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Make no mistake: The drop in Netflixs (NFLX) subscriber count is a major setback for the company, Manhattan Venture Partners Head of Research Santosh Rao told Yahoo Finance (video above).

This is a body blow to the bull case definitely to the Netflix story, the subscriber story, said Rao. Netflix was all about subscribers for so long and it's really taking it on the chin here.

Netflixs stock tanked in response to its latest round of earnings, as shares dropped by more than 35% in after-hours trading on Wednesday. After withdrawing from Russia due to its invasion of Ukraine, Netflix lost about one million subscribers and clocked a net loss of 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter of 2022. The Internets abuzz with theories as to what could be behind the decline and what the company should do next, from too much subscriber churn to talk of Netflixs exploration of an ad-supported subscription. But one thing is clear, said Rao that its time for Wall Street to revamp its expectations.

The whole story has to be re-evaluated from a lower base now, he said. The multiples are getting compelling at this point, but we need to see that the growth story is still intact and they have a strategy to tackle the challenges ahead.

Despite the markets reaction to earnings, bright spots for Netflix could be on the horizon as it looks to adjust, given the release of much-awaited content like the latest seasons of Stranger Things, Peaky Blinders, and The Umbrella Academy. Wall Streets also intrigued by the companys newly-announced efforts to offer an ad-supported subscription, as well as its efforts to wrangle password-sharing. Raymond James analyst Andrew Marok especially views the possible ad-supported offering as a significant positive, he wrote in an April 20 note. He also added that the company has solid operating margins.

Netflix recorded 1Q22 operating margins of 25.1% vs. guidance of 22.3%, driven by cost efficiencies, wrote Marok.

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The cast of Netflix's "Bridgerton" at the second season's premiere in March. REUTERS/May James

As Netflix finds its way forward, the companys going to need to expand both its content strategy and geographic reach, said Rao.

They need to get into some other sticky things like more gaming, maybe sports, advertising revenue, of course, he said. There are all these additional levers that they need to pull, because this is not working. The traditional core business may have peaked, especially in their core markets.

There are many ways forward for Netflix, though perhaps the most important of them is international growth. India and Japan are key growth markets for Netflix, and theres room to keep building out the platforms footprint in EMEA, said Rao. Netflix agrees, per its shareholder letter, which delineated the ways the company is setting itself up to thrive internationally.

To support this, weve been building out capabilities like creative development, personalization, and language presentation/localization, the company said in its shareholder letter. Netflix is now producing films and TV in more than 50 countries with a high degree of integration in the local entertainment ecosystem resulting in the creation of blockbusters from every region. In fact, three out of our six most popular TV seasons of all time are non-English language titles: Squid Game, La Casa de Papel Part 4 and All Of Us Are Dead.

Its imperative that Netflix approaches these markets with a more localized strategy and competitive pricing, added Rao.

Allie Garfinkle is a senior tech reporter at Yahoo Finance. Find her on twitter @agarfinks.

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Netflixs subscriber loss is a 'body blow to the bull case' - Yahoo Finance

There's no doubt about it: Soaring mortgage rates are an economic shock to the U.S. housing market. Over the past month alone, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate has spiked from 3.11% to 5.11%. It's both pricing out some stretched homebuyers and causing some would-be borrowers to lose their mortgage eligibility.

The swift move up in mortgage rates also has research firms re-gearing their housing forecast models.

Heading into 2022, real estate research firms presumed the Federal Reserve would put upward pressure on ratesbut not like this. On the year, the Mortgage Bankers Association forecasted the average 30-year fixed rate would climb to 4%, while Fannie Mae forecasted a 3.3% mortgage rate by year's end. We blew past those estimates weeks ago.

Now, real estate researchers are dialing down their home price forecasts. On Wednesday, Zillow researchers released a revised forecast, predicting that U.S. home prices would rise 14.9% between March 2022 and March 2023. That's down 2.9 percentage points from last month, when Zillow said home prices would shoot up 17.8% over the coming year.

"Driving the downwardly revised forecast are affordability headwinds that have strengthened faster than expected, largely due to sharp increases in mortgage rates," wrote the Zillow researchers. "Further risks to the outlook as well: Inventory levels remain near record lows, but have the potential to recover faster than anticipated, which could lower future price and sales volume projections."

The fact Zillow has cut its forecast shouldn't come as a surprise. After all, this swift move up in rates is creating a serious affordability crunch for homebuyers. At a 3.11% fixed mortgage rate in December, a borrower would owe a principal and interest payment of $2,138 on a $500,000 mortgage. That payment would spike to $2,718 if taken out at a 5.11% rate. Over the course of the 30-year loan, that's an additional $208,800.

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If Zillow is right and home prices do rise another 14.9% over the coming 12 months, it'd mark another historically strong year for home price growth. Over the past 12 months, home prices are up a staggering 19.2%. Each of those figures are outliers compared to average annual U.S. home price growth of 4.6% posted since 1987.

"Even with the downward revision from last month, these figures would represent a remarkably competitive housing market in the coming year," writes the Zillow researchers.

But not everyone is as bullish as Zillow.

Over the coming year, CoreLogic predicts that home prices are set to decelerate to a 5% rate of growth. The Mortgage Bankers Association says home prices are poised to rise 4.8% over the coming 12 months, while Fannie Mae predicts home prices will rise 11.2% this year, and 4.2% in 2023.

Of course, there's a chance they're all wrong. The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas has already found signs that U.S. home price growth is greater than underlying economic fundamentals would push it up. The title of the Dallas Fed paper is blunt: "Real-time market monitoring finds signs of brewing U.S. housing bubble."

"Our evidence points to abnormal U.S. housing market behavior for the first time since the boom of the early 2000s. Reasons for concern are clear in certain economic indicators...prices appear increasingly out of step with fundamentals," wrote the Dallas Fed researchers.

While CoreLogic says a housing market correction is unlikely over the coming year, the research firm does say most housing markets across the country are overpriced. The firm calculated a market risk assessment for nearly 400 metropolitan statistical areas. The finding? CoreLogic deems 65% of U.S. regional housing markets to be "overvalued."

Both homebuyers and home sellers alike might want to take housing forecasts with a grain of salt. Look no further than the housing forecasts published during the COVID-19 recession. In the spring of 2020, both Zillow and CoreLogic published economic models predicting that U.S. home prices would fall by spring 2021. That price drop never came. Instead, the housing market went on a historic run that continues to today.

Follow @Newslambert on Twitter to see new housing forecasts as they are released.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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What home prices will look like in 2023, according to Zillows revised downward forecast - Yahoo Finance

Kyrie Irving is an easy and most times, deserved punching bag for the media, for the NBA and for anyone with a pair of red gloves.

He was rightfully fined $50,000 by the NBA for his one-fingered salutes to Celtics fans and probably a phrase caught on social media as he walked to the locker room, fighting back against abuse from the scorned lovers.

And you know what?

Good for him.

The league did what it had to do players can't be seen giving obscene gestures multiple times on national TV during a playoff game. As intense as April, May and June can be, theres gotta be some decorum.

But it doesnt mean Irving has to take every morsel of nonsense from the Celtics fans. It was admittedly funny when he mocked the fans, wiping invisible tears from his eyes as he torched the team in green during Game 1 of the highly anticipated first-round series.

The NBA has to protect its product, and Irving can reply to similar energy even when he knows the penalty is coming.

Plenty of times coaches will needle the NBA if not downright criticize it by airing grievances, knowing theyll get the call from the top watchdogs wholl make their next checks a little lighter.

But they get their point across.

Now to be clear, Irving wasnt doing anything strategic to give himself or his team a competitive advantage Sunday one could argue he let the Celtics fans get in his head too much, leading to a dribbling exhibition on the final offensive possession that went nowhere before Jayson Tatums improbable game-winner but he doesnt have to just sit and take the nasty things fans say.

At the heart of this, its all illogical. Passion usually is fans being so invested in something so trivial when you think about it but it fuels everything in the business of sports because people care.

Irving has waved sage around the TD Garden upon one of his returns, apparently trying to cleanse it of negative spirits. And he stomped on the Celtic logo (did anyone know it had a name Lucky?) which drew the ire of all-time great Kevin Garnett and apparent luminary and defender of Celtics tradition, Glen Big Baby Davis.

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Who knew Irving could inspire such non-vaccine anger?

Irving spurned the Celtics, planning his escape from Massachusetts Alcatraz within a year of his arrival. And that rejection was a high crime for the sophisticated Celtics fans who arent used to someone not loving them back, refusing to forgive and forget.

Now, Irving manages to douse kerosene on the city every chance he gets. That wound wont heal after he said he would come back only to leave that next July, borderline quitting while still on the clock. He knows how they feel and does this passive-aggressive thing, intimating hes at such a place of peace in Brooklyn which subsequently points to Boston as a place of turmoil.

But Celtics fans have been wearing well-earned labels for decades, many around issues of race. Its something players are generally sensitive to, although most players whove recently played for the Celtics have come to love and appreciate the city and franchise long after departing.

It remains in the air like a fog thin enough to drive through easily but a fog nonetheless, and it cant be ignored. Irving bandies himself as being conscious and has certainly displayed sensitivity, even if it feels misplaced.

Those two ideals intersect and cant be ignored. Sit in TD Garden long enough and youll hear some cringeworthy things which youll hear in virtually any NBA arena, to be fair but some things hit differently because its Boston.

And best believe, a lot of words are spewed because for all the proximity a courtside seat provides relative to the other professional sports, fans know that barrier exists where players wont go but so far to retaliate.

So if Irving wants to troll and inflame this toxic relationship, good for him.

A Boston Celtics fan holds up a sign reading, "Kyrie is the enemy," during Game 1 of the Celtics-Nets NBA playoffs first-round series at TD Garden in Boston on April 17, 2022. (Jim Davis/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

The NBA wont say it aloud, but its good for the league. It builds anticipation and intrigue to an already passionate playoff series and nobody has to say a single word about Irvings nonsense on his vaccination logic.

A little hate never hurt anybody, especially when its manifested in the form of true, high-stakes competition. As much as we can all appreciate the classy, well-behaved athlete, sprinkling some color and some spice makes the league better.

The words of Shaquille ONeal and Charles Barkley lightly chastising Irving for his profane response echoes because of their respective statures: ONeal, no matter what you think of his television persona, took all kinds of physical punishment as a player from opponents who werent as big or strong as him but had to hit as hard as they could.

Other than swinging at Brad Miller one time which wouldve ended Millers life if he connected ONeal was a man of great restraint.

Barkleys history is a little more checkered, but hes as lighthearted as they come as hes settled into the most entertaining person in sports television, so not taking anything seriously is the perspective he leans from.

But with fans being able to reach players in more ways than ever, holding up cellphones to bait and goad at every opportunity, soon enough someone will bark back in kind.

So while Irving knows exactly what hes doing, flipping the double bird behind his head, giving a single one after hitting a clock-beating jumper and earning a five-figure fine. He doesnt just have to take it, especially with social media being more prevalent and mean and fans becoming more and more brazen.

As long as he doesnt dish out any Stephen Jackson-style justice, no complaints from here.

And in the meantime, get your popcorn ready.

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Kyrie Irving's toxic relationship with Boston is good for the NBA - Yahoo Sports

By Timothy Aeppel

(Reuters) - A U.S. judge's ruling this week that the Biden administration's mask mandate for public transportation was unlawful dealt another blow to an industry that built dozens of small U.S. mask factories during the darkest days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Just a year ago, 26 of these upstart producers signed a letter to the administration, urging a crackdown on an influx of low-priced Chinese masks that was undermining their new operations, all of which were opened in response to a health crisis that highlighted U.S. dependence on foreign producers of all types of medical safety gear.

Today, just nine of the letter's signers still produce masks.

"The government never really supported mask manufacturing in the U.S.," said Lloyd Armbrust, chief executive of Armbrust American, a mask maker in Pflugerville, Texas. The lifting of the mandate will only hasten the decline of the new industry, he added.

Armbrust, who is also president of the American Mask Manufacturers Association, a group created to fight for the domestic startups, is one of the survivors. But his mask business is a shadow of what it was even a few months ago.

During the record surge of cases from the fast-spreading Omicron variant that started late last year and peaked in January, Armbrust did up to half a million dollars in sales a day, he said. "Now, were like 5% of that."

Armbrust said his business can make money producing at a lower level, in part because it has shifted toward also producing air filters for homes. Unlike face masks, which have become a divisive U.S. political issue, home filters are not controversial.

Following the ruling by a federal judge in Florida on Monday, the Biden administration said it would no longer enforce a U.S. mask mandate on public transportation. The move prompted airlines to drop their mask rules and the pullback has spread to other businesses.

Uber Technologies and Lyft Inc both scrapped mask mandates for their U.S. riders and drivers on Tuesday, while Walt Disney Co made masks optional for fully vaccinated visitors to its indoor and outdoor locations and transport facilities.

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Domestic producers say one risk going forward is that they are unlikely to ramp up production again, should a new virus variant emerge or some other crisis that prompts governments and businesses to again rush to buy masks.

"You better believe I won't scale up like that again," said Armbrust. "Why would I?"

Meanwhile, some companies are counting on customers continuing to buy their products, albeit at lower volumes than during the height of the pandemic.

"I think there are people who will still go on wearing masks, regardless of whether the government" requires it, said Clayton Geyer, vice president of Indiana Face Mask, which continues producing masks.

Geyer said his company "has definitely fallen short" of how they thought it would grow during the pandemic. He noted that orders have spiked sharply, for instance during the recent Omicron wave.

After a spurt, however, he sees customers quickly revert to buying cheaper imported masks.

"It's incredibly difficult to build business relationships," he said.

(Reporting by Timothy Aeppel; Editing by Dan Burns and Bill Berkrot)

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America's mask manufacturers take it on the chin - Yahoo Finance

BERKELEY, Calif. In a state where tent cities continue to proliferate underneath freeway overpasses and rows of broken-down RVs provide shelter to a growing number of people, the number of deaths among the homeless has been soaring in recent years.

Its like a wartime death toll in places where there is no war, Maria Raven, an emergency room doctor in San Francisco and the co-author of a study on homelessness deaths during the coronavirus pandemic, told the New York Times.

The study, which focused on the deaths of indigent people living in San Francisco, found that twice as many people died while homeless in the year starting March 17, 2020, compared with any prior year. Between that date and March 16, 2021, 331 deaths among homeless people were recorded.

People walk past homeless encampments on the Venice Beach boardwalk in Los Angeles in April 2021. (Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)

The leading cause of death, however, was not COVID-19, and death by overdose was due primarily to exposure to fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency says is 80-100 times stronger than morphine.

In fact, for the year covered in the study, COVID-19 was not listed as the primary cause of any deaths among the citys homeless.

California is home to the largest percentage of an estimated 500,000 homeless Americans, accounting for roughly one-quarter of the total, the Times reported. Yet the number of deaths reported among the homeless is also on the rise in cities like Indianapolis, Nashville, Salt Lake City and Austin, Texas. Still, as the Times noted, based on reporting from officials in 58 California counties that tally the deaths of homeless people, last year the state recorded at least 4,800 such fatalities.

A homeless encampment in Los Angeles. (Hans Gutknecht/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images)

Nearly 2,000 of last years deaths of homeless people were recorded in Los Angeles County.

A study of the deaths of homeless people living in Alameda County, which includes Berkeley, from 2018 through 2020 found that 57% of those fatalities took place outside of a medical setting, instead occurring on streets/sidewalks, outdoors, in vehicles, encampments, shelters, others' residences and other locations.

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As with the study conducted in San Francisco, the leading cause of death in the county was from drug overdoses, with 25% of homeless deaths between 2018 and 2020 (190) ... directly due to drug overdose, with the number of overdoses among people experiencing homelessness rising sharply in 2020.

With sky-high housing costs, especially in urban centers like the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles, Californians are often stretched to make rent or pay a mortgage. A March poll conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California found that nearly 55% of state residents said they were concerned about not having enough money to cover their housing costs.

According to data compiled by Zillow, California's median home price rose by more than 20% in 2021, to $793,100. In the coming year it is expected to rise another 5.2%, to $834,400.

As of September 2021, the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in California was $1,996, according to Statista.

Continued here:

Spike in deaths of homeless people not due to COVID, study finds - Yahoo News

This article first appeared in the Morning Brief. Get the Morning Brief sent directly to your inbox every Monday to Friday by 6:30 a.m. ET. Subscribe

Friday, April 22, 2022

Today's newsletter is by Sam Ro, the author of TKer.co. Follow him on Twitter at @SamRo.

This week came with the World Bank and IMF cutting their outlooks for global economic growth.

Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs made waves when its chief economist concluded theres a roughly 35% chance the U.S. economy will go into recession within two years.

Its worth stressing that the World Bank and IMF still expect growth, and Goldman Sachs forecast implies that the U.S. economy will more likely avoid a recession.

Nevertheless, its always good to be vigilant about recessionary risks. And few are being more vigilant right now than the Federal Reserve, which is currently engineering monetary policy in a way aimed at cooling the economy to a level that brings inflation down from decades-high levels.

Whether the Feds plan can help the economy avoid recession will become clear in hindsight.

But theres a way to track Feds progress: Job openings and unemployment.

After the March Federal Open Market Committee meeting, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the labor market was tight to an unhealthy level. Specifically, he noted that at the time there were 1.7 job openings for every unemployed person. He argued that this extraordinary demand for labor has fueled significant wage inflation, which in turn has helped spur inflation across the economy.

Powell seems to believe that with the right amount of tighter monetary policy, the level of job openings can come down, relieving wage pressure, without causing unemployment to rise. Assuming unemployment is contained, then the risk of recession should be limited.

As of February, there were 11.27 million job openings. Thats about in line with the 11.28 million openings in January. Unfortunately, the Bureau of Labor Statistics job openings data comes on a significant lag with the March numbers being released on May 3.

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However, job listings site Indeed regularly publishes more current job openings stats based off of its own data. And while job openings remain considerably above pre-pandemic levels, they have been coming down in the weeks going into April 15.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate continues to be depressed, sitting at 3.6% as of March compared to 13% in the second quarter of 2020. Again, the BLSs official data comes on a bit of a lag the April employment report comes on May 6.

The Department of Labor, however, provides weekly updates on initial claims for unemployment benefits. While not as comprehensive as the BLSs monthly jobs report, initial claims do provide some indication as to whats going on in terms of job cuts.

In the week ending April 16, there were 184,000 initial claims filed. This is down from the prior weeks tally of 186,000. This was the ninth straight week this reading was depressed below the 200,000 level.

Image: Yahoo Finance

Its still early days in the Feds tightening effort. But so far, were getting early indications that job openings can indeed decline without forcing unemployment significantly higher.

If this trend is confirmed and it continues, then the Fed thinks we should begin to see wage growth slow down, which in turn should cause broad inflation reading to cool. We shall see.

Economy

9:45 a.m. ET: S&P Global U.S. Manufacturing PMI, April preliminary (58.0 expected, 58.8 in March)

9:45 a.m. ET: S&P Global U.S. Services PMI, April preliminary (58.0 expected, 58.0 in March)

9:45 a.m. ET: S&P Global U.S. Composite PMI, April preliminary (57.9 in March)

Earnings

Pre-market

7:00 a.m. ET: Verizon (VZ) is expected to report adjusted earnings of $1.35 per share on revenue of $33.59 billion

7:00 a.m. ET: American Express (AXP) is expected to report adjusted earnings of $2.39 per share on revenue of $11.63 billion

7:30 a.m. ET: Schlumberger (SLB) is expected to report adjusted earnings of $0.33 per share on revenue of $5.94 billion

7:30 a.m. ET: Kimberly-Clark (KMB) is expected to report adjusted earnings of $1.24 per share on revenue of $4.91 billion

Post-market

Politics

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Early signs that the Fed's plan might be working: Morning Brief - Yahoo Finance

Tennis Hall of Famer and ESPN analyst Pam Shriver opened up on Wednesday and revealed that she was in an inappropriate and damaging relationship with my much older coach that started when she was 17.

Shriver told ESPNs Outside the Lines and wrote a story for The Telegraph detailing her relationship with former coach Don Candy.

Shriver, 59, got her professional tennis start at 15 in 1978 the same year she reached the US Open finals as an amateur. She started working with Candy, who served as her coach and chaperone. Their relationship started two years later, she said, and then became sexual when she was 20.

Candy, who was 33 years older than Shriver, died in 2020 at 91.

"It was during a time that was a really difficult time for me to have my first relationship," Shriver told ESPN. "It never should have been with my coach and ... I've just realized that it's time to talk about my story and hopefully make it easier for some other people who've also had stories that are similar."

Shriver who won 21 singles titles on the WTA tour and 21 Grand Slam doubles titles throughout her career said she was never abused sexually by Candy. She did, though, say that she was emotionally abused and that her relationship with him became an open secret.

Shriver said she told her father about the relationship with Candy. It was something that, both while it was happening and after, that led to a lot of shame and guilt.

"I felt also a lot of anger, jealousy when his wife would come to tournaments. Um, so it was just basically, at times really miserable, she told ESPN.

"And because I was, you know, living the life of trying to be the best tennis player I could be, I really didn't understand how difficult the secret and the juggling was. And so I just kept it to myself.

She said her feelings toward Candy, even to this day, are conflicting.

"Yes, he and I became involved in a long and inappropriate affair. Yes, he was cheating on his wife. But there was a lot about him that was honest and authentic. And I loved him, she wrote in The Telegraph. Even so, he was the grown-up here. He should have been the trustworthy adult. In a different world, he would have found a way to keep things professional. Only after therapy did I start to feel a little less responsible. Now, at last, I've come to realize that what happened is on him."

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Pam Shriver at the US Open in 1978. (Focus on Sport/Getty Images)

Shriver was asked why she decided to come forward about her relationship with Candy several decades after it happened.

One big reason, she wrote, is because this still goes on a lot. She said shes witnessed dozens of instances throughout her playing and commentating career in the sport, and that it worries her.

It was also something she said she finally came to terms with during the COVID-19 pandemic and following the death of her mother, who she never told.

"Most of the time in my life, I just kept moving forward and I never allow myself enough time to kind of think about what had happened then and really how damaging the relationship was, how it hurt my tennis, my performance, how it hurt my ability to form healthy relationships moving forward in my life, she told ESPN.

"It really did take a combination of things. The pause of the pandemic, realizing that my kids were of similar age I was when the relationship started. It also took, I think, some reflection when my, my mom died and last August. She died, never knowing that this happened. She always thought that I was being chaperoned by a safe person.

"And so, I just feel like it's time for me. I feel like it's important for my healing. And it's important that I can maybe feel that me coming forward and talking about my story in detail, might just help a few young players. Maybe it'll help coaches to understand that they need to not cross that boundary. So I feel like, for a lot of reasons, it's the right time."

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Hall of Famer Pam Shriver reveals she was in inappropriate relationship with her coach at 17 - Yahoo Sports

Phil Rynda, whose official title is Netflixs Director of Creative Leadership and Development for Original Animation, was let go this week, along with several of his staff, TheWrap can exclusively report and Netflix has confirmed.

According to several creators who spoke to TheWrap, the Kids & Family space at Netflix Animation has changed. Series that benefited from great word-of-mouth and critical praise arent being renewed and several high-profile projects have been unceremoniously canceled, including the long-delayed adaptation of Jeff Smiths beloved comic book series Bone (first announced back in 2019). Netflix, which just saw its stock plummet more than 30% after revealing a subscriber and revenue loss during its first-quarter earning report Tuesday, isnt just in trouble on Wall Street. Its also facing complications in Toon Town.

Ryndas firing was perhaps an inevitable end to a deeply chaotic period for Netflix Animation, particularly its Kids & Family division, which saw a boom of talent and creativity give way to corporate pressure, mixed messages and accusations of staged data.

Netflix Animation, especially when it came to Kids & Family content, was once considered a glittery Utopia. Superstar creators and visionary young talent were swayed by promises of unprecedented creative freedom and healthy production budgets, backed by the financial and promotional might of the Netflix empire.

A few years ago, there was no place more welcoming or seductive to artists and animators than Netflix Animation. Netflixs animation units, like its live-action divisions, were known for being a place that you could bring a project that might not have gained traction anywhere else, and suddenly have it produced, without much studio interference. Animation heavyweights like Craig McCracken, Elizabeth Ito and Jorge Gutierrez rushed to the service and quickly started working on their personal dream projects, while Netflix also courted younger artists and fostered productive licensing agreements, chiefly with DreamWorks Animation (Guillermo del Toros Trollhunters and its assorted spinoffs, Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, and many more).

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But now you are seeing fewer of these creator-driven projects. New series arent as exciting as they once were. Many animators have left the studio, decamping to old standbys like Cartoon Network, Disney and Nickelodeon or other upstarts like Apple TV+ and Amazon. And Netflixs focus has shifted noticeably too.

One producer, whose show on Netflix wasnt renewed, said that when they got to Netflix, Rynda, who served creative roles on groundbreaking animated series like Gravity Falls and Adventure Time, told Netflix creators, We want to be the home of everybodys favorite show. By the time the producer left several years later, there was a new thesis statement: We want to make what our audience wants to see, Reed Hastings, Netflixs Co-CEO, now told animation talent. As far as mission statements go, those are vastly different.

True to this new thesis statement, several high-profile animated projects in the Kids & Family space have been outright canceled, including Bone (which Netflix confirmed), an adaptation of Roald Dahls The Twits that was meant to be part of several Dahl-based projects (Netflix insists The Twits is still alive, potentially now as a feature film) and Lauren Fausts witchy Toil and Trouble. Netflix currently touts Boss Baby as the ideal of what an animated series on the platform should be and what kind of numbers those animated series should be bringing in (this was reiterated by almost everyone we spoke to) although Netflix doesnt even own Boss Baby it licenses the series from DreamWorks Animation. (A new Boss Baby series premieres next month.)

Elizabeth Ito, whose deeply brilliant City of Ghosts was recently nominated for a Peabody Award and currently sports a perfect 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, reiterated, as many did, how much they enjoyed working with both the executive teams and Netflixs marketing department. But she suggested that Netflixs 360-feedback culture, which is espoused in its culture memo and trumpets full transparency as one of its core tenets, went out the window when the show was threatened with cancelation. Ito and others have complained of being presented with staged data, data meant to prove a point that Netflix has and squash conversation around it. Ito described the data as explaining, for the first time, What they should have gotten for what they spent on the show. (Netflix confirms their decisions are made using data, which takes into account viewing versus cost.) Creators have described the process as manipulative. One producer sent the data back, asked questions, and received a separate, different set of data that still reinforced Netflixs position. Ito was left wondering, Well, are you going to make more or not? Netflix did not. Ito is now at Apple.

Making matters more frustrating for creators are a set of imposed corporate guidelines that dictate, with Draconian exactness, the marketing and distribution of the series. Promotion doesnt typically begin until a month before the shows premiere. (Sometimes they havent even been announced before then.) This leaves a very small window to build awareness and anticipation, much less cultivate genuine excitement. And once the show debuts on the platform, it can often get lost in the shuffle (how many times have you ever seen an animated series above the fold on the homepage?), leading many creators to become their own hype machines via various social media platforms.

Levers that other animation studios at bigger corporations can pull, like consumer products releases or promotional tie-ins, arent pulled at Netflix. There werent Kid Cosmic action figures lining the shelves of Target. You couldnt get a City of Ghosts Happy Meal toy at McDonalds. Theres no theme park or dedicated retail space to exploit either. On the official Netflix Shop, there isnt a single Kids & Family animated series represented.

Guidelines that usually indicate the way Netflix shows are introduced fail for series in the Kids & Family Animation space. Ito, who has small children, says that kids are complicated. Netflix says that one of the things that sway the relative success of series is word of mouth. But kids dont talk to each other like that, Ito said.

Dominic Bisignano, an executive producer on Megan Nicole Dongs musical animated series Centaur World, said that Netflix is proud of its data. He admits that this approach brings up a lot of questions. While Bisignano says that Dong was able to tell the story she wanted to over the course of Centaurworlds episodes, Dong told the streamer, If you want more, we can do that. Instead, the team was presented with data but not given context for what that data means to Netflix. It seemed Centaurworld wouldnt go beyond its initial commitment. When Bisignano asked questions about the data, Netflix stonewalled him. Bisignano is now at Cartoon Network.

If an animated series receives accolades after its cancellation, as City of Ghosts did with several awards and nominations, including the Peabody, Netflix is even slower to act, if at all. (Look at Itos personal Twitter account for the one-woman campaign that finally got Netflix, after several hours, to release a single City of Ghosts Peabody sharable.) This is a dramatically different approach to their Kids & Family series content than even the Animated Feature space at Netflix, which launched an endless, elaborate campaign for The Mitchells vs. the Machines Best Animated Feature Oscar this year.

With Netflix stock precipitously dropping and budgets being tightened or slimmed company-wide (from production to hiring), maybe these animation creators knew long ago what everybody else is figuring out now: that Netflix, while filled with great people, can be a wonderful place. But when you are being driven purely by algorithms and numbers, sometimes the math doesnt add up.

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Netflix Animation Erased: Executives Fired, Shows Canceled and Accusations of Staged Data (Exclusive) - Yahoo Entertainment

Corporate executives are demanding their employees come back to the officeyet a recent survey finds that the bosses are often staying at home themselves. Or, at least, working somewhere else.

After two years of remote work from the COVID-19 pandemic, companies are trying to return to in-person work. Corporate leaders, from Goldman Sachs David Solomon to JPMorgans Jamie Dimon, are trying to use carrots and, increasingly, sticks to get their employees back to their desks.

Even President Joe Biden is exhorting workers to start commuting again, saying that its time for Americans to get back to work and fill our great downtowns again at his State of the Union address in March.

However, a recent survey from the Future Forum, a consortium backed by Slack that conducts research on working culture, is finding that some executives arent walking the walk when it comes to returning to the office.

Future Forums April 2022 Pulse Survey of more than 10,000 "knowledge workers" across the U.S., Australia, France, Germany, Japan, and the U.K. found that 35% of non-executives were now commuting into the office each daywhile only 19% of executives were doing the same. Future Forum defines executives to be anyone in the C-suite, or those with the title of president.

Future Forum found that just 21% of both executives and non-executives wanted to return to in-person work, which suggests that at least some non-executives who are back at the office dont want to be there. Both executives and non-executives also reported that their work-life balance had deteriorated in the first quarter, although non-executives reported a decline in work-life balance at least five times greater than their bosses.

Non-executives also reported worse scores when it came to work-related anxiety, which Future Forum called a troubling double standard in who is feeling the pain of return-to-office policies.

Companies that publicly committed to bring workers back to the office have struggled to actually get their employees commuting again. Goldman Sachs, which initially demanded that workers return to the office in February, found that only half its workers showed up on the first day of the offices reopening. JPMorgan is also letting half its employees work in hybrid or fully remote settings, despite CEO Jamie Dimon saying that work from home doesnt work for people who want to hustle" last year.

Getting the balance between in-person and remote work wrong could have dire consequences for companies. Future Forums survey found that workers dissatisfied with their level of flexibility are now three times more likely to say they will definitely look for a new job in the coming year.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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Bosses are demanding employees return to the office, but a new survey shows executives are staying at home themselves - Yahoo Finance

SALT LAKE CITY The Utah Jazz entered Game 3 of their Western Conference first-round series coming off a loss to a shorthanded Dallas Mavericks, and Thursday night was no different as the Mavericks (still without Luka Doncic) took the win on the road, 126-118.

The Mavs came out loose and looked comfortable playing together without their star player. Second-year guard Josh Green was the difference-maker for the Mavs in the first half, putting up 10 points, six assists and two steals in 11 minutes off the bench before halftime.

The Mavs had a comfortable 17-point lead at halftime after connecting on 13 3-pointers to the Jazzs three, prompting boos from the 18,306 fans in Vivint Arena as they walked off the court.

"We weren't playing well, we got booed," Jazz star Donovan Mitchell said. "It's part of the game. I've booed the hell out of a TV as a kid and it's nothing personal. It is what it is."

The Jazz looked lost on defense during the first half. Jalen Brunson was getting to the lane with ease and dishing it out for open shots. The Jazz struggled in help-side defense, they weren't shooting the gap and were slow on rotations.

"In the end, we still have to contain the ball," Jazz head coach Quin Snyder said. "When the ball gets in the paint, that creates problems for us because we're coming over to help and they're kicking it out for open threes."

Dallas Mavericks guard Jalen Brunson shoots as Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell defends during Game 3 of their NBA playoffs first-round playoff series on April 21, 2022, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Snyder switched it up with a small-ball lineup, taking Rudy Gobert out and subbing in Eric Paschall with five minutes left in the third quarter. Gobert didnt sub back into the game until the eight-minute mark in the fourth.

It opened up the spacing on the floor and allowed for players like Mitchell and Mike Conley to get downhill. Mitchell took over, electrifying the sold-out crowd with two impressive dunks to bring the Jazz within six points heading into the fourth quarter. The Jazz cut it to one point with under seven minutes to go, but they couldnt contain Brunson (who is averaging 32 points in the series) as he closed out the game with eight points and finished with 31.

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"I like what we did in the second half," Gobert said. "The thing for us now is, can we have that intensity defensively for 48 minutes? And we're going to have to do it if we want to win any games."

The narrative around the Jazz has been the same for the past six seasons. Theyre great during the regular season and cant bring it all together during postseason play.

Last season, they had an All-Star-caliber backcourt with Mitchell and Conley, Defensive Player of the Year Gobert, Sixth Man of the Year Jordan Clarkson and they still couldnt beat the Los Angeles Clippers, even with Kawhi Leonard missing the final two games.

After failing to make the postseason in Snyder's first two seasons, the Jazz have lost in the first or second round each season since 2016-17.

The speculation of tension between Mitchell and Gobert the past two seasons came alive again late this season.

A tweet went viral noting the number of passes between the pair each game, prompting Snyder to unleash on a 19-minute rant defending the duo during a pregame news conference earlier this month.

The suggestion that Donovan would look Rudy off when Rudys deep in the paint When it gets to the point where Donovans answering questions [about it after shootaround], the inference there is that he doesnt pass to him and theres a problem between the two, Snyder said at the time. I havent seen that at all. They sit at the same table when they eat sometimes.

Snyder can defend the pairs on-court chemistry until hes blue in the face, but something needs to change with this team. Snyder has one more year on his contract, but there are already several teams reportedly interested if the Jazz decide to part ways with him after this season.

There is also speculation that the New York Knicks are planning a move for Mitchell. Something has to give because this team isnt working.

Utah Jazz head coach Quin Snyder already reportedly has suitors if the Jazz decide to part ways with the coach this offseason. (Scott Wachter/USA TODAY Sports)

The front office isnt helping either, making questionable draft picks the past two years.

In the 2020 draft, Utah selected 7-footer Udoka Azubuike with the 27th overall pick (breakout Memphis Grizzlies guard Desmond Bane was still on the board). Azubuike has averaged only three points in eight minutes over the past two seasons.

A year later, the Jazz had the 30th pick in the draft and traded down to No. 45 for Jared Butler, passing on New Orleans Pelicans rookie standout Herbert Jones.

In December, the Jazz hired former Boston Celtics general manager Danny Ainge as CEO of the team. Ainge is credited with rebuilding the Celtics, bringing in Brad Stevens as the head coach and drafting Jayson Tatum. The Jazz may be looking for him to do something similar this offseason. Whether its completely blowing up the team or trading one of their star players, many around the organization have confidence in Ainge to eventually get over the hump and bring a championship to Utah for the first time in franchise history.

The end is most likely near for this version of the Jazz. It's an uphill battle getting past a Mavs team with or without Doncic in Game 4 on Saturday.

"We just have to win. That's it," Mitchell said. "Our main focus is the next game, and we'll just go from there. We can't lose two games at home."

Clearly, it's not that simple.

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NBA playoffs: Is this the end for the Utah Jazz? - Yahoo Sports