answered: Concept Activity: What is an Entertainment Company in 2021?

  

Concept Activity: What is an Entertainment Company in 2021?
Readings:
-Ball, Matthew. What Is an Entertainment Company in 2021 and Why Does the Answer Matter
(https://www.matthewball.vc/all/what-is-an-entertainment-company-and-why-does-the-answer-matter)
-Fritz. Behind Disney’s Play for Fox: Determination to Beat Netflix.
(https://www.wsj.com/articles/streaming-dreams-drove-disneys-interest-in-fox-assets-1510137002?page=1)
-Alexander. What does Disney and Fox’s historic deal mean?
(https://www.polygon.com/2017/12/14/16775978/disney-fox-x-men-avengers-marvel-simpsons)
-Hovenkamp. The Disney-Fox Deal: Why It’s About Going Directly to the Consumer.
(https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/the-impact-of-disney-fox/)
ANSWER EACH OF THE FOLLOWING: (Most can be answered in a paragraph)
1.Why did Disney buy (most of) Fox? Explain the market context for this merger and how the merger relates to Disney’s overall strategy. (This may take more than a paragraph to fully answer.)
2.According to Ball, what are the three core activities of an entertainment company?
-First Core Activity
-Second Core Activity
-Third Core Activity
3.How does Ball make the case that Disney excels at the first core activity?
3.How does Disney excel at the second core activity generationally?
4. How does the second core activity impact windowing?
5. How does Disney’s conglomeration strategy impact its ability to do the third core activity?
ANSWER TWO OF THE FOLLOWING:
6. Why doesn’t Disney manufacture products based on its IP? How does this decision relate to the second core activity?
7. Why was Disney’s direct-to-video strategy successful in the short term, but bad for long term business? (The direct-to-video strategy involved making cheap, relatively lower quality sequels to popular IP (e.g. Little Mermaid II) and skipping theatrical release to go straight to home video (VHS, DVD). How did Disney fix this situation? (Section: There are costs to getting love wrong)
8. How is Disney + central to Disney’s strategy to fulfill all three core activities? What was the tradeoff of building its own SVOD (streaming video on demand) service? (Section: Love is the biggest unlock)
9. Why does Ball argue that gaming is the new frontier for love? How does Microsoft’s deal with ViacomCBS (Paramount) to produce a Halo series illustrate this point? (Section: Love changing #1)