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by blitzar 924 days ago
I expect they fought for, and won, something that will ultimately work against their best interests.

Netflix etal. didnt hide this data to pay writers less, they hid to to juice their stock price. If they disclosed how few views they recieved for the piles of cash they were throwing at original content the magic money tree would have dried up.

2 comments

What is really insane is that stockholders didn't press this, but then you remember that most stock is held in trust by the likes of BlackRock who couldn't give less of a damn, and it all makes sense.
Said stockholders as well as the VCs had/have the exact same incentive as the management of Netflix, namely to see the price of the pieces of paper they hold increase in value.
And then the WGA and SAG would’ve gone back to primarily working on network television, as they have since the 60s—as that sector of the industry has shown it actually knows how to run a sustainable business.

If Netflix can’t run a sustainable business, then it’s everyone’s best interest—workers and investors—that they shut it down. That’s just business.

Their numbers suggest otherwise, though— that they can run an extremely profitable business, and now those they depend on can better negotiate for their piece of the pie.