☀️ SONY, LGF Show Life Outside Cable TV is Pretty Good
PAR layoffs begin, get timeline / Sports viewer study casts 🚨 for VENU model / Bourdain pic coming together
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, August 13, 2024.
Where I’m sure this is an indicator of . . . something, but alert grandma & grandpa — NYC now only has one all-news AM radio station. WCBS-AM is rebranding to sports talk as ESPN New York, leaving the news radio game to 1010WINS.
WELL: So much for my idea of getting a break from acute Presidential Debate anxiety by flipping over to MTV for some enjoyable music performances at the VMAs — it’s been pushed a day later to Wed. Sept 11.
OH: Two young women who rule pop radio right now will be performing — Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan.
AND: TIFF added more films, including Saturday Night, Megalopolis, Queer and the Jacob Elordi / Daisy Edgar-Jones pic On Swift Horses.
Your interview session lineup is here, including Soderbergh, Blanchett, Alfonso Cuarón, and Pete Docter.
THEN: Just the latest little reminder how much times have changed — Vogue’s September issue:
2007: 840 pages
2012: 916 pages
2024: 200-ish pages
MAN: Creators just can’t catch a break these days . . . advertisers are now using AI to evaluate the likelihood of a creator “getting political” in what they say on their profiles. Wow, who had AI coming for precog work on their 2024 bingo card?
OH: Just a small PSA for any fellow allergy folks who may occasionally use MUCINEX — maybe avoid the cheaper store-brand generic versions, as Bloomberg reported that the makers use benzene in the product (one of those, uh, questionable substances that is banned in many other countries . . . but not the U.S.).
#FUNFACT: Sorry L.A., Bowling Green, KY is the country’s hub for OZEMPIC, with 4%+ of residents having gotten a prescription for it in the past year or so — the highest metropolitan area rate in the country according to Bloomberg, and that’s not counting folks who get it through “other” means.
IN TODAY’S EDITION
Take a dive into SONY and LGF’s Q2 ledgers to see what life is like (mostly) outside of the cable TV bundle (LGF is slowly getting there), and how holding to the “traditional studio” approach is paying off in 2024.
Plus, a look at how the 2023 strikes continued to affect the balance sheets at Hollywood studios a year later, a busy day in sports media, a couple more details on the PAR layoffs and much more.