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Danny and Derek welcome back to the show media scholar Andrew deWaard to discuss Netflix’s reported acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery and what it says about the economic forces driving contemporary media. They talk about how conglomeration and financialization have reshaped Hollywood; zero interest rates, asset inflation, and Wall Street driving mergers; how intellectual property, streaming platforms, and algorithmic “background TV” are transforming both culture and labor; the decline of cable and mass entertainment to Netflix’s rent-based (and subsequent subscription) business model; the influence of Spotify, YouTube, and Amazon on media strategy; and the global implications of growing U.S. cultural monopolies.
Read Andrew’s book Derivative Media (for free!).
Check out Danny’s piece “The Life and Death of Hollywood.”
Also take a look at this n+1 article on Netflix and how it’s transformed modern film and TV consumption, “Casual Viewing.”
