Friday, March 09, 2018

Blind Item #8 - Details, Details - Mr. Hedge

I planned to be finished talking about a certain almost TV network, then noticed that some readers wanted to know details behind the almost-TV network’s shady accounting.  So here you go.

The almost-TV network takes 4 years to depreciate 90% of the production cost of their original content.  This is not a tightly-kept secret.  Their top executives will answer the question, if an investor bothers to ask them - or digs through many long, boring financial filings.

Think about how a newly released box-office film gets depreciated, which is about that quickly - at the end of the box-office and peak on-demand runs.  That always happens within a few months for a typical film, for a massive blockbuster – a year at most.

Sure, the almost-TV network does have their films available for streaming, so the loss of value doesn’t happen quite as quickly, as it would for a movie theater film.  But it doesn’t take 4 years either.  Not even close.  Is watching a 3 year old film worth the same to a subscriber as a 3 month old film?  Of course not. 

Think about that big recently released sci-fi film which cost them $100 million.  The one critics hate, and most people think is a lousy film.  This applies to the almost-TV network’s entire film program, which represents the majority of their content spending.

That is how the almost-TV network can burn through mountains of cash, yet claim they are reporting a profit to their investors.

The almost-TV network told investors back in January that they could throttle back on the record $3-4 billion of cash they told everyone they would use in 2018.  As predicted, they are already changing their tune.  Just last week at an investor conference, the management admitted that 2018 might not be their “peak burn year” for cash.  Not surprising, considering all the big multi-year commitments the almost-TV network has been making lately.

The good news is that this almost-TV network is basically burning through $30-40 per year of cash, per U.S. subscriber.  This means they’re not charging subscribers anywhere what they need to charge, in order to cover all this spending.

So enjoy all the lousy, over-budget films, for as long as the almost-TV network can keep borrowing more money to finance them.

Their new film launching this week was set in a foreign country, with a completely improbable plot. The studio was glad to offload this heap of garbage to anyone who would finance production - after their first 2 choices for both lead actor & director all bailed.

Initially a recently married, foreign-born, full frontal loving actor was set to play the lead.  Several years ago, a former girlfriend accused this actor of horrible physical abuse.  When he bailed, a foreign born A- list mostly movie actor was tapped.  Finally, they ended up with a disgusting B+ list actor who is an Academy Award winner/nominee, and is equally as famous for another entertainment profession.  This is the same guy one with a long list of underage teen hookups. 

109 comments:

MontanaMarriott said...

Netflix again?

SteveD said...

Two favorite targets in one day.

#TEAMGEELJIRE CLASSIC said...

SHORT NETFLIX TODAY!

MontanaMarriott said...

Jared Leto's The Outsider?

Zach said...

Fassbinder for the abuser who bailed.

MontanaMarriott said...

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/the-outsider-review-netflix-jared-leto-movie-critics-yakuza-a8245431.html

MontanaMarriott said...

"After World War II, an American POW stays in Japan and works his way through the rituals and hardships of the yakuza, becoming a member of the crime organization"

Yep it sounds like garbage to me. Again I have to ask "WHO DA F*CK GREENLIGHTS THESE THINGS?!?!"

totaji said...

Fassbender

#TEAMGEELJIRE CLASSIC said...

DID YOU KNOW THAT:
Movie production is an excellent money laundering opportunity?

filmfanb said...

The Outsider. Fassbender was due to be in it with Daniel Epinosa to direct. Then Tom Hard was hired and then dropped. The film has been trouble from the beginning.

timebob said...

Netflix has 118 million subscribers, they have money to burn.

#TEAMGEELJIRE CLASSIC said...

Do they?
I steal it from my cousin to watch 'Ertugrul'
Everyone should watch 'Ertugrul'

atoukzug said...

The $100 mil bomb I was thinking of was Bright. Still NetFlix, though.

SDaly said...

And when Netflix's monthly price has to increase b/c internet providers are free to charge more for heavy users (the heaviest being Netflix), that will only hasten the collapse.

Chug ChooChoo said...

So, someone smarter than me, tell me what is the end-game here? Netflix can't be robbing Peter to pay Paul forever. I can't imagine them throwing up their hands in defeat and going bankrupt either. So what now?

Yakuza movie sounds interesting to me actually

#TEAMGEELJIRE CLASSIC said...

I want you to talk about Netflix until the shills in the comments run out of funding or Netflix collapses, whichever comes first.

#TEAMGEELJIRE CLASSIC said...

Sometimes they have decent concepts but due to a tendency of hiring your retarded incapable cousin to write and direct they tend to fail to execute said concepts.

AkhaldanSolo said...

Geeljire said...

DID YOU KNOW THAT:
Movie production is an excellent money laundering opportunity?

Hmmm.

They do seem to be propped up by someone, who in the world would take such an investment risk?

Who ARE their investors?

#TEAMGEELJIRE CLASSIC said...

You're asking the right questions!

HH314 said...

Someone has a hard-on for Netflix it seems. Leave them alone, if they can't manage their affairs they will go bankrupt.

totaji said...

When Netflix collapses, all the executives will have made their millions. That’s who makes the decisions and get profits. They’ll retire wealthy and Netflix will curl up and die in a corner.

HH314 said...

Their investors are their subscribers, millions of them. You better focus on the cable business which will probably be gone in 5-10 years

atoukzug said...

Some business models are for long term profit and growth.

Other business models are for draining as much as you can, as fast as you can, ride the bubble, and leave others with the bills and empty pockets.

I wonder which one NetFlix is using...

#TEAMGEELJIRE CLASSIC said...

Some commenters on a Hollywood gossip site seem eeriely concerned with the reputation of corporations and billionaires.
Do you ever wonder why that is?

alibelle123 said...

Glad I don't pay for this anymore

IanPhlegming said...

Nothing could be worse than "Bright," but I don't want to see "The Outsider" to be sure.

#TEAMGEELJIRE CLASSIC said...

Mute
Try Mute
Awful

Mag said...

Meanwhile...
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-netflix-stocks/wall-street-has-never-been-so-far-behind-on-netflix-idUSKCN1GL1HU?utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Trending+Content&utm_content=5aa2949004d301185c88a6de&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook

longtimereader said...

Thank god i kept to bit-torent!

Unknown said...

Why would anyone pay for a streaming service that doesn't carry Farscape?

sandybrook said...

Netflix has 117 million subscribers and takes in close to a $billion a month gross, that's close to $12 billion a year or more, they have debts to pay off and streaming costs to pay off and general business costs. They are not shrinking in subscribers and had a record increase in the 4th quarter. Their stock price is still $326\share so they aren't exactly hurting.

Louweegie272 said...

I'm confused, If NFLX has 110 million subscribers and their cheapest plan is $7.99 a month, they generate a minimum of $88 per customer per year. If they are paying $30-$40 per subscriber for content they are still coming out ahead, no?

#TEAMGEELJIRE CLASSIC said...

Now I'm really confused. If Netflix has 6 Gorillion subscribers at $30 a month but none of them exist, then upon what are banks and the stock markets premised?

SDaly said...

Sandybrook - did you own a lot of Enron stock? Netflix is burning through an enormous amount of cash, with no end in sight. It has a lot of debt and will have to refinance that as interest rates are rising.

Samantha Willow said...

lmao 60 gorillion. Imma borrow that one.

AkhaldanSolo said...

Seems like as good a place as any to place this. Not sure how many people will see it posted back on the church blind. Speaking of, I have seen some of the spoilers stating Enty will reveal some of these bigger blinds coming soon, but there seems to be something perplexing about Enty's lack of urgency. Is he perhaps waiting for a particular time n the world stage, gauging it according to societal necessity or something more inane, like page views as Sandybrook has suggested? I don't doubt the legitimacy of these claims it just seems a bit tacky to have held back like you do.

Not that much will be done anyway it seems. Hollywood can basically ADMIT to the world that the Bush and Clinton Cartels brought up TONS of cocaine in the 80's and 90's with Barry Seals small air force in the movie American Made, you know the guy that was molested (same MO all the CIA pervs use on young boys, then blackmail them) right along with Lee Harvey Oswald in the Civil Air Patrol in Baton Rouge by David Ferrie.

Naw, they just skip right over the parts of American Made where that cocaine was turned into crack that made the inner cities into living hell and destroyed families, children and many many lives not counting all of the bizarre tragedies caused by the drug in every demographic of community. Instead, they put the SHINY HAPPY UGLY FUCKING FACE OF TOM CRUISE as the face of one of the most notorious CRIMINALS in history, AND THEN SLAP US IN THE FACE AND LIE THAT THIS MOTHERFUCKER DID IT FOR HIS FAMILY, the whole time buggering young boys with his Nazi infiltrator buddy George Bush Sr. This world is a Luciferian playground.

Anyway, however much I seem to digress, I'm wondering where we are on this Church thing, has to be this church that has melded with CLDS:

EXCLUSIVE: Scientology's secret bases: How the Church scooped up Larry Hagman's $5M estate to create a luxury 'rehab center' and built underground vaults and doomsday shelters for elite members like Tom Cruise and John Travolta
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5465207/Scientologys-never-seen-secret-bases-revealed.html#ixzz59Gxr2STx

Sal Salington said...

If all your blinds are going to be Netflix and Musk it's kind of pointless.

#TEAMGEELJIRE CLASSIC said...

I was hospitalized for a suicide attempt after Netflix stopped carrying "Lexx"
That's my ax to grind.

#TEAMGEELJIRE CLASSIC said...

Read this post.

bumble bee said...

Sounds more like Disney, the last Star Wars film, and the almost network tv is the Disney channel.

bdm said...

The question becomes, how many company owned shares of Netflix can the company sell from what they are authorized? I don’t know the answer to this, any more than I know if that $100 million movie was actually bought by Netflix for $100 million, or if that is just hype.

Personally, and I own shares here...full disclosure....I like Roku stock because they give a great variety of channels, such as yoga, weight loss, foreign language etc.. It just seems like they have a platform for growth as many new TV’s have Roku embedded in them. So I like Roku because I do watch NBC news channel which gives me access to delayed MSNBC for free. It’s the only platform that I am willing to sit through commercials on except for NFL games. Roku seems like its a great alternative to cable for cable cutters.

I also own some Netflix. Actually, everyone with a mutual fund probably does

Kno Won said...

I enjoy reading this Ji team.

Roger Moore said...

Netflix, "Mute" as the $100 million bomb. Not read up on the Leto project.

SDaly said...

Can't believe neither I nor anyone made the obvious pun.


Netflix - Is it just a House of Cards?

Kno Won said...

Oh, I see.
They’re inflating the number of subscribers they have for the purpose of artificially boosting their stock price.
I’m a bit dense when it comes to macro economics. This is why i’ll end up living in a refrigerator box under an overpass, but screw it.

#TEAMGEELJIRE CLASSIC said...

If you own and hold Netflix, remember if you read this you were warned.
And next time you'll pay better attention I hope!

sandybrook said...

I own mutual funds @SDaly, so most likely I did own Enron via my growth and retirement funds and most likely own Netflix via the same way. I told people seven or eight years ago if Netflix ever did the 1-9 reverse stock split to buy it up because over time, it's subscriber base and money taken in will only increase, not decrease. I still expect since they only have 117 million subscribers they will only increase that especially in foreign countries not the US and Canada. But clearly this "Mr. Hedge" has an agenda.

D Brown said...

Mr Hedge is comparing apples (almost TV network) to oranges (movie studios).

Movie studios expense costs in two ways. Firstly they amortize them over expected revenues. If a movie is expected to take in $200MM, cost $100MM and generated $80MM of that revenue in the first year they would amortize $40MM in that year (i.e. $80MM/$200MM times $100MM). That would leave $60MM to be amortized in future years. This methods tends to "front end" amortization in the early years and is highly dependent upon the accuracy of the revenue estimate. This gives rise to the second manner in which film costs are expensed: asset impairment. Using our example we now expect the movie to only generate $10MM over its life rather than the originally estimated $200MM. So $10MM over $200MM times $100MM means that only $5MM would be written of, leaving $95MM on the books with no future revenues. The movie studio would then have to take an asset impairment charge of $95MM to write off the balance. Again this is "front end" loaded since the initial cinema release is indicative of ultimate revenues.

By contrast the almost TV network apparently records the $100MM cost, expenses it over four years, presumably straight-line or 25% (i.e. $25MM) per year. They presumably do no asset impairment calculations. Is this wrong? Hard to say. Under both methods the movie costs are essentially written off by the end of year four although the movies may generate (lesser) revenues for years. The almost TV network does not generate revenues per movie but by providing multiple movies for a fixed monthly fee. It is impossible to say which movie generated the revenues and it is impossible to say if a 'bomb" is or isn't valuable. In simple terms the studio accounting is more conservative, by front loading, but the revenue streams are completely different.

#TEAMGEELJIRE CLASSIC said...

I'm not raising my children with a television.

Unknown said...

Soros moved a lot of his money into Netflix in 2016.

#TEAMGEELJIRE CLASSIC said...

Someone answered a question!

B626 said...

This crap worked out real good for Keanu Reeves awhile back didn’t it?

Jayne Townsley said...

Who is really going to bother to see how many subscribers they have?

Who is really looking that closely?

They can say whatever they want. Facebook, Twitter...all these tech companies consistently claim "x" amount of users and then we find out it's all bogus.

Something is wrong with this company. Something is very, very wrong with this company. :::said in Bill Murray's voice from the scene in Stripes:::

I've bailed on them simply because they are producing so much crap and took most of the good stuff off their service that I was interested in. My kiddo did it over a year ago.

I've switched to Hulu. Timelier airing of current shows, a great back catalog, and $3/month less for the no commercial option.

When they turn to crap like Netflix, I'll bail on them, too.

HH314 said...

@ sandybrook: i thought that was a typo about the share price - it is $327 as of today. holy mother of goddess! makes me mad i didn't buy some when it was tanking at less than 7 bucks a share.

HH314 said...

@ Jayne: umm a lot of people care how many subscribers they have, uncle sam foremost, investors etc. i mean, they are a subscription-based business, right?

Jen Ty said...

Ugh Jared Leto is in this film? Sad. Sounds like they ruined the whole concept of the movie too.

Chug ChooChoo it is too bad Tom Hardy dropped out, the guy gets more offers than he knows what to do with, so he drops more projects than some actors get offers for, at this point and once he bailed so did the director Takashi Miike who is a very famous Japanese director and this would have been his first English film. I really find the whole culture of the Yakuza fascinating and who would know better than a Japanese director that has explored that territory in films already.

AkhaldanSolo said...

Ok, why don't we just cut to the chase here. Hollywood has ALWAYS been this kind of cesspit BECAUSE it was BORN of corruption and the entire theatre arts have been dens of licentiousness since before Roman times, any KNOWLEDGABLE artist knows this, this is part of why they think they can get away with what they are trying to get away with. The 'mysteries', the 'occult' and The Arts go hand in hand.

Now that we have all that cleared away let's move on to the next point of understanding. Hollywood and corporate propagandists (Bernay's;Oz;Carnegie) influenced Hitlers propaganda minister Paul Joseph Goebbels (Catholic Marrano) who used the same techniques YEARS before WWII to brainwash his populace. You see how well that turned out. AFTER the war Paperclip Nazi's infiltrated every echelon of government, entertainment, science and religion to transform it using the techniques they had honed before and during WWII.

Hollywoods base of operations was in the Laurel Canyon at 8935 Wonderland Ave, Los Angeles, CA, the current address of actor Jared Leto, called Lookout Mountain Laboratory where they produced more movies than Hollywood combined at over 20,000 films, mostly on nuclear training videos, where Big Crosby and Marilyn Monroe had secret access, that ALSO produced MK-Ultra Training films to be distributed around to the worlds psychiatric doctors.

But let's get MORE TO THE POINT. Hollywood is a TOOL to govern you people and always has been. They need a PSA about gun safety, they disguise it in a sitcom. Need a slow burn message about homosexuality, embed ques in a dozen or so shows for a certain period of time and like magic you have renewed interest in 1% demographic of the population. Need more snipers in the military, make a major motion picture. Tarrantino was telling you how it was done in WWII with his faux film in Inglorious Basterds called Stolz der Nation (en: Pride of the Nation), years later we have our own American Sniper. Hollywood has spent billions of dollars learning how you work mechanically and biologically and along with what was gleaned from Nazi torture techniques, the occult, and even the Inquisition, they have figured out the perfect formula for the 'perfect' human being, one, that is, that they have FULL CONTROL OVER because that is all you are, what THEY have placed IN YOU. There are a MILLION and one TRIGGERS and EMBEDDED QUES that have been placed in sitcoms, movies and all entertainment for years, combine that with the Rockefeller/Carnegie funded Frankfurt model Public Schools and what was fed to you in there, ALL of us are nothing but a jumbled up mass of contradictions that can't make a cohesive decision on ones own, AMBIENT MK-ULTRA CONDITIONING, around you all the time so thoroughly immersed there is NO WAY most of you can see it.

Why is Bryan Singer so fascinated with Nazi's and the brand of homosexuality that he pimps? Because he knows who runs the show. Why is Harvey Weinstein so brazen and nonconcerned about his position? Him, Like Cosby, knows the deal he signed with the devil. Like Bob Dylan at the crossroads he knows when his time is up and he's got to do the devils deed.

God Bless and God Speed folks. You all are going to need it.

#TEAMGEELJIRE CLASSIC said...

Memorize this post.

Drama said...

A lot of crazies in the comments today. Did Enty get featured on a website again?

Anyway, wanted to drop in and thank Mr Hedge personally as I was the person asking for the deets on how the finances worked to prop up their estimates. I got it now. Useful, too. Thanks again.

Unknown said...

@Geeljire, no, I've never wondered why that is.

#TEAMGEELJIRE CLASSIC said...

https://www.sott.net/article/155794-Inside-The-LC-The-Strange-but-Mostly-True-Story-of-Laurel-Canyon-and-the-Birth-of-the-Hippie-Generation-Part-1
Start here.

J said...

Wall Street speeches not paying enough, the Obamas are nosing up to this trough now.

Brayson87 said...

@Geeljire, Amazon has Lexx now never fear. I loved that show, named one of my cars The Lexx. Kai was so emo lol

Brayson87 said...

It's interesting that we never get hedge blinds about all the other streamers. I guess Mr Hedge hasn't shorted those yet.

Jayne Townsley said...

@HH314...I'm fit to fall over laughing here.

Uncle Sam doesn't give a rat's monkey's ass how many subscribers they have.

The time it would take to verify ... no one would ever take it.

They can say whatever they want.

Jayne Townsley said...

@Solo....most can't cope with what you're saying because they would have to admit they've fallen prey to the propaganda.

AkhaldanSolo said...

Drama said...
"A lot of crazies in the comments today. Did Enty get featured on a website again?

Anyway, wanted to drop in and thank Mr Hedge personally as I was the person asking for the deets on how the finances worked to prop up their estimates. I got it now. Useful, too. Thanks again."

OK, I guesss some of you need to be yolked up by the shirt collar in order to make any sense to you but stuck behind a computer screen I hope pointillated concise information is what is needed.

See, you are in an experiment of their own design, a Luciferian world where inversion is the ruling principal, you haven.t noticed how nothing works and everything seems upside down, yeah, well, that's what it is. You are probably the type to sit at home and ignore everything with your rose colored glasses on while everything falls apart, much like many of you gossip whores, empathy isn't at the top of your list, it's called vicarious satisfaction, look it up.

I'm getting pretty sick of the Alex Jones innuendo's and 'conspiracy theorist' bullshit, it's conspiracy FACT nowadays bud, in fact, if it wasn't for us 'crazies' your world would just look confusing and you would ALREADY be killing each other like you were inflicted with some kind of zombie disease. If you reallylook at what I wrote above all you would need to make everyone just a little crazy would be some kind of traumatic shock, say, a world war, until you TOATALLY break down and start acting like complete DEMONS. It's gonna happen, watch.

You want some proof, Look at what Harvard University has been cooking up for us ever since the inception of this country:

UnSpun 106 – “Holly Seeliger: Harvard’s Darkest Secret: The Salem Witch Trials and Mass Hysteria, p2
https://youtu.be/QMf-mNIj8Bk

Bathshua Pope, the main accuser in the Salem Witch Trials, was Benjamin Franklins AUNT (Hellfire Club), and daughter of Peter Folger

Dr. Michael Maccoby received his PhD from Harvard in Social Relations at the same time Murray was a central figure in Harvard’s interdisciplinary Department of Social Relations.

One of Dr. Michael Maccoby’s daughters is Nora Maccoby -Hathaway, a DC based Writer, Director, and film Producer.

Dr. Michael Maccoby’s other daughter is Izzette Maccoby Folger. She is a longtime Washington DC friend of James Alefantis of Comet Ping Pong and Pizza. They are connected to the DC nonprofit art group, Transformer. Izzette is married to DC financial advisor Neil Folger. Along with Tony Podesta and Alefantis, Neil is expressly in the Transformer’s Visionary Leaders’ Circle.

Neil’s father is financial advisor Lee Merritt Folger– a child sacrifice (Moloch, also spelled Molech) pagan member of the Bohemian Grove. Lee’s father was investment banker, John Clifford Folger (1893-1981), U.S. Ambassador to Belgium Belgium folks, Belgium.(1957-59)- Alfalfa Club. The Folgers are descendants of Peter Folger. Peter was an early 17th century English settler of Martha’s Vineyard. He was the grandfather of human sacrifice Master Mason, Benjamin Franklin, member of the worlds infamous Hellfire Club. His grandmother, Mary Morrell Folger, was a white slave (indentured servant).

PIZZAGATE, COMET PING PONG PIZZA, CIA & THE BLACK CIRCLE, SECT OF THE HORNED GOD
https://mindcontrolblackassassins.com/2017/02/22/pizzagate-comet-ping-pong-pizza-cia-the-black-circle-sect-of-the-horned-god/

Beyond Magic: Unclean Spirits; David Copperfield, Mulholland, Blaine, Geller; Mk-Ultra, Laurel Canyon, Carribean and Hellfire Club
https://voat.co/v/pizzagate/2370750

It's alot deeper than YOU could EVER IMAGINE.Get it together.

Shawny said...

Loooooooove Farscape! One of my favorite cheesy shows of all time. Ahhh, Ben Browder, such a beautiful man.

Greta Garbo said...

My head is spinning.

AngryLiberalKTS. said...

Tin foil helmet brigade is here and in force!!. Haha

AngryLiberalKTS. said...

I really feel for the idiots who fell for "pizzagate" and that ilk. Jesus fuck, get a healthier hobby.

HH314 said...

@Jayne
the more they declare the more they pay in taxes. this is their main revenue stream, movies may or may not make money, but subscription fees are tangible and readily available funds

plot said...

"Uncle Sam doesn't give a rat's monkey's ass how many subscribers they have."

Yes the government does, very much in fact.

Guess what implicated the characters in this current White Pride House so the FISA warrants were given out to record them, monitor their emails and messages, back in the middle of this last election season? Money transactions that didn't make sense.

Netflix is not immune to from financial investigations.

"The time it would take to verify ... no one would ever take it."

That's what our taxes pay the government to do - go through the pain in the ass investigations of financial arrangements of large entities.

plot said...

@J

"Wall Street speeches not paying enough, the Obamas are nosing up to this trough now."

When have the Obamas given speeches to Wall Street? I'd truly like to know.

Are you aware of how much our government, OUR TAXES, is now paying the Trump hotels as a money grab by that family?

I mean, if financial shenanigans are your thing, truly, reallyreallyreally, it makes you burn!!! Then why point out the Obamas?

cap'ngeech said...

I would much rather have Netflix spend money getting shows of the past few decades that I loved than put it all in to films and a seemingly endless supply of original shows. I mean a couple good shows are okay. But I'm always on the verge of cancelling. Especially when they keep losing shows I love.

plot said...

Is anyone reading the master's thesis this guy, AkhaldanSolo, is posting?

My questions remain about the CDAN Netflix theories. Who are the fucking investors? Where is this money coming from? Netflix doesn't print it's own money, so crappy movies or not, where is the money coming to make them?

They have a HUGE subscriber base and now make movies based on algorithms of their most viewed or liked titles. It seems to be working for things like Strange Things and Mindhunter. Certainly there is enough there to play with.

I don't see Netflix crashing either on the NASDAQ or losing subscribers.

And to someone above, movie productions are actually a terrible way to launder money. It's been tried, but the accounting has to be public. That and the fact that nothing in movie production is cash only. Maybe in the porn industry? With all it's sidelines where cash is the method of payment? That would be much easier.

I think what is meant here is that the movie industry is very good at making the losses of one stinker apply to the profits of another, thereby denying back end payments to actors and directors or paying off their investors immediately. One can see this clearly in the Peter Jackson's suit against New Line.

But Netflix is a whole different game plan. We can't apply the Hollywood slippery math to it.

Unknown said...

@timebomb, LOL. sure. As for any of the streaming sites, the shell game isn't new. not surprised.

T. W. said...

I took time to read the comments. My guess is Netflix is lying about the number of subscribers it has.

Another possibility is Netflix is not or cannot properly account for subscribers who bootleg service. I know people who use "unlocked" Amazon Fire Sticks.

Cable is not going anywhere. Some places cannot get the high speed internet required to stream. Some places don't get internet at all. Some people choose satellite so they can get content from countries.

In any case, we need net neutrality back.

IDoTheRobot said...

+1

PhyllisWhitweed said...

D Brown explained this all. Depreciations are front-loaded on a schedule, writing off the most in the beginning. It's easy to make it seem you are getting the whole story by just excluding some mundane info, but this is exactly how tech finances work. Hedge is freaking out about normal business practices just because they don't follow the studio model.

PhyllisWhitweed said...

And worry not about the tinfoil hat people, apparently they are saving all our lives everyday.

"...in fact, if it wasn't for us 'crazies' your world would just look confusing and you would ALREADY be killing each other like you were inflicted with some kind of zombie disease."

Dafuq happened to this place?

Makeupbylizz said...

Tried to read it, but fact checking isn’t in his wheelhouse. My parents lived there at the time and they were like...yeah...no. Anyway, love conspiracy theories and have way too many books on them...but this is where I go to read salacious hollywood gossip and I’m pretty sure that’s what others are here for too.
Maybe you should be listening to red ice radio, some Tsarion or everyone rippin’ off Jordan Maxwell. Freeman is really nice, he’ll talk to you I’m sure!
Ok, now everyone else forget that I know about that stuff. 😬😬

plot said...

"In any case, we need net neutrality back."

+1000!

" Hedge is freaking out about normal business practices"

Hedge is trying to benefit his portfolio with bullshit blinds. That's a working theory anyway, if one believes he is the real Gabe Hoffman, which is looking more and more likely.

HH314 said...

How would Netflix lie about their subscribers rolls and most importantly why? The subscription fee is flat, depending on level of service, it would be actually very easy for the taxman to verify amounts. Nobody is checking individual accounts, but those fees are coming from somewhere. Netflix either has the money to show every month or it doesn't. I doubt Netflix is paying itself to inflate the numbers. And the more subscribers they have, the more they pay, since this is their revenue. I don't understand the confusion, it seems like conspiracy theorists like to deny even the most obvious facts. As far as movie production goes, I imagine there would be opportunities to doctor some accounting records and or even most of them. Netflix makes lots of movies because they are banking that at least a fraction of them would become popular and drive the viewership for the rest, and they are absolutely correct. Don't forget that they give a lot of opportunities to filmmakers that would otherwise would not get those chances, so it is a win-win.

Schneiderisnext said...

@plot

The investor is Soros.

This is Soros 2006 acquisition of DreamWork's library all over again. Right before DVD sales crashed

Do you really think that the world's shrewdest currency trader would double down on a failing industry after losing billions?

Methinks the money is invested not for immediate profit but for EITHER Money Laundering or long term "Open Society" ideological goals. Why else invest IN MEDIA (PROPOGANDA)?

Also yes the financials have to be "transparent" but the myriad of holding companies and investors obfuscate the trail.

This has existed since theatre productions.

Mel Brook's THE PRODUCERS is the easiest way to understand the con

For anyone interested in more discussion of Hollywood Accounting, @Plot and I talk about it a lot in "The Church" blind

Schneiderisnext said...



THE CHURCH (Dec 2017)

one_eyed_bob said...

@akhaldansolo I disagree w your first line of your first comment here today. You should have waited to share all of this until Enty did a Luciferian blind item, it might have fit a little bit better there.

Juliaph said...

Now Netflix if going to produce a documentary series for the Obamas. Who will be watching that? Anyone?

plot said...

"The investor is Soros."

Of course it is.

@HH314

I see no benefit to Netflix faking it's subscribers either. That would only fool investors for a couple of months, tops, and not worth the exposure.

"As far as movie production goes, I imagine there would be opportunities to doctor some accounting records and or even most of them"

Yes but there are patterns to this and squishy accounting that has been made legitimate by the studios. Hiding illegitimate cash inside a production to clean would be extremely difficult because it also means there is an outflow of cash. Where would that go to? I'm trying to imagine catering services or material providers but even then it is difficult. Show productions have many unions that demand the accounting and pour over it to tell if non-union services are being paid. So the outflow of this laundered cash would be difficult to funnel under the table into a legitimate banks account.

Since there are easier means of laundering cash (used car lots, mattress stores, dry cleaners, even many charities), why hassle with a film production?

Schneiderisnext said...

@plot

https://www.thestreet.com/story/13377046/1/is-george-soros-right-to-bet-so-heavily-on-netflix.html

SOROS first purchased in 2015, and again in 2016, 2017, and 2018.

Very bullish.

And for anyone who doesn't believe it's possible to launder money through a movie (let alone the norm)

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/wolf-wall-street-financed-3b-malaysian-fraud-web-u-s-article-1.2720234

"Federal officials charged a $3.5 billion Malaysian money-laundering scheme helped finance the Leonardo DiCaprio movie “Wolf of Wall Street” — the Hollywood tale that parallels the corruption charges.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak vowed Thursday to “fully cooperate” in the ongoing international probe that stands as the largest U.S. Justice Department asset recovery action in history."

The fucking Wolf of Wall Street was actually a front.

Halloweenie said...

I watch queer eye ( the best, several episodes made me ugly cry) comedians in cars getting coffee and the office. Hubs loves docs and sci fi shows. Lots of good stuff for the kiddos. I feel like this site trys to ruin everything good in life lol. All kidding aside Leto is a stinky pos. Why his misdeeds haven't been outed yet, I'll never understand. And he's not playing an Asian in the movie right? Because Hollywood really should stop with whitewashing . It's almost always a complete fiasco.

Truthseeker said...

Sorry, I like Jared Leto, I love 30 Seconds to Mars, and I like The Outsiders. Husband and I watched it tonight. I am terribly confused about the Sci-Fi Label, nothing Sci-Fi about it.
He did a good job, it was nice to see him shaven again.
when you BRING me proof that he is abusing groupies, or having unwilling sex, i will turn against him, But as a former groupie of the 80s, as a teen, it was a goal to sleep with the damn rock stars.

T. W. said...

@Hh314 - the money could be coming from a different source but Netflix is reporting it as income from subscriptions. I have an accounting degree and things are easy to fake. That's one reason I left the field. If you want to be a professional liar but don't want to go into politics or acting then consider accounting or statistics.

jojo said...

Who is buying Netflix stock? Someone is propping this stock up big-time; it is so overpriced its scary. And, who is lending it money for the films? What is the vig on the borrowings and when do the loans come due? Read somewhee that the loans are based upon the equity in the stock market; and, the higher the stock price goes, the more NFLX can borrow. It does seem like a pay peter from paul type scheme; but, the stock proponents say that there is a huge market of NFLX subscribers out there waiting to be signed up. Not so sure about that. It will have to be from foreign markets and there is always that political insecurity with foreign markets.

The income could possibly be boosted by a money-laundering mechanism, but, the monthly subscriptions are so low, that laundering money in large amounts is going to require overstanding subscribers by a huge amount. That doesn't seem that likely.

plot said...

"The income could possibly be boosted by a money-laundering mechanism"

Not likely because there is nothing overvalued to sell. Netflix owns all it's product, it ain't selling anything but subscriptions.

Now, I supposed that there could be someone buying massive numbers of subscriptions with illegitimate money...but then what is the mechanism to get it out again? Netflix doesn't see anything physcial.

Let's take the Trumps as an example. They've been selling overvalued real estate to Russians for...gosh...possibly decades, but we have evidence of this since 2008. The Russians don't care how much they overpay for Trump's real estate because they are legitimizing the money through real estate ownership (probably through an LLC that can then take out massive loans on these properties, who cares if they default on the loan! The money is now clean.)

"the monthly subscriptions are so low"

You are wrong there. Netflix has an enormous customer base.

HH314 said...

I agree Netflix stock appears overvalued at the moment but aren’t all share prices just expectations? You gotta admit for a company on the brink of collapse Netflix is doing spectacularly well

laganja estranja said...

this comment section is quite a ride

jojo said...

plot --- Correction: meant monthly subscription "fees" are so low, ($10 a month?) that to launder any meaningful amount of money would require an awful lot of subscriptions; and, it doesn't seem practical. And, when I'm referring to money laundering, it's not analogous to foreigners buying real estate. The way money laundering works is that you have control of a legitimate business; you claim more income than you have or bump up the income by creating "false" sales, then you distribute income (either as salary, fake vendors, or to owners) and the recipents pay taxes. Voila, bad illegal income has just been "washed" and can be spent without fear.

Example: mob owned restaurant, cash business, they add to their daily receipts a certain amount of cash (they claim its deliveries and/or meals sold), then they distribute the income to their owners or as salaries or as payment to vendors , who then pay taxes on the income and now can spend the funds.

plot said...

Netflix is $30 a month.

The largest form of money laundering is real estate. Trump knows that. Drug cartels know that. Russian Kleptocrats know that. Even commercial and high density residential real estate are not immune.

Your example of "mob" laundering is very simplistic, still valid, but the game has become much larger than Ma's Genovese Restaurant on the corner.

AIP said...

I am always going to thank Netflix for making - and having a cinema release - for “The Siege of Jadotville”. This would otherwise have been relegated to Development Hell or wound up being a poorly-funded indie which would’ve done the story, and the men involved a further injustice. Their funding meant that a “Star”, as in Jamie Dornan was able to play the lead and consequently his fan-boys and girls, bless ‘em, were great in helping those of us closer to the story for whatever reason get the knowledge out there about the story and the film. There were other well-known names in there such as Guillaume Canet and Mark Strong.

Although the awareness of the treatment of the “Jadotville Jacks” by the Irish government and defense forces was gaining notice especially after the 40 and 50th anniversaries, the film and the cinema release especially forced the government’s hand to properly recognize them ahead of the 55th anniversary.

TL;DR ALERT:
For those who aren’t familiar with the story, it has an international importance as it’s basically the reason the UN peacekeepers can not engage in anything other than purely defensive armed actions. It centers around the “Belgian” Congo Crisis of the early 60s, and Operation Morthor or specifically the Katanganese liberation efforts in the post-colonial fallout in the Congo. The UN Secretary General, Dag Hammarskjöld, died/was killed in the middle of this when his plane crashed. The peacekeeping troops in the area at the time were Swedish, Indian and Irish... these counties were chosen as they were historically neutral and/or former colonies themselves (there was also an anti-colonial Irish connection from c.1900 with Roger Casement). Less than a year before, 9 young Irish men were killed (some horrifically) in the Niemba ambush.

In this particular story there was a lightly-armed company sent to monitor Jadotville (now Likasi). They heard they were to be attacked by Katanganese rebels and Belgian settlers commanded by foreign mercenaries (although Faulques story was a bit more cloak-and-dagger), and prepared to defend their position. A company of 150-odd young, green Irish Defence Force soldiers...some as young as 17... held off anything from 500-5000 better-equipped combatants for five days and nights, with not one death (300 Katanganese/mercenaries were killed).

When it was obvious they were about to be overwhelmed Commdt, Pat Quinlan - Jamie Dornan’s character - (sensibly) surrendered, and they were taken as POWs, which was a leap of faith, as everyone remembered Niemba. This annoyed high command and the lads on their return were treated as pariahs.

amused bush said...

The FAANG are all overvalued. Particular to Amazon and Netflix, investors prioritize growth over profit. So both companies have been able to flourish throwing money at content if it enables them to continue growth. I think Netflix is still on s long leash. At least until Disney launches their streaming channel.

amused bush said...

Thanks for the background. I have this movie in my queue, but haven’t gotten around to watching it yet.

Question - why is Belgian (referring to the Belgian Congo Conflict) in quotes? I think it’s pretty clear they were perpetrators of some of the most egregious events in Congolese history.

AIP said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
AIP said...

@Amused bush, put it down to a post-colonial chip on the shoulder 😉 especially as it was King Léopold II’s personal piggy bank at the turn of the century.

That was a large factor of Roger Casement attempting to set up Irish Brigades in WW1 German POW camps. He was scathing of the defence of “dear little Belgium”, as a recruitment tactic for Irish soldiers in particular, as he had seen that they, or specifically Léopold, got up to there when investigating on behalf of the British government.

Although I accept that I am biased (some buddies of mine served with them and are very good friends and defenders of them, and a couple are acquaintances) highly recommend it, it works almost as well on the small screen, although there is one scene near the climax (you’ll know what I mean when you get to it) that was just so much more jaw-dropping in the cinema as it was at 1:1 scale. Of course it isn’t a documentary so they had to have a “villain”, which wound up being Conor Cruise O’Brien. He was a complex man, but not cruel or vainglorious. FWIW, I heard McEntee’s character wasn’t a million miles off the real man though.

TimC said...

it really is amazing just how poorly Netflix is run. every new show they've produced just simply sucks. ok, maybe two out of thirty are decent but the shows that become a fan favorite are still sucky. even the "old school" shows they buy or lease from the old networks are poor choices. i keep thinking of "30 Rock" where jack donaghy wants to drive the network into the ground by doing shit programing. the movie section use to be good choices, at least before the new boys (amazon, hulu, the other one) showed up and bidding went higher on new releases. Jesus they could hang out by the dumpsters at the majors during pilot month and pick up better also rans from the trash. what a waste.

Count Jerkula said...

I am glad the CIA incited 9-11 so we could seize control of the Afghan opium crop, to flood our streets with heroin. That shit euthanizes the unwashed much quicker than crack. #culltheherd

AkhaldanSolo said...

Hollywood, D.C. – Part 1 https://youtu.be/JRHYAffaFXM

Hollywood, D.C. – Part 2 https://youtu.be/nqADZa2BeLE

MusicDSPGuy said...

@AIM

The reason why they were " treated as pariahs" afterwards is because they were part of a technically illegal escalation of the UN involvement in the colonial war in the Belgian Congo, Operation Morthor. Started at the behest of the Soviet Union to support their puppet ruler. Those UN forces were only suppose to be there to make a show, not fight and cause further political complications. If the Irish had surrendered after an initial confrontation they would have been doing the job they were there to do. This was not Korea.

By this stage the UN Secretary General, Dag Hammerskjold, was seen by the western powers as little more than a Soviet puppet so no tears were shed by the western governments when he was assassinated when his plane was shot down. The word out of Rhodesia at the time was there was more than enough evidence of foul play but as Hammerskjold was not a friend of the west they were not going to look too hard for it.

The stories out of the other side about the Jadotville incident is that pretty much all the people with serious military experience were elsewhere in the provence at the time. The Irish were considered such a minor threat. Rightly treated with derision. Most of the casualties on the other side were local tribesmen. Think the film Zulu but with old battered rifles instead of assegai. Of the Europeans killed most seem to have been civilians with military service backgrounds rather than actual military / ex military. The European civilians were basically fighting for their lives given how extensive the massacres of Europeans had been to date. Nothing is ever simple in Africa.

And the Irish forces still lost in the end. They had to surrender after being out fought by a force that was mostly local tribesmen and european civilians with a few dozen ex-military working the heavy weapons.

So the film is one of those "historical" films were the only historically accurate facts are that something happened in some particular place at some particular time and these particular people were there at the time. Everything else is pure narrative. A story. A fiction. In this type of film the "what happened" maybe fairly accurate but the "why it happened" is always untrue.

AIP said...

Thank you for the additional information and perspective, MusicDPS.
As I said, it’s a film, not a documentary.
The derision I referred to is relating to here in Ireland not just from our Government, but fellow defence force personnel, and that was because they surrendered, not because they didn’t do so straight away...which they were not permitted to do. As for being an international mockery: being the punchline for an international joke is something they were well used to.
I appreciate that they weren’t facing off against the creme-de-la-creme of a fighting force, but nevertheless they were greatly outnumbered, out-gunned, out-resourced and in a completely alien environment. Most of them had fathers or grandfathers who fought in the War of Independence only 40 years before (as do I, and I’m far younger than any of them) - they understood what even a small, but highly motivated faction can achieve with even patchy training, so were taking nothing for granted.

They understood well that they were no great threat, but they were under threat and Quinlan still managed to get all if his charges out of there alive. Given the context of the time, that was no mean feat for a battalion from a *defence* force (an important distinction) from a neutral country of 2.6 million at the time, who had never seen active combat. It was a remarkable bit of defensive soldiering.

Now, let me be clear, I don’t, and would never, cheer that there were 300+ dead on the other side - as you said, they were fighting for their lives and future, I make no judgements...most countries have been there, especially in Africa.

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