It was a jackpot week for Team Ankler in Vegas, where our Media and Entertainment stage at NAB Show became a hub for conversations about where the business is headed next.
Across panels and interviews, a few themes kept surfacing: AI’s growing role (and its limits), new models for building media businesses and the increasingly fragmented paths to audience.
We heard from everyone from Jen Psaki to JB Smoove, Markiplier to MatPat, and top executives, creators and investors shaping what comes next; those topics were on the table also at a private dinner hosted by Janice Min, Ari Melber and NAB’s Karen Chupka at Hakkasan. We’ll be rolling out some of these conversations as bonus Ankler Agenda podcasts and on the Ankler’s YouTube soon.
Now, ICYMI, the rest of our best of the week:
Reel AI: AI Video’s New Powerhouses
↑ Post-Sora, AI video is fragmenting, Erik Barmack writes, into three separate ecosystems — the feed, the creator pipeline and the edit bay — each with its own stealth threat to showbiz.
Richard Rushfield on Bro-ification
↑ It’s not your imagination. Hollywood is populated by loud, sports-obsessed, business-driven oafs instead of the industry’s legendary misfits who delivered creativity and originality. Richard assesses the bro-ification of showbiz.
Series Business
↑ Veteran TV execs Jana Winograde and Susan Rovner revealed to Elaine why they’re all in on microdramas, the name of their new app — and how they pulled off a career pivot.
Courtney Kemp, the creator-producer behind Power, tells Lesley Goldberg how she built Netflix’s Nemesis to be a franchise from day one — and what took so long in her overall deal to get going.
As John Ternus takes the reins from Tim Cook at Apple, Lesley evaluates what’s next for the tech giant’s spendy, still-unprofitable streamer.
Maria Sharapova: C-Suite Double Standard
↑ The tennis champ-turned-investor takes a powerful swing at sexism in business in a guest essay.
Big Qs Behind Ellison’s Mideast Money
↑ Sovereign wealth funds out of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and UAE will own 22 percent of Paramount-WBD. Claire Atkinson reports on the real ROI.
Crowd Pleaser: 2 Hidden CinemaCon Stories
↑ Matthew Frank, back from the Vegas confab, dives into the big trends and conflicts that didn’t get nearly enough coverage.
Prestige Junkie: Tom Wambsgans, Assassin
↑ Katey Rich chats with Death by Lightning’s Matthew Macfadyen about his star turn as the man who assassinated President James Garfield. Plus: Hacks guest star Christopher Briney on his swoony role:
Also this week from Katey in Prestige Junkie: How Christopher Briney Won Jean Smart’s Heart and The Documentary Dilemma: Must-See Films, Hardly Seen.
The Wakeup: Sean Baker Payday; Which Streamers Won Q1
Friday → ☀️Streaming Films: Q1 Winners & Losers
Thursday, part 2 → ☀️ COMCAST’s Tricky Sports Play: Boost Revenue, Hurt Profits in Q1
Thursday, part 1 → ☀️Now What: WBD 👍 PSKY Deal, HULU’s Huge Reality Push
Wednesday → ☀️NETFLIX Explores L.A. Studio Buy, YT & SIRIUS Set Partnership
Tuesday → ☀️ WB’s Big Sean Baker 💰, NETFLIX’s 2 New WWII Pics
Sunday → ☀️ ‘Mummy’ Hits Forecast, ‘Hail Mary’ 🤯, Theo Von — Movie Star?
Podcasts
Ankler Agenda
Elaine, Sean and Ashley break down the runaway production crisis and — finally! — the growing bidding war to keep film and TV projects in the U.S.:
Shows
Rushfield Lunch
Rushfield Lunch: Richard sits down with the legendary RZA to discuss his revenge thriller, RZA’s One Spoon of Chocolate, his apprenticeship with Quentin Tarantino and his love of movie theaters:
Like & Subscribe
by Natalie Jarvey
↑ Creator Exit Playbook: How MatPat Built — and Sold — a YouTube Empire
The Optionist
by Andy Lewis
↑ IP Picks🔎: Two Killer Summer Camp Stories & A True-Crime ‘Thomas Crown’
