Lionsgate Ripe For Takeover

[kidkash]

Looks like Lionsgate is for sale current bidders.

amazon, CBS and Verizon.

I guess if amazon buys them we will get Lionsgate stuff in MA.

If CBS buys I assume UV will continue and if Verizon wins who the hell knows.

http://deadline.com/2018/01/lionsgat...om-1202244991/

[madmod20061]

Originally Posted by kidkash

Looks like Lionsgate is for sale current bidders.

amazon, CBS and Verizon.

I guess if amazon buys them we will get Lionsgate stuff in MA.

If CBS buys I assume UV will continue and if Verizon wins who the hell knows.

http://deadline.com/2018/01/lionsgat...om-1202244991/

Amazon studios are not MA. Movies like The Big Sick and Lost City of Z are not part of MA.

[flyry]

Originally Posted by madmod20061

Amazon studios are not MA. Movies like The Big Sick and Lost City of Z are not part of MA.

That's because The Big Sick is Lionsgate. You're proving his point. .

All of of the other movies Amazon studios puts out are by smaller studios so that's why they're not MA.

But this is all beside the point

[Clark Kent]

Verizon has a UV agreement, if that means anything.

[madmod20061]

Originally Posted by flyry

That's because The Big Sick is Lionsgate. You're proving his point. .

All of of the other movies Amazon studios puts out are by smaller studios so that's why they're not MA.

But this is all beside the point

All i was saying is that being Amazon does not equal MA. I don't see how that is proving his point. Nothing that Amazon has put out at this point is MA. Lions Gate is not MA. Amazon plus Lions Gate does automatically = MA. At this point it looks to be the opposite. I think they will eventually come around (same with paramount and MGM), but I fail to see the connection with Amazon buying lions gate and it magically becoming MA. I think we are just going to have to disagree on this point.

[flyry]

Originally Posted by madmod20061

All i was saying is that being Amazon does not equal MA. I don't see how that is proving his point. Nothing that Amazon has put out at this point is MA. Lions Gate is not MA. Amazon plus Lions Gate does automatically = MA. At this point it looks to be the opposite. I think they will eventually come around (same with paramount and MGM), but I fail to see the connection with Amazon buying lions gate and it magically becoming MA. I think we are just going to have to disagree on this point.

Amazon buying Lionsgate has absolutely nothing to do with Amazon Studios. This acquisition could in theory activate every Lionsgate movie as MA and have them port over.

I don't know why you're bringing up their studio output which at this point have all been under smaller studios.

UV is dying quickly so Lionsgate Paramount and MGM going MA seems inevitable.

[Zu Nim]

Yes. Amazon Studios uses a variety of distributors. By order of use: Sony, Lionsgate, Broad Green Pictures, PBS, and Universal. They don't distribute anything themselves. I don't see how buying Lionsgate would make it more likely they would join MA.

If UV failed because retailers didn't want to bear the costs and MA rectified that by putting the burden on the studios, enabling MA for Lionsgate might bring costs that Amazon wants to avoid. It could actually prevent Lionsgate from joining MA. Right now Lionsgate is in the business of selling movies. If they're bought by Amazon, they become in the business of building up Amazon Prime Video. Why encourage people to watch all that sweet Lionsgate content at other providers? It's going to come down to Amazon's motives and we don't know them.

[flyry]

Originally Posted by Zu Nim

Yes. Amazon Studios uses a variety of distributors. By order of use: Sony, Lionsgate, Broad Green Pictures, PBS, and Universal. They don't distribute anything themselves. I don't see how buying Lionsgate would make it more likely they would join MA.

If UV failed because retailers didn't want to bear the costs and MA rectified that by putting the burden on the studios, enabling MA for Lionsgate might bring costs that Amazon wants to avoid. It could actually prevent Lionsgate from joining MA. Right now Lionsgate is in the business of selling movies. If they're bought by Amazon, they become in the business of building up Amazon Prime Video. Why encourage people to watch all that sweet Lionsgate content at other providers? It's going to come down to Amazon's motives and we don't know them.

But those movies would only be on other providers if purchased. That doesn't have any bearing on movies people stream free with prime. Which i'm sure is a much higher percentage than those of us that buy digitally. You've said as much with your graphs and statistics.

If they followed your line of thinking then would they really have joined MA at all? In the grand scheme of things Lionsgate has a C level catalog.

True it may not make it more likely they join MA but it's fun to play along.

[Zu Nim]

Presumably Amazon wants the Lionsgate catalog to beef up their Prime Video selection. The same way Disney wants Fox's catalog. How would joining MA help that cause?

Let's say being part of a locker system is a 25 cent expense per entitlement to insert, maintain, etc. Someone has to pay that. UV tried to split the bill between studio and retailer 50-50 and that failed. I'm presuming MA is absorbing the lion's share of that 25 cent expense now, and those costs are carried by the studios.

Amazon, as a retailer, joined MA because it didn't cost much and through better marketing they could gain more customers than they lose.

Amazon, as a studio, would now have to pay for millions of entitlements to be MA enabled. They didn't join UV because they didn't want to pay. How does paying even more per title gain them more customers? For either EST or Prime Video?

I'm not saying Amazon wouldn't join MA if they bought Lionsgate. But I don't see why Lionsgate would be more likely to join MA if bought by Amazon, and it's potentially less likely because of costs involved that don't further their presumed goal of building up Prime Video.

I think the best scenario is if Lionsgate is already in the process of joining MA so it won't get nixed by Amazon.