JAFF Market & Indonesia’s Booming Industry; Netflix-Warner Bros Deal
Before we dive into updates on what’s happening in Indonesia, a few thoughts on the Netflix deal to acquire Warner Bros for $83bn, announced yesterday, which happened a lot faster than anyone was anticipating.
Reactions globally have been mixed from it being another nail in the coffin of legacy Hollywood and a huge blow to any hopes of having a competitive playing field in future; to those welcoming a deal that ends years of uncertainty for Warner Bros; and those who are suggesting Netflix may have over-paid. There are also many regulatory hurdles to clear so it’s not a done deal yet.
For the film and TV industries outside of the “West”, at least in Asia, Middle East and Africa, the deal may not have immediate impact in terms of production finance. Warner Bros has recently been focusing more on local-language content in Europe and Latin America and has not been actively producing or commissioning Asian content, at least since the HBO Asia team disbanded a few years ago. The big exception to this is Japan, where Warner Bros has long been involved in producing anime and live-action content, including JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure and the Rurouni Kenshin series.
It does however raise questions about Korean studio CJ ENM’s deal with Warner Bros, which Streamlined noted as a potential means of finally building a strong competitor to Netflix in the Korean market. Now CJ finds itself in bed with Netflix, despite having its own global production and streaming ambitions, and is presumably hoping for more than simply being a vendor to the all-mighty global player.
