☀️ FOX Going D2C, SPINCO's Negative ‘24 Biz Trends
AMAZON sets Efron for comedy pic / APPLE sets 'Mankind' spinoff lead / SONY, PAR 'Wheel' sparring escalates
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 4, 2025.
Where a college football head coach’s salary was actually . . . lowered this week. 🤯
OKLAHOMA STATE is knocking a cool $1M off his pay stub after the 🏈 team went 3-9 last year and lost all BIG 12 divisional games. Hopefully he’s able to still get by with the $6.9M he’ll make next season. 😬
YEAH: Gotta love FCC Chair Brendan Carr . . . well, the 2021 version when he said this 👇 regarding a matter involving FOX NEWS, OANN and NEWSMAX — enjoy those 60 Minutes transcripts!
"The concerted effort by Democrats to drive dissent from the public square represents a marked departure from those First Amendment norms.
A newsroom’s decision about what stories to cover and how to frame them should be beyond the reach of any government official, not targeted by them.”
AND: Forbes laid off another 5% of the staff, or approx. 25 folks.
ALSO: Amber Ruffin will be your headliner for the WHCD this April. Gonna guess having Trump up there on the dais will not be a concern the evening will have to contend with.
THEN: STARZ is all about that #BundleLife — a STARZ/BET+ bundle for $16 a month is now avail in AMAZON Channels. This is on top of the MAX/STARZ bundle on AMAZON announced last month.
AH: If you’d like President Biden to come psych up your sales team at the next big offsite conference, give CAA a call as it now reps him.
OH: NY Governor Kathy Hochul is enhancing the state’s production incentives in a new FY26 budget up for approval, including:
A new $100M pool dedicated to independent film
Additional tax credits for larger productions
A 2-year extension of the whole program until 2036
Next steps are hearings on the matter likely at the end of Feb.
The FY26 budget goes into effect in April.
PLUS: Nice to see PARAMOUNT and NIELSEN cutting a new deal as the exact opposite is happening across North America this week.
BTW: NIELSEN’s OOH (out-of-home) system now covers 100% of the U.S. (it previously had 66% coverage).
💻 THE MEDIA BIZ
Who’s ready for some primo KableTalk!? 👌 Lotta new data to break down today at FOX and NBCU / SPINCO on the state of affairs in America’s favorite cable TV bundle business.
First up — the financial health of the home of FOX NEWS and FOX SPORTS, as both make plans to enter the streaming era. Here’s what’s afoot.
