☀️ANGEL STUDIOS Is Going Public — A Look Inside the Books
WBD loves cable TV, grows MAX (but where?) / Stiller pic sells to streaming / NETFLIX seals Prof G scripted series deal
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty (connect here on LINKED-IN if ya like) and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on FRIDAY, September 13, 2024.
Where it’s always nice to start off a Friday with good news: Larry Ellison just got richer! 🥳 No, that has nothing to do with today being Friday the 13th, why?
ORACLE’s stock popped 13% earlier this week on its quarterly earnings report (Ellison owns about 40% of the stock), due to a growing strength in cloud services — it will operate 162 data centers (👋 AI) once current construction projects are finished, making it the company’s biggest revenue line. So if your PAR+ streaming buffering sucks after this deal is done, there are no excuses left.
This bumped his net worth to anywhere from $168B to $192B, depending on which rich guy index ya like.
So don’t you worry Shari, he can totally cover that $180M severance payment and health benefits on top of the NATIONAL AMUSEMENTS check.
AH: Sorry folks, no public access for the Murdoch succession trial in Nevada — the judge ruled the proceedings will remain behind closed doors as Rupert tries to change the will, so to speak.
OH: Here are some exterior pics of DISNEY’s new NYC headquarters in the right next to the Holland Tunnel “Hudson Square” area of Manhattan for the inclined, which has finished construction.
AND: OPENAI has 11M paying subs according to The Information, which would generate at least $225M a month (although probably a bit higher). Or — I’m guessing about 5% of the company’s electricity bill alone for the month (or whatever small percentage you prefer to imagine).
But sure yeah, let’s value it at $150B. Hey, I know — let’s see if its new “complex reasoning” bot thinks that valuation makes sense!
BTW: OPENAI is also shifting eyes to the Middle East #shocker for some of that now $7B it’s looking to raise in this new round, entering talks with UAE state-backed firm MGX, also according to The Information.
ALSO: Today is the end of an era! WWE Friday Night Smackdown is no longer on FOX — it begins its USA NETWORK era tonight at 8 p.m.
The series has averaged 2.3M viewers a week for FOX this year, with 18-49s and Men 18-34s +7% YoY.
FOX has college football on Friday nights until Dec. 6, then will figure out a new path forward.
WELL: The VENU-FUBO trial will begin in . . . 13 months 😳 (Oct. 6, 2025).
If VENU wins a reversal of the current injunction from the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, that could possibly affect the trial timeline.
NOTE: ESPN D2C will very likely have already launched by the time this trial even starts.
PLUS: VOX MEDIA’s Code Conference will not happen this year for the first time in it’s two-decade history, according to Status.
THEN: Et tu, YOUTUBE? Get ready for “pause ads” when you’re watching YT on your TV.
CLARIFICATION: Just a note on CHARTER from yesterday’s newsletter — it is the #2 “Cable TV company” in the traditional sense of that term (i.e. the whole company) behind COMCAST, but is the #1 TV bundle provider in the U.S. based on end of Q2 video subscriber numbers:
CHARTER: 13.309 Million
COMCAST: 13.199 Million
WAKEUP POLL RESULTS
Looks like we’re going with tracking on Speak No Evil this weekend, and I’ll join the train here, even though my brain keeps wanting to call this movie See No Evil as evidenced by my typo in the poll yesterday.
NEW ANKLER PODCAST EPISODE
Wherein we pour one out for HBO as a pure PayTV service, do a heat check on the Oscars race after the early trifecta of fall film fests . . . and learn how to make real money from betting with our industry expertise!
REALITY CHECK: Always nice when you find out you’re the same height and weight as a “slimmed down” Dave Bautista — but that a newsletter writer lifestyle apparently disperses that weight on one’s body in vastly different ways.
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🎥 THE SILVER SCREEN
