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 Tuesday, December 16, 2025.
Where I’m sorry, kids, AI stole your thunder from your totally cool “6-7” trend this year 😎, as MERRIAM-WEBSTER declared “slop” the Word of the Year in 2025 (and likely 2026, 2027 . . .).
But, I’ll go out there and say getting used to AI stealing things from you is probably a good thing to learn early on in your lives.
AH: Howard Stern is unsurprisingly staying around at SIRIUSXM for another 3 years, signing an extension through 2028.
No word on the 💰, but as Howard described the deal as including “more free time,” it sounds about one step away from what Letterman does at NETFLIX.
OH: NETFLIX made its next video podcast deal official, this time with IHEART . . . which Natalie Jarvey told you about last week. Launch is still described as “early 2026.”
YAH: META released the TV app for INSTA Reels that it mentioned back in October at the Bloomberg Screentime conference.
THEN: Exhibit number . . . I’ve lost count, that META’s ad biz is sizably backed by pushing 💩 — Reuters reported that $3B of META’s 2024 ad revenue was from Chinese advertisers promoting scams, illegal gambling, pornography and other banned content, or nearly 20% of ad revenue from Chinese sources (while META platforms are banned there, companies are allowed to advertise on it elsewhere).
A META team was organized to combat it last year . . . but soon disbanded, after nods to a “follow-up” on the matter from Zuck himself in internal documents — an assertion META Comms told Reuters was actually Zuck telling folks to work on other scams and other high-risk harms, not ending the team . . . even though the team was finished. Sure.
PARAMOUNT also called the Variety reports that Saudi money would be in its WBD deal “categorically inaccurate” in November. Comms gonna comms.
In a separate investigation last month, Reuters discovered that $16B of META’s 2024 revenue was projected to come from ads for scams, illegal gambling and banned products globally, or about 10% of total META revenue for 2024.
REMEMBER: META/FACEBOOK is a global company — just because you may not see such 💩 ads here in the U.S. doesn’t mean FB and INSTA feeds in several markets in the rest of the world aren’t flooded with this 💩.
OH: Elon Musk’s X made $2B in the first 9 months of 2025, according to Bloomberg. TWITTER made $1.2B in 3 months alone back in Q2 2022, not adjusting for inflation. So yes, clearly management was running it all wrong.
Comps:
SNAP made 2x what X did in the 9-month period, at $4.2B.
META made $51B in Q3 alone.
SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT made more money in Q3 than X did in 9 months this year.
While Q3 X 2025 revenue was +17% YoY — the company was also -$577M in the hole in Q3 (partially due to “restructuring charges”).
NOTE: Elon has also begun investing in Republican politicians’ campaigns for the 2026 midterms. . . but that would mean his desire to start a 3rd political party was a farce, and that can’t be 🤔.
ALSO: In a touch of irony, MCKINSEY will be enacting about a 10% headcount reduction across all non-client-facing groups over the next 18-24 months.
AND: Here is your November U.S. Gauge report from NIELSEN . . . which I’m sure NETFLIX will tout as, “See, no problem here — only a 10.2% combo share!” to the WB deal haters.
As always — keep in mind:
HBO MAX has no football streaming, a key factor this time of year.
PAR’s number includes PLUTO FAST streaming.
Viewership of apps like HBO MAX, PAR+ and PEACOCK done by folks who access those apps via their ROKU or AMAZON app is counted under those apps, not under the respective studio streamer’s %.
Particularly helpful in months where 2 of those stream NFL games.
YOUTUBE’s number includes streaming of content like music, podcasts and nail painting tutorials — things that everyone else on this list does not do.
Not to mention — also a significant amount of programming that comes from everyone else on this list (Jimmy Kimmel monologues, SNL skits, celebrity content with TV and movie stars, etc.).
The top 3 players of NETFLIX, YOUTUBE and DISNEY all also have a significant amount of kids streaming going on . . . and remember this is a gross tonnage-based chart.
YEAH: Gambling tax revenue is great . . .
BUT: At what human cost?
NOTE: 2022 is the year online sports gambling became legal in NY — the country’s 4th largest state.
Online sports gambling is still illegal in the country’s 3 biggest states . . . although the 2 biggest “prediction markets,” full of sports
bettingpredictions, are not.ALSO NOTE: This data ended in August, before the NFL season began this year, with far increased KALSHI and POLYMARKET usage YoY.
If you have teenage or college-age sons and aren’t broaching the subject with them, I’d highly encourage you to open that dialogue.
AND: If you’re out there looking for a job . . . don’t think that everyone stopped working Dec. 5 — some worthwhile perspectives here on December hiring in BI from folks who work in hiring positions, including 2 ideas that stood out:
Some companies have ‘hire by the end of the year or lose the head’ policies.
Job hiring is an ongoing process that gets flooded in January, in case you already kinda hit pause on efforts in December.
Plus — it’s always good to be in touch on things and set meetings for January now, and not start that process once the 2026 applicant flood gets here next month.
PLUS: COSTCO’s “Executive Members” — who pay 2x the annual membership fee — now make up nearly 75% of COSTCO’s revenue. The number was in the low 60% range, less than 10 years ago.
Take that as:
A sign of an effective loyalty program.
Or a sign that the affluent / those who can afford to buy the most, are increasingly supporting yet another sector of the economy.
NOTE: SAM’S CLUB memberships were also +9% YoY in Q3 at WALMART.
FINALLY: While our president and self-proclaimed WBD deal arbiter kept things disgustingly and sickeningly on brand for him with his “condolence” post yesterday for Rob & Michele Reiner — including a similarly themed follow up talking about himself in the 3rd person — I’ll instead second the well-said thoughts Rushfield put forward yesterday, and send a heartfelt thanks into the universe to Rob and Michelle for all of the great films and memories.
While not a doc on Rob, this HBO Albert Brooks doc that he and Michele made a couple of years ago was really great if you missed it.
Few directors have had such tremendous success across so many genres, ever — satire, courtroom drama, YA (fka coming-of-age), college comedy, rom-com, horror-thriller, historical drama and more. A talent to be long remembered, and I treasure my DVD of The Sure Thing always.
WBD AUCTION — NETFLIX makes yet another WB movies pitch . . . and misses again
Well, NETFLIX yet again tried to clarify and reassure the town yesterday of its stance on the WB theatrical movie business under NETFLIX ownership . . . and once again just keeps on ringing 🚨 with its words. I think the count now is 3 and 0.
The unfortunate thing is that everyone, including NETFLIX, knows the statement that everyone is waiting for — good or bad:
Don’t stop here
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