Netflix: Royals sink in stream
Now that Netflix has committed to total transparency over the performance of individual shows, it must be disappointing for Team Sussex to see that Meghan’s jam-making and lemon-zesting masterclass With Love, Meghan limped its way to No 383 in the charts.
Of course this is blockbuster territory in comparison with Harry’s contribution Polo, which is deep in Bermuda Triangle territory at No 3,436, but it’s a very long way from the likes of Adolescence, Squid Game or the latest chart-topper KPop Demon Hunters.
Despite the general lack of interest in the moaners of Montecito, Netflix announced results ahead of Wall Street expectations, with earnings per share for the second quarter up 47%, and net income up 45% to $3.1bn on revenues of $11bn.
The company is benefiting from the weakness of the US dollar as well as healthy subscriber growth and increased advertising sales, and its share price is up 42% this year. It has been increasing its offering of live events, such as NFL games over Christmas, boxing matches and weekly doses of professional wrestling.
Controversially, given the red-hot opinions on the topic unleashed during the Hollywood strike in 2023, it has admitted to using generative AI to create visual effects in one of its original TV shows for the first time. The Argentine science fiction show The Eternaut used AI to create a scene of a building collapsing, and Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos says it enabled the production team to complete sequences faster and at a lower cost. Also, it would allow productions with smaller budgets to access advanced visual effects.
BrewDog: Punk spirit fades
Much of BrewDog’s early success was based on cultivating its anti-establishment credentials, avoiding traditional advertising and aiming to generate free media coverage from a series of provocative campaigns and publicity stunts.
Its flagship product was called Punk IPA, and it raised money by crowdfunding from small retail investors it referred to as Equity Punks, who received discounts at its bars and online shops, not to mention a free beer on their birthday and an invitation to its AGM, which it describes as Annual General Mayhem.
The idea was to create a community who were literally invested in the company and its success, and about 130,000 equity punks signed up.
Their enthusiasm for the brand and its product helped the company become the seventh-largest beer brand in the UK. Founder James Watt enjoyed himself along the way with stunts such as lobbing stuffed cats out of a helicopter over the City of London.
However, things took a turn away from the punk and towards the corporate when in 2017 Watt and his co-founder Martin Dickie announced an investment by the Californian private equity firm TSG Consumer Partners.
Watt and Dickie changed the company bylaws to remove various pre-emption rights, and shifted some of their stock into a new class of preferred shares which they flogged to TSG for £110m.
TSG’s preferred shares are entitled to a compound annual return of a healthy 18% ahead of the other shareholders. Though the company crept back into the black in 2024, it looks distinctly unlikely that there will be anything left over for the equity punks on a sale or an IPO.
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