By CultureBanx Team
- Byron Allen’s Entertainment Studios owns eight broadcast networks
- Allen estimates the company’s assets to be worth more than $1 billion
Byron Allen made waves across the media industry when his company Entertainment Studios acquired The Weather Channel for $300 million earlier this year. What does his approach to the media business signal about the direction of the rest of the industry?
Why This Matters: Entertainment Studios takes a formulaic approach to spurring the growth of its media properties. Film crews shoot content for multiple shows at the same time rather than just one. They also film and shoot on a 24-hour schedule in order to increase the efficiency of their channels. This is the approach the company takes with its eight broadcast networks including Justice Central, Comedy.tv, and Cars.tv. In 2017, Allen claimed Entertainment Studio’s investments were valued at around $1 billion. That figure is sure to have increased after the Weather Channel acquisition which Allen plans to leverage to open up distribution opportunities for his other assets.
Television’s transition to digital is another key consideration in Entertainment Studio’s strategy. He started securing digital media properties like .tv domains in 2006 after following suit. Disney (DIS:US +1.18%) plans to launch a mobile app in 2019 that would distribute its content directly to subscribers. Amazon (AMZN +1.66%) averages over 950,000 viewers on its Twitch platform at any given moment, according to Streamlabs.
Instagram TV is in its third week and analysts will be watching to see how many of Instagram’s one billion users watch content on the platform. A Morgan Stanley (MS +2.80%) survey found that 40 percent of respondents viewed Facebook Watch content on a weekly basis and video accounts for half of Twitter’s (TWTR -5.38%) ad revenue. Whether Allen keeps his platforms independent and puts up a fight with these platforms or figures out a way to partner will be interesting to watch.
Situational Awareness: Shareholders are voting on Disney’s bid to acquire a collection of Twenty-First Century Fox (FOX +1.34%) assets for $71 billion on July 27. The potential acquisition received the approval of the Department of Justice after Disney agreed to sell 22 regional sports networks. Watch out for whether Allen makes another splash in the media world by buying some of these assets.
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