☀️PAR Adds To Q2 Movie Comedy Buying 🔥
Zaz gets WBD Paycut (ish) / AMAZON’s next TV ad biz power play / FOX’s new creator investment
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, June 17, 2025.
Where can I interest you in a WAKEUP CELLULAR subscription to start your morning? Ok yes, the same person that’s clearly been pitching that idea around uh, certain circles this month got to me as well.
Now, how to build a phone completely in the U.S. for $499 . . . 🤔. The WSJ doesn’t sound too optimistic. #haters
OH: Add TIKTOK alongside AMAZON and META in providing anyone with the ability to create short, AI-generated video ads for your product, simply by sharing an image of your product and a text prompt.
Although TIKTOK will only create 5-second videos, unlike AMAZON’s 20-second videos. For now.
AHA: NETFLIX will open its first 2 NETFLIX HOUSE locations in “late 2025” — 100k+ sq. ft. permanent locations at the King of Prussia mall outside Philly, and the Galleria Dallas.
Vegas will shockingly be the 3rd location, coming in 2027 to BLVD Las Vegas.
KUDOS: To the (at least) 3 sports publication newsletter roundups I read this morning with top items on Ohtani returning to pitch for the DODGERS last night for 1 inning. . . that failed to mention, ya know, who won the game. (DODGERS beat the GIANTS 6-3, btw). Who says individual baseball games don’t really matter?
OOF: Over 3.5M Americans saw their credit scores take at least a 100-point hit in Q1 thanks to the Trump administration referring missed student loan payments for debt collection, according to the NY FED.
HUH: Funny what happens when the company that was categorizing the data you were feeding into your AI is suddenly bought by Zuck — GOOGLE is looking to shift away all/most of its work with SCALE AI . . . now that META bought it, according to Reuters.
GOOGLE is currently SCALE AI’s largest customer, and was targeting a $200M payday for the company this year.
OPENAI is also a SCALE customer, and sounds like it’ll remain so.
#FUNFACT: Sam Altman and SCALE co-founder Alexandr Wang were apparently roomies at one point during Covid.
AH: In case this was your overriding thought leaving the theater this weekend, Variety has you covered.
THEN: AMAZON will spend $13B to build data centers in Australia over the next 4 years. The entire PARAMOUNT/SKYDANCE deal has a $8.4B valuation.
SO: Streaming, well done . . . you finally did it!
Well, no — not that quite yet (but let’s give it 18 months with AI). Rather, Streaming finally surpassed Broadcast and Cable’s combined share of TV viewership in a given month: 44.8% to 44.1% in May.
Keep in mind that’s a month where the NBA and NHL playoffs were prevalent on cable TV.
Just a technical note — any viewing on virtual streaming bundles (YT TV, FUBO, etc) is not counted in Streaming, but instead goes to the platform where the show was watched (i.e. Broadcast or Cable, depending upon the network).
So, if you watched the NBA Conference Finals on TNT or ESPN as part of your YT TV subscription, the viewership went to Cable.
THEN: Here’s a walk down memory lane in regards to what is watched on TV’s in America since NIELSEN started The Gauge in May 2021 — Streaming vs. Broadcast + Cable share shifts:
MAY 2021: 26% / 64%
MAY 2022: 31.9% / 60.9%
MAY 2023: 36.4% / 53.9%
MAY 2024: 38.8% / 50.5%
MAY 2025: 44.8%. / 44.1%
Pop quiz: Tell me between which 2 years Hollywood finally threw in the towel on the cable TV network business? (Hint: it’s the one with the biggest leap for streaming viewership share. Ok fine, it’s the last 12 months.)
AND: YOUTUBE once again reached a new monthly share height, now at 12.5%.
Keep in mind — this is all YT “viewing” on TVs across several genres, including podcasts and music videos.
It does not include YT TV viewership.
NOTE: YT’s share went from 9.7% to 12.5% in a year’s time (May YoY).
But that’s not NETFLIX share stealing going on — it was 7.5% to 7.6% YoY.
Nor is it from AMAZON, which went from 3% to 3.5%, or DISNEY, which was essentially flat.
HOWEVER: PAR+ and ROKU each lost 1% YoY, TUBI was -0.4% and PEACOCK was -0.3%.
Naturally some of YT’s % share stealing likely came from Broadcast and Cable too.
FINALLY: Just a shout out (that’s what the kids say, right?) to the two Ladder members I had the pleasure of meeting at a SUBSTACK shindig last night in NYC, Jenny Gorelick and David Zucker. Thanks for taking the time to say hi, and for making it totally worth wearing my nametag.
If you are also among the fine, talented folks getting their start in this fine industry — apply here for The Ladder program at The Ankler (we’re working on a deal to include a free WAKEUP MOBILE subscription! Well, 3 months free — I gotta subsidize those phones somehow).
🎥 THE SILVER TV 📺
