HamsterHookah

Also here is Netflix's new anti-password sharing policy announced which is interesting: https://thestreamable.com/news/confirmed-netflix-unveils-first-details-of-new-anti-password-sharing-measures

I'm very interested in the industry and business of Hollywood and Streaming Tech and Studios and think it's a very fascinating space that has faced at least two different inflection points, with some really interesting moving parts recently. Instead of randomly having the economic and business conversations in content-focused threads (e.g. Velma, Netflix recommendation, etc.) I figured there might be a good catch-all thread for the discussion, if there is similar interest or watchers (or investors) of the industry. For starters Netflix is going through a huge changing of the guard and seems to have rebounded from it's "death spiral", but is emerging from 2022's bloodbath with cutting out password sharing and slashing it's content budget. That tells me that if you are in the Hollywood industry and couldn't get Netflix to greenlight something when they were throwing billions at garbage, you are in for a tough time in 2023+. Beyond that, I read this interesting article about what streaming did for the documentary. What used to be the academic purview of PBS with stolid narrators like Ken Burns, we are now seeing them pumped out with more docutainment fare. It's also a continuation of the discussion around how streaming has created a modern dynamic where movie theatre releases are for the unwashed masses (MCU, reboots of popular IP, sequels, etc.) versus cinema, art films, documentaries, avant-garde, etc. https://www.vulture.com/article/tv-documentaries-ethical-standards.html

Powell made it clear that Americans should expect “a couple more rate hikes” going forward. The concern? Inflation is a nasty beast—there’s no guarantee it’s going to keep on falling like it has been. And some economists have pointed to signs that activity is picking back up again right when we need it to continue slowing down: Housing demand is coming off of its lows, gas prices have climbed since December, and the labor market is still running too hot for the Fed’s liking. Making things even dicier for Powell is the recent stock market rally. So far in 2023, investors have been gobbling up stocks as if the inflation problem has already been solved. But, in an ironic twist, their optimism that inflation is toast…could actually push inflation higher by boosting asset prices.

Classy.

Theme Parks seem to be recession proof: https://variety.com/vip/why-theme-parks-are-proving-recession-proof-1235352281/ Saw this infographic the other day about NBCUniversal (obviously Disney is king): NBCUniversal’s theme parks biz is on the up Chances are, when you think about Comcast, the first thing that comes to mind probably isn’t a log flume. But the telecom company has a hot theme parks business where revenue — which increased ~12% YoY to $2.1B in Q4 2022 — is far beyond even its pre-pandemic numbers, per Variety. Today, Comcast’s NBCUniversal operates theme parks in the US, Tokyo, Singapore, and Beijing. Planned expansions include a Super Nintendo World in California, a $1B Epic Universe in Orlando, and smaller children’s and horror concept parks in Texas and Las Vegas. Theme parks are often regarded as recession-proof businesses. For companies like Comcast and Disney, they also provide cash that helps weather losses in their streaming units. These conglomerates are also becoming increasingly good at monetizing visitors. While these parks offer much more than they did in 1960, Zack’s fantastic analysis on Disneyland’s rising prices found the cost of parking has jumped 11.9k% since then, or 13.5x the rate of inflation. Last year, per capita spending at US Disney parks was up 40% from 2019.

Get me in the side door.

I think a better analogy would be, we should not get in self-driving or the autonomous electric cars (yet) because they are brand new and let's see how it goes. Getting in cars would be like taking time-honored vaccines-- tons of experience and time and data points over many years-- which we do. Why is that part seemingly difficult for you?

Crossposting because I thought you'd get a kick out of this and thought you'd get a nice laugh and make your day a little brighter: Drinks on Exxon: In 2022, ExxonMobil posted the most profitable year of any Western oil company ever. Thanks to booming energy prices, Exxon made $56 billion in profit last year—equivalent to $6.3 million each hour, per Reuters. The mind-boggling earnings of Western oil giants, which are projected to have been ~$200 billion collectively last year, have also made them a political target for the Biden adminstration, which has blamed them for high gas prices. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/exxon-smashes-western-oil-majors-earnings-record-with-59-billion-profit-2023-01-31/

Sounds about right-- just surprising given his tiktok/youtube persona the guy would be a stable, 17 year vet of the local LEO (recent firing obviously withstanding). I guess it goes to show that these successfully personas that are cultivated for content creation are a good show, and I had the feeling his cajun accent was put on and heavily emphasized versus natural but this confirms it. Regardless his videos are awesome.

Drinks on Exxon: In 2022, ExxonMobil posted the most profitable year of any Western oil company ever. Thanks to booming energy prices, Exxon made $56 billion in profit last year—equivalent to $6.3 million each hour, per Reuters. The mind-boggling earnings of Western oil giants, which are projected to have been ~$200 billion collectively last year, have also made them a political target for the Biden adminstration, which has blamed them for high gas prices. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/exxon-smashes-western-oil-majors-earnings-record-with-59-billion-profit-2023-01-31/

That's pretty funny. Also I have no idea who the country music guy is and I'm a country music fan idk

I thought so too, but seems very niche and too narrowly focused for my blood. But also theme parks are killing it these days, so what do I know.

Not to derail, but we had a family friend whose son was hyperfocused on wanting to be a very specific type of ME-- theme park/roller coaster engineer-- and so when he was waitlisted at UT ended up doing an ME somewhere small and doing a Masters at a school in Ohio who focused on that and had a pipeline to the rollercoaster companies via Cedar Point. I guess the point is like Tx3putt said-- better to get an ME somewhere other than UT than get a geology degree at UT if he has a focused interest and knows what he wants to do an needs an ME to do it.

Dang dude Really surprised he was a cop for 17 years making $85k a year. His persona is like a Cajun Riff Raff.

Close family is a regent and we jibe with the mission and vision in 2023 so I'll just leave it at that as anything else might take us away from point of the thread. To bring us back on point-- did anyone have any kids do dual credit to the point of having the first 2 years of college knocked out by time they graduated highschool? That seems like the best ROI bang for the buck.

This guy is awesome and I've spent an hour watching his content. +rep

I know, and I went to UT and I hate RGIII. Go figure.

I for one am glad the grid seems to be holding up reasonably well this thundersleetageddon and want to thanks all the parties involved-- solar, wind, oil, gas, coal-- they are all MVPs to me.

The New Tecovas ad prints are leaked?

Which is saying something because Kendall is not as smart as Kendall thinks he is.

One of my friends at work went to Oregon and loved it. That said, Baylor is one of the few schools on the list that I'll actually pay for and allow that is a bad deal on paper (low ROI, high cost for average education), just for the cultural reasons. YMMV

Jr. reminds me of Kendall Roy in Season 2 when he was off the rails on drugs. Looks a lot like him.

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Lots of application in O&G, at least historically the last 15 years. I do wonder if that wanes as the shale/fracking boom seems to have subsided and all the big investments are going offshore in deep water.

Wow, this is insane @TwiceHorn Hot off the presses, we have confirmation from multiple employees that Intel is cutting costs tremendously at the expense of their employees. These cuts are broad-based, with employees having their compensation affected. Quarterly pay bonuses are gone, annual bonuses are being paused, 401k match is halved from 5% to 2.5%, merit-based raises are suspended, and there is a pay cut to all employees’ base salary based on grade. All employees below Principal Engineer, grades 7 to 11, will get a 5% cut, 10% cuts will be instituted for VPs, and the executive leadership team will take a 15% cut, with Pat Gelsinger taking a 25% cut. These cuts hurt even more when we are in an inflationary environment. These cost cuts are, of course, dwarfed by their quarterly dividend, of course, which we have been clamoring for them to cut for over a year.