DeepSummary
Matt Belloni and Lucas Shaw discuss the streaming platforms' plans to change how they pay talent by aligning compensation with performance, offering less upfront and more bonuses/revenue-sharing for successful projects. The shift is driven by ballooning budgets as the streamers overpaid talent to attract them initially.
The hosts analyze the reasoning behind this change, like aligning incentives for better content and bringing costs down. However, talent may resist sacrificing big upfront paychecks, even if they get a share of hits. Transparency around viewership data and performance metrics is another sticking point.
The conversation also covers the premieres of Horizon: An American Saga and Megalopolis at Cannes, with predictions on which self-financed movie will fare better critically. Belloni closes with updates on his Oscars draft against Shaw.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- Streaming platforms like Netflix and Apple are planning to shift how they compensate talent by paying less upfront but offering bonuses tied to performance metrics like viewership.
- The goal is to rein in ballooning budgets after years of overpaying to attract talent and buy out backend rights.
- Talent may resist giving up large upfront fees in favor of contingent bonuses based on success metrics.
- Transparency around viewership data and what constitutes a "hit" worth bonuses is a key concern for talent.
- The shift aims to better align incentives by rewarding runaway hits, but may also lead to less compelling content if minimums aren't high enough.
- The transition could take years as the platforms experiment with different models before wider adoption.
- Self-financed movies like Horizon and Megalopolis premiering at Cannes face uphill battles for critical and commercial success.
- Moves like this compensation revamp are signs of an industry in transition and maturing streamers looking to control costs.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “They used to be that at Netflix, the win was getting the green light because you knew all the compensation was coming to you then, whereas at other places, the win is how the movie comes out and how it does well.“ by Matt Belloni
- “Yeah, you just want to make sure that you don't accidentally get screwed in the process. That you agree to something that is just good for the companies and not good for the tech.“ by Lucas Shaw
- “Well, there's a degree to which this is just the natural evolution. To your point, they had to come in and overpay and create a new model up front, and now they want to in some ways go back to the way it was before the model.“ by Lucas Shaw
- “Yeah, well, and they've just gone through the labor stoppages last year, which I think made this a big part of the conversation. There's a lot of reasons that I think we see them moving in this direction.“ by Lucas Shaw
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Episode Information
The Town with Matthew Belloni
The Ringer
5/20/24