{"id":2885,"date":"2018-02-09T02:24:43","date_gmt":"2018-02-09T07:24:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vnsalvation.org\/2018\/02\/09\/big-game\/"},"modified":"2019-12-10T14:11:53","modified_gmt":"2019-12-10T14:11:53","slug":"big-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hahosa.com\/vnsalvation\/big-game\/","title":{"rendered":"[:en]Big Game Movie[:]"},"content":{"rendered":"

[:en]Content is still king. With Dalian Wanda Group\u2019s $3.5 billion acquisition of Legendary Entertainment in January, this year\u2019s media and entertainment M&A activity kicked off with a bang that hasn\u2019t slowed down.<\/p>\n

Comcast\u2019s $3.8 billion acquisition of DreamWorks Animation just three months later continued the trend of content consolidation and IP aggregation. Both transactions have varying motivations, but the common denominator is access to franchises and content that can be leveraged across the parent companies\u2019 various business units.<\/p>\n

Content and digital transformation strategies have driven M&A activity so far in 2016, with no signs of slowing down \u2014 and thus providing clues about where we\u2019ll see activity during the rest of the year.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s continued interest in gaining insight into how Hollywood works is paying off for both sides of these deals. This insight will continue to help them ramp up their own production capabilities and speed up their ability to compete with the current global content creators. As a result, Chinese investment and M&A in U.S. media and entertainment should continue throughout 2016.<\/p>\n

Wanda\u2019s massive Legendary transaction allows it to vertically integrate content production with its exhibition business. Its announced acquisition of Carmike Cinemas in March for $1.1 billion added more theatres to its current count, which already includes other global exhibitors. This news came days after Wanda announced plans for a $3.3 billion theme park outside Paris. When viewed as a whole, this ecosystem of content and distribution outlets positions Wanda as a global media and entertainment leader for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n

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Comcast\u2019s acquisition of DreamWorks Animation gives it a wealth of content that it can use across its numerous lines of business, including its cable subscription service (Xfinity), theme parks (Universal Parks and Resorts), cable networks (USA, Syfy, Sprout), digital platforms (Watchable, Seeso) and production companies (Universal Pictures, Illumination Entertainment).<\/p>\n

As the digital ecosystem expands, traditional studios are seeing an opportunity to diversify their tech and content strategies.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The potential overlap in animation capabilities with Illumination Entertainment is complicated, but could help Universal compete against Disney\u2019s formidable one-two punch of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios (if managed correctly). Comcast and NBCU also now have access to AwesomenessTV\u2019s target demographic, production capabilities and original IP. The key to this transaction will be the extent to which they successfully integrate their content cross-platform.<\/p>\n

Virtual reality\/augmented reality (VR\/AR) investment has ramped up in \u201cthe year of VR,\u201d taking in $1.1 billion through February alone. Most of that investment was Magic Leap\u2019s Series C round of funding at almost $800 million, but other companies involved included MindMaze with a $100 million round and Wevr with a $25 million round. While consumer products are still in the early phases, the overall excitement and wide-ranging applications for VR and AR are driving investment for those who want to get involved early.<\/p>\n

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Man vs Man wrist wrestling<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Following Baobab Studios\u2019 $6 million round in December, Penrose Studios raised $8.5 million in March, highlighting a competitive race to become the go-to VR content creator for immersive animated content. Comcast Ventures recently led a $6.8 million investment in Felix & Paul Studios, producers of cinematic VR experiences. Investors see this industry as a tremendous growth opportunity, with projected industry potential revenue of $120 billion by 2020, according to Digi-Capital. It doesn\u2019t appear that investment and M&A will slow down anytime soon.<\/p>\n

The NFL gets to broaden its distribution, experiment with alternative revenue streams, target a younger demographic and, ultimately, create more competition for the NFL\u2019s overall rights when they expire in 2022. It is very possible that the future of NFL broadcasts may lie with a digital-first platform like Netflix, Amazon, Facebook, Google or Twitter, each of whom has deep enough pockets to bid for the opportunity to capture the most valuable must-see live content in the United States. Expect the other professional sports leagues to watch this development closely.<\/p>\n

The rest of 2016 should continue to see plenty of activity across the media and entertainment space as companies brace for the future of mobile and digital consumption trends.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Based on activity in 2016 thus far, it\u2019s clear we haven\u2019t seen the end of key transactions. Paramount Pictures is looking for a strategic investor to build out its international and digital capabilities, which would provide key content and IP access to the investor (although this process has become very muddled recently). Yahoo is fielding multibillion-dollar offers for its core business, and Anonymous Content, creators of Oscar darlings Spotlight and The Revenant, as well as TV hits True Detective and Mr. Robot, is reportedly looking for a minority investor.[:]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[:en]Content is still king. With Dalian Wanda Group\u2019s $3.5 billion acquisition of Legendary Entertainment in January, this year\u2019s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2789,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[251,261],"series":[],"class_list":["post-2885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-tv","tag-game","tag-news","post_format-post-format-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hahosa.com\/vnsalvation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hahosa.com\/vnsalvation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hahosa.com\/vnsalvation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hahosa.com\/vnsalvation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hahosa.com\/vnsalvation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2885"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hahosa.com\/vnsalvation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22090,"href":"https:\/\/hahosa.com\/vnsalvation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2885\/revisions\/22090"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hahosa.com\/vnsalvation\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hahosa.com\/vnsalvation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hahosa.com\/vnsalvation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hahosa.com\/vnsalvation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2885"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hahosa.com\/vnsalvation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=2885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}