Amazon Buys MGM

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

That's all in Mark Burnett's possession. I doubt that will ever see the light of day unless someone else made a copy secretly and then they would be in trouble for violating the non-disclosure agreement with Trump and Burnett both.

"MGM Studios owns The Apprentice and all its materials, including all footage," said MGM in a statement, adding that "various contractual and legal requirements restrict MGM's ability to release such material."3 days ago

So Mark Burnett may have some say in what gets released is all. And that could alsochange with the change in owners.

[Marcel Birgelen]

That's all in Mark Burnett's possession. I doubt that will ever see the light of day unless someone else made a copy secretly and then they would be in trouble for violating the non-disclosure agreement with Trump and Burnett both.

A non-disclosure agreement is only binding between the parties that signed it, if it leaks "anonymously", it's pretty hard to sue for it. Did anyone get sued over the Access Hollywood tape?

[Lyle Romer]

A non-disclosure agreement is only binding between the parties that signed it, if it leaks "anonymously", it's pretty hard to sue for it. Did anyone get sued over the Access Hollywood tape?

If anybody who wished to leak it had access, it would have leaked years ago regardless of ownership.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Probably... but we all know that with sufficiently big "incentives", stuff sometimes changes. I doubt that the change of ownership will have any real impact on this particular subject though, even though Bezos isn't known to be Trump's biggest fan...

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

In light of the years long Trump - Bezos fued, I can see it being released now. Can't let the orange turd get in office again.

[Mike Blakesley]

Maybe we should start this thread over to "un-politics" it....

[Marcel Birgelen]

I was trying to omit opinion and keep it to the facts. With tensions still high, I can see how stuff can turn political quite rapidly. But somewhat back on topic again: We don't know what the deal was between MGM and the producers of The Apprentice. So, if there is more "behind the scenes" material, it's just speculation for anybody here who owns that material now.

As for the deal going through right now and not like 6 months ago, I can somehow see the political motivations behind it. MGM has been up-for-grabs for a while now and it was just waiting for someone to acquire it. Disney has been hit in their cash-reserves and anti-trust-regulation would probably have prevented them from getting it. I'd expected the likes of ViacomCBS or AT&T/Warner make a move, but I guess Bezos has some more cash to spare than those two combined.

The next in line will probably be Columbia/Sony Pictures, although it's never really clear what Sony's position on its own Hollywood studio and record company really is...

[Martin Brooks]

I was trying to omit opinion and keep it to the facts. With tensions still high, I can see how stuff can turn political quite rapidly. But somewhat back on topic again: We don't know what the deal was between MGM and the producers of The Apprentice. So, if there is more "behind the scenes" material, it's just speculation for anybody here who owns that material now.

As for the deal going through right now and not like 6 months ago, I can somehow see the political motivations behind it. MGM has been up-for-grabs for a while now and it was just waiting for someone to acquire it. Disney has been hit in their cash-reserves and anti-trust-regulation would probably have prevented them from getting it. I'd expected the likes of ViacomCBS or AT&T/Warner make a move, but I guess Bezos has some more cash to spare than those two combined.

The next in line will probably be Columbia/Sony Pictures, although it's never really clear what Sony's position on its own Hollywood studio and record company really is...

I think it's an over-reaction to believe this is about politics. What this is about is that the future is streaming services, but every streaming service can't survive because most consumers will only subscribe to 2-3 at most. So there's going to be consolidation and with Disney owning Disney, Fox, Lucasfilm, Marvel, Pixar and Henson, everyone else felt the need to "Bulk up". So we have Discovery buying WB and Amazon buying MGM.

However, what is Amazon really getting? They are NOT getting the pre-May 1986 MGM library because when Ted Turner bought MGM and then sold it, he kept that part of the library and it now belongs to Warner. They are getting almost all of the post-1952 UA library (I don't know who owns the pre-'52 UA titles), which is how they're getting James Bond, but Bond is under control of Barbara Broccoli so there are questions as to whether Amazon can do whatever they want with those 25 films.

Rights have always been complicated, but they're more complicated in recent years because almost every single film made today is a Co-Pro, so rights are split.

With these studios going for such huge multiples and the desire to own libraries, I do agree there's a possibility of Sony selling Columbia/Sony, but I think the next one to go is actually going to be CBS Viacom dumping Paramount. Or the opposite: CBS Viacom bulks up by buying Columbia/Sony Pictures.

As for Mark Burnett, my bet is that those outtakes disappear or go missing before the sale closes if there's anything there that's worse than what we already know about.

[Sean Falk]

but I think the next one to go is actually going to be CBS Viacom dumping Paramount.

You think so? After CBS folded CBS All Access into their new service paramount+?

On the other hand Sony has been trying to buy Crunchyroll (one of the 2 big NA streaming platforms for anime) for the last year and it keeps getting pushed back due to anti-trust concerns since they already own Funimation (the other big anime streamer). I could deffinitely see them trying to sell to get that acquisition done.

[Martin Brooks]

You think so? After CBS folded CBS All Access into their new service paramount+?

On the other hand Sony has been trying to buy Crunchyroll (one of the 2 big NA streaming platforms for anime) for the last year and it keeps getting pushed back due to anti-trust concerns since they already own Funimation (the other big anime streamer). I could deffinitely see them trying to sell to get that acquisition done.

Good point. OK, maybe I'm wrong on this, although they could sell Paramount Pictures and keep Paramount TV.

[Marcel Birgelen]

I don't think there will be too many buyers for Paramount without the TV assets. It's like buying a car without an engine... Viacom and CBS split and merged again in the past. Their previous split left assets like Star Trek in utter discontinuous shambles, where the "motion picture" rights where with Paramount/Viacom and the TV rights with CBS.

Much of the assets of ViacomCBS are made out of their IP assets they acquired over the years and after numerous acquisitions. Sony is a big, multinational diversified electronics company that also happens to have a Hollywood studio and records company. It would make more sense for Sony to sell their non-core business assets than for an IP-driven company like ViacomCBS, to sell one of their core IP assets.

But heck, what do we know. It's all just pure speculation at this point. For all we know, Microsoft or Apple buys ViacomCBS tomorrow for the fear of missing out in the streaming game...