☀️ SKYDANCE Asks Staff to Leave Nicely

Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026.

Where yes, the great media “one giant video food court” merge continues, as INSTAGRAM is the next platform to line up to attract podcasters to use the platform with content already available for free elsewhere — way to go on being the cool kids again, podcasters!

Hmm, you know what’s now not on every platform known to man, dear advertisers? Premium scripted TV series! #Protip: They also feature ads you can’t skip (see you on Wednesday for the latest YOUTUBE ad revenue figures).

Now, you’ll be shocked to hear this, but META is not paying the creators any rev share from accompanying ad revenue, ahem, saying “it’s too early to share a long-term monetization model,” . . . but hey, it’s not too early for us to profit from your work, amrite! 😂 (that last bit was not part of the quote).

Man, those tech guys really are business geniuses.

Sadly, creators will never say this. Isn’t it great #BigTech doesn’t have to deal with unions on this stuff? Via Giphy

META is providing some sort of non-descript funding for “some creators” . . . but that’s about all the info on that.
This is a U.S.-only pilot program called ~~Podcasts~~ Features, allowing select creators to post “horizontal videos” (aka TV) of up to 90 minutes in length.
It lets creators link to the Features from their Reels, featuring clips from the pods (or stand-up sets, or whatever).
- Links that you can totally already put on Reels postings of pod clips now — just, uh, to watch other platforms.
Yes, this is part of INSTA’s belated (and 2nd effort) bid to become a player on TVs as well (which is alluded to in this video with Adam Mossieri and VP of Product Tessa Lyons), although this will take time to roll out to the INSTA TV app in addition to mobile.
- Can’t wait for INSTAGRAM to join NIELSEN’s monthly Gauge chart.
No exclusivity is being asked for.
INSTA has already been testing this in Brazil.

YIKES: If you thought the Q4 employment outlook was bleak already . . . November is probably telling you to hold its beer right about now — MICROSOFT is making voluntary buyout offers to 25% of its workforce. Yes, that’s MICROSOFT — so we’re talking about 60,000 people who have to decide their futures by early December.

Granted, most people won’t take it — a buyout offered to 8,700 folks earlier this year had a 30% “yes” rate.
However, if not enough people take the offer, you don’t need me to tell you what the next lever will be for folks in the C-suite.
But yeah . . . if you were consistently wondering all year, “How do the struggling vibes in the 2026 non-stock market economy keep not showing up in Corporate America numbers?!” — Q4 is always a great reality check with little place for the accounting group to hide reality.
And yes, this is for MICROSOFT to find more money to spend on AI instead of people.

GOOD NEWS!: About, uh, 700 SAG-AFTRA members — about 0.4% of SAG-AFTRA membership — will be getting one of those streaming bonuses achieved in the 2023 AMPTP deal that had the several months-long strike.

The total whopping $1.5M lump payment for an entire year of streaming bonuses covers the “hit” streaming projects from, uh . . . 2024 (nothing like a 2-year payment delay!), so enjoy the extra average payment of about $2,100 per person, you lucky 700.
I mean, you don’t mind the streamers making their own money from your bonus money for the entire length of your previous labor contract, right? Much less money that’s tied to data they totally had 2 years ago.

AND: APPLE confirmed reports that Jay-Z’s company, ROC NATION, has indeed hired Jay-Z to headline the Super Bowl halftime show in L.A. in February.

OH: Hopefully President Trump still has some of that DISNEY $15M lying around, as Neil Young is suing him for $10M for continuing to use “Rockin’ in the Free World” at his events.

The use at a rally this month comes despite a 2020 lawsuit settlement with Young that, among other things, promised Trump’s campaign organization would never use the song again without a license (which it does not have).

OOF: The WNBA is moving Game 6 of its Finals to Thursday at 12:30 p.m. because of arena booking conflicts in Atlanta.

With the GOLDEN STATE VALKYRIES ahead 3-2, it’s very possible the champion could be crowned in that game, which will air on USA NETWORK / PEACOCK.
The NBA’s ATLANTA HAWKS have a game scheduled that night at their usual State Farm Arena home — the WNBA’s ATLANTA DREAM played their regular season at a far smaller arena holding 3,500 people, and thus don’t have dibs on State Farm booking.
If the series goes to Game 7, the deciding game would be Saturday night back at the VALKYRIES’ home arena, the Chase Center.

MEANWHILE: Q4 doesn’t look great for FOX, as the World Series could end tonight in a 4-game sweep if the BREWERS win.

FOX pays one fee for the Series, regardless of how many games are played — fewer games = less ad revenue.
- 4-game series for any sport with a (potential) 7-game championship round are generally seen as financial losers for media partners.
Last year’s World Series comp on the FOX CORP Q4 2025 earnings report not only went 7 games, but featured the DODGERS.
At least the prelim numbers for Game 1 weren’t terrible at 12.2M (final numbers due today) on FOX & UNIVISION.
- Down from last year’s DODGERS vs. BLUE JAYS Game 1 at 13.3M (not including Canadian viewership) — but this year’s Game 1 could be bigger with final numbers.
- Those are comfortably above World Series lows in 2023 (9.3M) . . . but smaller than almost every series pre-Covid in the 2000s.
- Kudos to the Milwaukee TV market for pulling a 70 share!

AND: ISPOT is out with some new data from its proprietary smart TV and set-top box data tracking (balanced with U.S. Census data at large) in the Q3 ad buying space . . . and yeah, gotta love those streaming ad dollar spends! More in the report here.

SO: WIEDEN+KENNEDY is the next ad agency to enter the TV & movie space next to giant PUBLICIS. It has launched a division to develop TV shows & movies — some in partnership with brands, some without.

BTW: Pat McAfee has lost the plot, bringing in a Charlie Kirk assassination allusion while sharing his odd, but very clear displeasure at a lighthearted video of UTAH college kids ribbing him on the school’s athletic social media profile leading up to an ESPN College Gameday appearance.

PLUS: The Giggly Squad pod pretty much sold out 3 upcoming live recording shows at MSG in mid-February according to their reps (there were still a few rando seats available at each show as of last night, mostly for about $300), and added a 4th show where floor seats are priced from $190 to nearly $300.

YEAH: The totally foolproof, mid-2020s “snake eating its tail” AI investing strategy continues . . . with AI chip makers NVIDIA and AMD taking part in buying up to $5B more META shares the company is issuing to raise more money to fund AI data centers . . . powered by NVIDIA and AMD chips.

THANKS!

To the folks at HBO for inviting me to the season 4 premiere of The Gilded Age in NYC last night, and for still letting me into the party even though I left my ascot at home. 🤦‍♂️

To embody the spirit of arts criticism at the turn of the 1900s — this show rocks! Just a really fun watch with A-list efforts across the board from the writing, acting, directing and production.

Julian Fellowes introducing the series with Casey Bloys. Via my phone.

💼 Get A Job

A bit of a shorter list this week after last week’s jumbo list, but if you’re looking to hire someone — drop me a note with a job posting link to be included here in future lists (and thanks to folks who sent me jobs over the past week!): seanmcnultynyc@gmail.com or drop a note to me on LINKEDIN here.

TRIBECA FESTIVAL — SVP, Head of Comms ($225k to $300k)
MGM+ — Head of WW Growth & Programming ($147k to $218k)
NBCU — Director, Global Comms ($130k to $150k)
AMAZON PRIME VIDEO — Sr. Manager, TV Strategy ($103k to $181k)
NBCU — Sr. Manager, Ad & Program Standards ($105k to $130k + bonus eligible)
AMAZON MGM — Development Exec, YA ($141k to $191k)
TKO — Marketing Manager, Partnerships & Events ($75k to $100k)
TUBI — Manager, Social Media ($90k to $128k)
ARTISTS EQUITY — Unscripted Coordinator ($80k to $82k)
AMAZON MGM — Assistant, Comedy Series ($25 to $34/hr)
HBO — Assistant, Comms ($30 to $32/hr)
CAA — Assistant, Data ($22 to $28/hr)
AMAZON MGM / PV — Assistant, Series Marketing ($25 to $34/hr)
CAA — Assistant, MP Lit ($20 to $22/hr)

FINALLY:

Ankler Managing Editor Christoper Rosen joins me for Monday Morning Quarterbacks to dive into the comps we should really look at with the Clayface numbers this weekend, where You Can See Everything goes from here and WTF happened to Ali G? (btw, the pic is apparently now debuting on PRIME VIDEO tomorrow according to a release yesterday afternoon).

These pods go up in the early half of Monday each week on The Ankler YT page — subscribe to the channel to get the alert when live.