Business of Television. In his forthcoming revised edition, due out in September, he argues that old business methods can — and are — being brought back to save television, starting with advertising. Windowing, or the sequential availability of titles by exhibitors, meanwhile, has declined dramatically in recent years but is being revived to connect with untapped pockets of viewers. Finally, bundling is also making a comeback, relieving consumers of decision fatigue.
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