I was watching the a WWE show recently where there was a segment that involved bringing in a wrestler who actually worked for a competing show which is kind of odd as usually you would think companies would want to ensure that their competition isn’t even mentioned considering it would be like handing out free advertisement. But in this case there were talks on how this may open up the opportunity for cross promotions between the two company which on the flip side many people view as good.
On one end you could argue it’s fundamentally helping the competition. On the other hand, I guess it could be good in this type of business where there is often too much talent with so little spots available. So I can see it from the larger company’s point of view where they could treat the smaller companies as a way to see which talent actually works out and becomes big just to then acquire them afterwards.
That must be bad for the smaller company if you are constantly building up the next star only to have them leave elsewhere. Not a good return of investment. But it is interesting to see companies have an open door type of relationship in these ways.