[🌎 Universal GB] General Discussion

[Blackrock]

Apple notoriously hates purchasing other companies' baggage, preferring instead to build their own walled gardens from scratch. Buying Warner Bros. Discovery would saddle them with roughly $40 billion in debt and a legacy cable network infrastructure (CNN, TNT, etc.) that is antithetical to their business model. They sit on a cash pile large enough to buy Disney outright if they wanted to, but they don't buy decline. Apple buy technology and talent.

I find it rather amusing that you cite Netflix as the "worst option" for cinemas, while championing Apple as the saviour. Apple has just aggressively pivoted away from wide theatrical releases. They pulled the wide cinema release for Wolfs at the eleventh hour, relegating George Clooney and Brad Pitt to a streaming tile, and have signalled a major retreat from the box office for their future slate. They run a streaming service, just like Netflix; they are not the guardians of the picture house.

Once again though, we are in danger of waddling too far off the path.

The relevance to Universal Great Britain remains the same. A Netflix purchase of WBD makes securing the Harry Potter theme park rights for the UK significantly more complex, if not impossible. Universal would be negotiating with a direct rival who is now actively entering the location based entertainment space (as noted by @jon81uk regarding Netflix House), and who would inherit a Wizarding World themed attraction of their own within relative spitting distance of the UK development.

It seems increasingly likely that the Bedford project will have to rely on Nintendo, Illumination and DreamWorks to do the heavy lifting, rather than a certain boy wizard.

Away from the fantasy of IP acquisitions and back to the cold hard reality of Westminster, it is worth remembering that Parliament rises for the Christmas recess on 18th December. The SDO cannot be laid before the House until the Ministry has finished reviewing the consultation responses, and it is likely that this is very much still ongoing.

The consultation only closed on 31st August. We are barely three months post-consultation. A project of this magnitude, involving a massive Environmental Impact Assessment, will have the Civil Service painstakingly cross-referencing every objection to bulletproof the decision against a potential Judicial Review. As an SDO bypasses local democracy, it is legally fragile. If they miss a single procedural step, a local resident (or a rival operator *cough* Merlin *cough) could have the whole order quashed in the High Court. They are not going to rush this phase.

If you need a reference for how slowly the wheels of infrastructure planning turn, look no further than the Lower Thames Crossing. That decision alone was delayed multiple times by the Department for Transport, stretching the post-examination decision phase to well over a year. Expecting MHCLG to process a massive theme park application in twelve weeks is optimistic in the extreme... Sorry to put a downer on the festive cheer.

With fewer than ten days of the legislative session remaining, there is pretty much zero chance of the Statutory Instrument being processed before the turkeys are carved. We are looking at January 5th, at the very earliest, for any movement on the planning permission... Though I'd be happy to have egg on my face with this prediction, as it would be nice to have something to look forward to. Even if it is going to cost us at least £500m of tax payer's money.

Apple in their current form are making prestige TV, like the HBO glory days. That’s why imo they’d have been the best option as quality wise they’re well up there and beyond Netflix who just pump stuff out endlessly then cancel things without notice. ATV have commissions additional seasons to their shows that Netflix would have cancelled.

ATV wouldn’t buy WB no, they don’t want the linear tv side of it as they like to largely look apolitical. If that side of the business was spun off which was rumoured maybe they’d be more interested, but if they’re going to purchase anything it’ll no doubt be something like A24.

Apple put F1 through a theatrical release and it performed extremely well so they’re not opposed to theatrical releases.

Netflix are awful and tbh so are Paramount but if it’s to be one I’d say paramount are the least worse option.

Netflix not long ago said people want to watch stuff at home and theatres are the old way of doing things. I’d believe what they say and ignore their new quite obvious lies they’re parroting in order to purchase WB. As soon as they can stop showing things in cinemas they will.

 

[jon81uk]

Apple in their current form are making prestige TV, like the HBO glory days. That’s why imo they’d have been the best option as quality wise they’re well up there and beyond Netflix who just pump stuff out endlessly then cancel things without notice. ATV have commissions additional seasons to their shows that Netflix would have cancelled.

ATV wouldn’t buy WB no, they don’t want the linear tv side of it as they like to largely look apolitical. If that side of the business was spun off which was rumoured maybe they’d be more interested, but if they’re going to purchase anything it’ll no doubt be something like A24.

Apple put F1 through a theatrical release and it performed extremely well so they’re not opposed to theatrical releases.

Netflix are awful and tbh so are Paramount but if it’s to be one I’d say paramount are the least worse option.

Neither Apple or Netflix are significantly relasing theatrically, generally its only for a week or two so it is eligible for the awards. Yes F1 the movie had a larger release window but there hasn't been many other similar examples.

Netflix are not interested in purchasing the linear TV from WBD either, that will be its own spinoff, Netflix only want the film and TV studio and the back catalogue, this is the main value to them as they currently license Friends and Big Bang Theory etc from WB. I doubt Apple are even interested in the back catalogue, they don't currently have any back catalogue of streaming except their own Originals.

 

[Blackrock]

Neither Apple or Netflix are significantly relasing theatrically, generally its only for a week or two so it is eligible for the awards. Yes F1 the movie had a larger release window but there hasn't been many other similar examples.

Netflix are not interested in purchasing the linear TV from WBD either, that will be its own spinoff, Netflix only want the film and TV studio and the back catalogue, this is the main value to them as they currently license Friends and Big Bang Theory etc from WB. I doubt Apple are even interested in the back catalogue, they don't currently have any back catalogue of streaming except their own Originals.

I don’t think Apple would be interested because they probably wouldn’t want their service cluttered with absolute dirge when they’re trying to curate their own shows tbh. But they have money to burn if they wanted to go for WB or any other studio for that matter.

Comcast from a theme park point of view would have been the best option though.

 

[Dave]

Apple in their current form are making prestige TV, like the HBO glory days. That’s why imo they’d have been the best option as quality wise they’re well up there and beyond Netflix who just pump stuff out endlessly then cancel things without notice. ATV have commissions additional seasons to their shows that Netflix would have cancelled.

ATV wouldn’t buy WB no, they don’t want the linear tv side of it as they like to largely look apolitical. If that side of the business was spun off which was rumoured maybe they’d be more interested, but if they’re going to purchase anything it’ll no doubt be something like A24.

Apple put F1 through a theatrical release and it performed extremely well so they’re not opposed to theatrical releases.

Netflix are awful and tbh so are Paramount but if it’s to be one I’d say paramount are the least worse option.

Netflix not long ago said people want to watch stuff at home and theatres are the old way of doing things. I’d believe what they say and ignore their new quite obvious lies they’re parroting in order to purchase WB. As soon as they can stop showing things in cinemas they will.

Paramount in its current set-up would be terrible as they have no interest in the creative film industry anymore, they only want WB so they can get their hands on CNN. The Ellison family who own Paramount now are right wing nut jobs who want to further control the news media to spout the usual right wing, socially conservative lies Fox and others have been spouting for years.

Netflix are at the moment vaguely apolitical.

 

[Rob]

A lot of the recent discussion in here appears to be more about who should buy Warner Bros as opposed to Universal building a theme park in the UK! So if I could ask that we get discussion back on topic, that would be great.

Thanks!