Ryan Bridge: New Zealand's fight against the big tech companies

By the end of those 8 shortened two-minute rounds in the ring with Mike Tyson, I just felt bad for the 58 year old.

What on earth was he doing there in the first place.

Sure, he wants a chance to get back in the right and have a crack at 27-year-old YouTube kid.

But the real motivation must have surely been US $20-million.

That's the amount he was reportedly paid by Netflix.

Jake Paul reportedly got $40-million.

Gate ticket sales at AT&T Stadium brought in close to US $18-million and 70,000 fans.

And Netflix? Well they won the fight with 65-million viewers at peak.

It's part of a new strategy to host live sport events lure subscribers - including those paying less but getting fed ads on the platform.

That ad-supported platform now accounts for 50% of its new sign ups. It's grown to 70-million new users in just two years.

These big tech Silicon Valley giant media companies like YouTube and Chinese Tiktok and every other app under the sun that didn't start here in New Zealand are going from strength to strength.

They're the ones who have our attention.

According to online sources, the top 3 streaming sources here are Netflix with 1 million, Disney + with 600k and Amazon with 500+.

And yet here we are in NZ and Australia trying to force them into news content deals with us, we're battling with taxpayers cash to reinvigorate flailing state media companies to compete with these guys in a doomed-to-fail battle.

We're like the 58-year-old Mike Tyson, who apparently nearly died before entering the ring.

They're their annoying 27-year-new-to-boxing but bringing in the eyeballs Jake Paul.

Are we going to beat that little twat in the ring? No.

Continuing to fight him could kill us off.

We've got to somehow partner with them, rearrange ourselves and get our content on their platforms where it'll actually be seen.

Or we can stay in ring getting beaten and bloodied then eventually KO'd.

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