ICYMI: Lina Khan Looks Inside Our Pandora's Box
Catch up on our recent best
As those of us in SoCal batten down for Hilary, there are still rays of proverbial sun in Hollywood, where a week of seeming progress between the studios and the writers appear to be moving towards a solution. We’d love to see everyone back to work. Fingers crossed!
Don’t miss Richard’s take on how things may get to the finish line:
And for those sick of strike-and-shutdown talk, take a break with a delicious look back at old Hollywood’s summer vacation photos — where a picture never really was as it seemed:
Now back to reality. We interviewed FTC Chair Lina Khan for our Ankler podcast this week, and it’s hard not to see how, even if one chapter may soon close, the Pandora’s box of the entertainment business will remain wide open. It seems our corner of the world has caught the eye of Biden’s legal superstar, who sees trends here that just don’t square with the world of anti-trust and fair competition:
For us as the FTC, what's really notable is just how many analogs and parallels there are between what's happening in this industry and what we see across all sorts of other industries where again, we've seen consolidation, vertical integration, and the rise of dominant middlemen, intermediaries and gatekeepers that sometimes are not always serving the best interests of the customers or the producers that they're connecting.
And what about the fantasy football-style speculation that more, more, more consolidation is coming (think Apple-Disney, Comcast-Warner Bros. Discovery, etc.)? Well, it sounds like Khan isn’t going to exactly roll out the red carpet and shake the moguls’ hands with a hearty congratulations too easily.
Full audio and transcript are in the link below:
Also…
Outside of live sports, our Entertainment Strategy Guy sees sports docs and series as a bubble where hype isn’t matching results:
In Corinthians 11:14, the Bible says, “And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.” And from such thoughts, Richard imagines the devil is already in Hollywood:
Contributing editor Claire Atkinson broke the news that CBS News’ co-news chief had been under investigation by law firm Kauff, McGuire & Margolis, with more than 30 women interviewed, before his departure:
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☀️ The Wakeup
GIF-lovin’ Sean McNulty continued his combination of the industry’s best business analysis with the daily headlines:
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Transcript here
Listen here: Apple | Spotify | Google Podcasts
Transcript here
Listen here: Apple | Spotify | Google Podcasts
🪧 Strikegeist
Elaine Low’s free newsletter about labor strife in Hollywood surpassed 6,000 subscribers this week, with top writers, actors, directors, producers and executives all on the list. Stay tuned to stay on top of the news!
WGA to Chicago Teachers' Pension Fund: Rethink Your Position With Studios
Karen Bass: I Had 'Long Conversations' With AMPTP, WGA Over the Weekend
👓 The Optionist
Hopefully it’s back-to-work time soon. Get a jump on your next project with Andy Lewis’ excellent IP picks, all vetted, available and ready for their close-up.
IP Picks: A Dystopian Drama Imagines Queen Wallis Simpson Plus, the next Barbie, Maui fire dramas and a lighthearted Murder She Wrote-like procedural.