Streaming video no longer impresses investors, so media companies need a next actFor the past two years, media and entertainment companies have been dead-set on showing Wall Street that they have a strong streaming video strategy to counter traditional pay-TV decilnes.The thesis was follows: Taking more of a consumer’s cash directly, rather than collecting negotiated fees from a wholesale pay-TV model, will eventually be a better business than bundled cable TV. Or, if not better, at least good enough to survive.The thesis worked for a while. The pandemic accelerated the push to streaming video, as people looked for entertainment options while stuck in their houses. Quarter after quarter in 2020 and 2021, Netflix, Disney, AT&T’s WarnerMedia, NBCUniversal’s Peacock, ViacomCBS’s Paramount

Cryptocurrencies tumble, with bitcoin falling 15% and ether down 20%Bitcoin prices fell sharply on Friday, while ether prices also dived, wiping off nearly $150 billion from the crypto market.Bitcoin fell about 15% and was trading around $36,000 late Friday, according to Coin Metrics. Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, dived about 20% to trade around $2,500.The declines in cryptocurrencies follow Wall Street losses on Thursday. The Nasdaq Composite lost 7.6% this week, and the S&P 500 fell 5.7% for its third straight weekly decline.Rising rates have prompted investors to shed positions in riskier assets. Earlier this week, the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield traded above 1.9%.The Federal Reserve have also indicated it plans to begin reducing its balance sheet, as

The latest Netflix shareholder letter included a line heard around the world:“While this added competition may be affecting our marginal growth some...”That clause doesn’t sound like much, but it’s Netflix’s strongest admission so far that streaming competition is affecting its subscriber growth.Typically in Netflix’s competition section, the company claims Netflix competes against many different things (sleep! TikTok!), but other streaming services don’t pose much of a threat. Netflix has routinely argued there’s more than enough streaming viewing time to go around. It did again this quarter, noting that Netflix is still less than 10% of U.S. television screen time.