Videoage International November 2017

18 My 2¢ Today, the industry is still regularly shaken by consolidation due to mergers and acquisitions ... the stress is palpable. H ow different are today’s (technical, social and financial) disruptions, consolidation, audience fragmentation, and OTT from yesterday’s corporate turmoil, management upheavals, unfriendly takeovers, corporate raiders and financial scandals? From 1970 to 2009 no one company in the television business was spared, including Viacom, Columbia Pictures, MGM, Paramount, AOL-Time Warner, and MCA-Universal in the U.S., and Vivendi, Sky, and Telefe in France, England and Argentina, respectively. In Australia, the three major TV networks, Network Ten, Seven Network and Nine Network, were on a constant rollercoaster ride, withTen going through five different owners from its inception until 2005. And in Canada, the TV sector went through the CHUM, Shaw and Atlantis Alliance eras of rapid investments and divestments. In those years there were also “characters” like David Begelman (U.S.), Conrad Black (Canada, U.S. and U.K.), Robert Maxwell (U.K. and U.S.), Thomas Haffa (Germany), Christopher Skase (Australia and U.S.) and the Italian Giancarlo Parretti, who, after acquiring Cannon Films (Israel), Pathé (France) and MGM (U.S.), was sentenced in absentia in France to four years in prison for securities fraud. Black ended up serving two years in prison. Maxwell mysteriously fell overboard and died. Haffa was fined 1.2 million euros by German courts in relation to the plight of his E.M.TV. And Begelman killed himself after the Columbia Pictures embezzlement scandal. In Switzerland, after the sports marketing rights giant, ISL, collapsed, six former executives, including former chairman Jean Marie Weber, were accused of a series of charges including fraud, embezzlement and the falsification of documents. Skase became one of Australia’s most wanted fugitives after his business empire (Seven Network, MGM) collapsed. In retrospect, it was not a reassuring period at all. Looking at VideoAge’ s 1983 “U.S. International Distributors directory,” it’s striking that, of the 63 companies listed, only 12 remain today. Of the 56 U.K. companies listed in VideoAge ’s 1986 directory, just three remain. But what’s even more striking is how the trade media in those years reported the unfolding events. Once again, looking at VideoAge ’s past issues, it is remarkable how even though our publication documented each traumatic company event, the reports were devoid of the human element, focusing instead on the mechanical aspects. Today, the industry is still regularly shaken by consolidation due to mergers and a c qu i s i t i on s , and the focus is on how difficult the new TV business paradigm has become for executives. The stress is palpable, but while in the past, the dramatic events didn’t seem to affect executives’ senses of humor, today’s havoc is compounded by the multitude of content distribution rights, which are generating stress (and unprecedented wealth) for the company executives involved. It’s like when the Communist regime collapsed in the Soviet Union and people were, for the first time experiencing a multitude of choices on supermarket shelves. The indecision as to what to select created anxiety attacks so severe as to stop people in their tracks. In conclusion, reporting today’s TV trade news is a balancing act where the wrong “tone” of an article can trigger drastic consequences for publications that depend on advertising revenue. Dom Serafini Why is yesterday’s stress any different than today’s? In the good ’ol days, stress brought out humor and camaraderie among people. Today, it brings anxiety, instead. “Laughter may be the best medicine, but it’s not going to remedy our problems!” November 2017 MAIN OFFICES 216 EAST 75TH STREET NEW YORK, NY 10021 TEL: (212) 288-3933 FAX: (212) 288-3424 WWW.VIDEOAGE.ORG WWW.VIDEOAGELATINO.COM WWW.VIDEOAGE.IT P.O. BOX 25282 LOS ANGELES, CA 90025 VIALE ABRUZZI 30 20123 MILAN, ITALY EDITOR- in -CHIEF DOM SERAFINI EDITORIAL TEAM ISME BENNIE (CANADA) ENZO CHIARULLO (ITALY) LUCY COHEN BLATTER CARLOS GUROVICH LEAH HOCHBAUM ROSNER SUSAN HORNIK AKIKO KOBAYACHI (JAPAN) LUIS POLANCO DAVID SHORT (AFRICA) MARIA ZUPPELLO (BRAZIL) PUBLISHER MONICA GORGHETTO BUSINESS OFFICE LEN FINKEL LEGAL OFFICE ROBERT ACKERMANN, STEVE SCHIFFMAN WEB MANAGER BRUNO MARRACINO DESIGN / LAYOUT CLAUDIO MATTIONI, CARMINE RASPAOLO ILLUSTRATIONS BOB SHOCHET