Size Isn’t Everything
Forget the mega-mergers. The future of entertainment belongs to partnerships that connect the dots, not just add more zeroes.
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Size Isn’t Everything
Watching billionaires compensate by playing hot potato with multinational media conglomerates may be entertainingly dystopian. But we have to concede one related reality: size does matter — just not in the way you think.
Over the last 15 years, major media consolidation has swallowed up some of the biggest companies like a couple of Advil on the morning of a hangover. Right now, everyone’s fixated on Paramount’s relentless pursuit of Warner Bros. Discovery. But here’s the dirty truth: none of these mega-mergers have really worked as hoped. Massive consolidation is usually bad for talent, customers, and the overall health of the industry.
Instead of trading companies worth tens of billions of dollars, there’s far more opportunity in sensible consolidation among Hollywood’s small-to-mid-tier ecosystem — and in more creative partnerships between the big players. That’s where the real strategic dot-connecting should happen.
Here are a few media partnerships that might actually make sense — and create positive change across the industry.
Studio Synergy
A24, Neon, & Mubi
Everyone knows that A24, with its $3.5 billion valuation, is angling for some sort of transaction. For years, the prevailing wisdom has been that its prestige-cool factor aligns best with Apple or Warner Bros.’ HBO. But following the merger between Blumhouse and Atomic Monster, a potential rollup or partnership with fellow independent production and distribution houses Neon and Mubi looks far more interesting.
Successful films from A24 and Neon share a notable audience overlap, according to Greenlight Analytics. Both are anchored by men under 35 who drive Theatrical Intent and Willingness to Pay a Fee, though younger women are growth demos for psychological thrillers and horror from both studios. Men and women over 35 tend to stand out in Awareness but only turn out for specific tones, genres, or star-driven features (think The Iron Claw, Nicole Kidman, and stories about historical figures like Princess Diana). Mubi dabbles in similar territory, with the added benefit of more than 20 million registered users.
None of these studios are box office powerhouses. Combining their average annual domestic market shares from 2021–2024 only yields a total of 2.15%, per The Numbers. But pooling the three together could strengthen Mubi’s position as a specialty streamer — especially since niche services are growing faster than premium SVODs, sports SVODs, and vMVPDs, according to Antenna. Some have argued there’s a distinct market opportunity for an owned-and-operated prestige programming streamer. And even if that doesn’t fully materialize, a combined company would wield greater distribution power and more leverage in securing a theatrical output safety-net deal similar to Blumhouse’s arrangement with Universal.
Meanwhile, the open market would be salivating for A24 and Neon’s Pay-One deals with HBO Max and Hulu to expire, respectively. A24 and Neon films consistently post impressive Willingness to Pay scores — representing consumers who would pay to see a film in theaters, via PVOD/TVOD, or by subscribing to a streaming service to watch, according to Greenlight.
Cable 2.0
After years of trying, Lionsgate finally managed to cleave Starz from its balance sheet in May. While Starz never posed a true threat to premium cable royalty HBO and Showtime, it did carve out an identity around programming for female-skewing and diverse audiences. (Related: justice for the canceled-too-soon Starz original Counterpart!)
Despite what David Ellison and Paramount say about wanting to keep their basic cable networks, MTV, BET, and Comedy Central could all benefit from a creative refresh. With Comcast exiling its cable nets to the new company Versant, WBD planning a similar split in 2026, and cable companies offering increasingly skinny bundles, why not cobble these brands together as a new linear sub-package? (I’ll let the marketers come up with a snappy name for that one.)
They already share similar audiences: Starz, BET, and MTV draw at least 55% of their demand from female viewers and an average of 63% from audiences aged 26–42, according to Parrot. Comedy Central skews more male, resonating with viewers aged 33–43+.
Together, they fit FX President John Landgraf’s TV model: 80% lean-back entertainment (endless reruns of Ridiculousness and Parks & Recreation) and 20% lean-forward (Power, Tyler Perry series, Outlander). That mix would be a natural addition to an SVOD — or one of the FAST platforms. The latter are largely designed around legacy content and culturally specific curation. Roku (which accounts for 2.8% of U.S. TV time, per Nielsen), Tubi (2.1%), and Pluto TV (less than 1.3%) all make sense as potential licensing partners once current agreements expire. (For what it’s worth, Roku has enjoyed the second-largest U.S. share growth of any streamer over the past year — behind only YouTube, per Nielsen’s The Gauge.) After all, FAST has become a haven for older cord-cutting audiences as well as younger, cost-conscious digital natives.
New Bundles
Ever since Wall Street pulled a 180 on the streaming model, cross-company bundles have become all the rage. Warner Bros. and Disney’s coupling, Xfinity’s Netflix–Peacock–Apple TV+ deal, Verizon’s HBO Max and Netflix offer … you get the idea. These deals help reduce churn, but they don’t always reignite growth. They’re also obvious pairings, like Shohei Ohtani and primetime. The industry can be more creative in ways that do far less damage to balance sheets than another round of major acquisitions.
Here are a few creative bundles that could shake things up in a good way.
PlayStation Plus + Crunchyroll + Netflix
Sony owns PlayStation and anime streamer Crunchyroll (which, by the way, has had two No. 1 movies at the box office recently). Netflix and Hulu continue to duke it out for the title of second-largest anime provider in the U.S., though Hulu’s anime library (40% of Crunchyroll’s demand) is currently outperforming Netflix’s (36%) despite being slightly smaller, per Parrot. Netflix, meanwhile, is also eyeing more video game IP.
A bundle featuring PlayStation Plus (51.6 million subscribers), Crunchyroll (more than 17 million), and Netflix (an estimated 310 million) would create a Play–Watch–Repeat ecosystem sitting right at the intersection of gaming and manga/anime fandom. Congrats — you’ve just established squatter’s rights in the hearts and minds of younger consumers.
“We believe Crunchyroll and Netflix can coexist and both grow with the streaming anime market,” analysts at Wall Street research firm Bernstein said back in March.
Sony and Netflix already enjoy a fruitful Pay-One output deal, and this new relationship could be a stepping stone toward deeper collaboration — perhaps select, eventized limited theatrical releases in Sony’s Alamo Drafthouse theater chain.
Meanwhile, Sony could charge Netflix a premium for IP rights, gain additional leverage in evolving Pay-One negotiations, reduce PlayStation Plus churn by better directing its user journeys, and potentially take a healthy cut of any future theatrical revenue.
Xbox Game Pass + Paramount+
Netflix ditched Microsoft for its ad-supported tier, so partnering with a rival might feel a little vindicating. Microsoft recently struck a for-profit deal with OpenAI. A bundle featuring Xbox Game Pass (37 million subscribers) and Paramount+ (79.1 million) could accelerate Microsoft’s broader strategy of integrating AI across its consumer-facing products. The AI-driven personalization, recommendations, and content discovery opportunities across both platforms are obvious.
More broadly, Microsoft would gain access to Paramount’s sports, live events, and “premium” content. Paramount, in turn, would reach younger gamers to help age down its older-skewing service, grease the wheels for David Ellison’s push into gaming content, and make a splashy move following the news that hitmaker Taylor Sheridan will soon be canoodling with rival NBCUniversal. But the biggest reason to root for this bundle? Halo deserves a shot at scripted redemption after Paramount+ blew the first attempt.
So What?
Sure, there’s an avalanche of corporate, contractual, and financial hurdles standing in the way of any of these combos. But hey, ideas come before logistics.
The laughable parade of Warner Bros. takeovers this century have all ended the same way. Disney’s Fox merger didn’t exactly help the Magic Kingdom storm Netflix’s gates. NBCU has been a rollercoaster for Comcast. If Hollywood insists on consolidating, it’s time to swap scale for alignment. Big wins can come from aiming smaller.
Brandon Katz is the Director of Insights & Content Strategy at Greenlight Analytics where he focuses on evaluating the ever-fluid media landscape to unearth understanding, opportunity and value. Greenlight Analytics is the entertainment intelligence consulting company redefining how Hollywood finds, understands, and activates audiences. Prior to joining Greenlight Analytics, he served as the senior entertainment industry strategist at Parrot Analytics, and as a full-time entertainment industry reporter covering the Xs and Os of Hollywood, most notably with TheWrap and the Observer.
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Hub Entertainment Research tracks how technology is changing the way people find, choose, and consume entertainment content: from TV and movies, to gaming, music, podcasts and social video. Working with the largest networks, pay TV operators, streaming providers, and studios, Hub’s studies have covered the most important trends in providers, devices, and technologies since 2013.
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