Viacom

Posted on October 16, 2016 by Barbara

Ryan Doody, Georgina Macdonald

Viacom’s Holdings

Viacom, Inc. (VIAB) is an American media conglomerate with particular interests in cinema with Paramount Pictures, America’s oldest film studio; and cable television as the sixth largest cable ownership company globally, in order of revenue. Viacom houses media networks that reach approximately 700 million global subscribers with leading channels including MTV, VH1, BET, COMEDY CENTRAL and Nickelodeon.

Click here to see a list of all Viacom’s holdings

National Amusements

National Amusements, Inc. have a controlling interest of the media company. National Amusements is Viacom founder and billionaire Sumner Redstone’s holding company. This company holds a majority stake in both Viacom and its sister company, CBS Corp. Viacom was originally founded by media magna Sumner M. Redstone in 1971 and then reestablished in 2005 after splitting its original format into two publicly traded companies; Viacom and CBS Corporation. Sumner Redstone then became CEO of the newly defined Viacom, Inc. until February 2016. At the age of 92, Redstone resigned from his chairmanships at both CBS and Viacom after a court-ordered psychiatric examination.

The Redstone’s Legal Battles

This court-ordered examination by a geriatric psychiatrist is just one noteworthy outcome that has come out of a continuous stream of legal battles within and around the famously fractious Redstone family. The specific inquiry into the 92 year old’s health came after the newly-dismissed Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman sued Redstone, claiming that his dismissal was proof that Sumner was under the control of his daughter, Shari Redstone. At the time there were many rumors that Sumner Redstone’s failing health had allowed his daughter to run his company for him. These rumors were further supported by his supposed successor being someone close to Shari. Dauman and the five other board members dismissed by Redstone this year have sued to prevent their ouster. Their strategy was to prove that Shari took advantage of her father’s mental incapacity in order to seize control of the billion dollar companies. Their ‘legal drama’ and public familial feuding has been highly publicized over the last few years presenting the company as volatile, unstable and, thus, detrimentally impacted their professional image.

Management

Sumner M. Redstone, Founder & Executive Chairman

Sumner Redstone, Majority Shareholder of Viacom and Nat’l Amusements ; Chairman Emeritus

Shari E. Redstone, Non – Executive Vice Chair of Board of Trustees of Viacom

Acting CEO of Viacom Inc.; President and CEO of Viacom G.E.O.

Former CEO and President of Viacom Inc.

The Country’s Oldest Movie Studio

Paramount Pictures Corporation has experienced its worst fiscal year in Brad Grey’s twelve years as Chairman and CEO of the corporation. During his comments about their dismal year, Grey painted a ‘rosier picture’ for the future of Paramount Pictures. He hinted that with the dismissal of Dauman, the era of cost-cutting and streamlined content was over. Moreover, he insinuated that this would further allow a move ahead with more inventive content by acquiring more sub companies to provide blockbuster results; as in the spirit of Disney’s buying of companies such as Marvel, Pixar and Lucasfilm which has set up its slates for the next decade

The development of content is certainly the main issue with Paramount Pictures. It is reported that since the departures of Marvel, DreamWorks Animation and DreamWorks SKG, the corporation has been floundering for lucrative content for development. Grey also commented on repairing Paramount’s image within the film industry. They are seen as ‘penny-pincher’ with a poor business affairs process; a destabilized management team within their production division; and an inability to successfully launch branded sequels (as seen this year with Star Trek Beyond and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles).

“Recently, we’ve missed more than we should have.’ Grey said to Deadline magazine; but he went on to say that Paramount has ‘a very strong, diverse slate ahead.’ A true statement, according to critics; their roster includes a huge range of films from Oscar contenders like Scorsese’s Silence to the next chapter of the billion dollar franchise; Transformers: The Last Knight (Click here for news and spoilers).

CBS Merger

Over the past year, Viacom has flirted with the idea of re-merging with CBS, and as of November 2016 it seems inevitable. Shari Redstone has said in an interview that she “think[s] it makes sense at this point in time to explore whether it’s in the interest of both companies to merge again” (13). Viacom’s poor cable performance has put it at a weak position when it will eventually negotiate the merger with CBS. While it is uncertain who will lead the company, the most likely contender is Les Moonves, CBS’s current CEO (4).

Cable Performance

Viacom’s cable holdings have not seen nearly as much success in the past year as they have had in the past. As of November 20, 2016, there are no Viacom channels in the top 5 cable networks during Primetime. In fact, in the list of the 15 top channels on cable based on total day viewership, Viacom channels – Nickelodeon and Nick at Night – only appear twice (10).

*Highlighted channels are owned by Viacom

Source: medialifemagazine.com

The two most notable absentees from this list are MTV and Comedy Central – two of Viacom’s major channels. Comedy Central has seen a drop in viewership mainly due to the end of two of its most popular shows – The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report. After Jon Stewart’s departure, Comedy Central’s viewership declined a painful 37% (11); the channel has yet to see a comparable replacement.

The new era of Comedy Central programming has yet to see the same success as its predecessors. The Daily Show with Trevor Noah’s average rating of 0.32 is about half that of Stewart’s. The Daily Show’s lack of success represents the channels struggle as a whole. While Trevor Noah may be likeable, In the words of Hayley C. Cuccinello of Forbes Magazine: “His dimples and adorable South African accent just aren’t cutting it” (11)

MTV has described the channel’s cable ratings plunge as a “transitional era” where it’s largely youthful demographic access the channel’s content primarily OTT through the MTV app. Its TV ratings have fell 29% between 2014 and 2015, yet MTV can still boast over 49 million Facebook likes, which is significantly higher than channels like Fox News that have higher TV ratings. While it may have digital success, MTV as a cable network will have to seriously innovate its content if it wants to stay relevant (12).

Argentina’s Largest TV Station

Management within Viacom has been a revolving door in recent months. Following the controversial departures of Dauman in August and Tom Dooley in September of this year, Robert Bakish became the company’s third CEO in three months. Bakish is a Viacom veteran; he became the President and CEO of Viacom International Media Networks in 2007 after worked for the company since 1997. (16)

Bakish’s move has already influenced many of Viacom’s strategies moving forward. He claims his desire is to strengthen the company both domestically and internationally; expected due to his background in global media networks. Bakish’s promotion moves complementarily with Viacom’s acquisition of one of Argentina’s main free-to-air channels, Telefe. The massive deal was announced in November this year, with Viacom pledging $345 million for the channel. (15) This certainly was a surprise purchase due to it’s well-known financial instability. This acquisition strengthens Viacom’s already prominent standing in South America; Telefe reaches 95% of all households in the country and reportedly has attracted 33% share of viewership year-to-date in 2016. However, the fiscal impact of a $345 million buy will be interesting to watch in a company with a reported $12 billion debt. (18)

Bibliography

James, Meg. November 8, 2016. LA Times. Sony Vue Dumps Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, MTV and Other Viacom Channels. Retrieved November 28, 2016. http://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-sony-vue-viacom-20161108-story.html
James, Meg. July 8, 2016. LA Times. Why Viacom Chief Philippe Dauman is fighting his longtime boss, Sumner Redstone. Retrieved November 26th, 2016. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-why-philippe-dauman-fights-sumner-redstone-20160706-snap-story.html
Cohan, William D. June 16, 2016. Vanity Fair. “It’s a Coup D’état Without a Doubt”: Is Shari Redstone Making Power Moves at Viacom? Retrieved November 26th, 2016. http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/06/shari-redstone-power-moves-viacom
Fox, Emily Jane. November 2, 2016. Vanity Fair. Finally, There is a Winner in the Redstone Family Drama. Retrieved November 3rd, 2016. http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/11/bob-bakish-viacom-compensation
Board of Directors. Retrieved November 24, 2016. http://www.viacom.com/about/pages/boardofdirectors.aspx#
Paramount Pictures. Retrieved November 1, 2016. http://www.paramount.com
Executives: Brad Grey. Retrieved November 1, 2016. http://www.paramount.com/inside-studio/studio/executives/meet-executives/brad-grey
Fleming Jr, Mike and Cieply, Michael. November 3, 2016. Deadline. Brad Grey Fights For Paramount’s Future Part Two. Retrieved November 4, 2016. http://deadline.com/2016/11/brad-grey-paramount-pictures-future-sumner-redstone-shari-redstone-1201847371/
Fleming Jr, Mike and Finke, Niki. October 8, 2010. Deadline. Paramount to End Relationship with Marvel in 2012. Retrieved November 4, 2016. http://deadline.com/2010/10/disney-paramount-marvel-restructure-marketing-distruibution-deal-76534/
Media By The Numbers: This Week’s Cable Ratings. November 23, 2016. Retrieved 28, 2016. http://www.medialifemagazine.com/this-weeks-cable-ratings/
Cuccinello, Hayley C. April 28, 2016. Forbes. Trevor Noah’s ‘Daily Show’ Reaches 100th Episode, But Noah Is Still Struggling. Retrieved November 28, 2016. http://www.forbes.com/sites/hayleycuccinello/2016/04/28/trevor-noahs-daily-show-reaches-100th-episode-but-noah-is-still-struggling/#67c25575820e
Zara, Christopher. April 15, 2015. International Business Times. MTV Ratings Decline Raises Relevance Questions As Young People Cut Cable Cord For Devices. Retrieved November 28, 2016. http://www.ibtimes.com/mtv-ratings-decline-raises-relevance-questions-young-people-cut-cable-cord-devices-1881468
Walters, Natalie. November 23, 2016. TheStreet. Viacom (VIAB) Merging With CBS Again ‘Might Make Sense,’ Shari Redstone Says. Retrieved November 29, 2016. https://www.thestreet.com/story/13890410/1/viacom-viab-merging-with-cbs-again-might-make-sense-shari-redstone-says.html
Fox, Emily Jane. October 19, 2016. The Hive. Will Les Moonves Soon Run Viacom, Too? Retrieved November 29, 2016. http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/10/les-moonves-cbs-viacom-merger
Steele, Anne. November 15, 2016. Wall Street Journal. Viacom to Buy Argentina’s Telefe for $345 Million. Retrieved November 29, 2016. http://www.wsj.com/articles/viacom-to-buy-argentinas-telefe-for-345-million-1479231471
James, Meg. October 31, 2016. LA Times. Viacom Names Robert Bakish as Acting CEO. Retrieved November 28, 2016. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-viacom-ceo-20161031-story.html
James, Meg. November 9, 2016. LA Times. Paramount Quarterly Profit Plummets; Paramount Loses $137 million. Retrieved November 27, 2016. http://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-viacom-earnings-paramount-20161108-story.html
Orr, Emma and Shaw, Lucas. August 24, 2016. Bloomberg. Viacom Said to Rethink Resistance to $12 Billion Downgrade. Retrieved November 27, 2016. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-24/viacom-said-to-rethink-resistance-to-12-billion-debt-downgrade

21st Century Fox

Posted on October 16, 2016 by erlipins

Gina Reitenauer, Erika Lipinski, Dwayne Ellmore

[1]

Adress/ Contact Info:

1211 6TH AVE.

NEW YORK, NY 10036

(212) 852-7000

Key Executives:

James Murdoch Co-Chief Operating Officer

James Murdoch- CEO

Murdoch has been with the Fox corporation for over 20 years, over these years, he has held a variety of different leadership positions in the company. He was appointed as the CEO in 2015.

Lachlan Murdoch- Executive Chairman

L. Murdoch has been in the communications industry for over twenty years. Some of his past leadership positions for the company include: Board of Directors member, Deputy Chief Operating Officer, and Co-Chairman of the corporation.

Rupert Murdoch- Executive Chairman

R. Murdoch has served as both the CEO and Chairman of the company, a role that he had since 1979 when the corporation was known as “News Corporation” . R. Murdoch was appointed to his current position as Executive Chairman of the company on July 1st, 2015.

Reed Nolte- Executive Vice President of Investor Relations

Before becoming an executive at 21st Century Fox, Mr. Note held a variety of different financial positions at communications companies. Most notably, he was the Assistant Treasurer at Paramount Communications. Additionally, Mr. Nolte was previously the Vice President of Investor Relations at Viacom.

Julie Henderson- Chief Communications Officer

Ms. Henderson is the Chief Spokesperson for the company. Her previous experience in Public Relations and the communications field extensive; she has worked as the Senior Vice President of MPRM Public Relations and also Fox Interactive Media. Ms. Henderson has been apart of the 21st century fox team since 2012 when she took her current position.

John Nallen- Senior Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

John Nallen assumed his current role at 21st century fox in July of 2013. Mr. Nallen originally joined the “News Corporation” back in 1995 after working at Arthur Andersen as a partner.

[2]

Brief Overview:

Twenty-First Century Fox is one of the largest mass media conglomerates in the world. The four major segments of this company include cable network programming, television, filmed entertainment, and direct broadcast satellite television. Twenty-First Century Fox is parent organization to many subsidiaries. For instance, Fox Entertainment Group is a subsidiary of which are many of Fox’s well-known divisions, such as FOX News Channel, Twentieth Century Fox Film, and Fox Network Group. Going even further, Fox Network Group is the parent of many other subsidiaries as well, one of them being Fox Broadcasting Company. [3]

[4]

FOX Broadcasting Company, like other traditional television outlets, is experiencing declining viewership. This is partly due to the fact that media consumers are embracing newer digital platforms, which leads broadcasting networks like FOX to be dependent on the news and coverage of national and international events, such as the 2016 Summer Olympics, the 2016 Election, and general sports coverage. For instance, FOX is hopeful that its coverage of the Super Bowl in 2017 will boost ratings as it did in the past. [5]

Finances:

Stock Price:

The stock of the 21st century corporation, has not changed much since the beginning of the year through the current fourth quarter of stock trading. The peak point of the stock price in 2016 was on April 25th, 2016 at $31.06. The lowest point of the stock price was on September 9th, 2016 when the stock price was $23.57. Since this low point, the stock has only rebounded to the point where it is as of Mid-November (Nov 15th, 2016) at $27.45. [6]

Revenue:

For the fiscal year 2015, the revenue for 21st Century Fox was $28.99 billion dollars and the the revenue for the 2016 fiscal year was $27.33 billion. In Quarter 4 of 2016, the company beat expert’s estimates coming in at $6.65 billion. This marked at 7% increase over the prior year’s Quarter 4 results. [7] As of 2016, 21st Century Fox is the 4th highest grossing media company in the world, only behind Alphabet, The Walt Disney Company, and Comcast. [8]

Current Projects/ Recent Releases:

Some Fox films in theaters now include: Trolls, Keeping Up with the Jones, and the recent release Rules Don’t Apply.

Rules Don’t Apply

Rules Don’t Apply was released by Twenty-First Century Fox on November 23rd, 2016, two days prior to Thanksgiving. There are many Thanksgiving releases this week from competing studios such as: Moana from Walt Disney Studios and Bad Santa 2 from Broad Green Pictures. We’ll see how Rules Don’t Apply performs in comparison to the films from other studios. Their last release, Trolls, was expected to gross 35 to 40 million, yet ended up grossing $45.6 million in its first week. [9]

Assassins Creed

[10]

Assassins Creed is based on the video game franchise and will hit theaters on December 21st, 2016. Several sources in the trade say that Assassins Creed won’t make money. The movie budget has not been released yet, but it is estimated to be between $100-200 million.[11] With a movie budget that high it could be hard to break even.

Listed in the image below are future releases to look out for:

[12]

What’s happening/ News:

On July 26th, 2016 former Fox CEO and Chairman, Robert Ailes, resigned from his position. Ailes was replaced by successor Rupert Murdoch. [13] The scandal broke out when Gretchen Carlson, an ex Fox News Anchor, filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Ailes. Carlson won the case and received a settlement of $20 million from Fox. Afterward, dozens of other female workers at Fox came forward also accusing him of sexual harassment. Megyn Kelley, a Fox News Journalist, writes about her experience of sexual harassment from Robert Ailes in her new book Settle For More, released on November 15th, 2016. When corporate leaders are misogynistic and abuse their power, it shows a lot about the culture of the studio. The scandal has caused public-relation issues for Fox. Hopefully Murdoch assuming this position of power will end favorably. [14]

On another note, on Election Day 2016, FOX News debuted a new studio in honor of the company’s 20th anniversary. The studio cost $30 million. [15]

[16]

However, despite the new glitzy studio, FOX was still outnumbered by its opponents in the news sector of election coverage ratings; FOX News averaged 3.25 million viewers, putting it in fourth place behind NBC, ABC and CBS consecutively. [17]

However, Bill Shine and Jack Abernethy, the co-presidents of FOX News Channel, are both certain the new studio will lead to success. After gathering colleagues in the new studio, Abernethy assured them: “Our records show that about a little over 190 people have been here from the very beginning, continuously,” Jack said. “Most of you, like me, have been here for only a portion of that time. As I get reacquainted with folks, I find tremendous amount of pride in what we do here – I can assure you that Bill and I are going to do our very best to innovate.” [18]

Future Outlook:

An article written for Forbes suggests that three factors will spur growth for 21st Century Fox. These factors are:

Increasing advertising revenue due to premium content
- Because more than half of 21st Century Fox’s revenue comes from subscriptions and advertising, and based on recent success in ratings, it is likely that both consumers and advertisers alike will be drawn to the content. An example of a movie that indicates the recent success of the company’s content is Deadpool,
The ability to stream media
- With a 30% stake in Hulu, the company can compete with other media-streaming powerhouses like Netflix. With the addition of live streaming television on Hulu next year, FOX can expect a boost in revenue. Fox is also hoping to make streaming arrangements with Sony and Sling TV.
Entertainment production (both film and television)
- With an expected increase from $2.3 billion within the next year in terms of licensing revenues, and 20% of Fox’s value grounded in the production of film and television series, Fox is expecting growth and loyalty from distributors as new distribution platforms continue to emerge. [19]

Sources:

[1] “21st Century Fox Logo | Logok.” Logok. May 08, 2014. Accessed November 16, 2016. http://logok.org/21st-century-fox-logo/.

[2] “Executive Team.” Executive Team | 21st Century Fox. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2016. https://www.21cf.com/management/executive-team.

[3] “Businesses.” Businesses | 21st Century Fox. Accessed November 16, 2016. https://www.21cf.com/businesses.

[4] “Businesses.” Businesses | 21st Century Fox. Accessed November 16, 2016. https://www.21cf.com/businesses.

[5] Great Speculations. “Fox’s Broadcasting Revenue Growth Is Largely Dependent On Its Sports Programming.” Forbes. February 9, 2016. Accessed November 16, 2016. http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2016/02/09/foxs-broadcasting-revenue-growth-is-largely-dependent-on-its-sports-programming/#65c1dd6269b3.

[6] “21st Century Fox Inc. Cl A.” FOXA Stock Quote – 21st Century Fox Inc. Cl A Stock Price Today (FOXA:NASDAQ) – MarketWatch. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2016. http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/foxa.

[7] Statista. “Revenue Generated by 21st Century Fox in the Fiscal Years 2011-2016. Accessed November 27th, 2016. https://www.statista.com/statistics/262513/21st-century-foxs-annual-revenue/

[8] O’Reilly, Lara. “The 30 Biggest Media Companies in the World.” Business Insider. Business Insider, 31 May 2016. Web. 29 Nov. 2016. http://www.businessinsider.com/the-30-biggest-media-owners-in-the-world-2016-5/#4-21st-century-fox–1867-billion-in-media-revenue-27.

[9] “‘Rules Don’t Apply’ Roundtable with Warren Beatty and Key Crew.” IndieWire. N.p., 27 Nov. 2016. Web. 29 Nov. 2016. http://www.indiewire.com/2016/11/rules-dont-apply-warren-beatty-crew-roundtable-interview-1201749928/.

[10] Nicolas Wright & James A. Woods and Dean Devlin & Roland Emmerich and James Vanderbilt. “Independence Day: Resurgence.” Independence Day: Resurgence | 20th Century Fox. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2016. http://www.foxmovies.com/movies/independence-day-resurgence.

[11] “Ubisoft Doesn’t Think Assassin’s Creed Movie Will Be Very Profitable.” Screen Rant. N.p., 08 July 2016. Web. 29 Nov. 2016. http://screenrant.com/assassins-creed-movie-ubisoft-box-office-predictions/.

[12] “20th Century Fox Upcoming Releases.” 20th Century Fox Upcoming Releases. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2016. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/studio/chart/?view2=upcoming&view=company&studio=fox.htm.

[13] 21 CF Staff. “Roger Ailes Resigns as Chairman and CEO of Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network, and Chairman Fox Television Stations”. 21st Century Fox Press Releases. July 21, 2016. Accessed November 22, 2016. https://www.21cf.com/news/21st-century-fox/2016/roger-ailes-resigns-chairman-and-ceo-fox-news-channel

[14] Grynbaum, Michael. “Fox Settles With Gretchen Carlson Over Roger Ailes Sex Harassment Claims“. The New York Times. September 6, 2016. Accessed November 23, 2016. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/07/business/media/fox-news-roger-ailes-gretchen-carlson-sexual-harassment-lawsuit-settlement.html

[15] 21 CF Staff. “FOX News Channel Celebrates Its 20th Anniversary by Introducing a New State-of-the-art Studio to Debut on Election Day.” FOX News Channel Celebrates Its 20th Anniversary by Introducing a New State-of-the-art Studio to Debut on Election Day | 21CF BLOG. October 7, 2016. Accessed November 16, 2016. https://blog.21cf.com/blog/2016/10/07/fox-news-channel-celebrates-20th-anniversary-new-studio.

[16] “Fox News Unveils Nearly $30 Million Election-Night Studio.” AdWeek. November 6, 2016. Accessed November 16, 2016. http://www.adweek.com/news/television/fox-news-unveils-nearly-30-million-election-night-studio-174405

[17] “Election Night Broadcast Numbers down a Bit from 2012: Tuesday Final Ratings.” TV By The Numbers by Zap2it.com. November 10, 2016. Accessed November 16, 2016. http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/daily-ratings/tuesday-final-ratings-nov-8-2016/.

[18]”Fox News Unveils Nearly $30 Million Election-Night Studio.” AdWeek. November 6, 2016. Accessed November 16, 2016. http://www.adweek.com/news/television/fox-news-unveils-nearly-30-million-election-night-studio-174405

[19] Forbes. “These Three Factors Could Drive Growth For 21st Century Fox In Future”. September 27, 2016. Accessed November 28, 2016. http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2016/09/27/these-three-factors-could-drive-growth-for-21st-century-fox-in-future/#56b0884d30ae.

Verizon

Posted on April 28, 2016 by Connor Abbott

Lowell C. McAdam

Verizon Communications, Inc., or more commonly known as Verizon, is a holdings company that utilizes its subsidiaries to offer several different services. These include, bur are not limited to, communications, information, and entertainment products and services to consumer, businesses, and government agencies. Verizon is currently one of the top communications companies in the world, as they hold the 15 spot on the Fortune 500. They have recently become the largest 4G LTE distributor within America, as well as having the premier all-fiber broadband network. Verizon serves 150 countries worldwide, and has a reaches over 112 million people through it’s network.

Currently, Lowell C. McAdam, is currently both the CEO and chairman of the company. He was appointed CEO in 2011, and chairman in 2012. McAdam’s has been a prominent figure in wireless communications even before joining the company in 2000. Under his leadership, the company has been able to buy out Vodaphone’s 45% share of Verizon Wireless.

Although most see Verizon as simply a service provider, their subsidiaries are extensive and give them a broader reach that meets the eye. Two companies that stand alone from Verizon’s usual business ventures are AOL and The Huffington Post. AOL is a media company and news source that provides email services along with other things, and The Huffington Post is a liberal online-exclusive news source that comes out of New York City. Some other ventures of note include Verizon Fios, which is an internet, television, and phone bundle for private residences, and Verizon Business, which provides a similar service, except in this case to small businesses.

AT&T and Verizon stand atop the competition for mobile carriers, far surpassing the likes of Sprint and T-Mobile. The race for the most subscribers has gone up and down over the years, however Verizon has recently peaked over AT&T in the number of people using their service. And, despite the fact AT&T have always created more revenue from the services than any competitor, Verizon has been slowly catching up to the competition coming in at only a little over a billion dollars below AT&T last year. Although AT&T claims a faster network, Verizon has far better coverage, as they are a better provider throughout America with less bad spots in their coverage.

Currently, one of Verizon’s largest issues has been protesting. Last week 36,000 workers walked off the job after their was a failure to reach a labor agreement. It’s currently the largest strike since Verizon workers walked off the job in 2011. Luckily for the company a lot of the employees on strike work for the landline providers as well as there Fios broadband network. This won’t have as large of an impact on the financial standing of the company, being that the largest stake of the company, Verizon Wireless, is left relatively unaffected by the issues brought on by the strike. The union on strike, the Communications Workers of America, is working to get a better contract offer for their workers, who have gone without one since August. Most of the issue the union has with Verizon lies within the characters they’re currently employing. Verizon has started outsourcing for a lot of their jobs: around 5,000 jobs have been giving to workers in second and third world countries such as Mexico, the Philippines, and the Dominican Republic. These workers will work for far lower wages and are non-unionized. Verizon is also apparently asking their employees to work out of state for often months at a time. Despite the claim that Verizon is cutting costs to increase its already growing profits, most of these profits are coming from it’s wireless service, which these employees have no part in whatsoever.

This issue has factored into the race for the 2016 Democratic nomination heavily. Both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton have voiced their support to the protestors, but both have different stakes in the situation. Verizon has been a huge supporter of the Clinton campaign. She’s received tens of thousands of dollars in support for her campaign. In May of 2013, she was payed $225,000 to give a speech, along with between $100,000 to $250,000 given to the Clinton foundation. Clinton did come with a statement in support of Verizon and the strikers reaching an agreement, but came off as ingenue and paled to the support of her rival. Sanders, on the other hand, has been continuously attacking the company in support of the strikers. He was most recently found marching alongside the strikers, and making heartfelt speeches on their behalf. In a recent speech, he called out Verizon as being “one of the largest, most profitable corporations in this country” and further attacked it on blatantly not supporting it’s workers. He promised that he would continue to stand behind the strikers throughout his campaign until a fair contract is reached by both parties involved.

As far as quarter 1 has gone for Verizon in 2016, they’ve surpassed already lofty expectations. Verizon was able to beat all four quarterly estimates of 2015, and seems to be carrying the trend into 2016. Although they only beat the Wall Street quarterly estimate by 0.5%, even exceeding expectations slightly is a huge gain. Their projections had them doing better than they had all of last year, so this is seen a victory.

One of the biggest stories of recent is Verizon’s current bidding war for the tech giant Yahoo. Among competitors to absorb Yahoo are Verizon’s rival AT&T, Google’s parent company, Alphabet, and the former partner of AOL, Time Inc.. Verizon’s goal would be to merge Yahoo into AOL in a way that would be one of the largest platforms for online advertising, rivaling the likes of Facebook and even Google. AOL CEO Tim Armstrong is the one administering the possibility of acquiring Yahoo, with him and Marni Walden, current Verizon Executive Vice President, operating the would be combination. Verizon is willing to even take on Yahoo’s Japanese assets, a project that has been perpetually losing money since it’s inceptions. Despite the fact that the company has had major issues as of late, Verizon sees Yahoo’s business to be worth around 8 billion dollars.

Works Cited

Affiliations, Lexisnexis Corporate. Hierarchical Profile for Verizon Communications Inc. (n.d.): n. pag. Web.

“Did Verizon Beat Earnings Estimates in 1Q16?” Yahoo Finance. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2016. <http://finance.yahoo.com/news/did-verizon-beat-earnings-estimates-134723437.html>.

“Hillary Clinton Rakes in Verizon Cash While Bernie Sanders Supports Company’s Striking Workers.” Saloncom RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2016. <http://www.salon.com/2016/04/13/hillary_clinton_rakes_in_verizon_cash_while_bernie_sanders_supports_companys_striking_workers/>.

“Lowell C. McAdam.” – CEO. N.p., 12 June 2014. Web. 28 Apr. 2016. <http://www.verizon.com/about/our-company/lowell-c-mcadam>.

This Is the Largest Strike in the United States since Verizon Workers Last Walked off the Job in 2011. “36,000 Verizon Workers Go on Strike.” CNNMoney. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2016. <http://money.cnn.com/2016/04/13/technology/verizon-strike/>.

“Verizon At A Glance.” Verizon at a Glance. N.p., 26 June 2014. Web. 28 Apr. 2016. <http://www.verizon.com/about/our-company/verizon-glance>.

“Verizon Communication Inc.” Reuters. Thomson Reuters, n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2016. <http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/companyProfile?symbol=VZ.N>.

“Verizon Has AOL Chief Tim Armstrong Looking into a Yahoo Acquisition.” The Verge. N.p., 08 Feb. 2016. Web. 28 Apr. 2016. <http://www.theverge.com/2016/2/8/10939526/verizon-yahoo-acquisition-aol-tim-armstrong>.

Zynga

Posted on April 25, 2016 by Rebecca Duke

by REBECCA DUKE

[1] Zynga logo

OVERVIEW

In 2007, Mark Pincus founded Zynga, the first social gaming company. Named after his dog Zinga, the company was created in order to make gaming more accessible and turn it into a more interactive, friendly experience [2]. Zynga has created some of the most successful social games to date, including Words with Friends, FarmVille, and Zynga Poker. Over one billion users have played Zynga games and connected via the company’s franchises.

[3] A sampling of Zynga games

Additionally, in 2009, Pincus formed Zynga.org, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that allows the success of social gaming to give back to those in need by connecting revenues from gamers to other non-profits around the world. One of Zynga.org’s biggest projects was the creation of co.lab, a gaming development technology program that gives underprivileged San Francisco kids the opportunity to learn about game design hands-on.

INDUSTRY

The creation of Zynga spawned the entire social gaming industry, an industry of which Zynga continues to be a leader. According to IBISWorld, the industry has grown rapidly ever since its conception in 2007 [4]. Growth peaked during the 2008 recession, when many companies were downsizing and left unemployed Americans with more leisure time. In recovery from the recession, customers are slowly investing more and more in social games in order to unlock achievements and progress more quickly in the game (for example, while playing FarmVille, a user could pay a few dollars to expedite the growth of their crops and thus move on to bigger and better tasks).

[5] FarmVille 2: Country Escape

Before social gaming, those interested in playing interactive games were required to own some form of external console, such as an Xbox or PlayStation. With Zynga, users can play games and connect with other gamers all across the globe as long as they have an internet connection and an account on a social networking site. The number of broadband connections in households has grown steadily each year, widening the potential market of social gamers. The social network aspect of gaming has introduced new customers that were not previously active gamers, namely females over 40.

KEY EXECUTIVES

[6] Mark Pincus – Founder and Executive Chairman of the Board

[7] Frank Gibeau – Chief Executive Officer and Board of Directors Member

Earlier in March, Mark Pincus stepped down as CEO of Zynga and was replaced by Frank Gibeau [8]. Pincus still sits as the Executive Chairman of the Board and oversees the company. Frank Gibeau is a 20-year veteran of Electronic Arts, one of Zynga’s leading competitors, so he is expected to bring positive change and expertise to the company and allow it to progress financially.

FINANCIALS

Zynga is a publicly traded company, listed on the NASDAQ under the ticker ZNGA. The stock price currently sits at 2.48, a relatively high number since averaging 2.15 over the past three months [9]. Zynga stock took a tumble in early and mid-February after the publication of a disappointing fourth quarter and annual report. After bringing in $185 million in revenue, the company’s operating income and net income amounted to losses of $55 million and $51 million, respectively. These numbers were a stark contrast to the third quarter, when Zynga brought in $10 million more in revenue and net income was $3 million. Zynga has two main revenue streams: advertising, namely video and banner ads, and the sale of “virtual goods” from in-game purchases [10].

[11] NASDAQ – ZNGA

One big change for Zynga that will bring in more cash flow is its future sale of real estate. Currently, Zynga operates out of a 670,000 square-foot office in Silicon Valley, a space that is now too large for its 2,300 employees [12]. Downsizing and liquidating their current office space could lead to a $300 million profit, given the astronomical increase in San Francisco properties since 2012.

[13] Zynga Headquarters

CURRENT PROJECTS

In January, Zynga announced a partnership with The Rubicon Project in developing SponsoredPLAY, a new form of native advertising that allows political candidates to take advantage of what mobile ads have to offer [14]. SponsoredPLAY beta ads have seen six times the engagement rate of normal mobile advertisements, a metric that is incredibly important in today’s age of distracted consumers. With these ads, players connect with brands through mini games that incorporate a piece of the brand’s image. Specifically, The Rubicon Project introduces political candidates as the brands, and encourages the candidates to use the technology to engage voters in a fun and educational way. The SponsoredPLAY ads are also linked to Twitter to create a social buzz around the political issues that the user finds compelling. Ads are expected to be finalized and placed in the games later this year, just in time for the presidential election.

[15] SponsoredPLAY Mockup

One of the two new Zynga games that launched on March 31, 2016 was Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory Slots. This was the first game of many to be licensed from Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, thanks to a multi-year agreement signed in mid-2015 [16]. The partnership allows for a realistic representation of the characters, sounds, and visuals from the original film. Willy Wonka Slots provides the player with nine different slot machines to begin, in addition to a special “High Roller World” with more levels that unlock after the player has earned over 24 million credits. The basic format of the game is similar to other Zynga games, where the user can play completely for free but has many opportunities to progress further with small increments of in-app credit purchases. The game can be downloaded for free on iTunes, Google Play, and Amazon or played on Facebook.

[17] Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory Slots

The second game that debuted at the end of March is Crazy Cake Swap, a variation on the wildly popular Match-3 genre [18]. Crazy Cake Swap is a mix of Candy Crush and Diner Dash, taking place in a bakery and offering different sets of goals for each level. The essentials are similar to other Match-3 games; of course, there’s the concept of matching three or more identical cakes to gain points. A player also only gets five lives and must wait or pay for more when they run out, and a similar wait-or-play model when the end of each “world” is reached. However, it provides a fun element of personalization by allowing users to upload their own photos or avatars, and has more of a storyline than other similar games. Crazy Cake Swap is distributed through the same outlets as Willy Wonka Slots and is free to play with the exception of optional in-app purchases.

[19] Crazy Cake Swap

FUTURE PROJECTS

Zynga has been promising investors two high-development games for awhile, CSR2 and Dawn of Titans, that are finally set to debut later in 2016 [20]. These games could bring in major revenue for Zynga if they become anywhere near as popular as Words with Friends or FarmVille. A recent trend with Zynga has been the overall decline in players, but huge increase in bookings for some of their popular games [21]. Essentially, this means that while there are fewer players, these players are spending a lot of time gaming. If Zynga can successfully recruit more of these avid gamers and grow their user base back up, they will continue to be a force to be reckoned with in the social gaming world.

[22] Dawn of Titans

SOURCES

[1] “Zynga Logo.” Pop Culture Blog. Dallas Morning News, 3 June 2013. Web. 25 Apr. 2016.

[2] “Zynga Leadership.” Zynga. Zynga, n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2016.

[3] “About Game Cards.” Zynga. Zynga, n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2016.

[4] “Social Network Game Development.” IBISWorld. IBISWorld, n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2016.

[5] “Farmville 2: Country Escape.” Google Play. Google, n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2016.

[6] “Mark Pincus.” Catchafire. Catchafire, 25 Sept. 2013. Web. 25 Apr. 2016.

[7] “Frank Gibeau.” Live Geek or Die. Disqus, 29 Mar. 2013. Web. 25 Apr. 2016.

[8] Takahashi, Dean. “Mark Pincus and Frank Gibeau Talk about the Future of Zynga and Social Mobile Gaming.” Venture Beat. VentureBeat, 2 Mar. 2016. Web. 20 Mar. 2016.

[9] “Zynga, Inc. (ZNGA).” Yahoo Finance. Yahoo!, n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2016.

[10] Gobry, Pascual-Emmanuel. “How Zynga Makes Money.” Business Insider. Business Insider, 28 Sept. 2011. Web. 24 Apr. 2016.

[11] “Zynga’s Opening Day.” Gigaom. Knowingly, 16 Dec. 2011. Web. 25 Apr. 2016.

[12] Bruno, Alessandro. “ZNGA Stock: This Is Why the Bears Are Wrong on Zynga Inc.” Profit Confidential. Lombardi Publishing, 26 Feb. 2016. Web. 20 Mar. 2016.

[13] “Zynga Headquarters.” Games.com. AOL, 12 Nov. 2012. Web. 25 Apr. 2016.

[14] Pakula, Kelly. “Zynga & Rubicon Project Announce New SponsoredPLAY Custom Mobile Advertising Product for Political Campaign Advertisers.” Global Newswire. Nasdaq, 7 Jan. 2016. Web. 24 Apr. 2016.

[15] “Zynga Mockup.” Adweek. Adweek, 7 Jan. 2016. Web. 25 Apr. 2016.

[16] Shaul, Brandy. “Zynga Launches Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory Slots on Facebook, Mobile.” Social Times. Adweek, 31 Mar. 2016. Web. 24 Apr. 2016.

[17] “Willy Wonka Slots.” Zynga Blog. Zynga, 31 Mar. 2016. Web. 25 Apr. 2016.

[18] Allen, Jennifer. “Crazy Cake Swap Review: Sweet, Familiar, and ‘Friendly’.” Gamezebo. Gamezebo, 5 Apr. 2016. Web. 25 Apr. 2016

[19] “Crazy Cake Swap.” Google Play. Google, n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2016.

[20] Morris, Chris. “What Will It Take To Turn Zynga Around?” Fortune. Fortune, 11 Feb. 2016. Web. 25 Apr. 2016.

[21] Nusca, Andrew. Here’s Why Changing CEOs Won’t Fix Zynga. Fortune. Fortune, 2 Mar. 2016. Web. 20 Mar. 2016.

[22] “Dawn of Titans.” NaturalMotion. NaturalMotion, 5 Mar. 2015. Web. 25 Apr. 2016.

Sony Pictures

Posted on April 25, 2016 by Ruby Johnson

10202 West Washington Boulevard, Culver City, California

sonypictures.com

HISTORY

Sony Pictures, also known as Sony Pictures Entertainment, was formed in 1987 when Columbia Pictures and Tristar Pictures merged to form Columbia Pictures Entertainment (CPE). However, it was not until two years later that the Coca-Cola Company, who owned CPE, sold the business to Sony, who promptly renamed it. Since it became a Sony property, the film production and distribution company has seen successes in both the commercial and critical spheres; Sony Pictures has broken records with releases like Men In Black and won a plethora of Oscars over the years for films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and many others [1].

COMPANY

Sony Pictures is a subsidiary of Sony Entertainment. The company is divided into Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, Sony Pictures Studios, and Sony Pictures Television. Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group handles the distribution of Sony’s massive library of over 3,500 titles. Sony Pictures Studios offers a variety of production-related services, operating out of the Culver City studio complex which boasts sixteen sound stages [2].

Sony Pictures Plaza in Culver City, CA

FINANCIALS

As of April 17^th, 2016, Sony Pictures held a total of 5.6% studio market share, with Sony Pictures holding 5.2% and Sony Pictures Classics holding 0.4% [3]. With regards to distribution, Sony Pictures holds the third spot just behind Warner Brothers and Walt Disney, with 12.6% of the market share [4].

Sony’s earnings report for the current fiscal year will be released on April 28^th, 2016 at 4:45 PM [5]. On January 29^th, the Sony Corporation released its financial results for its third quarter. Sales for Sony Pictures increased from 206.6 billion yen in the third quarter of 2014 to 262.1 billion yen in the third quarter of 2015. This represents a 26.9% increase in yen, which Sony attributed this increase to a surge in theatrical revenues due to international successes like Spectre and Hotel Transylvania 2 [6]. Top investment analysts are advising investors to hold their position with Sony stock, as forecasts show a predicted 27% median increase from last fiscal year’s stock prices [7].

On April 24^th, Sony’s stock prices closed at $26.59, a five-cent decrease from the previous day’s close. Over the past year, Sony shares have reached a high of $32.95 and a low of $19.90 [8]. However, the past month has seen fairly stable stock prices, seeing change of no more than $2 for the entire period from mid-March to late April [9]. As of April 24^th Sony shares are up 7% from 2015 [10].

KEY EXECUTIVES

[11] Michael Lynton: CEO of Sony Entertainment Inc., Chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment

[12] Tom Rothman: Chairman of Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group

[13] David C. Hendler: Senior Executive Vice President and CFO of Sony Pictures Entertainment

[14] Robert Lawson: Executive Vice President and Chief Communications Officer of Sony Pictures Entertainment

[15] Leah Weil: Senior Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Sony Pictures Entertainment

RECENT RELEASES

Miracles from Heaven (PG)

Despite receiving a multitude of negative critical reviews [16], the faith-based drama Miracles from Heaven has grossed over $64 million internationally, making it a huge success—its production budget was a mere $13 million. The film was released on March 16^th through TriStar, a property of Sony Pictures [17].

The Brothers Grimsby (R)

Though Sony has not released the budget for the film, The Brothers Grimsby has undoubtedly been a financial disappointment. Debuting on March 11^th, the movie has yet to break just $7 million in the United States. That being said, the film has been a hit internationally with revenues upwards of $20 million outside the US. With pricey talent such as Sacha Baron Cohen, Penelope Cruz, Rebel Wilson, and Gabourey Sidibe, it’s doubtful Sony has seen a return on investment as of yet [18].

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (PG-13)

This satirical take on the novel was released on February 5^th to less-than-enthusiastic reception. Though the film saw a budget of $28 million, it has grossed just $16 million worldwide, with the opening weekend accounting for 48.8% of that [19].

UPCOMING RELEASES

The Angry Birds Movie (PG)

This 3D film adaptation of the popular game will be released on May 20^th. Sony Pictures is clearly expecting to cash in on the video game’s massive audience and has invested in a $250 million promotional campaign which includes a Happy Meal promo with McDonald’s and multiple television ads for car company Citroën. Other partnerships consist of Ziploc, Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt, Home Depot, and about 100 more brands and companies [20].

Ghostbusters (PG-13)

The buzz surrounding the remake of Ghostbusters is still going strong. The film features four female stars—Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones, and Kate McKinnon—in place of the all-male cast the original film had. The remake has raised important questions regarding women’s roles in popular film. Ghostbusters is slated for theatrical release July 15th [21].

UPDATES AND DEVELOPMENTS

On April 7^th, US District Judge R. Gary Klausner approved a multi-million dollar settlement in a class-action lawsuit by previous employees of Sony Pictures. The lawsuit was a result of the cyberhacking incident back in 2014, which released personal information of many employees and Sony partners. The agreement will give the 437,000 people involved identity theft protection until 2017 [22].

Nas x Ghostbusters Clothing Line

The next day, Sony Pictures announced that their Consumer Marketing department will be working with the rapper Nas to create a high-end Ghostbusters fashion line. The collection, called Nas x Ghostbusters, will be collaborating with brands like FILA, New Era, Monster, HSTRY, Italia Independent, and Tokyobike, and will be exclusively unveiled by HYPEBEAST. The collaborations will help reach the millennial market [23]. Sony Pictures is also teaming up with Activision for a Ghostbusters video game that will operate on PC, iOS, Android, and Kindle [24].

At CinemaCon the week of April 11^th, Sony Pictures announced a variety of groundbreaking projects and ideas, most notably MIB 23. The film is a unique concept: a mashup sequel to both Men in Black and 21 Jump Street. Other ambitious projects include animated films like a CGI version of the Beatrix Potter stories of Peter Rabbit and a third installment in the Hotel Transylvania franchise. They also are in the process of developing the animated The Emoji Movie, which will be set inside an iPhone [25].

Sony Pictures is taking a marked interest in sequels and remakes, hoping to capitalize on the popularity of existing films and franchises. There are plans for Blade Runner 2, the follow-up to the original 1982 movie. Then, they are working on a remake of Jumanji, as well as the final film in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series. In addition, the company will release a movie version of Stephen King’s wildly popular book The Dark Tower. All the films Sony Pictures teased at the convention are tentatively slated for release between late 2016 and late 2018 [26].

SOURCES

[1] Company History. Sony Pictures. Retrieved April 25, 2016.

[2] Divisions. Sony Pictures. Retrieved April 25, 2016.

[3] Studio Market Share. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved April 25, 2016.

[4] Market Share for Each Distributor 1995-2016. The Numbers. Retrieved April 25, 2016.

[5] FY2015 Earnings Announcement. Sony. Retrieved April 25, 2016.

[6] Consolidated Financial Results for the Third Quarter Ended December 31, 2015. Sony News & Information. Retrieved April 25, 2016.

[7] Equities: Sony Corp. Financial Times. Retrieved April 25, 2016.

[8] Sony Corp. ADR. MarketWatch. Retrieved April 24, 2016.

[9] Sony Corp Ord Stock Chart. Nasdaq. Retrieved April 24, 2016.

[10] Sony: Film Slate Ready To Deliver. Seeking Alpha. Retrieved April 25, 2016.

[11] Michael Lynton. Sony Pictures. Retrieved April 25, 2016.

[12] Tom Rothman. Sony Pictures. Retrieved April 25, 2016.

[13] David C. Hendler. Sony Pictures. Retrieved April 25, 2016.

[14] Robert Lawson. Sony Pictures. Retrieved April 25, 2016.

[15] Leah Weil. Sony Pictures. Retrieved April 25, 2016.

[16] Miracles from Heaven: EW Review. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved April 25, 2016.

[17] Miracles from Heaven. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved April 25, 2016.

[18] The Brothers Grimsby. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved April 25, 2016.

[19] Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved April 25, 2016.

[20] The Angry Birds Chirp With Big Promo Partners McDonald’s, Citroen. Deadline. Retrieved April 25, 2016.

[21] Upset about an all-female ‘Ghostbusters’? Screenwriter Katie Dippold makes no apologies. LA Times. Retrieved April 25, 2016.

[22] Judge Approves Settlement in Sony Pictures Hacking Case. Billboard. Retrieved April 25, 2016.

[23] Sony Pictures Consumer Marketing Teams Up with Hip-Hop Icon and Entrepreneur NAS for Nas x Ghostbusters Fashion Collection. PR Newswire. Retrieved April 25, 2016.

[24] Sony Pictures Teaming with Activision for New Ghostbusters Game. Hardcore Gamer. Retrieved April 25, 2016.

[25] Sony Pictures & Warner Bros Preview 2016-2017 Line-up. Slash Film. Retrieved April 25, 2016.

[26] Sony Pictures Teases The Dark Tower, MIB 23, Passengers and More at CinemaCon. Comingsoon.net. Retrieved April 25, 2016.

[27] Sony Pictures Logo. JOLT Digest. Retrieved April 25, 2016.

[28] Michael Lynton Photo. Jewish Journal. Retrieved April 25, 2016.

[29] Tom Rothman Photo. IMDb. Retrieved April 25, 2016.

[30] David C. Hendler Photo. Sony Pictures. Retrieved April 25, 2016.

[31] Robert Lawson Photo. Sony Pictures. Retrieved April 25, 2016.

[32] Leah Weil Photo. Sony Pictures. Retrieved April 25, 2016.

[33] Miracles from Heaven Trailer. YouTube: MovieClips Trailers. Retrieved April 25, 2016.

[34] The Brothers Grimsby Trailer. YouTube: Sony Pictures Entertainment. Retrieved April 25, 2016.

[35] Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Trailer. YouTube: MovieClips Trailers. Retrieved April 25, 2016.

[36] The Angry Birds Movie Trailer. YouTube: Google Movie Trailers. Retrieved April 25, 2016.

[37] Ghostbusters Trailer. YouTube: Sony Pictures Entertainment. Retrieved April 25, 2016.

[38] Nas x Ghostbusters Photo. Hypebeast. Retrieved April 25, 2016.

[39] Sony Pictures Plaza Photo. Wikipedia. Retrieved April 25, 2016.

Dreamworks Animation

Posted on April 25, 2016 by Yong Chul Um

DreamWorks Animation SKG logo Source: operation build tv

Dreamworks Animation SKG

Contact

1000 Flower Street Glendale, CA 91201

Phone: (818) 695-5000

Twitter: twitter.com/dwanimation

Homepage: http://www.dreamworks.com/home/

Investors’ page: http://ir.dreamworksanimation.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=185803&p=irol-irhome

Key Executives

Jefferey Katzenberg, CEO and CED Source: Forbes.com

Fazal F. Merchant, CFO Source: Hollywood Reporter

Ann Daly, President Source: Hollywood Reporter

Background Information

Dreamworks Animation SKG headquarters Source: bizjournals.com

Dreamworks Animation is an animation producing company that has been around since 2004. They are well known to the world having produced numerous films including ‘Shrek,’ ‘Wallace and Gromit,’ ‘Chicken Run,’ ‘How to Train your Dragon,’ ‘Kung Fu Panda,’ and ‘Madagascar.’

History

From the left, founders of Dreamworks; Jefferey Katzenberg, Steven Speilberg, and David Geffen Source: thegraphicslate.com

On October 12, 1994, three experienced hollywood entertainment veterans gathered up and founded Dreamworks SKG targetting to create a new Hollywood major film company. Mr. Katzenberg, a former Disney executive, recruited his own animation staff from Disney, while Spielberg brought in some of his animation artists from Amblimation, located at London.

In 2004, with Jefferey Katzenberg, Dreamworks’ animation department departed from its parent company Dreamworks/Public Data Images. They made an individual company that distributes and produces their own animations and named it Dreamworks Animation. Since their foundation in 2004, Dreamworks Animation has won 3 Academy Awards, 1 Golden Globe Award and has been nominated for both Academy awards and Golden Globe awards countless times.

Current Plan(2016)

MOVIES

Starting this quarter, Dreamworks Animation SKG changed their plans from producing 3 movies a year to producing only 2 movies a year. Although they have produced only one movie last year, “Home“; this year they are planning to launch 2 movies; ‘Kung Fu Panda 3’ and ‘Trolls‘.

KUNG FU PANDA 3

Kung Fu Panda 3, one of Dreamworks Animation’s most successful animated film after Shrek, has hit the film market with great impact and has already achieved success world wide.

Avoiding to launch their movie at the same date with the new Star Wars movie, Kung Fu Panda 3 pushed back their launch date to January 29th. Collaborating an advertisement for Super Bowl with Wix before the release turned out to be a big success to have the public aware of the movie.

Though their stock prices have dropped by 6 dollars per stock, Dreamworks Animation did not seem to be worried at all. By earning 48 million dollars at the first week of the release, Kung Fu Panda kept their effort at the Box Office with great consistency.

However, due to Deadpool’s amazing success at the Box Office, Kung Fu Panda 3’s winning streak had to stop at the third week of their release. Though Kung Fu Panda 3’s weekly gross immediately reduced after Deadpool and Zootopia’s monopoly, the ‘Panda‘ still had an alternative and unreplacable plan.

Thanks to the Chinese giants who distributed and exhibited the ‘Panda’ movie at China, Dreamworks Animation could not only succeed on having a great start on 2016, but they also could recover their stock prices. Due to the success, Dreamworks could announce their last quarterly reports for 2015 safely with 55 cents per share: which was 39 cents higher than expected to be.

2. TROLLS

Trolls is the last movie that Dreamworks Animation will release this year. Trolls will be open to the public in November, with some star voices that the audience might recognize. For Dreamworks Animation to continue their favorable situation, and compete with Disney and Pixar, Trolls must also achieve success.

NEW MEDIA

VOLTRON: LEGENDARY DEFENDER

Not just movies, but Dreamworks Animation has reached their range to Television Series all over the world. Realizing that producing profit-unpredictable feature films might not make a jackpot, Dreamworks Animation switched their target to a rather non-risky platform such as SVODS since 2013. After buying Classic Media’s classic TV animation characters for $155 million, Dreamworks Animation has announced that they will be producing and distributing Noddy, the classic 90s-00s animation at France and at the United Kingdom.

Netflix is one of the most frequently accessed media platform that 69-million people use regardless of their age. Dreamworks Animation has announced a partnership with Netflix last January. Netflix are now going to be a global home of various Dreamworks -Animation produced featured films including ‘The Adventures of Puss in Boots,’ and ‘Dinotrux.’ Plus, the two video giants will be launching ‘Trollhunters,’ and ‘Voltron: Legendary Defender’, a remake of a legendary Japanese animation.

Awesomeness TV is also one of Dreamworks Animation’s main source of income. Though giving Verizon 24.5% of Awesomeness TV’s stake, Dreamworks still remains as the main owner having over 50% of the stakes. It costed about 110 million dollars to buy the Awesomeness TV, but it is now making 70 million dollars of extra revenue every year; which is exceeding the profit of any other source of income that Dreamworks Animation has.

How important are these new media that Dreamworks started to concentrate on?

Source: Variety.com

As seen above, Dreamworks Animation’s revenue has exceedingly increased in 2015. Compared to 2012, 2013 and 2014 was not a good year for Dreamworks Animation because their revenue from feature films reduced and the profit from their newly-trying items weren’t too strong to shine. However, in 2015, even though ‘Home’ was the only featured film that they produced, their revenue from TV series and media made Dreamworks Animation leap in the market.

Source: Variety.com

Like above, Dreamworks Animation is having fun with the new media that they have recently started investing on. Although feature films are not doing so well as they did in the past, their strategy concentrating on subscription video-on-demand are crucial to their growth.

INTERNATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES

Dreamworks Animation land on Korea as a channel Source: Worldscreen.com

Not just China, but now they are targetting the whole world. Dreamworks Animation has put effort on producing spin-offs for each countries. They concentrated ‘Kung Fu Panda’ spin-offs in China and ‘How to train your dragon’ spinoffs in Korea; which have made a huge amount of profit and awareness of the company in countries.

On April 20th, Dreamworks Animation and Korea Telecom made an agreement to launch a ‘DREAMWORKS CHANNEL’ in South Korea. After having a bunch of success in Asia, Dreamworks Animation decided to launch their own channel in South Korea; which is the third independent channel that they have created in Asia. Starting in May, the channel will be officially distributed via ‘OLLEH TV.’

Conclusion

In a nutshell, Dreamworks Animation seem to having been adjusting to the market trend for a past few years, but they have now fixed their goal using new media as their medium. Though it might be risky to put most of their eggs in Netflix, investors and the public will have to look forward to what the company is up to in the following years.

Citation

Dreamworks Animation Q4 2015 Earnings Call. Retreived on April 22, 2016. http://ir.dreamworksanimation.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=185803&p=quarterlyearnings
Wall Street Journal Dreamworks Animation Retreived on April 22, 2016. http://quotes.wsj.com/DWA
Verizon becomes minority partners with DWA’s Awesomeness TV. Retreived on April 22, 2016. http://seekingalpha.com/news/3171687-verizon-becoming-minority-partner-dreamworks-animations-awesomenesstv
Kung Fu Panda 3 Box Office Results. Retreived on April 22, 2016. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=kungfupanda3.htm
PRNewswire. January 5, 2016. Netflix and DWA’s partnership. Retreived on April 22, 2016. http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/netflix-and-dreamworks-animation-expand-global-relationship-300199181.html
Steven Mackenzie. March 24, 2016. Jefferey Katzenberg interview. Retreived on April 22, 2016. http://www.bigissue.com/features/interviews/6379/dreamworks-ceo-jeffrey-katzenberg-were-in-a-golden-age-for-animation
Tom Eames. July 23, 2012 Dreamworks Animation buys rights to classic animations. Retreived on April 22, 2016. http://www.digitalspy.com/movies/news/a394823/dreamworks-buys-rights-to-he-man-casper-lassie-noddy-more/
Katy Finbow. April 8, 2016. Noddy, launches in France and the United Kingdom. Retreived on April 22, 2016. http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/news/a640413/noddy-toyland-detective-dreamworks-to-reboot-character-for-new-tv-series/
Paul Bond. February 23, 2016. Dreamworks Animation’s stock prices rise. Retreived on April 22, 2016. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/dreamworks-animation-blasts-past-expectations-868808
Sara Alessi. April 20, 2016. Dreamworks Channel reaches to the Republic of Korea. Retreived on April 22, 2016. http://worldscreen.com/tvkids/dreamworks-channel-reaches-south-korea/
Jan Dawson. March 2, 2016. Retreived on April 22, 2016. http://variety.com/2016/biz/news/the-strategy-strengthening-dreamworks-animation-stock-1201719924/
Moira Keihm. February 7, 2016. Retreived on April 25, 2016.http://heavy.com/social/2016/02/kung-fu-panda-3-super-bowl-commercial-wix-com-superbowl-ad-2016-watch/

Univision

Posted on April 25, 2016 by Katherine Sotelo

Univision Logo / Source Univision.com [3]

Los Angeles
5999 Center Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90045
(310) 348-3434

New York
605 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10158
(212) 455-5200

Miami
9405 NW 41 Street
Miami Florida 33178
(305) 471-3900

http://www.univision.com/

“Todos estamos con Univision”

“We are all with Univision”

ABOUT

Source: Univision.com [14]

Univision is the leading Spanish-language multimedia company in the United States with a network outreach of 94.1 million households. It’s the fifth largest overall network in the country and consistently outperforms English-language broadcast networks two out of every three nights a week and averages 1.4 million adults in the 18-49 primetime age group. The company is multiplatform and owns several digital properties, like TheFlama.com, Unvision.com, UnivisionDeportes.com and La Fabrica. English-language partnerships include Fusion, which caters to the millennial audience, Flama, an online media platform comparable to Buzzfeed but built for a Hispanic audience, and Tejano filmmaker Robert Rodriguez‘s production company El Rey, based in Austin, Texas. [1]

HISTORY

Rooted in an independent Spanish language station in San Antonio, Texas, Univision’s start can be traced back to 1955, when Raul Cortez started KCOR-TV on channel 41. After a change in call letters and less-than-profitable start, Cortez sold KUAL-TV in 1961 to his son-in-law Emilio Nicolas, Sr. and Emilio Azcarraga Vidaurreta, a Mexican entertainment mogul. The two would go on to sign a second Spanish-language station in Los Angeles in 1962 and a third in Paterson, New Jersey in 1968, appealing and expanding to both west and east coast markets. These three stations became the Spanish International Network, the first network of its kind to broadcast in a language that’s not English in the United States. SIN would continue to expand throughout the country in the next 20 years, until 1987, when Nicolas divided and sold his share of the company to Hallmark Cards and Televisa, a Mexican mass media company and the largest media company in the Spanish-speaking world. It was through this negotiation that SIN rebranded and relaunched as Univision Communications Inc. [2]

KEY EXECUTIVES

Randy Falco, President and CEO

Francisco Lopez-Balboa, Executive Vice President and CFO

Tonia O’Connor Chief Commercial Officer and President of Content Distribution

Jonathan Schwartz, Executive Vice President, General Counsel & Head of Government Relations, and Secretary

Jessica Rodriguez, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer

Kevin Conroy, Chief Strategy and Data Officer

All executive photos from same source. [18]

UNIVISION PURCHASES STAKE IN THE ONION

The logo for Univision and acquired satirical news website The Onion / Source: CNNMoney [15]

On January 19, 2016, Univision announced its purchase of a 40-percent stake in the comedy and satirical media group The Onion. [4] The purchase comes at a time when Univision is looking to further its influence and appeal with millennial audiences, as executives of the company follow the trends of the current growing Hispanic population in the U.S. [5] With the country’s Hispanic population looking to double by 2050, this purchase was a headstart, a method of preparation, for the changing demographics of this country. [6] More Hispanics means more potential viewers and a younger audience as the numbers double. Upon making the decision to purchase a stake in The Onion, Univision felt comedy and satire was an especially powerful way to communicate with millennials, who, if like what both companies produce together, will create a central fanbase that will influence future generations. Largely, though, the company saw The Onion as a complement to Fusion, their news and entertainment faction geared towards young people, and as a method to develop new comedy television programs and Spanish/English comedy and satirical offerings. [7]

FUSION GOES SOLO

Univision’s Fusion was originally created alongside Disney to reach young Hispanic viewers. / Source: Fusion.net [16]

After a three-year contract agreement, Walt Disney Co.’s ABC sold back their 50% stake in the Univision-ABC joint-venture cable network: Fusion. Launched in 2013, the venture was created to act as a multi-platform resource for young bilingual Latino’s heading into the professional world. In the years since, however, Fusion’s struggled to define its identity and place as a media entity, costing Univision $85.2 million in lost revenue alongside other start-up television network El Rey. Currently, Fusion is only available in 40 million homes across the U.S., a small market number compared to competitors and other networks owned by the company. Similarly, the channel isn’t distributed by both Time Warner Cable and Comcast Corp., limiting potential viewers and detracting larger advertisers. The deal took place on April 21, 2016 and information regarding the terms of the sale have yet to be released. [8]

UNIVISION VS. AT&T

Source: Univision.com [17]

Throughout March 2016 AT&T U-Verse and Univision engaged in a dispute over carriage rates which led to a blackout of Univision-owned locally stations on March 4. U-verse’s 5.6 million subscribers lost access to UniMás, Galavisión and Univision Deportes Network for six days, restoring national services to all households in time for the Univision-sponsored democratic presidential debate. In the dispute, Univision accused AT&T of discriminatory practices by not providing fair and equal compensation comparable to English-only broadcasters. Similarly, company grievances included AT&T refusing to recognize the purpose and importance of Univision and its place and appeal to United States television audiences. Jim Cicconi, AT&T’s Senior Executive Vice President of External and Legislative Affair’s, refuted the allegation, calling them “despicable” and “outrageous.” [9] The two media giants came to an agreement at the end of March and Univision was restored on all local and cable channels. The United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce commended both AT&T and Univision for reaching an agreement and relaunching services, restating the importance of the network in a press release. [10]

FINANCIALS

Univision is a privately traded company and has not yet released its 2016 quarterly earnings. However, a trend that should continue, as substantiated by their 2016 fourth quarter earnings, is a gain in subscriber fee and content licensing revenue. If the company continues to follow the trend set in 2015, overall earnings will increase at a minute percentages across all platforms. [11]

THE FUTURE

FUSION MEDIA GROUP

After Univision’s recent acquisitions of The Onion and Fusion, the company announced the formation of the Fusion Media Group, a “multi-platform destination for the new, rising American mainstream.” The effort is a preparation to serve a rising generation of multiculturals who are rapidly approaching 40% of the total U.S. population. Fusion Media Group Will Include Fusion, The Onion, The Root, Flama, Univision Digital, Univision Music and El Rey. [12]

LATINO VOTER EFFORT

In February Univision announced an effort to register 3 million Latino voters in time for the 2016 presidential election next fall. The effort, which extends to all of the company’s digital properties, will include engagements created by Fusion and The Root, a website that caters to an African-American audience and cultural issues. This summer, Univision will bring voter drives to the Copa América soccer tournament and run public-service announcements throughout the matches, expected to reach millions of potential viewers. The company looks to expand an online presence and has William Valdes, one of their most popular, and youngest, telenovela stars, is acting as a face of the Latino voter movement. [13]

[1] Univision Network – Univision. (n.d.). Retrieved April 24, 2016, from http://corporate.univision.com/media-property/univision-network/

[2] Univision Communications Inc. History. (n.d.). Retrieved April 24, 2016, from http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/univision-communications-inc-history/

[3] Univision Unveils a New Brand Logo, Signaling Transformation – Univision. (2012, December 17). Retrieved April 25, 2016, from http://corporate.univision.com/2012/10/univision-unveils-a-new-brand-logo-signaling-transformation/

[4] Steel, E. (2016, January 19). Univision Buys a Stake in The Onion to Reach Millennials. Retrieved April 25, 2016, from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/20/business/media/univision-buying-large-stake-in-the-onion.html?_r=0

[5] Baysinger, T. (2016, April 22). How The Onion Is Helping Univision Grow Beyond the Spanish-Language Market. Retrieved April 24, 2016, from http://www.adweek.com/news/television/how-onion-helping-univision-grow-beyond-spanish-language-market-171014

[6] Krogstad, J. M., & Lopez, M. (2015, June 25). Hispanic population reaches record 55 million, but growth has cooled. Retrieved April 25, 2016, from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/06/25/u-s-hispanic-population-growth-surge-cools/

[7] Folkenflick, D. (2016, January 19). Area Satirical Publication The Onion Sold To Univision (Seriously). Retrieved April 25, 2016, from http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/01/19/463535648/area-satiric-publication-the-onion-sold-to-univision-seriously

[8] James, M. (2016, April 21). Walt Disney Co.’s ABC sells its Fusion stake to Univision, exits joint venture. Retrieved April 25, 2016, from http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-disney-abc-ends-fusion-univision-20160421-story.html

[9] Lieberman, D. (2016, March 24). Univision Networks Return To AT&T’s U-verse While They “Finalize” Carriage Deal. Retrieved April 25, 2016, from http://deadline.com/2016/03/univision-networks-att-uverse-carriage-deal-1201725920/

[10] USHCC Commends AT&T and Univision for Relaunching Services. (2016, March 29). Retrieved April 25, 2016, from http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/ushcc-commends-at-t-and-univision-for-relaunching-services-2109830.htm

[11] Szalai, G. (2016, February 23). Univision Subscriber Fee Revenue Rises, and So Does Its Q4 Earnings. Retrieved April 25, 2016, from http://www.billboard.com/articles/business/6889307/univision-earnings-fourth-quarter-financials

[12] Univision PR (2016, April 21). Univision Communications Inc. to Launch Fusion Media Group to Serve the Rising American Mainstream – Univision. Retrieved April 25, 2016, from http://corporate.univision.com/2016/04/univision-communications-inc-to-launch-fusion-media-group-to-serve-the-rising-american-mainstream/

[13] Corasaniti, N. (2016, February 22). Univision Aims to Make Hispanic Voting Bloc Even More Formidable. Retrieved April 25, 2016, from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/23/us/politics/univision-hispanic-voting.html

[14] Univision | The #1 place to reach Hispanic America. (n.d.). Retrieved April 25, 2016, from http://corporate.univision.com/

[15] Garcia, A. (2016, January 19). Univision invests in satirical news site The Onion. No joke. Retrieved April 25, 2016, from http://money.cnn.com/2016/01/19/news/companies/univision-invests-the-onion/

[16] Fusion. (n.d.). Retrieved April 25, 2016, from http://fusion.net/

[17] Univision Statement Regarding AT&T U-verse – Univision. (2016). Retrieved April 25, 2016, from http://corporate.univision.com/2016/03/univision-statement-regarding-att-u-verse/

[18] Executive Leadership | Univision. (n.d.). Retrieved April 25, 2016, from http://corporate.univision.com/corporate/executive-leadership/

Beginnings

Posted on April 25, 2016 by Spencer Bistricer

Radio One is targeted at minority audiences and was itself founded by an African American woman, who continues to own a majority stake in the company. Catherine Hughes began her career in gospel radio in Washington DC, before eventually buying her first station with the help of bank loans, her own savings, and a loan from the African American venture capital firm Syncom, which funded African American media start-ups. Hughes’ overcame constant struggles with debt, eventually hosting her morning drive show herself as the bank refused to allow her to pay a salary for someone to host the slot.

Gradually, Hughes’ venture achieved profitability and expanded, though she still had to contend with banks that insisted she programmed her stations to include white music for white audiences. Hughes was convinced that black programming was the way to profitability, and the entire history of her company vindicated her insight and self-belief.

Hughes retired in 1993 and was replaced by her son Alfred C. Liggins III, who oversaw the massive expansion of the station in the 1990s, following the relaxation of ownership rules. Ironically, Hughes had feared that relaxing ownership rules would concentrate ownership in the hands of a few large corporations: Radio One has become the largest African American owner of stations in the United States [3]

In 2012, Radio One was expected to generate revenues of $433 million dollars. When asked how she had the vision to start such a venture, Hughes pointed to her need to take care of her son. She did not want him to become another statistic as part of the loss of African American youth in our society [4].

In 2013, Radio One acquired a majority stake in Reach Media. This allowed the company to expand its black talk radio programming, designed to offer an alternative voice to white conservatives such as Rush Limbaugh. The network features the Reverend Al Sharpton and other popular African American hosts and commentators [5].

Universal Pictures

Posted on April 13, 2016 by Yeagee Jung

—Universal Studios logo [15]

UNIVERSAL STUDIOS

100 Universal City Plaza
Universal City, CA 91608

www.universalstudios.com

HISTORY

Universal Studios was founded by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley, Robert H. Cochrane and Jules Brulatour. Following the boom of film studios of the time, Universal Studios became a vertically integrated company, linking movie production, exhibition, and distribution all into one corporate entity. Universal ranks among the “Big Six” film studios and is a subsidiary of NBC Universal who indirectly belong to Comcast, a huge media conglomerate. They’ve produced films such as Jurassic World which grossed at $651,926,506 making it the fourth highest grossing film of all time domestically and worldwide [15].

KEY EXECUTIVES

—Donna Langley, Chairman, Universal Pictures – Source: Forbes [16]

—Jeff Shell, Chairman (Filmed Entertainment), Universal Pictures – Source: BBG [17]

FINANCIALS

While Universal Studios is a privately traded company, Comcast is its parent company and they are publicly traded. In the most recent quarterly report, Universal cited a revenue increase of 25.8% to $1.6 billion compared to $1.3 billion in the previous year. There was a 74.9% increase in home entertainment revenue drive by the strong performances of Jurassic World and the Minions and Universal has cited an upward trend of revenue into the 2016 year. Earnings per share increased 6.8% with the value being held at $0.79 compared to the $0.74 reported in the fourth quarter of the previous year [7].Universal Studios is currently 5th place in terms of top grossing film companies with a market share of 7.7% and a total gross of $252.4 billion [12]. They hold an average of $36,054,255 per release for its 7 releases so far in 2016. Their top grossing release is Ride Along 2 which cited a total gross of $90,862,685 which exceeded their budget of $40 million [11]. Universal Studios is planning 15 releases for the rest of the 2016 year with the genres being split roughly in half between comedy and horror [13].

IN THEATERS

—The Boss (2016) [19]

The Boss

The Boss is another one of Melissa McCarthy’s slapstick style comedy movies and was released on April 8th, 2016. The opening weekend of The Boss beat out Batman V Superman by a mere $45,000 proving McCarthy’s star power as a movie she stars in tops another $20+ million opener. The movie opened its weekend with a total gross of $23.48 million with a reported budget of $29 million [1]. The second weekend saw a larger-than-expected 57.8% drop, but still remained in the top five grossing movies that week. The longevity of the movie may extend a little more seeing as the next R-rated comedy doesn’t release until around late May with Neighbors 2 [3].

—The Huntsman: Winter’s War (2016) [20]

The Huntsman: Winter’s War

The sequel to Snow White and the Huntsman, which grossed a total of $396.6 billion, called The Huntsman: Winter’s War was released on April 22, 2016. It charted at number 2 behind Jungle Book, even though Jungle Book was in its second week of circulation [2]. The Huntsman: Winter’s War earned a total of $20,080,000 in its opening weekend domestically and $80,200,000 internationally, proving the series popularity in the foreign market. With an estimated budget of $20 million, it brought in approximately 36% of the opening weekend total of its predecessor. The audience skewed 61% female and 39% male with 47% of the audience being over the age of 30. Comparatively, Snow White and the Huntsman attracted a much more evenly distributed gendered audience with about 53% of them being female [14]. Looking forward, it’s unlikely that the movie will reach an overall domestic cume of $55-60 million off their reported budget of $115 million.

SPRING/SUMMER 2016 RELEASES

Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising

Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising is an R-rated comedy sequel to the popular Neighbors movie starring Zac Efron and Seth Rogen. Director Nicholas Stoller has said that the sequel was actually inspired by “Toy Story 2“. The film has a bigger budget than the previous one and is expected to focus of different aspects of college greek life. The movie is slated for release on May 20, 2016 [23].

The Purge: Election Year

The Purge: Election Year is also another movie in the series of Purge movies slated for release on July 1, 2016. The movie is third in the series and will follow Senator Charlene Roan played by Elizabeth Mitchell and her head of security Leo Barnes played by Frank Grillo as they escape those looking to kill them for the night. Director of the first two films, James DeMonaco, has agreed to return to direct this third installment [22].

FUTURE FOR UNIVERSAL PICTURES

Following competition from other big name companies like Paramount and Warner Bros, Universal Pictures has invested into turning a selection of its movies in 4K Ultra HD this summer. The upcoming Warcraft and Jason Bourne movies will pioneer the format along with UHD versions of Everest, Lucy, and Lone Survivor [6]. The home entertainment movie sector will offer an enhanced selection of new release and catalog titles mastered in Dolby Vision™ and plans to makes all titles available in 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray and 4K Ultra HD digital formats by the end of 2016 [8].

—Jurassic World 2 teaser poster [18]

In terms of future releases, Universal will be continuing on the success of Jurassic World, the movie that brought in $1.6 billion dollars, and produce the sequel which has a release date of June 22, 2018. The director for the sequel was just announced on April 18th, 2016, to be J.A. Bayona, a Spanish filmmaker who make a name for himself through his tsunami drama The Impossible [5]. Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, the stars of Jurassic World, are expected to reprise their roles for the follow-up film.

The Chinese media company, Perfect World Pictures, announced their plan to co-finance up to 50 movies, or movies for a time span of five years, for $500 million with Universal Pictures in an effort to diversify into the English-language film sector [4]. The president, Rong Chen, stated that an even larger phase of investment into Hollywood will follow the deal with Universal this year. Sources familiar with the deal states that Perfect World’s investment would get it a 25% share of most, but not all, of the films released by Universal [9]. This marks the first time a non-state-owned enterprise entertainment company from China will be working directly with a major U.S. studio. In addition, this will be the first time a Chinese company will invest in a multi-year deal with a major U.S. studio [10].

SOURCES

[1] Brevet, Brad (April 10, 2016) Melissa McCarthy’s ‘The Boss’ Narrowly Tops ‘Batman V Superman’ for Weekend #1. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved April 23rd, 2016.

[2] Mendelson, Scott (April 24, 2016) Weekend Box Office: ‘The Huntsman’Opens 64% Lower Than ‘Snow White And The Huntsman.’ Forbes. Retrieved April 25rd, 2016.

[3] Brevet, Brad (April 21, 2016) ‘Jungle Book’ To Repeat at #1 Over ‘The Huntsman: Winter’s War.’ Box Office Mojo. Retrieved April 23rd, 2016.

[4] Brzeski, Patrick (April 21, 2016) China Exec Who Put $500M Into Universal Pictures Says “More To Come.” The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved April 23rd, 2016.

[5] Kit, Borys (April 18th, 2016) ‘Jurassic World’ Sequel Finds Its Director. The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved April 23rd, 2016.

[6] Palladino, Valentina (April 20th, 2016) Universal Pictures to release 4K Blu-ray movies, starting with Jason Bourne. ArsTechnica. Retrieved April 23rd, 2016.

[7] Comcast Fourth Quarter 2015. Comcast. Retrieved April 23rd, 2016.

[8] Unknown (April 19th, 2016) Universal Pictures Home Entertainment Unveils First 4K Ultra High Definition Offerings. PR Newswire. Retrieved April 23rd, 2016.

[9] Faughnder, Ryan (February 17, 2016) China’s Perfect World invest up to $450 million in Universal film slate. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 23rd, 2016.

[10] Petski, Denise (February 17th, 2016) Universal & China’s Perfect World Confirm 50 Film Funding Deal. Deadline. Retrieved April 25th, 2016.

[11] Ride Along 2. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved April 25th, 2016.

[12] Studio Market Share. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved April 25th, 2016.

[13] Box Office by Studio: Universal. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved April 25th, 2016.

[14] Brevet, Brad (April 24, 2016) ‘Jungle Book’ Repeats, ‘Huntsman’ Falls On His Axe and ‘Zootopia’ Tops $900M Worldwide. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved April 25th, 2016.

[15] Universal Studios. Comcast. Retrieved April 25th, 2016.

[16] Donna Langley. Forbes. Retrieved April 25th, 2016.

[17] Jeff Shell. BBG. Retrieved April 25th, 2016.

[18] Jurassic World Sequel Teaser. Twitter. Retrieved April 25th, 2016.

[19] The Boss. IMDB. Retrieved April 25th, 2016.

[20] The Huntsman: Winters War. IMDB. Retrieved April 25th, 2016.

[21] Youtube: Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising. Youtube. Retrieved April 25th, 2016.

[22] Youtube: The Purge: Election Year. Youtube. Retrieved April 25th, 2016.

[23] Jogwar, Sangati (April 13, 2016) ‘NEIGHBORS 2: SORORITY RISING’ INSPIRED FROM ‘TOY STORY 2’ AND ‘MAD MAX.’ Movienewsguide. Retrieved April 25th, 2016.

Time Warner Cable

Posted on February 18, 2016 by smwarren

BY RICARDO SMITH

Time Warner Cable Logo [1].

Company Overview

Time Warner Cable is an American cable telecommunications company. It is the second largest cable provider in terms of revenue only behind Comcast [2]. Time Warner Cable serves over 16 million customers in 29 different states [1]. The company was formed in 1992 through the merger of Time Inc. and Warner Communications’ respective cable businesses, following the merger of the two companies in 1989 [1]. Time Warner Cable was spun off as an independent operation in March 2009 [1]. Since its inception, Time Warner Cable has been a trailblazer in the cable industry. They have lead the way in technical innovation through the use of fiber optics to enhance the customer experience. Time Warner Cable provides cutting edge technology, a diverse selection of entertainment content, and superior service to homes across the United States [1]. On April 25^th, 2016, a deal was approved by the U.S Department of Justice for the purchase of Time Warner Cable by Charter Communications [3].

A screenshot from a Time Warner Cable commercial advertising one-hour windows [11]

A screenshot from a Time Warner Cable commercial advertising one-hour windows [6].

Customer Service

Time Warner Cable has a reputation for poor customer service. According to the American Costumer Satisfaction Index, Time Warner Cable was the most unpopular company in America in 2014 with a score of 54 out of a possible 100 [4]. Their television service was the second worst ranked brand on the list, followed by Comcast’s Internet Service Provider [4]. Cable companies have recently come under scrutiny for their increasing subscription fees and lack of choice in the market [5]. Cable prices have more than doubled in the past ten years [5]. The rise of over the top subscription video on demand has caused a decline in cable subscriptions [5]. A leading industry analyst estimated that the top 8 cable companies lost 463,000 subscribers in the second quarter of 2015 compared to 141,000 in the second quarter of 2014 [5]. The decline has caused companies to raise their prices [5]. In response to their poor customer service ratings, Time Warner has taken a number of steps. The company launched an ad campaign acknowledging it’s poor customer service and promising to improve it [6]. The main focus of this initiative is a one-hour window for all customer appointments. In 2015, the company reported a 13% decrease in care calls per customer relationship, 98% on-time percentage for customer appointments, and 15% improvement in first-visit resolution [7].

Time Warner Cable’s 2015 earnings report [7].

2015 Performance

In the fourth quarter of 2015, Time Warner Cable’s revenue grew by 4.9% [7]. The company earned $6.07 billion in 2015 [7]. This represents a 3.9% increase in yearly revenue, Time Warner’s highest in five years [7]. The company attributes the increase to accelerated growth in residential and business services [7]. The company’s operating income before depreciation and amortization (OIBDA) increased slightly for the fourth quarter and the whole year [7]. In their best year of residential subscriber performance ever, Time Warner added 618,000 new customer relationships, 1,000,000 high-speed data upgrades, and 1,036,000 voice subscribers in 2015 [7]. Time Warner made significant investments in 2015 to improve the customer experience and expand their network [7]. As a part of this effort, the company introduced an initiative to convert their infrastructure to an all digital system called TWC Maxx [7]. The new system results in increased Internet speeds, state-of-the-art television services, and improved overall reliability [7]. In 2015, TWC Maxx was fully implemented in six major cities and begun in 4 others [7]. The company has continued expanding the program in 2016 [8].

Comcast logo [11].

Proposed Comcast Merger

In November 2013, it was reported that Charter Communications was to put in an offer to purchase Time Warner Cable for around $135 per share [9]. As a result, Time Warner Cable stock rose by 10% [9]. Charter and Comcast stock also rose based on the rumor [9]. The offer was eventually rejected [10]. On February 13^th, 2014 Comcast announced that it intended to acquire Time Warner Cable through a stock swap [11]. The announcement was met with great opposition from government officials, industry executives, and consumer advocacy groups alike [12]. People were largely opposed to the merger based on Comcast’s behavior in past deals [13]. Following its acquisition of NBCUniversal, Comcast became a partial owner of Hulu [13]. As a part of the deal, Comcast was supposed to remain a silent partner and not influence or interfere with the operation of the company [13]. As of July 2013, Hulu was for sale [13]. In that same month, a meeting to decide the company’s fate took place between the operating partners; Walt Disney, 21^st Century Fox, and Comcast [13]. According to anonymous sources with knowledge of the conversation, Comcast told the other partners that it could enhance Hulu’s value, which caused them to decide not to sell the company [13]. This action directly violated the terms of Comcast’s NBCUniversal deal [13]. Other grievances included programmers experiencing continued difficulty in making their content available for streaming in Comcast markets and Comcast’s lack of promotion for a stand-alone broadband service that isn’t connected to a television package [13]. The proposed deal would have given Comcast a 57% market share of broadband services [13]. In April 2015, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler came out in direct opposition of the merger [14]. In light of the strong public reaction, Comcast terminated the merger ahead of the official FCC decision later that month [14].

Charter Communications logo [15].

Charter Merger

Following the failure of the Comcast merger, Charter Communications announced that it would be merging with Time Warner Cable on May 26^th, 2015 in a $56.7 billion deal that combined cash and stock options [15]. Charter also announced that they would be purchasing Bright House Networks, previously controlled by Time Warner, in a separate deal for $10.1 billion [15]. This deal was met with far less opposition based on the lower combined market share in broadband service and Charter’s lack of recent negative PR [16]. In order to smooth the approval process, Charter promised not to impose data caps and not charge online content providers for direct connections to its network [16]. On April 25^th, 2016, the U.S Department of Justice approved the sale with conditions [17]. On the same day, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler circulated his approval to other FCC commissioners [17]. The order is expected to get enough votes for approval [17]. In their official statement, the Department of Justice said they worked closely with the FCC to coordinate their reviews of the deal and devise comprehensive remedies for the issues that it presents [18]. As part of the approval, Charter is forbidden from including clauses in their Pay-TV contracts that bar content creators from exploiting their programming through online video on demand [3]. This condition was included largely because Time Warner is notorious for being the most aggressive provider with these clauses [17]. The conditions also forbid Charter from retaliating against programmers for licensing to online video on demand [3]. These conditions will last for seven years [3]. The sale will not become official until California public utility regulators submit their approval [17]. They are scheduled to vote in the summer of 2016 [17].

Overview

Time Warner Cable’s recent acquisition by Charter Communications will begin a new chapter in the company’s history, as well as the state of cable television altogether. Charter is expected to retire the Time Warner Cable brand [18]. Combining their resources will allow the two companies to cut costs and hopefully provide better prices for their customers. The new Charter’s future success will rely heavily on their public perception in the aftermath of this merger.

Sources

[1] Time Warner Cable. Company Overview for Time Warner Cable. Time Warner Cable. Retrieved April 25 2016.

[2] National Cable and Telecommunications Association. Industry Data. National Cable and Telecommunications Association. Retrieved April 25 2016.

[3] The United States Department of Justice (April 25 2016). Justice Department Allows Charter’s Acquisition of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks to Proceed with Conditions. The United States Department of Justice. Retrieved April 27 2016.

[4] American Customer Satisfaction Index. American Customer Satisfaction Index. American Customer Satisfaction Index. Retrieved April 25 2016.

[5] Darrow, Barb and Jones, Stacy (August 18 2015). Cable consumers keep cutting the cord. Can anyone blame them?. Fortune. Retrieved April 25 2016.

[6] Morran, Chris (October 5 2015). Time Warner Cable Admits Its Customer Service Stinks. Pinky Swears To Do Better. Consumerist. Retrieved April 25 2016.

[7] Time Warner Cable Inc. (January 28 2016). Fourth-Quarter and Full-Year 2015 Earnings Summary. Time Warner Cable. Retrieved April 25 2016.

[8] Time Warner Cable Inc. (February 8 2016). Time Warner Cable Takes Next Step to Transform TV and Internet Experience in Central and Northern New York. Time Warner Cable. Retrieved April 25 2016.

[9] Yousuf, Hibah (November 22 2013). Cable stocks surge on takeover chatter. CNN Money. Retrieved April 25 2016.

[10] CNBC (January 13 2014). Time Warner Cable rejects Charter’s $61B bid as inadequate. CNBC. Retrieved April 25 2016.

[11] Comcast (February 13 2014). Time Warner Cable To Merge With Comcast Corporation To Create A World-Class Technology and Media Company. Comcast. Retrieved April 25 2016.

[12] Steel, Emily (April 22 2015). Comcast Critics Cast Doubt on Its Intentions. The New York Times. Retrieved April 25 2016.

[13] Steel, Emily (April 21 2015). Comcast’s Track Record in Past Deals May Be Hitch for Merger With Time Warner Cable. The New York Times. Retrieved April 25 2016.

[14] Trefis Team (April 28 2015). Comcast-TWC Merger Called Off; Where Do These Companies Stand Now. Forbes. Retrieved April 26 2016.

[15] Charter Communications Inc. (May 26 2015). Charter Communications to Merge with Time Warner Cable and Acquire Bright House Networks. Charter Communications Inc. Retrieved April 25 2016.

[16] Economides, Nicholas (March 22 2016). Why a Charter-Time Warner Cable Merger Won’t Actually Kill Cable Companies. Fortune. Retrieved April 25 2016.

[17] King, Hope and Stetler, Brian (April 25 2016). Giant cable merger cleared by regulators. CNN Money. Retrieved April 25 2016.

[18] Morran, Chris (April 25 2016). 5 Things You Should Know About the Approved Merger of Time Warner Cable and Charter. Consumerist. Retrieved April 27 2016.

Principles & Practices

Website by the students of TRF235

Viacom

21st Century Fox

Verizon

Sony Pictures

Dreamworks Animation

Univision

“Todos estamos con Univision”

KEY EXECUTIVES

FINANCIALS

Beginnings

Universal Pictures

Time Warner Cable