The Streaming Wars Come to Real Estate

摘要

Stuck at home during the Covid-19 pandemic, Americans have been streaming movies and TV with abandon. They've plowed through Tiger King and the much-acclaimed production of the musical Hamilton. Millions have even made time for game shows as lowbrow as Floor Is Lava (pretty much what it sounds like), which turned into a hit for Netflix Inc. At the peak in late March and early April, people in the U.S. were devouring in excess of 160 billion minutes of streaming video per week-the equivalent of about eight hours per person, or twice what they watched a year prior, when a trip to the cineplex didn't run much risk of contracting a deadly virus. Against this backdrop, Blackstone Group Inc. decided to buy a 49% stake in three Hollywood studio lots. Hard times have always been a boon for escapist entertainment, but the Blackstone deal, which the company said was completed on Aug. 3 and valued the properties at $1.65 billion, was a long-term bet on streaming. Even after the pandemic, companies such as Amazon.com Inc., Netflix, and Walt Disney Co. will need stages to feed the world's bottomless appetite for video.