In the latest round of media takeover attempts, Alien Media Group has placed an offer to buy Paramount and all of its media assets in an estimated $30 billion, with a ‘B’, deal.
Byron Allen, head of Allen Media Group, says he’s in the market to buy Paramount for $14 billion and assume all of the companies debt. This will bring the deal to about $30 billion.
[the deal] is the best solution for all of the Paramount Global shareholders, and the bid should be taken seriously and pursued.
Byron Allen
CBS, Showtime, and Nickelodeon are big-name channels owned by Paramount. Star Trek, Mission Impossible, Transformers, and Scream are some of the big name franchises produced by Paramount’s movie studio.
Allen’s offer is the latest big money deal for a major media property after they all rushed into streaming without knowing whether digital streaming is a viable business or how to make it work. The only streaming service making any profit is Netflix while the others chased subscribers promising full catalogs with no way of building a sustainable business.
Digital has proven, time and time again, that IP (shows, movies, franchises) are worthless when scale reduces the cost per stream to mere cents.
The Masters of the Universe Are Wrong
We’ve witnessed a litany of ills flowing from bad deals. Fallout from the HBO/Discovery/Time Warner deal are still being felt with beloved series being removed from streaming, and people getting individual shows and movies they paid for ripped from their devices.
The idea you can entice millions of people to pay dollars a month to watch your catalog, and that will cover the cost of high end production is supremely flawed. The heads of these studios and platforms who we’re told know how to run businesses missed the point high end productions cost real money, many times eclipsing subscriber costs. And their hubris to rushing to digital led to a whole strike that sucked in writers and actors.
Digital Is Flawed
There’s a reason why air TV (and air radio for that matter) and cable were long lasting, profitable businesses that delivered value to the customer. The Flip (flipping channels as El Jefe calls it) was what kept the TV,, cable, and satellite companies flush with ad cash. When you’re lazing on the couch during a Saturday afternoon you could lose yourself flipping through channels to land on…something to watch.
While you were flipping you landed on a channel with commercials, or a pay for subscription channel like HBO. In the world of Netflix and streaming there is no flip. There is no catching a couple seconds of video to figure out if you want to watch. And…watching the commercials. This world of rushing to the bottom to attract eyeballs while throwing every half-assed produced show isn’t going to work.
Most streamers who’ve cut the so-called cord are paying for multiple services. This way they can get HBO (Max), the Olympics (Peacock), Star Trek (Paramount) and have choice. It would be more convenient if someone could figure out how to bundle those streaming services into one.
Hmmmm.
That model sounds familiar.
-MJ