- Title: James Bond changes unlikely after Amazon buys MGM, anaylst says
- Date: 26th May 2021
- Summary: CULVER CITY, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (MAY 26, 2021) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) VARIETY INTELLIGENCE PLATFORM MEDIA ANALYST, HEIDI CHUNG, SAYING: "A lot of the stuff they've been putting out, at least their originals, have been a hit or miss and so this makes a lot of sense. MGM Studios has been around for a hundred years. It has a crazy library when you're thinking about it -- 4,000 movies, something like 17,000 TV show episodes and a lot of people forget that it's also dabbling in reality TV. It owns 'Survivor', it owns 'Real Housewives' franchise, it owns 'Shark Tank' so there's a lot there for Amazon to play with but I think a big caveat that you have to keep in mind is, alright, this is all subject to regulatory approval."
- Embargoed: 9th June 2021 23:43
- Keywords: Amazon Hollywood studios Jeff Bezos MGM acquisition analyst content reaction streaming
- Location: BEVERLY HILLS / LOS ANGELES / CULVER CITY, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES; UNIDENTIFIED FILMING LOCATIONS; NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES; WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES
- City: BEVERLY HILLS / LOS ANGELES / CULVER CITY, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES; UNIDENTIFIED FILMING LOCATIONS; NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES; WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES
- Country: USA
- Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Film,United States
- Reuters ID: LVA003EELOQBR
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Amazon's move to buy the MGM movie and TV studio will provide fuel for the Seattle company's critics in the nation's capitol who complain it is already too big and powerful, but experts said the deal poses few classic antitrust concerns.
A little more than an hour after the deal was announced, Republican Senator Josh Hawley blasted Amazon.com as a "monopoly platform" on Twitter, adding, "This sale should not go through," and that the company shouldn't be allowed to buy anything.
And Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar, who chairs the Senate's antitrust panel, called for "a thorough investigation to ensure that this deal won't risk harming competition."
The announcement also comes just one day after Washington, DC's attorney general filed a lawsuit against Amazon.com, alleging the online retailer broke antitrust law with unfair pricing strategies.
Heidi Chung, a media analyst from Variety Intelligence Platform, said "Now I think a lot of the players in the space are trying to catch up with the bigger players, to the Netflix-es and to the Disneys and you have to spend money in order to play it. You have to spend money to compete with these behemoths and so I think that's why you're seeing companies like Warner Media and Discovery come together to beef up their content arsenal so they can compete. It's just a race for eyeballs at this point."
The $8.45 billion merger would combine the world's biggest online retailer with a film and TV studio that has a storied past but has struggled to keep up with rivals including Disney.
MGM, which owns the James Bond franchise and made "The Handmaid's Tale," also made classic films like the "Rocky" series and "Princess Bride." But look at the top ten grossing films of 2018 and 2019 and MGM is absent, according to boxofficemojo. As is Amazon.
However, the Bond franchise will not be totally under Amazon's control, according to Chung. She said "We're probably not going to see any differences when it comes to what happens to the James Bond franchise. The family still owns the rights to most of the distribution there. They even have a say on who gets to play James Bond so I don't think Amazon's going to have too much power in that regard but that's also a very specific and special case when it comes to this merger."
Amazon's Prime Video, which is bundled with subscriptions to Amazon's service that promises quick deliveries of purchases, also faces well-financed rivals including Netflix Inc., Walt Disney Co.'s Disney+ , HBO Max and Apple Inc.'s Apple TV+. The companies are increasing investments in international markets, aiming to capture the pandemic-led expansion of binge-watching shows online.
Given the state of competition in the two markets, antitrust agencies which police mergers for anticompetitive behavior would likely struggle to convince a court that the deal will mean higher prices or less innovation.
Chung also said the acquisition would mean that Amazon would probably have to make further deals - but with theater chains.
She said "AMC, chains like that, are really struggling to find a way to bring people back to the theaters but if all this great content is not being shown in their theaters, what are they going to do? So I think we're going to start to see a lot of different deals being worked out with these exhibitors and studios as the landscape changes and evolves."
(Production: Sandra Stojanovic, Rollo Ross) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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