☀️AMAZON Buys Ali Series, Michael Bay Circling TV at NETFLIX
NEON 'Longlegs' hot out of the gate / AXEL SPRINGER considers split / New Pod deal activity
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty (connect here on LINKED-IN if ya like) and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on FRIDAY, July 12, 2024.
Where you know I just can’t resist a good “Are you sure this isn’t from The Onion?” headline — increased Canadian wildfires, largely due to the effects of #globalwarming, are threatening the world’s 3rd largest oil reserves operation in Fort McMurray. #NatureIsPissed🔥
Oh and 1 million folks in Houston still don’t have power over 2 days after Hurricane Beryl, a city where the air felt like 99 degrees yesterday. Over 500k will remain without power into next week.
Don’t worry folks, everything’s goin’ great. #ItsBarelyMidJuly🤦♂️
THEN: It’s sad how not-shocking this is anymore, but if you have AT&T as a service provider 🙋♂️🤦♂️, consider your phone call & text data stolen. Way to keep it on brand, AT&T. Remember that time those folks owned a movie studio? 😂
AND: Dax Shepard made an $80M deal to move his Armchair Expert podcast with Monica Padman to WONDERY from being a SPOTIFY exclusive. No word on a deal duration here, but merch rights are included, plus a deal to develop 2 other pods.
LEMONADA MEDIA, home to the pods of Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Sarah Silverman and Meghan Markle, has enlisted an investment bank to explore a sale. The company has raised about $10.5M in VC investment to date, according to Axios.
OH: Meet your new Superman logo. See you July 11 next summer.
THEN: NFL Commish Roger Goodell told CNBC at Sun Valley that he thinks an agreement to allow ownership of teams by private equity up to a likely 10% stake should likely get put in place by end of year.
ALSO: Meet HALLMARK+ (are we still going with the + thing for new services in 2024??), coming mid-September for $8 a month, or $80 a year. Man, those are big city prices! What about for us simple small-town folk?
PLUS: German media conglomerate AXEL SPRINGER (Business Insider, Politico, Morning Brew and others) is examining a break up according to the FT — existing investors KKR & CPPIB would take the company’s classifieds business, and AXEL CEO Mathias Döpfner would control the media properties, and potentially be more freed up to add more at some point.
KKR and CPPIB together own 48.5% of AXEL, but Mathias has significant voting rights despite his smaller financial stake. Now, where have I heard something like that before . . . 🧐.
REST IN PEACE: Goes out to actress Shelley Duvall, known memorably for The Shining and many of Robert Altman’s ‘70s pics, as well as a career producing children’s TV programming, who died at the age of 75 this week.
CORRECTION: The MAX, now HBO Dune TV series is called Dune: Prophecy, not The Sisterhood. My apologies for the echo effect of the old name still bouncing around my brain yesterday.
WAKEUP POLL RESULTS
The bears are back in full force this weekend for Fly Me to the Moon! I’m keeping a good thought for $12M to $14M, although my gut says under $12M too.
NEW ANKLER PODCAST EPISODE!
PARAMOUNT, the Box Office — the real one, not the Home Box Office, although that comes up too and Richard’s knowledge of Hollywood history gets its moment in the sun.
🎥 THE SILVER SCREEN
