☀️ NETFLIX Films Strategy Shift Reveals New Opportunities
DIS+ plans to add linear "channels" / ENDEAVOR-SILVER LAKE gets lawsuit / MARVEL has small layoff
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty (connect with me on LinkedIn here if ya like), and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on TUESDAY, April 16, 2024.
Where first the 1968 NY JETS . . . and now Billy Joel — broadcast TV, whaddaya got against Long Island?
Hollywood took its massive April rebooting initiative a little too far 🤏, with CBS invoking NBC’s “Heidi Game” incident by dumping out of the Billy Joel: The 100th — Live at Madison Square Garden concert broadcast (pre-taped) on Sunday night right in the middle of “Piano Man” to go to local news broadcasts on the East Coast.
CBS blamed, uh, “a network programming timing error,” 🤷♂️ and will now re-air the entire concert on Friday at 9 p.m. Now, who wants to tell the Blue Bloods crowd their show is being pre-empted this week? (Granted, probably a good deal of demo-appeal crossover here).
AND: Just an important note to remember on the WNBA Draft that occurred last night — the WNBA only has 144 players (12 teams, 12 players a team — although last night the league announced plans to increase to 16 teams by 2028, starting with the Bay Area next season).
So while, yes, you’ll see the big names (Caitlin Clark, Amber Reese, Kamilla Cardoso) on the pro rosters, only 15 players chosen in the whole WNBA Draft last year were actually on the opening day rosters of the respective teams who picked them, according to FOS. Many female collegiate 🏀 players who get drafted, but not signed, go play in Europe after graduation.
AND: As the salary of many first-year players hovers around $76k, many WNBAers also play in Europe in the off season for 💰 reasons too.
SO: Let’s hope those very broad increased women’s sports ad spend “commitments” start turning into real increased 💵. Actual spend > Committed spend.
ALSO: GOOGLE, a company that cleared about $74 Billion in profit in 2023, said it would block links from CA-based news sites if a new bill is passed, which would mandate that GOOGLE pay small “journalism usage fee” payments to news organizations when GOOGLE sells ads next to their links (broadly similar to other legislation already in effect in Australia and Canada regarding payments to news publishers). The CA Assembly passed the bill last year, and it’s currently in the Senate.
THEN: Elon’s latest plan to combat TWITTER/X’s bot problem? Charge new accounts a small (still TBA) fee to sign up and post something. Well hey, at least the limited new-user growth will be more authentic . . .
OH: The next target of the Feds? LIVE NATION 😱, with the WSJ reporting that an antitrust case could arise as soon as next month. Huh, I wonder if that recently uncovered practice of using kickbacks to squeeze out smaller promoters might come up? 🤷♂️
TICKETMASTER controls more than 70% of the market for primary ticket sales at the biggest event venues in the U.S.
TODAY IN YOUR KIDS & SOCIAL MEDIA: A #goodread at Bloomberg for any parents of pre-teens or teenagers on increased sextortion efforts being targeted at them on your favorite social-media platforms, which has tragically ended in suicides in numerous cases. Not a talk one probably looks forward to having with the kids . . . but probably one worth making the effort to do once you give them the keys to a social media account.
PLUS: For my North Jersey folks (aka “The Montclair set”) — Colbert is going to do a convo with Paul Giamatti at the NJPAC on June 29 to benefit the MONTCLAIR FILM organization. Tix avail here.
A THANKS: To the LIONSGATE folks for the invite to check out The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare premiere last night in NYC. Never a bad time to put out a good killing Nazis pic.
IN TODAY’S EDITION:
The new ethos of the Dan Lin NETFLIX Films era has 3 key tenets according to a new report. So, what kinds of projects is NETFLIX likely to be expanding into that it hasn’t largely played in before, and what potential new opportunities does that present for Hollywood? The new re-org drops some strong hints alongside this new strategy info — take a look.
DIS+ to launch new tool in streaming’s shift from subscriber count battle to engagement battle.
Plus movie news at AMAZON MGM, UNI, SONY, PAR and more, PAR doubles down on Tyler Perry and — well, let’s just get to it.
FINALLY: Just a kudos to Boban Marjanovic of the HOUSTON ROCKETS who intentionally missed a 2nd free throw (after missing his first), just so each member of the LA CLIPPERS crowd would get a free Chick-fil-A sandwich as part of a promotion. Well done, sir.
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
