Entertainment giant Warner Bros. Discovery may be facing a over the deal to be bought by Netflix , but it may have an even bigger fight on its hands from the film industry itself. Stuart Ford, a major name in the independent film circuit, has some dire pronouncements and deep concerns about the state of the film industry should this deal go through. Warner shareholders seemed concerned as well, and shares slipped fractionally in the closing minutes of Friday’s trading.
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Stuart Ford is chairman of AGC Studios, and he made it clear that a Netflix/Warner deal would be a disaster. Sufficient disaster, in fact, to require the strongest possible response. Basically, a deal like that would turn entertainment professionals into the equivalent of an “Uber driver” that would cost the entire industry talent. Ford called on professionals to “…fight tooth and nail to preserve the business culture of money flowing through the system….”
Ford further noted, “We’re only just now starting to feel the effects in the industry of the flow of money having become interrupted, if not completely cut off, over the last 10 years as a result of streaming becoming such a major part of the .” The biggest objection seems to flow from Netflix’s tendency to keep residuals and other profit participation types out of the hands of filmmakers, which would effectively reduce them to per-piece talent. If sufficient quantities of talent rebel, meanwhile, it could mean a big win for other streaming providers, and a huge potential loss for Netflix, which depends on fresh content to keep viewers.
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