Introducing Julia Alexander

We’re thrilled to share that Julia Alexander is officially joining Puck to cover the inside story of Hollywood’s streaming wars: the data tactics, content strategies, and the power players behind it all.

Julia is director of strategy at Parrot Analytics and a former journalist for The Verge. More recently, she has written guest columns for Puck about Netflix, Disney and Paramount, and I’m happy to reveal she’s now a regular contributor, writing weekly about the streaming wars. Think of her column as an extension of What I’m Hearing, my insider-friendly tip sheet on all things Hollywood.

She’s calling it What I’m Hearing+ (get it?), and it will post on Tuesday evenings. If you want to stay on top of the video consumption trends that are increasingly defining the entertainment industry, you can sign up here.

Netflix’s Domestic Crisis

For years, Netflix projected it could acquire 90 million subscribers in the U.S.—and that international growth would follow a familiar hockey-stick path. But subscriber losses in its most mature, valuable market also foreshadow future impediments to Netflix’s TAM: What happens when the competition heats up there, too?

Can ‘Stranger Things’ Save Netflix From Its New Self?

The global phenomenon, back after a three-year break, offers the embattled streamer an opportunity to change its narrative with a hybrid-binge drop strategy calculated to lure back subscribers and reduce churn.

Dear Zaz, Read This Before the “Synergies” Start…

The streaming wars are, simply put, a race to own the best content and have the strongest pipes to distribute it (along with all the financial engineering and tax avoidance befitting a media behemoth, naturally). Here are my four predictions for how David Zaslav can take Warner Bros. Discovery from No. 3 to No. 2—or even higher.

Thank you,

Matt