☀️AMAZON, APPLE Bet on Toy, Videogame IP
NETFLIX wants more JLo / CHIEFS drive big NFL audience gains / Baz sets next pic at WB
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty (connect with me on LinkedIn here if ya like), and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on WEDNESDAY, September 18, 2024.
Where despite consistently espousing to the American people that they should invest for the long term, with a strategy backed by sound business fundamentals . . . ya gotta love a day on Wall Street where execs are anxiously waiting to see how their literal bets pay out on what Jerome Powell is going to do with the Fed’s interest rate.
Don’t worry, I’m sure they’ll get back to those sound financial principals tomorrow.
ALSO: I guess it’s comforting to see another major entertainment sector counting on the American public to pay more for essentially the same thing in the next few years? The levers that UNIVERSAL MUSIC is counting on for revenue growth are centered on more people:
Choosing an ad-free music streaming experience over free (and hopefully at a higher monthly subscription price point than exists today)
Paying (a lot) more for “super fan” experiences with its artists
Buying more high-end (read: high-cost) artist merch
Gotta say, between music, video streaming and sports all asking for more money — it’ll be really interesting to see who wins out with the better share of the American wallet in the next 3-4 years.
BTW: Universities are now tacking on extra ticket fees 💰 for college football games to pay players — details down below. #PayUpAmerica
YEAH: MrBeast and AMAZON are now facing a class action lawsuit from contestants in their upcoming competition show. Welcome to paid streaming, MrBeast!
AH: Graydon Carter’s AIR MAIL has enlisted the RAINE GROUP to explore a sale, according to the NYT.
The company has raised $32M so far since its launch in 2019, with REDBIRD and TPG among the private equity investors (alongside David Zaslav) — and while a very minor sum for them, this is certainly lining up to the standard 5 years-ish exit PE likes to make from investments (also see the KKR-AXEL SPRINGER news yesterday).
THEN: Oprah’s ABC AI special got 2.5M viewers last week, well below its Big Brother and AGT timeslot competition. She next has a primetime interview with Riley Keough about her famous grandfather and mother on CBS next month.
OH: Sean Combs was denied bail after his indictment and will remain in jail pending his trial — think that 50 Cent-produced Diddy NETFLIX docuseries may need to hold off for a while (or there certainly will be a large part 2).
WBD’s ID network also announced a 2025 Diddy docuseries.
HUH: Just some interesting stats from Bloomberg here — with a lotta eyes shifting to the unemployment rate this year, looking ahead there appears to still be a 6M U.S. worker shortfall ahead due to boomer (and soon to be Gen X) retirements. Although obviously not in Hollywood, where boomer execs live forever.
A couple other #funfacts from this LIGHTCAST study:
1 in 4 doctors in the U.S. is now foreign-born
More than 1 in 5 folks are now foreign-born as well in quite a few industries:
THANKS!: To the folks at PARAMOUNT for the invite to check out the new Transformers One pic last night — a fun origin story! I know . . . very little about Transformers mythology, and still found it an entertaining 1hr 45min at the movie theater (shorter than any Bay movie by a good 45mins+ ✅) with some good laughs — and a nice setup for more.
FINALLY: Your longtime, burning question of “Man, what would The Office be like if everyone had an Australian accent . . . and Michael and Dwight were changed to female characters?” has finally been answered! AMAZON PRIME has you covered — well, except in the U.S., where the Australian Office won’t be available.
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
