“Strictly Business” Live from Variety’s Ent and Tech Summit

The emergence of streaming’s new Big Four. A look at the future of cinema and the near-term future of AMC theaters. A straight talk about how Washington, DC’s ultra-progressive regulatory regime is stifling Hollywood, chilling M&A activity.

These are among the hot topics discussed in a special bonus episode of Strictly Business, VarietyHis weekly podcast featuring conversations with industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. This installment features highlights from VarietyHis annual Entertainment and Technology Summit, a one-day event held on September 26 at the London Hotel in West Hollywood.

Laura Martin, senior entertainment and internet analyst for Needham and Company, and Hernan Lopez, founder of consulting firm Owl & Co., joined “Strictly Business” hosts Cynthia Littleton and Andrew Wallenstein for the final session — a lively discussion about the major themes that emerged during the day.

Martin was quick to draw attention to the stalemate in Washington, DC for media mega-deals — or large M&As of any size — between regulators at the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice. If Vice President Kamala Harris wins in November, Martin warned Hollywood should expect more of the same.

“So we’ll just have the status quo. No mergers. Big is bad. Amazon takes 14 months to buy MGM, which is a $10 billion acquisition of a $3 trillion company in an asset where they had nothing before. So it’s difficult, with a lot of uncertainty, to try to do mergers, and unfortunately that’s going to put a lot of companies in the traditional Hollywood space out of business,” Martin said. “Because Paramount shouldn’t be independent.” Fox is too small to be independent. A lot of them are too small now, given that their competitors are YouTube and Amazon Prime.”

Lopez, a longtime Fox executive who went on to found podcast network Wondery, presented his own analysis to make the case for the emergence of four new big platforms in global streaming: Netflix, YouTube, Disney and Amazon. He argued that the media business of the 21st century will increasingly revolve around those companies that capture proprietary data on consumer behavior. This is the pot of gold for companies that need to deliver content on a global scale and deliver target audiences to advertisers.

“It’s really about how to get the most out of every customer that you have and every hour of engagement that you have and how to get that extra hour of engagement for less,” Lopez explained.

Among the big four, Amazon has a distinct advantage due to its growth in e-commerce. Amazon’s parent platform is just as good an engine for finding movies and TV shows — with notable exceptions, of course — as it is for finding a new sweater or a bulk deal on kitchen trash bags.

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“Essentially, when you’re looking for any title, you’re more likely to find it on Amazon than anywhere else, and because of their business model, every time a customer engages with Prime Video, they’re more likely to spend on Amazon. ,” Lopez said. “This is a half-trillion dollar consumer business. So you can almost think of it as a marketing engine for Amazon and one that will become profitable on its own very soon.”

ASSOCIATED CONTENT: The biggest takeaways from Variety’s Entertainment and Technology Summit

The episode includes highlights from one-on-one summit conversations with AMC Theaters CEO Adam Aron, chairman of Warner Bros. TV Group Channing Dungey, DC Studios co-chairman and co-CEO Peter Safran and Tim O’Brien, chief revenue officer for mobile game firm Scopely. Multi-syllable podcast hosts Whitney Cummings, Lamorne Morris and Iliza Schlesinger wrap up the discussion about the harsh financial realities of being a touring comedian these days and the importance of staying authentic behind the mic.

“Strict Business” it is Varietyhis weekly podcast featuring conversations with industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. (Please click here to subscribe to our free newsletter.) New episodes debut every Wednesday and can be downloaded from Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, Google Play, SoundCloud and more.

(Pictured: Variety Andrew Wallenstein of VIP, Laura Martin of Needham and Company, Hernan Lopez of Owl & Co. and Varietyis Cynthia Littleton)