Monetizing Media

Diya Sagar, an investor at Lupa Systems, talks with Monetizing Media's Eric Cohen-Peckham about her thesis that investors are approaching film production companies with misaligned expectations, creating pressure for short-term wins without enough risk tolerance and long enough time horizon to develop massive new IP franchises and a content empire that can challenge the largest incumbents like Disney.

Eugene Chung has been on the investor side of the start-up world at Warburg Pincus and Morgan Stanley before entering the creative world's of Pixar, heading Oculus Story Studios and founding Penrose Studios.  Eugene knows the spatial computing space really well and through this episode he gives thoughts and comments on the current state of the Metaverse with Apple's release of the Vision One headset.  Thank you for joining the show, Eugene. Please listen to our show with Magic Leap founder Rony Abovitz from a year ago as addition to this episode. 

Katie is the CEO of Hearst UK. Overlooking brands such as the Cosmopolitan, the Runner's World and more. Some would call her a veteran in the media industry a title she herself reluctantly use. Her background as co-founder of Tortoise and previous roles at News Corp as CCO of WSJ and C-level roles at The Times and The Telegraph certainly builds to the title of veteran. Our conversation with Katie covers four topics: i) The magazines industry in a digital era, ii) Business models in the media world, iii) how to successfully market a media venture today and of course - predictions about the news and media world.Eric was sadly away for this episode but the two of us will be back jointly soon.// See all past episodes by topic and join our newsletter for media & entertainment executives at MonetizingMedia.com/Podcast

Leading intellectual property attorneys Bobby Ghajar (Cooley LLP) and Felix Hilgert (Osborne Clarke) share a lawyer's perspective on the rise of generative AI within the media & entertainment industry. Can AI companies be barred from training their models on copyrighted content? Can content creators copyright and monetize content they create using these tools? How much control do public figures have over reproduction of their voice and image? How do the US and EU differ in their existing laws on these issues and their likely regulatory responses? (This podcast does not provide legal advice and is intended for informational purposes only.) // See all past episodes by topic and join our newsletter for media & entertainment executives at MonetizingMedia.com/Podcast

Zach Tarica is the Co-Founder & CEO of The Forest Road Company, a leading investment firm specializing in lending to independent film productions. In this episode, he joins Monetizing Media host Eric Cohen-Peckham to explain the types of funding producers need to secure, the role of tax credits offered by different governments, and how his firm evaluates investment opportunities in this space. The conversation focuses in particular on the use of film tax credits as collateral for loans, the process of trading tax credits at a discount to receive cash sooner, and changing trends in the film financing market.

Which skills are in high demand within entertainment C-Suites and which are falling out of favor? How is executive compensation 💰 changing and how does it vary between different parts of entertainment (music, film, TV, games, etc) and different geographies? Are companies starting to look down on executives working remotely? Monetizing Media's Eric Cohen-Peckham and Edward Lindqvist interrogate executive headhunters Jonathan Davies (SRI) and Gerard Miles (Mission One) to find the answers. Jonathan Davies is a Partner at SRI, an executive search firm with offices across 7 countries that specializes in helping companies across media, entertainment, and tech recruit new executives. He focuses on searches for US-based companies. Before getting into executive search, he was Managing Director of Commercial & Marketing Partnerships for Eurosport and Chief Commercial Officer of CNN International. Gerard Miles is a co-founder of Mission One, a new executive search firm focused on the games, entertainment, and technology sectors. He previously spent over 7 years at True Search, becoming a Partner co-leading their gaming and entertainment practice globally from London. 

Andrew Kotliar (Partner at MEP Capital) and Ivar Combrinck (Managing Director at Salem Partners) join hosts Eric Cohen-Peckham and Edward Lindqvist to discuss how investors value what different types of entertainment IP (intellectual property) are worth and what the current market is for different types of IP rights. Think: buying ownership of individual films, songs, books, games, YouTube channels, etc. Andrew has bought, or provided financing for others to buy, a range of music catalogs, film libraries, and YouTube channels. Ivar has spent his whole career valuing IP and negotiating deals around it, including financing of over $7 billion in films. // Keep up with future episodes by signing up for the Monetizing Media newsletter at MonetizingMedia.com

Video games involving NFTs and cryptocurrencies were supposed to be the future. In 2021 and 2022, investors poured $3.6 billion and $3.7 billion, respectively, into gaming-related crypto companies. Then...it collapsed. Axie Infinity went from over 1 million "daily active wallets" to just 9,000 in January 2023, and the top 10 web3 gaming tokens lost on average 97% of their value. The hype is gone. So what happened, and what future (if any) does blockchain technology have in the games industry? Monetizing Media's Eric Cohen-Peckham talks with Ben Cousens (Chief Strategy Officer at Zebedee, a fintech startup for games companies that uses bitcoin's lightning network, and a former games-focused VC) and Aaron Bush (Co-Founder of gaming industry research & advisory firm Naavik, which recently published a report on this top called The Great Reset). Ben and Aaron have a lot of critiques and skepticism but also share excitement about specific opportunities for blockchain tech in games over the next few years. // Keep up with future episodes and get other resources for media & entertainment businesspeople by joining the newsletter at MonetizingMedia.com /// Read Naavik's "The Great Reset" report for free at https://naavik.co/deep-dives/the-great-reset-2023

Josh Ludmir, a partner at law firm Greenberg Traurig who specializes in contracts between media companies and talent, talks with Monetizing Media host Eric Cohen-Peckham about how one of the most common contracts in the industry is evolving. >> The Personal Appearance Release gives a media company or advertiser permission to use the name, image, and likeness of a person. It has long been standard and one-sided in favor of the companies. Social media, NFTs, generative AI tools, and "cancel culture" targeting both companies and individuals has made it more complicated and negotiable, however. // Join the newsletter and find other resources for media & entertainment executives at MonetizingMedia.com

Chris Peterson (CEO of Modish Media, former president of Kindred Media at LionTree, and former EVP Podcasting at iHeart) discusses the state of the podcast industry with investors Eric Cohen-Peckham and Edward Lindqvist. // See more resources for media & entertainment businesspeople and join the newsletter at MonetizingMedia.com // Cross-posted with the V66 Podcast.