☀️PAR Q3: Ads, Movies, Jobs 👎; Cost Savings, Streaming 👍
HBO, DC develop new series / NBC NBA TV # dips again / NEON + Kidman / New Job Board Tues!
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, November 11, 2025.
Where, granted . . . it’s just a poll of about 2,000 folks, but clearly Americans totally haven’t noticed how “great” the prices are on coffee and beef here in Q4 2025.
SO: The #TrumpTariffs are now doubling down, and this one’s gonna really hurt.
Yes, Italian pasta is now the latest item potentially about to get subject to a huge tariff at +107%, and unlike the Brazilians who are thankfully still sending us their coffee — the Italians are taking a different approach (where’s the emoji for “va fangool”?) and saying #hardpass on sending their pasta here under those conditions if they come to fruition next year.
That rate is called “preliminary” by the Trump admin, and possibly scheduled to go into effect in January . . . so we’ll see if Trump goes TACO or spaghetti on this one in 2026.
YUP: Another thing to look forward to in January — the U.S. losing its official ‘measles-free’ status come 2026 if current trends don’t change, which I’m sure we’ll totally get a handle on by Year 2 of Trump. Canada just lost it this month, and yes — all due to increases in cases due to decreasing vaccination by folks.
OH: Enjoy your new PAR+ #pricehike on Thurs., Jan. 15, about 1.5 years after its last one . . . and I’m sure right around the time of the first big PAR+ numbered UFC fight (you didn’t think it would be eating that $1.1B a year all by themselves, right?). New prices:
Ad tier: $9 a month
Ad-free: $14 a month
+$1 a month for both
WELL: AMAZON says it has 315M PRIME VIDEO monthly viewers, up from 200M in April 2024, but . . . and I know you’ll be surprised to hear this, not much more detail was given beyond that.
Before you go comparing to NETFLIX’s 190M MAV — keep in mind AMAZON includes folks who view FAST channels via PV in its number as well.
PRIME VIDEO now has ads in 16 countries, vs. NETFLIX’s 12.
BUT: At least luxury hotels are gouging charging as much or more than they ever have thanks to the demand it has in the part of the economy that’s telling the rest of the economy how well its doing!
AND: CNN added a TIKTOK-like feed to its D2C app, which will have a Top Stories tab at the top with video & text stories, and a Shorts tab with swipeable short videos.
THEN: Here is a look at the first NETFLIX House opening outside of Philly this week, which Fast Company described as “part arcade, part store, part mini golf, part restaurant” with a dash of immersive theater.
And yes, there’s also an actual movie theater! (it’s free to attend), although no comedy club, which is probably for the best. Dallas and Vegas, you’re up next.
OH: Good news! MLB has totally fixed its gambling problem — you can now only bet up to $200 on whether a pitch will be a strike or a ball. Well done, fellas.
What’s that? Just ban clearly stupid bets of chance like that entirely which arguably are there solely to encourage addictive behavior? But then — why will people continue to watch games if they’re bad and continually use FAN DUEL and DRAFT KINGS? Duh. 🙄
BUT: The gambling scandal hot potato is now over to college basketball, who banned 6 former D1 college hoops players from . . . well, something, for throwing games in the 2024-25 season (the players did not go pro and are no longer in college, so, yeah).
YAH: Leave it to the EU to make progress on copyright — a German court found that OPENAI should be paying a German music publisher for the right to train its AI on lyrics from its songs.
OH: When SOFTBANK decides it’s time to jump ship and sell-off its NVIDIA holdings . . . well, I’ll just say it’s certainly something to note. 🫧
ALTHOUGH: Some good news for Chicago! New Year’s is finally going to acknowledge your existence — or at least Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest is going to for the first time in its 50+ years with a live midnight countdown with its own host and live performance.
THANKS: To the folks at PARAMOUNT for the invite to check out The Running Man on Sunday night in NYC. As someone who owns the VHS of the original — well done on the nod to Ahnuld and unlike that pic, this one certainly stays pretty close to the Stephen King / Richard Bachman book source material (oddly — Subzero was not in there 🤔) . . . but gotta say I was kinda hoping for at least a “Don’t forget to send me a copy” reference.
FINALLY: A sincere thanks to all current and former U.S. service members reading this today. Your bravery and sacrifice are truly appreciated.
PSKY, Welcome to The Show . . .
Everybody, please welcome David Ellison to the earnings call stage!
David and the PSKY team did a sound, steady job introducing itself to Wall Street officially yesterday while releasing the . . . not great Q3 PSKY numbers, which I’ll dive into below, looking at things like:
For a business PSKY seems eager to add more of with a WBD deal — the TV (and streaming) advertising business numbers were pretty bleak.
Streaming had some 💰 momentum (gotta love a #pricehike), although with some curious caveats at PLUTO/BET+.
Movies — well, there’s a reason why Ellison didn’t have anything positive to say about this business. Thanks, Smurfs.
But the bigger picture stuff around topics like these were far more interesting to look at:
Dwindling employment rolls and increased ‘cost savings’
The level of increased investment in TV & movies
More details on how Ellison envisions tech specifically helping PSKY business
Changes made in the PAR ads business by Jeff Shell.
Changes ahead in the movie business, the int’l PAR+ and PLUTO strategies and much more.
I’m not saying this was all “+11% PSKY stock bump this morning” good news (come on, Wall Street 😏), but the vision and goal posts came into view. So, let’s dive in.