There’s much to be said about Netflix’s proposed USD72 billion ($108 billion) acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery’s film and streaming assets. But zoom all the way out and only one story really matters: we’re in the final rounds of a 50-year fight between Hollywood and Big Tech, and tech is winning on points.
There is nothing unusual about a Hollywood studio changing hands. Since the collapse of the studio system in the 1950s under antitrust pressure, the studios have been kicked around like a hacky sack between a cavalcade of buyers, all of whom have learned the same tough lesson about this brutally lumpy, hit-driven business.
That lesson is simple: distribution is king. To win, you need to own the pipes. Since the fading of the DVD boom and the rise of streaming, Hollywood has had only the most tenuous control of those pipes.
This is where the tech companies come in. Sony was arguably the first to grasp that music and filmed entertainment were ultimately just software for its devices. But Sony dropped the ball so hard it cracked the pavement, and Apple took the next big step with the iPod and iTunes, training consumers to live inside closed ecosystems.
