The new CEO from the Discovery side of the merger cancelled a bunch of HBO Max programming that was doing well, because their background is in cheaper to produce reality content. It seems fated to join the very long list of bad media mergers.
What I do not understand about business is basically everything, but I still don't really understand why they felt the need to remove existing programs.
I can understand canceling Close Enough and Infinity Train because they're too expensive, but I don't really understand what it's hurting for them to just say on the servers and continue to be streamable. Hard drive space is pretty cheap, especially at HBO's scale.
I've heard it's possibly a tax writeoff, but then I've seen conflicting reports claiming that that's not the case, so I have no idea. How much ongoing costs were involved with keeping the animated shows I like online?
I don’t have any direct insight into this but I’ve read elsewhere that removal of first party content from streaming services could also be because contracts with actors/writers/other crew give them a cut each time it’s shown. By removing the content from streaming it’s no longer getting shown and generating income for those involved.
There's also the possibility that royalties were negotiated poorly. Some back catalog shows could cost more to show than they make due to things like music royalties or other production royalties.
Yeah i think it allows them to write the ‘loss’ of the content on their balance sheet at some estimated value it would have cost them if they hadn’t made it themselves.
That sort of management-by-spreadsheet without any of the humanity or long-term vision almost every corporation used to have seems to be an ongoing trend, especially in media, and it’s showing. Discovery, who have McDonnel-Douglassed HBO and are behind this mess, are a particularly good example of the kind of garbage heap that leadership style gets you.
