Control Value

There’s a partnership. A semi-evil one.

There was once a TV series. It was exhorbitantly expensive to produce. But everyone wanted to make it. So it ended up being made...not by one studio, but by three. Viacom/Paramount. Disney. News Corp/Fox. Each of the three partners put in a third of the money, and split all money distributions equally.

The problem? The show ended up being hugely successful when it ran the first time on network TV. So...that was great. But now it’s in reruns, and because all three competitors generally hate each other...at least financially...none are willing to run the show a lot on their cable network or broadcast network, because they generate revenues for their hated competitors.

So...they don’t. And this is a big fat bummer to the actors, writers, and producers of the TV show, who were banking on rerun royalties to pay for their divorces.

If one of the studios owned the series (call it Sunlighting), then the series would air a ton more, and presumably generate a ton more desperately needed revenues.

The control value of owning that asset then is huge…because if it were owned by one player, it could and would be monetized massively more.

Yeah, and uh…not to be confused with remote control value, which is about $1.25 on eBay.