From “Peanuts” to Africa to deals worth billions and billions of dollars, the TV industry just keeps steaming along and growing around the world.
$185 million USD was the amount of cash that Sony gave to DHX Media in order to secure a stake in the “Peanuts” brand. Sony now owns 39% of “Peanuts”, with DHX owning 41% and the family of “Peanuts” creator Charles M. Schultz owning 20%. “We are honored to deepen our relationship with Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) as we continue our expansion of ‘Peanuts’ globally,” said Michael Donovan, executive chair and CEO of DHX Media. DHX Media has owned the “Peanuts” brand since May, 2017, when it bought it as part of a $345 million acquisition of the entertainment division of Iconix Brand Group.
54 countries make up the continent of Africa, and many of them are going to become better known to the globe within the next decade. The major players in the TV industry are eagerly anticipating growing markets and growing global interest in television shows set in or about the continent. Overall, in spite of the continent’s impoverished areas, the GDPs of African nations are rising, and with that comes a bigger interest in TV show production and viewership.
$85 billion USD is how much AT&T is offering to acquire Time Warner. But Judge Richard Leon hasn’t yet ruled on whether or not the merger is going to be permitted. When asked about the possibility of the deal being blocked by the judge, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson replied, “I don’t want to even go there. Right now, we’re focused on winning this thing. That’s where we are.” Stephenson believes that bringing the two TV juggernauts together would for the first time make it possible for Time Warner to establish the kind of direct customer relationships already possessed by competitor Netflix and currently being established by rival Disney.
$1 billion USD is how much money Netflix now plans to spend on creating original TV series in Europe this year. This means that the successful subscription service is now planning to spend 85% of its content budget on creating original TV programming. By the end of 2018, Netflix plans to have created 700 original programs and series. Chief content officer Ted Sarandos says “90%-plus of our customers regularly watch our original programming.”
$748 billion USD is what Brand Z now calculates the TV entertainment industry to be worth. Heavy hitters in the industry that are now driving up its worth include Netflix, Google, Amazon, Apple, YouTube, and China’s Alibaba. Alibaba has become the biggest distributor of Disney programming in Asia. The rise in competitiveness of TV entertainment has put competitive pressure on telecoms such as AT&T and BT.
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