"AT&T is buying your childhood"

Anonus

Nobody says this about their deal for Time Warner (which owns Looney Tunes, Hanna-Barbera, Cartoon Network, and DC Comics), but anytime Disney buys anything it's a huge deal.

Is Time Warner just that boring?

glennmagusharvey

Disney has an inherent "flavor" to it -- like, people may love or hate Disney's creative works or their purported approaches to creative works.

Time Warner doesn't.  Maybe if you said "Warner Bros. is buying your childhood" then it'd feel more relevant.  But Time is just a news/commentary magazine, and AT&T is at least perceived to be a phone company (even though they also offer cable TV and internet access).  People don't think about whether they like DC Comics the same way they think about whether they like their ISP.

Anonus

Time Warner doesn't even own Time magazine anymore. They spun off Time Inc. in 2014. That they didn't bother to change their name is a testament to their commitment to stifling mediocrity.

I was just thinking of how people shat themselves when Comcast bought NBC Universal, but here? Nobody gives a fuck. It's like TWX has the Shield of Boringness. There aren't even any jokes about how Saul Bass's Warner Bros. and Bell logos will be under the same roof.

Also it admittedly frustrates me that many of my favorite things are owned by a company that inspires no emotion from people, including the ones who actually run it.

glennmagusharvey

People shat themselves when Comcast bought NBC Universal?

Also it probably says something when the first thing I think of when I think of Time is something they don't even own anymore.

fourteenwings

People shat themselves when Comcast bought NBC Universal?

It was kind of a big murmur before it happened, and then as it happened everybody was like they needed to freak out right then instead of before when anti-trust stuff could be done.

frustrates me that many of my favorite things are owned by a company that inspires no emotion from people

It kind of hurts when I walk through toy aisles and see cheapo dolls with no actual clothing from Mattel or something or Ever After High dolls with painted on leggings and terrible smiles, but I understand that fabric and patterning for dolls costs way more than just stamping colour or moldings onto torsos and legs, and the illusion of infinite growth means Mattel are happy to be selling more of whatever even if they're diluting the brand at the same time.

glennmagusharvey

I think that infinite growth is a really stupid thing to aim for yet it's really popular in business/econ circles.  Thanks to inflation I guess.

fourteenwings

is a really stupid thing to aim for yet it's really popular in business/econ circles

It's kind of dogma even. After a while it starts to seep into your brain because it's on every other page of every econ book. Same as the whole "wait we didn't make money this one year"="fire half the workforce, it's clearly their fault".

I mean, companies have overshooting their actual market issues obviously and streamlining is a thing but usually all that ends up happening is cutting corners, overworking who's left and making them a bit edgy for maybe ever.

glennmagusharvey

Yeah, that's a problem with seeing companies solely as profit-making machines that can be bought and sold like commodities rather than as businesses that generate economic activity in their communities.

Anonus

Infinite growth is what Wall Street wants

Management that prioritizes catering to Wall Street over producing quality product gets hailed in the short term at least

Bluesy_Cowgirl

anarchist communism ftw

fourteenwings

Management that prioritizes catering to Wall Street over producing quality product

Speaking of short term, a few years ago Netflix was a pioneer of net neutrality and their originals appeal was based on creating shows that would last a decent number of seasons with actual endings because the Wall Street $$$ they have is insanely plentiful (and probably wasteful).

This year they don't care about net neutrality cause they're big enough not to and they cancelled two originals within the span of a week, one I'm sure on a cliffhanger (Sense8), the other I'm just assuming since it was only a single season.

Also they're expanding 13 Reasons Why because it was a success and they don't care about "closed narratives"*.

*I have a lot of personal reasons for disliking 13 Reasons Why and I also blame Netflix for cashing in on "it's popular so we'll do it anyways" but that's not really for here.

Vorpy

I remember seeing ads for "Netflix original series" and going "Oh how cute!" like if Netflix was showing everyone their macaroni drawing and claiming it was going to be a masterpiece.

then I forget that they've got some major financial heft, more than I actually believed they did, so when they were pushing out some major money makers I went whoa.

They growing fast

glennmagusharvey

is it bad that i feel a slight sense of resentment when i see "a netflix original series"?

fourteenwings

They hold anime series hostage from the rest of the world for ages so no.

Vorpy

They did what

fourteenwings

Off the top of my head; Ajin, ID-0 and LWA were all kept from anybody wanting to simulcast them legally because Netflix not only waits until after they're done airing but adds an arbitrary amount of time until it's convenient for them to post all of the episodes.

I'm pretty sure it killed Ajin's chances at ever being popular (and Sentai had to pick up the BD/DVD release too, and basically if you don't have/want Netflix you still need to wait until August).

Netflix is singlehandedly making fansubs a viable thing again.

Vorpy

Ah okay.

Never heard of Ajin probablyfor that reason