max-ed out

I went to a theatre the other day to watch a movie about a company that missed the next step in its product evolution, which led to a monumental slip in the company's standing.

The company was all too familiar to Canadians born before ‘94. RIM, more commonly known as Blackberry, was a Canadian icon in the technology landscape, which, at its peak, owned over 40% of the cell phone landscape, putting Waterloo on the map. The firm faltered during the touchscreen transition, cemented in their belief the customer demanded a physical keyboard.

I remember a few years into the iPhone's meteoric rise, blackberry’s stock was trading at less than the cash on their balance sheet. For those keeping score at home, that is the market's way of saying everything you're doing from 9-5 is a net detriment to the business.

As succession wrapped this week, it raises a question, what is the next for Warner Discovery? The company has attempted to undergo a strategy that put it toe to toe with the streaming giants, homogenizing their content and promoting the brand MAX. This indifference to the brand has been called out by a tech and brand podcast host whose effect told David Zaslav to “knuckle up fuckel head.”

David Zaslav has been met with more adversity during a commencement search at Boston University. Attempting to extol the virtues of his work habits to new graduates was met with a chant of “Pay your writers.” If MAX wants to create a spin-off of Succession, Boardroom could be drafted by a GPT trained on the meeting minutes of David Zaslav's last few months.

During the last season of Game of Thornes, 95% of the people on the online platform watched the program. Though management wouldn't like to admit it, tent pole content gets people beyond a paywall.

Two strategies can be different yet still help a company win. Zara, LVMH and Aritzia (shameless Canada plug) have different strategies, but still all win in their given domain. HBO has a strategy where it could sell customers premium content and package it with filler for its online offering.

The average HBO customer isn’t looking to binge per-say they want premium content and don’t want to waste their time testing out new programs. Releasing episodes weekly instead of the Netflix dump fits the needs of their desired demographic wanting to indulge but not binge.

While there have been hours of board meetings about the rebrand a product already in the wild, there has been a company in Cupertino looking to erect some entertainment tent poles of their own. This week was also the end of an equally big show from Apple TV, Ted Lasso.

The question is, is MAX likely to go the way of the Blackberry? Doomed to be an additional segment of recurring revenue on Apple's income statement.

A month into the writers' strike, HBO’s best attempt at recreating the magic has been nothing more than an opportunity for The Weeknd to expense his house and stadium tour as a set. With projects delayed, the pipeline will be reset. Could this reset be the end for HBO as we know it? We’ll have to wait and see.