• Thanks for visiting the Kaleidescape Owners' Forum

    This forum is for the community of Kaleidescape owners, and others interested in learning about the system, equipment, services, and the company itself.

    It is run by a group of enthusiastic Kaleidescape owners and dealers purely as a service to this community.

    This board is not affiliated in any way with Kaleidescape, Inc.
    For official technical support, product information, or customer service, please visit www.kaleidescape.com

    You can dismiss this box forever by clicking the "X" in the upper right corner of this message.
  • You are currently in "Guest" mode and not logged in with a registered account.

    The forum is free to use and most of the forum can be used by guests who are not registered....

    ... but we strongly encourage you to register for a full account. There is no cost to register for a full account.

    Benefits of registering for a full account:

    • Participate in the discussions! You must have a registered account to make posts on the forums. You will be able to start your own thread on a topic or question, or you can reply to other threads/discussions.
    • Use the "Conversation" feature (known as "private messaging" on other forums) to communicate directly with any of the other users here.
    • Access the Files area. The "resources" area of the forum contains many "Favorite Scene" and Script files that can dramatically increase the enjoyment of your Kaleidescape system. Go directly to great scenes in your favorite movies, created by other owners, and add automation to playback of your system with Scripts.
    • You won't see this annoying notice at the top of every screen!😊

    It's easy and free to register for the forum. Just click the "Register" button in the upper right corner of this page, and follow the instructions there.

    This box goes away for registered users.

Warner Bros. for sale, D2D with new owner?

Netflix passes on deal to acquire WB after Paramount's revised offer. Stock up another 8 points after hours.
Netflix will pocket a cool $2.8 billion break-up fee thanks to Paramount's offer. That certainly beats paying $5.8 billion if their offer was rejected by regulatory authorities, which appeared increasingly likely.
 
It would be nice if there was one comprehensive article about this but I can't find one.

It appears that Paramount increased their offer by a dollar a share and that part of WB was spun off into another company. What parts go with the Paramount sale? Or was the separation of traditional TV markets just a strategic one? I'm not sure.

Once the dust settles there may be a better article out there.

Happy movie viewing!
 
The split of Warner-Discovery into two companies was the original plan that would have allowed a would-be buyer to acquire only Warner Bros. Netflix was only interested in WB, so their acquisition would have waited until after the split. Paramount's offers have always been for the full company, so if this moves forward there isn't a need for the originally planned split. That is, unless regulators require parts of the company to be split to approve the deal.
 
Netflix passes on deal to acquire WB after Paramount's revised offer. Stock up another 8 points after hours.
I'm sure Paramount would be better than Netflix for K customers like us since Paramount already participates on the K store.
 
At least we are getting rid of Warner pricing (I hope).....
 
Obviously any time you're dealing with massive media consolidation there's going to impacts to the industry, trades, audiences, economy, politics, etc. I won't attempt to tackle any of that, but I thought I'd offer some thoughts directly impacting home video enthusiasts.

General:
Good: Paramount regularly produces new releases and catalog upgrades for home video.

Physical Media:
Good: Paramount directly produces and distributes titles on DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K UHD Blu-ray.
Good: Paramount widely licenses titles to boutique labels for Blu-ray and 4K UHD Blu-ray.

Digital Media:
Good: Paramount has their own digital streaming service to host internally produced content.
Good: Paramount licenses titles to a range of external digital streaming services.
Good: Paramount supports digital sales and rentals of its titles.
(VERY) Good: Paramount (uniquely) retains digital distribution rights of titles licensed to boutique labels.
Bad: Paramount is not a member of Movies Anywhere.
???: Paramount removed a range of 3D titles from Apple's TV App in Canada, this may have included purchased titles.*

I'm sure you can imagine what an alternate listing of Netflix could look like, with Red dominating the list. Does this mean that Paramount buying Warner is a good thing? Again, that's too big a question. Does Paramount buying Warner significantly impact the home video enthusiast? No, it should not. We should be able to continue to enjoy our hobby, including Warner titles, and there may be some opportunities for improvement.

Things I'll be keeping an eye on:
Will Paramount release/restore titles buried or hidden by Warner under Zaslav?
I'd love to see Raised by Wolves (and other "offloaded" titles) return to HBO, Paramount+, and/or digital sale.

Will Paramount pull Warner out of Movies Anywhere or choose to join Movies Anywhere?
Of the six major studios, MA current has three. Paramount/Warner will straddle the divide and could trigger a tipping point for the service.

Will Paramount's digital release strategy for licensed titles extend to future Warner boutique labels?
Imagine if the recent flood of new (and announced) licensed WB titles appeared digitally: Excalibur 4K, Cloud Atlas 4K, etc. (I'm not suggesting this could happen; those contracts are written, signed, and executed. I'm speculating on future deals after the acquisition.)

Will Paramount leverage or eliminate the (MOD) Warner Archive label/service?

*3D versions of Paramount titles added for viewing on the Apple Vision Pro are no longer available to buy/rent. One post and one comment state that purchased titles were removed from libraries. If true, this is a significant violation of expectations, particularly with Apple, and the minimal reporting is a reason for both caution and concern.
 
Last edited:
Obviously any time you're dealing with massive media consolidation there's going to impacts to the industry, trades, audiences, economy, politics, etc. I won't attempt to tackle any of that, but I thought I'd offer some thoughts directly impacting home video enthusiasts.
I would add three hedges to your list...
  1. Physical media - Paramount has historically been the first to drop multi-format releases. I suspect this is more about their cost than the cost to consumers, which would mean they view the process as a necessary evil rather than one they are interested in perpetuating.
  2. Movies Anywhere - nonparticipation is bad in principle, but K doesn't either, so it is less directly impactful.
  3. All of them bear the huge caveat that their new overlords are still in the honeymoon phase, so while these may reflect how Paramount did things it doesn't necessarily reflect how Skydance will do things.
 
All of these things you're all speculating about are not even in the top 900 on the To Do list.
 
Back
Top