☀️ DC's New Slate Plans, Output Ambitions
Charlie Kaufman sets new pic plans / NBC builds on MACY'S deal / New Jobs Tuesday!
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, February 25, 2025.
Where Hollywood streaming services — it may be time to start following SPOTIFY’s lead and figure out a bougier superfan tier to put on top of your current bougie tiers . . . as 50% of U.S. spending comes from just the top 10% highest-earners according to MOODY’S — the highest level since it started collecting the data in the late 1980s.
That top 10% also has 67.5% of the wealth in the U.S., with the bottom 50% having just 2.5%. Aka FAST viewers. 🥁
So Hollywood, clearly there is some more money to milk here! Bridgerton cast — are you game to re-enact scenes in subscribers’ homes? Er, okay yeah, maybe not certain scenes . . . but I’m sure they’d let you pick.
OR: Maybe just do it for renown Bridgerton fan Warren Buffett (he watches for the expensive costume design) — his BERKSHIRE HATHWAY is literally now sitting on $334B worth of cash and Treasuries.
OH: ALTICE and MSG NETWORKS ended their 54-day carriage standoff with a deal:
ALTICE gets the option to sell lower-priced packages without the MSG NETWORKS and also reduces the per-sub affiliate fee from $10 a month to $8 a month according to the NY Post.
MSG, of course, has a significant $829M debt payment due in about a month, a deadline that’s already been pushed back a few times.
YEAH: PARAMOUNT and the Trump camp are seeking a mediator for his $20B 60 Minutes lawsuit, so if you know any qualified right-wing podcasters with some free time — drop ’em a note.
AH: Part of the STARBUCKS return to prosperity plan involves, lo and behold, mass layoffs! 1,100 corporate roles are being eliminated — but the real cost savings come from no longer having to give them weekly corporate jet round-trip rides to the office. Oh wait, sorry — that’s just the CEO.
KUDOS: To META’s top execs, who found another way to be a lot more efficient . . . about giving themselves more money this year. 🤑
The company’s bonus plan was just amended to boost the target bonus percentage for executive officers (sans Zuck, believe it or not) from 75% of their base salary . . . to 200%. Who said the salaries from the newly laid off 5% of the company wouldn’t be going to good use?
THEN: Lester Holt is leaving his perch at the NBC Nightly News sometime this summer (although he’ll continue hosting Dateline NBC), marking the 2nd major anchor change at a broadcast TV evening news show this year. And all because the network couldn’t program Thursday nights . . . (just a little something for my Broadcast News folks).
ALSO: Erivo & Grande will perform together at the Oscars, with Karla Sofía Gascón in the audience.
REST IN PEACE: This one is for any fellow NY sports fans, but decades-long MSG NETWORK sportscaster Al Trautwig died at the age of 68 this week from complications of cancer.
THEN: As college hoops gets more of the spotlight as March approaches on Saturday — the tournaments are definitely going to be fun this year:
Women’s college hoops just got its 4th #1 team change this season— tied for most changes in the #1 position in a season ever (kudos to TEXAS for ascending to the top).
5 of the top 10 teams from the pre-season men’s college hoops rankings aren’t even in the top 25 now.
TWO CHARTS: Just some things I found interesting from the larger news cycle.
The egg situation is now similar to the output in 2016, the last time bird flu struck the U.S. supply, according to Bloomberg.
For all of the DOGE cuts and Presidential claims of finally balancing the budget (ya huh), Axios had a good bigger-picture view of government spending that I found to be a useful refresher myself.
Trump has said he’s not touching Social Security or Medicare/aid, debt payments don’t really have an option, and . . . I really don’t see him saying, “Hey, our military needs to be smaller.” That’s 86% of the U.S. government budget right there.
The other 14% amounts to a little under $1T.
Also keep in mind that the U.S. Government accumulates $3B of more interest payments on its debt every day.
VOTE NOW!: While midterm elections are still 21 months away (not that anyone’s counting . . .), now is the perfect time to cast your votes in Katey Rich’s Prestige Junkie Oscar Pool! I mean, real experts wait for all the guilds to show their hands before voting anyway.
SO: Make your picks here and show the pundits how its done.
🎥 THE SILVER SCREEN
