Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Wednesday, October 18th, 2023

There is apparently nothing the universe likes more than a bad Netflix earnings hot take.

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Wednesday, October 18th, 2023. 

PROGRAMMING NOTE
I usually keep my pitches pretty low-key here. The newsletter is always free and I try not to mention the paid option more than once or twice a month. 

But this week has been a reminder that this newsletter and the AllYourScreens.com web site are doing journalism that is unique and I believe worth supporting. When you look at the range of stories in today's newsletter, I don't think you'll find anything similar at any other outlet covering Hollywood and the media.

It's a tough time to be an independent entertainment journalist. Twitter is pretty much unusable for promotion and the breadth and budget of the Penske Media-owned trades can make it difficult to break through the clutter.

If you find Too Much TV valuable, I'll ask if you'll forward it along to someone and encourage them to subscribe. Or pass along one of my pieces of exclusive reporting, such as this interview with a Warner Bros Discovery executive, which I had been excerpting in the newsletter this week.

If you want to financially support my efforts but upgrading to a paid subscription isn't possible right now, let me hypothetically mention that clicking on a banner ad on your favorite independent news site always helps the site's bottom line.

And if you'd like to join the hundreds of other paid subscribers, I am always appreciate of that vote of confidence. And as always, feel free to reach out to me with feedback, tips or complaints.

BAD NETFLIX EARNINGS FRAMING, PART ONE
I write a lot here about how important it is to push against the industry's conventional wisdom. Over the years I've found that the more you hear the phrase "well, everyone knows that," the more likely it will be that the thing "everyone knows" is not actually correct.

One of the challenges in covering Netflix earnings is that a) Netflix earnings stories are almost guaranteed to boost traffic numbers and b) the more hyperbole you can inject into the headline, the more engagement you'll get from readers. Which leads to even more traffic.

That's why even the trades this afternoon are parsing every segment of the Netflix earnings news into quick, easy-to-hype chunks. And more often than not, the chunks lead into the conventional wisdom "everyone knows."

For instance, Deadline has a piece with the headline The 'Suits' Effect: Netflix Eyes More Licensed Shows Following Success Of USA Network Legal Drama On Streamer, and based on the reaction to the piece I've already seen on social media, you would think the streamer has opted to cut back on short-run Netflix originals and lean into licensing old 23-episode network dramas. 

In reality, the piece relies on a brief statement that seems to be taken from a Netflix press release:

“Licensing has always been an important part of our programming strategy. As the competitive environment evolves, we may have increased opportunities to license more hit titles to complement our original programming. We believe this will deliver additional value for our members (i.e., engagement), as well as for rights holders who benefit from the increased awareness and revenue that Netflix delivers, in addition to the new life that success on Netflix can drive,” it added.

Which is....pretty much what the company has been saying for a while. Netflix has always licensed a few popular titles and that has sparked similar headlines since back in the days when the streamer cut a deal for The Walking Dead. When you look at a list of the titles Netflix has licensed over the years, they tend to be ones that had some potential audience left in them and could also be acquired for a price the company saw as low enough to provide value.

The truth is that Netflix has always been much more aggressive with this approach outside the U.S. Especially in the early years, when a lack of competing global streamers allowed them to license well-known American titles outside the U.S. It made a lot of news in the American entertainment press when Netflix lost the rights to The Office. But that was only for North America and the streamer continued to have the show in some other territories for several more years.

The thing that has recently changed for Netflix in the U.S. is that many of its rivals are choosing to license some popular titles to Netflix as a quick way to boost their bottom line. Netflix couldn't have acquired Suits even a year ago, but much has changed in the industry since then. And it's also worth noting that the cost of most licensing deals makes it a much cheaper option than simply ordering another original series. While the cost of Suits to Netflix hasn't been officially announced, it is believed to be in the range of $200,000 to $300,000 per episode. Which makes the cost to Netflix of a 16-episode season of Suits equal to the cost (or even cheaper) of a six-episode season of some random original.

Licensing successes don't mean Netflix is cutting back on originals. It means that those licensing successes help make the originals financially viable.

BAD NETFLIX EARNINGS FRAMING, PART TWO
One of the reasons why CEOs in any industry love investor and earnings calls is that it provides them a platform to talk about the company without being asked any uncomfortable follow-up questions. Another Deadline piece from this afternoon is entitled Ted Sarandos Blames SAG-AFTRA For Breaking "Momentum" & Contract Talks Ending; "We Want …To Get Everyone Back To Work," and to be fair, the piece does accurately report what was said by Sarandos during the call. But there's a lot of context he neglected to bring up during his comments:

“We spent hours and hours with SAG-AFTRA over the last few weeks, and we were actually very optimistic that we were making progress,” the garrulous Sarandos went on to say Wednesday of the now stalled talks. “But then at the very end of our last session together, the guild presented this new demand …a subscriber levy unrelated to viewing or success, and this really broke our momentum unfortunately.”

"Breaking the momentum is apparently CEO-speak for "caused myself and Disney CEO Bob Iger to walk out of the talks," then I suppose Sarandos is being vaguely accurate. Because as I reported when the talks between SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP broke off, that is exactly what happened. 

Sarandos also makes it sound as if the "new demand" came out of nowhere. In fact, the latest proposal from the union was in response to repeated proclamations from the studios that they wouldn't consider the union's previous "revenue sharing" proposal. The subscriber levy wasn't a new demand. It was a replacement for an earlier proposal. Which might sound like nit-picking. But in this case, the distinction is very important.

IS IT NECESSARY FOR A CABLE NEWS HOST TO BE ON THE 'RIGHT SIDE' OF A WAR?
While it takes a lot to surprise me anymore when it comes to the TV business, I was a bit startled today to hear from someone at an unnamed cable news network. They reached out to me to highlight (not for attribution, of course) that MSNBC's ratings had dropped. This spokesperson also noted that their research was showing that some MSNBC viewers had turned away in recent days in part because of the perception that the network was "weak on Israel" or perhaps featured "Muslim reporters who seem to be open to the Hamas side."

While I have no idea of whether or not those characterizations of the study are accurate (or, to be honest, if there was research conducted at all), the conversation reminded me that nothing much has changed since the early days of the Iraq War more than twenty years ago. That's when being seen as "soft" on terrorism could cost you your cable TV news job. Or at least, it could be used as an excuse to jettison a troublesome on-air host.

Read the entire piece here.

ODDS AND SODS
* I recently had the chance to talk with Quantum Leap producer Chris Grismer about the episode airing tonight, which he directs. I spent more time talking about his job than the show, which I think is more fun all the way around.

* David Ellison's Skydance Animation has signed a multiyear deal with Netflix to develop and produce animated movies, ending its distribution pact with Apple.

* National Geographic released its fall/winter premiere slate today. Including JFK: One Day In America (November 5th); Incredible Animal Journeys (November 19th); Science Fair: The Series (December 10th); A Real Bug's Life (January 24th); Arctic Assent With Alex Honnold (February 4th); Queens (March 4th) and Photographer (March 18th). Returning series premieres include Explorer: Lake Of Fire (October 26th); Lost Cities Revelased with Albert Lin (November 23rd); Trafficked With Mariana Van Zeller (January 17th) and Cesar Millan: Better Human Better Dog (April 12th).

* Amazon Freevee's Pretty Hard Cases returns for its final season on November 29th.

TWEET OF THE DAY

WHAT'S NEW TODAY AND TOMORROW:

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18TH:
* Coleen Rooney: The Real Wagatha Story (Hulu)
* Heaven Official's Blessing [dubbed and subtitled] (Crunchyroll)
* Kaala Paani Series Premiere (Netflix)
* Living For The Dead Series Premiere (Hulu)
* Married At First Sight Season Premiere (Lifetime)
* Ms Pat Settles It Series Premiere (BET)
* Nature (PBS)
* Sistas Season Premiere (BET)

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19TH, 2023:
* Bodies (Netflix)
* Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix Series Premiere (Netflix)
* Crashing Eid Series Premiere (Netflix)
* Crypto Boy (Netflix)
* Everyone Else Burns Series Premiere (The CW)
* God's Grace: The Sheila Johnson Story (BET+)
* Just For Kicks Series Premiere (Crackle)
* Mysteries Of The Abandoned Season Premiere (Discovery)
* Neon Series Premiere (Netflix)
* Payback Series Premiere (Britbox)
* Peter & The Wolf (Max)
* Scavengers Series Premiere (Max)
* The Burning Girls Series Premiere (Paramount+)
* Wicked City (ALLBLK)
* Wolf Like Me Season Two Premiere (Peacock)


Click Here to see the list of all of the upcoming premiere dates for the next few months.

SEE YOU THURSDAY!

If you have any feedback, send it along to Rick@AllYourScreens.com and follow me on Twitter @aysrick.