☀️ Sports Hulu Scores its First Legal Headache
Emma Stone in talks for next Yorgos pic / College Football sets Playoff plan / SONY doing 4 Beatles pics in 2027
Morning! This is Sean McNulty (connect with me on LinkedIn here if ya like), and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on WEDNESDAY Feb 21, 2023.
Where it’s yet again time to pour one out for the poor DVD . . . as DISNEY is now outsourcing all of its DVD, Blu-Ray and physical media business to SONY.
So between this and NETFLIX, I guess DVDs are basically the new vinyl. What’s that, mom? No, I swear those VHS crates of 80s and 90s movies that I keep in your basement are totally worth something! I mean, they just don’t make Commando on videotape anymore!
AND: HBO is keeping LWT with John Oliver off of YOUTUBE until Thursday each week (vs. their previous Monday/next day policy), looking to drive those MAX subscriptions.
LWT videos last season would get anywhere from 4 to 10 Million YT views each (globally).
THEN: The COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF (CFP) set a 5-7 qualification for the new system next season:
The 5 top-ranked conference champions get automatic slots.
The next 7 top-ranked teams at-large get slots.
The CFP TV rights deal is yet to be solidified, despite reports that ESPN has it locked up, but either way — a lot more “important games” are going to be introduced into the TV ecosystem next Dec-Jan.
The CFP Championship game will also be later in January 2025, taking place on Jan. 20 — MLK day (which also had an NFL playoff game on it this year due to weather and was largely very popular).
ALSO: Sports betting crossed the $10 Billion mark last year ($10.9 Billion), +44% vs. 2022, according to the AMERICAN GAMING ASSOCIATION. Granted, more states launched legalized sports betting (only North Carolina seems to be on the horizon so far in 2024), and ESPN BET was born, but even Q4 ‘23 was +31%.
U.S. theatrical box office came in around $9 Billion.
Sports betting was still less than 10% of 2023 U.S. gambling revenues ($120 Billion).
New York represents 16% of all U.S. sportsbook betting in 2023 as the largest market.
AH: We’ll also see how good Wall Street is at betting investing with the NVIDIA Q4 report after the bell later this afternoon. NVIDIA already surpassed AMAZON in market cap, and has been neck and neck with GOOGLE over the past week.
HMM: Lady Gaga is following DISNEY’s footsteps into Fortnite, signing on as the ‘headlining icon’ for something called Fortnite Festival starting tomorrow, and you can use your V-bucks to buy things cosmetics and outfits . . . or I’m guessing whatever the virtual equivalent of that is. Yeah I should probably get a tutorial on this thing at this point.
WOW: Beyoncé is now the first Black woman to ever top the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, with her new tune “Texas Hold ‘Em”.
OH: The average national 30-year mortgage rate is back over 7% 🥳.
🤔: I’m not sure if this is troubling or reassuring . . . but CEOs of major banks don’t seem to make much more (or in some cases, less) than Hollywood CEOs — CITI’s CEO took home $26 Mil in 2023 (+6% from 2022), HSBC’s got a bit over $13 Mil (about 2x more than 2022).
BTW: HSBC’s Q4 profit fell -80% in Q4, and CITI is laying off 20k people, so maybe we have more in common than thought.
PLUS:
AND: NETFLIX (Fool Me Once) nearly caught YOUTUBE in U.S. streaming viewing in January in NIELSEN’s The Gauge 👀 (as for the PEACOCK showing — remember the NFL game).
IN THIS EDITION:
WALMART gets VIZIO deal done — a look at the important industry 💰 comps to note.
Project news at UNI, WB, DISNEYFOX and the latest ratings numbers showing audiences returing to several properties.
The FUBO lawsuit claims some interesting things… and some troublesome ones for the inolved studios.
How’s the newspaper business faring? Ok fine yes we know — but take a look at the actual 2023 numbrers, and much more.
PLUS: Thanks to LIONSGATE for the invite to the premiere of Ordinary Angels this weekend — a nice overall reminder of the power that local community can have to help out one’s immediate neighbors in need at a time where that sentiment feels a bit lacking in this world. Also, as the trades reviews alluded to this week, ya know — that Hilary Swank is very talented.
🎥 THE SILVER SCREEN
