☀️How WBD's NETFLIX Strategy is Paying Off
Maika Monroe adds UNI leading role / Big cancellations & orders day / Sports TV ratings roundup
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 WEDNESDAY, March 19, 2025.
Where AMAZON is planning a line of bougier ALEXA devices with better battery life and speakers, so soon absolutely no conversation in your house will be out of range to eavesdrop on to sell you ads improve the efficiency of the product.
PLUS: The WWE set comedian Tony Hinchcliffe to host a roast of WrestleMania on Sunday, Apr. 20 in Vegas at 10 p.m. at the FONTAINBLEAU — essentially very soon after the big event is over that day. It will not be televised, so have fun on social media everyone.
AH: ROKU’s latest “test” to increase those ad revenues and get profitable? Running an auto-play ad before you even get to your home screen when you turn your TV on. Sure it’ll test very well among users.
AND: In case you’re planning on having AI fill out your March Madness bracket — know that PERPLEXITY has set a deal with KALSHI to incorporate what the “experts” there are betting on “predicting”.
SURE: NVIDIA’s AI DISNEY robots are fun — but more impactful to your life will likely be NVIDIA’s partnership with YUM BRANDS to have AI take over things like TACO BELL drive-thrus this spring. #LessJobs
As I’ve mentioned previously — MCDONALD’S stopped using AI for such work last year after some, uh, egregious order mistakes.
DOH: DIS+ is now streaming a 24/7 Simpsons channel, with episodes running in series order, kinda like how MTV runs a near 24-hour Ridiculousness/Catfish channel every day.
THEN: Trump’s latest move to dismantle restore democracy is firing the 2 Democratic Commissioners at the FTC, with Rebecca Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya saying they were “illegally fired.”
This currently leaves just 2 Republican FTC members (who both support that Trump has the power to do this, fwiw), as Trump’s nominee to fill the 3rd Republican slot, Mark Meador, has yet to be confirmed by the Senate . . . which I’m sure will take a very tough stance on this matter.
The FTC also continued the Trump administration practice of erasing history, scrubbing several official blog posts from the FTC website under Lina Khan’s tenure around companies like, oh, say, AMAZON and MICROSOFT, because unlike print — if you can’t find it on the internet . . . it didn’t happen.
AND: One of the FCC’s 2 remaining Democratic Commissioners, Geoffrey Starks, announced he’ll be leaving sometime later this spring.
OH: Exhibit 57 that our Secretary of Health may have no idea what he’s f’ing talking about when it comes to, oh, science.
This time it’s floating an idea to let bird flu run rampant among chickens just to find the birds that are immune to it . . . basically applying the “let nature run its course” POV that he’s nodded to with other health matters that would definitely bring America back to the good ’ol days of the 1940s health standards (the “again” in MAGA has a pretty broad range).
As for accredited veterinary doctors who have spent their adult lives studying such things — they point out this thinking on bird flu is, uh, and I’m paraphrasing on their behalf, an incredibly stupid fucking idea on both a human health and economic basis.
BTW: The Chicago Sun-Times is losing 20% of its staff in a cost-cutting buyout offer.
BUT: At least college football players are getting a nice raise from ELECTRONIC ARTS for the College Football 26 video game — going from $600 each to $1,500 for use of their names/likeness. Plus a free copy of the deluxe version of the game!
EA is laying out about $16.5M total for the NIL rights. here. The 2025 edition was the highest-selling sports video game of all-time in total dollars.
Note that some athletes will get additional bigger checks to be, uh, “brand ambassadors” for the game.
FINALLY: LOLLAPALOOZA headliners at the end of July in Chicago will include Sabrina Carpenter, Tyler the Creator, Luke Combs and Olivia Rodrigo among others.
IN THIS EDITION
All of the comps you need to put The Electric State’s NETFLIX opening (and budget) in perspective.
PLUS: While WB does not publicly have a U.S. Pay1-ish output deal for its pics with NETFLIX (after their MAX debut) as far as I can find — it increasingly looks like it’s employing this strategy. Take a look at the data.
Sports ratings day! How Selection Sunday compared to last year, F1’s season debut, the numbers from Sawgrass, the latest NBA, NHL and WWE NETFLIX numbers and more.
Lotta series decisions and casting around town, from MAX, HULU, NETFLIX, AMAZON, NBC . . . and now I’m just listing networks and streamers so let’s dive in.
🎥 THE SILVER SCREEN
