The Dan Rayburn Podcast

Michelle Noon, founder and managing partner of private equity firm Clearhaven Partners, joined me for a detailed conversation about the current state of the financing market, including valuations, interest rates, and balance sheets. Michelle discusses how operators and investors balance growth versus profitability, the importance of recurring revenue with high predictability, the true cost of debt...

This week, we discuss the latest temporary injunction against Venu Sports and what it may mean for Disney, FOX, WBD and Fubo. We also cover the latest pricing increase from YouTube’s NFL Sunday Ticket and new Sling TV and Verizon bundling options. We detail the layoffs at Paramount and the closing of Paramount Television Studios, and how many in the media continue to define the "success"...

This week, we recap the key points from Q2 earnings among media companies and vendors, highlighting DTC subscriber additions and losses, profit and loss, cord-cutting, WBD and Paramount writing down the value of their TV businesses, and media stocks' performance over the past 12 months. We also explain crucial financial terms such as GAAP, non-GAAP, EBITDA, OIBDA, and EPS, making it easier to...

This week, we detail the key data and numbers from Roku, Comcast, Charter, Fubo, Vimeo, Harmonic, and Alphabet's Q2 earnings. We also discuss the most recent developments in content news, including Venu's pricing, the NBA agreement that permits Disney to air alternate broadcasts, the $4.7 billion antitrust conviction against the NFL that was overturned, and Diamond Sports' agreement...

This week, we detail all of the numbers you need to know from Netflix's Q2 earnings and discuss why Netflix's ad business is not struggling like some in the media suggest. We also highlight interesting comments from Netflix about their upcoming live events, their lack of need to bundle with other services and how fast their ad business is growing.  We also review all the headlines relate...

This week, we discuss reports that the NBA has finalized agreements totaling $76 billion, keeping ABC/ESPN as the home of the NBA Finals for 11 seasons while adding NBC and Amazon Prime Video as new partners. But the completed contract must still be sent to TNT Sports, giving WBD five days to match Amazon's offer. We also point out a number of the unanswered questions surrounding the merger o...

This week, we highlight all the sports news related to FIFA, FOX, Disney, NHL, WBD and ITV. We also delve into the NFL's ongoing legal battle over its Sunday Ticket trial, emphasizing the significance of the league's decision to appeal the ruling, which could potentially extend the case until 2026. We break down the latest rumors around Paramount Global and discuss its new Paramount+ pri...

See my blog post at www.cdnmarket.com for a detailed breakdown on market sizing. In this comprehensive podcast update on the CDN market, I separate facts from opinions and provide a detailed analysis of the latest trends. I cover everything from CDN pricing trends, market sizing (about $5.3B in 2023), traffic and revenue growth rates, DIY initiatives (TikTok, Disney, Apple, Netflix), tech trends a...

This week, we discuss ad tech and how some SSPs are packaging CTV inventory into curated, omnichannel deals, resulting in CTV inventory being attached to less desirable content. While SSP auctions allow buyers to tailor bids to media quality, buyers could bid highly on packages with only some premium inventory. We also detail the report that Disney has been striking deals that call for significant...

This week, we recap details from the ongoing Sunday Ticket trial, including the news that the NFL rejected ESPN's proposed $70 price for the entire 2023 Sunday Ticket season, as well as single-team packages. Trial evidence also showed that Fox considered Sunday Ticket an "existential threat" to its business, asking the NFL in 2021 that Sunday Ticket not be allowed to grow more than...

This week, we recap details from the ongoing Sunday Ticket trial, including the news that the NFL rejected ESPN's proposed $70 price for the entire 2023 Sunday Ticket season, as well as single-team packages. Trial evidence also showed that Fox considered Sunday Ticket an "existential threat" to its business, asking the NFL in 2021 that Sunday Ticket not be allowed to grow more than...

With all the recent sports streaming news, co-host Mark Donnigan and I did a special “Sports Streaming Podcast Episode” this week. We discuss the upcoming Venu Sports offering (Disney/WBD/FOX Sports JV) and the limitations we expect the service to face at launch. We weigh in on some of the tech behind the scenes and consider whether a 'beta' label could soften the blow for fans expecting...

This week, we discuss some of Netflix's latest data on its ad-supported business, including usage, monthly active users and the news that it will launch an ad tech platform to control its ad buying, placement, and targeting. We also cover news from YouTube's Brandcast, announcing that viewers watch more than 1 billion hours of content on TV screens daily. We discuss why FOX's CEO sa...

This week, we detail all the P&L numbers from the Q1 earnings across OTT platforms and streaming vendors. We highlight that while Disney+ and Hulu had an operating income of $47M, the rest of Disney's business didn't fare well, with linear TV operating income slumping 22% and linear network revenue across Disney’s portfolio falling 8% (excluding ESPN). We discuss why simply cutting c...

Fubo’s Co-Founder and CEO, David Gandler, sits down for an in-depth discussion about their lawsuit against Disney, FOX, and WBD, their Q1 earnings, industry challenges in content licensing, pricing, and bundling, and Fubo’s goal of reaching profitability in 2025.  David defines antitrust, explains why Fubo believes the JV is anticompetitive and how the suit's outcome could impact the entire i...

This week, we recap all the Q1 subscriber and P&L numbers you need to know across Peacock, Paramount+ and Roku, breaking down profitability, losses, subscriber additions, ARPU and free cash flow. We cover the latest cord-cutting numbers from Verizon, Comcast and Charter, which lost 938,000 pay TV subs combined in the quarter. We also discuss some recent numbers from WBD about their expansion o...

This week, we did a mini-review of the NAB Show Streaming Summit and some topics we heard discussed around the difficulty in scaling streaming services for low latency and QoE. We also cover Netflix’s Q1 earnings and excellent user growth, adding 9.3 million subs, which was tempered by the news that they will stop reporting quarterly membership numbers and ARM a year from now. We highlight the lat...

This week, we discuss the latest news around Disney, including their plans to crack down on password sharing in June in a "few" countries and markets, with a "full" rollout in September. We detail how complex ESPN’s DTC offering is becoming, with Disney announcing that its new ESPN streaming service will launch in the fall of 2025 and be offered as part of the Disney+ bundle, g...

Step up to the plate with us this week as we tackle the complex maze of baseball streaming. We cover the latest baseball streaming news, including Fubo adding RSNs and Hulu+ Live TV adding the MLB Network, and discuss the terrible fan experience, with some MLB teams requiring fans to access five different networks to stream games. We also highlight other sports news, including Peacock's exclu...

This week, we detail WBD's planned international expansion of Max, which will make the OTT service available in 25 European countries and 65 countries and territories worldwide. We also highlight comments made by the NFL's Chief Business Officer regarding the newly announced WBD, FOX and Disney sports JV, which is missing over half of all NFL games. We discussed the latest rumors about a...

This special podcast takes you inside the NAB Show Streaming Summit with a preview of all the content, speakers and expert strategies you’ll learn at the event. Hear what the keynote fireside chats will cover with Paramount Global, Prime Video and NBCU. We also provide an overview of the new AI Demo Track and break down all the sessions on sports, content bundling, churn and retention, and streaml...

This week, we detail how SeaChange, which once dominated the cable TV operator market and had over $216 million in revenue, will have its assets acquired for $30 million. We break down the numbers you need to know from Fubo's full-year 2023 earnings, which ended with 1.61M subscribers and reaffirmed their expectation to reach positive cash flow and adjusted EBITDA in 2025. We also detail Para...

This week, we break down all the numbers from Warner Bros. Discovery's full-year 2023 earnings, including DTC profitability in 2023, exclusive NBA negotiations, international expansion of Max, and their disciplined approach to investing in subscriber growth, mindful of lifetime value to subscriber acquisition cost ratios. We also highlight why Fubo is suing Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Disco...

This week, we cover infrastructure news and Q4 and full-year earnings from Akamai, Fastly, and Broadpeak, highlighting overall CDN industry revenue growth, pricing trends, and Akamai's continued dominance of the content delivery market. We also discuss the Super Bowl stream on Paramount+, my 8.5 million AMA viewership, and the reported news that Amazon secured an exclusive NFL playoff game fo...

This week, we discuss the key numbers from Disney's latest earnings, including subs, ARPU and D2C profitability projections. We detail what the ESPN brand could look like, citing their comments that they will bring their ESPN DTC app to market in the fall or late August of 2025, including integrated fantasy betting. We debate what their newly announced plans to offer a joint sports streaming...