YouTube Bows Out of Hollywood Arms Race With Netflix and Amazon

Google video unit is said to cancel plans for high-end series

Executive Susanne Daniels is said to be looking to move on

YouTube has canceled plans for high-end dramas and comedies, people with knowledge of the matter said, a pullback from its grand ambitions for a paid service with Hollywood-quality shows. The Google-owned business has stopped accepting pitches for expensive scripted shows, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the decision hasn’t been announced. The axed programs include the sci-fi drama “Origin’’ and the comedy “Overthinking with Kat & June,’’ prompting their producers to seek new homes for the shows, the people said. The retreat from direct competition with Netflix Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime Video service reflects the high cost – in billions of dollars – needed to take on those deeply entrenched players, even for a rich tech giant like Google, the people said. YouTube generated more than $15 billion in ad sales last year without a huge slate of glitzy productions and concluded its money is better invested in music and gaming. “In some ways, they never really went all-in on the strategy,” said Anthony DiClemente, an analyst at Evercore ISI. “That’s like bringing a butter knife to a gun fight.”

Shift to Free The strategy change, first reported last November by the Hollywood Reporter, means all YouTube shows will eventually air for free. The company is still working out release strategies for the shows, the people said. The shift also raises questions about the long-term future for Susanne Daniels, YouTube’s head of original productions since 2015. She was brought in to boost the volume and quality of YouTube’s original programming and is now looking to move on, according to people with knowledge of her thinking. “While it’s strangely flattering to be the topic of Hollywood gossip, please know I am committed to YouTube and can’t wait to unveil our robust slate of new and returning originals,” Daniels said in an email. A respected TV industry veteran, Daniels joined the company to develop and produce original shows aimed at making the YouTube Red subscription service a viable competitor to Netflix, Amazon and Hulu. Now, those efforts are more focused on programs like Kevin Hart’s “What the Fit,” with the comedian cheerleading in track pants.

Uphill Fight While Netflix transformed itself from a DVD-delivery service into one of Hollywood’s largest studios, other technology companies have announced grand plans to make movies and TV only to retreat after a couple of years. Microsoft Corp. created a Los Angeles studio and ordered a show based on its popular game “Halo,’’ but shut down before the series came out. Yahoo lost $42 million on a trio of original series, including “Community,” and then scrapped its plans as well. Apple Inc. will announce its first slate of original series on Monday, and analysts are already asking if the company has the stomach for Hollywood.

YouTube’s shift marks at least the company’s third reboot in the past decade and underscores what Hollywood executives see as the technology industry’s capricious approach to entertainment. In 2012, it paid producers and celebrities to create YouTube channels to bring more high-end original shows to a site then associated with cat videos and pranks. The company doubled its investment a year later, but then ended the program.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-24/youtube-bows-out-of-hollywood-arms-race-with-netflix-and-amazon

White House to send 'principles' for Obamacare replacement plan to Capitol Hill

Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said Sunday the Trump administration will send “principles” to Congress for crafting a replacement plan for Obamacare. Appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Mulvaney pushed back on the notion that Republicans lack a clear path forward should the courts rule the entirety of Obamacare is unconstitutional. He said the White House would be sending guidance to Congress with principles to help guide it in crafting legislation.

“We’re doing the same thing on this that we did with taxes. Remember, when we started with taxes, people criticized us for not giving enough details. What did we do? We sent principles to the Hill,” Mulvaney said. “ … From that, following the proper legislative progress we had a tremendous tax bill that passed into law.” “We're going to do the same thing on health care. As to pre-existing conditions, I know a lot of folks raised that. Keep in mind every single plan this administration has ever come out with has covered pre-existing conditions,” Mulvaney added. The comments come as Trump has begun to talk more about healthcare and on replacing Obamacare. The Trump Justice Department told a federal appeals court it favored striking Obamacare in its entirety, and last week Trump told reporters that if Obamacare is ended Republicans would have a better plan in place. "If the Supreme Court rules that Obamacare is out, we'll have a plan that is far better than Obamacare," Trump said last week.

There have been very few details to emerge from the White House over what it is looking to do. During the discussion on a renewed push for an Obamacare replacement plan, there was reportedly pushback from some in Trump’s Cabinet, including Vice President Mike Pence, who worried about the political fallout of moving forward without a plan should the law be ruled unconstitutional. Mulvaney, who is one of the members of Trump’s team leading the charge on repealing Obamacare, said Sunday that Trump and Pence actually agree on the issue. “There's absolutely zero daylight between the president and vice president on this issue.”

Despite the White House assertion that Congress would be taking the lead in the healthcare debate, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has pushed back on the notion that Republicans in Congress would be taking the lead. He said he was more focused combating Democrats’ “Medicare for All” ideas.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-house-to-send-principles-for-obamacare-replacement-plan-to-capitol-hill

>>5991459

Completely agree, very interesting move.