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BFD Expert Voices - Media Deals

BFD Expert Voices

Cable companies are essentially being cut out of the cable bundle business.

Why it matters: The writing has been on the wall for a while, but news coming from Disney-Fox-Warner Bros. and YouTube makes it clear that cable may have months, not years, to live, Tim and Sara Fischer write.

What's happening: The rollout of a new sports streaming service from the country's biggest entertainment firms, coupled with a huge milestone announcement by YouTube TV yesterday, sent shockwaves through the media industry.

Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery are creating a joint streaming venture putting all of their linear sports TV content on a single service that will launch in the fall.

YouTube TV's announcement that it now has more than 8 million paid subscribers places it as the fourth-largest pay-TV provider, nipping at DirecTV's heels for the third spot.

Meanwhile, Charter eked out the lead spot thanks to losing slightly fewer subscribers than No. 2 Comcast.

The two companies have lost a combined 7 million customers since the start of 2021.

💭 Thought bubble: That's a harsh wake-up call for an industry that had assumed streaming TV bundles would take many more years to surpass their traditional brethren.

Be smart: The announcement of the joint streaming venture comes as both Disney and WBD are negotiating their NBA TV renewal.

The latest: On Fox's earnings call today, CEO Lachlan Murdoch said the service will target the roughly 60 million "cord-nevers" in the U.S. and that there are no plans to add other partners like NBCUniversal or Paramount.

"We are very confident that this is a large market and a large opportunity that we can address without undermining the traditional traditional bundle," Murdoch said.

1 big thing: Cable's death knell 

Illustration of a gravestone made out of a TV, with a bouquet of flowers sitting in front of it.

Crypto payments organization Code has raised $6.5 million in a seed round to build an app for unlocking paywalled content. 

Why it's the BFD: Code is taking on one of the internet's oldest dreams: micropayments, the ability to spend tiny amounts of value for digital goods, Axios Crypto's Brady Dale writes.

Details: M13 and Union Square Ventures co-led the round.

Code was initially funded with the proceeds from selling Kik, which was once a very popular messaging platform like Messenger or Telegram.

Zoom in: A few times each year, internet users click on some internet post that's paywalled, and the only option to access it is to subscribe to the whole publication to see it.

But what if you could just pay, say, 25¢, and it was really easy to do it? That's what Code aims to do.

With existing payment rails, it's not worth it for paywalled sites to offer payments that low. On Code, each payment costs 1¢, its CEO said in a podcast. It can support payments as low as 5¢.

Reality check: The most immediate friction point for Code now is the same as lots of other cryptocurrencies: the bridge to dollars and other fiat currencies.

💭 Kerry's thought bubble: Paywalls help publishers diversify revenue beyond ad dollars, which can be unreliable. But the business is hard to maintain, prompting some news outlets to drop or cut down on them, as Sara wrote yesterday. Code is positioned to help, but the question is if it's financially worth it for publishers to invest in supporting the technology.

2. The BFD: Solving micropayments

Illustration of a smartphone with a payphone coin slot, and a dime going into it.

Go deeper in our full database in the Axios Pro Deals Tracker.

• ActionStreamer, a Cincinnati-based media streaming platform, raised $2.4m in Series A funding led by JumpStart Ventures. https://axios.link/42vndPu

• Bettormetrics, a London-based sports betting analytics company, raised an undisclosed amount of Series A funding. https://axios.link/3uvntBm

• Luminate, a Los Angeles-based entertainment data and insights firm, acquired Quansic, a music artist data identification service. https://axios.link/49gtqB4

• Mubi, a streaming service that focuses on arthouse films, is taking a majority stake in European indie distributor Cineart. https://axios.link/3HQ0Bji

3. Deal flow

• Sarah Rose was promoted to president of Paramount's Channel 5. https://axios.link/496tTpR

• Kiran Bance, former head of diversity and inclusion at Macmillan Cancer Support, joined Omnicom Media Group UK as its DEI director. https://axios.link/49fkdce

• Anna Ho Sandig is joining UTA as a VP in its Venture Studio department. https://axios.link/489d6RJ

• Simon Hurdon joined Curate as a manager. He was previously an agent at Omada Agency. https://axios.link/3SQzRWe

• Greg Messinger joined Estate Media, the real estate media startup, as head of sales last month. He was previously VP of revenue at Bigger Pockets and has consulted for Disney, News Corp, TorStar and Graham Media Group. https://axios.link/3Uy05Ow

• Laura Delahaye joined New Regency as head of domestic television. She previously worked as director of overall deals, U.S. and Canada, at Netflix. https://axios.link/42M7Cvf

• Robert Spano, longtime music director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, was appointed music director for the Washington National Opera. https://axios.link/3UA2LLl

• Woody Young, former chairman of M&A at Perella Weinberg Partners, was appointed to the board at Frontier Communications Parent. https://axios.link/49pABXs

• Steve Youngwood stepped down as CEO and as a board member of Sesame Workshop. President Sherrie Westin was named interim CEO. https://axios.link/3w364k1

• Michelle Jubelirer stepped down as chair and CEO of Capitol Music Group as Universal Music Group restructures. https://axios.link/49oML2X

• CoVenture Management promoted Meghan Hillery to VP. www.coventure.vc

4. Movin' on up (or out)

🔊 AI startups and academics get louder in D.C. (Axios)

"AI regulation will have a long-lasting effect on both the industry and the country's global competitiveness, and industry players want to make sure government officials get it right," Maria Curi writes.

🐤 The sudden sale of the Baltimore Orioles left behind some loose ends (WSJ)

"Not long ago, John Angelos was putting the finishing touches on a deal that would have had Baltimore Orioles fans choking on their crab cakes: He was going to sell the naming rights to the team's storied ballpark," Lindsey Adler and Jared Diamond write.

🤷 How to save a $70B business we don't know what to do with (The Ankler)

"Somewhere around the time the Streaming Wars took hold, Hollywood's great studios stopped seeing themselves as entertainers and started seeing themselves as cogs in some gigantic financial mechanism," Richard Rushfield writes.

5. Channel surfing

an illustration of a hula dancer figurine on top of a vintage television set

🌴 Situational awareness: Axios BFD is heading to Miami this coming Tuesday, Feb. 13, and we'll be there! If you can't join us IRL, register for the livestream to hear from industry leaders like F1 Miami Grand Prix president Tyler Epp.

@tim_bays: How early is too early to start Super Bowl prep? Asking for a 49ers fan. 

@kerrymflynn: Taylor Swift's "The Eras Tour" on TikTok. It's back! Bless @tessdear for her livestreams. 

✏️ Thanks to Michael Flaherty for editing and Katie Lewis for copy editing this newsletter.

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February 07, 2024

1 big thing: Cable's death knell