☀️ Cable Bundle Melts More Jobs, APPLE TV+ Hikes Prices
SEARCHLIGHT, 'Troopers' reunite / NETFLIX adds more Jake Paul / WWE hits ESPN early
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 Thursday, August 21, 2025.
Where the studios haven’t seen this much excitement since the ER vs. Chicago Hope face-off of 1994 . . . (anyone younger than Gen X can get up to speed here), as it’s ESPN D2C vs. FOX ONE day!
So, if you’re in the likely vast majority of #cordcutters who left the bundle over the past 13 years because the sports networks you weren’t watching were jacking the price of your cable TV bill . . . well, you probably have more exciting things going on today.
Meanwhile, HBO MAX is sitting in the corner with the look of an exasperated teenager (don’t call him MAX — he’s a little sensitive about it), being like “Um, we’ve been doing D2C streaming sports with NBA, NHL and MLB for 2 years now already!” (while pretty much saying 🤐 about the entire endeavor during that time period) . . . as fellow teen PEACOCK nods its head in a surly fashion sitting next to it 😏.
And of course — be sure to catch the massive promotion of FOX ONE . . . nowhere near FOX linear TV channels (i.e. FOX CORP’s main promotional vehicles), if comments from FOX execs on previous earnings calls hold true. But at only $20 a month — are you even for real, bro?
Ok, enough of those nerds 🙄 — time for the $30-a-month cool kids to take the stage today, as the high school football team quarterback that is ESPN declares it’s “National ESPN App Day” (🤷♂️) and tells you to scram as you’re sitting at its lunch table.
KUDOS: To Paige Bueckers, who took the WNBA’s high score record in a game for a rookie last night with 44 points — scoring over half of her team’s points, Jordan mid-1980s style.
Sadly, also like many of Jordan’s BULLS games in the mid-’80s — her DALLAS WINGS still lost the game.
Bueckers shot 81% from the field. The rest of her team? 31%.
PLUS: Some people might say children’s online privacy is priceless . . . although GOOGLE might say it’s worth about $30M, as that’s what it paid to settle a class action lawsuit claiming YOUTUBE collected personal information of minors without parental consent, and used it to send targeted ads to them, while also claiming no wrongdoing in the settlement, naturally.
Given that GOOGLE/ALPHABET made $23.6B of profit in Q2 alone, I doubt this will be mentioned in the next earnings call.
MEANWHILE: DELTA and UNITED are facing their own class action lawsuit alleging they charged more for window seats that . . . were not next to windows.
THEN: If you have some decent bucks 💰 and will be in the Hamptons next week (I mean — what are the odds of those 2 Venn diagrams coming together) — RDJ, Gwyneth, Ruffalo, Nathan Lane, Julianne Moore and a bunch of other boldfaced names are doing a staged reading of All the President’s Men on Monday in East Hampton followed by a cast convo, benefitting the NYC nonprofit arts and community hub, the Center at West Park (CWP).
📺 THE TV SET
So, should we start with layoffs or #pricehikes? Nice to see 2025 staying on brand.