Disney is removing original content from its streaming platforms to cut spending on residual payments to writers and actors. The company is also claiming the purge will result in $1.5 billion in losses — which could amount to a substantial tax break.
  • style99@kbin.social
    281·
    1 year ago

    Interesting, to be sure:

    Outside observers say that the numbers don’t add up behind Disney’s decision to take down the shows and claim a $1.5 billion impairment charge. That’s because Disney is claiming two contradictory things: both that the assets were producing so little value that it’s cheaper to destroy them than to keep them and that the assets were worth $1.5 billion.

    “I cannot figure out how they can possibly get to $1.5 billion, because they should have almost no unamortized costs” under the 2017 tax bill, said David Offenberg, a professor of entertainment industry finance at Loyola Marymount University.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
      22·
      1 year ago

      A big part is there’s apparently nothing requiring them to disclose streaming numbers

      So it’s like how trump does his taxes. They just claim whatever benefits th in the moment. So as a “loss” it’s worth a shitton, but as a “profit” it’s worth nothing.

      It’s why actor/writer residuals are so shit, the billion dollar companies do t have to tell anyone how much it actually costs or makes.

      • RocksForBrains@lemm.ee
        3·
        1 year ago

        Regulators and investors are behind the curve in regard to entertainment technology. Big business is taking advantage of everything not written into an ironclad contract.

        Their big move upcoming is offloading as much as they can from D+ to Hulu, because if the contract only discusses streaming on D+ than there are no royalties to pay through Hulu.

    • reddig33@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      Actors barely make any residuals from streaming, so this sounds like more magical “Hollywood accounting”.

      Breaking up the studios to introduce more competition would help. The same company owns the production studio, the content, the streaming channel, the cable channel, and the broadcast channel. Some studios even own the cable lines, set top box, and/or internet connection. It’s ridiculous.

  • pwnicholson@lemmy.worldEnglish
    13·
    1 year ago

    And this is why I wish stuff was still released on physical media and I always prefer to own it outright.

  • elbowdrop@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    1 year ago

    Use ebay. How else was I going to find Going Overboard. Adam Saddlers first and best movie. I wanna slap your cat.

  • ArugulaZ@kbin.social
    1·
    1 year ago

    Bob OGRE is more like it. Sheesh. This doesn’t bode well for the striking actors and writers, who want fair compensation for their work. The film studios would much rather have things the way things are on YouTube, where Google gets all its content for free and makes the content providers think that it’s doing THEM a favor by hosting it.