☀️ NETFLIX Gets Biggest Doc Viewership In Years

Mornin! This is Sean McNulty (connect with me on LINKEDIN here if ya like or email me at seanmcnultynyc@gmail.com), and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on Wednesday, May 27, 2026.

Where as we wait for the start of the NBA Finals here in NYC . . . a full week from today, at least DISNEY got the New York market in there instead of Cleveland.

But I’m gonna guess that an Eastern Conference Finals sweep with just 4 games (3 of them rather lopsided) in the first year of DISNEY’s new NBA deal is not going to do wonders for the Q2 ESPN books.

But enjoy those egregious NBA Finals ticket prices at MSG, New York! Hopefully, the top 3 players on the KNICKS can afford a few tix for their families, since they combined to make over $110M in salary this year (before any bonuses).

Oddly, David Zaslav was somehow the 4th-highest-paid — the guy knows how to hustle.

AND: CA Attorney General Rob Bonta told a group of folks, including Mark Ruffalo and Alex Gibney, that his office has still not made a decision about what it’s going to do regarding the WARNAMOUNT deal . . . and that yes, he knows the clock is beginning to tick loudly to make a move.

NOW: You’ll never believe this, but UNIVERSAL MUSIC’s largest shareholder said that Bill Ackman’s PERSHING SQUARE offer to buy a controlling interest in the world’s largest music label is too low. 🤯

PLUS: As we ease back into work life after the holiday weekend break, let’s have some fun with numbers:

2M — The number of new PEACOCK subs attributed to Love Island last season, according to “people familiar with the matter” cited by the WSJ, a show which costs about $40M a season to make.
$1.5M — Total budget for 42 episodes of the new Good Night with Ben Gleib YOUTUBE talk show (that YT is not paying for).
7% — The amount of revenue that China’s government’s cigarette sales contribute to the government’s total annual revenue, according to the NYT. Smoking rates there have only increased over the past 2 decades or so, with a pack costing only $3.
$4B — The amount that the 4 major college sports conferences made in revenue for the 2024-25 academic year/season. The SEC and BIG TEN comprised well over 60% of that.
- That number is bigger than the annual U.S. media rights revenues for all other sports except the NFL and NBA.
- That breaks down to roughly $70M to $75M in maximum disbursement per BIG TEN and SEC school.
- AND: This $4B covers all sports in the 4 college conferences, but obviously, football and hoops drive the ship.

THANKS!: To the folks at FOCUS FEATURES for the invite to check out the NYC premiere of Pressure last night — great work all around from the cast to the direction and production design, and an unexpected story from WWII that played such a large role in one of the biggest days in American and Allied history, and the war itself.

Recommend checking it out this weekend, as the anniversary of D-Day approaches next week — if only as a reminder that government expertise and leadership once proudly went hand in hand in our history.