☀️PEACOCK now 'only' losing $2.8 Billion in 2023 🥳
What's up with ENDEAVOR? / FX & The Bear creator re-team / COMCAST Broadband #s frozen
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty (connect with me on LinkedIn here if ya like), and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on THURSDAY Oct. 26, 2023.
So, how was your Wednesday? Profitable? Nice. Oh, SPOTIFY CEO Daniel Ek sold 400k shares of the company (after the nice earnings call stock bounce), for a $64 Million addition to his bank account… err, of course minus whatever actual taxes charged in the EU.
Don’t worry, he still has 31.53 Million shares (value over $5 Billion), and the new walking around 💰 will go nicely with the… $100 Million worth of shares he sold all the way back in July.
AND: Turns out there was no SAG-AMPTP negotiations yesterday… as SAG requested more time to come back with a response to what the AMPTP brought on Tuesday - but they’re back again today. At least in theory.
NOTE 👀: COMCAST did not mention the SAG-AFTRA strike once in its comments on its Q3 earnings call this morning… and was not asked about it by Wall Street.
Sidenote: Donna Langley is not on the earnings call.
ALSO: Beyonce will premiere her concert movie Renaissance in LA on Sat. Nov. 25 (THANKSGIVING weekend), and Thu. Nov. 30 in LA. International pre-sales begin Nov. 9. Minimum ticket price is $22 although I already saw $30 for showings in Jersey, and as with TSwift - Thurs. to Sun. showings only.
PLUS: The Jonathan Majors harassment & assault case looks like it’s going to trial in NYC on Nov. 29, as the judge shot down a notion to dismiss the case.
IF: You’re an APPLE product fiend - Bloomberg has your (not official) new info on its AirPods revamp coming in 2024. AirPods have the largest share of the wireless earbud market at around 31% of all sales.
BUT: So much for the “Uh, they spend the streaming billions 💰 for the brand halo” commentary that still surrounds APPLE TV+… it’ll now cost you $10 a month.
SO: APPLE pulls a DISNEY+esque $3 a month price hike (add that to the APPLE-DISNEY deal Reddit chat)… but without the lower-priced ad tier to catch the folks not interested in $10 APPLE TV+ 🙋♂️.
A service with no licensed library… that has now doubled its price in one year.
APPLE NEWS is also raising prices by $3 to $13 a month; APPLE ARCADE is +$2 to $7 a month; and APPLE ONE memberships are also getting hikes.
APPLE has made $44 Billion in profit in the first half of 2023, and $100 Billion for the FY22.
But ya know… times are tight. Killers of the Flower Moon deficits don’t repay themselves, and new NBA deals are pricey folks, so - #PayUpAmerica.
IN TODAY’S EDITION:
All the COMCAST and PEACOCK numbers to know… gotta love an earnings call that leads with the amount of Billions 💰 in share buybacks they had in the quarter. #KnowYourAudience
The big ? in Broadband, as Profits still abound
How the Strikes showed up in COMCAST numbers
Where PEACOCK numbers are going
How bad the Advertising problem is, and a lot more.
The WTF of what was up with ENDEAVOR last night.
FX & The Bear creator team up again on new series.
Some things to note from the META numbers and more.
WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL:
Oh look - more COMCAST! Five Nights at Freddy’s is tracking over $50 Million. Let that settle in for a second 🤯, I mean the PG-13 helps but still… 🤯.
For the record - COMCAST leadership did not mention this movie on the earnings call today (come on guys… #FreePromo!)
M3GAN opened to $30 Million as a buzz comp, and this one is also on PEACOCK tomorrow.
Halloween Ends did $40 Million on the weekend last year (also on PEACOCK), but this is certainly fresher IP and some theater chains seem to feel that sky’s the limit here.
📽 THE SILVER TV 📺
