The Entertainment Strategy Guy

Before I log off for the year, wanted to say thank you to everyone who subscribes! We just passed a big milestone on Substack and are so appreciative of all our followers, subscribers, and supporters.

Here: entertainment.substack.com/p/im-no-longer…

As I wrote yesterday, I’m leaving my writing gig at the Ankler. All’s good, but if you want to help me grow and build my newsletter, if you value the data driven takes and quests for nuance, read about how to help:

Some news from me... If you'd like to support, please subscribe at my newsletter. theankler.com/p/entertainmen…

@SonnyBunch @bendreyfuss Do you watch that on the iPad at the gym too?

@bendreyfuss @EntStrategyGuy No Ben I’m too busy rewatching the Snyder Cut!

I think casual observers do not entirely realize quite how successful Paramount+ is. The Sheridan-verse is particularly legit. This is from @EntStrategyGuy’s latest; link to follow.

@ddayen @BedoyaUSA @hugolowell @TheAnkler @matthewstoller @AGRobBonta Much appreciated David!!!

@EntStrategyGuy @BedoyaUSA @hugolowell @TheAnkler @matthewstoller @AGRobBonta ESG is great...

Who I would follow to get the latest news about Paramount's bid to take over Warner Brothers: - @hugolowell at The Guardian - Richard Rushfeld @TheAnkler - @matthewstoller at BIG - @ddayen at The American Prospect - @AGRobBonta who hopefully will move to block it

If you’re in the mood for non-Netflix/WBD/Paramount news… …yesterday, I wrote an article explaining why MrBeast/Beast Industries is NOT worth the $5 billion valuation from February, with a clear timeline laying this out. entertainment.substack.com/p/debunking-on…

My latest once you see it you can’t unsee it: the word “everyone” is being used and abused in headlines by everyone. entertainment.substack.com/p/everyone-is-…

@loudmouthjulia But can we remove the sounds?

All the examples here... entertainmentstrategyguy.com/2026/02/17/eve…

Today, I’m channeling my inner McWhorter and writing about a word usage pet peeve: “everyone” is the new “literally”.

@ModeledBehavior I've wondered this about TikTok in particular as well, vis a vis YouTube, who I don't see advertising much.

What, if anything, should we read into the fact the AI companies are competing with each other via ads now?

(If the counter-argument is that most of the viewership was in China/Asian, well, I’d probably switch the broadcast’s language next year!) entertainment.substack.com/i/186552910/da…

It’s okay to be skeptical about gigantic datecdotes. In the case of the Game Awards, 171 million people streamed the show! But also...only 4 million or so streams on Western platforms...so color me skeptical about this datecdote.

A lot of the business press the last few days could be summed up like this: - Man claims he’s going to sell a bridge in Brooklyn for $1.25T - CNBC/Bloomberg/NY Times Dealbook: Elon Musk is selling a bridge in Brooklyn for 1.25 trillion!!!

This is honestly one of the most favoritist things I've ever written and I think it DEMOLISHES most simplistic narratives out there about Big Tech. I can (and did) make some of these for multiple Big Tech companies. Boosters ignore the value capturing stuff. They shouldn't!

Since then, I would add Amazon has mainly captured value from suppliers by charging ever higher "marketing" costs, which is really pay to play. Many analysts celebrate this as a "move into advertising", which it isn't really. The marketing is ineffective.

Love this! Of course, I coined "Amazon's Flywheel of Evil" back in 2020. It's a bit flippant, but makes a serious point: most purveyors of "flywheels" ignore the bad stuff because it hurts their narratives.

- Disney’s sports datecdote might be one of the weakest I’ve ever seen …and I still really like Netflix’s sports strategy for its terrific ROI. entertainment.substack.com/p/mike-tyson-i…

I’ve run the numbers and come to the conclusions: - Mike Tyson was the key behind Netflix’s biggest sporting event. (Not a certain influencer). - The NFL is HUGE in America. - Linear + streaming > streaming only