Mornin! This is Sean McNulty (connect with me on LinkedIn here if ya like), and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on THURSDAY January 4, 2023.

Where the ‘DISNEY Flywheel’ is really coming in handy here in January to save ABC from the strike-induced desert. Tuesday night as I mentioned, was HULU night… featuring Only Murders in the Building.

And last night, those NBA rights came in clutch, as ABC took the KNICKS vs. BULLS game from ESPN, and will air NBA in primetime on Wednesdays for 5 straight weeks… essentially showing the NBA what a future showcase “Game of the Week” audience size may look like for one of their packages in the new upcoming rights auction.

SO: Between the state of broadcast TV for the next 4-6 weeks, and a January thru April movie release calendar that looks like it’s also on Ozempic… TIKTOK, it’s your time to shine my friend to fully entertain the masses (who have no interest in sports).

PLUS: Here are your SUNDANCE Film Fest jury members this year. /Variety

OH: Killers of the Flower Moon will finally hit APPLE TV+ next Fri, Jan. 12… right in the middle of OSCAR noms voting (closes Jan. 16), and just under three months post theatrical release.

IN TODAY’S EDITION:

Unfortunately it looks like the news cycle is also taking a few Ozempic injections… or at least everyone seems like they’re still on vacation – so it’s one of those quick news roundup days, although certainly a lot of executive moves here in early January 👀.

SO…

Since I’m still waiting for my check 💰 for correctly predicting the end of the WGA strike back on June 6th last year… I was figuring to leave the 2024 predictions to people who like playing games with no prizes.

Ok fine 🙄, but if I’m gonna do it – I’m going big! I think even my niece told me that the Box Office was going to be significantly down in 2024 over the holidays.

So – one doozy on HBO, and two… what I’ll call ‘flags in the sand’ on AMAZON and DISNEY for your amusement (and ridicule in about 11 months), and two others for good measure.

OH:

This all is of course outside of:

Drones, which sound like they may actually begin annoying the f*ck out of us starting this year with home deliveries of your neighbor’s salad lunch (SWEETGREEN is officially lined up as a client), and probably into your yard if the wind is blowing right.
Cookies, as GOOGLE is removing them for 1% of CHROME users (the world’s most popular browser), with plans to eliminate the archaic cookie underpinnings of the whole digital advertising economy for all CHROME users by end of 2024…
- And yes, advertisers are still freaking out as they still have built nothing to replace it, despite years of warning this would happen.
  - It’s kinda nice when other industries sound exactly like cable TV isn’t it?
  - BTW: One of the world’s largest media buyers, GROUP M, is setting a new partnership group with folks like NBCU, ROKU, DISNEY and YOUTUBE, alongside ad-tech firms, in order to improve the data & measurement of streaming ad buys… which sounds like they think could uh, be a little stronger, ahem.
    - GROUP M is forecasting connected TV ad spends to rise about +15% in 2024. /Variety
AI, which:
- Is getting its own button on the new MICROSOFT keyboard (first update in 30 years), although users under 18 will be prompted “Are you sure you want me to do your homework for you?”. Parental controls… so important amirite?
- Will begin taking a lotta jobs by 2028 (screenwriting wasn’t mentioned… but songwriting/producing – yeah good luck ya’ll).
- In the case of OPEN AI, is apparently offering some news publishers just $1 Million to $5 Million to train the AI on their archives, according to The Information.
  - OPEN AI is currently doing a fundraising round at a $100 Billion valuation… so any publisher not responding with 🖕 and see you in court clearly was not in business in the 2010s.
- Has a 5% chance of taking out humanity according to a poll of AI researchers. But hey I’ll leave that for ~~my last email ever~~ 2028’s Wakeup!