Let’s take a look at the entertainment industry winners and losers from COVID-19, starting on a happy note with the winners

·        SVOD. The biggest winner by far is Netflix, closely followed by Disney+ and Apple TV+, as subscription video on demand has surged with everyone staying at home bored looking for entertainment of their choice to watch.

·        Facebook. Social media companies, such as Facebook, have boomed, since people have a lot more time to connect with friends on-line and a lot less ability to do so in person.

·        Google. Loads of free time means lots of time to search for important items, like that recipe you always wanted to try or a picture of a three toed sloth.

·        Writers. What better time to be a writer?  You can work from home, so many conspiracy theories floating around, and a lot of platforms to sell those stories to when production resumes.

·        FX and Animation. Happy day for special effects and animation companies. Everyone can work from home, so producers that can’t shoot on location are turning to FX and animation instead.

But woe to the litany of losers

·        Live Performances. Broadway is shut down, as are almost all live music performances and festivals. Oh pity thee, Live Nation.

·        Movie Theaters. Even when they are allowed to open, so few people show up that they close again. The studios are now forced to bypass them (witness Disney premiering “Mulan” on Disney+). With everyone getting used to big budget films via the streamers, and many film releases being delayed or moving on-line, movie theaters won’t be profitable any time soon.

·        Theme Parks. Duh.

·        Independent Film Industry. Studios and big streamers such as Netflix don’t need completion bonds to produce films, but the independent film industry does, and it is practically shut down by the inability to insure for COVID-19. This has drastically impacted independent film companies, sales agents, foreign distributors, and banks that loan against pre-sales.

·        Directors, Actors, and Production Crews. With most productions shut down and only slowly coming back on-line, and even then with cumbersome procedures, it is not surprising that directors, actors, and production crews are hard hit, since they can’t work from home.

·        Talent Agencies. Just look at the list above, and it is obvious why talent agencies are in the eye of the storm.

And then there is a mixed bag of companies that are both winners and losers:

·     Pay TV. There was initially a huge spike in viewing pay TV while everyone was stuck at home, but as viewing skewed to SVOD and AVOD (when and what you want), cord cutting accelerated, and the future of pay TV is now clear, and it is bleak.

  ·        AVOD. While hours watching ad-supported VOD (“AVOD”), such as Pluto TV and short-form AVOD, such as YouTube, is way up, particularly by people feeling the economic pinch of shuttered work, ad revenue is way down due to the belt tightening by most advertisers.

·        Podcasts. Notwithstanding the reduction in commuting time (the most popular time for podcasts), they have become increasingly popular through home listening. However, like AVOD, most are ad supported, and ad revenue has fallen significantly.

So win, lose, or draw, the entertainment industry has been profoundly impacted by COVID-19, and many of these changes will long outlast any vaccine.