Netflix Wins One, Taking on ABC -- August 15, 2017

Worried about the US running out of money? Not to worry! Simply sell crude oil from "emergency reserve." LOL. Reuters reports, data points:

• US will sell 14 million bbls of crude oil from the SPR in late August
• represents 14 days of production from the Bakken or less than 7 days from the Permian
• the sales are required by law signed by President Obama
• the reserve currently holds 680 million bbls of oil, far more than required by international supply agreements

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Over To Netflix

Netflix: wow, score a huge win for Netflix over ABC. The Los Angeles Times is reporting:

The ABC network three years ago handed its most lucrative night of the week — Thursday — to its most prolific producer, Shonda Rhimes. ABC grouped three Rhimes-produced shows together and promoted the bloc as “Thank God It’s Thursday.”

The network has long thanked its lucky stars for Rhimes, who rose to prominence in 2005 with her breakout hit “Grey’s Anatomy.” She followed up with “Scandal,” “Private Practice” and “How to Get Away with Murder,” helping create a female-friendly vibe that distinguished ABC from other networks.

So Netflix’s announcement late Sunday that Rhimes would be moving her Shondaland production company to the streaming service was a gut punch to ABC. The network has raked in hundreds of millions of dollars over the years in advertising revenue and foreign distribution fees from the sale of Rhimes’ shows.

ABC on Monday sought to contain the damage, noting it would not be losing “Grey’s Anatomy” and other shows that made Rhimes famous. The existing shows will remain on ABC.

“With the launch of a new season upon us, fans can rest assured that TGIT remains intact and will be as buzzed about as ever,” Channing Dungey, ABC’s entertainment president, said in a statement referencing the Thursday block.

But the loss of ABC’s most prominent writer-executive producer, known in the TV industry as a show runner, comes at an inopportune time for Walt Disney Co. Its television networks have been struggling to contain costs at a time when viewers were already fleeing in droves for services such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon.com.

Rhimes, in a statement, said she decided to leave ABC for Netflix because the streaming service offered “unique creative freedom and instantaneous global reach.”