‘Strictly Business’ live from Variety’s Ent and Tech Summit

The rise of streaming’s new Big Four. A look at the future of moviegoing and the near-term future of AMC Theaters. A blunt discussion of how the ultra-progressive regulatory regime in Washington, DC is stifling Hollywood by squeezing M&A activity.

These are some of the popular topics discussed in a special bonus episode of ‘Strictly Business’. Variety‘s weekly podcast featuring conversations with industry leaders about media and entertainment. This episode contains highlights from Variety‘s annual Entertainment and Technology Summit, a daylong event held September 26 at the London Hotel in West Hollywood.

Laura Martin, senior entertainment and internet analyst for Needham and Company, and Hernan Lopez, founder of consultancy Owl & Co., joined ‘Strictly Business’ hosts Cynthia Littleton and Andrew Wallenstein for the final session – a lively discussion on the most important themes that emerged during the day.

Martin was quick to point out the stagnation in Washington DC regarding mega media deals – or major mergers and acquisitions of any size – among regulators at the Federal Trade Commission, Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice. If Vice President Kamala Harris wins in November, Martin warned Hollywood should expect more of the same.

“So we just have a status quo. No mergers. Big is bad. It takes Amazon fourteen months to buy MGM, which is a $10 billion acquisition for a $3 trillion company in an asset they previously had nothing in. So it just makes it difficult with a lot of uncertainty to try to get mergers done, and unfortunately that just causes more companies in the traditional Hollywood world to go out of business,” Martin said. “Because Paramount shouldn’t be independent. Fox is too small to be independent. Many of these are now simply too small, as their competitors are YouTube and Amazon Prime.”

Lopez, a former Fox executive who later founded the Wondery podcast network, offered his own analysis to make his case for the rise of a new Big Four platforms in global streaming: Netflix, YouTube, Disney and Amazon. He argued that the 21st century media world will increasingly revolve around companies collecting proprietary data on consumer behavior. That’s the pot of gold for companies that need to deliver content on a global scale and deliver targeted audiences to advertisers.

“It’s really about how to get the most out of every customer you have and every hour of engagement you have, and how to get that extra hour of engagement for less,” Lopez explains.

Among the Big Four, Amazon has a particular advantage thanks to its strong position in e-commerce. The mothership Amazon platform is as good an engine for finding movies and TV shows — with notable exceptions, of course — as it is for finding a new sweater or a great deal on kitchen trash bags.

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“Essentially, when you search for a particular title, you’re more likely to find it on Amazon than anywhere else, and because of their economic model, customers are more likely to spend money on Amazon every time they use Prime Video. ,” Lopez said. “That’s a half-trillion consumer company. So you can almost think of it as a marketing engine for Amazon, which in itself will become profitable very soon.”

RELATED CONTENT: Biggest insights from Variety’s entertainment and technology summit

The episode includes highlights from the summit’s one-on-one conversations with AMC Theaters CEO Adam Aron, Warner Bros. Chairman Channing Dungey. TV Group, Co-Chairman and Co-CEO of DC Studios Peter Safran and Tim O’Brien, Chief Revenue Officer for mobile gaming company Scopely. Multihyphenate podcast hosts Whitney Cummings, Lamorne Morris and Iliza Schlesinger close it out with a discussion about the harsh financial realities of being a traveling comedian these days and the importance of maintaining authenticity behind the mic.

‘Strictly business’, yes Variety‘s weekly podcast featuring conversations with industry leaders about media and entertainment. (Click here to subscribe to our free newsletter.) New episodes drop every Wednesday and can be downloaded from Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, Google Play, SoundCloud and more.

(Pictured: Variety VIP’s Andrew Wallenstein, Needham and Company’s Laura Martin, Owl & Co.’s Hernan Lopez and Varietyby Cynthia Littleton)