☀️YOUTUBE TV Subscriber Growth Freezes
HBO enlists Stiller for series / Miles Teller lines up 2 new pics / FOX bets on creator economy
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, February 11, 2025.
Where it’s about time we start a day this year with some good news — or at least for NYC Mayor Eric Adams — bribery is now legal! Hmm, gotta check which page of Project 2025 that was on. 🤔
Or at least bribery is now legal (pending judicial challenge in 3, 2 . . .) for American companies doing business in countries where such practices are not outlawed either, as Trump’s latest EO hits pause on a law from 1977 banning the practice. The Nixon era truly is back!
So, time to get creative Hollywood: Perhaps bribery is the new tax break for saving on productions overseas? Tough times call for creative solutions.
OH: META is also hitting pause on your privacy, and yes, I should definitely put “privacy” in quotation marks at this point.
But yes, according to The Information, it seems the META privacy group is being booted down the internal hierarchy line of product development because user privacy protection efforts “can be at odds with META’s need to innovate and move quickly on our product priorities,” according to META’s Chief Privacy & Compliance Officer — so, ✌️ losers!
Going forward, the product team itself will both review previous decisions and decide which privacy concerns are important in future product updates. Turns out, none! See? Told ya we didn’t need those folks.
AND: Oscars voting begins today and ends Tue., Feb. 18 at 5 p.m.
PLUS: FOX is putting the total Super Bowl viewer number at 126M across FOX, FOX DEPORTES, TELEMUNDO, NFL digital properties (NFL+, etc.) and TUBI.
These are fast nationals, and FOX is putting the TUBI contribution to the 126M at 13.6M viewers based solely on its own data (with another 800k on NFL digital) so . . . yeah, more clarity to come.
This would top last year’s 123.7M CBS record across all platforms, but the 120.2M on CBS alone would be greater than the resulting 111M-ish on FOX/TELEMUNDO.
WELL: This was something — a Palisades home lost in the fires on Avenida de la Herradura previously valued on ZILLOW at $2.7M listed its now-barren real estate plot at $999k. It got more than 60 offers and sold for well over $1M.
HEY: AI is great and all, but can we maybe focus on fixing this 👇 first?
YIKES: Wait, maybe AI isn’t actually that great? A new study from AI pioneer MICROSOFT and Carnegie Mellon University found that as humans increasingly used generative AI in their work, their own cognitive faculties deteriorated. 🥳
ALSO: Amy Poehler is launching a weekly video celeb interview podcast called Good Hang in collaboration between her PAPER KITES co. and THE RINGER. It’ll launch next month.
HUH: Private Equity certainly is getting creative these days — first, the increased interest in talent management firms, and now ad agency investments according to Ad Age.
Although the excitement here seems to be considerably driven by AI, and I’m gonna just put out an idea that it’s more about the ability to do more with less people and potential consolidation than the, uh, great creative ability it presents for clients.
THEN: Gotta love an unsolicited $97B takeover of OPENAI from Elon with a few bucks from Ari Emanuel’s checkbook and others in tow. Frankly, after sending more than 85 tweets/retweets on X in one day alone yesterday, I’m not sure where Elon finds the time!
Although, nice to see Hollywood isn’t the only industry in the sightlines of the President and his VP. No word if Steven Paul or any liquor business magnates are also involved. #DealmakingTBT
BUT: I’m still waiting for word that Elon and his crack team are gonna put a stop to writing $2M checks to Michael Bay for producing 1-min Secret Service recruitment spots (that seemingly about half-consist of stock footage) which played inside the Superdome on Sunday. Or a $50k paint job for PENTAGON honcho Pete Hegseth’s new gov’t-supplied house, but I digress.
FINALLY: This chart on immigration as part of the workforce is pretty startling. A near 25% increase in the overall workforce percentage in the last decade.
As one WI dairy farmer framed it to the FT: “If there’s no immigrant labor, there’s no milk, no cheese, no butter, no ice cream. We’ll all have to go vegan.” Trump won the state by about 30k votes in November.
🎥 THE SILVER TV 📺
