Despite what the splashy yacht parties in Cannes suggest, media companies really are trying to save money right now. Really!
Top execs at Warner Bros. Discovery, Disney, Netflix, Paramount Global, Amazon and NBCUniversal parent Comcast have all promised shareholders during recent quarterly earnings calls that they’ll be spending wisely amid the economic downturn. Sweeping layoffs and other cost-cutting strategies, including the removal of underperforming content from some streaming services, has been among the first orders of business in 2023.
But no matter how many jobs these Hollywood heavyweights cut (in Disney’s case, 7,000 over the first half of the year), reaching an outlandish savings target (nearly $4 billion for the post-merger Warner Bros. Discovery) is going to require pinching pennies in more areas than staff headcount. While CFOs are shredding budgets to ribbons, TV’s latest FYC season poses another quandary: What is the cost vs. benefit of an Emmy this year? And does the statuette’s symbolic value go down if the best-of-television awards are not televised due to the writers strike?
To answer that question, we must first consider the differing values of awards to film and TV sectors. The major media orgs play in both worlds.
“We’re in a vanity-driven business, and the big difference between theatrical films and television is film has several knock-on financial effects — some people who benefit and some people who are hurt by that,” says Peter Newman, head of New York University’s MFA/MBA dual degree program in arts school Tisch and business school Stern.
“In the film world, I’ve seen the industry equivalent of a knife fight break out between various producers over who gets the ‘produced by’ credit and who gets to go on stage,” Newman continues. “And I’ve seen hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars, lost in compensation — or, conversely, spent in lawyers’ fees — to define who gets to go on stage. And that’s more of a vanity issue than an economic issue.”
Newman, who has produced films with Robert Altman, Wes Anderson, Paul Auster, Noah Baumbach, Jonathan Demme, Horton Foote, John Sayles and Wayne Wang, sees it playing out differently for those who work on small-screen projects.
“I’m not sure that the executive producer of a television show gets that much more money, especially an established one, or even that the vanity factor is that high for winning an Emmy as opposed to the perception of how much it is for a theatrical producer,” he explains. “If Dick Wolf wins an Emmy, I don’t think he gets to charge more for his next show. However, if an actress gets nominated for best supporting actress, and someone spends $10 million to get that nomination, it helps her quote go up immensely — but it actually pushes the recruitment position of the equity investors further back.”
With the economics of awards campaigns complicated at best, the Writers Guild of America’s work stoppage amid Phase 1 of Emmys season only exacerbates the situation. Companies are struggling with how to promote their contenders when writers are sitting things out.
“It seems as if FYC events are still in full force since plans were in place prior to the WGA strike, but it will be interesting to see how campaign efforts shift as we get closer to voting and during Phase 2,” a top talent PR exec tells Variety. “Since writers are unable to participate in FYC/Emmy press, how will studios and networks support the writing categories?”
Something to consider over another glass of champagne on the Mediterranean Sea. Cheers.
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