Media Billionaires Summer Camp

Sun Valley,  site for media and entertainment meetup

 Corporate mega-deals were made in executive suites and conference rooms, but no longer. The deals are now made at mountain cabins or villas at remote, and exclusive resorts. Their private Gulfstream or Lear jets. dutifully waiting to depart on a moment's notice. ready at the waiting 

Such was the scene last week, in Sun Valley, Idaho, when the moguls of media met to discuss the future of entertainment.

All the new CEOs of the entertainment giants were present: David Ellison, Paramount, and Sundance (and most likely the new head of Warner Bros.). Disney's new CEO, Josh D'Amaro, and Comcast's new co-CEO, Mike Cavanagh.

Musk at the meetup in Sun Valley

Also attending were Apple's appointed CEO, John Tornus, and the current CEO, Tim Cook. Netflix's Ted Sarandos, Sony Pictures head Ravi Ahuja, Lacklan Murdoch of Fox, YouTube's Neal Mohan, and Amazon's Jeff Bezos - to name several. 

In addition, a cadre of AI platform honchos, including Anthropic's Dario Amodie and OpenAI's Sam Altman.

Their agenda centered on geopolitics, mergers and acquisitions, and new technologies transforming how entertainment is produced, distributed, and monetized. This is where mega-deals are spawned and where the media and entertainment's future is determined.

Film and TV Production Has Left Hollywood - Can It Be Resurrected?

 As a follow-up post to "Can A Republican Save Hollywood", I wanted to delve deeper into the reasons film and TV production is fleeing Hollywood, and can providing production tax credits (be it State or Federal) turn the tide, or is it a losing battle?

'Baywatch' reboot almost didn't get produced

For example, "Baywatch," a highly successful weekly TV series in the 1990s, was recently rebooted by Fox. Governor Gavin Newsom bragged that the show was "back to where it belongs, be it for $21 million in State credits. However, local regulations and restrictions curtailed production, and the project was put on ice until Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass intervened.

After 100 years of dominating the entertainment industry, Los Angeles/Hollywood film production has bowed to globalization, ease of communications, and unrestricted travel to countries that have opened their arms to film and TV production, at a fraction of the Hollywood cost.

So, the answer is to produce in less expensive U.S. States, or even cheaper overseas locations. Over 81 countries have embraced film production as an economic development must.

Los Angeles has lost over 73,000 movie and TV production jobs since 2022 and the bleeding continues.

IMO, State and even Federal production credits may help, but they don't address the underlying problem of the too-high costs involved in Hollywood production. 

Enter the use of AI, which will cut costs dramatically. Yes, far fewer people will be needed to produce a film, but it's better than losing the whole industry. 

Can the World's First Trillionaire Change Media, Entertainment, and Telecom?

 

SpaceX and Tesla, the two entities managed by Elon Musk, are on a colligion course with the media, entertainment, and telecom industries. - and he has the means to do just that.

SpaceX is massively growing its broadband internet offering through its Starlink services, which currently include cell phone and web access. This is in direct competition with Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T, to name a few.

Through Spacelink's xAI division, video models are being developed through Grok (the SpaceX AI platform), which will have an obvious disruptive impact on Hollywood. 

Musk has built close relationships with several Hollywood power players, some of whom are investors in SpaceX, whose recent IPO went over the trillion-dollar mark, the first in history.

IMO it's just a wait and see. Musk has plans for entertainment and how it's made and distributed. SpaceX dwarfs any competition it may have. For example, Disney is worth $175 billion, and Netflix is worth $340 billion - nowhere near the value and financial capacity of SpaceX.