MOST RECENT

Streaming in a Time of War, Pestilence, & Inflation   Text of opening video presentation for 2022 Entertainnent Bar Symposium, Ziffren Institute, UCLA.  Transmitted June 8, 2021.  Having devalued content to get subscribers, marketing and price-base from a return to wide theatrical release is now essential if SVOD companies expect to increse price.  Created "Box Office Equivalency" to compare potential BO with streaming viewing at Netflix (NFLX).  Also, annual Status Report of broadband, cable, satellite, advertising, and box office. PDF follows.

2020 to 2021: APOCALPYSE TO STREAMING ODYSSEY   Media and the Pandemic.  Text of opening video presentation for 2021 Entertainnent Bar Symposium, Ziffreen Institute, UCLA.  Transmitted June 2, 2021.  Extended status report impact of pandemic on box office, studios, home video windows, streaming, cord cutting, advertising, and ratings.  Covered major streaming issues including effect of consolidation on participations and residuals, and streaming legal issues internationally due to censorship in India, Turkey, and elsewhere.  

Below are less recent articles, speeches and comments at public events, supporting slides, and some models to help consider questions that impact the media and communications industries. (PDFs at bottom of page)

THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN:  MEDIA AFTER DYSTOPIA.  Opening presentation for the UCLA Ziffren Center VIRTUAL Entertainment Bar Symposium, July 22, 2020.  Impact of declining multichannel homes on linear television cost-revenue balance with examples from the pandemic of how new content approachers are controlling costs while providing new creative options.

IS MEDIA JUST A TOASTER: Does content become the come-on to increase sales of mobile services and data plans? Opening speech at UCLA Entertainment Bar Symposium at the Ziffren Center March 15, 2019. Calculations showing data usage of Friends series make giving away to sell bits worth considering, while viewing of Netflix and other SVOD services incrementally damage linear advertising.  

KNOW WHEN TO HOLD 'EM; KNOW WHEN TO FOLD 'EM:  Media Mergers in the Late 20-teens.  UCLA Entertainment Bar Symposium March 23, 2018

Latest merger cycle hits media industry, from largest IAT&T+Time Warner) to Merdith + Time Inc.  Exploration of relative size of mergers by revenue, factors driving companies to hold or fold, and reasons for different valuations for new players like Netflix, and legacy companies.  Statistical highlights of 2017 viewing, box office, mobile, and usage.  Photographic ode to the legacy companies.

YOU'VE GOT THE WHOLE WORLD IN YOUR HANDS:  UCLA Entertainment Bar Symposium March 17, 2017.  

Smartphones allow live broadcasts by anyone from anywhere. Opening talk at annual symposium.  Relative company revenues. global mobile and smartphone penetration, box office, home video, advertising 2016, mvpd cable consolidation, social media demographics, Facebook conundrum for producers, Smartphone impact on 2016 election polls. Facial recognition and privacy at Consumer Electronics Show.

UCLA ENTERTAINMENT BAR SYMPOSIUM +40: Numbers Then, Now, and Later 

March 11 2016 opening presentation at the 40th annual UCLA Entertainment Law Symposium with Status Report focus on smartphones and mobile, OTT, and feature film box office revenues across 40 years.  Most important four developments in tech that have impacted media and entertainment companies.  4k and 8k and other technology impacts on production and workflow--  bandwidth, compression, processing and storage with comparison of 2-inch video tape from 1976 and mobile phone memory chip today. Revenue/cost balance for fragmented and consolidated audiences.  Disintermediation by the Crowd (Jeremy Rifkin Zero Marginal Cost theory and post capitalistic society impact on media ---when did you buy an encyclopedia last?"  And impact of drones on privacy.

OTT: Trend, Bubble, Both? pdf March 4 2015 opening session at the Entertainment Bar Symposium, UCLA.  Weighing revenue potential of subscription VOD entertainment spending vs declines in cable/satellite/telco subscribers; examining potential for disabling ad skipping on MSO DVRs as trade of for broadcast retransmission consent increases; status report for feature, mobile, television, advertising.

Video and Cameras EVERYWHERE (pdf). Opening session for the UCLA Entertainment Bar Symposium, March 7, 2014, Los Angeles.  With more than a billion SmartPhones with cameras shipped last year, near ubiquitous Wi-Fi or cellular coverage, and live Apps like LiveStream and U Stream, what are the implications of Live cameras everywhere?  Can the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's Take Down Notice approach work?  What about live "Selfies" to the world from football games or concerts?  What are the implications on copyright, privacy and libel?  Also a look at video piracy in Beijing, broadband challenges in Shanghai, and the annual industry "status report". 

Living in a Maturing Media Landscape (Evolution may Not Seem Like Progress) (pdf) Opening address at the 37th annual Entertainment Bar Symposiumn at UCLA, March 8, 2013. Focus on the Global Deal Matrix--what program and distribution structrues work and why.  Industry status report, feature film recovery in theatres and home video, international market sharesp piracy, the DVR as an early indicator of effectiveness of movie trailers for opening weekend, second screens and TV, the value of aging demos.   

Inside the Four Screen Consumer.  (pdf) Wolzien keynote at Google's "Think Tech" conference in New York, October 5, 2011.  Explored penetration and usage of television, computer, tablet/pad/eReader, and mobile smartphones. Considered consumer decision making process including Availability, Cost, and Convenience.  Cost issues include spending ability on communications and entertainment on $50,046 average household income.  Explored impact of DVR as proxy for web and walled garded forms of on demand delivery. Convenience included ability to view video across multiple screens in same manner as text--any device, anywhere, and always synched. Raised question of whether multiple screens should operate independently, or be integrated just as film and sound were 85 years ago.  Looked at various methods of loose versus tight coordination of content across screens, including proposal for Massive Multiscreen Multiplayer Games (MMMOG or Triple-MOG) linking web based content with live television for games in the Farmville or World of WarCraft categories, including national championships, play-by-play announcers.  

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