☀️PEACOCK Can’t Find Growth, COMCAST Sees Trump-Era Deal Potential
YOUTUBE offers exec exit packages / PAR TV sets execs, who's in and out / Travis Kelce MIA in ads
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 Thursday, October 30, 2025.
Where hopefully the wind and rain today on the East Coast isn’t ruining your $1,000 pumpkin concierge displays outside of your home before the big day. You know, the economy being so terrible for everyone and all.
Uh, honey, they’re gonna like . . . come pick these back up on Nov. 3, right?
BUT: Don’t worry — Congress is on it. 2 U.S. Senators have actually introduced a bill to repeal a #TrumpTariff! And yeah — it’s the one on Brazilian coffee, with sleuth Senator Rand Paul pointing out, “The United States doesn’t grow coffee,” #funfact so . . . this isn’t creating any jobs.
While the Senate also voted to pass a resolution on removing the Brazilian ☕️ tariff — the House of Representatives will very likely do absolutely nothing to actually take up the matter (hmm, I’m sorry — Jeffrey who?), so enjoy your seat in row 5 for the political theater.
PLUS: 2024 had the most cars repossessed since 2009, the heart of the Great Recession — and 2025’s numbers at one repossessed car auction business are +12% over last year through September, according to a new WSJ piece.
AND: Just a note on the DISNEY / FUBO deal — the DOJ actually did officially approve it! The government shutdown staffing issues/lapses on existing government inquiries did not play a role here in getting to the finish line.
So, look at that . . . DISNEY got a deal approved in the Trump administration. Who’d a thunk. NFL deal — you’re up next!
THEN: CapEx at 3 #bigtech companies (ALPHABET, META, MICROSOFT) reported in Q3 — i.e., the vast majority likely spent on AI capabilities/data centers, etc. — was $78B. That’s in 3 months.
A year ago, that was $42B.
Wall Street 🙋♂️: “This, like, can never very quickly materially also go down, right?”
WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL
Well. Definitely not going to be a weekend to remember in the movie biz with uh, Back to the Future among the top contenders to finish in 3rd place — so, KPop Demon Hunters becomes the first movie to get 2 polls in a year! Well done, NETFLIX.
But the industry consensus seems to be about $4.5M to $6.5M on about 2,900 screens for this costume-encouraged event — far below the $19M tally of the August outing.
IN TODAY’S EDITION
A pretty stacked day with COMCAST’s latest opening of the books, but after that:
YOUTUBE gave a small peek into theirs, while also putting a finger near the AI-induced jobs 🚨, plus some interesting stats from META on ad revenue.
All the details out and about yesterday about the PARAMOUNT exec cuts across CBS NEWS, Films and Linear TV groups.
PLUS: Hollywood TV and film dealmaking isn’t stopping for layoff rubbernecking, with NEON, APPLE, NETFLIX, DWA, BLACK BEAR, NLC and more active since you and I last spoke.
AND: Stay with me through the Weekend Sports Ratings roundup (including how AMAZON’s big NBA premiere did) for some pretty startling Travis Kelce, Ad Pitchman stats this season. Talk about a change of strategy . . . 🤯.
COMCAST Q3 — Feeling Stuck
Always nice to hear from the company whose leaders sound like the lineup for an a cappella group act — or I guess, a cable company — Brian, Mike, Jason and Dave.
Actually, wait — Dave got bumped up to Vice Chairman! He’s being replaced by . . . Steve as leader of COMCAST’s cable/broadband business. #KeepingItOnBrand
What’s less humorous, though . . . is 2025 at COMCAST.
While the broadband business is mostly to blame here — and I’ll get to that in a bit along with Theme Parks, how the movie business is doing, #cordcutting trends, the WBD / deals thing and more — to start, we gotta talk about PEACOCK.