☀️SPOTIFY Comes for Video (Again) After Big Profit Turnaround
DISH-DIRECTV deal in peril / Layoffs hit The CW in strategy shift / RIP FREEVEE
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty (connect with me on LinkedIn here if ya like), and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on WEDNESDAY, November 13, 2024.
Where it’s hard to remember a worse week for the glamorous division of any corporation — the labeling department.
First, MATTEL introduced Barbie to pornography websites to start the week . . . and now COSTCO is recalling 80k pounds of butter because “somebody” (looking at you, George 😏) may have forgotten to put “contains milk” on all of the packaging — lest you think someone finally cracked the code on dairy-free butter.
Clearly we have the AI working on the wrong things across the board.
THEN: Inflation went up a tick in October with the CPI going +2.6%, and +3.3% excluding food and energy costs. Thanks, streaming price hikes. Good luck to the believers in an additional December federal interest rate cut. #SorryMortgages
AND: The WSJ suggests that ELECTRONIC ARTS CEO Andrew Wilson is one of the external DISNEY CEO candidates to “replace” Bob Iger who has emerged recently . . . as exec search firm HEIDRICK & STRUGGLES has been casting a wide net for names.
Andrew was reportedly one of the names considered for the ESPN top job back in 2018 which ultimately went to Jimmy Pitaro, who at the time was an internal candidate from the DISNEY Interactive and Consumer Products division.
BTW: DISNEY settled that class action pay equity lawsuit before it was set to go to trial next year, which potentially had $300M on the line.
THEN: The Guardian did what most journalists still can’t seem to do — it’s leaving X since it’s apparently a “toxic media platform.” 🤷♂️
OH: BUZZFEED warned it, uh yeah, doesn’t have the $120M it’s gonna need to pay back its “convertible note holders” 😬 (i.e. BUZZFEED debt holders looking to turn that into equity in the company).
The company had about $54M in cash on hand at the end of Q3 and is, uh, seeking to renegotiate . . . and will get back to us.
BTW: Yeah, that DIRECTV / DISH deal thing now looks extremely tenuous — details below in The Media Biz section.
IN TODAY’S EDITION
Nothing quite like taking 18 years to find an annual profit — well done SPOTIFY! Dive into how SPOTIFY drastically turned around its ship in 2 years and what’s ahead.
The DALLAS MAVERICKS are the latest team to demonstrate the real 💰 detrimental effects from the collapse of the RSN business due to #cordcutting.
AND: Guy Ritchie casts up again, what’s up with The CW, A24 and APPLE add another pic to their pile, DIRECTV flashes warning signs on DISH, LGF re-ups with a big partner and . . . more, so let’s get moving.
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
